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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23741-8.txt b/23741-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d83f69 --- /dev/null +++ b/23741-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10018 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of David Malcolm, by Nelson Lloyd + +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: David Malcolm + +Author: Nelson Lloyd + +Release Date: December 5, 2007 [EBook #23741] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAVID MALCOLM *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +DAVID MALCOLM + + +BY + +NELSON LLOYD + + + + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +NEW YORK + +1913 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +Published August, 1913 + + + + +TO + +THE RARE, SWEET MEMORY OF + +SUSANNE LIVINGSTON GREEN LLOYD + +MY WIFE AND THE DEAR COMPANION + +WHO WORKED + +WITH ME OVER THESE PAGES + + + + +DAVID MALCOLM + + +CHAPTER I + +"Take care not to tumble into the water, David," said my mother. + +She was standing by the gate, and from my perch on the back of the +off-wheeler, I smiled down on her with boyish self-assurance. The idea +of my tumbling into the water! The idea of my drowning even did I meet +with so ludicrous a mishap! But I was accustomed to my mother's +anxious care, for as an only child there had fallen to me a double +portion of maternal solicitude. In moments of stress and pain it came +as a grateful balm; yet more often, as now, it was irritating to my +growing sense of self-reliance. To show how little I heeded her +admonition, how well able I was to take care of myself, as I smiled +loftily from my dangerous perch, with my legs hardly straddling the +horse's back, I disdained to secure myself by holding to the harness, +but folded my arms with the nonchalance of a circus rider. + +"And, David, be careful about rattlesnakes," said my mother. + +Had I not seen in her anxious eyes a menace against all my plans for +that day I should have laughed outright in scorn, but knowing it never +wise to pit my own daring against a mother's prudence, I returned +meekly, "Yessem." Then I gave the horse a surreptitious kick, trying +thus to set all the ponderous four in motion. The unsympathetic animal +would not move in obedience to my command. Instead, he shook himself +vigorously, so that I had to seize the harness to save myself from an +ignominious tumble into the road. + +"You won't let David wander out of your sight, now, will you, James?" +my mother said. + +James was climbing into the saddle. Being a deliberate man in all his +actions, he made no sign that he had heard until he had both feet +securely in the stirrups, until he had struck a match on his boot-leg +and had lighted his pipe, until he had unhooked the single rein by +which he guided the leaders and was ready to give his horses the word +to move. Then he spoke in a voice of gentle protest: + +"You hadn't otter worry about Davy, ma'am, not when he's with me." His +long whip was swinging in the air, but he checked it, that he might +turn to me and ask: "Now, Davy, you're sure you have your hook and +line?" + +I nodded. + +"And your can o' worms for bait?" + +Again I nodded. The whip cracked. And I was off on the greatest +adventure of my life! My charger was a shaggy farm-horse, hitched +ignominiously to the pole of a noisy wood-wagon; my squire, the lanky, +loose-limbed James; my goal, the mountains to which were set my young +eyes, impatiently measuring the miles of rolling valley which I must +cross before I reached the land that until now I had seen only in the +wizard lights of distance. + +Every one lives a story--every man and every woman. A million miles of +book-shelves could not hold the romances which are being lived around +you and will be unwritten. I am sure that when your own story has been +lived, when it is stored in your heart and memory, you will follow the +binding thread of it, and find it leading you back, as mine leads me to +one day like that day in May when I went fishing. There will be your +Chapter I. Before that, you will see, you were but a slip of humanity +taking root on earth. My own life began ten years before that May +morning, but on that May morning began my story. Then I rode all +unconscious of it. I was simply going fishing for trout. Yet, as I +clung to my heavy-footed horse and kept my eyes fixed on the distant +mountains, my heart beat quick with the spirit of adventure, for to +fish for trout in mysterious forests meant a great deal to one who had +known only the sluggish waters in the meadow and the martyrlike +resignation of the chub and sunny. I might begin my story on that +winter morning when I came into the world and bleated my protest +against living at all, but I pass by those years when I was only a slip +of humanity taking root on earth and come to that May day which is the +first to rise distinctly on my inward vision when I turn to retrospect. +Even now I mark it as a day of great adventure. Since then I have +battled with salmon in northern waters, I have felt my line strain +under the tarpon's despair, I have heard my reel sing with the rushes +of the bass, yet I do not believe that a whale with my harpoon in his +side, as he thrashes the sea, would give me the same exulting thrill +that came with a tiny trout's first tug at my hook. Filled with so +exciting a prospect, I did not look back as we swung down the hill from +the farmhouse. I dared not, lest I should see my too solicitous mother +beckoning me home to the protection of her eyes. Though I clutched the +harness and bounced about on my uncomfortable seat, the horse's rough +gait had no terrors for me when every clumsy stride was carrying me +nearer to the woods. As we rattled into the long street of the +village, it seemed to me that all the people must have come out just to +see us pass. The fresh beauty of the spring morning might have called +them forth, but from the proud height where I sat looking down on them +they had all the appearance of having heard in some mysterious way that +David Malcolm was going fishing. They hailed me from every side. Even +the Reverend Mr. Pound added to the glory of my progress, leaving his +desk and his profound studies of Ahasuerus to stand at the open window +as we passed. + +With boyish exultation I called to him: "I'm goin' a-fishin', Mr. +Pound--fishin' for trout." + +In Mr. Pound's personal catechism his own chief end was to utter +trenchant and useful warnings to all who came within reach of his +voice. Even to a lad riding forth under careful guidance to fish in a +little mountain stream he had to sound his alarm. The soft fragrance +of the May-day air, and the restful green and white of the May-day +coloring had brought to the minister's face a smile of contentment in +spite of his melancholy ponderings over the weaknesses of Ahasuerus; he +looked on me benignly from his window until I spoke, and then his face +clouded with concern. + +"David, David," he cried, stretching out his hand with fingers +wide-spread, "don't fall into the water." + +There was a mysterious note in his reverberating tones, which expressed +a profound conviction that not only should I fall into the water, but +that I should be drowned, and looking at his solemn face I could feel +the cold pool closing over my head. I tried to laugh away the fear +which seized me, but chill, damp currents seemed to sweep the shaded +street. Not till we reached the open sunlit square did my sluggish +blood start again. There I came under the genial influence of Squire +Crumple's radiating smile, and Mr. Pound and his lugubrious warning +were forgotten. The squire was trimming his lilac-bush, and from the +green shrubbery his round face lifted slowly, as the sun rises from its +night's rest in the eastward ridges and spreads its welcome light over +the valley. + +"Well, Davy, where are you bound?" he shouted, so pleasantly that I +could well believe my small wanderings of interest to so great a man. + +"Fishin'," I answered, drawing myself up to a dignity far above the +chub and sunny--"fishin' for trout." + +"Fishin', eh? Well, look out for rattlers." His voice was so cheery +that one might have thought these snakes well worth meeting for their +companionship. "This is the season for 'em, Davy--real rattler season, +and you're sure to see some." To make his warning more impressive, the +squire gave a leap backward which could not have been more sudden or +violent had he heard the dreaded serpent stirring in the heart of his +lilac. "Watch out, Davy; watch sharp, and when you meet 'em be sure to +go backward and sideways like that." + +He gave a second extraordinary leap, which was altogether too realistic +to be pleasant for the boy who saw the mountains, sombre and black, +beyond the long street's end, yet very near him. I forced a laugh at +his antics, but I rode on more thoughtfully, my hands clutching the +harness, my eyes fixed on my horse's bobbing mane. I feared to look up +lest I should meet more of these disturbing warnings, and yet enough of +pride still held in me to lift my head at the store. I had always +looked toward the store instinctively when I passed that important +centre of the village life, and now, as always, I saw Stacy Shunk on +the bench. + +He was alone, but alone or in the company of half a score, in silence +or in the heat of debate, Stacy had a single attitude, and this was one +of distortion in repose. Now, as always, he was sitting with legs +crossed, his hands hugging a knee, his eyes contemplating his left +foot. In the first warm days of spring, Stacy's feet burst out with +the buds, casting off their husks of leather. So this morning his foot +had a new interest for him, and he was absorbed in the study of it, as +though it were something he had just discovered, a classic fragment +recently unearthed, at the beauty of whose lines he marvelled. He did +not even look up when he heard the rumble of our wagon. Stacy Shunk +never troubled to look up if he could avoid it. He seemed to have a +third eye which peered through the ragged hole in the top of his hat, +and swept the street, and bored through walls, a tiny search-light, but +one of peculiarly penetrating power. I saw his head move a little as +we drew near, and his body shifted nervously as would a mollusk at the +approach of some hostile substance. Yet sitting thus, eying me only +through the top of his hat, he saw right into my mind, he saw right +into my pockets, he saw the mustard can full of worms, he saw the line, +and the fish-hooks which my mother had thoughtfully wrapped in a +pill-box. How else could he have divined all that he did? + +"Well, Davy," he said in a wiry voice, which cut through the din of +rattling harness and creaking wagon, "I see you're goin' a-fishin' for +trout?" + +"Yes, sir, Mr. Shunk," I returned, with a politeness that told my +respect for his occult powers. + +"Well, mind," he said, intently studying his foot as though he were +reading some mystic signals wigwagged from the gods, "mind, Davy, that +you don't fall into the hands of the Professor. If the Professor +catches you, Davy--" The foot stopped wiggling. The oracle was +silent. Did it fear to reveal to me so dreadful a fate as mine if I +fell into the Professor's clutches? I waved a hand defiantly to the +seer and I rode on. Rode on? I was dragged on by four stout horses +through the village to the mountains, for in my heart I was calling to +my mother, wishing that her gentle warnings had turned me back before I +heard the voice of doom sounding from the depths of Mr. Pound; before I +had seen the comic tragedy enacted by Squire Crumple; above all, before +the man who saw through the top of his hat had uttered his enigmas +about the Professor. + +There is something innately repugnant to man in the word "professor." +It makes the flesh creep almost as does the thought of the toad or +snake. Though when a boy of ten I had never seen a "professor," the +word alone was so full of portent that the prospect of seeing one, even +without being caught by him, would have frightened me. I suppose that +the chill which reverberated through my spine and legs echoed the +horror of many generations of my ancestors who had known professors of +all kinds, from those who trimmed their hair and dosed them with +nostrums to those who sat over them with textbook and rod. Being +myself thus perturbed, it was astonishing that James should show no +sign of fear, but should keep his horses in their collars, pulling +straight for the mountains where the dreaded creature lived. He smoked +his pipe nonchalantly, as though a hundred professors could not daunt +him. I was sure that there was something of bravado in his conduct +until he began to sing, and his voice rang out without a tremor, so +full and strong that it fanned a spark of courage into my cowering +heart. James had a wonderfully inspiring way of singing. He tuned his +voice to the day and to the time of the day. This morning the sky was +clear blue above us, and about us the orchards blossomed pink and +white, and the fresh green fields were all awave under the breeze, not +the grim wind of winter, but the soft yet buoyant wind of spring. So +his song was cheery. The words of it were doleful, like the words of +all his songs, but under the touch of his magic baton, his swinging +whip, a requiem could become a hymn of rejoicing. Now the birds in the +meadows seemed to accompany him, and our heavy-footed four to step with +a livelier gait in time to his rattling air, all unconscious that he +sang of "the old gray horse that died in the wilderness." It was a +boast of his that he could sing "any tune there was," and I believed +him, for I had a profound admiration of his musical ability. Indeed, I +hold it to this day, and often as I sit in the dark corner of an +opera-box and listen to the swelling harmonies of a great orchestra, I +close my eyes and fancy myself squatting on the grassy barn-bridge at +James's side when the shadows are creeping over the valley and he weeps +for Nellie Grey and Annie Laurie in a voice so mighty that the very +hills echo his sorrow. + +This May morning, as James sang, my spirits rose with his soaring +melody from the depths into which they had been cast in the passage of +the village, and when the last note had died away and he was debating +whether to light his pipe or sing another song, I asked him with quite +a show of courage: + +"Is it very dangerous in the mountains?" + +James looked down at me. A smile flickered around the corners of his +mouth, but he suppressed it quickly. + +"Yes--and no," he drawled. + +Inured as I was to his cautious ways, I was not taken aback by this +non-committal reply, but pursued my inquiry, hoping that in spite of +his vigilance I might elicit some encouraging opinion. + +"Am I likely to tumble into the water while I'm fishing, James?" + +"That depends, Davy." James looked profoundly at the sky. + +"And what's the chance of my being bit by a rattlesnake, James?" + +"I wouldn't say they was absolutely none, nor yet would I say they was +any chance at all." At every word of this sage opinion James wagged +his head. + +We rode some distance in silence, and then I came to the real point of +my examination. "James, what kind of a man is a professor?" + +James looked down at me gravely. "I s'pose, Davy, you have in mind +what Stacy Shunk said about him catchin' you." + +"Oh, dear, no," I protested. "I was just wondering what kind of a man +he was." + +"Well, Davy," James said, in a voice of mockery which silenced as well +as encouraged me, "if you can fall into the creek, be bit by a rattler, +and catched by the Professor all in the one-half hour we will be in the +mountains while I loaden this wagon with wood, I'll give you a medal +for being the liveliest young un I ever heard tell of. Mind, Davy, +I'll give you a medal." + +With that he checked further questioning by breaking into a song, and +had he once descended from the heights to which he soared and shown any +sign that he was aware of my presence, pride would have restrained me +from pressing my trembling inquiry. + +So, singing as we rode, we crossed the ridge, the mountain's guarding +bulwark; we left the open valley behind us and descended into the +wooded gut. We passed a few scattered houses with little clearings +around them, and then the trees drew in closer to us until the green of +their leafy masonry arched over our heads. At last I was in the +mountains! This was the mysterious topsy-turvy land, the land of +strange light and shadow to which I had so often gazed with wondering +eyes. In the excitement of its unfolding, in the interest with which I +followed the windings of the narrow road, I forgot the dangers which +threatened me in these quiet, friendly woods; and when I cast my line +into the tumbling brook I should have laughed at Mr. Pound, at Squire +Crumple, and Stacy Shunk, had I given them a thought. But even James's +kindly warnings were now uncalled for. That he should admonish me at +all I accepted as merely a formal compliance with his promise to my +mother that he would keep an eye on me. For him to keep an eye on me +was a physical impossibility, as the road plunged deeper into the +woods, bending just beyond the little bridge where he had fixed me for +my fishing. He was soon out of my sight, and his warning to me to stay +in that spot went out of my mind before the rumble of his wagon had +died away. Had he turned at the bend he would have seen me lying flat +on my back on the bridge, unbalanced by the eagerness with which I had +answered the first tug at the hook. + +I could have landed a shark with the strength which I put into that +wild jerk, but I saw only the worm bait dangling above my astonished +face. With my second cast I lifted a trout clear of the water; then +caught my line in an overhanging branch and saw my erstwhile prisoner +shoot away up-stream. The tangled line led me from my post of safety. +Had I returned to it; had I remembered the admonition of the cautious +James, and held to the station to which he had assigned me--my life +might have run its course in another channel. Now, as I look back, it +seems as though my story became entangled with my line in that +overhanging branch, as though there I picked up the strong, holding +thread of it, and followed its tortuous windings to this day. + +My blood was running quick with excitement. I had no fear. A +wonderful catch, a game fish six inches long filled me with the pride +of achievement, and with pride came self-confidence. The stream lured +me on. The rapids snapped up my hook, and with many a deceitful tug +enticed me farther and farther into the woods. The brush shut the +bridge from my view, but I knew that it was not far away, and that a +voice so mighty as James could raise would easily overtake my slow +course along the bank. So I went from rock to rock with one hand +guiding my precious rod, and the other clutching overhanging limbs and +bushes. + +What sport this was for a lad of ten who had known only the placid +brook in the open meadow and the amiable moods of its people! How many +a boyish shout I muffled as I made my cautious way along that +boisterous stream and pitted my wits against its wary dwellers! I +wormed through an abatis of laurel; I scampered over the bared and +tangled roots of a great oak; I reached a shelf of pebbly beach. +Around it the water swept over moss-clad rocks into a deep pool; above +it the arched limbs broke and let in the warm sunlight, making it a +grateful spot to one chilled by the dampness of the thicker woods. +Eager to try my luck in that enticing pool, I leaped from the massed +roots to the little beach without troubling to see what others might +have come here to enjoy with me a bit of open day. My hook touched the +stream; my line ran taut; my rod almost snapped from my hands. I +clutched it with all my strength. Every muscle of arms, legs, and body +was bent to land that gigantic fish. That it was gigantic I was sure, +from the power of its rush. I pitted my weight against his and felt +him give way. Then, shouting in exultation, I fell over backward. I +saw him leave the water, not quite the leviathan I had fancied; I saw +him fly over my head and heard him flopping behind me. Getting to my +feet, I turned to rush at my prize and capture him. I was +checked--first by my ears, for in them rang the sharp whir of a rattle. +Cold blood shot from my heart to the tips of my toes and the top of my +head. I needed nothing more to hold me back, but there before my eyes +was the other visitor to this pleasant sunny spot, his head rising from +his coiled body, his tail erect and lashing in fury. + +Since that day I have learned that the rattler when disturbed by man +will seek refuge in flight, and fights only when cornered. This +particular snake, I think, must have been told that a boy will glide +away into the bushes if a chance is given him, for he seemed determined +to stand his ground and let me flee. But where was I to escape when he +held the narrow way to the bank, and behind me roared the stream, grown +suddenly to mighty width and depth? How was I to move at all when +every nerve was numbed by the icy currents which swept through my +veins? Could I escape? Was it not foreordained that I should meet my +end in these woods? Had I not spurned the chance of life given me +through the prophecies of good Mr. Pound and the warning of the squire? + +The snake before me grew to the size of a boa-constrictor. The brook +behind me roared in my ears like Niagara. The snake began to drive his +head toward me, showing his fangs as though he were making a +reconnoissance of the air before his spring. He was so terrible that I +knew that when he did hurl himself at me I must go backward and fulfil +the prophecy of Mr. Pound. I had forgotten the man who saw through the +top of his hat. I awaited helplessly the triumph of Mr. Pound. + +From out of the bush, from out of the air, as though impelled by a +spirit hand, a long stick swung. It fell upon my enemy's head and +drove it to the ground. He lifted his head and turned from me, +striking madly, but the rod fell again upon his back. He uncoiled and +tried to run; he twisted and turned in his dying agony and lashed the +air in futile fury. The merciless rod broke him and stretched him to +his full length. But even though dead he was terrible to me, for had I +not heard that a snake never dies until sunset; could I not see the +body still quivering; might not the bruised head dart at me in dying +madness! + +I took a step backward, and hurtled into the water. For a long time I +groped in the depths of the pool. To me it seemed that I struggled +there for hours in the blackness; that serpents drew their slimy +lengths across my face; that fishes poked their noses with bold +inquisitiveness about me and dared to nibble at my hands; that Mr. +Pound looked up at me from the abyss, benignly in his triumph, and that +his solemn voice joined with the roaring of the torrent. Knowing well +that my end had come and that the prophecy was being fulfilled, I +struggled without hope, but my fingers clutching at the water at last +met some solid substance and closed on it. I felt myself turn, and +suddenly opening my eyes saw the sunlight pouring through the green +window in the tree-tops. My legs straightened; my feet touched the +stony bottom; my shoulders lifted from the stream, and I looked into a +small girl's face, while my hand was tightly clasped in hers. + +Since that day the sun's soft brown has faded from her cheeks, +uncovering their radiance; since then she has grown to fairest +womanhood, and I have seen her adorning the art of Paris and Vienna; +but to me she has given no fairer picture than on that May morning +when, shamefaced, I climbed from the mountain stream and looked down +from my ten years of height on the little girl in a patched blue frock. +Nature had coiffed her hair that day and tumbled it over her shoulders +in wanton brightness, but she had caught the crowning wisp of it in a +faded blue ribbon which bobbed majestically with every movement of her +head. Had some woodland Mr. Pound told her that I was coming? Since +then I have seen her more daintily shod than when her bare brown legs +hurried from view into broken shoes of twice her size. Since then the +hard little hand has turned white and thin and tapering, to such a hand +as women are wont to let dawdle over the arms of chairs. Then I was a +boy, with a boy's haughty way of regarding girlish softness. I was +haughtier that day because I sought in my pride to cover up my debt to +her. Now I am a man, but the boy's picture of Penelope Blight, the +little girl in the patched blue frock and broken shoes, standing by the +mountain stream, holds in the memory with clear and softening colors. + +She leaned, a tiny Amazon, on the stick which towered to twice her +height, and she said to me: "Boy, you hadn't otter be afraid of snakes." + +In my shame I answered nothing and my teeth chattered, for I was very +cold from fright and the ducking. + +Then she said to me: "Boy, you had otter come over to our house and get +warm." + +I remembered my dignity, and, in a tone of patronage assumed by right +of the one year of difference in our ages, I asked: "Where is your +house, young un?" + +She pointed over her shoulder, over the quivering body of the snake, +across the bushes, and through the green light of the woods. There I +saw a bit of blue sky, cut by a thin spire of smoke. + +"Yonder's our patch," she said, "and father will give you something to +warm you up." + +I asked: "Who is your father, little un?" + +She drew herself up very straight, and even the blue ribbon in her hair +rose in majesty as she answered. Then I almost tumbled into the pool +again, for she said: "Some call him the Professor." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The words of Penelope Blight fell on my ears as chillingly as the +rattler's whir. That the prophecies of Mr. Pound and Squire Crumple +had come to nothing was little consolation for me. So near had they +been to fulfilment that it seemed that I must have been spared only for +a harder fate, and the figure of Stacy Shunk peering at me through the +top of his hat, uttering his ominous warning, rose before my startled +eyes. I should have run, but my retreat was barred, the girl blocking +the way over the shelving beach. I took a backward step and for an +instant the Prophet Pound's star was in the ascendant, for the foot +touched the water. So great was my dread of the Professor that had I +been in a position to choose my course I should have taken my chances +in the stream, but I lost my self-control with my balance and made a +desperate clutch at the air. + +Again the brown hand caught mine, and this time it did not release me. + +"Come with me," my small captor said in a tone of command. + +I did not resist, but I went with fear. To resist would have been a +confession of cowardice, and there is no pride of courage like that of +a boy of ten in a girl's presence. I might have made excuses, but with +that little spire of smoke so close at hand, promising a fire, I, +dripping and shivering as I was, could think of nothing to say in +protest. I did declare feebly that I was not cold. My teeth +chattered, and my body shook, and the girl looked up at me and laughed, +and led me on. + +James, a man of a superstitious and imaginative mind, in the quiet +evenings on the barn-bridge had often told me strange stories in which +giants and dwarfs, witches and fairies, entangled men in their spells. +One of these tales, a favorite of his, came to me now and caused my +feet to lag and my eyes to study my guide with growing distrust. It +was of a lady called "Laura Lee," who, James said, sat on the bank of +the big river combing her hair and singing, the beauty of her face and +voice luring too curious sailormen to their destruction. It was a far +cry from the big river to the mountain brook, from the lovely "Laura +Lee" to this tiny girl, about whom all my careful scrutiny could +discover no sign of a comb. Yet it did seem to me that there was a +resemblance between the creature of the story, "the beautiful lady with +blue eyes and golden hair who hung around the water," and this child of +the woods who had no fear of snakes and boasted a professor for a +father. She felt the tug of my resisting hand. + +"You're not afraid of me, are you, boy?" she asked, turning to me +sharply. + +I, a boy of ten, afraid of this mite! Had she really been what I was +beginning to suspect, a decoy sent out by the Professor to lure me to +his den, she could not have used more cunning than to put to me such a +question. I afraid? Though the blood still waved through me, I +squared my shoulders, dissembled a laugh, and stepped before her, and +it was I who led the way along the path into the open day of the +clearing. There I came face to face with the Professor. + +First I saw that he was human in shape and attire. Indeed, both his +appearance and his occupation were exceedingly commonplace. When we +came upon him he was leaning on a hoe and watching a passing cloud. +Had he smiled at me, I think I must have fallen to my knees and lifted +my hands in pleading, but he gave no sign of pleasure that another +victim had fallen into his toils. In fact, there was something +reassuring in the perfect indifference with which he regarded me. When +the crackling of the bushes called his eyes to us, he threw one glance +our way as though a trifle annoyed at being disturbed in his study. +Then he returned to the contemplation of the sky. So I stood on the +edge of the woods my hand holding the girl's, and watched him, and as +the seconds passed and he did not change his form, but remained a lazy +man leaning on a hoe in a patch of riotous weeds, fear left me and +wonder took its place. + +There was nothing about this man to merit the opprobrium of his name, +and from appearances Stacy Shunk had as well warned me against being +caught by Mr. Pound. In the village Mr. Pound was the mould of +respectability. He always wore a short frock-coat of glossy black +material, which strained itself to reach across his chest. So did the +Professor. But his black had turned to green in spots, and he was so +thin and the tails were so short and the coat so broad that it seemed +as though its length and breadth had become transposed. It was a +marvellously shabby coat, but even in its poverty there was no +mistaking its blue blood. It was a decayed sartorial aristocrat, ill +nourished and sad, but flaunting still the chiselled nose and high, +white brow of noble lineage. Here it was all out of place. Mr. Pound +wore a great derby which swelled up from his head like a black ominous +cloud, and so dominated him that it seemed to be in him the centre of +thought and action, and likely at any moment to catch a slant on the +wind and carry him from earth. The Professor wore a great derby, too, +but one without the buoyant, cloud-like character of Mr. Pound's. It +was a burden to him. Only his ears kept it from dragging him to earth +and smothering him, and now as he looked up at the sky I saw clear cut +against its blackness a thin quixotic visage, shaded by a growth of +stubble beard. I marvelled at a man working in such attire, for the +sun baked the clearing, but watching, I saw how little he swung his hoe +and how much he studied the sky. The whole place spoke of one who kept +his coat on while he worked, and gazed at the clouds more than he hoed. +It was wretched and dismal. It hid itself away in the woods from very +shame of its thriftlessness. Age had twisted the house askew, so that +the mud daubing crumbled from between the logs, and the chimney was +ready to tumble through the roof with the next puff of wind. The +shanty barn was aslant and leaned heavily for support on long props. +The hay burst through every side of it, and the sole occupant, an +ancient white mule, had burst through too, and with his head projecting +from an opening and his ears tilted forward, he was regarding me +critically. Everywhere the weeds were rampant. Everywhere there were +signs of a feeble battle against them, bare spots where the Professor +had charged, cut his way into their massed ranks, only to retreat +wearied and beaten by their numbers. + +Over this wretchedness the girl waved her hand and said: "Here is our +farm." The blue ribbon in her hair bobbed majestically as she pointed +across the stretch of weeds to the cabin. "And yonder is our house." +She pinched my arm as a sign of caution. "And there is father," she +added in a voice of muffled pride. "He's studying. Father's always +studying." + +She would have led me on in silence, not to disturb his labors with +either mind or hoe, but he looked down and asked in a tone of yawning +interest: "Who's the lad, Penelope?" + +"I don't know," she answered. "He fell into the creek, and I pulled +him out. I've brought him in to warm him up." + +Wet, shivering boys emerging suddenly from the woods might have been a +common sight about the Professor's home, did one judge from the way he +received his daughter's explanation. He merely nodded and fell upon +the weeds with newly acquired vigor. As we walked on we heard the +spasmodic crunching of his hoe. But the noise stopped before we +reached the house door, and the silence caused us to turn. He was +standing erect looking at us. + +"I think you'd better have something, lad," he cried, and, dropping the +hoe, he hurried after us. + +So it came that the Professor did me the honors of his home, and with +such kindness that all my fear of him was soon gone. He stirred the +fire to a roaring blaze and placed me in front of it. He spread my +coat before the stove and drew my boots, and quickly my clothes began +to steam, and I was as uncomfortably warm as before I had been +uncomfortably cold. The shy politeness of my age forbade my protesting +against this over-indulgence in heat, and not until the Professor +declared that he must give me a dose to ward off sickness did I raise a +feeble voice in remonstrance. + +My protest was in vain. From the cupboard he brought a large black +bottle. Had I seen my mother approaching me with a bottle as ominous +as that, even her favorite remedy that I knew so well, the Seven Seals +of Health and Happiness, I should have fled far away, but now the girl +had my coat, and was turning it before the fire, while her father stood +between me and my boots. He smiled so benignly that had he offered me +our family nostrum I should have taken it without a grimace. I +accepted the proffered glass and drank. Never had anything more +horrible than that liquid fire passed my lips. In a moment I seemed to +be turned inside out and toasting at a roaring blaze, and to increase +my discomfort the Professor poured another dose, many times larger than +the first. Had he held it toward me I should have abandoned my coat +and boots, but to my relief he raised it to his lips and drained it off +with a smile of keen appreciation of its merits. + +"Now I feel better," he said, putting the bottle and glass on the +table, and dropping into a chair. + +It was strange to me that he, who was perfectly dry, should prescribe +for himself exactly the same remedy that he had given to me for my +wringing wetness. Yet there was no denying the beneficence of the +dose, for I was most uncomfortably warm, and had he been feeling badly +he was certainly now in fine spirits. + +Drawing his daughter between his knees, he enfolded her in his arms +protectingly. "Well, boy, I warrant you feel better," he said. + +I replied that I did, and if he did not mind I should like to sit a +little farther from the stove. + +He consented, laughing. "And now we should introduce +ourselves--formally," he went on. "You have met my daughter, Miss +Blight--Miss Penelope Blight. I am Mr. Blight--Mr. Henderson +Blight--in full, Andrew Henderson Blight. And you?" + +"I am David Malcolm, sir," I answered. + +"Ah!" He lifted his eyebrows. "You are one of those bumptious +Malcolms." + +"Yes, sir," I returned proudly, for the word "bumptious" had a ring of +importance in it, and I had every reason to believe that the Malcolms +were persons of quite large importance. + +Why Mr. Blight laughed so loud at my reply I could not understand, but +I supposed that in spite of his saturnine appearance he was a man of +jovial temperament and I liked him all the more. + +The wave of merriment past, he regarded me gravely. "Then you must be +the son of the distinguished Judge Malcolm." + +"Yes, sir," I said, pride rising triumphant over my polite humility. + +"Penelope," he said, as though addressing only his daughter, "we are +greatly honored. Our guest is a Malcolm--a sop of the celebrated Judge +Malcolm." + +By this adroit flattery my host won my heart, and in the comfort he had +given me I lost all care for passing time. When I recalled James, it +was with the thought that I was safe and he would find me, and I was +troubled by no obligation to save him worry. This strange man +interested me, he held my family in high regard, and I was well +satisfied to see more of him. So I fixed my heels on the rung of my +chair, folded my hands in my lap, sat up very straight, and watched him +gravely. In this was the one grudge that I long bore against the +Professor--that he baited me as he did, played with my child's pride, +and with my innocent connivance vented his contempt on all that I held +most dear. I did not understand the covert sneer against my father. +Years have given me a broader view of life than was my father's, and at +times I can smile with Henderson Blight at the solemnity with which he +invested his judgeship, but mine is the smile of affection. With no +knowledge of the law, with a power restricted to county contracts, when +he sat on the bench in court week with his learned confrère, drew his +chin into his pointed collar, and furrowed his brow, Blackstone beside +him would have appeared a tyro in legal lore. The distinguished Judge +Malcolm! So Henderson Blight spoke of him in raillery and so he was in +truth, distinguished in his village and his valley, and as I have come +to know men of fame in larger villages and broader valleys I can still +look back to him with loving pride. Yet that day I sat complacently +with my feet on the chair-rung, regarding the Professor with growing +friendliness. + +"You know my father?" I asked, seeking to draw forth more of this +agreeable flattery. + +"I have not the honor," he replied. "You see I am comparatively new in +these parts--driven here, as you may suspect, by temporary adversity. +But a man with ideas, David, must some day rise above adversity. All +he needs is a field of action." He looked across the bare room and out +of the door, where the weeds were charging in masses against the very +threshold; he looked beyond them, above the wall of woods, to a small +white cloud drifting in the blue. Young as I was, I saw that in his +eyes which told me that could he reach the cloud he might set the +heavens afire, but under his hand there lay no task quite worthy of +him. "A field of action--an opportunity," he repeated meditatively. +"It's hard, David, to have all kinds of ideas and no place to use them. +When a man knows that he has it in him and----" + +"Is that why Mr. Shunk calls you the Professor?" I interrupted. + +Henderson Blight turned toward me a melancholy smile. "Yes," he said. +"They all call me that, David, down in the village. Ask them who the +Professor is. They will tell you, a vagrant, a lazy fellow with a gift +of talking, a ne'er-do-well with a little learning. Ask Stacy Shunk. +Ask Mr. Pound--wise and good Mr. Pound. He will tell you that ideas +such as mine are a danger to the community, that I speak out of +ignorance and sin. As if in every mountain wind I could not hear a +better sermon than he can give me and find in every passing cloud a +text to ponder over. They don't understand me at all." + +The Professor drew his little daughter close to him and regarded me +fixedly, as though to see if I understood. + +"Yes, sir," I said. "I will ask them." + +At this matter-of-fact reply his mouth twitched humorously. "And +perhaps you will find that they are right," he said. "That's the worst +of it. Even dull minds can generate a certain amount of unpleasant +truth; that's what sets me on edge against them--when they ask me why I +don't carry out some of my fine ideas instead of criticising others." + +"Why don't you?" The question was from no desire to drive my host into +a corner, but came from an innocent interest in him and a wish to get +at something concrete. + +He took no offence at my presumption, but rose slowly, lifted his arms +above his head, and stretched himself. Unconsciously he answered my +question. + +"Had I the last ten years to live over again I would," he said as he +paced slowly up and down the room. "Perhaps I shall yet. Long ago, +when I was home on a little farm with the mountains tumbling down over +it, I used to plan getting out in the world and doing something more +than to earn three meals a day. It is stupid--the way men make meals +the aim of their lives. I wanted something better, but to find it I +had to have the means, and means could only be had by the most +uncongenial work. So here I find myself on a still smaller farm with +the mountains coming down on my very head. It was different with +Rufus." + +"Rufus who?" I demanded with the abruptness of an inquisitive youth who +was getting at the facts at last. + +The Professor halted by my chair. "My brother Rufus. You see, David, +I taught school because it was easy work and gave me time to think. +Rufus was a blockhead. He never had a real idea of any kind, but he +could work. When he owned a cross-road store he was as proud as though +he had written 'Paradise Lost.' He went to conquer the county town and +did it by giving a prize with every pound of tea. He wrote me about it +and you might have supposed that he had won a Waterloo. Yet he had his +good points. Now if Rufus and I could have been combined, his physical +energy with my mental, we should have done something really worth +while." + +"Yes, sir--yes, indeed, sir," I said politely. My conception of the +Professor's meaning was very faulty, but I found him engrossing because +he talked so fluently and made so many expressive gestures. He, I +suspect, was pleased with a sympathetic listener, though one so small. + +Laying a hand on my shoulder, he asked: "David, what are you going to +do when you grow up?" + +"I am going to be like my father," I replied. + +"Like the distinguished Judge Malcolm?" he exclaimed. "That's a high +ambition--for the valley." He was standing over me pulling his chin, +and from the manner in which he eyed me I believe that he quite +approved my choice of a model. Suddenly his arms shot out. "Try to be +more, David. Try to be what Rufus and I combined would have been. Try +to work for something better than three meals a day. Wake up, David, +before you fall asleep in a land where everybody dozes like the very +dogs." + +To enforce his admonition his hands closed on my shoulders; he lifted +me from my chair and began to shake me. Being so much in earnest he +was rather violent, so that James, now in the doorway, saw me wincing +and looking up with a grimace of fright and eyes of pleading. + +"Steady there, man," he cried. He thought that he was just in time to +rescue me from torture, and came forward with his whip raised. + +"I beg your pardon," said the Professor, dropping me gently into my +chair. "I didn't mean to hurt you, David. Did I hurt you?" + +"Not at all, sir," I answered, and feeling more at ease with James near +I made a dive for my coat and hat. + +"Well," said James, glaring at my host. "I advise you to keep your +hands off anyway, for if I catch you a-hurting of him again--" There +was a terrible threat in the eyes and in the upraised butt of the whip, +but suddenly the manner changed, for James was looking at the bottle on +the table and it had a strangely quieting influence on his temper. The +blaze died away from his eyes; his voice became soft to meekness; the +whip fell limply. "I might think you'd done it a-purpose, Professor, +and you know I allus tries to be friendly." + +"I hardly believe David will complain of my treatment," returned the +Professor. "You see he came to us all wet and cold from a tumble into +the creek." + +James turned to me with wide-opened eyes. "And I suppose you met a +rattler," he cried. + +"Oh, yes," I answered, as though this was but a petty incident of my +day. + +"Well, you are a boy!" From me his eyes moved to the bottle again, and +as he looked at it he began to tremble and his legs lost their strength +and he sank to a chair by the table. "You'll be the death of me yet, +Davy. Why, my nerves has all gone from just thinking of what might +have happened." + +His hand was groping toward the bottle, and he gave the Professor a +glance that asked for his permission. + +"Penelope," the Professor said quietly, "the gentleman would like a +glass of water." + +Evidently the gentleman did not think that water would quiet his +nerves, for he did not hear the command and was contented with the +healing power nearer at hand. He poured the tumbler almost full of the +fiery liquid and raised it to his lips. He winked gravely at Mr. +Blight, threw back his head, and drained the glass without taking +breath. The Professor failed to see the humor of the act, and, seizing +the bottle, drove the cork in hard, while the unabashed James beamed on +him, on Penelope, and on me. + +"Thank you," he said, rising, and slowly drawing his sleeve across his +mouth; "I feel better--much better. Another drop would set me up all +right, but, as you say--" He looked hopefully from the bottle in the +Professor's hands to the Professor's face, but finding there no promise +of more of the sovereign remedy, he took my arm and led me to the door. +"Davy, you must thank Mr. Blight and the young lady." + +"You'll come again, Davy," Penelope cried. + +"And all by yourself, Davy," the Professor added. + +To me this remark was of the kindest, but it irritated James. He +picked up his whip and fumbled with it while he stared at our host, who +stood by the table, with one hand on the bottle and the other pointing +the way over the clearing. "You're a good talker, Professor," James +drawled. "You can argue down Stacy Shunk and make Mr. Pound tremble, +but when it comes to manners--the manners of a gentleman--I never see +such a lack of them." + +With this parting shot he strode away so fast that I could hardly keep +pace with him. At the edge of the woods, I looked back and saw the +father and child in the slanting doorway waving their hands to me. +From his window in the barn the white mule was watching with ears +pricked, and now he brayed a hostile note, as though he divined the +trouble which could come at the heels of a wandering boy. I waved my +hat and plunged into the bush. + +"Now, Davy, tell me how it all happened," said James, drawing himself +up very straight in the saddle as he started the horses toward home. + +I began to tell him. He broke into a song. When I tried to make +myself heard, his voice swelled up louder. Never before had James sung +as he was singing now, and I watched him first with wonder and then +with increasing terror. As we dragged our way up the ridge, out of the +narrow gut, he droned his music in maudlin fashion in time to the slow +motion of the beasts. When the valley stretched before us he fairly +thundered, striving to make himself heard across the broad land. I +hoped that before we entered the village exhaustion would silence him, +but in answer to my appeals he raised his voice to a pitch and volume +that brought the people running out of their houses, and he seemed to +find great pleasure in the attention that he was attracting. The high +throne from which I had looked down so proudly that morning as I rode +to my fishing became a pillory of shame. I could not escape from it, +for the whip was swinging in time to the music, and the horses, +confused by the riot, were rearing and plunging. I had to cling to the +harness with all my strength. We halted at the store. It was quite +unintentional and made the climax of a boisterous progress. James, +lurching back in his saddle, would have fallen but for the support of +the rein. The horses stopped suddenly. He shot forward, clutching at +the air, and hurtled into the road. From my height and from my shame, +I saw the whole world running to witness our plight--men, women, and +children, it seemed to me hundreds of them, who must have been lying in +wait for this very thing to happen. Through them Mr. Pound forced his +way, waving back the press until he reached the side of the fallen man. + +"James," he said, looking down and speaking not unkindly, "how often +have I warned you!" + +The answer was a look of childish wonder. + +"Come, come," said Mr. Pound, taking a limp, sprawling arm and lifting +the culprit to his feet. "Tell me, who was the tempter who brought you +to this?" + +James gazed stupidly at the minister. Then a devil must have seized +him, for in his nature he was a gentle soul, as I knew, who had heard +him so often crooning over his horses or sitting on the barn-bridge of +an evening sorrowing for Annie Laurie and Nellie Grey, women whom he +had never seen. Before all the town he raised his hand and brought it +crashing down on Mr. Pound's cloud-like hat. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +My mother was a McLaurin of Tuckapo Valley. In the mid-part of the +eighteenth century, when that valley was a wild forest, her +great-grandfather, Angus McLaurin, came out of the air, out of the +nothingness of a hiatus in our genealogy, and settled along the banks +of the Juniata. His worldly goods were strapped on the back of a cow; +his sole companion was his wife; his sole defence his rifle. To the +dusky citizens of the valley he seemed a harmless person, and they sold +him some thousands of acres for a few pounds of powder and beads. They +must have smiled when he attacked the wilderness with an axe, as we +should smile at the old woman who tried to ladle up the sea. With what +chagrin must they look down now from the Happy Hunting Ground to see +McLaurinville the busy metropolis of McLaurin township, and McLaurins +rich and poor, McLaurins in brick mansions and McLaurins in log cabins +where they once chased the deer and bear! My mother was one of _the_ +McLaurins, which is to say that she was born on the very spot where +Angus felled the first tree in Tuckapo. These McLaurins were naturally +the proudest of all their wide-spread family, some of whom had gone +down to the poor-house, and some up and over the mountains to be lost +and snubbed among the great ones of other valleys. There was a +tradition in our family, which grew stronger as the years covered the +roots of our family tree, that Angus was really _The_ McLaurin, chief +of the clan, and had fled over the sea to save his head after Prince +Charlie's futile struggle for a crown. With my mother tradition had +become history. She had one grudge against Walter Scott, whose novels, +with the Bible, made her sole reading, and this was that he never +mentioned "our chief," as she called him. More than once I can +remember her looking up from the pages of "Redgauntlet," and declaring +that had the Prince been a more capable man we should be living in a +castle in Scotland. From the incompetence of Prince Charlie, then, it +came that my mother entered life in a red brick house in McLaurinville +instead of in a highland keep, and as it is just six miles as the crow +flies over the ridges to Malcolmville in Windy Valley, she met my +father in the course of time, and in the course of time the two great +families were united in my small self. The Malcolms were a great +family, too. They were a proud people, though not in the same way as +my McLaurin kin. They had no fine traditions based on the fragments of +a Scotchman's kilt. Quite to the contrary, my father used to boast +that they had been just simple, God-fearing folk, Presbyterians in +every branch for generations, and sometimes he delighted in the idea +that he was a self-made man. As he always chose a large company to +make this boast in, it was to my mother a constant source of +irritation, and she would contradict him with heat, and point out that +his father before him had farmed three hundred acres of land, while his +grandfather on his mother's side had been for fifty years the pastor of +the Happy Hollow church. + +Knowing this little of our family history, it is possible to realize +the consternation which prevailed when in the middle of a formal +dinner-party, in the presence of Mr. Pound, Squire Crumple, and that +most critical of women, Miss Agnes Spinner, in the presence of these +and a half-dozen others of the most important persons in the +neighborhood, in the silence which followed the appearance of the first +asparagus of spring, I, a small boy, suddenly projected my head from +the shadow of the good minister and asked: "Mother, what is a bumptious +Malcolm?" + +Mr. Pound lowered his fork, turned half around, and looked at me. Miss +Agnes Spinner began to choke and had to cover her face with her napkin, +while Squire Crumple with great solicitude fell to patting her very +hard between the shoulders. Mrs. Pound glanced at my father, and then +found a sudden interest in her coffee, pouring it from her cup into her +saucer, and from her saucer into her cup, so often that she seemed to +be reducing it to a freezing mixture. Mrs. Crumple discovered +something awry with the lace of her gown, for she drew in her chin, and +one eye examined her vertical front while the other covertly circled +the table. Old Mr. Smiley, never an adroit man in society, crossed his +knife and fork on his plate, lifted his napkin half across his face +like a curtain, and over the top of it stared at my mother as though he +were waiting with me to learn just what a bumptious Malcolm could be. + +My father never lost his self-command. He seemed not to have heard me, +for he leaned over the table, and in a voice designed to smother any +further interruptions from my quarter, said: "Mrs. Malcolm, my dear, +Mr. Pound's coffee is all." As a matter of fact Mr. Pound's coffee was +not "all." My mother, never niggardly, had just filled it for the +third time to overflowing, and a full cup rose from a full saucer; but +she had an opportunity, while turning solicitously to her guest, to +give me a frown, which in private would have found fuller expression in +a slipper. As Miss Spinner was still choking, my father proposed +dropping a brass door-key down her back as the most efficacious of +cures. Had she consented to this heroic treatment I might have been +shunted into silence, but her prompt refusal to allow any one to do +anything for her left diplomacy at its wit's end. In the portentous +silence which followed I was able to repeat my question with more +incisive force. + +"Yes, but, mother, what is a bumptious Malcolm?" + +"David," said my father sternly, "children should be seen and not +heard!" + +"But, father," I exclaimed, being aroused by this injustice to defend +myself, "Professor Blight said that I must be one of those bumptious +Malcolms. Those were his exact words--bumptious Malcolms." + +As the horse saith among the trumpets, ha! ha! and smelleth the battle +afar off--the thunder of the captains and the shouting--so Mr. Pound +lifted his great mane at the mention of the Professor and swept the +table with eyes full of fire. + +"Ha! Judge Malcolm, what have I not told you of this man? Don't you +recall that I warned you we should have to deal with him? When I found +him making trouble in my flock, setting the sheep against the shepherd, +I told you the time would come when he would strive to set the son +against the father." + +While I could not understand in what way I had turned against my +father, it was plain to me that the term which the Professor had +applied to my family was one of opprobrium. It was clear, too, that it +had considerable explosive power, for after the first frightened hush +it stirred the whole company into a terrific outburst against my friend +of yesterday. Even Miss Spinner stopped choking, and announced that +she "declared." What she declared was not imparted, but as the general +trend of exclamation was against the Professor I knew that did she +continue her statement it must be aimed at him. + +My father leaned back and grasped the knobs of his chair-arms. +"David," he said slowly, "when did Henderson Blight speak in terms so +disrespectful--no, that is not the word I want--in this sarcastic--that +is hardly correct--when did he speak thus of us?" + +"Yesterday, sir," I answered, "when I was in his house getting warm. +But he didn't mean anything bad, father. Why, he told me that you were +the celebrated Judge Malcolm." + +I expected that such gentle flattery would propitiate my father. +Instead, his brows knitted, and he shot forward his head and asked: +"The what kind of a judge, David?" + +Before I could reply Mr. Pound injected himself into the examination. + +"Pardon me, Judge, but I should like to ask my young friend if +Henderson Blight smiled as he said it." + +"No, sir," I answered promptly. "He was just as solemn as you are now." + +Miss Spinner fell to choking again. My mother gave vent to a +long-drawn "Dav-id!" an exclamation which I had come to fear as much as +the Seven Seals, and her use of it now so unjustly made me feel as if +every man's hand were against me, for Mr. Pound was solemn, and in +using the best comparison at hand I meant no ill. + +"Dav-id!" said my mother again, lifting an admonishing finger. + +The good minister saw nothing offensive in my remark, but even repeated +it with a nod of understanding. "As solemn as I am now. Judge +Malcolm, your son has quite accurately described this man Blight's way +of speaking--of saying one thing when he means quite another. I should +hardly dare repeat some of the terms which have come to my ears as +having been applied by him to me. Just the other day, as we were +walking through town, I overheard him talking to Stacy Shunk, and he +referred to my wife as the lovely Mrs. Pound. Now I have no objections +to persons speaking of my wife as lovely, but I want them to mean it +and not to infer quite the opposite." + +It was Mrs. Pound's turn to "declare," but she was clearer in the +meaning than Miss Spinner. She would have told us some of the things +Mr. Blight had said of Mr. Pound with a meaning quite as inverted. My +mother, seeing the tempest rising, sought to still it by protesting +that she was sure that in this instance the Professor was quite sincere. + +"I know he meant it," she said over and over again, until Mrs. Pound +was unable to make herself heard and retired to silence and coffee. + +But Mr. Pound, a believer in truth at all hazards, would not admit that +the Professor did mean it. "A person of such an insinuating character +is a danger to the community," he said. "I have repeatedly warned the +judge against him, Mrs. Malcolm, and now my warning has come home. +Yesterday's deplorable incident has been forgotten by me; I have +blotted it from my memory because I realized that you were in spirit +struck down as I was, though not so publicly. I have forgiven James. +Since he has come to me sober and penitent, and confessed where he got +the liquor, I have passed his part in the affair by with a kindly +warning. But I cannot pass by the real culprit, the man who struck at +me through the weak James, and almost felled me before the town, the +man who furnished James with the sources of his intoxication. His +punishment I leave to you." Mr. Pound drove his fork into an asparagus +stalk to show that he had said all that could be said and all that he +would say. That he had said enough to bring others to his way of +thinking was evident from the gravity with which my father shook his +head. + +"David, when I questioned you as to yesterday's unfortunate occurrence +you confessed that this man Blight gave James the liquor." + +"No, sir," I returned quickly. "I didn't say that." + +"How was it, then?" my father asked. + +I had pleaded with my mother to allow me to be one of this great +dinner-party, that I might partake, first-hand, of the good things +which I had seen preparing. I was to enjoy the feast in a silence +proper to my years. So I had promised. And now one of those dangerous +questions which rise like a rocket from a boy's lips had transformed me +from a small guest whose part was to sit silently in the shadow of the +mighty clergyman, and there only to even up the side of the table, into +a person of unpleasant importance. Had my father rapped for order, +risen, and announced that we had the good fortune to have with us +Master David Malcolm, who would tell us where James found the source of +his intoxication, he could not have made me more dreadfully +conspicuous. I wanted to run, but, if nothing else, my father's eyes +would have held me. I wanted, above all, to keep silent because I +loved James, who from the day when I had first toddled out of the house +into the broad world of hay and wheat fields had been almost my sole +playfellow. As yet I did not know what a bumptious Malcolm was; I did +not understand the man who always said what he did not mean; I +remembered him only as the kindly host who had found me dripping and +cold and had made me gloriously warm. And more than that, I remembered +the little girl who had dragged me from the creek. Something in the +gaunt man who lived among the clouds, something in the ragged creature +who lifted a smiling face and ribboned head above the weeds of that +lonely clearing, had touched me strangely. It seemed that I must be +their only friend, and for them I would tell the truth. I should have +told the truth but for Mr. Pound. + +"I said, sir," I answered my father, "that James just took the bottle +and----" + +"The bottle was Blight's, was it not?" broke in Mr. Pound. + +"Yes, sir," I said. + +It had dawned on me the afternoon before, as James and I rode home, +just what was the medicine I had taken. It was hard for me to believe +that the vilely tasting stuff was whiskey, which I had heard men drank +for pleasure, but when all doubt was removed by the exclamations of the +crowd who hovered about the prostrate man I was overwhelmed by a sense +of my own sin. Yet I had feared to confess to my mother the dose which +I had taken. It would only make her unhappy, I had told myself, and I +had tried to still my turbulent conscience with the plea that my +silence was saving others. Now simple justice demanded that I tell +everything, even to the admission of my own fault. + +"Father," I cried, "the Professor didn't want James----" + +"It is high time the community were rid of this man," Mr. Pound +interrupted. + +"David!" said my father, and I shrank into the minister's shadow. + +"And it seems to me, Squire Crumple," Mr. Pound went on, "it is clearly +your duty as a justice of the peace to act." + +"Act how?" cried the astonished squire. + +"Have him arrested!" replied Mr. Pound, making the dishes rattle under +the impact of his fist on the table. + +At this suggestion every one forgot the dinner and sat up very +straight, staring in amazement at the bold propounder of it. + +"Arrest him," exclaimed the squire, "and for what?" + +"For anything that will rid the community of him," snapped Mr. Pound. +"Do you not agree with me, Judge?" + +The Judge quite agreed with Mr. Pound. He admitted that until the +unfortunate occurrence of yesterday he had opposed any proceedings +which were not altogether regular in law. "And yet," he said gravely, +"it is incumbent on us to rid the community of him. We all know that +from the porch of Snyder's store he has been preaching doctrines that +are not only revolutionary but, if the ladies will pardon me, I will +call damnable. What good is it for us to have Mr. Pound in the pulpit +for one day of the week, and this glib-tongued man contradicting him +for seven. Yet no statute forbids him to do this. What can you +suggest, Mr. Pound?" + +Mr. Pound sought an inspiration in the ceiling. "The man has no +visible means of support," he said after a moment. "His child is badly +clothed, and, I presume, badly fed. Right there is an indictment. +Vagrancy." + +This bold suggestion was greeted with general approval save by the +squire, who protested that a man could not be called a vagrant who had +paid seventy dollars in cash for his clearing and was never known to +beg or steal. + +"But I tell you he is a moral vagrant," argued Mr. Pound, "and I will +make such a charge against him. It will be your duty then, Squire +Crumple, to offer him his choice between six weeks in jail and leaving +the valley and taking his bottle with him." + +Still the squire was unconvinced, but he saw himself being overawed by +my father and the minister, and his efforts to combat them evolved +futile excuses. + +"Who will arrest him?" he pleaded. + +"Haven't we a constable?" retorted my father. "What did we elect Byron +Lukens for?" + +"Precisely!" cried Mr. Pound. + +"The one arrest he has made was a source of endless trouble," returned +Squire Crumple. "He had to lock the prisoner overnight in his best +room, and his wife has since said distinctly and repeatedly that----" + +"You can avoid trouble with Mrs. Lukens by arresting him in the +morning," said Mr. Pound. + +"And the chances are he will leave the valley rather than go to jail," +my father added. + +"But suppose he is cantankerous and chooses jail, what will we do with +the girl?" argued the reluctant magistrate. + +"The girl?" Mr. Pound waved his great hands about the table. "Surely +we can find her a better home and better parents than she has now. +Surely there are among us good women who will esteem it a privilege to +care for an orphaned child." + +My mother said "surely," too, and so did all the other good women at +the board. Even Miss Spinner, while not prepared to receive the child +into her home, was ready to teach her "as she should be taught." + +"And she should be taught," my mother broke in. "Her father has been +the stumbling-block. I heard him say myself to a committee of our +Ladies' Aid that he would gladly place her in Miss Spinner's +Sunday-school class if Miss Spinner could convince him that she had any +knowledge worth imparting. I never liked to tell you that before, Miss +Spinner; I feared it might hurt your feelings." + +Miss Spinner's feelings were decidedly hurt, and she began to vie with +Mr. Pound in urging that the valley be rid of the obnoxious Professor. +So drastic were the measures which she called for, and so vigorous her +demands on the gentle squire, that he retreated on Mr. Pound for aid, +advocating all that the minister had proposed as the most humanitarian +method of dealing with the case. + +"A warrant will issue to-night, but to avoid trouble with the +constable's wife I shall order it served in the morning," he said at +last as he stood by his chair, folding his napkin. Thus he eased his +conscience by making the warrant responsible for its own existence, and +his words struck deeper into my heart for their impressive legal form. + +A warrant will issue! As I slipped out by the kitchen this rang in my +ears with the insistence of a refrain. Because I had disobeyed, left +my post of safety, and plunged into the woods in pursuit of a few small +trout, a warrant would issue, a ghoulish offspring of my reckless +spirit, seize the gentle Professor in its claws and drag him to +ignominy. A warrant would issue! And the blue ribbon would no longer +bob majestically in Penelope's hair, but would droop with her father's +shame. The picture of them standing in the cabin door, waving their +farewell and calling to me to come again, was very clear in my mind, +and made sharper the sense of the trouble which I had brought to them. +Three times I ran around the house wildly, as though I would blur the +picture by merely travelling in a circle; but instead it grew clearer, +and the Professor seemed to regard me with eyes more kindly and +Penelope to call to me in a more friendly voice. So became clearer my +obligation to help them, and intent on making my plea I burst into the +parlor. The scene there chilled my ardor. In the dim evening light, +like sombre ghosts, the company sat in a wide circle about the borders +of the room, erect and uncomfortable as one must sit on slippery +horse-hair, listening to Miss Spinner at the piano droning through the +first bars of "Sweet Violets." + +"Ssh!" exclaimed my father, and even the gloom could not hide his frown. + +"But, father, the Professor didn't----" + +My mother tiptoed across the room and gently pushed me out of the door. +"David, go to bed!" she commanded. + +To bed I went, but not to sleep. Did I close my eyes I saw the +Professor in the clutches of Byron Lukens being dragged along the +village street amid the jeers of the people. Swallows fluttered in the +chimney, and I heard there the echoes of the struggle when the +constable laid his hand on the shoulders of my friend. The wind moaned +in the trees, and I fancied Penelope now upbraiding me for the trouble +I had brought upon them, now pleading with me to send her father home +to her. A faint crowing sounded from the orchard, hailing the shadow +of the morning, the gray ghost rising from the dark ridges. I slipped +from my bed to the window, and watched the valley as it shook itself +from sleep. How slowly came that day! The birds stirred in their +nests, but, like me, they dared not venture forth into a world so +filled with uncanny shadows. Yet the day did come. Over by the dark, +towering wall that hemmed in the valley the gray turned to pink, and I +could see the trees on the ridge-top like a fringe against the +brightening sky. Louder sounded the crowing in the orchard, and to me +it brought a warning that I must hurry. I looked to the northward, and +saw only the mists covering the land, and in my fancy beyond them the +mountains where bear and wildcat lurked. There the Professor and +Penelope lay unconscious that even now the terrible warrant might be +issuing and at any moment would fall upon them. There was only one +thing for me to do, and though when I had closed the house door softly +behind me and turned my back to the reddening east the mists were +tenfold more mysterious and the mountains tenfold more forbidding, I +ran straight down the road into the gloom, as though the warrant were +racing with me. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +When with a last desperate spurt I ran into the clearing, I saw the +Professor sitting in the cabin door, smoking his pipe and basking in +the sunshine as though life held no trouble for him. I believed that I +was in time to warn him of the threatening danger, that I had outsped +the warrant, that I had outrun the redoubtable Lukens, and in the +luxury of that thought my overtaxed strength ebbed away and I sank down +on a stump, hot and panting. I had run a hard race for so small a boy. +At times it seemed as though the mountains drew back from me, that +every one of the five miles had stretched to ten, but I kept bravely +on, going at top speed over the level places, dragging wearily up the +steep hills, cutting through fields and woods where I could save +distance, following every brief rest with a spasmodic burst of energy, +and now I had come to the last stretch, the ragged patch of weeds, +exhausted. I tried to call my friend, but my throat was parched and I +could not raise my voice above a whisper, and as my head barely lifted +over the wild growth of his farm, he smoked on, unconscious of my +presence. Something in a distant tree-top engaged his attention, +something vastly interesting, it seemed to me, for he never turned my +way to see my waving hand. So I struggled to my feet and staggered on. +At last he heard me, sprang up, and came striding over the clearing. +Then my tired legs crumpled up; I sat down suddenly and, supported by +my sprawling hands, waited for him. + +"Davy--Davy Malcolm," he cried, "who has been chasing you now?" + +"A warrant!" I gasped. "Mr. Lukens, he is coming with a warrant to +arrest you!" + +The tall form bent over me and I was raised to my feet. Supporting me +in his strong grasp, he held me off from him, and for a moment regarded +me with grave eyes. + +"And you've come to warn me, eh, Davy?" he said. + +"Yes, sir," I answered. "Mr. Pound he thinks you are a dangerous man. +Mr. Pound he wants to get you out of the valley. Mr. Pound he----" + +The Professor seemed to have little fear of Mr. Pound and as little +interest in him. "Never mind the learned Doctor Pound," he exclaimed, +and his mouth twitched in a smile inspired by the mere thought of the +minister. "The point is, Davy, that you left home before daylight to +tell me, and you must have run nearly all the way--eh, boy?" + +"I had to," I panted. "You see, Mr. Lukens he was to come here early +for you, and I thought if I was in time you might run away." + +To run away seemed to me the only thing for the Professor to do, and I +expected that at the mere mention of the terrible Lukens he would +scurry to the mountain-top as fast as his legs would carry him. Yet he +held the constable in as little terror as he did Mr. Pound, for instead +of fleeing he drew me to him, and held me in an embrace so tight as to +make me struggle for breath and freedom. + +"Davy, Davy!" he cried; "you understand me, boy. You are a friend, a +real friend--my only friend." + +Again and again he said it--that I was his only friend--and not until I +cried out that I had had no breakfast and would he please not squeeze +me so tight did he release me, and then it was to keep fast hold on my +arm and lead me to the house. Penelope had heard us and met us +half-way, running, halting suddenly before us, and staring wide-eyed at +the bedraggled boy who lurched along at her father's side. + +"Davy," she cried, "have you come fishin' again?" + +My answer was to hold out my hand to her, and together we three went +into the house. There, with my breath regained, and my parched throat +relieved, and my tired legs dangling from the most luxurious of +rocking-chairs, my spirits rose with my returning strength. It nettled +me to see the Professor giving so little heed to my warning. I had +performed what was for me a herculean task, and yet the precious +moments which I had fought so hard to gain for him were being frittered +away in preparations for a breakfast for me. He was evidently grateful +for what I had done, but he was getting no good from it. Had I run all +those miles to tell him that the bogie man was coming he could not have +moved about his cooking with less concern. For a time I watched him +with growing indignation, yet I hesitated to mention the purpose of my +errand before Penelope, who had fixed herself before my chair and, with +her hands clasped behind her back and her head lifted high, was gazing +at me in admiring silence. My uneasiness increased as the minutes flew +by, and when the first sharp demands of appetite had been satisfied I +looked at the Professor, now seated at the other side of the table, and +nodded my head toward his daughter, and winked with a sageness beyond +my years. + +"Mr. Blight, hadn't you otter be going?" I asked. + +The Professor, in answer, laughed outright. He clasped his hands to +his sides and rocked on two legs of his chair in exuberance. +"Davy--Davy, you'll be the death of me yet!" + +To me this seemed a very hard thing to say, as I had no wish to be the +death of the Professor; but, quite to the contrary, had made a great +effort and had risked much trouble at home in my desire to help him. +Now I was beginning to think that I had done as well to drop a +post-card in the mail to warn him of his danger. The disappointment +brought tears to my eyes. He saw them. His face turned very gentle +and he leaned across the table toward me. + +"Davy, I can't thank you enough for what you have done. But don't +worry about me--I'm not afraid of Byron Lukens." + +At the name of the constable Penelope broke into laughter, and placed a +hand on my arm to draw my eyes to her. "Mr. Lukens was here this +morning, Davy, just before you came. And, oh, you should have seen +father knock him down!" + +My fork and knife clattered to the plate as I turned to the girl, and +she saw doubt and wonder in my eyes. + +"He did!" she cried. "And oh, Davy, you'd have died laughing if you +had seen Mr. Lukens tumble over the wood-pile and hit his head against +the rain-barrel." + +I stared at the Professor. I had liked him for his kindness to me and +had pitied him for his misfortune. Now I was filled with admiration +for the physical prowess of this man who could whip the intrepid +constable, for in Malcolmville there was no one whom I held in so much +awe as Byron Lukens. He was mighty in bulk; his voice was proportioned +to his size; his words fitted his voice. Often I had sat on the +store-porch and listened to his stories of his feats, and I believed +that to cross him in any way must be the height of daring. The tale of +the men whom he had whipped in the past and promised to whip in the +future if they raised a finger against him would almost have made a +census of the valley. That this frail man should have resisted him, +that those thin hands should have been raised against him, that the +intellectual Professor should have knocked down the Hercules of our +village, was beyond my comprehension. So my friend across the table +saw amazement welling up from my open mouth and eyes. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "There was nothing else to do, Davy. He +beat you here after all. Probably you missed him in your short cuts +over the fields. Why, it was hardly light when I heard him pounding at +the door. He said he had come to arrest me." Rising and drawing +himself to his full height, the Professor began to tell me of the early +morning conflict, forgetting, in his indignation, how small were his +two auditors, and throwing out his voice as though to reach a +multitude. "He had come to arrest me--me; said that I was a vagrant; +spoke to me as you wouldn't speak to a dog, and told me to come +along--to come along with him, a hulking, boastful brute. Why, it was +all I could do to keep my temper, Davy. I answered him as politely as +I could, said that I had done no wrong, and certainly would not allow +myself to be arrested. And then----" + +"Then father knocked him down," cried Penelope, clapping her hands. +"Oh, Davy, you'd otter seen it." + +"Should have, Penelope, should have seen," said the Professor +reprovingly, and having done his duty as a father and a man of +education he drove his fist into the air to show with what quickness +and force he could use it. "Yes, that's the way I did it, David. He +applied an oath to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. What else could +I do? I appeal to you--what else could I do but knock him down?" + +"And didn't he whip you for it, sir?" I cried, still doubting that the +giant could have fallen beneath such a blow. + +"Whip me?" The Professor laughed. "Do you think that great bully could +whip me? Why, David, you quite hurt my feelings. By the time he had +gone over the wood-pile into the rain-barrel there wasn't any fight +left in him. He didn't even speak till he was safe across the +clearing. Then you should have seen him. He has gone down to the +village to get help; he is going to teach me what it means to assault +an officer of the law; he is going to send me to jail for life." The +Professor glared out of the open doorway as fiercely as though the +constable were standing there and he defying him. Then suddenly he +leaned over the table to me, and fixing his eyes on mine asked in a +hoarse voice: "David, did you ever hear of such injustice?" + +"No, sir," I answered. "But Mr. Pound said----" + +At the mention of Mr. Pound the Professor sat down and the table reeled +under his fist. "Pound--he is at the bottom of it all. He has said +that I am a good-for-nothing loafer and the county should be rid of me. +Maybe he is right. But he won't have his way. I have done nothing and +I will not go--do you hear that, Davy, I will not go. Now tell me what +Mr. Pound said." + +In a faltering voice I began my story with that fateful home ride with +James. As I went on I lost my diffidence in my interest in the tale, +and spoke rapidly till the need of breath slowed me down. There were +retrogressions to speak of things which I had forgotten, and many +corrections where I had slightly misquoted Miss Spinner, Mr. Smiley, or +some other equally unimportant person. I told the story as a small boy +recites to his elders the details of some book which he has read; so +the Professor had to check me frequently with admonitions not to mind +what Mrs. Crumple said about my mother's ice-cream and such matters, +but to tell him exactly what my father said of him. Still I persisted +in my own way, bound that whatever I did should be done thoroughly, +even though he might hold in contempt my effort to be of service to +him. When at last there was not a word left untold, he leaned back in +his chair and gazed at me with a look of utter helplessness. + +"Well, what am I to do now?" he cried. His head shot toward me and his +hands were held out in appeal. "Davy, can't you suggest something?" + +In my pride at being asked for advice by one so old, I sat up very +straight as I had seen my father do and allowed a proper interval of +silence before I spoke. + +"Yes," I replied slowly. "If you were me I'd run away before Mr. +Lukens got back." + +This excellent suggestion was met by a frown so fierce that I pushed +back from the table in alarm. + +"Run away?" he exclaimed. "Why, that's just what they want me to do. +What have I done that I should run away? And if I did, what would +become of Penelope?" + +He drew his little daughter close to his side, while he looked out of +the door into the patch of blue sky, seeking there some inspiration. +His lips moved, and I knew that he was asking again and again of that +little patch of sky what he should do. Then suddenly he rose, as +though the answer had been given, for he clapped on his hat, stood +erect with shoulders squared and hands clasped behind him, facing the +open door with the demeanor of a man whose mind was made up, who was +ready to meet the world and defy it. This, to me, was the hero who had +knocked down the constable, and I imagined him confronting a dozen like +Byron Lukens and piling them one on top of the other, for surely things +had come to pass that the man would have to hold the clearing against +an army. But as suddenly the shoulders drooped, the back bowed, the +head sank, and he turned to me. + +"Davy, Davy, what shall I do?" he asked in a hoarse whisper. + +As I was silent, he addressed the same appeal to Penelope, and she, in +answer, ran to the door and pointed across the clearing. + +"Look, father," she shouted; "he has come back." + +Byron Lukens had indeed returned and with a heavy reinforcement. Five +men climbed out of the wagon which had appeared from the road, and now +they began a careful reconnoissance of the house. As they stood on the +edge of the woods looking toward us I marked each one of them, and the +problem uppermost in my mind concerned what I should do myself, for I +was fairly cornered. I could not run away, for they were watching +every exit from the cabin, and there was not one of them who would not +recognize me did I flee over the open. The presence of James alone +meant my undoing, and there he was, standing by the constable, eying +the place with a lowering glare which threatened a storm, for here he +had fallen and here he would redeem himself by some act of exceptional +daring. Caught in this net, I hid behind the door-post and peered +around it through a protecting shield made by the Professor's +coat-tails. In the silence I could hear my heart beat. + +There was one thing for the Professor to do now, and he did that well. +He gathered his scattered senses and stood quietly in the doorway, +smoking, leaving to the invaders the burden of action. Their +indecision gave him strength. + +"The idea of my giving in to a crew like that," he said to me in a +steady voice. "It's a pity Mr. Pound didn't come, and your father too, +David, that they might see how little I cared for their warrants." +Then, to show how undisturbed he was by their presence, he called to +them pleasantly: "Good morning, gentlemen." + +This mild greeting gave courage to our foes and Stacy Shunk advanced. +His coming was a sign that reason was to be used before force, and with +his first step he began to gesticulate and to protest his friendly +purpose. But he could not argue with any acumen while his bare feet +were traversing a carpet of briers, and a silence followed, broken by +exclamations as he came on slowly but resolutely as though he walked on +eggs. Half-way over the clearing he stopped with a cry of pain, and +the herald's mission was forgotten in the search for a thorn. The +picture of Stacy Shunk balancing on one foot while he nursed the other +in his hands made the Professor laugh hilariously and he called to him +to hurry. + +But Stacy would come no farther. He planted himself firmly on his +bleeding feet; his great black hat-brim hid his face, but the voice +which came from under it was soft, and he held out his hands as though +he offered his dear friend the protection of his arms. + +"You know what these other fellows want, Professor, and you know I'd +only come along to help you. The whole thing was only a joke first +off, but you've gone and assaulted the constable, and there'll be +trouble if you don't settle it and be reasonable. Now, my advice +is----" + +"Thank you for your advice, Stacy Shunk," exclaimed the Professor. +"But you know as well as I do that I have done nothing that I can be +arrested for." + +"Of course I do," returned the herald. "But you hadn't otter upset the +preacher so. You'd otter believe what he says, and when he preaches +about Noah and the like you hadn't otter produce figures in public to +show that Noah and his boys couldn't have matched up all the animals +and insects in the time they was allowed, let alone stabling 'em in a +building three hundred cupids long and thirty cupids wide and three +stories high. Now I allus held----" + +"I don't care what you held," said the Professor sharply. "You can't +get me into an argument now. I suppose it was unwise of me to try to +make you people think, but you can't arrest a man for simply being +unpopular. This is my home, and no law of your twopenny village can +make me leave it." + +"I'm not going to argue about Noah," protested Stacy Shunk. "As your +friend, I'm trying----" + +"As my friend, you had best go home and take your other friends with +you." The Professor's voice was dry and crackling. + +He reached behind the door and took up the long rifle which leaned +against the wall. There was no threat in his action, for he held it +under his arm and looked off to the mountain-top as though he were +trying to make up his mind whether or not it was a good day for +hunting. Stacy Shunk saw another purpose beneath this careless air, +and he abandoned argument. Without heeding the briers, he fled to his +friends; he did not even stop there, but plunged into the bushes, and +above them I saw his head and hands moving together in an excited +colloquy. The ludicrous figure which he cut in his retreat excited the +Professor to laughter, in which Penelope joined, clapping her hands +with mirth. I, wiser than she as to the danger of firearms, and +trusting less to her father's mild intentions, broke into tearful +pleading. + +"Please don't shoot, Professor," I whimpered, tugging at his coat-tails +to drag him back. "They won't hurt you, I know they won't." + +"Don't worry, Davy," the Professor said with a reassuring smile. "They +wouldn't hurt any one, nor would I. Didn't Shunk run at the mere sight +of a gun? Why, if I pointed it at the rest of them they would fly like +birds." + +It was not fair to judge the courage of the others by the cowardice of +Stacy Shunk. The constable's boasts came out of the past to goad him +into action, and while Joe Holmes, the blacksmith, might have been very +weak in the knees, he was not ready to retreat so early in the action +when his helper, Thaddeus Miller, was watching him. As for James, +despite the fall his moral qualities had taken in my estimation, I +believed him to be a man of unflinching bravery, and he it was that I +feared most when at last the advance began across the clearing, the +four moving abreast with military precision, while Stacy Shunk hurled +at them many admonitions to be cautious. I knew that nothing would +stop James; that while his comrades might scatter like birds, he would +come on to a deadly hand-to-hand conflict, and I pictured the Professor +and him swallowing each other like the two snakes of tradition. I +forgot my own safety, and threw both arms about one of the Professor's +legs and tried to pull him into the house. Penelope, too, lost her +courage when she saw the numbers of the enemy and their bold advance, +and she clung, wailing, to her father's waist. He shook us off, and +for the first time spoke to us sharply, and so sharply that the child +reached her hand to mine and together we slunk into a dark corner. + +Of what followed we saw nothing. We heard the voices, nearer and +nearer. Then the men seemed to halt and to address the Professor in +tones of argument. We are a peaceable folk in our valley and little +given to the use of firearms, and I suspect that the constable and his +aids really knew the Professor to be a peaceable man or they would not +have come thus far with such boldness. To come farther they hesitated +until they had made it perfectly clear that they acted in his best +interests. Even Byron Lukens was willing to let "bygones be bygones." + +"I'm just doing of my duty, Mr. Blight," he said in a wheedling tone, +"and if you'll come along quiet-like I'll say nothing about it to the +squire." + +"You can fix it all up with the squire," I heard Joe Holmes say. +"There's really nothing again you, only you must comply with the law." + +Then James spoke--to my astonishment not in a bold demand that the +Professor surrender, but softly, asking him to be careful with the gun. + +"Nobody has nothing again you, Professor," he said as gently as he +would have spoken to me, and hearing this I took heart, for with James +in such a temper there seemed no danger of a serious clash. + +"No one has nothing against me," the Professor repeated in a tone of +irony. "You only want to drag me through the village before the +squire. Tell the squire to come here to me and explain." + +There was a moment of silence. It was so quiet outside that even the +birds seemed to be listening and watching; then came the swish of weeds +trampled under foot. + +"Be off, the whole crew of you," cried the man in the doorway, and I +saw the butt of the gun rise to his shoulder. + +I wanted to cry out, but my throat was parched with fright, and +Penelope was clinging to my neck in silent terror. + +There was another moment of silence. Then James began to laugh in that +vast ebullient way of his, and a bit of dry brush snapped sharply under +some foot. The report of the rifle shook the cabin. It must have +shaken the mountains too, it seemed to me, for the floor beneath me +rocked in time to the echoes of it rattling among the hills, and I +heard a wild scream, the cry of a man hurt to death, and the shrill +cries of startled birds fleeing to the hiding of the trees. A puff of +wind swept a thin veil of smoke into the room, but for me the air was +filled with sickening fumes, and I sank to my knees and closed my eyes +as a child does at night to shut out the perils of the darkness. I +felt Penelope's arms gripped tightly about my neck, her dead weight +dragging me down. I heard the last echoes of the shot, faintly, down +the narrow valley, and outside the incoherent shouts of men. Then +there was a silence, broken only by Penelope's sobs. It seemed to me +long hours I was there on my knees before I dared to open my eyes and +bring myself into the world again. And when I did it was to see the +room darkened and the Professor leaning against the closed door with +his hands wide-spread, as though with every muscle braced to hold it +against an onslaught. Yet he trembled so that a child might have +brushed him aside. + +There was no onslaught. I waited the moment when the door would be +crashed in. I heard the clock ticking monotonously on the cupboard and +the wood crackling in the stove. The birds were singing again, and +outside in the clearing it was as peaceful as on that day when I first +came upon it, wet and shivering, to find joy in its cheerful sunniness. + +I broke from Penelope's embrace and got to my feet. The Professor, +hearing me, raised his head from the door and turned to me a face +chalky-white, whiter for the dishevelled hair that hung about it. + +"Davy," he whispered, "look out of the window and tell me what you see." + +I had no care for any trouble that might lie ahead for me. I wanted to +be seen. I wanted to be taken from this stifling cabin with its +deafening noises and sickening fumes and above all from this mad fellow +who looked as I had seen a rat look when cornered in a garner. I ran +to the window and peered through the smutted panes, but there was no +one outside to see or to help me. The clearing was as quiet as in the +earlier morning when I had looked over it at the Professor studying the +distant tree-top. + +"What do you see, Davy?" he asked in a hoarse voice. + +"Nothing," I answered. "They've gone away." + +"And isn't Lukens there--out there in the weeds?" + +I rubbed the smutted glass and peered through it again into every +corner of the clearing. "No," I said, "there's nothing there." + +The Professor drew back from the door and stood before me brushing his +matted hair from his face. + +"I didn't mean it, Davy," he said. "It was all a mistake. They were +going away and I was dropping the gun, and somehow I touched the +trigger and Lukens fell. They've taken him home, but they'll come +back--a hundred of them this time. Oh, Davy, Davy, help me!" + +I knew that I could not help him. My thought then was for myself, and +I did not answer, but measured the distance to the door and waited my +chance to dart to it and get away, for in him before me, driving his +long fingers through his hair and staring at me with frightened eyes, I +saw the man whom I had pictured in fear that first morning when I came +to the mountains. This was the real Professor and I was caught. + +"Oh, let me go!" I cried. + +"Why, Davy!" He gave a start of surprise. The frightened look passed +and he reached out his hands to my shoulders. I shrank back. The +scream of Byron Lukens still rang in my ears, and to me there was +something very terrible in this man who had dared to kill, this man for +whom all the valley would soon be hunting, this man who even now might +be standing in the shadow of the gallows. He saw the terror in my +face; to his eyes came that same look my dog would give me when I +struck him. + +"Why, Davy," he said, holding out two trembling hands. "Boy, I thought +you were my only friend." + +This was the cry of a man worse hurt than Byron Lukens, and in a rush +of boyish pity for him I forgot my dread and running to him threw my +arms about him, hugged him as I should have hugged my dog in a mute +appeal for pardon. So we three stood there in silence, the Professor, +Penelope, and I, with arms intertwined and our heads close together. +Then after a moment he raised himself and shook us off gently. + +"I've been a fool, Davy," he said, speaking quietly. "I've been an +idle, worthless fool and now I must pay for it. Soon they'll be coming +for me and I must run. But I'll come back; I'll make it all up--some +day Penelope will be proud of me. Until then, Davy, my friend, you'll +take care of Penelope, won't you--till I come back?" + +Hearing this, Penelope dragged his face down to hers imploring him to +take her with him. He kissed her. Then he lifted her high in his arms +as though in play and held her off that she might see how gayly he was +smiling and take heart from it. + +"I don't know where I am going, child," he said, "but I am coming back +for you very soon, and you will see what a man your father really is. +I haven't been fair to you, Penelope--but wait--wait till I come back. +And Davy will take care of you--won't you, Davy?" + +"Yes, sir," I said boldly. + +What else could a boy have said in such a case, when every passing +moment meant danger to his friend? I had no thought of the full +meaning of my promise, for I did not look beyond that day, and that day +my goal was home. Home there was safety for me and for Penelope as +well. Home all perplexing problems solved themselves. Home was a +place of great peace, and my father and mother benign genii who lived +only to make others happy. It was easy to lead Penelope home, and I +was sure that if I told my father and mother of my promise to take care +of her, they would make the way easy for me. So when the Professor had +kissed the child and lowered her to the floor, I put out my hand and +took hers in a self-reliant grasp. + +The Professor picked up the fallen rifle and put it away in its corner; +he pushed the kettle to the back of the stove; he seemed to be tidying +up the house. He blew the dust from his hat and crushed it down on his +head. Then standing in the open doorway, he surveyed the room +critically as if to make sure that all was in order before he strolled +down to the village. + +"Good-by, Penelope," he said in a quiet voice. "Stay with Davy till I +come back--I'll come back soon." + +For a moment Penelope believed him. "Good-by, father," she called as +he turned and walked away. + +He had passed the door. Hearing her voice, he gave a start, then broke +into a run. He ran as never I had seen a man run. He was not alone a +man in flight. Every limb was filled with fear and moving for its +life. Even his hat and coat were sensate things, struggling madly to +get away to a safe refuge. Seeing him flying thus across the clearing +toward the mountains, Penelope broke from me with a cry, but I caught +her and held her in my arms. She called to him wildly, yet he did not +turn, and in a moment had plunged into the bush. + +Long after he had gone we two stood in the cabin door searching the +silent wall of green for some sign of him. None was given. The shadow +of the ridge crept away as the sun climbed higher and the clearing was +bathed in its brightness. A crow called pleasantly from a tall pine. +The birds, back from their hiding, sang as though on such a day there +could be no trouble. + +I felt the blue ribbon brush my cheek, and two small bare arms about my +neck. + +I turned to Penelope and said: "Don't cry, little 'un. I'll take care +of you." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +To Nathan, the white mule, I owed it that I was able to take good care +of Penelope Blight in the first hours of my guardianship. But for him +I should have brought her face to face with the mob that rode out of +Malcolmville to storm the clearing. I knew but one road home from the +gut, and that was the way James had brought me fishing. Had we +followed it, we should have hardly crossed the ridge before we met the +van of an ill-organized but determined army, and then to her grief +terror must have been added by the wagons filled with men armed as +though they were going into battle. The obstinate temperament of the +mule served us a good turn. When Penelope and I led him from the barn +and climbed to his back, he must have supposed that we were going to +the store and should leave him tied for hours in the hot sun, switching +flies, while we sat comfortably in the shade of the porch discussing +the universe's affairs. Believing this, he protested, stopping in the +middle of the clearing to enjoy a few tidbits of sprouting corn. +Discovering that the small boy on his back lacked his master's strength +and courage, he decided to go on, but as he chose. He chose first a +trot. To Penelope and me it seemed a mad gallop, and I clung +desperately to his scanty mane while she clutched my waist and pleaded +with me to halt him and let her down. In this eternity of +suffering--ten minutes really--her greater grief was forgotten, and she +was spared the pang of a last look at her deserted home, for when +Nathan decided to walk she turned her head to see only a long archway +of trees ending in a green wall. + +"Davy," she cried, "please let me get off!" + +Now I wanted to get off myself, but I suspected her desire to run back +to the clearing, and my over-powering thought was to carry her away +from that forbidding place. I had promised the Professor to take care +of the girl, and responsibility had added years to my age and inches to +my stature. I was no longer a shivering, frightened boy clinging to +her hand, and, though I was not the master of the mule, while we stayed +on his back I was Penelope's master, and that was what I had determined +to be. + +"Don't be afraid, little 'un," I returned boldly, when I had recovered +my breath and balance. "I can handle him all right." + +To make good my boast, I even dared to kick Nathan, fearing lest a +pause in our journey might allow her to slip from his back. + +"I want to find father--to go with him," she pleaded. It was the +hundredth time she had told me that. + +"He said you were to come with me, Penelope," I argued. "And he told +me particular that he wouldn't be home till a week from Monday." + +This last was a little fiction of mine, which seemed warranted by the +circumstances, and had Penelope pressed me and asked me when her father +had made such a definite statement I was ready to go to any extent with +like imaginings if only I could keep her with me. She did not, and her +cheerier tone quieted my conscience. + +"Is he?" she cried. "Do you really think he will come home, Davy?" + +"Didn't he tell me so?" I returned haughtily. "And besides, what would +he stay away any longer for?" + +Still Penelope was inclined to doubt. She knew that the morning's +strange events had brought her father into great trouble, and she could +not believe that a vain search for him would satisfy his enemies. Two +weeks, she thought, would suffice to wear them out, but two weeks in +her small mind was an eternity when it was to be faced without him. + +"Oh, Davy, I wish he hadn't done it," she cried. "If he hadn't shot +Mr. Lukens, then he wouldn't have to run away, would he?" + +"That was just a mistake," I replied, as though shooting constables +were quite a favorite sport where I lived. "He told me particular he +didn't mean it, but having done it, and they not understanding that he +didn't mean it, he kind of had to get out till things blowed over." + +"Didn't he do wrong to shoot Mr. Lukens?" + +"Wrong?" My tone expressed the greatest astonishment at such an idea. +"Why, Penelope, if I was him I'd have done exactly the same +thing--exactly." + +My approval of her father's act was a great consolation to her. The +pressure of her encircling arms made me gasp, and there was a note of +gratitude in her voice. "Oh, Davy, I know you would; you are so brave." + +"And I'll take care of you, Penelope," I said, quite as though I +seconded her approval of my courage and had forgotten that there were +such things as rattlesnakes. "As long as you are with me you needn't +be afraid of anything." + +Nathan's pace was quieter and steadier, and being secure on his back I +felt capable of any heroism. We had passed the worst part of the road. +It was broader, the trees parted overhead, letting in the sunshine, and +danger never seems so near when one moves in the bright day; so my +heart grew lighter, and, had I known the words of any rollicking song, +I should have sung, like James, but lacking these I had recourse to +whistling. Nerves which had been set on edge by the rifle's report, +the fumes of smoke, the cries of pain and fright, were quieted first by +long-drawn, melancholy notes, and then I swung into a bold trilling, +more suited to my adventurous spirit, throwing back my head, extending +my lips heavenward, addressing my melody to the sky. Pausing, +exhausted, I expected to hear from behind me some expression of +astonishment and pleasure at my birdlike song. Instead there was only +a muffled sobbing. + +"Little 'un," I said in a chiding voice, "you hadn't otter cry when I'm +taking care of you. There's nothing to be afraid of. Why, we're going +home." + +Oh, wise Nathan! Then I thought him obstinate and contradictory. +Halting, he planted his feet as though no power on earth could move +him, and shot forward his long ears. Then it seemed to me that he was +trying to show how futile my boast, and in my anger I dared to kick +him. A fly would have moved him as well. His long ears trembled as he +watched the road rising to cross the ridge, and he seemed to see over +the crest and to hear noises too distant and indistinct for me. Then I +thought him obstinate; now I suspect that while the Professor had given +Penelope to my care, he must have ordered Nathan to watch over us both. +The mule looked right through that hill. He saw the threatening army +charging the other slope. He turned. The bushes opened, and we +plunged into a narrow path which skirted the base of the ridge. In +vain I tried to pull him back. In vain Penelope addressed to him her +appeals. He was fixed in his purpose neither to hear nor to obey, and +struck into a steady canter. I clung to his mane; Penelope, to me. +The earth swung around us. Solid became fluid. The path moved up and +down, and flowed beneath us like running water. Great trees broke from +their roots and ran at us, and when Nathan dodged them, they swung down +their branches to blind us with their leaves, and sometimes almost to +lift us in the air like Absalom. The memory of Absalom was very clear +in my mind, for just a week before I had seen his picture in our +Sunday-school quarterly, and now, confused in my eyes with the dancing +trees, I saw him, as I had seen him in the picture, suspended from a +limb by his long hair, quietly waiting to be taken down. There was +something more than a mere coincidence in that Sunday-school lesson. +Here was another warning neglected. With Mr. Pound and Stacy Shunk, +Miss Spinner took a place as a prophetess. She had taught me that boys +who mocked their respectable elders were eaten by bears, and I believed +her. She had demonstrated beyond all doubt that boys who defied their +parents and ran away from home must come to a dreadful end in the +entangling limbs of trees. With Absalom's example before me I had run +away from home, and here I was being carried through the forest on a +mad steed, and here were the trees running at me from every side, +reaching out their forked limbs to seize my hair. Penelope was +forgotten. More than once I tried to avert my impending fate by +letting go of Nathan's mane and taking my chances with his heels and +the stony path, but as I was about to close my eyes and let myself go +he rose in the air, and the distance between me and the earth seemed so +stupendous as to become the greater peril. Had the mule kept on his +wild career I might at last have gathered courage for the fall, but the +path came to an end, our pace slackened, the trees took root again; I +was conscious of Penelope's encircling arms, and raising my head saw +that we were in a broad road, and, better still, we were climbing the +hill; each step was carrying us nearer the clearest and bluest of skies +that always held over my home; I knew that from that line where ridge +and sky met, I should look down and see home itself. + +We reached the top of the ridge, and the valley lay beneath us. It was +young and cheerful in its fresh green, with here a brown checkering of +fallow, and there a white barn glistening in the sun, and orchards in +the full glory of their blossom. Below us a stone mill grumbled over +its unending task, and from the meadows came the blithe call of the +killdee. It was all home to me from the fringing pines on the +ridge-top, across the land to the mountains by the river, for on such a +threshold one casts off fear. Danger might lurk about us in the +shadows of the woods, but never out there in the broad day under the +kindly eye of God. Nathan might gallop through tangled brush, but here +even his mood changed and he walked sedately. Even the strange road +was friendly to me, for it led into a friendly land. It descended the +ridge, passed the mill, rose again over a hill; there at the crest I +lost it, but only for a moment while it crossed the hollow and came +into view on the easy slope beyond, going straight into the valley's +heart and beckoning me on. + +"It's all right now, Penelope," I cried, and I pointed to the two +steeples of Malcolmville, and then led her eyes to the right to a long +stone house, almost hidden in a clump of giant oaks. I could find it +by our barn, for our barn would dominate any land. In the distance it +seemed a mighty marble pile, lifting its white walls into the blue, and +then ambitiously reaching higher with red-tipped cupolas. The +Colosseum to-day is not half so large as our barn when placed in memory +beside it. So there was pride in my voice as I spoke. + +"Yon's our home, little 'un, and yon's our barn, and just the other +side is the meadow and the creek where I'll take you fishing." + +The splendid promise of fishing had little effect on Penelope's +spirits. Such a prospect as I offered, such a home, a Babylonian +palace beside the cabin in the clearing, with the added joys of the +meadow and the creek, should have compensated in part, at least, for +the temporary loss of her father, and I was much surprised that she +gave no sign of pleasure. She made no answer even, and I had no +evidence of her nearness to me but the two brown hands clasped before +me and the brush of the ribbon against my neck. So we rode on in +silence, save when I whistled, and I did not whistle very much, for my +thoughts were too busy with the morning's adventure and forecasting the +days to come. My mind was wonderfully clear about the future; the way +seemed very easy. Thereafter I should listen to warnings. I had +brought myself to unpleasant passes by a reckless disregard of +warnings, and now if Mr. Pound told me to beware, or Stacy Shunk to +look out, or Miss Spinner to remember Absalom, I should heed their +admonitions, yet those unpleasant passes became in retrospect +delightful adventures, and I congratulated myself that I was coming +through them with so much credit. That I was conducting myself with +credit, I had no doubt. My father could not have accepted the +Professor's charge more confidently than I, nor could he have used more +adroitness in persuading Penelope to leave the clearing. So I was sure +of commendation when I brought her home. Home was such a bountiful +place. My mother had impressed that on me very often. She had laid +emphasis on my obligation to share my riches with others--generally +when I had to carry heavy baskets down to the parsonage. To-day I was +mindful of that injunction, and to take care of Penelope was a pleasant +task, since for the present it meant simply to share with her from an +inexhaustible store. Considering the future, I wandered into hazy and +very muddled dreams. Did the Professor never return, I was quite +willing to keep my promise and to care for his daughter always. This +did not mean that I was contemplating matrimony at some remote time. +Matrimony, to my youthful observation, was a prosaic state. It did not +seem to me that my father and mother led an interesting life. If they +were happy in it, then it was in a very strange way, for they only knew +a dull routine of work and worry. Sometimes they laughed, and when +they did it was hard to discover the sources of their mirth. How my +father could find pleasure in Mr. Pound's sermons was a mystery, and +when my mother declared that the meeting of the Ladies' Aid had been +most enjoyable I was sure that she was pretending. No; the future held +something better for me than such dull days. Somehow, somewhere, when +I became a man I should live days like this day, I should live as now I +rode, with every sense keyed to the joy of living, and Penelope's arms +would encircle me and the blue ribbon would gently brush my neck. + +These pleasant dreams were disturbed by realities. I had come to one +of those dreadful moments when danger rises like an appalling cloud, +through which we can see no gleam of light beyond. This cloud, "at +first no larger than a man's hand," arose from a fence in the person of +Piney Savercool. I saw him with pleasure, for I knew that I was coming +to familiar roads, and then he was such a very small boy that I had not +that sense of humiliation which I must have felt had one of my own age +seen me riding with a girl. + +"Morning, Piney," I said grandly. + +For an answer Piney simply opened his mouth very wide, and his eyes +started from his head. + +My effect upon him was very pleasing to me, and I ventured still more +grandly: "Pleasant day, Piney." + +Then he found his voice, "Ma-ma--come quick!" he shrieked. "Davy +Malcolm's runnin' away with a lady!" + +This announcement brought Mrs. Savercool from the house, and in a few +bounds she was before us, checking our further advance with a +wide-spread apron. + +"Dav-id Malcolm," she cried, "the idea of you lettin' such a little 'un +as her set on such a dangerous animal. Stop! Get down, I say, both on +you!" + +I could not break through that apron, and my heart sank, for, instead +of riding grandly home and presenting Penelope to my parents with a +proper speech, we were threatened with an ignominious journey in the +Savercool buggy. With Mrs. Savercool's charge that we were foolish +children, and that she could never forgive herself if she did not stop +our wild career at once, years dropped from my age and inches from my +stature, and I was at the point of obeying her meekly. But Nathan took +offence at her tone. He bolted. Just what happened I could not see, +for I had to take myself to his mane again, and he held his terrific +pace until we reached the pike, and along the pike to the fork where +the road branched off to our farm. When he paused here it was to +consider whether he would go on toward Malcolmville or into the quiet, +shaded lane. He must have recalled the hitching-rail, the sun, and the +flies, and preferred to risk even a road that he did not know, for on +he went--quietly. + +We crossed the little knoll and the house came into view. The cry of +exultation which rose to my lips was checked when I saw, stretching +from the gate down the road, a long line of vehicles. The first held +the hitching-post. The others took to the fence--buggies, buckboards, +phaetons, single horses, and teams, an ominous picture. Not since my +grandfather's funeral had I seen quite such a sight before our house, +and my heart sank. Could death have come in my absence? On second +thought I remembered how brief that absence had been, measured in +hours, and I sought another reason for the gathering. I began at the +last vehicle and carried my eye along the line, to find that I knew +them all. There was Doctor Pearl's buckboard, with his mustang eating +a fence post; Squire Crumple's gray mare in his narrow courting buggy; +old Mr. Smiley's ponderous black with his comfortable phaeton, speaking +the presence of Mr. Pound and Mrs. Pound, who used it as their own; the +Buckwalters' rockaway and the Rickabachs' spring-wagon. Even Miss +Agnes Spinner's bicycle had a fence panel all to itself, as though it +were very skittish and likely to kick and set the whole road in +commotion. To my own unimportant self I never attributed this assembly +of all the great folk of the valley. There was some more potent +reason. As I pondered, hunting for it, we came to the lane. Until I +found that reason it seemed wise for me to turn there, and under the +cover of the orchard to reach the hiding of the barn, where I could +leave Penelope while I scouted and had a peep through the keyhole of +the back door. But Nathan saved me from such an ignominious return. +He kept right on. My efforts to stop him only made him trot, and in a +moment we were at the gate. He seemed to like the house and the shade +of the oaks, for he halted, let himself down on three legs complacently +and began to switch at flies. And I, with nothing left to do, was +measuring the distance to a safe landing when I heard a cry from the +door. + +"Davy! Davy!" I saw my mother running down the path with her arms +outstretched, and after her came a great company. + +"Davy--Davy, dear--we thought you had been drowned!" she cried. + +Here, then, was the reason for this great gathering. What a commotion +for so small a reason--as though a boy's chief end were to tumble into +the water, as though he never were to be trusted out of his mother's +sight? I dropped the reins; my eyes and my mouth opened wide with +astonishment. + +"Your father's dragging the mill-dam for you this very minute." She +was at the gate. "Where--where have you been?" + +She did not let me answer. She lifted her hands and caught me in her +embrace, and Penelope's arms were clutching me about the neck as she +was swung with me from Nathan's back. + +My mother was crying, from gladness I took it, for there certainly was +joy in her eyes when she held me off and looked down at me. Then came +astonishment, and she lowered her spectacles from the top of her head +to make sure that she saw aright. + +"But who--who is this?" she said. + +For answer I took Penelope's hand and faced the whole company; faced +Mr. Pound and the squire, old Mr. Smiley and Miss Spinner, Mrs. Pound, +and a score of others of the great folk of the valley. I faced them +with defiance in my eyes, for were not they the authors of the +Professor's troubles and was I not his only friend? + +"It's Penelope Blight," I said, "and I promised the Professor to take +care of her." + +"What?" cried Mr. Pound. "The Professor's daughter--the man who almost +killed Constable Lukens? Dav-id!" + +"Yes, sir," I said. Penelope's hand was tightening in mine, and I +glanced to my side, to see her standing very straight, and the blue +ribbon was tilted as proudly as on that morning when we met by the +mountain brook. + +"Dav-id!" cried my mother. + +"Yes, sir," I said, looking right at Mr. Pound. "I promised the +Professor that I would take care of her--always." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +It was well for me that in my hours of absence fear had brought my +parents to a just estimate of my character and to a truer appreciation of +my essentiality to their happiness. My mother had long been haunted by a +conviction that I should meet an early death by drowning or an accidental +gunshot, and this very morning she had awakened from a dream in which she +saw her only child floating on the murky waters of the mill-dam. Rushing +to my room and finding me gone, she had had her worst fears confirmed, +and at the moment of my reappearance Mr. Pound was endeavoring to console +her for her loss and to bring her to a state of Christian resignation. +So all was forgotten in the joy of my unexpected return, and though in +the eyes of the minister, Miss Spinner, and the others I was just a small +black sheep about whose absence an unnecessary pother had been raised, +there was only rejoicing in the home fold. Even my father did not +humiliate me with forgiveness, but took me in his arms silently and held +me there, as he might have held me had he just rescued me from the depths +of the mill-dam. To follow such a greeting with chastisement, however +well merited, was quite out of the question. In the seclusion of my own +room I did meet with gentle chiding for the anguish I had caused, but my +mother remembered her dream, and my father his hours of futile searching, +and I knew that the hands which pressed mine would not be raised against +me in harsh reproof. Below us, I was sure, ears were strained to hear +some real evidence that I was receiving my deserts, for there was a +silence there like that outside of the prison wall when the crowd waits +for the doleful tidings tolled by the prison bell. Perhaps the listeners +were disappointed. I remember that Mr. Pound looked rather nonplussed as +he saw us coming down-stairs, my father leading the way, smiling gravely, +my mother following, clutching my hand as though she would never release +it. + +I had told them everything then. The story I had tried in vain to tell +them at dinner on the previous day was now listened to with eagerness, +and my father, knowing the truth of James's fall from grace, was +outspoken in his declaration that an injustice had been done the +Professor. In a solemn conference in the parlor, with Mr. Pound and the +squire, Doctor Pearl, Mr. Smiley, and all the other important men of the +neighborhood, he decried the attack on Henderson Blight as an outrage; he +found solace alone in the fact that the constable had been more +frightened than hurt, for it seemed that the bullet had only clipped the +flesh of his leg; he took upon himself all the blame for the affair, on +the ground that he, at least, should have known better. Squire Crumple +heartily agreed with my father, and pointed out that on his part he had +only allowed the warrant to issue under protest; henceforth he would rely +on his own judgment and would not interpret the law to suit the whims of +his friends. Mr. Pound was contrite, but he took comfort in the thought +that they had acted for the best in the light of their knowledge of the +circumstances, but now, knowing the facts, he advised that the whole +matter be allowed to simmer down quietly. He still took issue with his +respected friend the squire on the illegality of the means used to rid +the community of a most undesirable member. The squire replied with +heat, referring to the case of The Commonwealth _versus_ Hodgins, and the +subsequent action of Hodgins _versus_ The Commonwealth for damages. It +was very evident that he would be relieved in mind if the case of The +Commonwealth _versus_ Blight did simmer down. But there was one obstacle +to this programme of forgetting. It was not the constable. Lukens could +be quieted easily. It was Penelope. Even the gentlest ministrations of +Miss Spinner had failed to bring the small girl to a realization of the +happy change in her lot. Even Mr. Pound was touched by her grief and so +troubled that he offered amends in a home under the parsonage roof. He +realized now that the reason he had never been blessed with a child of +his own was that when the time came there might be a place at his board +and a nook in his heart for this abandoned little girl. On the strength +of her husband's offer Mrs. Pound was claiming Penelope as her own, and +very soon was complaining that she had a most troublesome child to deal +with. Penelope had divined that Mr. Pound was her father's arch-enemy, +and she met his most benign approach with her head tilted defiantly and +her eyes flashing, so that now, in a quandary, he asked: "What shall we +do with the child?" + +The question was a sign that he surrendered her. He had shown an honest +desire to take her under his roof, and no one could say that if he had +fired the train which had wrecked her home, he was not willing to make +atonement. + +"What shall we do with the child?" my father repeated. He rose to show +that the conference was ended and the question settled. "David has +already answered that," he said, laying a hand upon my shoulder. "My boy +promised Henderson Blight to take care of her until he returned. They +have settled it among themselves, and I shall do nothing to interfere +with them." + +He spoke so firmly that no one dared to remonstrate, and so it came that +I kept my promise to the Professor as far as it was in my power. He must +have said himself that Penelope had a home better than any he could have +given her. She had a mother's care--a care so loving that I should have +grown jealous had I not found a certain compensation in the fact that the +watchfulness over me relaxed and I was less hampered in my comings and +goings. Before a month had passed my mother was confessing a dread that +the Professor might return and claim the child; she was pleading with my +father to abandon what she called a useless and an expensive search. +Chance had left the door open, and chance had brought me into the hall, +so I stopped and stood as silently as I could that I might not disturb +their conference. I was frightened by the sternness in my father's +voice. He spoke of his duty. To him duty summed up life. He had his +duty, even in the matter of so worthless a creature as this Henderson +Blight. Declaring this, he stamped the floor in emphasis. + +Often in the weeks that followed, when Penelope and I roamed over the +fields, when her merriment rang out the highest, and her laughter was so +free that it seemed she was forgetting the clearing and the days when her +sole companion was the gaunt and bitter-tongued Professor--often then I +would hear again the stamp of my father's foot and his stern avowal, and +to me it was as though he were conspiring against me in seeking to send +away the only comrade I had ever known, and would leave me to pass my +days in the wake of James. I abhorred James now. I had come to know the +pleasure of real companionship, and looked back to the old days wondering +how I had endured them, and with dread to those that seemed to lie ahead. +Penelope was a girl, to be sure, but she was not like the insipid +creatures of the village who were held in such contempt by boys of my +age. Where I dared to go she followed. Did I climb to the highest +girder in the barn and balance myself on the dizzy height, she was with +me. Did I venture to run the wildest rapids of the creek in the clumsy +box which I called my canoe, she trusted her newest frock and ribbons to +my seamanship. And better than all was the respect and admiration in +which she held me. To her I was no longer the frightened, shivering boy +of the mountain brook. I was in a land I knew and followed its familiar +ways without fear. One day she saw me tumble from the bridge into the +deep swimming-hole, and while she cried out in fright I swam nonchalantly +ashore, a full dozen strokes, and as I dried myself in the sun I reproved +her for her little faith in me. On another I presented her to old Jerry +Schimmel, sitting, a brown, dishevelled heap on his cobbler's bench, and +from my accustomed seat by his stove, in a voice cast into the echoing +hollows of my chest, I commanded him to tell us how he had fought in the +battle of Gettysburg. From my familiarity with the stirring incidents of +the fight as Jerry described them, Penelope thought that I must have had +a part in it too, and my modest disclaimer hardly convinced her that I +had not been a companion-in-arms of this battle-worn veteran. + +What days those were! Even the fear that my father would find the +missing Professor grew less. They drifted into weeks, and weeks into +months, and there was no sign of the fugitive. I found myself looking +into the future as though in the quiet evening I were turning my eyes +over the valley to the west and the golden clouds hovering there. I +dealt only with results. I crossed mountains without climbing them, and +always Penelope shared my glory with me. I look back now smiling at that +boyish self-reliance. Mountains have been crossed, but with what +heart-breaking struggles? Battles have been won, but with what a toll of +suffering? + +As I recall the day when I first came face to face with real trouble, +with a trouble that leaves in the heart a never-healing wound, it was the +brightest of all that summer. It was one of those days when there was +not the filmiest cloud to veil the sun; you could see the ether +shimmering over the land, and the fields of yellow grain looked like +lakes of molten metal. Shaded by our wide straw hats, Penelope and I had +no thought of the tropic heat. We were engrossed in the reaper as it cut +its way through the wheat; we followed it, counting the sheaves as they +dropped with mechanical precision; we stepped along untiringly in its +wake, as though the rough stubble were the smoothest of paths, and the +clatter of the machine the sweetest of music. Above the raucous clacking +I heard my mother calling, and, suspecting some needless injunction not +to get overheated, I pretended not to hear and looked the other way. But +she was insistent. When we had rounded the field again, she crossed the +road to the fence; the reaper stopped, and on a day so still that a dog's +bark carried a mile there was no escape from her uplifted voice. +Reluctantly Penelope and I abandoned our enchanting travel and obeyed the +summons. + +"Penelope," my mother said, taking the girl by the hand, "come into the +house. Your uncle is here." + +Penelope stopped and looked up into my mother's face, and there was +wonder in her eyes. She had forgotten her uncle, so rarely had she heard +her father speak of him, and I was quicker than she to grasp the meaning +of his coming, for I remembered that Rufus, who never had had a real +idea, who made his first success by giving away a prize with every pound +of tea. I believed that he had come to take Penelope from me, and with +every step I saw my fears confirmed. + +"Your Uncle Rufus," my mother said, and she closed her lips very tightly +as she walked on. + +The parlor shades were up--an ominous sign, for the parlor would only be +opened to a person of importance. Had the Professor visited us, the +humbler sitting-room would have been quite good enough to receive him in, +and it seemed a strange commentary on his harsh judgment that his brother +should be ushered into the stately chamber where the very air grew old in +dignified seclusion. Still more forcibly was this idea impressed on my +mind when I stood at the door and saw my father sitting very erect, on a +most uncomfortable chair, listening respectfully to the stranger's rapid +words. + +Rufus Blight spoke in a loud voice; he lolled in the big walnut rocker, +with his arm stretched across the centre table, to the peril of my +mother's precious Swiss chalet and the glass dome which protected it; on +the family Bible his fingers were beating a tattoo as carelessly as they +might have done on the counter of his general store. There was nothing +in his appearance to suggest kin to the lean and cadaverous Professor. +The Professor always seemed to move with effort, but his brother was +alive all over. Though short and fat, he had none of the placidity which +we associate with corpulence. As he talked his hands moved restlessly; +his bristling red mustache accentuated the play of his lips; his heavy +gold watch-chain moved up and down with his breathing; even his hair was +alert. + +"He is a remarkable man--I might say, a very remarkable man," were the +words that came to us as we entered the hall. "Of course, you couldn't +understand him--few could. He had to go his own way and would take help +from no one, not even his brother. Upon my word, Judge----" + +Our entrance checked him. He rose, and with arms akimbo stood gazing +down at Penelope. She, clinging to my mother, her cheek pressed against +her as she half turned from him, looked up at him, abashed and wondering, +for to her small mind there was in this stranger something awe-inspiring. +The sleek man in spotless, creaseless clothes, with polished boots and +close-shaved, powdered, barbered face, was so different from her unkempt +father that she could hardly believe him kin. Baal would have seemed as +near to her, and had the idol stretched out his arms to take her into his +destroying embrace, she could hardly have been more frightened than when +she saw Mr. Blight's fat hands reaching toward her. Mr. Blight smiled, +and well he might, for this slip of a girl gazing up at him was of his +own blood, and all that was good in that blood found expression in her +sweetness. He had come prepared to see a slattern, ill-fed, unkempt, the +true daughter of shiftless parents and a wretched mountain home; he had +found a graceful little body, and he wanted to take her into his +possession at once. + +"Penelope," he exclaimed, "don't you know your Uncle Rufus?" + +There was no particular reason why Penelope should know her Uncle Rufus. +She could have submitted herself as easily to the embrace of any +well-dressed, smiling stranger, and she shrank back, but my mother pushed +her forward within reach of the restless hands. + +"It's your dear uncle, child," she said soothingly. "He has come to take +you to a nice home." + +"And he is going to bring you up," my father added in a wonderfully +cheerful voice, born either from his own escape from responsibility or +her brightened prospects. "He is going to give you everything." + +Penelope was on the verge of tears, but she held them back. "I don't +want everything," she said, as she strove to check her forced advance by +planting her feet firmly and leaning back against my mother. "I just +want to stay here till father comes." + +"But your father will come to us--of course, he will come to us, +Penelope," Mr. Blight cried. His hands closed on hers, he hooked an arm +about her and held her very cautiously, as though he were as afraid of +her as she of him. "You mustn't be frightened, my dear," he went on, +and, soothed by his kindly tones, she leaned against his knee. "That's +better, child." Encouraged by her half-yielding attitude, he stroked her +hair. To me, watching them from the hiding of my mother's skirt, she had +fallen into a magician's clutches and was being lulled by soft words into +an indifference to danger. + +"I'm your father's brother, child," he pursued, in his insinuating tone. +"Next to him I'm nearer to you than any one else, and to me there is no +one as near as he. We will try to find him together--you and I, eh? And +we'll all live together in Pittsburgh. You'll like Pittsburgh--it's a +very lively, pushing town." + +"But I want to stay here with Davy," said Penelope in a low voice. + +"With Davy?" Mr. Blight stared at her in surprise. Then he began to +laugh as though he were contrasting all he could give her with Davy's +humble powers. "Child--child--you don't realize what you are refusing. +You don't realize what your Uncle Rufus is going to do for you. I've no +one to look after--you will be the joy of a poor old bachelor's heart, +won't you, now?" + +He spoke as though being a poor old bachelor was quite the pleasantest +possible condition, yet he rolled out the phrase twice as if to touch +Penelope's heart. Remembering the only other bachelor I had ever seen, I +stared at him in wonder. This other was Philip Spangler, who sat all day +in the store gazing vacantly at the stove. Once I asked Stacy Shunk why +he stayed there, and Stacy, lifting a warning finger, whispered: "He's +jest a bachelor, Davy, an old, old bachelor." Contrasting him with Mr. +Blight, I was puzzled. If it was a terrible thing to be an old bachelor, +certainly he accepted the condition lightly; he was trying to arouse +sympathy when it was plain that he did not need or deserve it, for +evidently he was quite well satisfied with a single state, however +deplorable it might come to be. Penelope was being enmeshed by unfair +means, and it was hard to keep still, but there was nothing that I could +do. + +Now my father lifted his chin clear of the high points of his collar. +"Penelope," he began, "you are fortunate--very fortunate--in having such +an uncle. Mr. Blight is a prominent man, and I might say"--glancing +apologetically at the guest--"a rich man." Then, meeting no +contradiction, he added--"a very rich man, who can give you such +advantages as would be far beyond my means, even were you my daughter." + +"I don't want advantages," said Penelope, hardly above a whisper, and for +want of a better resting-place she dropped her head on her uncle's +shoulder and burst into tears. + +"There--there--there--" cried Mr. Blight, patting her clumsily on the +back. Had she been a full-grown woman, he could hardly have been more +embarrassed, yet he was pleased that she clung to him thus, for he was +smiling. "I'll not give you any advantages you don't want--I promise +you. I just wish to make you happy. What's the use of my working all my +life, piling up money, capturing the steel trade, adding mills and mills +to my plants, if I have no one to look after. There--there--there--now, +child, don't cry. Won't you come with your poor, lonely, old uncle?" + +Even to my prejudiced mind, he was playing his part well, for this +awkward kindness touched Penelope at last. She did not reply, nor did +she demur, but she clung closer to him in silence. I saw my danger and +hers, and ran to him and grasped his knees. + +"Oh, Mr. Blight, don't take her away!" I cried. "I promised the +Professor I'd look after her. I promised----" + +"Dav-id!" exclaimed my father, and he grasped my arm and began to draw me +away. + +My fear of him even could not restrain me, and I resisted, digging my +fingers into the knees, clutching the folds of the trousers where Mr. +Blight had so carefully arranged them to prevent them bagging. He +intervened, as much, I think, to save his immaculate clothes as me from +being torn asunder. + +"Dav-id!" cried my father. + +"Mr. Blight--Mr. Blight--don't take her away!" I pleaded. + +Mr. Blight began to laugh. "Judge--Judge--release him," he said, and +freeing me from the paternal grasp, he drew me toward him. When he had +ironed out the wrinkled knees with his hand, he patted me on the head. +"You are a good boy, David," he went on, "and I understand exactly how +you feel. What you have done for Penelope will never be forgotten, will +it, my little girl?" The emphasis on the last phrase of possession +extinguished the spark of hope in me, and had he stopped there I should +have surrendered feebly, but turning to my father, he added: "You have a +fine boy, Judge, and I like him. When I get home I shall send him a gun. +What kind of a gun do you want, David?" + +Young as I was then, I had not yet learned to value the good things of +life in terms of dollars, and to the power of the dollar my eyes were +just being opened. This man wielded it. He was enticing Penelope behind +the barrier of his fat, oily prosperity where I could not reach her. +Holding her there, he was magnanimously compensating me with a gun, as +though we were making a trade in which the profit were mine, as though he +were valuing her in money. My dislike, born of the Professor's +contemptuous reference to him, had turned to distrust and aversion as I +watched him weaving his toils about Penelope. Now I hated him and drew +back from him as though his touch were baneful; I stamped a foot and +shook a fist and shouted: "I don't want your old gun; Penelope doesn't +want your money. You have no right----" + +My father's arms were about me. He lifted me from my feet and carried me +to the door, and as I struggled blindly to free myself and return to the +attack I looked back at Rufus Blight. It was not to see him sinking +under the shame of my anathema. Signs of anger in him would have +incensed me far less than his lofty unconcern. He even interceded for +me, but this only proved how secure was his victory, and that to his view +what fell to me was of little moment. + +"Don't be hard on Davy, Judge," he said, interrupting my father's +apologies for my rudeness. "He's just a boy. I don't know but what, if +I were in his place, I should do exactly the same thing--feel exactly the +same way." + +This was small consolation to me, for Penelope's head was buried in his +shoulder; her face was hidden by her tousled hair, but I could hear her +sobbing: "Uncle--uncle--let me stay with Davy." + +In the plea alone she acknowledged her kin to him and surrendered. He +could well afford to be generous. By every law of custom I had merited +severe punishment at my father's hands, and that his hands were stayed by +Mr. Blight's intercession was but another evidence of his power. When my +father reasoned with me kindly, instead of whipping me, I yielded, not to +his sophistry but to that masterful influence before which even he seemed +to bend. I realized the hopelessness of my cause, and found myself +facing Mr. Blight again, an humble suppliant for his pardon. Humbly I +asked him if I might not soon see Penelope again, and she joined in my +petition. Humbly I asked that some day he would bring her back to the +valley, and she seconded my prayer, standing at my side, clasping my hand +and looking up at her uncle from tearful eyes. He promised everything. +He took my hand and hers, and for the moment it seemed that this little +circle was my real family, and that my father and mother, standing over +us, were hardly more than law-given preceptors. Before our guest's +expanding smile and the magic of his tongue the clouds fled. Those which +hung heaviest he brushed away with his restless hands. Soon, very soon, +I was to go to that bustling, pushing town of Pittsburgh and with +Penelope explore its wonders. We should ride behind the fastest pair of +trotters in the State--his trotters; we should see the greatest mills in +the country--his mills--where steel was worked like wax into a thousand +giant forms; we should take long excursions on the river in a wonderful +new boat--his boat-- Why it would make a boy of him just to have us with +him! + +Under the spell of his words an hour flew by, and then my mother led +Penelope away to make her ready for the journey. She brought her back to +us decked in a hat and frock born of many days of planning and three +trips to the county town. The humble art of Malcolmville had not been +intrusted with so important a commission as Penelope's best clothes. For +these the shops of Martinsburg, crammed with the latest fashions of +Philadelphia, had been ransacked; the smartest modiste in Martinsburg had +trimmed the hat with many yards of tulle and freighted it with pink +roses; the smartest couturiere in Martinsburg had created that wonderful +blue chintz frock, with ribbons woven through mazes of flounces; the last +touch was my mother's--the plait of hair, done so masterfully that even +the weight of the great blue bow could not bend it. + +I looked at Penelope in awe. She was no longer the little girl whom I +had met by the mountain stream. I was still an uncouth boy, with face +smudged with the dust of the fields and hands blackened in play. Yet she +did not see the wide gulf which separated us, and, forgetting the hat, +the frock, the chaff that clung to my matted hair and the grime of my +shirt, she ran to me, threw her arms about my neck and cried: +"Davy--Davy--I don't want to go!" + +I knew that she had to go, and though the tears seemed to burst up in a +great flood from my heart, I would not show them in my eyes. Tears are +unmanly--unboyly rather--and I fought them back, but for them I could not +speak. My father took Penelope from me. He lifted her in his arms and +carried her out of the house and down the path to the gate, where the +carriage was waiting. He placed her on the seat; he straightened out her +rumpled frock, and even crossed her hands upon her lap, as though she +were quite incapable of doing anything for herself. Then he kissed her. +It was the first time I had ever seen him kiss her. When he spoke it was +to say good-by to Rufus Blight, who was in his seat, pulling on a pair of +yellow gloves. + +"We shall all meet again, very soon," said Mr. Blight omnipotently, as +though Fate were a henchman of his. "You must all come to Pittsburgh to +see us. It's a lively, pushing town, and you'll enjoy it." Leaning from +the carriage and holding out his hand to me, he added: "And you, +Davy--you will come very, very soon." + +I believed him. But the dream that he had conjured for us of the days to +come, of his lively, pushing town, the fastest trotters, the wonderful +boat, were shattered by contact with the harsh fact of this parting. + +I looked past him at Penelope, sitting very straight, with her hands in +her lap as my father had placed them. There was a giant frog in my +throat, but I conquered it as I had conquered my tears, and speaking very +steadily, I said: "Good-by, Penelope--I'll not forget. Some day I will +take care of you." + +She did not turn. Her eyes held right ahead, but she answered bravely: +"Good-by, Davy. I'll see you soon--very soon. Remember----" + +The rest I did not hear. A medley of hoofs, harness and wheels broke in +and she was away to a new world and a new life. The brave little figure +bowed suddenly, and the roses and the tulle, the precious creation of the +Martinsburg modiste, were ruthlessly crushed against the sleek bulk of +the man who had never had a real idea. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +That the Professor, with fear at his heels and the devils of +retribution clutching at his flying coat-tails, should have plunged +into silence when the bush closed around him was not strange. Every +circumstance of his parting argued a long absence, a discreet +obliteration of self. But Penelope left the valley in prosaic fashion, +in a livery wagon, with a man as easy to find as his own bustling, +pushing town; yet the dust-clouds which closed around them as they +drove away shut them from my ken as the mountains had enclosed her +father in their most secret hiding-places. It was the fault of Rufus +Blight. He had blown beautiful bubbles to divert us in those last +hours of his visit, and bubbles bursting silently into nothingness were +not more fragile than his promises. To the true value of those +promises I awoke slowly, as the months went by and there came no hint +of their fulfilment. + +I wrote to Penelope. My letters would have made volumes were their +length commensurate with the pain of composition. Even the heart of +Rufus Blight would have been touched could he have seen me, bent over a +table, digging my teeth into my tongue and my pen into the paper as +letter by letter and word by word I constructed those messages of my +boyish love. But he knew only the finished gem, and not the labor of +its cutting. The more I sought to break the silence, the surer I +became that he, the omnipotent one, had ordained it, and I fancied him +reading my letters and destroying them, a thin smile lighting his +chubby face as he thought of the easy way in which I was being +outwitted. I went to my mother for help. She knew nothing of my +unavailing struggles, and was herself offended and heart-sick. At my +entreaty she overcame her pride and wrote to Mr. Blight inquiring as to +Penelope's welfare. In return her existence was recognized; hardly +more than that, for the great man did not trouble himself with a +personal answer. His reply was given vicariously, through one P. T. +Mallencroft, his secretary, on flawless paper, three sentences in bold +clear type and a Spencerian signature closing it. It was a bloodless +thing. It spoke the commands of omnipotence as though carved on +tablets of stone. + +Mrs. Malcolm's favor of the 10th ultimo was acknowledged; Mr. Blight +instructed Mr. Mallencroft to thank Mrs. Malcolm for the interest which +she had shown, and to assure her that Miss Penelope was quite well. + +It was perfectly polite. It was the finished bow with which Rufus +Blight was backing from our presence, never to trouble us again. I +knew this when I saw the sheet drop from my mother's limp fingers and, +sinking to a chair, she tossed her apron over her head and rocked +violently to an accompaniment of muffled sobs. + +It was clear to me that Rufus Blight was not only neglectful of our +claims, but had been so with purpose, and as I wandered aimlessly +through the fields in the wake of James, and as in the evening I sat +again with him on the barn-bridge, looking over the darkening valley, +there held one enduring thought in the chaos of my brain. Looking back +now, I see in my childish enmity toward Rufus Blight the impulse that +set me on my course. But for that I might have stayed in the valley, +dozing, as the Professor had said, like the very dogs. In Rufus Blight +I was conscious of an opposing force. He had taken Penelope from me; +he had cheated me with flattery and broken promises; and the dominating +sense in my mind was one of conflict with him. I looked to the west. +Mountains rose there, range beyond range, and beyond them, miles away, +was his bustling, pushing town. To cross them and to close with him +was my one desire, and though time dulled the edges of my purpose and +the figures of the Professor, of Penelope and of Rufus Blight grew dim +in the distance, and at last the old motive was lost beneath a host of +new impelling forces, still it was Mallencroft's letter that touched +the quick and aroused me from my canine slumber. + +The Professor's words came back to me. The mountains seemed to echo +them always. "Wake up, Davy! Do something; be somebody; get out of +the valley." Here was my shibboleth. I must do something; I must be +somebody; I must get out of the valley! And then I should go to +Penelope Blight, and a hundred urbane, unctuous uncles could not +defraud me of my right in her. + +In my father I found the first mountain on the way that I had chosen, +for to his mind my destiny was settled and to be envied. All that was +his would some day be mine--the best farm in the county, his +Pennsylvania Railroad stock, his shares in the bridge company, and his +Kansas bonds. The dear soul had arranged my course so comfortably and +in such detail that in me he would have been living his own life over +again. And what my father said, my mother echoed. Was I too proud to +follow in his footsteps? Was I, a child in years, to hold myself above +the ways of my forebears? + +Such arguments came too late to my rebellious spirit. I should no +longer have told the Professor that I was going to be like my father. +Necessity had made me more ambitious. I dreamed now of the power and +fame of a Washington, a Webster, a Grant--names which stood to me as +symbols of accomplishment. So what my parents at first brushed aside +as the idle dreaming of a boy they soon realized to be a vague but +persistent purpose which must be beaten down. They gave me a certain +dignity by descending to debate. What did I want to be? How could I +answer, who could not even name the vocations in which men won their +way to coveted heights? My mother gave me the key which opened the +world to me. + +"William," she said, addressing my father, "I do believe Davy is +thinking of being a minister and is kind of ashamed to own it." + +I caught the softening note in my mother's voice and in her eyes a +light of pride as she regarded me inquiringly. Whatever obligation lay +on me to till the ancestral acres, there was a higher duty which would +absolve it. This she had pointed out. My plans at once took a +concrete form, and though my first faltering assent might have savored +of hypocrisy, I was soon sincere in my determination. And now the +opposition crumbled and my parents found pride in a son whose heart at +the age of ten was stirred by the need of lost humanity. My father +discovered that it had been his own early ambition to be a minister; it +was as though I was to erect the edifice to which he had feared to put +his strength, and it comforted him. He delighted to lay his hand upon +my head in the presence of company and to announce that his David was +going to do the work to which he had always believed he had himself +been called. With my mother the son's gifts became a subject on which +she never tired dilating, and naturally such flattery reconciled me to +a calling far removed from all my old ambitions; but had it been +intimated to me that I might become a plumber I should have accepted +that vocation just as readily, provided that by following it I should +go out of the valley, over the mountains, to Pittsburgh and the +presence of Rufus Blight. + +Now arose Mr. Pound to help me. Here was the crowning incongruity in a +chain of incongruous events. I had never liked Mr. Pound. He had +overwhelmed me too often. His sermon was the rack on which I was +stretched for an hour every Sunday to endure untold agonies of +restlessness; his house the temple to which too often I had to carry +propitiatory offerings of vegetables and chickens. And then his +persecution of my friend the Professor still rankled in me. Yet I +found myself, of necessity, using him as the one known quantity in the +equation over which I worked. He became my model. I fancied myself +attaining a mien like his, a deep, resonant voice and a vocabulary of +marvellous words. I dressed myself in material garments like his, in +spreading folds of awe-inspiring black; I wrapped myself in his +immaterial cloak, his dignity and goodness. I faced Rufus Blight and +he quailed before a presence so imposing, and when I spoke in a voice +vibrating truth my eloquence smothered his feeble, shifty protests. +Always I asserted my right to Penelope and led her from her prison. +And always, it seemed, with that victory I cast off my Pound-like +sanctity and became as other men. With it the great task of my +ministry was accomplished, though there was a certain charm in the idea +of continuing it in the hunting fields of Africa, an appeal of romance +in a kraal, a cork hat, and the picture of Penelope and me setting +forth with a band of faithful converts to the slaughter of elephants +and lions. + +Idle dreams of boyhood! Absurd, incongruous fancies! And but for them +I might at this very moment be dozing in the valley; I might be another +distinguished Judge Malcolm, with my little court of ministers and +squires, with old Mr. Smiley as master-of-the-horse and Miss Agnes +Spinner as lady-in-waiting. Instead? I did not stay in the valley. +Aroused by the sense of antagonism to Rufus Blight, and spurred on by +the ambition to confront and defeat him, I began my struggle to cross +the mountains, and Mr. Pound became my support and guide. He never +knew the real truth behind my commendable resolution. The inspiring +thought in my mind, as he insisted on judging it, was born of his own +teaching. As my father had planned to live his life over again in me, +so Mr. Pound saw a hope of his own intellectual immortality. Were not +the evidences of grace so suddenly revealed in me the reward of his own +labors? + +When he came to the house, summoned in consultation over my future, he +placed a hand upon my head and solemnly repeated the lines of the grand +old hymn: "God works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." +There was here a gentle hint that my past had not been altogether good +or full of promise, and as Mr. Pound undoubtedly believed this, it made +more generous his conduct toward me. He was a narrow man, an egotist, +unlearned, too, save in the cruder forms of his calling, but he was +sincere. He sought to mould me to what he thought the form a man +should take, and now as I look back on the five years through which he +labored with me, I may smile at the memory of his mien, his pomposity, +his bigotry, yet I smile too with affection. He taught me without pay. +His study became my school-room, and when at times I chafed under his +vigilant tutelage and wearied in my well-doing, he steeled himself with +the remembrance that Job endured more than he without complaint. In my +sulkiness or open rebellion he found evidences to confirm his belief in +the doctrine of innate evil; he seemed to rush singing into battle with +the devil that was in me. + +Through this intimate association I became a little Mr. Pound. How +could it have been otherwise when day after day, books in hand, I +walked down to his house to recite my lesson of Latin and Greek, and +with him worked through the mysteries of algebraic calculation and +studied the strange habits of the right line? He pressed me into his +mould. Years went by. In the valley the Professor was forgotten, and +to me Penelope was but a dim figure in the past. Even the memory of +Rufus Blight ceased to awaken rancor, and I could contemplate with +growing cynicism my old-time hatred of him. Unconsciously new +ambitions stirred within me, and they were fostered by the flattery of +my elders. In that Africa of my dream-land I no longer pictured myself +in a cork helmet slaying lions, but dying at the stake, a martyr to my +duty and--must I add it?--being preached about afterward from a +thousand pulpits. + +Mr. Pound was my model of deportment, my glass of fashion. I see him +now as we used to sit, vis-a-vis, at his study table. Samson's +physical strength came from his hair. From the same source, it seemed +to me, Mr. Pound derived that mental vigor with which he pulled down +the temples of ignorance and slew the thousand devils of unorthodoxy +which sprang from my doubting mind. From the top of his head a red +lock flamed up, licking the air; over its sides the hair tumbled in +cataracts, breaking about his ears; then the surging hair lost itself +in orderly currents which flowed, waving, from his cheeks, leaving a +rift from which sprang a generous nose and a round chin with many +folds. His mouth was formed for the enunciation of large words and +pompous phrases. From it monosyllables fell like bullets from a +cannon. He seldom descended to conversation. He declaimed. He sought +to impress on me the importance of using resounding sentences which he +said would keep reverberating in the caverns of the mind. For this +effect he had a theory that words ending in "ation" and "ention" were +especially fitted. Trumpet-words, he called them, brazen notes which +penetrated the deepest crevices of the brain. I must admit that in the +practice of his theory he was wonderfully successful, for after thirty +years I can still hear his sonorous voice filling the church with the +announcement that the "Jewish congregation was a segregation for the +preservation of the Jewish nation." I can see him pausing in his +discourse to lubricate his vocal chords with a glass of ice-water, and +then drawing himself to his full height, fix his eyes on his hushed +people and cry: "What did I say the Jewish congregation was? Let me +refresh your recollection." His answer must ring to-day in the caverns +of many minds. Others of his phrases, I know, still echo in my own. +But this is because so often in my own room I practised declaiming +them, striving to enunciate them with my mentor's finish. + +Was it a wonder that I became a little Mr. Pound? I suppose, too, that +I became a veritable little cad. Conscious of my advantages in birth +and breeding, much impressed on me by my mother, I had never been +intimate with the village boys. Now I shunned them altogether. To me +they were thoughtless heathen and unprofitable company. I strove for a +time to correct their evil ways and to bring them to repentance. That +was something which I could properly do without unnecessary +association. I had for my reward only taunts. They called me "Goody" +and "Miss Malcolm," and like names contemplated to shame me from the +course which I had chosen, but in the martyrdom which they made me +suffer I only gloried, and I could have let them stone me to death and +forgiven them, provided, of course, that Mr. Pound preached about me +afterward and that my name were enrolled in the company of well-known +martyrs. Looking back, I realize that I was playing. There was a fine +excitement in being hunted in my comings and goings through the +village. It became my Africa, where any tree might hide a deadly +enemy, and any fence an ambush. I discovered secret passages through +backyards. I matched cunning against overwhelming force, and +sometimes, when the odds were not too great against me, I remembered +Joshua and another David and turned on the Philistines and smote them +right manfully. At other times the hostilities lagged, but they never +ceased entirely, and often they broke out suddenly with increased fury. +It was a mass and class war. To the butcher's son and the blacksmith's +boy and their like, the restless masses, I was indeed a bumptious +Malcolm. Conscious of the superior quality of the blood of the +McLaurins, and a little inflated with the pride of wealth, I had long +patronized them, so there was needed only my assumption of virtue to +fan the flames. But as I grew in years and knowledge, and the days of +my departure from the valley drew nearer, I relied less on my fists for +protection and more on a defensive armor of dignity. I became less a +target for missiles and more an object of jibes. These I met with +contempt, for I was going to college; I was going to McGraw University, +the alma mater of Mr. Pound, and this thought alone nerved me to step +out of the course of a flying stone with unconcern and to move down the +street with Pound-like mien. + +There never was any discussion in our family as to where I should take +my collegiate training. Had there been, Mr. Pound would speedily have +quelled it. McGraw was the one college of which I knew anything. The +little that I could learn of others was through the sporting pages of +my father's Philadelphia paper, and here the name of Mr. Pound's alma +mater was strangely missing. But he drew a real picture of it for me; +gave me a concrete conception which I could not form from records of +touch-downs and runs and three-baggers to left field. Sometimes in the +study I would rise to points of information on Harvard, Princeton, or +Yale, but I was promptly declared out of order. Mr. Pound admitted +that these universities were larger than McGraw, and acknowledged that +in some special lines of education they might be in advance of McGraw; +yet, withal, had he a son he would intrust him only to the care of +Doctor John Francis Todd. As an educator and builder of character +Doctor Todd had no equal in the country. Mr. Pound could prove this. +He pointed to his old friend Adam Silliman, who graduated at Princeton +and was to-day a struggling coal merchant in Pleasantville, and drank. +With him he contrasted Sylvester Bradley, who got his degree at McGraw +in exactly the same year, '73, and had been three times moderator of +the Pennsylvania Synod. Of such comparisons between McGraw men who had +succeeded and other university men who had failed Mr. Pound had so many +at his fingers' ends as to be absolutely overwhelming. So before I had +seen McGraw I was a McGraw man to the core, and my mentor, with a +subtlety astonishing for him, missed no opportunity to increase my +devotion. He even taught me the college yell in one of his lighter +moments, and I, in turn, taught it to James that it might ring out with +more volume from the barn-bridge of an evening. + +You may think that I was to be disillusioned. That could not be. When +first I saw McGraw she was a giantess to my eyes. The time was to come +when I was to see her in a new light, to judge her from a new +perspective, to realize the incongruity between her aspiration and +accomplishment, to smile at her solemn adherence to academic ritual; +and yet to realize that in her littleness and poverty she gave me what +was good and all that was in her power. I may regret that I did not +delve deeper into the mysteries of those foot-ball scores and discover, +through them, the greater seats of learning. Perhaps I might have +known then that not all their sons became coal-merchants and drank, and +I might have gone much farther on that September day when first I set +out into the world beyond the mountains. But for all that I cannot +imagine the four years which I spent at that tiny college taken from my +life. For all the four years that might have been I would not exchange +them. + +That September day? It is a tall white mile-stone on my way. I can +look back and see its every detail. On its eve James and I sat for the +last time on the barn-bridge and he sang of Annie Laurie and Nellie +Gray. And when we heard my mother calling me, we stood together and +gave the college yell. + +"I s'pose, Davy," he said, as we were moving toward the house, "folks +will think I'm a little peculiar, but I'm going to give that cheer +every night, just for old times' sake--for your sake, Davy." + +Our elders have a fashion of making like inopportune remarks when we +are struggling to keep our hearts high. It seemed as though they were +trying to break my spirit. My mother's white silence, my father's long +prayer, James feverishly coming and going on that last morning--little +things like these almost made me abandon my great plans. But pride +sustained me--that same pride which sends men into battle for foolish +causes. I wanted to hurry the fall of the blow. I even protested +against my parents and Mr. Pound driving with me to the railroad, and +they did not understand. I had to meet their last embraces under the +eyes of the motley crowd who had come to the station to see the train, +and under such conditions I dared not show emotion. Again they did not +understand and were a little hurt by my coldness. I sprang up the car +steps jauntily. To show my independence I stood by the smoker door and +waved a smiling farewell to the silent, wondering three. I did not +wait there, as they waited, looking after me, but turned, tossed my new +bag into a rack, threw myself into a seat, and crossed my legs with the +nonchalance of one who left home every day. + +The river travelled with me out of the valley. I looked from the car +window and saw it at my side, and together we went away. I was silent, +wondering at the shadow which seemed to overcast the earth. The little +river was bright in the noonday sun--a cheery fellow-traveller through +the green land. I leaned from the car window in the suddenly born hope +that I might see the three still figures, back there in the hot glare +of the station. But the river had turned, and I saw not the roofs of +Pleasantville dozing in the sun like the very dogs, nor the court-house +tower and the tall steeples that pierced her shade, but a high wall of +mountains. We seemed to be driving straight for their heart. The +river's mood was mine. It shrank from that forbidding wall and the +mysteries beyond; it swept in a wide curve into pleasant lowlands. And +now I looked across it northward, to other mountains--to _my_ +mountains, to the friendly heights that watched over _my_ valley. +Closing my eyes I saw it as on that morning when Penelope and I rode in +terror from the woods. I looked across it as it lay in the broad day, +under the kindly eye of God, across the rolling green, checkered with +the white of blossoming orchards and the brown of the fallow, past the +village spires and up the long slope to the roof among the giant oaks. +You've had enough, the river seemed to say; and, turning, it charged +boldly into the other mountain's heart. I went with it, but my face +was pressed against the pane, that those who travelled with me might +not see. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Harlansburg, with practical sense, shields itself from northern winds +by a high hill, spreading over the barren southern slope. Trade clings +to the river-front, in a compact mass around the square, and from there +the town rises, scattering as it climbs, and the higher it goes the +larger are the houses and the more imposing, suggesting a contest in +which the stronger have overtopped their weaker brethren. But the +university, I suspect, was never surfeited with practical sense, else +she would not have settled on the very crest of the hill, to shiver the +winter through in icy winds and in the summer to bake in tropic heat. +There was, indeed, a delightful lack of responsibility about the +university. She had something of Micawber's nature, and was so inured +to adversity that she would have been ill at ease in a position less +imposing, even though less exposed. She might shiver, but she would +dominate the town. She was hopefully waiting for something to turn up, +and for such a purpose was well placed, for the railroad threaded the +narrow valley below, and at any moment some multi-millionaire might see +her from the car window, take pity and endow her. This impression of +worth in honorable tatters, of virtue appealing for aid, is made on me +to-day when the train swings around the jutting hill and I behold the +roof of "Old Main" rising from the trees, and the smutted white dome of +the observatory. But that afternoon when I first saw my alma mater, I +was quite overwhelmed by her magnificence. Before that I had known +McGraw only by an ancient wood-cut of Mr. Pound's, which showed a long +building, supremely bare, set among military trees; with a barouche in +the foreground in which was a woman holding a parasol; with +wooden-looking gentlemen in beaver hats pointing canes at the windows +as though they were studying the beauties of imagined tracery. The +military trees had grown, and through the gaps in the foliage as I drew +nearer I made out the detail of the most imposing structure I had ever +seen. Not St. Peter's, nor the Colosseum, nor the Temple of the Sun +have awakened in me the same thrill of admiration that shot through my +veins when "Old Main" stretched its bare brick walls before me to +incomprehensible distances, and rising carried my eyes to the sky +itself, where the Gothic wood-work of the tower pierced it. + +In the name, "Old Main," there is a suggestion of a score of collegiate +Gothic quadrangles clustering about their common mother, but these +existed only in the dreams of Doctor Todd, and the most tangible +expression they found was in a blue-print which was hung in a +conspicuous place in his study and presented his scheme of placing the +different schools in that hoped-for day when the multimillionaire +untied the strings of his money-bags. + +"Our founder, Stephen McGraw," Doctor Todd was fond of explaining, +"gave us the nucleus of a great educational institution. Our task is +to build on his foundation. It is true that in fifty years not a new +stone has been laid, but that must not discourage us. We shall go on +hoping and working." + +Dear old Doctor Todd! He still works on and hopes. He has had bitter +disappointments, but they have never beaten him down. Had Stephen +McGraw left his money and not his name to the university, the doctor's +task would have been easier, for it is not the way of men to beautify +another's monument. Once, I remember, a Western capitalist was +persuaded to make a great gift to McGraw. He made it with conditions, +and for a while our hopes blazed high and with exceeding fury. The +collegiate Gothic quadrangles were within our reach, as near to us as +the grapes to Tantalus. A half-million dollars was promised us if we +raised a like sum within a year. Doctor Todd tried to effect a +compromise by accepting two hundred thousand dollars outright, but the +philanthropist did not believe in making beggars of institutions by +surfeiting them with charity. So we cheered him right heartily and +went to work to gather our share. I remember it all very well because +I sang in the glee-club concert which we gave in the opera house to +help the fund, and because our classroom work was very light, as the +president and half of the faculty were canvassing the State for aid. +We worked desperately--faculty, alumni, and students. Even Mr. Pound +gave ten dollars from his meagre salary, and the Reverend Sylvester +Bradley, three times moderator of the synod, a round hundred. With +only a month in which to make up a deficit of four hundred thousand +dollars, we did not abandon hope. Every morning in chapel the doctor +prayed earnestly for a rain of manna or a visitation of ravens, which +we knew to be his adroit way of covering a more mercenary petition. +But heaven never opened, and a check never fluttered to earth from the +only source from which it could be expected. The year ended and our +would-be benefactor gave his money outright to Harvard or Yale, I +forget which, for a swimming tank or a gymnasium. + +Some day McGraw may get the coveted money. I know that were it in my +power the collegiate Gothic quadrangles would rise on the lines of +Doctor Todd's faded blue-print. I should build Todd Hall and McGraw +Library, but not one brick would I add to "Old Main." There would be +the only condition of my gift of millions. They might suggest oriel +windows to relieve the bare facade, buttresses to break the flatness of +the wall and pinnacles to beautify the roof, but I would have "Old +Main" always as I saw it on that September afternoon, when I had +climbed the hill, paused, set down my bag and stood with arms akimbo +while I scanned the amazing length and height of the splendid pile. My +heart at each remove from home had become a heavier weight until I +seemed to carry within me a solid leaden load. Now it lightened +mysteriously. Face to face with a new life that had its symbol in this +noble breadth of wall, the cords which held me to the old snapped. +That very morning seemed the part of another age, and yesterday was +spent in another world. I was wide awake at last. The cheer which Mr. +Pound had taught me was on my lips, and I should have given it as a +paean of thanksgiving had I not been embarrassed by the scrutiny of a +group of young men who loitered on the steps before me. So I picked up +my bag, a feather-weight to my new energy, and went boldly on. + +My impression of the splendor of college life was heightened by the +first acquaintance I made in my new environment. This was Boller of +'89, and today Boller of '89 holds in my mind as a true pattern of the +man of the world. His was the same stuff of which was made "the +perfect courtier." The difference lay solely in the degree of finish, +and justly considered, true value lies in the material, not in the +gloss. Boller, polished by the society of Harlansburg, appeared to my +eyes quite the most delightful person I had ever met. It was the +perfection of his clothes and the graciousness of his manner that awed +me and won my admiration. In those days wide trousers were the +fashion, and Boller was, above all, fashion's ardent devotee. His, I +think, exceeded by four inches the widest in the college. Recalling +him as he came forth from the group on the steps to greet me, I think +of him as potted in his trousers, like a plant, so slender rose his +body from his draped legs. His patent-leather shoes were almost +hidden, and from his broad base he seemed to converge into a gray derby +of the kind we called "the smoky city," the latest thing from +Pittsburgh. Looking at him, so wonderfully garbed, I became conscious +of my own rusticity, so old-fashioned did the styles of Pleasantville +appear beside the resplendent garments of my new friend. I was sure +that he must notice it. If he did, he gave no sign. + +"I'm Boller of '89," he said, grasping my hand cordially. "What's your +name?" + +"Malcolm, sir--David Malcolm," I answered. + +Boller clapped an arm across my shoulders in friendly fashion. "You're +three days late, Malcolm, but better late than never. I suppose you +were hesitating between McGraw and Harvard." + +"Oh, no!" I faltered, not fathoming his pleasantry. "I had to wait +until the tailor finished my new suit. It should have been done last +Monday, but----" + +Something in Boller's eyes checked me. He was regarding me from head +to foot so gravely that I divined that I might have joined the crew of +the Ark in my new clothes, judged by their cut. + +"You have come here to study agriculture, I presume," he remarked most +pleasantly. + +So subtle a reference to my bucolic appearance was lost on my innocent +mind. He seemed quite serious and as he was mistaken I wanted to set +him right. I was proud of my laudable ambition. Proclaiming it had +brought me only commendation, and I proclaimed it now. + +"I'm going to be a minister," I said, drawing myself up a little. + +"Indeed--a minister--how interesting!" returned Boller, raising his +eyebrows. + +Now had he laughed at me, had he called his fellows from the step to +mob me, in the glory of my martyrdom I should have held fast to my +purpose; or had he flattered me like Miss Spinner or Mr. Smiley, my +vanity would have carried me on my chosen path. His middle course was +disconcerting. He treated my ambition as though it were quite a +natural one and just about as interesting as to follow dentistry or +plumbing. + +"I'm going to be a missionary," I said in a louder tone, hoping to +arouse in him either antagonism or adulation. + +"Curious," he returned. "Very curious. Why I am thinking of taking up +the same line myself. It makes a man so interesting to the girls. +I've a cousin who is a minister, and last year he received seventeen +pairs of knit slippers from the young ladies of his congregation. +That's going some--eh, Malcolm?" + +What a different picture from my cherished one of cork hats and express +rifles! The suggestion was horribly insidious. To be interesting to +women _en masse_ was to my manly view exceedingly unmanly; to labor for +reward in knit slippers the depth of degradation. I was about to +declare to Boller that I was not going to be his kind of a clergyman +when I stopped to ask myself if I had ever known any other kind, if my +own ideal were not as unattainable as to be another Ivanhoe or Captain +Cook. Mr. Pound rose before me, his feet incased in the loving +handiwork of Miss Spinner. From him my mind shot wide afield to the +Reverend Doctor Bumpus, fresh from the dark continent, thanking our +congregation for the barrel of clothing sent to his eleven children in +far-off Zululand. Thoughts like these were as arrows in the heart of +my noble purpose. + +"I haven't absolutely made up my mind," I said suddenly. + +But Boller refused to accept such a qualification. He had me firmly by +the arm and brought me face to face with the loungers on the step. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "allow me to present to you the Reverend Doctor +David Malcolm!" + +And the loungers on the step saluted me as gravely as if I had been +that friend of Mr. Pound's, the Reverend Sylvester Bradley, thrice +moderator of the synod. + +It was thus that I became the Reverend David Malcolm, and this was all +the authority I ever had for so honorable a cognomen. So it was that +by the insidious raillery of a moment, Boller shook the foundations +laid by Mr. Pound in five years of labor, and it was not long before +the whole structure of his building tumbled into ruins. My first +violent protest against a nickname which seemed to me to savor of +sacrilege served only to fasten it to me more securely. Resigning +myself to it, I came to regard it lightly, and the longer I bore it in +jest the less I desired to earn it in honor. It was a far cry from Mr. +Pound to Boller of '89, but I doffed the vestment and donned the motley +that September day, for Boller became my mentor and in all things my +model. I was flattered by his condescending treatment. Before a week +had passed my engrossing ambition was to wear trousers as wide as his +and to crown myself with a "smoky city" derby. Having accomplished +this ambition by going into debt, I realized a greater, and pinned to +the lapel of my gayly checked coat, the pearl and diamond-studded pin +of Gamma Theta Epsilon. That, of course, was Boller's fraternity, and +I think he could have persuaded me to join whatever he asked, so wholly +was I captured by his kindness. + +In the study of Doctor Todd to which he led me, in the presence of the +great man, he did not venture any airy presentation. Boller of '89 +inside of the study door was quite a different person from the Boller +without it. The bold manner fled. He was suppressed, obsequious; even +his clothes seemed to shrink and grow humbly dun. We entered so +quietly that the doctor, bending over his desk, did not hear us, and we +had to cough apologetically to apprise him of our presence. + +"David Malcolm, sir--a new freshman," Boller said. + +The doctor rose. I saw a little man with a very large head covered +with hair which shot in all directions in scholarly abandon. His neck +seemed much too thin to carry such a weight, but that, I think, was the +effect of a collar much too large, and a white tie so long that its +ends trailed down over an expanse of crumpled shirt. The doctor's +black clothes looked dusty; the doctor himself looked dusty, yet the +smile with which he greeted me was as warm as the sunshine breaking +through the mist. + +"This is splendid," he cried, shaking my hand fervently. "Mr. Malcolm, +you are welcome. You make the thirty-ninth new man this year--a record +in our history. McGraw is growing. Have I not predicted, Mr. Boller, +that McGraw would grow?" + +To this Boller very readily assented, and the doctor, rubbing his hands +with delight at his vindication, placed a chair for me at his side and +began talking rapidly, not of me, nor of my plans, but of the +university. He did mention incidentally that he had heard of me +through his dear friend, Mr. Pound--a man of whom the university was +proud--yet, though I was sure Mr. Pound had spoken well of me, he made +no mention of it. I was of interest to him simply because by my coming +I had broken the records of McGraw's freshman class. Last year it +numbered thirty-eight; this year, thirty-nine. Through me the +university had taken another stately step onward. He showed me the +blue-print and explained it in detail. He spoke so earnestly that in a +moment he had abandoned the subjunctive mood, and was describing the +buildings as though they actually existed--here the new dormitory, +there the chemical laboratory, the gymnasium, the chapel. So potent +was his imagination that when I was dismissed and stood again on the +steps, I found myself sweeping the campus in search of the beautiful +structures which he had pictured for me. Not finding them, I was prey +to disappointment, so small did the McGraw that was appear beside the +McGraw that should be. I began to suspect that those other +universities upon which Mr. Pound looked with such contempt might +resemble the creation of Doctor Todd's imagination, that there might be +more behind those foot-ball scores than my old mentor had cared to +disclose. Distrust of him was rising in me, but I was not allowed to +remain long pondering over these things, for Boller had been waiting +for me and I was quickly in his possession. + +Had the murmurs of rebellion risen to a point where I was planning to +abandon McGraw, my new friend must have blocked me. He regarded me as +his property. He installed me in the bare little room which for four +years was to be my home. He took me to his own quarters and there gave +me such a glimpse of my new life as to make me forget my momentary +disillusionment. While he dressed, arrayed himself more impressively +than ever in evening clothes, I divided my eyes between him and the +pictures on the wall. Here Boller, in foot-ball clothes, sat on a +fence, wonderfully dashing, with a foot-ball under his arm; there he +was in base-ball toggery, erect with bat lifted, ready to strike; here +holding a baton, a conspicuous figure in a group of young men, looking +exceedingly conscious and uncomfortable in evening clothes--the glee +club, he explained, taken on their last tour of the State. And while +he dressed, he painted such a glowing picture of life at McGraw as to +make it of little moment to me now whether or not Doctor Todd's dream +ever came true. That I should grow to Boller's size and fashion was +all I asked. + +As I watched him soaping and brushing his hair, struggling a half hour +with his tie and setting that hair all awry again, soaping and brushing +once more and at last emerging flawless from the conflict, my own +self-confidence ebbed away and the sense of my own rusticity and +awkwardness oppressed me. I was to go with him to the first important +social event of the year, the reception to the new students, and seeing +how my friend arrayed himself for it, I wanted to crawl away to my own +room and hide there. But he would not let me. He laughed at my +excuses. To be sure my clothes were not the best form, but it was not +to be expected that a man new to university life should be--here Boller +surveyed himself in the glass and I understood the implication. So I +polished my shoes, wetted and soaped my own hair to rival his and went +with him. Had he been leading me into battle I could not have been +colder with fright. Had he not had a fast hold on my arm I am sure +that when I came face to face with the formidable array of faculty and +faculty wives waiting to receive me, I should have beaten a precipitate +retreat. I had never before been received; I had never before been a +guest at any formal social function, and it was appalling to have to +charge this battery of solemn eyes. But there was no escape. Boller +pushed me into the hands of Doctor Todd, who gave another hearty +handshake to the thirty-ninth and presented him to Mrs. Todd. She +assured me that it was a great pleasure to meet me, a statement +entirely at variance with the severity of her countenance and the +promptness with which she passed me on to Professor Ruffle, who +combined the chair of modern languages with the business management of +the college. He with a dexterous twist consigned me to his good lady, +and thus I passed from hand to hand down the dreaded line. + +The ordeal was over. I had had my baptism of social fire. Fear left +me, but not embarrassment. I forgot that thirty-eight other young men +were being received and were undergoing numberless bewildering +introductions. It seemed that the whole college was there simply to +meet me, and I returned its greeting in a daze. If I lost Boller in +the press, I felt the need of his supporting arm and peered longingly +among the jostling crowd to find him. He was continually going and +coming, but he never forgot me for any time. He was wonderfully kind +about informing as to whom it was worth my while to be agreeable. . . . +Don't trouble with Brown; be pleasant to Jones, but look out for +Robinson, the fellow with a Kappa Iota Omega pin. He had hardly warned +me against Robinson, before that young man was addressing me with great +cheerfulness. I saw nothing whatever repulsive about him; but to +Boller I was evidently in danger. + +"There's a young lady here who is dying to meet you," he whispered in +my ear as he drew me from the sinister clutches. + +Oh, subtle flattery! This was the first time I had ever had a young +lady dying to meet me. Of course I understood that Boller had spoken +figuratively, and yet I did not question that the young lady had seen +me, and I was vain enough to hold it not at all unlikely that something +in my appearance had interested her. Had not vanity overcome my +embarrassment, curiosity would have done so. I wanted to see what she +was like who had been so affected by the sight of me. And when I did +see her, when I stood before her on shifting feet, I would have given +the world to be somewhere else, yet, by a curious contradiction, +nothing could have dragged me from the spot, so fair was she to look on. + +"Miss Todd--Mr. Malcolm," said Boller of '89. Then he mopped his brow +with a purple silk handkerchief and added that it was very warm. I +said that it was very warm, and Miss Todd smiled quite the loveliest +smile that I had ever seen. + +I realized that this Miss Todd was the doctor's daughter, of whom I had +heard Boller speak in the most extravagant terms, and now it seemed to +me that his praise had quite failed to convey an adequate idea of her +charms. She was very fair, very pink and white, with a Psyche knot of +shimmering hair; a tall, slender girl, clad in clinging, gauzy blue. +To my mind came the picture of Penelope Blight, the only girl to whom I +had ever given a thought; I remembered her tanned cheeks, her brown +arms, and hard little hands, and it seemed to me that even she could +never grow to such loveliness as this. + +I loved Miss Todd. Had she offered herself to me at that moment, I +should have married her on the spot, and now there was shattered my +boyish contempt for all that was weak and gentle, however beautiful. +The ideas which composed my mind rattled and tumbled about like the +bits of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, and in a flash they formed a +softer and more harmonious design. The world was something more to me +than a happy hunting-ground, life more than an exciting adventure. The +world was the home of Gladys Todd; life was to win her love; happiness +was to sit at her side. + +And now I was sitting at her side in a seventh heaven; in one of the +silent places of the seventh heaven, for we had little to say to each +other. We were tyros in the art of conversing, and our promising ideas +born of long mental struggles were stilled with bludgeons of assent and +dissent. We knew not how to nourish and embellish them, and yet, +though there were long stretches of embarrassed silence, we were not +unhappy. Even Boller found his subterfuges to drag me away quite +futile, and Miss Todd herself seemed content, for she met a dozen like +efforts with a quiet and unpenetrable smile. + +So Gladys Todd and I sat the evening through as on a calm cloud, +looking down to earth and the antics of little men. They crowded close +to us, laughing and talking; they called up to us and we did not hear +them; they jostled one another and they jostled us, but they could not +entice us into their restless social game. They offered us coffee, +sandwiches and cake, and we brushed them away. The very thought of +food was repulsive to me, and this was not because I had reached that +point where the immeasurable yearning of the heart dwarfs all mean +desire. I was really hungry, but I had no mind to spoil the impression +which it was evident I had made; I had no mind to let Miss Todd see me +with a half-eaten sandwich poised in one hand and scattering crumbs +untidily, and in the other a cup of muddy, steaming fluid. She seemed +to have a like conception of the undignity of eating, for when she +declined the proffered feast it was with the air of one who never ate +at all, who never knew the pangs of appetite, but lived on something +infinitely higher. She even spurned the cake, and I was glad to let +her deceive me. I liked to coddle myself with the belief that she +never ate. I knew that she did not want me to see her eating, for then +I must have classed her with the mass of women--with Mrs. Ruffle, whom +I heard choking on a bit of nutshell; with her mother, who was standing +near us talking in a voice muffled in food; I must have slipped off the +cloud to earth. + +But Gladys Todd was wise, with that innate wisdom of her sex in matters +of appearance when appearance is to be considered, and we held in +silence, loftily on our cloud. And looking back on that evening, my +recollection is of misty, nebulous things; not of a passing flow of +incident, but of a welling up of new thoughts as I sat awkwardly +pulling at my fingers and caressing my collar. Yet there were +incidents, too, of high importance to McGraw. Doctor Todd declared +that the evening was historical. Standing in the centre of a hushed +company, he announced that the year had broken all records for +matriculation; McGraw was growing; McGraw could not long be contained +within her present walls, and the world must soon realize that in +simple justice something must be done for her. The doctor was not cast +down by the fact that nothing had been done and that there was no sign +of anything being done. Hope was his watchword, and so hopefully did +he speak of the future that the collegiate Gothic quadrangles began to +rise in the imaginations of the company as dreams almost accomplished, +and so infectious was his confidence that his hearers caught the high +pitch of his enthusiasm, and when he had finished Boller sprang to a +chair, and, waving a coffee-cup, struck the first deep tones of "Here's +to old McGraw, drink her down!" and everybody joined in as fervently as +though it were a hymn. They were not satisfied with it once, but +Doctor Todd himself cried, "Again," and, waving an imaginary cup, led +us off once more into the bibulous and inspiring song. + +I remember joining in the first bars, but not because I was unduly +stirred by the love of my alma mater. It was rather to give Gladys +Todd a hint of the rich depths of my voice. To make an impression on +Gladys Todd had become the business of my life. I was glad that I had +come to McGraw, because here I had met her. McGraw's past and future +were of no moment to me; her growth was nothing. She might shrivel up +until I was the only student, yet I should still be happy in my +nearness to Gladys Todd. And what of Penelope? I did think of +Penelope that night as I sat alone in my room, cocked on two legs of my +chair, gazing blankly at the ceiling. I remembered the foolish, +childish promises which I had made to her that I should never forget +her. Of course I should never forget her, no more than I should forget +the moon because I had beheld the sun's dazzling splendor. + +But a man's ideas change, I said; his view broadens. And I remembered +Penelope as I first saw her, in her tattered frock and with the faded +ribbon tossing in her hair. I liked Penelope. I thought of her with +brotherly affection. But I said to myself that she could never grow to +the wonderful beauty of this Miss Todd. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +I was not long at McGraw University before I had attained my ambition to +be like Boller of '89. I draped my legs in wide folds of shepherd's +plaid; the corners of a purple silk handkerchief protruded from my top +pocket; and as long as the "smoky city" was the proper form I crowned +myself with one of them, and as promptly discarded it for the newer +tourist's helmet, and that in turn for a yachting cap. Must I confess +it?--before Boller left McGraw I had quite surpassed him as a model of +fashion. But my ambition did not end here. The very conceit which had +made me such an insufferable youth in my last days at home was the spur +which drove me to win every honor that could come to an undergraduate. +As Boller stepped out of offices I stepped into them--in presidencies and +secretaryships almost innumerable, into editorships, and even +captaincies. Physically timid, I endured much pain in winning these last +honors. The stretch of rolling turf which we called the foot-ball field +became the arena in which I suffered martyrdom daily. I hated the game. +When I donned my padded toggery it was with the secret spirit I should +have felt in preparing for the rack, yet I played recklessly for the +_éclat_ it gave me. To-day I have an occasional reminder of those +struggles in a weak knee, which has a way of twisting unexpectedly and +causing excruciating pain, but I consider that these twinges are fair +payment for the pleasure with which I contemplated my picture years ago +in the Harlansburg _Sentinel_, showing me in my foot-ball clothes, poised +on a photographer's fence. The subject, the _Sentinel_ explained, was +Captain Malcolm of McGraw, who had made the winning touch-down in the +Thanksgiving-Day game with the Northern University of Pennsylvania. The +photographer's fence, you might think, was the summit of my career at +McGraw, reached as it was in my last year there. To the admiring eyes of +my fellows it was, but the McLaurins of Tuckapo and the Malcolms of Windy +Valley were above all a practical people and to them I am indebted for a +little common-sense, which told me that I could not play foot-ball all my +life, nor would the heavy bass voice, so effective in the glee club, +support a family, and deep in my heart I admitted the possibilities of a +family. I might strive to keep that thought in the background, but it +would rise when I dreamed of a home. That home was not a plain stone +farm-house, hidden among giant trees. My view had broadened. I dreamed +of a Queen Anne cottage, with many gables, and a flat clipped lawn, with +a cement walk leading over it to an iron gate. I looked back with +affectionate contempt to the art I had known in my youth, to the Rogers +group, Lady Washington's ball, Lincoln and his cabinet, the lambrequin +and the worsted motto. On my walls there would be a Colosseum, +Rembrandt's portrait of himself, a smattering of Madonnas, a Winged +Victory, and a Venus de Milo. To preside with me over such a house, to +sit at the piano of an evening and play accompaniments while I sang +sentimental songs, to fly with me over the country in a side-bar buggy, +behind a fleet trotter, I thought only of Gladys Todd. She was +accomplished, highly trained, it seemed to me, in all the finer arts of +life. In our valley the women never rose above their petty household +problems. They could talk, but only of recipes and church affairs, and +if they left this narrow environment at all it was to fare far--to India +and China, the foreign mission field. My view had broadened. Gladys +Todd had her being in higher airs. She painted. Pastels of flowers and +plaques adorned with ideal heads covered the walls of the Todd parlor. +She wrote. Doctor Todd assured me, speaking without prejudice, that his +daughter's essay on "The Immortality of the Soul," which she had written +out of pure love of the labor, equalled, if it did not surpass, the best +work of the senior class. She sang. Perhaps I see her now in the same +wizard lights of distance that glorified the mountains in my boyhood, but +I always recall her as a charming old-fashioned picture, sitting at her +piano and babbling her little songs in French and German. Of the quality +of her French and German I had no means of judging, but that she could +use them at all was to me surpassingly enchanting. + +So Gladys Todd had her part in completing the wreck of my worthy +ambition. What Boller had begun, she unconsciously finished. Yesterday +I had planned to make self-sacrifice the key-note of my life. To-day I +could not picture her contented to move in the narrow sphere of a Mrs. +Pound, cramping her talents in the little circle of the Sunday-school and +the Ladies' Aid. Her influence for good must be a subtler one than this. +To wield it, she must have her being in higher airs, in an atmosphere of +Colosseums, of Rembrandts, and Madonnas. Remember, she was no longer the +shy girl whom I had met on the first night of my university life. Then +she was only in her fifteenth year. I was a junior when she produced her +lauded essay on "The Immortality of the Soul," and it revealed to me the +profundity of her mind. To match her, I must sit many a night driving my +way through difficult pages of the classics, and often when my heart was +in some smoky den with a few choice spirits, my body bent over my table +and my brain wearied itself with abstruse equations. + +If Gladys Todd unconsciously wrecked my early scheme of life, she +unconsciously spurred me to the hard task of learning. I flattered +myself that in the new calling which I had chosen I should be able to be +even a greater power for good than in the old. Having attained to +Boller's perfection, as I had abandoned Mr. Pound for him, I now +abandoned him for ex-Judge Bundy. As Harlansburg was far above +Malcolmville, so ex-Judge Bundy was above Mr. Pound. He was not the +creator of Harlansburg, but he was its providence. He owned the bank and +the nail works, he was a patron of its churches, the leading figure at +the bar, and a man of wonderful eloquence. Every year he delivered the +graduation address at the university, and mentally I modelled my future +appearance on the rostrum from his benign demeanor, his forceful +gestures, his rolling periods. Yet deep as was my admiration, he held +views on which I differed with him. I felt that I had gone deeper than +he into the logic of things. To him, for example, the high tariff was +the source of all good, of life, health, food, clothes, and even morals. +My view was broader. I brushed aside the beneficent local effect of any +system and went on to study its relation to all mankind. He was prone to +forget mankind, and yet his faults were those of his generation and he +remained a heroic figure in my eyes, and it seemed to me that in setting +myself to reach the mark he had made I was aiming very high indeed. +Perhaps I should have gone on, striving to attain to the Bundian +perfection had not the ex-judge himself been the instrument by which I +was awakened and shaken out of my self-complacence. Among the +benefactions which had brought him such high esteem in our college +community was "the Richardson Bundy course of lectures on the activities +of life." He paid for the services of orators whom Doctor Todd delighted +to call "leaders in every branch of human endeavor." In my last year at +McGraw we heard the Fourth Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on +"Finance," the art critic of a Philadelphia paper on "Raphael," and as a +fitting climax to the course we were to listen to the famous Armenian +scholar and philosopher, the Reverend Valerian Harassan in a discourse on +"Life." The adjective is not mine. I had never heard of the famous +Armenian until Doctor Todd in chapel announced his coming, and made it +clear that it was a special privilege to listen to the eloquent preacher, +and that we owed a tremendous debt to our friend and benefactor, Judge +Bundy. + +The picture of the Reverend Valerian Harassan, which was posted on the +bulletin-board, gave promise of a realization of the hopes which the good +doctor had raised. It showed a man in evening clothes, impressively +massive, with a clean-shaven face and Roman features, a broad, low +forehead from which the hair rolled back in glistening black folds, +curling around his ears to the line of his collar. The deep-set eyes +seemed to look out from a mind packed with knowledge, and the firmly set +mouth to hold in check a voice of marvellous power for eloquence. + +In high spirits I went one evening to hear this eastern philosopher. It +was cold and raining, but in those days the worst of weather could cast +no shadow over me. It was a pleasure even to battle with the elements +with no other weapon than an umbrella, and multiplied a hundred-fold was +that pleasure when with that weapon I was battling also for Gladys Todd. +Though as yet I had said nothing to her of my cherished hope, I know that +when we stepped out together into the night, we both believed that we +should face many another storm under the same umbrella. I was conscious +that she clung more closely than usual to my arm, and, with spirits keyed +high with the sense of protecting her, my feet hardly touched the +dripping pavement which led from the doctor's house to the college +building and the chapel. We said little on the way. We had long since +passed the point where idle chatter is needed in communing. I remember +that I did ruminate pleasantly on my good fortune in having found this +sympathetic spirit to share with me the intellectual pleasure of a +scholarly discourse, whose heart could beat quicker in time with mine at +the inspiration of some fine thought. I remember that she broke the +current of these meditations to ask if I had decided to make Harlansburg +my home after my approaching graduation. She asked it with a tone of +deep personal interest. At that moment I should have proposed to Gladys +Todd had not the wind been tugging at the umbrella, and had we not come +from the shadow of the trees into the glare of the college lights. So I +answered affirmatively. Of course I should remain in Harlansburg. At +that moment my resolution was fixed unalterably, if only for the sake of +Gladys Todd; and if I had settled in my mind that I should walk in the +way of Judge Bundy till, like him, I dominated the town and the county +and my name was known in the farthest corners of the State, that, too, +would be for the sake of this gentle, clinging girl whose nearness to me +made my umbrella seem like the sheltering roof of home. But in this +calculation I left out of my equation one important element--the throat +of the Reverend Valerian Harassan. + +The source of the Armenian's flowing eloquence would have seemed as far +from affecting my life as the source and flow of the sacred Ganges, and +yet it was some trivial irritation of it that kept us from hearing his +philosophy that night, and, more important to me, that sent another to +expound ideas far different than could ever have come from the famous +thinker. All the college, all in Harlansburg who were well-to-do and +wise, watched for his coming expectantly; but when the door on the chapel +platform opened and Judge Bundy stepped forth, he had on his arm, not the +monumental preacher of the clean-shaven face and rolling black hair, but +a man who in no line met the hopes raised by the impressive picture. A +murmur of disappointment ran through the hall. Doctor Todd, following +the great men in the humble capacity of beadle, stilled it with a raised +hand. + +To Judge Bundy's mind, as he expressed it to us, there was no cause for +disappointment. While the Reverend Valerian Harassan's bronchial +affection was unfortunate for us and for him, yet for us it was in a way, +too, a blessing, for he had sent in his place to speak to us on "Life" no +other than the famous journalist and traveller Andrew Henderson. The +judge paused to give time for a play of our imaginations, and such a play +was needed. I do not think that a soul in the audience had ever heard of +the famous journalist and traveller, but we should not have admitted it, +and set ourselves to looking as though his name were a household word. +It was enough that Judge Bundy declared him to be famous. It was +decreed, and for Harlansburg, at least, he became a celebrity. Having +given us time to imagine the deeds which had won fame for the lecturer, +Judge Bundy saw no need to trouble himself with specifications. The +rolling periods of his speech would have been rudely halted by facts, so +he spoke in general terms of the inspiration it would give to the young +men before him to see such a man face to face--a man who knew life, a man +who had lived life, who had ideas on life. It seemed as though the judge +himself was about to deliver the lecture on "Life," but he paused, out of +breath, and Andrew Henderson, mistaking the moment of rest for the end of +the introduction, rose from the chair about which he had been shifting +uneasily and came to the rostrum's edge. + +He came with a shambling gait. The tall, thin, loose-jointed man, +resting with one hand on the pulpit at his side, in every way belied the +pompous tribute which had just been paid him. + +I watched him. I studied the face masked in a close-cropped gray beard. +I studied the angles of the loosely hung limbs and the swinging body clad +in unobtrusive brown. For a moment I doubted. Then he spoke. I heard +his voice, and it seemed as though it were threaded with a sharp, shrill +note of bitterness. His eyes were not turned to us. Gladys Todd must +have thought them fixed on a spot in the ceiling, but to me they were +watching a flake of cloud hovering just above the tall pine across the +clearing. Gladys Todd must have thought me beside her, sitting upright +on the very edge of my seat, but I was back in the mountains; I could +feel Penelope's brown hand in mine and I could see her proud smile as she +looked up at me and said: "That's father; he's studying"; I could see her +father as he leaned on his hoe, beaten in his fight with the +ever-charging weeds; I could see him in the murky light of the cabin, a +trembling hazy figure in the gun smoke; and again, with the devils of +retribution at his heels, flying for the bush. Now the worthless, +shiftless man, after long years, stood before me, a professor in truth, a +professor of life, and perhaps he would give belated expression to what +was in his mind that day as he studied the flake of cloud. + +Unrolling a portentous manuscript on the pulpit, the lecturer began to +read in a mechanical voice. The restless shuffling of feet and a volley +of dry coughs soon spoke the hostile attitude of the audience, a longing +for the coming of Valerian Harassan. The Professor did not heed them. +He read on, pompous phrases such as might have come from the lips of Mr. +Pound. He was unconscious of the increasing hostility of his hearers. +When he stopped suddenly, it was not because the feet in the rear of the +hall were shuffling a rising chorus of protest, despite the frantic +signals of Judge Bundy and Doctor Todd's upraised hand. What he saw in +his own manuscript checked him, for stepping back from the desk, he +frowned at it. The corners of his mouth twitched in a passing smile, and +pouncing upon his handiwork, he held it at arm's length, dangling before +the astonished eyes of the company. + +"What rot!" he cried. "What utter rot!" + +A shout from the rear of the room evidenced the approval of his younger +hearers. The elders glowered at what they thought a trick to catch their +attention. But trick or not, he did catch their attention, and he held +it; he ceased to be the utterer of pompous platitudes; dropping his paper +to show that he had done with it, he leaned across the pulpit and brought +his long arms into action. He became the caustic iconoclast of the +valley. + +"We all agree that what I have been reading is nonsense," he said in a +sharp-edged voice. "But I am here in the place of Valerian Harassan, and +it seemed to me that I must give you what you were paying him for. I +have been trying to say the kind of things he would have said. If you +had been able to stand it a little longer, I should have told you that +all the world's a stage and men and women but the players. I might even +have attacked your risibles by anecdotes about my little boy at home and +the southern colonel. Of course, I should have given you some inspiring +thoughts, convinced you that life was a wonderful gift, something to be +treasured and joyously lived, that work was a pleasure, that happiness +came from accomplishing a set task. It's all here in this paper. I +wrote it--and it was easy enough to do--because that is the kind of stuff +you pay for. But it is one thing to write what you don't believe; quite +another to speak it face to face. And yet if I am to speak the truth as +I see it on such a simple little subject as life, I guess I am here on a +fool's errand." + +Doctor Todd and Judge Bundy seemed to be of the same mind, for they were +whispering together; debating, I suspected, whether it were better to let +him go on and try to talk fifty dollars' worth or to break abruptly into +his discourse and end it. For so harsh a measure as the last they lacked +courage, and the Professor hurled on, unconscious of the hostile stares +with which they were stabbing him in the back. + +Now, optimism was the foundation on which McGraw strove to build up +character. Optimism permeated every part of our life there. From a +narrow environment we looked out hopefully into broadening distances. +Every year some confident youth told us from the college rostrum in +rounded sentences that life was worth living; that sickness, poverty, +disappointment, the countless evils which dog our footsteps, were nothing +in the scale against the boon of opportunity. Every morning in chapel +the doctor voiced our gratitude for the privilege of living and working. +And now over heads that moved in such charged airs the Professor cast his +pall of pessimism. He took his text from Solomon, and found that all was +vanity. It mattered little whether or not what he said was true. He +believed it to be true, and for the moment at least his incisive voice +and long forefinger carried with them conviction. He railed at the old +dictum that man was God's noblest work. The ordinary dog, he declared, +was more pleasing to the eye than the ordinary man, and the life of the +ordinary dog more to be envied than that of the ordinary man. Knowledge +only lifted us above the animal to be more buffeted by a complexity of +desires. The greatest thing in the world was self, and even the roots of +our goodness burrowed down into the depths where the ego was considering +its own comfort either in this world or the next. The proud man for whom +the universe was made was nothing but a fragile thread of memories +wrapped in soft tissue, packed away in a casket of bone, and made easily +portable by a pair of levers called legs. After countless ages spent on +earth seeking the true source of happiness men were still countless ages +from agreement. One half sought by goodness to attain happiness in +immortality; the other in Nirvana. One half found the shadow of +happiness in inertia, in stupefaction, a mere satisfying of physical +needs; the other in motion, joining in the mad procession which we call +so boastfully Progress. By accident of birth we were of the progressive +half and we paraded around and around, puffed up with pride of our little +accomplishment, until we fell exhausted and another took our place. + +Judge Bundy nudged Doctor Todd again. Doctor Todd shook his head and +looked at the ceiling, as if to show that he found more of interest there +than in the speaker's words, and he held them there defiantly as the +Professor went on to controvert the optimistic philosophy which had been +taught at McGraw for so many years. That knowledge was the greatest +source of unhappiness was a bold dictum to hurl at a company of seekers +after it, but Henderson Blight had little respect for mere persons. The +ignorant animal did not exist, he argued; it was with knowledge that the +plague of ignorance came to man. A draught of knowledge was like a cup +of salt-water to the thirst, and the more we learned the less value we +could place on the things for which we labored. A man worked a lifetime +to obtain a peach-blow, and it crumbled to dust in his hands. What, +then, should we strive for? + +At this question Doctor Todd brought his eyes down from the ceiling and +Judge Bundy lifted his from the red rug of the platform. The judge was +our great authority on striving. He had qualified himself by years of +successful labor. To us he was a living example of the rewards which +come to endeavor, and so it was with evident self-consciousness that he +now sat very erect, thinking, perhaps, that he would hear some views akin +to his own. + +"I was born in a narrow valley," the Professor pursued, "and perhaps I +might have dozed there like the dogs, but I learned that beyond the +mountains there was another valley, broader and richer. I longed to live +there. One day I crossed the mountains to it and I found it all that I +had heard. But it, too, had its wall of mountains and my eyes followed +them, and I learned that beyond them was still another valley, broader +and richer. And I went on. So it will be with you. There is a big nail +factory down by the river--I saw it as I came in, and I am sure that to +some of us to own that factory might be a life's ambition. How fine it +would be when our work was ended to fold our hands peacefully and say: 'I +have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have made a million +kegs of nails!'" + +Judge Bundy half rose from his chair. Through the hall sounded a +smothered murmur of applause, for it is always satisfying to hear a truth +which hits another. Judge Bundy would have wholly risen from his chair, +but he was checked by a hundred covert smiles and Doctor Todd laid a hand +upon his quivering, indignant knee. All unconscious of the cause of this +stifled mirth, and fired by it as in the old days he was fired when Stacy +Shunk leered beneath the shadow of his hat, the Professor leaned far over +the desk with both hands outstretched. + +"I have failed utterly in my own living," he cried. "I have loafed and +lagged. At times I have worked hard until I wearied myself chasing +shadows. But in my failure I have learned a few things. We may live and +doze in our little valley, but still we shall long for the broader and +richer valley across the mountains. The yearning for that something +better is born in us all. Shall we call it simply something more; shall +we measure our service in kegs of nails or shall we seek for something +really better? If we listen we can hear in the depths of our souls the +divine drumbeat, and it is strange what cowards we are when we come to +march to it. But we can march to it. We may not know why we go, nor +where, but we can go straight. The country we travel may seem waste, but +we cross it under God's sealed orders, given to us when we opened our +eyes on life, and only when our eyes are closed again will they be opened +to us." + +So it was that the Professor carried me again from my little valley! The +great Judge Bundy standing at the platform's edge, brusquely dismissing +us, had dwindled to pygmy height. He was a mere maker of nails. Life a +moment since had been very simple, very concrete, a mere game in which +the stake was food and clothes, a Queen Anne house, a clipped lawn and +trotting horses. Now it was a mysterious expedition into the unknown. +With the Professor's last word I rose, ready to march, not knowing +whither, but sure that it would not be to a conquest measured in kegs of +nails. In this exalted mood Gladys Todd could have no part, for I knew +that I could go faster and farther in light marching order, unhampered by +impedimenta of any kind. Gladys Todd suddenly took her place with +impedimenta. Her first act was to confirm this judgment of her, for as I +was forcing my way down the crowded aisle, intent on reaching my old +friend, she kept tugging at my sleeve and entreating me not to hurry. +Her remonstrances aroused my antagonism. Inwardly I was calling down +maledictions on her head, for I saw the Professor's tall form receding +through the door. I would have rushed after him; there were a thousand +things I wanted to know, a thousand questions I had to ask him. But I +was checked. I could not abandon Gladys Todd; nor had I the courage to +present myself to him after so many years in the light of a youth given +to sentimental dalliance. He would remember the boy who had come to him, +cold and wet, from the depths of a mountain stream, the boy who had run +miles in the early morning to warn him of the approach of the terrible +Lukens, the boy whom he had called his only friend. He would see me +dignified by a tail coat and beautified by a mauve tie, a white waistcoat +and gleaming patent-leather shoes. He would remember me as I stood by +the cabin door, a strong, rugged lad. He would see me a devotee of +fashion, a dawdler after a pretty face. So it was with a feeling of +relief that I saw the study door close after my friend. I intended to +find him, but not until I was as free as on that day when I first came +upon him in the clearing. + +Gladys Todd was inclined to lag. There were a dozen persons to whom she +wished to speak, but with rude insistence I hurried her away. Outside +the rain fell heavily. I held my umbrella at arm's length now and +abandoned my fine feathers to the storm. She feigned not to notice my +changed demeanor and tried to talk pleasantly, but I answered only in +monosyllables, and brusquely, I fear. The interminable journey ended. +From the steps of the president's house, with all the graciousness she +could command, she asked me not to hurry away when we had so many things +to talk over. My answer was a quick "good-night," and I ran as I had run +years before to the mountains, with my heart in every stride. + +When I entered the doctor's study I found him alone. Mr. Henderson, he +explained, had gone to Judge Bundy's. Judge Bundy always entertained the +lecturer, and he was too generous a man to make an exception even in this +case. In speaking of the lecturer the doctor made a wry face. He could +not understand how a man of Valerian Harassan's reputation ever allowed +such a mountebank to take his place. At McGraw we believed in life; we +believed in ambition, and it was terrible--terrible, sir, to have to sit +in silence and hear our dearest traditions assailed by one who admitted +that he was a failure. Did Mr. Malcolm hear the brutal cut at Judge +Bundy? Judge Bundy, sir, was---- + +I did not stop to hear the eulogy, nor did I consider how I might be +prejudicing myself with the president by so rudely breaking from him. +But the Professor had come back to me. I cleared the college steps with +a bound, and ran over the campus and down the hill into the town. I ran +with all a boy's reckless waste of strength, so that when I had covered +my half-mile course I had to lean for support against the iron fence +which guarded the Bundy home. The great stone pile, with many turrets +and a dominating cupola, with wide-spreading verandas and marble lions on +the lawn, in the daylight comported itself with dignified aloofness, and +now, when night exaggerated its size and a single lonely light flickered +in all its vast front, it was forbidding. With something of that forced +boldness with which years before I had braved the dark mountains, I made +the gate ring a proper notice of my approach and groped my way about the +door until I found the bell. The answer came from over my head. +Stepping back and looking up, I saw framed in a lighted window a white +figure, coatless and collarless, not the distinguished jurist, but a +portly man who had been interrupted in the act of preparing for bed. +Clothes go a long way toward making a man, and the lack of them brought +the judge down to hailing distance. + +"What do you want?" he demanded of me, addressing me as any disrobed +plebeian might have done. + +"I'm Malcolm, sir, David Malcolm," I returned apologetically. "I wish to +see Mr. Henderson." + +"Henderson, eh?" The judge leaned over the window-sill, and he spoke less +sharply. "You'll find him at the station waiting for the night train +out. I tried to persuade him to stay, but he wouldn't. How in the +world, Mr. Malcolm, could Harassan have sent such a fool in his place? +Did you ever hear such utter nonsense? I forgive him about the +nails--that was inadvertent, but that stuff about ambition----" + +I did not wait to hear the judge controvert my friend's pessimistic +philosophy, but with a brusque "good-night" hurried away. The window +banged behind me, a sharp commentary on my rudeness. The iron gate +clanged again, and I was off down the hill, running toward the lower town. + +A shrill whistle stopped me. Looking into the valley I saw a chain of +lights weaving their way along the river. They wound through the gap in +the mountain, and I saw them no longer. I heard the whistle again, far +off now, and it seemed to mock me. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +I listened to hear the divine drumbeat. I set myself to march under +sealed orders. + +To most of us the Professor's speech had been pessimism compact; to me +it was inspiring, though wofully lacking in details. I seemed to be +marking time. The duties which lay at my hand were unchanged, and I +was plodding along as I had plodded before through a commonplace +routine. I sought to give to my duties some of the glamour of +conquests, but they soon failed to lend themselves to any simulation of +romance. After all, marching to the divine drumbeat was simply to +follow the precepts ingrained in me as a child, but it is much easier +to make a quick charge amid the blare of bugles than to plod along day +after day to the monotonous grumble of the drum. I wished that the +Professor had been a little more explicit, and yet his last words were +always with me. It was as though they were intended for me alone, and +I coupled them with his admonition to me that day long ago in the +cabin: "Get out of the valley. Do something. Be somebody." My great +desire was to see him, for I believed that he could help me to set my +course. I wanted help, and my father, my natural adviser, was of +little service to me. To him my opportunity was the small one that lay +at home. Mr. Pound had washed his hands of me that day when I was bold +enough to renounce my purpose of entering the ministry, and now, when +in the exultation of the moment my mind reverted to that abandoned +plan, I found my own ideas too nebulous to permit me to set myself up +as a teacher of divine truth. The law had taken its place with the +making of nails, and I did not believe that when my race was run, when +I had counted up the wills I had drawn, the bad causes I had defended, +the briefs I had written in useless litigations, I could content myself +with the thought that I had fought a good fight. For there is a good +fight, and to the weakest of us must come a sense of futility in those +moments when we awaken from our sloth and hear the distant din of the +battle. I thought of medicine, of all professions in itself the most +altruistic, and then I found myself face to face with that distressing +commonplace, the need of money, for though my father was accounted a +rich man in the valley, his wealth was proportioned to the valley +standards. A commercial life alone seemed left to me, and then I +remembered the million kegs of nails, and I recalled Rufus Blight's +achievement of giving away a prize with every pound of tea. Here +indeed was a march through waste-lands. + +You will think that I was a dreamy, egotistical youth for whom not only +the ways of home but the ways of the mass of his fellows were not quite +good enough. Perhaps I was. But you must remember a boyhood passed in +loneliness; long days when my feet followed the windings of the creek, +but my eyes were turned to the distant mountains; the evenings when +from the barn-bridge I watched the shadows fall and saw the valley +peopled with mysterious shapes. I was ambitious, and I coddled myself +with the belief that my ambition did not spring from selfishness, from +what the Professor had called the yearning for something more, but from +the desire for something better. I did not drag up the roots of my +motives to light. Had I, the cynical philosopher must have found that +they were nurtured in the same soil that nurtured the ambitions of +Judge Bundy. + +I had faith in the Professor and I wanted to find him. I could see the +inconsistency of his practice and his preaching, but truth is truth no +matter by whom uttered. I believed that he could help me, and I wrote +to him in the care of Valerian Harassan. The writing of this letter +was an evening's labor, for in it I had to tell him what had passed +after that day when he had fled into the mountains, of the coming of +Rufus Blight and the disappearance of Penelope out of my life; I had +much to ask him of her and of himself, and then to lead on to my +present quandary. The labor was without any reward. Weeks passed and +he did not answer. I wrote to Valerian Harassan and was honored with a +prompt reply--his friend Mr. Henderson had returned to San Francisco +and he had forwarded my letter there. "But you had as well try to +correspond with the will-o'-the-wisp," he wrote. "When last I talked +with him, he spoke rather vaguely of going to China and making a trip +afoot to Lhasa." Nevertheless, I wrote again, and it was a year later +when both of my letters came back to me bearing the post-marks of many +cities from coast to coast, to be opened at last by the dead-letter +office. + +The Professor was silent. Within a week of my graduation I found +myself still in a quandary as to my course, and then it came about that +it was set for me by the last man in the world whom at that moment I +would have chosen for a pilot. This was Boller of '89. + +Boller's father was the owner of a daily newspaper in a small inland +city, and in the two years since he had left McGraw the son had risen +to the chief editorship. His return to college that year was in the +nature of a triumphal progress. He sat with the faculty in the morning +chapel service, and Doctor Todd took occasion to refer to the presence +of a distinguished alumnus who had made his mark in the profession of +journalism. In two years Boller had matured to the wisdom and manner +of fifty. He had abandoned the exaggerated clothes of his college days +for careless, baggy black. His hair had grown long and was dishevelled +by much combing with the fingers, and the mustache, once so carefully +trimmed and curled, now drooped mournfully, and he had added a tiny +goatee to his facial adornments. Drooping glasses on his nose, with a +broad black ribbon suspended from them, gave him an appearance of +intellectuality, so astonishing a transformation that it was hard for +me to believe that this was the same Boller who had greeted me four +years before on the college steps. The next morning after his +reappearance Doctor Todd announced that our distinguished alumnus had +been induced to speak informally to the students that evening on +journalism and its appeal to young men. In the rôle of a very old man, +Boller from the chapel rostrum descanted learnedly on what he termed +the "greatest power for righteousness in modern times and the dynamic +force through the operation of which the race is to attain its ideals." +To my mind Boller's view of the power for righteousness troubled itself +chiefly with the opposing political party, as was shown by the instance +he cited where his own paper had exposed the corrupt Democratic ring in +Pokono County and had put in its place a group of Republican patriots. +Doctor Todd, however, said afterward that Boller had treated the +subject in masterly fashion and that he was proud that McGraw had had +its part in forming such a mind. While I had listened to Boller in all +seriousness, the Professor's diatribe was too vividly in my memory for +me to accept without reservation everything that our distinguished +alumnus said. But he did bring to my mind the idea that here possibly +was the opportunity which I sought, and long before he had finished my +thoughts had wandered far from the chapel and I was picturing myself in +an editorial chair and with a caustic pen attacking the devils of which +poor man is possessed. + +I met Boller in the hall afterward, and as he took my arm +condescendingly and walked with me a little way I summoned up courage +to invite him to my room and there to open my heart to him. + +He lighted one of his own cigars after having declined that which I +offered him, and this little evidence of his superior taste served to +confirm my opinion of his importance. He crossed his legs carelessly, +leaned back and watched a long spire of smoke rise ceilingward. "So +you are thinking of journalism, eh, Malcolm?" + +"You have set me thinking of it," I returned. "Somehow the law doesn't +appeal to me any more. The truth is--" I hesitated, recalling how +Boller's subtle ridicule had shaken the purpose so carefully nourished +by my parents and Mr. Pound. Though his talk that night had been +filled with high-flying phrases about ideals of citizenship and useful +manhood, I still had lingering doubts of his entire sincerity, and I +cast about for some way of expressing my thoughts without making myself +ludicrous in his eyes. + +"The truth is--" Boller repeated. + +"That I want to take up work that means something more than bread and +butter," I responded. "I don't want to be a big fish in a small pond." + +"And you think that journalism offers a chance of becoming a whale in a +big pond. It does, Malcolm, it does," said Boller. "Journalism is the +greatest power in the country to-day. We used to call you the Reverend +David. Well, if you still have any lingering desire to be a preacher, +the paper is the place for you, not the pulpit. The editorial is the +sermon of the future. If you would become a preacher, by all means +take up journalism. If you have red blood in your veins you will be a +journalist." + +Having delivered this advice, Boller sat in silence, regarding me +through his drooping glasses and pulling at his goatee, and at that +moment I decided to be a journalist. It was the picture which Boller +made that settled my mind. There was something attractive in his +careless attire--the baggy clothes, the flowing tie; and the glasses +with the broad ribbon gave an air of dash and intellectuality which I +had never seen in the stiff uniform of the bar, even as worn by that +leader, Judge Bundy. It is often such absurd impressions on our +unsophisticated minds that set the course of our lives. It was so with +me. I compared Boller with Doctor Todd, with Mr. Pound, and in the +younger generation with Simmons of his own class, who had become +principal of a high-school, and I said to myself that the profession +which in two years had made him this confident, masterful man offered +the opportunity that I sought. + +"If you have red blood, Malcolm--" Boller went on as he polished his +glasses. There was a suggestion in his careless manner that he waded +in red blood set flowing by his pen. "Journalism is one long fight. +If you have ideals, Malcolm--" He looked at me, and then my cheeks +flushed as by an inclination of the head I confessed to the possession +of ideals. "If you have ideals, you can make a fight for right. In +journalism we stand aloof from the play itself, but we endeavor to make +the actors perform their parts properly. You remember my description +of how we exposed the Pokono County ring. It's a fight like that all +the time, but you make yourself felt, you know." + +Thoroughly pleased with the militant side of the profession, and having +decided that I should enter it, I lost no time inquiring how I should +begin. This question took some thought on Boller's part, and he combed +his hair with his fingers while he gave it consideration. + +"I could put you on the _Sentinel_," he said at last. "You will have +to start at the bottom, as a reporter, you understand." + +He evidently believed that I should jump at such a prospect, but he did +not know that the Professor had filled me with the hope of bigger +things. I had taken what Boller had said, and I enlarged it to a wider +scale of life. I had no intention of exchanging the opportunities of +Harlansburg for those of Coal City. Even the Pokono County gang would +be small game for me. But before I could thank Boller for his interest +and decline it, he hurried on to fix my salary and to explain the +nature of my work. He nettled me, and I protested with heat that I +wished to start in a broader field. + +"That's all right, Malcolm," said my mentor, undisturbed by the +reflection on his own city. "But you can get an invaluable experience +on the _Sentinel_. If you start right for New York how are you going +to get a job? On the other hand, look at Bob Carmody. He learned with +us--three years--and now he has a splendid place on the New York +_Record_, making forty a week--covered the Douglas murder trial. Look +at Bush, James Woodbury Bush--he went to Philadelphia after two years +with us, and he is literary editor of the _Gazette_--landed it easily. +He has already published one book--'Anna Virumque'--a charmingly clever +story of early Babylon." + +The success of Bob Carmody and James Woodbury Bush, while they +confirmed me in my respect for the profession of journalism and in my +resolve to enter it, did not shake my purpose to waste no time in +desultory skirmishing. That I decided so promptly that New York was to +be my scene of action was due to Boller's casual mention of Bob +Carmody's salary, which by rapid calculation I found to equal Doctor +Todd's and to surpass my father's income. The figures were large. I +flattered myself that I found no appeal in the money, but regarded it +simply as the measure of the power and importance which Bob Carmody had +attained. The value of his brain labor was nearly double the value of +the foodstuff produced on my father's farm. The figures were +impressive. I knew, however, that I could not argue with Boller, +supported as he was by experience, and my way with him lay in an +obstinate declaration of my purpose. + +"It's good of you to offer me a place," I said. "But I'm not going to +waste any time. A few days at home, and I am off to New York." + +If Boller felt any irritation at my rejection of his offer, he did not +show it. Doubtless he laid my refusal to the ignorance of youth, for +he stood over me, regarding me through the drooping glasses, as my +father would have regarded me had I declared to him some reckless +purpose. + +"You make a mistake, David," he said. He stood at the door, with one +hand fumbling the knob. "Still, I wish you success. Suppose I give +you a letter to Carmody. It would be a great help, you know. And I'll +write for you a general recommendation--to whom it may concern--on our +letterhead; it will be of service." He opened the door and stepped +out. He hesitated and came back. "I might tell you, Malcolm, that I +hope soon to launch into New York journalism, when I have exhausted the +possibilities of Coal City. A man can't sit still, you know--that is, +if he has red blood in his veins." + +Boller said no more that night, but his manner in parting made it clear +to me that if he came to New York it was his purpose to be of great +service to me, to lift me up with him. His assumption of superiority +filled me with a desire to outrun him. Vanity is a great stimulus to +action, and the inspiring note of my life was forgotten as I +contemplated David Malcolm in his sanctum, at a table littered with +pages, every one of which would stab some devil of corruption or +brighten some lonely hour, pausing at his labor to blow spires of smoke +ceilingward while he gave kindly advice to the man who sat before him, +respectfully erect on his chair, regarding him through drooping glasses. + +The college lights were out. I moved to the window and stayed there +for a long time, looking into the summer night. The street lamps +checkered the slope below me, but my eyes went past them; in the depths +of the valley the nail-works were glowing, piling up their tale of +kegs, but I looked beyond them to the mountain which rose from the +river and travelled away like a great shadow, cutting the star-lighted +sky. Where mountain and sky mingled, indefinable in the night, my eyes +rested, but my mind plunged on. My arms lay folded on the window-sill, +and into them my head sank. I crossed mountain after mountain, and +they were but shadows to my youthful strength. What a man David +Malcolm became that night! He won everything that the world holds +worth striving for. He won them all so easily by always doing what was +right. He travelled far because he marched so straight. Then he +mounted to the highest peak--a feat so rare that even his great modesty +could not suppress a cry of exultation. He heard the crunching of a +hoe, and, following the sound, saw the Professor battling with the +ever-charging weeds. The gaunt man regarded him quietly; then said: +"David, you have come far." He raised the hoe and pointed to the sky. +"And I suppose they have heard of it off there--in Mars and Saturn." +He turned to the ground, to an army of ants working on a pyramid of +sand. "And down there--I suppose they have heard of it." David +Malcolm looked about him. The world seemed waste as far as his mind +could carry. The Professor saw the disappointment clouding his face, +for he stepped closer to him and, laying a hand upon his shoulders, +said: "Remember, David, sealed orders." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +In those last days at college, when in moments of contemplation I +sketched with free imagination a long and unbroken career of success, +whether I would or not, Gladys Todd was always gliding into my dreams. +She had been too long a central figure in them for me to evict her +easily. I knew that I had best begin my march unhampered by +impedimenta of any kind, but I found it no easy task to get myself into +light marching order. While I had never made a serious proposal for +her hand, I had in sentimental moments said things which implied that +at the proper time I should offer myself formally. That the offer +would bring her prompt acquiescence I never for a moment doubted. But +more embarrassing was the attitude of Doctor and Mrs. Todd. They +treated me as though I were a member of the family. Mrs. Todd's eyes +always beamed with a peculiarly motherly light when they rested on me, +and now I recalled with something akin to terror an evening when Gladys +at the piano was accompanying me as I sang "The Minute Guns at Sea." +Her mother entered the parlor. It did her good, she said, to see us, +for it brought back the dear days when she and Doctor Todd had sung as +we were singing at that very same piano. Doctor Todd never expressed +his thoughts with quite such frankness, but now I could remember many +times when he had treated me with fatherly consideration. To end +abruptly such a friendship seemed not alone a gross abandonment of +Gladys Todd, but of Doctor Todd and Mrs. Todd. The sensible thing to +do was clear to me in my saner moments. During the few days that +remained to me at college I should continue the friendship, but it +would be friendship and nothing more. Then I would go away, politely, +as hundreds of other young men before me had left Harlansburg, with a +formal parting handshake to hundreds of other young women who had +played soft accompaniments while they sang "The Minute Guns at Sea"; as +for Doctor and Mrs. Todd, another young man would soon be standing by +that same piano awakening their cherished memories. + +It was in this other hypothetical young man that I found the +stumbling-block whenever my mind was settled to do the sensible thing. +The trouble was that I loved Gladys Todd. When I fixed my purpose to +march to the strife unhampered by any domestic ties, I felt that I was +making myself a martyr to duty. I began to compromise. In a few +years, when my feet were firmly set in the road and I had grown strong +enough to march with impedimenta, I should come back and claim Gladys +Todd, and my return would be a triumph like that of Boller of '89, only +in a degree far higher, for from her hands I should receive the +victor's garland. + +I might have struggled on with such confused ideas as these had it not +been for the hypothetical other man. He haunted me. The hypothesis +became a fact. It found embodiment in Boller of '89. When after three +interminable days of self-denial I presented myself one evening at the +president's house, a look of annoyance with which Gladys greeted me +seemed connected in some way with the presence of Boller. In my state +of mind I should have suspected any octogenarian who smiled on Gladys +Todd as plotting against my happiness. That she was essential to my +happiness I realized as I watched her, in the shaded lamplight, her +face turned to him as she listened intently to an account of his recent +visit to Washington. They did not treat me as though I made a crowd. +That, at least, would have given me some importance. My rôle was a +younger brother's. Boller's greeting was kindly, but he made +unmistakable his superiority in years and wisdom as he lapsed into an +arm-chair and toyed with the broad black ribbon adorning his glasses, +while I was condemned to sit upright on a spindly chair. When he +addressed me it was to explain things of which he presumed that I was +ignorant, and he gave no heed to my vehement protests to the contrary. +When Gladys Todd addressed me it was to call attention to some +peculiarly interesting feature of Boller's discourse. They did not +drive me to despair, though I was sure this to be their aim. They +simply aroused my fighting blood. All other thoughts for the future +were forgotten, buried under the repeated vow that I would repay Gladys +Todd a thousand times for this momentary coldness and would deal a +stinging blow to Boller's self-complacency. + +Boller announced to us in confidence that, having seen Washington, it +was now his intention to go abroad. I could not understand why we were +pledged to secrecy as to his plans, for the country would not be +entirely upset by his departure; but it was clear to my suspicious mind +that his revelations had a twofold purpose--to lift himself to greater +heights of superiority over the humble college boy and to make himself +a more desirable _parti_ for Gladys Todd. In his words, in the quiet +smile with which he was regarding her, I read his secret hope that when +he went abroad she would be with him as Mrs. Boller. Restless, +uncomfortable, and angry as I was, I had been at the point of leaving, +but this disclosure changed my purpose. I realized that I was in no +mere skirmish and I dared not give an inch of ground. I stayed. +Boller talked on. The clock on the mantel struck the hour, then the +half. He looked at me significantly, but I did not move. The clock +struck the hour again, and Boller rose with a sigh. He suggested that +I go with him, but I shook my head and stood with my hands behind my +back, tearing at my fingers. He smiled and stepped to the door, with +Gladys Todd following. They paused. He spoke in an undertone, and I +caught but two words, "At three." He raised his voice and bade me +good-night, calling me "Davy" as though I were a mere boy. Again he +said, "At three," jotting the hour indelibly in his mind. + +Gladys Todd from the shaded lamplight looked at me with a face clouded +with displeasure. I, sitting on my spindly chair, very upright, heard +the cryptic number three ringing in my brain. What was going to happen +"at three"? At three to-morrow they would walk along the lane which +wound around the town and down to the river. I thought of it now as +"our lane," a sanctuary that would be desecrated by Boller's mere +presence. The plausible theory became a fact. I must act, and act at +once. For me to act was to avow my love. I must propose to Gladys +Todd. In that purpose all else was forgotten--even Boller. Over and +over again I declared to myself that I loved her, but the simple words +halted at my lips. A thousand protestations of my undying love pushed +and crowded and jostled one another until they were strangling me. +Without a tremor in my voice I could have told Gladys Todd that some +other man loved her to distraction, and yet, when it was so vital to my +happiness that I speak for myself, the simple words halted at my lips +and checked the whole onrush of passionate avowal. + +Thinking that distance might have some part in my unnerving, I joggled +my chair a few feet nearer, grasped a knee in each hand, and leaning +forward fixed a determined gaze upon her face. I had abandoned all +idea of saying those three words as they should be said for the first +time. To say them at all, I must blurt them out, but I believed that +with them said the floodgates would be opened and the true lover-like +appeal burst forth. Gladys Todd must have thought that I was angry, +for she asked me what was the matter. Some inane reply forced its way +through the press of unuttered avowals. Now, I said, I will tell her +what the matter really is, and I have always believed that I should +have done so at that moment had not the front door banged, heralding +the coming of Doctor Todd. + +He entered the room, and I numbered him with Boller among the enemies +of my happiness. He took the very chair which Boller had occupied, and +made himself comfortable for the rest of my stay. + +"Well, David, you will soon be leaving us forever," he said, bringing +his hands together and smiling at me over his wide-spread fingers. In +that word "forever" I saw a hidden meaning, and behind my back I +clinched my hands and registered my unalterable will. "You are going +out into the world to make your name, David," the doctor went on, +growing grave. "I do hope that you will succeed as well as Boller of +'89. Boller, David, is a man of whom McGraw is proud--a remarkable +young man. He dropped into my study for a few minutes this evening and +it was a pleasure to listen to him. Such a breadth of view! Such +nobility of purpose! He will rise high--that young man. We shall hear +much of Boller." + +It had been my intention to try to sit out Doctor Todd, but I was in no +mood to listen to these praises of Boller from one whom I now regarded +as his confederate. I took my leave as quickly as I could, but it was +with the inwardly avowed purpose of returning as quickly as I could. +Then, I said, the three words would be spoken, not rudely blurted out, +but spoken as they should be for the first time. The mention of Boller +had brought back to my mind the haunting "three," to echo in every +corridor of my brain, and before I fell asleep that night, exhausted by +over-thinking, I lifted my hands into the blackness and whispered what +had so long hung unuttered on my lips. To-morrow, I said, I shall say +it--at two. + +At two in the afternoon I found Gladys Todd in the little vine-covered +veranda in the rear of the house, painting. I am sure that had I seen +her for the first time as she sat there at her easel beautifying a +black plaque with a bunch of tulips, every wave of her hand as she +plied the brush would have struck the divine spark in my heart. +Marguerite at her spinning was not more lovely. The place was ideal +for my purpose. We were above the town, hidden by height from its +sordidness, and we looked far into mountain-tops where white clouds +loitered on the June-day peace. The fresh green of early summer was +about us, and the only sound was the drum of bees in the honeysuckle. +The time, too, was ideal, for it was a whole hour until "three." My +position was ideal, for I placed my chair very close to her and leaned +forward with one hand outstretched to support my appeal. Thus I +stayed, mute, like an actor who has forgotten his lines. The three +words came to my lips, only to halt there. + +Fortunately Gladys Todd did not notice my embarrassment, for her eyes +were on her work, and while she painted she was telling me of a game of +tennis which she had played that morning with the three Miss Minnicks. +To the three Miss Minnicks I laid the blame of my silence. Had she +been talking of any one else or of anything else, I said, I could have +uttered the vital fact which hung so reluctantly on my lips, but to +break in rudely in a recitation of fifteen thirties, vantages in and +vantages out, with an announcement that I loved her would be quite +ridiculous. I dropped my hand and stretched back in my chair. Gladys +Todd talked on and painted. + +The college clock struck the half-hour, and for me the one clanging +note was a solemn warning. I sat up very straight, I grasped the sides +of the chair, and the words were uttered. But to me it seemed that +some other David Malcolm had spoken them--mere shells of words that +rattled in my ears. + +"David!" The voice and tone were like my mother's. Gladys Todd +stopped painting and, turning, looked at me strangely. I could not +have faced that gaze of hers and said another word, but she quickly +averted her eyes, abandoned brush and palette, and sat studying her +clasped hands. + +There was nothing now to hold back the flood of passionate avowal. +Perhaps my voice was a little weak, but it grew stronger as I took +heart at the sight of her listening so quietly. I told her that I had +loved her that evening when we first met; that since then, in all my +waking moments, she had been in my thoughts; I had never loved another +woman; I never could love another woman. With my outstretched arm +hovering so near to her I might have taken her unawares, taken her into +my possession and throttled any rising protest; but to touch her with +my little finger would have seemed to me a profanation. I expected her +to sink into the embrace of that solitary arm. + +But she did not. She looked up at me and said: "David, I am sorry--so +sorry." + +"Sorry?" + +There was a ring of indignation in my voice. I was not prepared for +such an enigmatic answer. Indeed, I had expected but one response, the +one that was mine by right of four years of devotion, by right of those +beacon-lights which I had seen so often in her eyes. Sorry? If she +was sorry, why had she led me to spend so many hours in her company, +why had she walked with me in "our lane," where the very air seemed to +brood with sentimental thought? I doubted if I heard her rightly. + +"Very, very sorry, David," she repeated. "I never dreamed that you +cared for me in this way. I thought you were a good friend. I never +could think of you as anything else than a good friend." + +I was too much stunned to speak. For days I had been rehearsing in my +mind what I should say to her when her hand was in mine, but I had not +prepared for a contingency like this. I was helpless. I could only +lean back in my chair and gaze at her reproachfully. + +"You will forget me very soon," she said, looking up after a moment. +"You are going away in a few days. You must forget me, David. Promise +me you will." + +She took up her brush and palette and began to touch the plaque +lightly. As I remember her now, Gladys Todd's face was loveliest in +profile. "Promise me," she said, tossing her head and focussing her +eyes on the tulips. + +Poor David Malcolm! You were young then and little learned in the ways +of women. You did not know that to a woman a proposal is a thing not +to be ended lightly with consent. You did not know that when the +gentlest woman angles she is as any fisher who plays the game with rod +and reel and delights in the rushes of the victim. You made no mad +rushes. You sat stupidly quiescent. You saw the fair profile dimly as +though it were receding into the mists beyond your reach. Your pride +was hurt. You were angry and would have flung yourself out of her +presence, but you could not endure the shame of defeat. + +The college clock struck three. It aroused me from my stupor, and I +did make one mad rush, in my confusion acting with more acumen than I +knew. + +"I never will forget you--I never can forget you," I said brokenly. + +The door creaked and I arose, but it was not to face Boller. Knitting +in hand, Mrs. Todd bustled out. She made no apology for her intrusion. +The veranda was the coolest place in the house, and as she sank into a +chair I numbered her with Boller and Doctor Todd, with the enemies of +my happiness. Her round, innocent face seemed to mask a grim purpose +to sit there for the rest of the afternoon. Gladys Todd talked of the +three Miss Minnicks again as she plied her brush, and Mrs. Todd of Mr. +Minnick and Mrs. Minnick as she worked her needles. They crushed the +struggling hope I had for one moment more in which to make a last +appeal. Boller did not come. The college clock struck four and still +there was no sign of him. I was sure that he had some knowledge of my +presence, and perhaps waited for a signal from the house announcing my +departure. In that case it was useless for me to stay longer listening +to idle chatter about the Minnicks, and so, utterly unhappy, smarting +with the sense of defeat, humiliated, I made my departure, and fled +across the campus to the college and my room. + +I took no supper. The mere idea of food was nauseating. I paced the +floor with my thoughts in chaos. Of consolation I had but one unsteady +gleam--at least I should be burdened with no harassing financial +problem. Sometimes the question of my meagre resources had been +amazingly persistent, but I had fought it down as unworthy to have a +place with nobler thoughts. Now it rose again, and for a moment it +seemed that I had escaped a heavy burden. Then I remembered Boller. I +pictured Boller sitting in the vine-clad veranda while Gladys Todd +painted; Boller in the Todd parlor, standing under a bower of clematis, +while Gladys Todd moved toward him in step to the wedding-march played +by the eldest Miss Minnick. In the sleepless hours that followed, one +purpose fixed itself in my mind. I should leave McGraw next day at the +sacrifice of a useless diploma. So I wrote to Gladys Todd. I wrote +many notes before I was satisfied, and the one I despatched had, I +thought, a manly, sensible tone. I did not wish to spend another week +in sight of her home and yet banished from it, I said; I had cherished +certain hopes, and now I could not stand idle in their wreckage; I had +my work to do and was away to do it, but I could not leave without a +friendly good-by to her and without expressing a wish for her +happiness. This last was a subtle reference to Boller. Having made +it, the words which followed were astonishing, but they were born of a +faint hope that after all I might not have to go. I told her that she +knew best and I would forget her, and now I was going for a last walk +in the lane where we had spent so many happy hours, and then to take +myself to new scenes, bearing with me the memory of her as just a +friend. + +The afternoon found me in the lane, on a knoll where the leafage broke +and gave a vista of rolling country. My eyes were turned to the hills, +but my ears were quickened to catch the sound of foot-falls. In my +heart I said that I should never hear them; my dismissal had been too +peremptory for me to cozen myself with so absurd an idea. But the hope +which had brought me there would not die. Sometimes the wind stirred +the leaves and grass, and I would start and look up the lane. Time +after time I was the victim of that teasing wind, and with recurring +disappointments my spirits sank lower. Then when an hour remained +before my train left, and I was standing undecided whether or not to +keep to my vigil, I heard a sharp crackle of dry twigs behind me. + +Gladys Todd had come. She was carrying her sketch-book, and dropped it +in confusion when she saw me emerge from behind the trunk of a great +oak. I seized it and held it as a bond against her retreat, affecting +not to see the hand which she held out commanding its return. I had +planned exactly what I should say did she appear in just this way, and +now my well-turned phrases scattered and I stood before her, silent, +regarding her. It was just as well. My solemn eyes must have said +more than any wordy speech. + +"I did not expect to find you here, Mr. Malcolm," she said, dropping +her hand as a sign of momentary surrender. + +Her tone was one of genuine surprise, and though the statement was +astonishing I could not conceive a woman of her character deviating +from the straight line of truth, and the hope which had soared high at +her coming in answer to my subtle call now sank away. I held out the +book mutely. + +She did not see it. "I was on my way to the river to sketch," she +said. "I had no idea--" She dropped down on the bank and began to +pick vaguely at the clover. "Please go. Good-by." + +The brim of her sailor hat guarded her face, so that she really did not +see the book which I was holding toward her. I placed it on the grass +beside her and turned to obey, intending to march away in military +fashion, perhaps whistling my defiance. + +"You'll promise to forget me," I heard her say. + +I looked down at her, but the hat screened her face. + +"Yes," I answered, with a steadiness that was surprising, for my throat +was parched and my knees had become very weak, so weak that I gave up +all thought of marching in military fashion and gathered strength to +drag myself out of her sight. I went up the lane slowly. I looked +back and saw her sitting very still, one hand on her big portfolio, the +other listless on the clover. I reached the bend in the lane. Passing +it, I should march on to my conquests, unhappy, wofully unhappy, but +going faster because alone. + +"David," she called. + +I stepped back, hardly believing my ears. She was sitting very still, +looking over the lane and the hills. I went nearer. She was like +stone. I sat down at her side and somehow my hand touched her hand on +the big portfolio, and her hand did not move. And somehow my hand +closed on hers. + +"David," she said, looking up, "you won't forget me, will you?" + +Forget you! I swore to Gladys Todd that I had been idly boasting. I +would have carried her image to the grave, burned on my heart. The +memory of her would have been the only light in all my life of +darkness. But now there was no darkness. For us there was only +glorious day. The astonishing thing, the incomprehensible thing, was +that Gladys Todd could love me; that it was really true that she loved +me that first night we met; that she loved me yesterday when she sat on +the vine-clad porch painting tulips so carelessly. + +"But I did, David," she protested. + +"Then why didn't you say so?" I returned reproachfully. + +"Because I wanted to make you say so," she answered. + +"But, Gladys," I cried, "I was sure you were in love with Boller." + +She stared at me with eyes full of wonder. + +"With Boller," I exclaimed. "Boller of '89." + +"Why, David Malcolm, you poor, dear child," she cried. "How could you +have been so foolish. He left yesterday--yesterday at three." + +A cloud suddenly hurled itself across the brightness of my day. It +seemed that after all I had hurried unnecessarily, for the financial +problem forces itself even into the seventh heaven of love, and now it +came like a ghoul to devour my happiness. It assumed concrete form in +a picture of Doctor Todd when I went to him empty-handed, and I could +not help feeling that it would have been better had I not let suspicion +and jealousy hurry me to the attainment of what could have been mine a +year later under less embarrassing circumstances. + +My moment of abstraction was quickly noticed. Gladys Todd wanted to +know my troubles. They were hers now, she said, for thenceforth we +must share our burdens. I rose, for I was young. I laughed, and with +my laugh the clouds were swept away, for no cloud could veil the +sunshine from my heart when the big sketch-book was under my right arm +and her small hand was under my left arm as we walked together down +that clover-carpeted lane. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +I have travelled far in my life, travelled the seven seas by sail and +steam, and on horse and camel crossed plain and desert. The Pacific, +the Indies, the Arctic--I count over the coasts where my ships have +cast anchor; I go back in my memory to the first foreign shores on +which my eyes rested, and you perhaps will smile when I tell you that +they were the Jersey meadows. I saw them from a car window on a June +evening. The train had crossed the bridge at Newark, and below me in +the river lay ships--tiny coasters, I know now, but then in the dusk +magnified for me to the dignity of world-wanderers. In the salt vapors +of the marshes I scented the sea and the far-borne aroma of the +tropics, the lands of palm and spice, and I looked away to the +encircling hills and their scattered lights with something of the +exultation of Columbus when he spied the blazing torch which marked the +New World. This was a new world to me. I had known only the inland, +little valleys where life moved as placidly as the little rivers which +threaded them. Now the sight of mast and spar, the salt vapors, the +far-spread lights told me that I had come to a strange land, and I was +eager to reach its heart and to see its mysteries. I was keyed high +with the hope of conquest. With the salt marshes behind me, I left +behind me, too, the Old World, the little valleys, the placid streams, +and very straight I was, and very self-confident, when at last I looked +across the dark river to the towering shadow of the city, pierced by +its myriad stars. I felt neither fear nor loneliness. This city had +been building for these hundreds of years for just this hour. It +waited to receive me. + +But the David Malcolm who stood bewildered in the streets was not the +conqueror who had stepped ashore from the ferry-boat. The life a +moment ago so precious had suddenly lost its value in the eyes of the +unknowing. Yesterday he had walked through Malcolmville, and every +man, woman and child in its straggling length had come out to bid him +farewell. His departure was an event. His arrival in these strange +streets was an event, but to him alone. His very existence was not +recognized save by those churlish souls with whom his awkwardness +brought him into physical contact. A belt-line car charged at him as +though it mattered little if he were ground beneath its wheels. A +truck hurled at him as though it were a positive blessing could the +world be rid of him. Plunging to safety, he bowled over a man who made +it perfectly plain that he regarded himself as just as important as +Malcolm of '91. Pausing on a corner with his shining suit-case at his +feet, he looked about him. Then he became in his own mind but another +ant in a giant hill. + +I was lonely now, but I had no fear. I watched the unceasing flow of +life around me, and I said that I could move in it as boldly as any +man, and perhaps a little better than most men, and if the time came +when I must at last be caught beneath a belt-line car my removal from +these mad activities would at least be dignified by a notice in the +papers. The shrinkage to my self-importance added fire to my ambition. +More carefully but resolutely I threaded my way up Cortlandt Street, +and at every step my sense of my unimportance increased. Even my hotel +seemed to be a hotel of no importance. Mr. Pound had stayed there in +1876, and his account of its magnitude and luxury had led me to believe +that I could find it merely by asking. Three men met my simple inquiry +with shakes of the head and hurried brusquely on, and yet they were +respectable and intelligent-looking. The policeman at the Broadway +corner had at least heard of my hostelry; he remembered having seen it +when he first came on the force, but he was inclined to believe that it +had long since been torn down. This was discouraging, but I did not +abandon my search, for Mr. Pound had advised me to make myself known to +Mr. Wemple, the head clerk, a friend of his, who would doubtless be of +service to me. And now in my great loneliness I wanted to find not the +hotel, but Mr. Wemple, for I knew that with him I could talk on terms +of friendship, however frail. From the horse-car jogging up Broadway I +watched for the corner where the policeman told me the hotel had been; +I reached it and saw a tall building adorned by many golden signs, +inviting me not to the comfort of bed and board but to the purchase of +linens and hosiery. It was growing late. The part of the town through +which I was passing had put out its lights and gone home to bed, so I +had to abandon hope of finding Mr. Wemple, and turned into the first +hotel I saw, an imposing place with a broad window in which sat a +solemn, silent row of men gazing vacantly into the street. + +Here at last I ended my journey, weary and lonely, without even Mr. +Wemple to welcome me to the city where I had cast my fortunes. Before +long I joined the solemn line and sat watching the street, and Broadway +below Union Square at night, even in those times, was not an enlivening +scene. My conquest was forgotten; my mind wandered back to the valley +at home. Here I sat listlessly, in a hot, narrow canyon through which +swept a thin, sluggish stream of life; above me was just a patch of +sky; before me was a tall cliff of steel and stone, pierced by +numberless dead windows. As I sat in the glare of electric lights, in +smoke-charged air, my ears ringing with the harsh medley of the street, +I fancied myself on the barn-bridge again. The moon would be rising +over the ridges and the valley would lie at my feet with its checkered +fields of brown and gray rolling away to the mountains, and the music +of the valley would be no harsh clatter of bells and hoofs; I should +hear the wind in the trees, the rustle of the ripening grain, the +whippoorwill calling from the elm by the creek, and the restless +bleating of sheep in the meadow. Thinking of these things, I asked +myself if the life I had left was not far better than the one I had +chosen; if the highest reward for my coming years of labor would not be +the right to return to it. But for pride I could have abandoned all my +mighty plans at that moment and gone back, even, as the Professor had +said, to doze like the very dogs. I dared not. My parents' joy at my +return might over-balance the loss of their high hopes for my fame, and +had they alone been in my thoughts I should have taken the night train +home. But I could not go back to Gladys Todd beaten before I had even +come to blows with life. + +The last picture I had of her was the heroic one of a woman speeding +her knight to battle. Gladys had an embarrassing way of calling me +"her knight." She stood on the platform of the Harlansburg station, +and I leaned from a window of the moving train. Beside her was Doctor +Todd waving his hat, and behind her the three Miss Minnicks with +handkerchiefs fluttering. She was very straight and very still, but I +knew what was in her thoughts. She had faith in my strength; when she +saw me again my feet would be firmly set on the ladder by which men +climb above the heads of their herded fellows. In the hours of the +long journey the picture of her was very clear to me; I seemed to be +wearing her colors as I went to the conflict; with her spirit watching +over me, I could strike no mean blow nor use my strength in any +unworthy cause. + +How glad I was that she could not see me now, as I sat in the hotel +window on two legs of my chair, with my feet on the brass rail, a +figure of dejection. The glamour of my great adventure was gone. I +had come quickly to the waste places of which the Professor had spoken. +When I closed my eyes to the noisome street and the clamor, when I saw +the pines on the ridge-top clear cut against the moonlit sky, when I +heard the whippoorwill calling from the elm and the sheep bleating in +the meadow, I believed that I was marching to barren conquests and +fighting for worthless booty. But I dared not turn back. + +In the morning, however, I looked at that same street with different +eyes. The thin, sluggish stream of life had swollen to a mighty +current. The raucous little medley of the night was lost in the +thunders of the awakened city. The towering canyon was swept by the +brightest of suns. I seemed to be standing idle in the midst of the +conflict, and I was eager to plunge into it. So at noon that day I +began my fight. I presented myself at the editorial rooms of _The +Record_ and asked for Mr. Carmody. In my hand I held a letter to him +from Boller, recommending me in such high terms that it seemed highly +improbable that he could refuse me his good offices. To support +Boller's assertions as to my acquirements I had also letters from +Doctor Todd and Mr. Pound. According to Doctor Todd, the journal which +secured the services of David Malcolm was to be congratulated; he +recited my high achievements, my graduation with honors in the largest +class in the history of McGraw, my winning of the junior oratorical +contest with a remarkable oration on "Sweetness and Light." Mr. Pound +was less fulsome in his praises, for he was by nature a pessimistic +man, but he could vouch for my honesty, though, to be frank, he had +been disappointed by my abandoning my purpose to enter the ministry; +yet he had known me from infancy, he had had a little part in the +development of my mind, and he was confident that I needed but the +opportunity to make my mark in any profession. + +With such support, my air when I asked for Mr. Carmody was naturally +one of assurance. The office-boy, an ancient man in the anteroom, +handed my card and Boller's letter to a very young assistant, and where +my eyes followed him through a door I saw a number of men seated at +battered desks. Some were writing; some were reading; some merely +smoking; some had their heads together and talked in low tones. All +were in their shirt-sleeves; and none presented the dignified +appearance of my conception of a journalist, and especially of so +successful a journalist as Mr. Bob Carmody. I was confident that the +very young office-boy would pass them and go to the doors beyond, which +must lead to the true sanctum. No; where he stopped I saw a +wide-spread paper; over the top of it a mop of flaming red hair, and +bulging from the sides of it the sleeves of a very pink shirt. The +curtain was lowered, disclosing a round, red face heavily blotched with +shaving-powder. There was nothing of dignity in Mr. Carmody's +appearance; there was nothing in his rotund features to suggest any +high purpose or distinguished ambition; indeed, it seemed that he would +be content to sit forever on that small chair at that battered desk. + +He dropped the paper, looked at my card, and read Boller's letter. +Evidently it amused him, for the half-burned cigarette in his mouth +moved convulsively, and as he came toward me there sprang up in my mind +doubts as to Boller's estimate of him. But he proved a good-natured +young man and certainly very modest. Sitting on the ancient +office-boy's desk, he addressed me in low tones, as though he feared to +be overheard. He was glad to know any friend of Boller's, but +evidently Boller was laboring under a misapprehension as to his +importance. He disavowed having any influence. Had he the power, +nothing would delight him more than to give a friend of Boller a job. +I had never thought of myself hunting anything so commonplace as a job, +but as I listened to him and looked past him into the editorial room my +ideas of my chosen profession were rapidly readjusting themselves and I +was casting about for a way in which to continue my quest without the +influence on which I had counted so heavily. I protested that I had +never dreamed of him giving me a job; I had come to him simply for +advice, and perhaps an introduction to the real powers. + +Mr. Carmody gave an uneasy glance over his shoulders to a large desk in +the corner, where sat a tall, thin man who seemed absorbed in a game of +checkers played with newspaper clippings. Mr. Hanks, the city editor, +he explained; nothing that he could say would have any influence on Mr. +Hanks. On my insisting, however, he at last consented to sound Mr. +Hanks on my behalf; he approached him with something of the caution he +would have used in confronting a tiger; he waved his hand to me to +assure me that all was well, and when I stood by the big desk he +disappeared, and it was many days before I saw him again. + +There was nothing repelling in Mr. Hanks. Indeed, he seemed rather a +mild man, but when he turned on me a pair of large spectacles I felt +suddenly as though I were a curious insect being examined under +magnifying-glasses. Mr. Hanks, with his thin, pale face and +dishevelled hair, appeared more an entomologist than a militant editor. +In a moment, however, I saw him in action. He shot his bare arm across +the littered desk, he seemed to try to destroy his brass bell, and with +every ring he shouted, "Copy--copy!" Office-boys sprang from the floor +and dropped from the ceiling; they tumbled over one another in their +hurry to answer the summons. He reprimanded them for being asleep. I +thought that they would be ordered to bring Mr. Malcolm a chair, but +instead one received from a waving hand a bunch of paper, and they +retired as they had come, into the floor and the ceiling. I was under +the magnifying-glasses again. + +"Well, Mr. Malcolm," said Mr. Hanks, leaning back in his chair and +clasping his hands behind his head, "ever done any newspaper work?" + +"No, sir," I answered boldly. "I have just graduated from McGraw." + +"And where in the devil is McGraw?" he asked in a slow, wondering voice. + +How I wished for Doctor Todd! In five minutes this self-confident +journalist would blush for his own ignorance. But Doctor Todd not +being here to confound him with facts, there was nothing better for me +to do than to hand him the letter. His face lighted with a smile as he +read it. The effect was so good that I followed it with Mr. Pound's. +The effect of Mr. Pound's was so good that I was confident that I +should soon be a journalist in fact, for Mr. Hanks read it over twice. + +"My boy," he began, regarding me through his spectacles benignly. At +that familiar address my heart leaped. "Let me give you some advice." +My heart fell. "Take those letters and lock them up to read when you +are ten years older. Then start out and go from office to office until +you get a place. Don't be discouraged. Some day you'll break in +somewhere." + +"But I want to work on _The Record_," I cried. "It's politics agree +with mine--it is Republican. It is a respectable paper. It----" + +Mr. Hanks was leaning over his desk. "Pile," he said, addressing the +fat man who sat across from him, "that was a good beat we had on the +Worthing divorce--I see all the evenings are after it hard. We must +have a second-day story." + +"I am ready," I said a little louder, "to begin with any kind of work." + +Mr. Hanks looked up as though surprised that I was still there. +"You've come at a bad time," he said brusquely. "Summer--we are +letting men go every day. But don't get discouraged. I worked four +months for my first job, and I didn't come from McGraw either. Keep +going the rounds." + +Then he seemed to forget my existence and resumed his game of checkers. + +His dismissal was a terrible blow, but I had read enough of great men +to know that they had to fight for their opportunities, and I was +determined not to be a weakling and go down in the first skirmish. For +a moment I stood bewildered at the entrance of _The Record_ building, +stunned by the unexpected outcome of my visit there. I was indignant +at Boller for having raised my hopes so high. I was indignant at Mr. +Carmody for not measuring up to Boller's estimate. I was indignant at +Mr. Hanks for not making a searching inquiry into my attainments, for +his ignorance of McGraw and his amusement over my precious letters. I +vowed that some day Mr. Hanks should be put under my magnifying-glass, +to shrivel beneath my burning gaze. + +To break in somewhere proved a long task. From Miss Minion's +boarding-house on Seventeenth Street, where I established myself, I +went forth daily to the siege of Park Row. I was shot up to heaven to +editorial rooms beneath gilded domes, and as quickly shot down again. +I climbed to editorial rooms less exaltedly placed, up dark, +bewildering stairways which seemed devised to make approach by them a +peril. I soon knew the faces of all the city editors in town, and all +the head office-boys were as familiar with mine. At the end of the +first round I began to look more kindly on Mr. Hanks and to realize the +wisdom of his advice that I lock away my letters. I recalled the +varied receptions they had met, and when I started on my second round +they were hidden in my trunk. Repeated rebuffs had a salutary effect. +My egotism was reduced to a vanishing-point, my pride was quickened, +and with my pride my determination to accomplish my purpose. Even had +I lacked pride, I must have been nerved to my dogged persistence by the +memory of Gladys Todd with Doctor Todd and the three Miss Minnicks +speeding me to my triumphs. Every evening when I came home, tired and +discouraged, to Miss Minion's, I found a letter addressed to me in a +tall, angular hand--a very fat letter which seemed to promise a wealth +of news and encouragement. But Gladys Todd could say less on more +paper than I had believed possible. Encouragement she gave me, but +never news. News would have spoiled the graceful flow of her +sentences. Yet she was wonderfully good in the way she received my +accounts of my disappointments. She was prouder than ever of "her +knight"; her faith in him was firmer than ever; as she sat in the +evening, in the soft light of the lamp, she was thinking of me with +lance couched charging again and again against the embattled world. + +At first in my replies I found a certain satisfaction in recounting my +defeats; for in fighting on I seemed to be proving my superior worth +and strength, and I became almost boastful of my repeated failures. +But the glamour of defeat wears off as the cause for which one fights +becomes more hopeless, and after a month I seemed farther than ever +from attaining my desire. I became depressed in the tone of my +letters, but as my spirits sank Gladys Todd's seemed to soar. + +One particularly fat epistle I found on my bureau on an evening when I +was so discouraged that I was beginning to consider heeding my father's +appeal that I return home and study for the Middle County bar. I +opened it with dread. I wanted no comfort, but here in my hands were +twenty pages of Gladys Todd's faith in me and her pride in me. She was +sure that I should have the opportunity which I sought, and, having it, +would mount to the dizziest heights. She likened me to a crusader who +wore her colors and was charging single-handed against the gates of the +Holy City and shouting his defiance of the infidels who held it. It +was an exalted idea, but I remembered my tilt that afternoon with the +ancient office-boy of _The Record_, and his refusal to take my seventh +card to Mr. Hanks. The comparison was so absurd that I laughed as I +had not laughed in many days, and with the sudden up-welling of my +mirth, lonely mirth though it was, the blood which had grown sluggish +quickened, the drooping courage rose, I saw the world through clearer +eyes. The next afternoon when I faced the ancient office-boy the +remembrance of Gladys Todd's metaphor made me smile, and so overcome +was he by this unusual geniality that he did take in my card to Mr. +Hanks. + +"Again," said Mr. Hanks, leaning back in his chair and surveying me +through his magnifying-glasses. "Young man, are you never going to +give me a rest?" + +"Never," said I, smiling. "You advised me to go the rounds and not to +be discouraged." + +"Have you got your letters with you?" he asked mildly. + +"They are locked away in my trunk," said I. + +"You certainly have taken my advice with a vengeance," said he. "I +suppose I shall have to do something to protect myself." + +He leaned over his desk and became absorbed in his everlasting game of +checkers. The smile left my face, for I thought that he had forgotten +my presence, as he had forgotten it so many times before. But after a +moment he slanted his head, focussed one microscope on me, and said: +"Do you think you could cover Abraham Weinberg's funeral this +afternoon?" + +So it was that Gladys Todd's crusader at last broke down the gates of +the Holy City. But I fear that it was to become one of the defending +infidels. Doctor Todd, in his letter to whom it might concern, +announced that David Malcolm was about to launch himself into +journalism. And now, after long waiting, David Malcolm was launched. +Just when he was despairing of ever leaving the ways he had shot down +them suddenly into the Temple Emanu-El and the funeral of Abraham +Weinberg. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +You can well understand the elation with which I announced my success +to Gladys Todd. It was magnified by the month of disappointment, and +to her I felt that I owed a debt. Though I had come to look with irony +on her high-flown expressions of faith in me, I realized that the fear +of her equally high-flown scorn had more than once kept me from +abandoning my project. With pride I enclosed in my letter my account +of the funeral of Mr. Weinberg, though I refrained from marring the +trophy with an explanation that this first public production of my pen +had been allowed to attain the length of a column because his store +covered half a block and his advertisements many pages of _The Record_. +As a trophy Gladys Todd received it. Declaring that she lacked words +in which to express her pride in her knight, she flew to greater +heights than ever before. She had placed my first journalistic effort +in a scrap-book, and all that I wrote was to be preserved in like +manner. I must send her every published line that came from my pen. +Her knight had triumphed in his first real passage at arms, and she +sent to me a chaplet of victory. It came--not a wreath, but a cushion +worked with her own hands, mauve and white, the colors of McGraw, with +'91 in black on one side and on the other the word "Excelsior." + +The scrap-book grew rapidly to alarming proportions, for having now my +opportunity I worked hard, and Mr. Hanks was fond of telling me that I +was rapidly outgrowing the reputation Doctor Todd and Mr. Pound had +made for me on Park Row. Accounts of murders, suicides, yacht-races, +robberies, public meetings, railroad accidents--all the varied events +which make up a day's news--followed the funeral into Gladys Todd's +archives. You can readily imagine that my views of life soon underwent +a change. They became rather distorted, as I see them now; and was it +a wonder when my day began at noon and ended in the small hours of the +morning, carried me through hospitals, police-stations, and courts, +from the darkest slums to the stateliest houses on the Avenue, from the +sweatshop to the offices of the greatest financiers. To me all men +were simply makers of news, and by their news value I judged them. A +man's greatness I measured by the probable length of his obituary +notice. Indeed, greatness itself was but the costume of a puppet, so +often did I see the sawdust stuffing oozing from the gashes in the +cloth. When I met one bank cashier simply because he had stolen, I +forgot the thousands of others who were plodding away through lives of +dull honesty. Because one Sunday-school superintendent sinned, I +classed all his kind as sinners. Becoming versed in the devious ways +of statesmen, I began to doubt the virtues of my old heroes whose +speeches I had often declaimed with so much unction. I became a cynic. +At twenty-two my thoughts matched the epigrams of Rochefoucauld and my +philosophy that of Schopenhauer. All my old ideas as to the importance +of the work I had chosen and of my own value to the world were quickly +dissipated. Often I had cause to remember the Professor and his +argument that even of our good actions selfishness was the main-spring, +and accepting it as true, and laying bare the roots of my own motives +and of those around me, I should have moved confusedly in the darkness +had I not come to see more clearly what he meant by marching under +sealed orders and to realize that I had a duty and that it was to live +by the light I had. I did try to do this. I had a conscience, and +though I might believe that it was but a group of conceptions as to the +nature of right and wrong poured into my mind by my early instruction, +it protested as strongly against abuse as did my digestive organs. +Sometimes I had to effect strange compromises with it. Sometimes, in +my never ceasing search for facts, I found myself causing pain and +trouble to those who were innocently brought under the shadow of crime +and scandal, but I justified myself by the theory that they suffered +for the good of the many. To me the old dictum that the end justifies +the means became a useful balm. + +You might think that, with so radical a change in my ideas, I should +see Gladys Todd in another light than that of my college days. Indeed, +looking back, those college days did seem of another age and another +world, but in them Gladys Todd had become linked to me by ties as +indissoluble as those which bound me to my father and mother. To what +I deemed my broader view of life, their ways of living and their ways +of thinking were certainly exceedingly narrow, but none the less I +thought of them only with reverence and affection. So it was with +Gladys Todd. That mirthful outburst over her effusion about the +crusader was followed by many of its kind as her daily letters came to +me, but this meant simply that I was growing older than she, and she to +my mind became a child, but was none the less lovely for her +unsophistication. In the turmoil of my daily work, in the unlovely +clatter of Miss Minion's boarding-house, I often recalled the vine-clad +veranda and our walks in the grass-grown lane, looked back to them +regretfully, looked forward yearningly to the renewal of such hours. + +Sometimes when my evening was free from my routine duty, and I was +working harder than ever I had worked in my college days, I would +forget my task to dream of the time when Miss Tucker's piano would no +longer be clattering beneath me, and I should be no more disturbed by +Mrs. Kittle, who had a habit of jumping her chair around the room next +to mine, when somewhere in the city's outskirts I should have a house +of my own, a little house in a bit of green, where I could find quiet +and peace and Gladys Todd. For the realization of that dream all that +I needed was money. By the lack of it I was condemned to Miss +Minion's. Even when I had attained to the munificent salary of Mr. +Carmody, a figure which Boller had announced to me with so much awe, I +was still far from having an income to keep two in the simplest +comfort. It was difficult to make this clear to Gladys Todd. Her +father and mother had married on eight hundred dollars a year, and even +now my salary equalled the doctor's as president of the college. To +her my salary read affluence, and in my letters I began to have +difficulty to convince her that I had not grown exceedingly worldly and +was not putting material comfort in the balance against unselfish and +uncomplaining love. On my third biannual visit to Harlansburg I went +armed with facts and figures as to house rents and flat rents, the +prices of meats per pound, the cost of fuel, light, and clothing. +Having in my pocket such a tabulated statement which showed for +incidentals a balance of but fifty dollars, I could not but smile +ironically at the manner in which Doctor Todd presented me to his +friends. Boller was forgotten. Boller's achievements were outshone by +those of David Malcolm. Malcolm's success demonstrated the high +character of McGraw's system of training. Malcolm was already being +heard from! + +Malcolm, with the problem which confronted him, was inwardly gauging +his success by his bank account, and even the pride of Gladys Todd was +a little clouded when she was called upon to use the same measure. + +Sitting in the very chair in the shaded lamplight from which she had +looked so admiringly on Boller two years before, she now studied the +prospectus of our contemplated venture. She was very lovely, but I +remember noticing what I had never before noticed, the wisps of hair +which floated a little untidily about her ears. And I did what I had +never done before--I compared her with another woman, with Miss Tucker, +whose piano had so often disturbed my evening labors. Miss Tucker +taught mathematics in an uptown girls' school. She was not as pretty +as Gladys Todd, but I remembered how wonderfully neat she was, with +never a hair blowing loose, and I remembered too that, though she had +disturbed me with her music, I never complained of it, for the sake of +the picture which she made every morning when she descended the stoop +beneath my window, going to her work as cheerfully and daintily as many +of her sisters would to a dinner or a dance. + +"We shall only have a hundred dollars left for doctor's bills and +car-fare then, David," said Gladys Todd, looking up from the paper. +There were tears in her eyes, but they did not affect me as much as her +way of doing her hair. How I longed for the courage to tell her that +it was decidedly bad form! + +"But we shall only have to wait a little longer, Gladys," said I, and I +moved my chair beside her chair. + +"I know," she returned more bravely, putting her hand in mine. "But +you don't realize how lonely I am without you. I want to be with you, +helping you--to be at your side comforting you when you are tired, +cheering you when you are discouraged." + +For that moment I forgot the stray wisps and the Langtry knot. + +"But it is only a little while longer," I pleaded. "Let us say in +June. I shall come for you in June. You will wait for me till June?" + +Her hand was on my shoulder, and I forgot all about Miss Tucker. For +that moment I was the happiest of men. + +"Wait for you till June?" she cried. "Why, David, I'd wait for you to +eternity." + +"You need not," I replied, laughing. "In June I am coming to take you +to a little house on a green hill, with a veranda where we can sit on +my holidays, you painting tulips on black plaques, and I--well, I with +you, just thinking how wonderful it all is and----" + +"How wonderful it will be in June!" said Gladys Todd. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Fifth Avenue was in those days a favorite resort of mine. Every +morning I plunged into the rush downtown I dived from the elevated +railway station into the tatterdemalion life of Park Row, and when I +raised my head above that ragged human maelstrom and climbed to the +editorial room of _The Record_ it seemed as though I lifted my body out +of a little muddy stream and plunged my mind into a Charybdis which +embraced the whole world. Its centre was the same desk which I had so +often approached with trembling in the days when I was breaking spears +with the ancient office-boy and Mr. Hanks. I was fixed now in a chair +opposite Mr. Hanks. I had become an editor. But I was not hurling my +spears against the devils that possess poor man. My principal daily +task was to read the newspapers with a microscopic eye, to glean from +them every hint of news to come and to be covered, to present the +clippings to Mr. Hanks ready for his easy perusal, and though in our +province we had to do only with events of a local character, the life +of the city was so interwoven with that of the whole world that to me +our desk seemed a high lookout tower from which we kept an eye on the +very corners of the globe. Did I look from the smutted window at my +side, it was into the struggling throng on the pavement below or, over +the line of push-carts displaying tawdry wares, into the park where the +riff-raff seemed to reign, because the riffraff was always there, +dozing on the benches. Did I look to the other hand, it was through +the great murky room, through air charged with tobacco smoke and laden +heavily with the fumes of ink, molten lead, and paper which filtered +from the floors below through every open door. In a distant corner, a +gloomy figure in the light of a single lamp, I could see the keeper of +the "morgue" cutting his way through piles of papers, filing away his +printed references to Brown, or Jones, or Robinson, against that day +when Brown might die, Jones commit some crime, or Robinson, perchance, +do something virtuous. I could see, in nearer prospect, the rows of +little desks and the reporters at them, some writing, some reading, +some smoking wearily; some young men fresh from college and keyed high +with ambition; some old men shabbily dressed and carelessly groomed who +had spent their lives at those little desks and asked nothing more than +the privilege of ending them there; some of more corpulent minds, like +the great Bob Carmody, who were happy in the attainment of a life's +ambition to become authorities on base-ball, foot-ball, or rowing. +Wherever I looked I seemed to see nothing but the titanic tread-mill +and to hear the clatter of its cogs: within, where the presses rumbled +deep in the ground below me, where the telegraph clicked in the +adjoining room and overhead the typesetting-machines rattled +incessantly; without, in the medley of the street, the cries of the +hawkers, the clang of car gongs, and the never-ending shuffle of feet. +Uptown life seemed on its surface to be lighter, and the curse of Adam +to rest more easily on the shoulders of his children. + +Of Fifth Avenue this was especially true. It was not a canyon of brick +and stone in those days. Trade had just begun its invasion and had +gained a foothold only in the few blocks above and below Twenty-third +Street, and for the rest it was still a street of homes, where people +moved in a more leisurely fashion than in the crowded thoroughfares +downtown. The very air was charged with a healthier life, and here +amid the opulence one could forget the near presence of the squalid +alley. So it had become a habit of mine always to begin my day with a +walk uptown, as a gentle tonic for my body and to give my mind a brief +but more cheerful outlook than through the smutted office windows. I +never tired of the life which I saw about me. And it was about me and +I not of it, for though I might pause at a tailor's to examine his +fabrics, it was always through his plate-glass window; beyond the +window I could afford to go only in the cheaper Nassau Street; and I +might stop in front of a picture-shop, but only to o select prints for +that dream-land house on the hill, set on the bit of green. Smart +carriages rolled by me, manned by immaculate, haughty servants, drawn +by horses stepping high in time with the jingle of their harness. At +one time I had planned an equipage such as these for myself; but now, +computing, from past experience, my future possibilities in finance, I +saw them fascinating as ever, yet as far from me as though they dashed +through some Martian city, and their occupants as removed from my ken +as the inhabitants of the farthest planets. Indeed, even in the +commoner throng about me I knew no one. It was seldom that I was +called on to doff my hat, and then to some of the queer old women who +were moulding away in the corners of Miss Minion's boarding-house or to +Miss Tucker hurrying to her school. + +One morning in May, as was my custom, I set out for work by my +circuitous route, with the intention of walking to Fifty-eighth Street +and taking an elevated train downtown. The day was one of the +loveliest of spring. The brightest of suns swept the Avenue. In +Madison Square the fresh green had burst from the trees overnight, and +I should have liked to drop down on one of the benches there, to look +upward through the branches into the clouds and forget the enclosing +wall of buildings and the tumultuous streets. But I was late, and I +had no mind to hurry on such a day. The languor of the spring was in +my veins, and I strolled on, almost unconscious of the life about me. +Ahead, at the crest of Murray Hill, the city seemed to end, and I to +look through a great gate-way into the blue sky, and I fancied myself +standing there in that gate-way, with the valley lying at my feet, my +valley awakened from its winter's sleep, its hill-sides decked with +blossoming orchards, its mountains carpeted with the soft shadows of +the clouds. I saw the ridge, its green slope slashed by the white +winding road which crossed it. That was the same road up which I had +climbed on a May morning long ago, when I hurried to the Professor's +aid, and I followed it now to the clearing; I saw the clearing with the +Professor leaning on his hoe studying a fleck of cloud, and Penelope +watching him silently, fearing to disturb his important meditations. +In these busy years Penelope had been rarely in my thoughts; if at all, +it was as a little girl with a blue ribbon in her hair, the companion +of a few brief weeks of my boyhood. I dared not picture her as growing +up, for I had no faith in the influence of Rufus Blight, whom I had +always associated with packages of tea and prizes. Penelope grown, I +feared, might have become fat and florid, might speak with a twang and +wear gaudy hats and gowns. My life in New York, even though I was but +a quiet observer, had made me critical of women, and when I could brood +unhappily over Gladys Todd's stray wisps of hair I could have little +sympathy with the type of the imaginary Penelope Blight. But this +morning, when the far-borne freshness of the woods and fields was in +the air, and I longed to feel the soft earth beneath my feet, to break +from the enclosing walls and to stride over the open fields, I recalled +days like this when the wine of spring was in my veins and I had run +through the meadows in a wasteful riot of energy; and then a particular +day like this when Penelope and I had ridden out of the woods, had come +to the ridge-top and looked over the smiling valley. I seemed to feel +Penelope's arms drawn tightly around me as I pointed across the +friendly land and promised to take care of her. I had had no fear then +that she would ever grow corpulent and florid, and now I found myself +asking if my boyish intuition might not have been right, and she +fulfilled entirely the promise of her girlhood, defying the insidious +generosity of time and the vulgar influence of Rufus Blight. Should I +ever know? Should I ever see her? + +I must have been looking at the clouds as I asked myself these +questions, for I walked right into an elderly woman, a tall, buxom +woman who carried in her arms a tiny Pomeranian. The force of our +collision made her drop her pet, and for an instant he hung suspended +by the leash and choking. I apologized humbly, bowing; but my +victim--for such she seemed to think herself--the victim of my +premeditated brutality, lifted the frightened dog back to the refuge of +her arms, glared at me, turned, and swept on to a modiste's door. Her +haughtiness angered me. I held the fault as much hers as mine, for the +pavement was not crowded and she seemed to have risen from it just to +obstruct my passage. I looked about me to discover whence she had come +so suddenly, and in a carriage standing at the curb I found an +explanation. I said to myself that if she had emerged from so smart an +equipage I had indeed committed _lèse-majesté_, for it was such a +turnout as I had dreamed of in my days of opulent dreaming; it was such +a turnout as a poor poet could have used without offending his sense of +the beauty of simplicity. The high-headed horses with their shining +harness, the smart brougham, so spotless that it was hard to imagine +its wheels ever touching the street, the men in their unobtrusive +livery, spoke of unostentation in its most perfect and most expensive +form. The woman of the Pomeranian, I said to myself, must be surely +some _grande-dame_, a leader in that mysterious circle which I knew +only by its name "society." My view of that circle in those days was +tinged with the cynicism of one who knew nothing of it; and though at +the boarding-house table I was prone to rail at it, secretly I had to +admit that my raillery was born of envy. So now it was with a mind +filled half with awe and half with envy that I turned to look after the +imposing woman with the dog. + +For the first time I noticed that she had a companion. First, the +companion was but a slender figure in black, smartly clad. I could see +only her back, and yet as I carried my eye from the dainty boot which +rested on the lowest step to the small gloved hand on the railing, to +the small black hat with its blue wings airily poised, I found myself +making comparisons between this daintiness and the untidy loveliness of +Gladys Todd. I was almost angry with Gladys Todd because she did not +dress with such simplicity, not knowing that all her wardrobe cost +hardly as much as this unobtrusive gown, this masterpiece of a tailor's +art. + +Gladys Todd was not long in my mind. It was as though the memory of +her was swept away by the turn of the blue wings on which my eyes +rested. They moved with a majesty that sent my thoughts hurling down +into the past to match them. I matched them with a bit of blue ribbon. +It had moved as majestically as they. I almost laughed outright. It +was absurd to compare the forlorn child of the clearing with this +smartly groomed young woman, and remembering Nathan, the white mule, I +looked again to the perfectly turned-out carriage at the curb. You +must suspect that there was in my mind, born of a wild hope, a +suspicion that I was seeing Penelope Blight. True. But from Nathan, +the white mule, to this perfect carriage with the haughty footman at +the door was so far a cry that I was about to go on. The girl had +turned also, and I found myself halted and staring at her. I was sure +that she had been studying my back at that moment when I was looking at +the carriage, but being discovered in such interest she gave a start, +recovered herself, and with an angry toss of her head sprang up the +steps and through the door. + +In that moment when our eyes met I was sure that I was face to face +with Penelope Blight. + +The old Florentine writer, Firenzuola, commends nut-brown as the +loveliest color for a woman's eyes, declaring that it gives to them a +soft, bright, clear and kindly gaze and lends to their movement a +mysteriously alluring charm. These eyes were blue, but in that +fraction of an instant when I looked into them, their light was soft +and bright, clear and kindly; I was sure that they were the same +mysteriously alluring eyes that I had first known years before when I +had crawled, wet and cold, from the depths of the mountain brook. +Knowing no more I should have spoken her name, my hand was rising to my +hat, but the soft and kindly light changed suddenly to hostility, and +she was gone. + +I hesitated, not knowing what step to take next. With hesitation doubt +came. I began to argue. The hostile flash of her eyes angered me. +She had tacitly charged me with impertinence, with the manners of a +common Broadway lounger. Then I said, had this really been Penelope +she must have recognized me, for twelve years could not have +obliterated all outward traces of the boy whom she had once known as +her only friend. Remembering that time, remembering the forlorn cabin +in the mountains and the brown, barefooted girl, remembering the +promise of later days given by the sleek vulgarity of Rufus Blight, I +said that she could not have grown to this faultless picture of young +womanhood. Yet the forlorn hope that I might be mistaken would have +held me there awaiting her return had it not been for the haughty +footman by the carriage door. He had been a silent observer of what +had passed, and seeing me now loitering, staring at the modiste's shop, +he cast off his expressionless mask and assumed a very threatening and +scowling appearance. Evidently he, too, thought me a street lounger +who, not satisfied with nearly killing madam, was bent on thrusting his +impertinent attentions on the young mistress. I could not explain to +him that I had known the young mistress years ago when she lived in a +log hut in a mountain valley. His own perfection as a servant made +such an explanation the more incredible; and though loath to abandon +the opportunity to convince myself that I was mistaken, I saw nothing +left for me but to go my way downtown. + +As I sat at my desk I was so distrait that Mr. Hanks accused me of +being in love, speaking as though I were the victim of a mental +derangement which unfitted me for serious labor. After the way of men, +I boldly denied his charge. He paid no attention to my protest, but +expressed himself freely on the unwisdom of a man allowing himself to +fall under the influence of delusions which cost him his mental poise +and might disarrange his whole life. Hearing Mr. Hanks, it was +difficult for me to believe that he had ever been in love himself. +Watching him at his work, with his sharp, restless eyes always alert, +and listening to his voice as incisive as his shears, he seemed a man +whose whole mind was possessed by the pursuit of news, a man whose +brain and body worked with such machine-like accuracy that he could +never fall into the puerile errors of his fellows. Now when he was +misusing his authority to browbeat me into what he termed sanity, I +found comfort in recalling that after all he had once in a moment of +forgetfulness confessed to having a home at Mentone Park, with a wife +and four daughters of whose accomplishments he spoke almost with +boasting. So I troubled no longer with denials, but sat listening to +him with a smiling face. Whereupon he brought his fist down on the +desk and called me a soft-brained idiot. + +"Of course, Malcolm," he said, "I don't know who she is, but my advice +to you is, whoever she is and whatever she is, get her out of your +mind." + +At that very moment Malcolm's mind was occupied with just these +questions: Who was she? What was she? + +With a sense of duty to Gladys Todd I strove hard to put Penelope +Blight out of my thoughts, but I could not. Sometimes I would recall +the face of the girl whom I had seen in the morning, and every feature +would bring back the child of the mountains. Then I went to +directories and searched them for the name of Rufus Blight, but I could +get no trace of him. I evolved a theory that Penelope was the guest of +the woman with the Pomeranian. The carriage must belong to either the +elder or the younger woman. Granting that the younger was Penelope, +then the elder could not be her mother. As I had examined many +directories and found none that gave her uncle's name as living in the +city, I had to conclude that the owner of the Pomeranian was her +hostess and that I was the victim of a trick of fate which had allowed +her to flash across my path and disappear, which had allowed me to have +but this tantalizing glimpse. Then I found consolation in the thought +that after all a glimpse was enough for my peace of mind. Indeed, if +this really were Penelope, then it had been best that I had never seen +her at all, grown to such loveliness. + +Considering myself as I sat in my shirt-sleeves amid grimy workaday +surroundings, remembering the frayed environment of my life uptown, +this Penelope, stepping, daintily booted and gloved, out of that +perfect equipage, was indeed a being who moved in higher airs than I. +Here was an insuperable difficulty. In the valley, David Malcolm, with +the blood of the McLaurins in his veins, might look with contempt on +the Blights and their kind. But we were no longer in the valley, and a +Blight driving down the Avenue in a brougham, drawn by high-headed +horses and manned by haughty servants, would see me not as the head of +a wealthy patrician house, but as a young man on his way from his +boarding-house to labor for a petty wage. Such a reversal of our +relative conditions was so incredible that I found myself arguing that +I could not have seen Penelope Blight, and I tried to return to loyal +devotion to Gladys Todd. + +We were to be married in June. There was no reason why we should not +be married in June if we were content to begin our venture in a modest +five-room flat in Harlem, abandoning for a while the house on the bit +of green. Gladys was not only contented but was enthusiastic over the +prospect. In my pocket was her last night's letter asking if I had yet +rented the apartment. She had already planned it in her mind--here the +piano on which she would play soft accompaniments while I sang "The +Minute Guns at Sea"; there by the window her easel, and near it the +table where her brilliant husband was to sit at night writing novels +and plays and poems which would carry us not only to the green hill but +to the Parnassian heights. When in the quiet of my room I had first +read her letter, I had been lifted on the wave of her ardor, but now, +struggle though I might to look forward to June with contentment, down +in my heart I had to confess a strange uneasiness. It seemed to me +that we were rushing into matrimony. With my mind revolving such +problems over and over, was it a wonder that Mr. Hanks noticed my +distraction and pounded the desk and spoke cuttingly of the effect of +love on a man's mental balance! All that day I neglected my tasks for +the study of my own engrossing business, but when evening came and I +started home I was able to say to myself that I had reached a definite +and unchanging conclusion--I loved Gladys Todd; like all of us, she had +her peccadilloes, and yet I was not worthy of her, but I would try to +be; the girl with the blue wings bobbing so majestically in her hat was +not Penelope Blight. + +Having reached this unchangeable decision, the very next morning, and +every morning after that, I walked up Fifth Avenue with but one thought +in my mind, and this was to see again a small black hat with blue +wings. I became argus-eyed. I peered boldly into passing carriages, +watched the foot traffic on both sides of the street, scanned the +windows of dwelling-houses, and even developed a habit of looking +behind me at fixed intervals that my vigilance might be still more +effective. One day I went boldly into the shop which I had seen the +stranger enter that day with the woman of the Pomeranian, and asked if +I could have Miss Blight's address. A saleswoman, a very blond and +very sinuous person who was standing by the door revolving a large hat +about on one hand while she caressed its plumes daintily, replied that +no Miss Blight was known there. I described her hat with the blue +wings, her companion with the Pomeranian, the very hour of her visit, +but my persistence brought only the information that hundreds of the +shop's patronesses wore blue wings and thousands carried Pomeranians. +The sinuous young woman became so cold and biting in her tone that I +was sure that she believed that I had been fascinated by her own charms +and was using a ruse for the pleasure of this brief interview, so I +made a hasty retreat. My only clew to the owner of the blue-winged hat +had failed me, and all that was left to me was to patrol the Avenue day +after day, forever hoping and forever being disappointed. + +June came. The five-room flat was still unrented. My daily letter +from Harlansburg breathed devotion and happiness over the approach of a +day as yet unset--unset because I had been rather procrastinating about +arranging leave of absence from the office. Doctor and Mrs. Todd had +wanted a college wedding in the chapel. They had even gone so far as +to suggest appropriate music by the glee club and the seniors as +ushers, but when that proposal was made to me I had found to my +distress that I could not leave New York before the summer vacation had +begun. June brought me, too, the very last good fortune I should have +asked at that moment, an unexpected increase in my salary, and unless I +lowered myself by an act of despicable cunning I could not withhold +news of such good import from the future companion of my joys and +sorrows. So I went uptown one night struggling hard to imagine myself +supremely happy. I knew my duty--it was to be supremely happy. I +should write that night to Gladys Todd and announce my coming on the +29th; to-morrow I should find the flat; the next day I should order new +clothes and look at diamond pins. + +I opened Miss Minion's front door with my pass-key, and as I climbed to +my room I seemed to emphasize with my feet the fact that I loved Gladys +Todd and was in an ecstasy of happiness. I slammed my hat down on the +bureau as I vowed again that I loved Gladys Todd. Then I drew back and +stared at my pin-cushion. The usual corpulent letter was not leaning +there; its place had been taken by an emaciated telegram. + +"Do not rent flat. Have written explanation." Such was the message to +me that day. + +At that moment I loved Gladys Todd, and I did not have to stamp the +floor to prove it. I was sure that I had lost her, and it was the +sense of my loss that made my love well up from unfathomable depths to +overwhelm me. I was angry. My pride was hurt. I counted over the +years of my untiring devotion to her, and they seemed to sum up the +best years of my life. That the telegram foreran a more explicit +statement there could be no doubt. After all she had written about the +flat, her instructions that the furniture which she had inherited from +her aunt must fit in, that my table must be near her easel--after all +these evidences of her thought--her command could mean only that our +romance was at an end and our dreams dissipated into air. There was +some other man, I thought--perhaps Boller of '89--and remembering him, +his picturesque garb and ridiculous pose, my own vanity was deeply cut. +Until late that night I sat smoking violently and turning over in my +mind the problem and all its dreadful possibilities. In bed, Sleep, +the friend of woe, was long coming with her kindly ministrations, and +yet held me so long under her beneficent influence that when I awoke I +found lying beside my bed, tossed there through a crack in the door, +the corpulent letter addressed in the tall, angular hand. + +The first line reassured me. Strangely enough, being reassured, +knowing that all the night's fears were silly phantasies born of a +jealous mind, I fell back on my pillow and, holding the letter above my +eyes, read as I had read a hundred of its fellows. Strangely enough, I +said over and over to myself with grim determination that I loved +Gladys Todd. From what she had written it was evident that I need have +no fear that her love was not altogether mine. She believed that where +two persons loved as we did, two persons who possessed each other in +such perfect happiness, it was our duty to sacrifice ourselves a little +for those less blessed than we were. As we gave so we received, and in +giving up our summer of happiness for the happiness of others our +winter would be doubly bright. I must confess that while I agreed with +her as to the duty of self-sacrifice I was a little irritated when I +found that our happiness must be deferred for Judge Bundy's sake. He +was the last person in the world whom I had expected could have any +influence on a matter so personal as the date of my marriage. Now +Gladys called to my mind the recent death of his wife, and she spoke of +his being ill, inconsolable, and miserably lonely. His life was at +stake unless he could have a change of air and scene. His physicians +had ordered for him three months' travel abroad, and he simply would +not go unless Doctor and Mrs. Todd went with him. Unfortunately, +Doctor and Mrs. Todd could not go without their daughter. Surely +David, always self-denying, would understand. On one side was her own +happiness; on the other her duty to her parents to whom had come this +opportunity to see Europe, their life dream, as guests of this generous +friend. It was very hard for her to have to choose. David knew, of +course, what she would say were she really free to choose, but, after +all, it was only for four months, and all that time I should know that, +though she was far away, her eyes were turned over-sea. + +I did not read the last five pages. They fluttered to the floor from +my listless fingers, and I turned again to my pillow and sought the +friend of woe, and again Sleep came to me with her kindly +ministrations. And again I walked the Avenue, and by a modiste's door +I saw a slender figure, a little, spotless, booted foot upon the step, +a little, spotless, gloved hand on the rail, and a small black hat with +long blue wings moving majestically. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"Penelope!" I exclaimed, holding out both hands as though her joy at +the meeting must match mine and she would spring forward to seize them. +Then I checked my ardor, for it was the highest presumption for me to +address so familiarly this woman grown, even though in years gone by +she had raced with me over the fields and had ridden behind me on such +a poor charger as Nathan, the white mule. "Miss Blight," I added, with +a formal bow. + +"I beg your pardon," she returned, implying that she had not the +remotest idea who the man could be who had so boldly spoken, halted +her, barred her passage from the brougham to the modiste's door. + +"Don't you remember David Malcolm?" I said. + +The frown fled from her face. She regarded me a moment with wide eyes. +"Of course I remember David Malcolm," she cried, and, smiling, she held +out a small gloved hand. "And I have seen you before at this very +spot--I was sure it was you. But why didn't you speak to me then?" + +"Because I was not sure," I returned, laughing aloud for the joy of +this meeting. "You have changed since I saw you last, Penelope. It is +hard even now to believe----" + +Again I checked myself. I was looking past Penelope to the woman with +the Pomeranian. Disapproval of me was so plainly evident in her eyes, +she seemed in herself so far removed from mountain cabins, and if +Penelope had grown worthy of such distinguished company, discretion +bade me be silent. + +Penelope divined my thoughts. "And it is equally hard for me to +believe that this tall man is the boy I pulled out of the water." Half +turning, she addressed her companion. "This is David Malcolm, Mrs. +Bannister--an old, old friend of mine." + +Mrs. Bannister probably had her own ideas of Penelope's old, old +friends, but she was fair enough to examine me from head to foot before +she condemned me with the mass of them, and then finding that, to the +eyes at least, I presented no glaring crudities, she accepted me on +sufferance, inclining her head and parting her lips. + +"But tell me, David," said Penelope eagerly, "where have you been all +these years and how do you happen to be here?" + +Had I told Penelope the truth I should have replied that I happened to +be there because for four long months I had been looking for her, +whenever I could, walking the streets with eyes alert, even on +midsummer days when I had as well searched the Sahara as the deserted +town. Perhaps in thus surrendering to the hope that, after all, I +should find her, I had laid myself open to a self-accusation of +disloyalty to Gladys Todd; but she was far away in those months, and +the daily letter had become a weekly and then a semimonthly budget, and +though their tone was none the less ardent I had begun to suspect that +Europe was a more attractive abiding-place than the little flat with +the easel by the window. In one letter she spoke of her longing to be +home; she knew that there would be music in every beat of the ship's +propeller which carried her nearer me. In her next she announced her +parents' decision to prolong their stay abroad on Judge Bundy's account +and her regret that she could not leave them. There was something +contradictory in these statements, and yet I accepted them +complacently. Then postcards supplanted the semimonthly budget, and +only by them was I able to follow the movements of the travellers all +that autumn. One letter did come in October. It covered many sheets, +but said little more than that it had been simply impossible to write +oftener, but she would soon be following her heart homeward. Enclosed +was a photograph of the party posed on camels with the pyramids in the +background, and I noticed with a twinge of jealousy that Judge Bundy's +camel had posted himself beside the beast on which Gladys was +enthroned, while Doctor and Mrs. Todd had less conspicuous positions to +the left and rear. Studying the judge, I laughed at my twinge of +jealousy, for knowing him I could not doubt that Doctor and Mrs. Todd +kept always to the left and rear, which was but right considering the +generosity with which he treated them; but he looked so little the +dashing Bedouin in his great derby and his frock-coat, so hot and +uncomfortable that even the burning sands, the pyramids, and the +curious beast which he straddled could not make of him a romantic +figure. + +Young Tom Marshall, who honored Miss Minion's with his presence, +studying the photograph on my bureau one evening, asked me who was "the +beauty with the pugree." And when I replied with pride that she was my +_fiancée_ he slapped my back in congratulation. + +"And Julius Caesar," he went on--"Caesar visiting his African dominions +is, I suppose, her father, and the little fellow in the top-hat his +favorite American slave, and----" + +With great dignity I explained to young Marshall the relations of the +members of this Oriental group. At his suggestion that I had best take +the first steamer for Egypt I laughed. The implication was so absurd +that I even told Gladys Todd about it in my next letter to her, for I +still sat down every Saturday night and wrote to her voluminously of +all that I had been doing. Yet I was growing conscious of a sense of +her unreality. I seemed to be corresponding with the inhabitant of +another planet, and when I looked at the girl on the camel, with the +strange pugree flowing from her hat, and the pyramids in the +background, it seemed that she could not be the same simple girl who +had painted tulips on black plaques. + +Penelope Blight was a much more concrete figure. At any moment as I +walked the Avenue she might come around the corner, or step from a +brougham, or be looking at me from the windows of a brown-stone +mansion. Was it a wonder that my eyes were always alert? One morning +three lines in a newspaper convinced me at last that the girl with the +blue feathers was Penelope Blight. They announced that Rufus Blight, +the Pittsburgh steel magnate, had bought a house on Fifth Avenue and +would thereafter make New York his home. That night the city seemed +more my own home than ever before and the future to hold for me more +than the past had promised. The drawn curtains of this house might be +hiding Penelope from me; she might be in the dark corner of that smart +carriage flying northward; even the slender figure coming toward me +through the yellow gloom, with her muff pressed against her face to +guard it from the November wind, might be she. And when on the next +afternoon--by chance, it seemed, as by chance it seems all our lives +are ordered--when at last by the same modiste's shop the same smart +brougham drew up at the curb, the same haughty footman opened the door, +and I saw the very same blue wings, I knew that I had found Penelope at +last and I spoke without fear. + +She asked me what I had been doing all these years. I laughed +joyfully, but I did not tell her. For all these years I had been +working for this moment! + +"What have I been doing?" I said. "Why, Penelope, it would take me +forever to tell you." + +"You must begin telling me right now," she returned quickly. "You must +walk home with me to tea and I can hear all about it as we go. To me +it seems just yesterday since we went fishing in the meadow. Mrs. +Bannister won't mind driving back alone--will you, Mrs. Bannister?" + +Mrs. Bannister did mind it very much. She was, I learned afterward, +introducing Miss Blight to the right people, and it was a violation of +her contract with Rufus Blight to allow his niece to walk in the public +eye with a man who might not be the kind of a person Miss Blight should +be seen with at a time when her whole future depended on her following +the narrow way which leads to the social heaven. Of course she would +not mind driving home alone, but what about the hats? Mr. Malcolm +would pardon her mentioning such intimate domestic matters, but Miss +Blight had been away all summer and had not a hat of any kind fit to be +seen in. + +"Bother the hats!" said Miss Blight. + +She laid a hand on her chaperon's arm and pushed her gently into the +carriage. Mrs. Bannister made feeble protests. Penelope was the most +wilful girl she had ever seen and knew perfectly well that she had not +a thing to wear to the Perkins tea; if she had to go home she objected +to being arrested this way and clapped into a prison van. The last was +hurled at us as the footman was closing the door, and when Mrs. +Bannister fell back in the seat, angry and silent, the Pomeranian +projected his head from the window and snapped at us. + +"Mrs. Bannister is a good soul," Penelope said when, side by side, we +were away on that wonderful walk uptown. "She has to be properly +handled though or I should be her slave. Her husband was a broker, or +something like that, and died during a panic, and as she was in +straitened circumstances she came to us. You see, she knows everybody, +and is awfully well connected. You must be very nice to her, David." + +She called me David as naturally as though it really had been yesterday +that we went fishing in the meadow. My heart beat quicker. I laughed +aloud for the sheer joy of living in the same world with her. I vowed +that I should be very nice indeed to Mrs. Bannister. Had Penelope +asked me to be very nice to her friend Medusa I should have given her +my pledge. Subtly, by her admonition, she had conveyed to me the +promise that this walk was to be but the first of many walks, the +rambles of our childhood over again, but grown older and wiser and more +sedate. Under what other circumstances could I be nice to Mrs. +Bannister? + +Having settled my line of conduct toward the martial woman with the +Pomeranian, I began my account of the years missing in our friendship. +It was very brief. It is astonishing in how few words a man can sum up +his life's accomplishment if he holds to the essential facts. Since +that day when she had left the farm with Rufus Blight I had studied +under Mr. Pound, spent four years in college and three years working on +a newspaper. Was I successful in my work? she asked. Fairly so, I +answered modestly. I might have told her that I had gone ahead a +little faster than my fellows, but even then seemed to advance at a +snail's pace to petty conquests, for if at the end of years I attained +to Hanks's place, I was beginning to doubt that it was worth the pains +which I was taking to win it. I did not tell her of the ambitions +which had led me into my profession, nor how all my fine ideas had been +early dissipated and I had settled down to a struggle for mere +existence. On one essential fact, too, was I silent. It arose to my +mind as I told my brief story and it spread like a cloud darkening this +brightest of my days. You know what the shadow was. By her absence, +by her remoteness, Gladys Todd had for me a shadow's unreality. At +this moment the tie between us was so attenuated that it was hard for +me to believe that it existed at all. I knew that it did exist, but I +could not surrender myself to be bound by so frail a thread. I was +silent. Childlike, I wished the clouds away. Royally, I commanded the +sea to stand back. + +"And you--what have you been doing all these years?" I asked, turning +suddenly to Penelope. + +"Just growing up," she answered, laughing. "It's very easy to grow up +when one has such a kind uncle as mine. You remember the poverty in +which he found me. I was a mere charity child, and he took me----" + +"To his lively, pushing town," said I. + +"Yes," Penelope went on, "to a big stone house with a green lawn about +it dotted with queer figures in iron and marble. They were the most +beautiful things I had ever seen--those statues. Now they are all +stored in the stable, for we grew up, uncle and I, even in matters of +art. But it was like heaven to me then, after the mountains and the +smoky cabin, after the clearing and the weeds----" + +"After our farm," I broke in with a touch of irony, "and to ride behind +the fast trotters compared with our farm wagon----" + +"David," returned Penelope in a voice of reproach, "I have never +forgotten the mountains, or the cabin, or the farm. In the first days +away from them I was terribly homesick for them all. My uncle suffered +for it. His patience and his kindness were unfailing, and he softened +me at last. There is nothing in the world that I have wanted that he +has not given me." + +I was silent. The old boyish dislike of Rufus Blight had never died. +I could think of him only as a sleek, vulgar man who by the force of +his money had taken Penelope from me. His money had raised her far +above my reach, and even the cloud which shadowed this day which might +have been my brightest seemed to have had its birth in vapors of his +gold-giving furnaces. That I had forgotten Penelope and entangled +myself in the cords of a foolish sentimentality I charged to him, and +Penelope, seeing how I walked, silent, with eyes grimly set ahead, +divined that I still nourished the aversion to which in my childish +petulance I had given vent so long ago. + +"You are still prejudiced against poor Uncle Rufus, I see," she said, +smiling. "I remember how badly you treated him that day when he came +to take me away." + +"Yes, I never have forgiven him," I snapped out. "He may have reason, +and justice, and saintliness on his side, yet I never can forgive him." + +"Oh, yes, you can," said Penelope with an indulgent laugh. "You will +when you come to know him as I do. You must, for my sake." + +"Perhaps, for your sake," said I, relenting a little. + +"I knew you would for my sake, David," said Penelope. "Why, I owe +everything I have in the world to him. Since he has retired, sold his +works to a trust, I think they call it, his whole life seems to be to +look after me. Pittsburgh isn't much of a place for a man who has no +business; so we thought we should try New York for a while, and we +bought the house last spring and spent the summer in Bar Harbor. Now +we are just settling down." + +I was hardly listening as she spoke, for my mind was occupied by Rufus +Blight. He had reason and justice on his side. That much I +surrendered to him, but I clung obstinately to my dislike. I thought +of the Professor flying over the clearing to the hiding of the +mountains; I remembered him in the college hall, with his bitter words +pointing the way from which his own weakness held him back, the man +whose imagination ranged so far while his hands were idle. I pictured +his brother grown fat and happy at the trough of gold at which he fed, +and even had I not felt a personal feud with Rufus Blight, my sympathy +for the under-dog must have aroused my antipathy. But I hated him for +my own sake. For every foolish step that I had taken since that day +when he had carried Penelope away the fault seemed to have been his as +much as mine, and yet I was wise enough to see that if I would hold +Penelope's regard it would be very rash to show by word or deed that I +nursed any resentment. + +"For your sake I will, Penelope," I said. + +So soft and satisfied was the smile with which she rewarded me that I +vowed to myself that I really would forgive my old archenemy. A moment +before it had been on my lips to speak of my confiscated letters, for I +had no doubt that Rufus Blight had intercepted them. Now I realized +that in them was a mine which I might fire only to shatter our +new-found friendship. That treachery, too, I said, I should forgive. +When Penelope set the light to the fuse, I with rare presence of mind +stamped out the flames and prevented a disaster. + +We had passed Fiftieth Street, and I was telling her of my last visit +home, of my father and mother, of Mr. Pound, and of all the friends of +our younger days, when she suddenly turned to me. It was as though the +question had for some time been hanging on her lips. "David, why did +you never answer the letters I wrote you?" + +"Because." I was playing for time. To carry out my plan of silence, +it seemed that I must deceive her, and I hesitated to tell her an +untruth. + +"Because why?" she insisted. + +"Because I never received them," I answered, cheered by the thought +that thus far I could tell her the truth. "Did you really write to me?" + +"Many times," she said; "until I got tired of writing and receiving no +answer. You made me very angry." + +"The letters must have been lost in the mail," said I, bent on keeping +this disagreeable subject in the background. "Country post-offices are +very careless in the way they handle things, and mine to you--my +letters--must have gone astray too." + +"Then you did write to me as you promised, David?" she exclaimed. + +"Until I got tired of receiving no answer," I returned, laughing. "But +of course it is too late to complain to the government now." + +Penelope was not satisfied. Her brows were knitted. I believed that +there lurked in her mind a suspicion that not the government alone was +concerned in the interruption of that early correspondence, but I was +determined to ignore a subject which, if too closely pressed, might +bring about unpleasant consequences. The easiest way was to turn the +trend of her thought with a bold question, which had been hanging on my +lips through many blocks of the walk. And so, as casually as though I +inquired of her about some distant friend or relative, I spoke of her +father. + +Penelope stopped short and laid a hand upon my arm. Then as suddenly +she strode ahead. + +"I know nothing of him, David," she said in a voice almost harsh. "I +have not seen him since that dreadful day in the clearing. Once I +heard from him--a few lines--but that was so long ago that at times I +almost forget that I ever had a father." + +"What did he write to you, Penelope?" + +She seemed not to hear my question, for she was walking very fast, with +her eyes set straight ahead of her. "He might pass me at this minute, +David, and I should not know him. That might be he, standing by that +window, and I should be none the wiser, yet the fault is his. I try +always to think of him as I should, but at times it seems as though he +had disowned me, abandoned me on his brother's doorstep and then run +away. You ask of the letter. It came to me soon after I left the +farm. He said that it was best that my uncle should have me, better +than to condemn me to shift about the world with him; he said that he +had been a lazy, worthless creature, but he was going to do something, +to be somebody--those were his words; and some day, when I could be +proud of him, he would come back and claim me, and, David, he has never +come. Will he ever come, do you think?" + +"I think he will," I answered. "For I have seen him." + +"You have seen him!" The hand was on my arm again, and, forgetful of +the hurrying crowd around us, we stood there face to face, while I told +her of the brief glimpse I had had of him four years before. She +listened, breathless, and, when I had finished, walked on in silence. + +We were crossing the Plaza when she spoke again, half to me, half +ruminating. "Poor father! He must have tried and failed. He was +going to Tibet, David, you told me; that was four years ago. Where can +he be now? Wandering around the world alone, in want, perhaps, and I +have everything. Do you suppose he believes that I have forgotten +him--as if I could forget those evenings when we sat together and +painted pictures of the times when we should be rich! He called me the +princess and planned great houses in which we should live, and he would +talk of our travels and the wonderful places we should see together. +Even then I had faith that our dreams would come true, though it did +seem that we were getting poorer and poorer all the time, and father +doing nothing to help our plight. The dreams came true, David--for me. +Why doesn't he come and share them with me, with me and Uncle Rufus? +That is what troubles me; that is what I can never understand." + +I said to myself that Rufus Blight, were he so minded, could clear the +mystery away. I thought of him as a selfish, arrogant man, who was, +perhaps, too well satisfied not to have an undesirable third person in +his household to undertake any sincere search for his brother. But +these thoughts I concealed. There was something behind it all that we +two could not understand, I said, and Penelope looked up to me with +clouded eyes. + +"But we will find him, Penelope!" My stick hit the pavement as I +registered a vow. "We will find him--you and I." + +"How like the little David you are," she cried, and then smiling light +broke through the clouded eyes. "We shall try to find him, anyway, +shall we not--to bring father home. For look, David!" She had halted. +The small gloved hand was lifted, and the blue wings in her hat moved +with an old-time majesty. "There is the palace we dreamed of!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Penelope and I were standing before a great gray-stone house. I +carried my eyes from the doors of iron grill-work over the severe +breadth of wall, broken only by rank above rank of windows so heavily +curtained that one might have suspected those within to live in +darkness, fearing even to face the sunlight. I laughed. When I had +been searching for the girl with the blue feathers in her hat, I had +never given this house more than a passing glance, deeming it +altogether too palatial in its size and too severe in its aspect to +shield a man of so garish a mind as I attributed to Rufus Blight, +judging him from memory alone. I should have placed him rather next +door to it, behind the over-ornate Moorish front and had him look out +on the world through curtains of elaborately figured lace. But within, +I now said to myself, I shall find the expression of the man in a riot +of color in walls and hangings and in ill-assorted mobs of furniture. +Here again I was wrong. We passed the grilled doors into a place so +gray and cold that it might have led us to a cloister. We mounted +broad stairs, our footfalls muffled by a heavy carpeting of so +unobtrusive a color that I cannot name it. We crossed a white panelled +hall, so sparsely furnished that the untutored might have thought that +the family were just moving in or just moving out. Penelope pushed +through heavy portières and we stood at last in a room that seemed +designed for human habitation. But it was the design of an alien mind, +not of the owner. The owner had not been allowed to fit it to himself +as he would his clothes. The alien mind had said: You do not know; you +must allow me to arrange your habitat. Here I have placed the +wonderful old fireplace which I bought for you in France, and above it +the Reynolds for which you paid forty thousand dollars; here in the +centre is the carved table which I got for you in Florence, and +geometrically arranged about its corners are books of travel; with its +back to it, a great divan covered with most expensive leather, so that +you can lounge in its depths and watch the fire. Around it I have +arranged sundry other chairs done in deep-green velour to tone in with +the walls, and along the walls are bookcases, fronted with diamond +panes and filled with leather-bound volumes--for this, sir, is your +library. + +The room was so perfect that Mrs. Bannister, seated before the fire, +brewing herself a lonely cup of tea, seemed a jarring note. She would +have been as much in place in a corner of the _Galerie-de-Glace_ at +Versailles, and but for her presence and her domestic occupation I +might have said to myself after a languid survey, "So, this is where +the king lounged"--then waited to be led on. + +Mrs. Bannister was expecting us. She spoke as though in having tea +waiting she had acted in the forlorn hope that some time we might +return, and as though for hours she had been a prey to the gravest +apprehensions, for Penelope's safety. In bringing Penelope back at all +I had in some degree allayed the hostility with which she at first +regarded me, but though she was now outwardly quite cordial, I was +conscious that over the top of her cup she was studying me closely as I +sat on the divan stirring my tea and striving to be thoroughly at home. +Her subtle scrutiny made me very uncomfortable. She asked me questions +with an obvious purpose of putting me at my ease, and I answered in +embarrassed monosyllables. Whether I would or no, I seemed constantly +to slide to the perilous edge of my seat, and no matter what care I +used, I strewed crumbs over the rug until it seemed to me that my bit +of cake had a demoniacal power of multiplying itself. + +I was angry--this hour, this formal passage of inane conversation, was +so different from what I had pictured my first meeting with Penelope to +be. I was angry at my weakness in letting this perfect room overpower +me, and this woman of the world, with no other weapon than the +knowledge of the people one should know, transfix me, silence me, +transform me into a dull, bucolic boor. Penelope was annoyed. I knew +that she was chagrined at my lack of _savoir faire_, for in one of the +long pauses following an abrupt response of mine I caught a glance of +mute despair. She seemed to accuse me of falling short of her +expectations by my lamentable lack of the social graces. + +I was for flight then. I rose to go. I paused to dispute in my mind +whether I must say farewell first to the older or the younger woman, +and from the hopelessness of ever solving the question I might have +stood there for an hour pulling at my hands had not the portières +opened and Rufus Blight come in. + +I should not have known him as Rufus Blight but for Penelope's joyous +hail. I had expected to see him as I saw him that day when he came to +the farm to take Penelope away--a short, fat, pompous man with a +bristling red mustache and a hand that moved interminably; a sleek man +in spotless, creaseless clothes who might have stood in his own +show-window to inspire his fellows to sartorial perfection. I saw, +instead, a small man, rather thin, and slightly bald. The bristling +red mustache had turned to gray and drooped. His whole figure drooped. +His black clothes hung in many careless creases, and as he came forward +it was not with his old quick, all-conquering step, but haltingly, as +though Mrs. Bannister owned the room and he doubted if he were welcome. +I lost my embarrassment in wonder. I recalled my old fond pictures of +Rufus Blight when he should have grown older and fatter, more pompous +and more all-commanding. I watched the little dusty man draw +Penelope's head down to him and kiss her. I looked around the room, at +the great fireplace, at the Reynolds, at the carved table and the +costly empty spaces, and I lost myself in the marvel that he should +have attained them. + +"Uncle Rufus," Penelope said, drawing him toward me, "here is some one +you will be glad to see. It's David Malcolm, my old friend David +Malcolm." + +"Why, David Malcolm--my old friend, too," cried Mr. Blight, his face +lighting genially as he took my hand. "The boy who wouldn't let me +have Penelope. Upon my word, David, I didn't blame you." + +He laughed and shook my hand again and again. He asked after my father +and mother as though they were his dearest friends, and I contrasted +his cordial mention of them with his once cavalier treatment, but when +he made me sit beside him on the divan and meet and answer a rapid fire +of questions as to myself and my occupation, the old prejudices began +to disappear before his simple, unaffected kindness. Penelope was on +his other side, and her hand was in his. I forgave him. I forgot the +neglect of long ago. I forgot even the mystery of the letters. I +forgot the fat, pompous, all-commanding man. This was a meeting of +three rare old friends. Mrs. Bannister, too, had gone from my +thoughts. If she still regarded me over the top of her cup, I was +unconscious of it, for I was telling how I had come to meet Penelope +again, and he was recalling the day when, as a small boy, I had +resisted him so vigorously. + +"It has all turned out well, eh, David?" Rufus Blight said, laying a +hand upon my knee. "Here we are--the three of us--just as if we had +never quarrelled--good friends; and it is good to find old friends. We +haven't many old friends, Penelope and I. Indeed, but for Mrs. +Bannister"--he bowed to the majestic woman--"we should have few new +ones. An old one recovered is too precious to lose; and we are not +going to lose you again--are we, Penelope?" + +The color shot high on Penelope's cheeks as she laughingly assented, +and I flattered myself that she had forgotten the boor who a few +moments before had shown to such disadvantage under Mrs. Bannister's +critical eye. + +"You must come to us often," Rufus Blight pursued. "I shall be glad to +see you any time. It is good to have an old friend about when time +hangs so heavily on one's hands as it does on mine. Never go out of +business, David. Take warning from me, and don't let yourself be +stranded, with nothing to do but to play golf. Golf is a poor +occupation. I was out to-day--couldn't find a soul around the +club--had to take on the professional--spoiled my score by getting into +the brook on the tenth hole, and came home utterly miserable and +dissatisfied with life. But when you get well wetted you appreciate +the kitchen stove, as old Bill Hansen, in our town, used to say--eh, +Mrs. Bannister?" + +From this I surmised that Mr. Blight as well as the ball had gone into +the brook, and in the homely aphorism I divined a subtle purpose to +bait Mrs. Bannister, which showed an astonishing courage in so +mild-mannered a little man. Such was the awe in which I held Mrs. +Bannister that I could have loved any one who dared in her presence to +acknowledge an acquaintance with old Bill Hansen. If Mrs. Bannister +did disapprove, she was careful not to show it. Her lips parted in a +half smile and she observed to me that Mr. Blight had a jovial way of +quoting Mr. Hansen, as though Mr. Hansen were his dearest friend. + +"He is," declared Mr. Blight. "To be sure, I haven't seen him for +years, but I always remember him as the wisest man I ever knew. Why, +if it wasn't for Penelope I should go back to the valley, just to be +near him. It would be better than golf--to sit with him on the store +porch on a sunny day listening to the mill rumbling by the creek and +the killdee whistling in the meadow, to watch the shadows crawl along +the mountains, and now and then to hear Bill Hansen say something. +That would be living--eh, David?" + +Rufus Blight touched a train of thought which had been often in my +mind. Here was a man who had won in the great fight and he seemed to +be camping now on the field which he had taken. About him were the +spoils--the Reynolds, the fireplace, the perfectly bound books, and the +costly spaces of the great room. Yet he was voicing the same longing +that I, whose fight was just beginning, had often felt--the longing to +step aside from the struggle for vain things, the longing to turn from +the smoke and grime of the conflict to the quiet and peace of the +valley. Now I voiced that longing too, forgetting Mrs. Bannister and +her evident creed that man's chief end was to know the right people. + +"It would be living, indeed," I said with enthusiasm. "More than once +I have been on the point of going back to stay. I don't suppose you +ever knew my old friend Stacy Shunk, did you? When it comes to real +wisdom I'd rather talk to Stacy Shunk than----" + +Mrs. Bannister had half risen--I thought in horror. It was really the +butler who had brought my eulogy of Stacy Shunk to a sudden close, for, +appearing in half-drawn portières, he announced: "Mr. Talcott." + +The mere entrance of Mr. Talcott carried us far from the valley and +such rude associates as old Bill Hansen and his kind. I think that +even Rufus Blight would have been too discreet to refer to them in his +presence--for Penelope's sake, if nothing else. He was a slender young +man of medium height, clean-shaven, perfectly groomed, and perfectly +mannered. He was as much at ease as I had been ill at ease, and I +envied him for it. He declined tea because he had just come from the +club, and I envied him this delightful way of avoiding cake and +embarrassing crumbs. Mrs. Bannister addressed him as Herbert, and I +knew at once that he was Edward Herbert Talcott, whose name I had often +seen in my paper-reading task. His claim to distinction was descent +from the man whose name he bore, a member of the cabinet of one of our +early presidents. A dead statesman in a family is always a valuable +asset, and the longer dead the better. Statesmen, like wines, must be +hidden away in vaults long years to be properly mellowed for social +uses. I think that Mr. Secretary Talcott would have been astonished, +indeed, could he have measured his influence after a century by the +numbers, collateral and direct, who were proud to use his name. There +were Talcott Joneses, and Talcott Robinsons, and Talcott Browns by the +score in town, but one and all they acknowledged the primacy of this +Edward Herbert Talcott, and never lost an opportunity of speaking of +him as their cousin. He had written, I learned afterward, a monograph +on his great-grandfather, which had given him a certain literary +distinction in his own set, and it was generally understood that, while +he might easily have earned a livelihood by his pen, he had been +relieved of the necessity of doing it by his ancestors' investments in +Harlem real estate. + +Talcott looked perfectly inoffensive, and yet he had hardly been seated +before I conceived a profound aversion to him. Mrs. Bannister's +treatment of him did much to arouse it. Here, she seemed to say, is a +human being, a sentient creature with ideas in his head, a finished man +with an appreciation of the finer things of life. She asked him if he +was going to the Martin dance. + +Mr. Talcott did not know--he might--he hadn't made up his mind. + +"There will probably be a rather mixed crowd," he said, with his lips +twitching into a cynical smile. + +Rufus Blight, who had moved to a chair by the fire, shook his head in +disapproval of mixed crowds, and Mrs. Bannister said that, +nevertheless, the Martins were getting along and certainly would get in. + +"And sometimes, you know, mixed crowds are rather fun," said Talcott; +and turning to Penelope: "I suppose you are not going?" + +"I certainly am," Penelope answered heartily. "I love dancing so." + +"Well, I shall, then," said Talcott. "You see, I was up awfully late +at the Coles's last night--three o'clock when I left. Why did you go +so early? I looked for you everywhere. I rather thought I should lay +off to-night and rest up for a dinner, the opera, and the Grants +to-morrow evening. But I'll go to-night anyway. We'll get up a little +crowd of our own for supper. That's the thing about mixed crowds: at +least you can have your own little set for supper." + +Having settled this problem and taken possession of Penelope for that +evening, Talcott went on to outline a jolly little plan of his to take +possession of her for an entire day in the near future--as soon as +there was skating at Tuxedo. Quite a large party were going up, Bobby +This and Willie That, to all of which Penelope assented, while Mrs. +Bannister laughed merrily. She understood that Bobby This was not +going anywhere this year. Between them they drove me quite mad. A +moment ago I had been so much at home; now I should have been more at +ease in a company of astronomers talking of the stars, though I knew +nothing of the heavens. I could only smile vaguely in a pretence of +entering into all that they were saying; and when Talcott looked at me, +when he pronounced his dictum that mixed crowds were a bore, I gave a +feeble assent. When, to make my presence felt, I boldly asserted that +I had never been to Tuxedo, Talcott replied that some time I must go +there--I should like it--he was sure that I should like it, though the +crowd was getting rather mixed. Having thus quieted me, he reverted to +Bar Harbor and the summer, to various persons and events concerning +which I was supremely ignorant. I left abruptly perhaps. I had +forgotten the problem as to whom I should say my farewell last. +Penelope said that I must come again and often. Mrs. Bannister gave me +a pleasant but, I thought, a condescending smile, and Rufus Blight +followed me down the stairs, talking platitudes about the weather while +he called a man to bring my coat and hat. + +The grilled door closed behind me, and I walked down the darkening +street. I had found Penelope grown lovelier than the loveliest figure +of my boyish dreams. Yet it was as though I had found her in another +world than mine, and moving among another race. She might remember the +boy whom she had dragged from the mountain stream, the boy whom she had +carried to the desolation of her humble home; could she long remember +the awkward man who sat on the edge of his chair and scattered crumbs, +who when he talked could talk only of old Bill Hansen and Stacy Shunk? +The longing for the valley was gone. Had the world been mine I would +have given it for a card to the dance that night, however mixed the +crowd, for then I should be near her. If I would be near her, then her +friends must be my friends, and, whether they would or no, I swore that +day they should be. + +The hall of Miss Minion's house smelled terribly of cooking that night +as I passed through it. Standing at last in my own narrow room, I +brought my clinched fist down on my table as I registered my vow that I +would attain to her world. Then I sank down and covered my face with +my hands, for out of the little frame Gladys Todd was looking at me. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +When I sat again on the great divan, I said to myself that, after all, +the alien mind who designed this room had worked with cunning; he must +have seen in his fancy the very picture that was now so delightful to +my eyes--the gray old fireplace with its tall columns wound with vines +whose delicate leaves quivered as the firelight fanned them; before it +Penelope, a slender figure, softly drawn in the evening's shadow, bent +over the low tea-table as she worked with the rebellious lamp; from +above, looking down kindly, half smiling, Reynolds's majestic lady, +frilled and furbelowed; at her feet a giant white bear, its long claws +gripping the polished floor, its jaws distended fiercely as though it +stood guard, ready to spring at him who dared to cross the charmed +circle drawn by the glowing coals. I sat in the half-darkness, for it +was late in the day, and but a single shaded lamp burned in a distant +corner. What was new in the room grew old under the wizard touch of +shadows. The mahogany bookcases stretched away on either hand, and +there were cobwebs on the diamond panes and dust on the ancient tomes. +Penelope was in her home! A hundred years ago that majestic lady in +frills and furbelows sat by this same fireplace, in that same old +carved chair, making tea, and now she smiled with great content as from +her frame she looked down on this child of her blood and bone. And the +ancestor who had gathered those dusty volumes--what of him? Two +hundred years it was, perhaps, since he had burrowed among the cobwebs, +now caressing his rare old Horace, now turning the yellow pages of his +learned treatise on astrology. He was a distinguished figure in his +wig, his velvet coat and smallclothes, and something of his features, +refined by intellectual pursuit, I read in the face that now was turned +to mine. For blood does tell. Father Time is a reckless artist, +clipping and cutting and recasting incessantly, and producing an +appalling number of failures; but now and then it would seem that he +did take some pains and, studying his models, combine the broad, low +brow of this one with another's straight and finely chiselled nose, and +still another's smoothly rounded cheek; and sometimes, in his cynical +way, he will spoil it all with a pair of coarse hands borrowed from one +of his rustic figures or the large, flat feet of some study of peasant +life, which we should have thought cast away and forgotten. In +Penelope we were offended by none of these grotesque fragments. They +must have been long since cleared out of her ancestral line. When she +raised herself after her battle with the rebellious lamp, it was with +the grace of unconscious pride, with the majesty of the lady in the +frame, but finer drawn, thanks to the thin old gentleman of the books, +who had overfed his mind and bequeathed to his descendants a legacy of +nerves. + +This Penelope Blight, daintily clothed in soft black webs woven for her +by a hundred toiling human spiders, was not even the Penelope Blight of +my wildest boyish dreams. Our dreams are circumscribed by our +experience, and in those days it had been inconceivable to me that she +should grow more lovely than Miss Mincer, the butcher's daughter, and I +had pictured myself walking proudly through the streets of Malcolmville +at the side of a tall, slender girl, her head crowned by a glazed black +hat, her body incased in a tight-fitting jersey. This Penelope Blight +in the carved chair where generations of her grandmothers had made tea +before her, by the stately fireplace at which her forebears had warmed +their hands and hearts, could have no kin with the barefooted girl who +had stood with me at the edge of the clearing and, pointing over the +weeds to the forlorn cabin, called it home. + +Was it a wonder that my tone was formal; that, overcome by a sense of +estrangement, I talked of the weather as I sipped my tea; that I asked +her if she had enjoyed last night's dance, speaking as though dancing +were my own favorite amusement; that when I pronounced her name it was +in a halting, embarrassed undertone? Even speaking, it thus seemed +gross presumption. How unlikely, then, that I should refer to by-gone +days in her presence when it was incredible that there had ever been +days like those! In all probability she would draw herself up and +reply that I must be thinking of some other Penelope Blight, that to +her I was nothing more than a formal creature whom she had met +somewhere, where she could not remember, a man like hundreds of others +whom she knew, lay figures for the tailor's art, who spoke only a +language limited to the last dance and the one to come. Believing +this, I finished my tea, and, putting down my cup, I abandoned my one +resource when conversation lagged. Why had I come at all? + +I had come to sit with Penelope, just as we were sitting now, in the +shadows, in the firelight. At home we had often sat together on the +back steps, in the shadows of the valley, in the firelight of the +clouds glowing in the last sun flames. Now we should be, as then, good +comrades, and freely as I had talked to her then as from our humble +perch we watched the departing day, so freely could I talk to her now +in the statelier environment. In that short walk uptown I had left a +thousand things unsaid. But one special thing I had left unsaid, one +vital fact in my life unrevealed, that was of paramount importance. In +the excitement of our first meeting my silence had been discretion, but +discretion became deception as time passed, and every day was adding to +its sum. Sometimes I could forget the vital fact. Sometimes at night +in my room, sitting with my book at my side neglected, I would stare +vacantly at the wall and treat myself to a feast of dreams, contentedly +munch the most delicate morsels of the past and present. And by right +of that past and present it was almost fore-ordained that Penelope and +I were to go down the years together. Then I would remember. I would +start from my chair with a despairing laugh and pace up and down my +narrow room, restless and unhappy. I knew that I could not long delay +revealing to Penelope the paramount fact, and in revealing it to her I +seemed to say that after all she was only a casual friend, that all my +life's interest was bound up in Gladys Todd, and my life's ambition +expressed in a room with an easel by the window, a bird's-eye-maple +mantel, and around the walls a rack for odd lots of china and +black-framed prints. It was hard to tell her that, but I knew that I +must, and I said that I should talk freely as in the old days of +brotherly confidence, as though of all others she would be happiest in +hearing of my good fortune. With my mind made up to face boldly this +bad situation, I could not crush the consoling hope that in hearing she +would give some sign of the pain of the wound that I was making. What +a fatuous illusion! In her presence, in an environment which made that +which I planned for myself seem so narrow and commonplace, she became a +spirit thoroughly alien. I could as easily have talked to some foreign +princess of the blood of Mr. Pound or Stacy Shunk. I could as easily +have announced to Mrs. Bannister that I was engaged to Gladys Todd. +And I must have gone away, fled ignominiously after one cup of tea, had +not Penelope, with a sudden impatient movement, turned her chair and +leaned forward with her chin cupped in her hands, as she used to sit in +the old days on the back steps, with her eyes fixed on mine. + +"David," she said, "did you really come here to talk to me about the +weather or to tell me things I really want to know--of Mr. Pound, of +Miss Spinner and Stacy Shunk. Who drives the stage now?" + +I was on the edge of the divan, my hands playing an imaginary game of +cat's-cradle when she spoke, and now I pushed back into the comfortable +depths and stared at her in surprise. I was amazed at hearing this +princess of the blood descend to an interest in such plebeians. She, +seeing that I was silent, leaned back too, each small hand gripping an +arm of that throne-like chair. + +"Well?" she said; and when still I was silent she repeated more +insistently: "Well, David?" Then raising her voice a little to a tone +of command: "I asked you who drives the stage." + +I forgot the carved chair and Reynolds's majestic lady. I forgot the +imposing fireplace and the old gentleman in wig and smallclothes. I +laughed with the sheer joy of being with Penelope again. I forgot even +the great divan and made a futile effort to jump it nearer her in my +burst of enthusiasm for our new-born friendship. + +"Why, Joe Hicks," I said. "You remember Joe Hicks, Penelope?" + +"Joe Hicks," she said, pronouncing the name as though it were that of +some dear friend suddenly dragged out of the by-gone years. "Surely +not the same Joe Hicks who used to let us ride with him sometimes from +Malcolmville out to the farm?" + +"The same Joe Hicks," said I, and with a strange disregard for forms +and effects I gave way to a natural desire of hunger and dived at the +curate's delight, forgetting entirely the crumb-begetting habits of +cake. "Try one of those," I went on, indicating the topmost plate, and +to my delight she helped herself, almost with avidity. "You remember, +Penelope, how we used to loiter near the kitchen when we smelled cake +in the oven?" + +Then Penelope laughed as though in the sheer joy of casting years away +and living over her childhood. + +"Indeed I do," she returned. "But we were speaking of Joe Hicks. You +surprised me. He was an old man when we knew him." + +"He was seventy then. He is still seventy," I returned. +"Stage-driving, you know, is conducive----" + +"I used to think I'd like to be a stage-driver when I grew up," she +interrupted. "You would see so much of the world with so little +trouble, just holding the reins as the horses ambled along. How our +ideas change, David!" + +It was on the old and unchanged ideas that I wanted to dwell. The new +would bring me back all too quickly to ancestral portraits, to imposing +fireplaces and costly bear-skin rugs. I assented readily to her +self-evident proposition and brushed it aside for the most interesting +matter of Joseph Hicks. + +"You used to love to drive," I said. "I can see you now wheedling Joe +into letting you have the reins. Don't you remember his telling you +that no self-respecting woman was ever seen driving more than one +horse?" + +"How shocked he would be could he see how I handle four," she said. + +Should we never get out of the shadow of costly things, out of the +clutch of changed ideas? For a moment I had a picture of Penelope on +the box of a coach, ribbons and whip in hand, with four smart cobs +stepping to the music of jingling harness, with bandy-legged grooms on +the boot, and beside her some perfectly tailored creature in a +glistening top-hat. It was a gallant picture, and one in which there +was no part for me. Metaphorically I hurled at it a missile of the +common clay of which, after all, we were both made. Surely fishing was +a subject on which her ideas could not change. + +"Do you remember the great expeditions we used to have along the +creek?" I said. + +"Remember them? Why, David, I never could forget such days as those." +She leaned forward, with her hands clasped in her lap, as though to +bring herself into closer touch with the kindred spirit on the divan. +"I often laugh over the time I caught the big turtle on my hook. You +remember--we were on the bridge at the end of the meadow, and I thought +I had captured a whale, and when I saw it I was so astonished that I +went head-first into the water." + +"And I dived after you," I cried excitedly, "into two feet of water and +three feet of mud." + +"And we both ran home soaking wet and covered with green slime," she +went on rapidly. "Will you ever forget her look when mother----" + +"Mother?" There was in my exclamation a note of surprise in which was +almost lost the delight I felt in her use of that word. + +She caught the surprise alone, and spoke now as though offended at what +she thought my protest. "Yes, mother. Why, David, don't you remember +I always called her mother? And she was the only mother I ever +knew--even if only for a brief summer." + +"I was glad, Penelope," I said. "Yet you surprised me just a little, +because I feared that so much had come into your life you might have +forgotten----" + +"Forgotten?" she returned with a gesture of impatience. "You do not +grant me much heart if you think I could ever forget those who took me +in when I was homeless, the mother who tucked me into bed every night, +who taught me the first prayer I ever uttered." She paused for a +moment, and sat with her eyes fixed on her clasped hands. I, too, was +silent. Suddenly she looked up. "You are right, David; I had +forgotten. I was ungrateful, too; but seeing you again and talking +with you has brought those days very near to me. When I have thought +of your father and mother it was as though they lived in another world, +as though, if I would, I could never see them, they were so far away." +She leaned back in her chair and broke into a little laugh. "How +foolish of me! Why, David, we shall go to see them--you and I and +Uncle Rufus. We shall go very soon, David." Her slender figure was +clear-cut in the firelight and a hand was held out to me in invitation. + +Had the world been mine to give, how gladly would I have lost it for +the right to answer her as she asked; to go with her and to walk by the +creek to that deep sea of our childhood where she had caught the +turtle; to ride with her again over the mountain road where we had +careered so madly on the white mule; to sit with her on the humble back +steps and watch the sun sink into the mountains, and listen to the +sheep in the meadow, the night-hawk in the sky, the rustle of the wind +in the trees--to the valley's lullaby. From this I was held by the +vital fact still unrevealed. I folded my arms and looked at the floor, +to shut from my eyes the idle vision of the days to which Penelope +would lead me, to shut from them Penelope herself sitting very +straight, with head high, so that I had fancied the blue bow tossing +there. + +"We'll go in May," she said with a sweep of a small hand, as though our +great adventure were settled. "We will go when the orchards are in +blossom, David. The valley is loveliest then." + +To go in May! To go when the hills were clad in the pink and white! +To sit with her on the grassy barn-bridge in the evening as we had sat +in the old days watching the mountains sink into the night, listening +to the last faint echoes of the valley as she turned to restful sleep. +Had the universe been mine to give, I would have bartered it for the +power to answer her as she asked. Such joys as these I dared not even +dream of now, but still I had not the strength to cut myself forever +from the last faint hope of them. I looked up into her face aglow with +prospect of a return to those simple, kindly days; into her eyes, +kindled with that same light that glowed in them in the old time when +she would slip her hands so trustingly in mine as we trudged together +over the fields. I could say nothing. + +"Why, David!" she cried, and again a hand was held out to me in appeal. +"Don't you want to go with us?" + +I laughed. And what a struggle I had to force into that laugh a note +of happy gayety! I sat on the edge of the divan, very erect, pulling +at my fingers, for I was no longer David Malcolm, a dreaming boy; I was +a man with a vital fact to meet. Meeting it, I must become to her as +any other man she knew--a formal creature, a lay figure for the +barber's and tailor's art, with a gift of talking inanities. + +"It's not because I don't want to go," I said. I was glad that I was +in the shadow, for though my voice was steady I felt the blood leave my +face. "But you see--there is something I have been wanting to tell +you. I'm to be married." + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. + +If I had hoped to hear more of a cry of pain than that one exclamation +of surprise, I must have been disappointed. But I cherished no such +hope now. I was utterly miserable. I was awkward and ill at ease. +The Penelope Blight I had known lived in another world, and this +Penelope Blight who was regarding me so quietly, meeting my covert +glance with a friendly smile, could, after all, never be more than a +casual acquaintance. + +"How splendid!" she said. Mrs. Bannister, I think, would have spoken +in that same way, as though the news were quite the most delightful +that she had ever heard. "Who to? Quick--I must hear all about it." + +"To a Miss Todd," I answered, and, though I struggled against it, I +cleared my throat dryly. "A Miss Gladys Todd." + +The name sounded harshly in my ears. I was conscious that I had used +it in the manner of the select circles of Harlansburg, and I was angry +that, though knowing better, I had let myself lapse into the ways of a +manikin. When I had spoken of Joe Hicks it was from my heart; I had +forgotten my hands, and Penelope and I had laughed together. When I +spoke of Gladys Todd my voice was tainted with apology. Inwardly I was +calling myself a cad, for it mattered little whether or not I loved +her. I had won her trust, and my first duty was to speak her name with +pride. But I had had that brief glimpse of Penelope Blight, the +companion of my boyhood; I had walked with her, grown lovelier than my +dreams, through visionary woods and fields. She was before me, a +dainty woman of the world; behind her the firelight fanned the leaves +carved for her long ago by the old Italian artist; from above +Reynolds's majestic lady looked down at her kindly, at me with a +haughty stare, as if she read presumption in my mind. Never could I +imagine her photographed on a camel's back by the side of ex-Judge +Bundy. For this alone, it seemed to me as though I were unfolding to +her the love story of a Darby and Joan, adorned with a chaos of easels +and camels, bird's-eye-maple mantels and gayly painted plaques; as +though I had come to tell the great lady of it, because she had always +taken a kindly interest in my affairs. + +Against this absurd humiliation I was fighting when again I coughed +dryly and said: "She is the daughter of Doctor Todd, the president of +McGraw." + +"Oh, I see," returned Penelope brightly. "She must be very learned, +David. But of course I knew that you would marry a clever woman." To +this gentle flattery I raised my hand and shook my head in protest. +"And I see, too, how it all came about--at college. How romantic! +Just like you, David. And yet I can hardly think of you as a married +man. It was only yesterday that I pulled you out of the creek; +to-morrow you are to marry a charming woman--an accomplished woman, I +know. She must sing and play the piano and do all kinds of things like +that. How proud you should be!" + +"I am," said I in a sepulchral tone, much as I might have answered to +my name at roll-call. + +"When she comes to town you must let me know--I shall call on her." +There was no note but one of kindliness in Penelope's easily modulated +voice, nothing but friendliness in the smile which parted her lips. As +she leaned forward again, grasping the carved arms of her chair, she +was speaking with queenly condescension, and it nettled me to find +myself reduced to the level of the herd. + +So there was in my voice a faint ring of pride when I said: "Gladys is +abroad now." At least in this august presence a fiancée abroad sounded +more impressive than a fiancée in Harlansburg, and I wanted it known +that mine was a woman of the world and not simply the accomplished +daughter of a small country town. + +I think that the point struck home, for a hopeful "Oh!" escaped from +Penelope's lips, as though she were giving vent to bottled-up doubts as +to whether or not she could ever more than call on Gladys Todd. I +think that she divined what I wanted her to understand--that though +Gladys Todd had painted tulips on black plaques, she had acquired the +dignity that comes with travel and the grace of a widened view. + +"You must both come and dine with me when she gets home," Penelope +said, with a manner of increased interest. "I suppose she is studying, +David, music or painting." + +"Travelling," I answered, encouraged to nonchalance by the impression I +was making, for to travel merely sounded much more prosperous than to +be working at the rudiments of an art. "She has been over since last +May--just travelling around." + +"And gathering together a trousseau--how delightful! You must be +counting the days till she comes home, David?" + +I nodded. I tried my best to look as though at that very moment I was +busy with the fond calculation. + +"And who is with her--some friend?" Penelope asked. + +"Her father and mother," I answered. That sounded still more +prosperous: the family of three--the learned doctor, his wife and +accomplished daughter--wandering where they willed about the world. I +should have stopped there, but I am one of those unfortunate persons +who in telling anything must tell it all. My better judgment made me +hesitate. My habit carried me on. "And Judge Bundy," I added. + +"Judge who?" she exclaimed. + +I fancied that I detected a strange note in her voice. + +"Bundy--Judge Bundy," I replied, my own voice rising to a pitch of +irritation. + +Would she go on and make me spell the name that sounded so strangely +when spoken in her presence? I was angry. It was at myself for my +uncalled-for frankness. For one brief moment I had almost raised +myself again to the level of the dainty creature in the old carved +chair, to the approval even of the majestic lady above the great +fireplace; speaking so nonchalantly of my friends who could wander +where they willed over the face of the globe, I had almost made myself +one with those for whom Italian sculptors drove the chisel and Reynolds +plied his brush. But that name, so unwisely given, called to my mind +the figure on the camel, and I was sure that by some strange freak of +conjury Penelope must see it too; and worse, that other, the girl in +the pugree, and behind them, discreetly placed, Doctor Todd, +uncomfortably balancing on his giant beast, and Mrs. Todd taken +inopportunely as she was mopping her brow. Well might Penelope look at +me with quizzical eyes. I had tumbled again among the common herd. In +my desperation I might have gone on to the whole truth recklessly; told +her what an absurd man Judge Bundy really was, and how the Todds were +being dragged over Europe on a glorified Cook's tour, captives at the +wheels of his chariot; told her how I appreciated her sweet +condescension in offering to call on the woman I loved. The woman I +loved? For that moment I think I did love Gladys Todd, for I was +standing to her defence against the crushing weight of millions of +money and the bluest of blood. Yes, I am sure that I should have gone +on and told her all, but Fate, wiser than I, intervened, and the butler +announced Mr. Talcott. + +As usual, Mr. Talcott did not wish tea--he had just come from the club, +but he could not see why we were sitting in utter darkness. With +Penelope's assent, he turned a button, showing thereby an exasperating +familiarity with the room, and, seating himself comfortably before her, +expressed his wonder that he had not seen her last night; he had hunted +for her everywhere to join his party at supper. And now the lights +were on and I a mere spectator at the play; I was having a glimpse of +the stage on which I could never move. The lights burned high; they +swept the dust and cobwebs from the diamond panes; they drove the +flames to hiding in the ashes; their touch turned the leaves of the +fireplace to dead stone. But Penelope they could not change. In the +soft black webs, woven for her by a hundred toiling human spiders, she +held still the heritage of the proud woman in frills and furbelows and +the fine old man in wig and smallclothes. She was more radiant, as +though her blood ran quicker in the joy of the part she played. Enter +the butler. Enter Mr. Grant, a tall young man in business clothes, a +good-natured fellow who laughed joyously at nothing. He had just +dropped in on his way home after a beastly day downtown--a horrible +day--a new attack on the trusts and a smash in the market. He fixed +himself close to the curate's delight and beginning at the bottom +worked upward, fortifying himself, as he explained, for a late dinner. +Talcott thought that he had heard Grant say that he was going to the +opera. Grant had never said any such thing. Didn't Mr. Malcolm agree +with him that more than one act of opera was a bore? Mr. Malcolm quite +agreed. Mr. Talcott wondered if Miss Blight had heard that Jerry White +was engaged. Miss Blight was at once dying to know to whom. Mr. +Talcott admonished her to think. Mr. Grant wanted to know if Mr. +Malcolm had heard. But Mr. Malcolm had a strange unappreciation of +important news. He moved in another world than this and he wanted to +flee from it. He was homesick for familiar scenes and faces, for Miss +Minion's and the long table in the basement to which the wizened old +women would soon be crawling down for their evening nourishment, for +Miss Tucker and his neighbor, Mr. Bunce, who by day made tooth-powder +and by night talked Pater. He rose and held out his hand to the +princess of the blood. Graciously she rose from her throne. + +Graciously she said: "Good-by, David. It was good of you to drop in." + +And graciously she added, as he backed awkwardly away: "Remember, you +must let me know when Miss Todd comes. I shall call." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +I dined with the Blights. It had been a month since the afternoon when +I talked with Penelope, and this evening in December I went to the +house with hope high that in seeing her again I might have an +opportunity of regaining a little of our lost friendship. The +invitation had come from her, over the telephone, to dine with them +most informally, and though she cleared herself of any charge of +interest in the matter by adding that Mr. Blight wished to see me, I +flattered myself with the hope that she might be speaking more +personally than she cared to admit. How soon was that illusion +wrecked! I entered the great library. Mrs. Bannister was standing by +the fireplace, her eyes fixed on the opposite wall, her mind occupied +with a struggle to suppress a yawn of boredom. Rufus Blight was +reading a newspaper, but when I was announced he came forward and +greeted me cordially. With his arm in mine he led me to Mrs. +Bannister, and she allowed me to raise her hand and drop it. She said +something, made some conventional remark on the great pleasure it gave +her to see me; the yawn almost forced itself into view, but she set her +lips firmly and drove it back. As I made my response to these friendly +expressions of welcome my eyes swept the room and rested at last on the +door through which I had come. There they held expectantly. + +Mrs. Bannister read my thoughts. "Penelope is so distressed that she +cannot see you to-night," she said, drawing her scarf across her bared +and massive shoulders, so that I wondered if my entrance had suddenly +chilled the air. "She had expected to be here, but this afternoon the +Ruyters called up and insisted that she dine with them and go to the +opera. It's 'Tristan.' She is mad about 'Tristan.'" + +So faded the last vain hope! Had Penelope spent hours in devising a +way of making it plain to me that the link between the past and the +present was broken, she could not have been more adroit. Had David +Malcolm, the boy, been coming to dine that night I know that she would +have been standing there at Mrs. Bannister's side, her own eyes fixed +expectantly on the door. But between the company of such excellent +folk as these Ruyters, with the glorious music of "Tristan," and this +awkward man whose people were not her people, who found content in the +lodges of the Todds and Bundys, there could be but one choice. I was +humiliated. The good-natured grace with which I expressed my +disappointment to Mrs. Bannister belied my angry mind, and as we moved +toward the dining-room, she chattering incessantly, she must have +believed that I was entirely satisfied with just her company. +Fortunately I had only to smile my responses, while my thoughts were +busy with the cavalier way in which I had been treated. I was incensed +at Penelope, but had it been any balm to my wounds to make her feel the +weight of my anger, I knew well enough that she was far beyond the +reach of my reproaches. But hopelessly I repeated over and over to +myself that I never could forgive her. Then, by a sudden weak +reversal, I did forgive her and let my anger evaporate into a silent +protest against the unkind fate which had decreed that her people +should no longer be my people. + +It was when I saw her that I forgave her. As we three sat at dinner, +Mrs. Bannister chattering on, Rufus Blight meditative but offering a +mono-syllable now and then as evidence that he listened, I smiling +responsively, Penelope came in. How could I not forgive her when I saw +her thus, gowned in the daintiest art of the Rue de la Paix, cloaked in +soft white fur, capped with a scarf of filmy lace, and one small hand +held out to mine. + +The fault, I said, was my own, mine and the Fates which had ordered +that the orbits in which we moved should meet but rarely. The fault, +too, lay with my forebears, who, had they considered me, would have +settled on the shores of the Hudson instead of pushing westward so +recklessly. Then I might now be going to the Ruyters', to sit at +dinner at her side, to sit behind her in the shadow of an opera-box and +whisper in her ear the ten thousand things which I had to say. I +forgave Penelope. I called down maledictions on the robust Malcolms +and McLaurins who had carried me out of her world and abandoned me to +the garrulous Mrs. Bannister and the taciturn Rufus Blight. + +Penelope was exceedingly sorry to be going out, but she knew that David +would understand and would come some other night. David understood +thoroughly; there was no reason for her to apologize, and, of course, +he would come again. Penelope was immensely relieved to find him so +complacent; she even wished he were to be of the company to which she +was going. She had just come in to have a glimpse of him, and now she +must be hurrying. And so she went away to take her bright place in +that social firmament of which the abandoned Mr. Malcolm thought with +so much envy and longing while he dallied again with sweetbreads and +peas. + +"It was very late when I got home," said Mrs. Bannister, taking up the +thread of her narrative, "and who should I find here, as usual, but +Herbert Talcott!" + +The emphasis which she put on the words "as usual" aroused Mr. Blight +from his placid interest in his glass of claret. "And who," said he, +"is Talcott, anyway? What does he do?" + +"Herbert Talcott is a remarkable man," replied Mrs. Bannister. "He +does nothing." + +It should have mattered little to me that Herbert Talcott refused tea +from Penelope's hands every day of the week because he had just come +from the club. Had Mrs. Bannister announced that he was calling daily +on Gladys Todd, then I should very properly have been startled. Yet I +sat up straight now as though she had named an archenemy of my +happiness and my ears were keen to hear every word. + +"He does absolutely nothing," she continued. "He has absolutely +nothing, in spite of the reports that he is quite well off. I know +positively that his father left him only ten thousand a year, and yet +he knows everybody and goes everywhere. He is undeniably clever and +was a great favorite at Harvard." + +"Doesn't he work at all?" said Mr. Blight with a rising inflection of +astonishment. + +"Why, no," replied Mrs. Bannister. She saw the disapproval in my +host's face and was quick to bring herself into sympathy. "That is +what I can't understand. Now, there is Bob Grant, who is very rich in +his own right, and yet goes religiously down to the Stock Exchange +every day because he feels an obligation to be of some use in the +world. But of the two men, Herbert Talcott is the more sought after." + +"Sought after?" said my host inquiringly. + +"Yes, sought after," repeated Mrs. Bannister. "He is asked everywhere. +I suppose his name has something to do with it, but in these days, when +name counts for so little and money for so much, it is remarkable." + +"It is remarkable," said Rufus Blight, with a return to the spirit of +the day when I had known him as a bustling, pompous man. "It is +remarkable that he can be happy doing nothing. Look how restless I am +with nothing to do but to play golf and read magazines. I can't +understand him. And yet he seems a decent young man." + +"But, you must remember, he is going out all the time," said Mrs. +Bannister. "A man simply couldn't go out as he does and do anything. +He is always in demand. Why, I know a dozen families into which he +would be heartily welcomed. Last year it was reported that he was +engaged to marry Jane Carmody, the mine man's daughter; but she was +rather plain--to be truthful, very plain--and I will say for Herbert +Talcott that he is not the kind who would marry solely for money." + +Mrs. Bannister went on chattering her praise of Herbert Talcott, with a +subtle purpose, I suspected, of impressing on me the utter absurdity of +my entering the lists with him and of bringing Rufus Blight to a keener +appreciation of the man whom he might be called on any day to welcome +into his own family. With me her efforts were quite unneeded. With +Rufus Blight the impression which she seemed to create was alone one of +astonishment that any man could be happy doing nothing. Again and +again he interrupted her to express his doubt on that point, and when +dinner was over and Mrs. Bannister had retired, and we were smoking in +the room which he called his den, he unmasked to me a mind weary of +working over nothing. He should never have sold out to the trust, he +said; in the mills he had been happy; every hour had its task and every +day its victories in orders for rails and armor-plate. Now in a single +day every month he could cut coupons and attend to dividends, and the +others he must pass with golf and magazines. + +His den? How quickly does this bourgeois phrase call up before us a +hodgepodge room, an atmosphere of stale tobacco smoke, a table covered +with pipes, books and magazines, littered with tobacco, walls burdened +with hideous prints, a mantel adorned with objects dear to their owner +from their associations, to the visitor hideous. The alien mind which +had conceived the great library had evidently been held at bay when +Rufus Blight was fitting himself into this den, his real home. + +Over the fireplace was a great steel plate of the regretted mills, a +world covered with immaculate smokeless buildings and cut with streets +in which women were taking the air in barouches as though in a park; +before the fireplace two patent rockers, and behind them a table +littered with magazines and novels; in the corners golf sticks of +innumerable designs, and wherever the eye turned it met coldly colored +prints showing trotting horses in action. I had one of the +rocking-chairs and Rufus Blight the other, and he was looking up at the +mills when he spoke so regretfully of them. He referred again to +Talcott. + +"I can't understand it--a man happy doing nothing. I suppose I am a +sort of machine--I must have work fed into me. Here I am at fifty-five +and not a wheel moving. It was the power of the mills that kept me +running. Now I have lost that." For a moment he was silent. Then he +leaned toward me and said in a wistful voice: "David, you remember my +brother. He could be happy just sitting thinking. Now if my energy +could have been combined with his mentality, what----" + +I finished the sentence. From the past came the picture of the +Professor at the bare table in the cabin, pointing a long finger at me. +"What a man we would have made." + +Rufus Blight's eyes opened wide. "How did you read my thoughts so +well!" he exclaimed. + +"The conclusion was simple," said I. "Years ago I heard your brother +say the same thing." + +"Oh! Well it does express the case exactly. Henderson was always a +wonderful man for thinking, David. In his young days he was perfectly +happy with a book. There were not many books in our valley, but he +read them all and it was very interesting to hear the ideas he formed +from them. He was a wonderful talker." Rufus Blight nodded his head +reminiscently. "A wonderful talker. But when it came to practical +things he was quite helpless. It wasn't that he was lazy. If there +had been at hand anything big to do, anything that appealed to him, he +would have done it. What he needed was an opportunity. He really +never had half a chance. He did try working in the store with me--and +he tried hard, but a mind like his could not be happy measuring out +sugar and counting eggs. Such work seemed to lead to nothing--I know +it did to me. But I had a different kind of a mind. I had to feed it, +like a machine, with figures and facts. But to him it was of no +importance that butter had gone up a cent a pound. He would say that +the ants weren't worried about it, nor the birds, nor the people of +other planets. Do you know, David, I really used to envy Hendry his +way of seeing things." + +For a few moments Rufus Blight was silent, and my eyes were on the +picture of the great mills to which the counting of sugar and eggs had +led. From the mills they wandered to what they had given the man who +built them, from the golf sticks to the prints of trotting horses and +to the litter on the table. This den measured the true extent of his +conquest. I looked at him. With a movement of weariness he stretched +his feet toward the fire and leaned back and gazed at the ceiling, with +a whimsical smile playing around the corners of his mouth. + +"I had to work, David," he went on. "Hendry could earn a living +teaching school, but I hadn't the brains, so I toiled away in the store +from early morning until late at night. Teaching school was easier. +He used to say that if the sluggard did actually go to the ant he would +probably find him a most uninteresting creature to talk to. I guess +Hendry was right. I do know that he had little of the virtue of the +ant, but he was one of the most interesting men I ever heard talk. +When I was behind the counter it was my main pleasure to listen to him, +perched on a chair in front of it." Rufus Blight laughed. "Really, +David, in those days I was proud of having such a distinguished +brother. I had always looked up to him. He was older than I, four +years, and he was my protector against the assaults of other lads--my +ready compendium of universal knowledge. I never dreamed but that if I +prospered he would prosper; and if he, then I. Why, David, I can feel +him now clapping me on the back and calling me his grub-worm. 'Some +day,' he would say, 'I'll come and ask a bed in your garret.' And I +would laugh at him and talk of the time when we--I always said +'we'--when we should have a pair of fine trotters, and should go +skimming over the country together instead of crawling along behind our +blind mare." Rufus Blight paused. The whimsical smile was gone and he +was looking at me through narrowed eyes. "Then the break came." And +quickly, as he said it, he turned from me and began to smoke very hard. + +"The break?" said I in a questioning tone; for I believed that at last +I was to know the mystery which lay behind the Professor's conduct if +only I could lead him on. + +"Yes," said he in an even voice, "the break. The break came and I had +to leave the valley. I wouldn't stay after that, David. There was +nothing left for me there, but I had my work; I could go on weighing +butter and counting eggs." Rufus Blight's voice was low and he spoke +rapidly. He seemed to have it in his mind that I knew the story of +those early days, had heard it, perhaps, from the lips of his brother +or from common report, for men are prone to think their fellows well +informed of the conspicuous facts of their lives. I dared not +interrupt again for an explanation, lest my question should betray me +to him as nothing more than a curious stranger. I know the story now +in all its detail, but it came to me only from Rufus Blight, and from +him in a few scattered threads, dropped for me to weave while in his +den that night; feeling that he had found one whom he could trust, he +unburdened his heart. Doubtless he had no such thought when he led me +into the room, but there might have been in my eyes, when he spoke of +the valley, some light of sympathy. And when he turned from that great +hall, from his heavy table and his liveried servants, to speak of +counting eggs and weighing butter, I had not even smiled at the +incongruity. Then the dam broke, and memories backed up in years of +silence broke forth in a quick and troubled flood. + +"It was my fault, David, as much as his. I was a grub--a dull, toiling +grub. But those long hours that I was toiling came to be good hours +for me when it was for her sake. Why, it seemed that every pound of +sugar I sold, that every little profit I made, was for her. I planned +the finest house in the country as I stood all day at the counter, and +it was for her. She was to have it all, and I only asked to be allowed +to grub away--for her. She didn't understand me, David. She used to +taunt me with being sordid, and said that I stayed at the store early +and late because I loved a dollar most. I didn't understand women. I +guess at least I should have closed up the store for an evening or two +a week, and yet"--Rufus Blight hesitated--"and yet it wouldn't have +made any difference. Hendry was a tall fellow. I was short and rather +fat. Hendry could talk in a wonderful way. I was always silent except +when it came to a trade. It had to be as it was, David, but it was +hard--very hard. I don't think I said any more than most men would +have said to him--perhaps less, because I never was a talker. And, +after all, I couldn't blame them. Why, I remember, as I was leaving +the valley, I said to him that if they ever needed a home they must +come to me. He was offended. He drew himself up and said proudly that +when I needed help I must come to them. Poor Hendry! It wasn't long +before he did need help; but could you imagine him taking it from any +one? He lost the school--he had become not quite orthodox in his ideas +and was inclined to rail at church doctrine. He never was intended for +manual labor; he worked hard when he could get work, but everything +seemed against him. Then Penelope came, and he was left alone with +her, and it made him bitter. I tried to get him to come to me; but +could you imagine a man as proud as he, David--a man of his +mind--coming to me after what had happened! Why, he called my offer +charity. Then he left the valley, too, and I wrote to him from +Pittsburgh, where I had bought a little mill. I wanted them to come to +me--him and Penelope--for I was lonely. I had nothing but the mill; +why, only in the mill was I happy. But could you imagine a man as +proud as he, David, taking help from me? He answered rather curtly; +said that some day I should see what he was worth; that he was not the +idler he seemed. He said that again to me face to face, that once when +I have seen him in all the years since the break." + +Rufus Blight left his chair and stood by the fireplace, a hand on the +mantel, his eyes watching the flames. + +"Could I have done more, David? That night when I saw him I had come +in from the mills late, and the servants would not let him wait for me +even in the hall. He told me how he had shot the constable. He feared +he had killed him, but he did not know, not daring to turn back to find +out. He had walked the whole way, travelling day and night. I wanted +him to stay, but he said that in Mary he had taken from me everything I +had ever had; he could take no more. He had come not to beg, but to +give me Penelope; and when he came again it would not be as a brother +who could be turned from my door by the servants; when he came again it +would be as a father of whom Penelope could feel no shame. I could not +move him. I did my best, David, but he laughed and slapped me on the +back and called me his old grub; said that some day I should really see +what was in him. Then he went away--God only knows where." + +"To the West," said I. "To the East, to Tibet." + +"Yes," said Rufus Blight. He was standing before me, his hands clasped +behind him, his eyes intent on the ceiling. + +"And you came to us for Penelope," I said. The last trace of my +antipathy to this man, once to me so fat and pompous, was gone. + +He looked at me with a faint smile of embarrassment. "And what an +ungrateful brute I was!" he exclaimed. "David, did you remember the +promises I made that day?" + +"I used to remember them," I answered, "and to wonder." + +"You had the right," he said. "But remember what I was--just a lonely +grub. Till Penelope came to me I had nothing but the mills. Having +her, I wanted her entirely." He held out his hand. "She was only that +high, David, and I was getting gray. I never looked at her but there +came into my mind another just that high who had a desk in school in +front of mine, and sometimes I seemed to be looking again over the top +of my spelling-book at the same bright hair and the same bobbing bit of +ribbon. Can't you see what she meant to me, David? She hated me at +first--she spoke always of her father and of you--and I was jealous." + +"I understand," said I. + +He had not spoken of the letters. There was no need of it. I knew +that they were in his mind and that he was perfectly conscious of the +pettiness of his action. But for me his simple confession had absolved +him. + +"I wanted her entirely," he went on, throwing himself into a chair at +my side. "I wanted something to live for beside the mills. In +Penelope I found it. What the mills gave me was for her. Every hour I +worked was happier because it was for her good. Sometimes I have to +fight against a dread that Hendry will come back and take her from me, +and yet when I think of him, tumbling around the world alone, I want +him too--want him in that very chair you are sitting in. It would be +so good just to hear him talk, and it wouldn't make any difference to +us now if he did just talk." Rufus Blight brought a fist down on the +arm of his chair. "David, I must find him!" + +"He went to Tibet," said I. + +"To the South Seas, to the Arctic, to Tibet--everywhere, David. His +trail has led me all over the world. I can never catch up to him. The +Philadelphia man you told me of--Harassan--dead three years. My +secretary, Mallencroft, has found that in San Francisco a man named +Henderson worked on _The Press_ there, but only two men remembered him. +They said he was erratic, always in trouble by writing things contrary +to the paper's policy, and gave up in disgust, to ship as supercargo on +a vessel trading in the South Seas. He wrote a book after that, but +the publishers failed, and Mallencroft couldn't even find a copy of it. +That must have been about the time you saw him--when he lectured on +'Life.' Poor old Hendry! It's his pride, his confounded pride--that's +the trouble." + +I had risen. Rufus Blight came to me and laid a hand on each of my +shoulders. What a change since that day long ago! He had to reach up +to me, and I looked down into his face. + +"You'll think me a strange fellow, David. I didn't mean to tell you so +much, but it just would come out when I saw that you understood. We +must find him--you and I. We may find him any day; at this very minute +he may be going by the Old Grub's door. Watch for him." + +I promised. I must come often, he said; it was good to have such a +friend as I was, one who could understand, to whom he could talk of old +days in the valley. He had never really been at home since he left the +valley. He had lived in strange places, among strange people. We must +all go back--back to the valley, he and Penelope and I--we should go in +May--Penelope had talked of it--in May, when the orchards were in +blossom. + +Rufus Blight laughed at the joyous prospect. And I? I closed my eyes +to it. I turned away, through the great hall, but he, with unwelcome +kindness, followed me to the stairs. What a great expedition it would +be--to the valley--just he and I and Penelope! I laughed +ironically--at myself. I plunged down the deep-carpeted steps. The +grilled door closed behind me. I paused a moment to turn up my collar +against the cold, to button my gloves and collect my scattered +thoughts. How the wind bit! + +Across the Avenue a dark figure leaned against the wall of the park. +As I stepped over the pavement the man seemed to think that I was +moving toward him, for he roused himself quickly and walked rapidly up +the street. I laughed at his fright and turned on my way downtown, for +I was thinking of myself and of what I had lost, and I had no care for +shivering tramps. I reached the corner. Rufus Blight's words came +back to me. Had that man been watching the Old Grub's door? I turned +sharply, but I saw nothing, no sign of a living thing save the lights +of a retreating cab. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +I have spoken casually, in this rambling story of mine, of young +Marshall, a fellow-lodger at Miss Minion's. He was the Brummel of the +boarding-house. The fact that he occupied the smallest rear +hall-bedroom, with the minimum of daylight, in no way affected his +standing, for everybody knew that he went out in society. Indeed, for +him more spacious quarters were hardly needed, as he was seldom at home +except to dress and to sleep. By day he hurried about Wall Street, +buying and selling bonds. On the winter evenings he stepped forth from +his cell a splendid figure, realizing, as nearly as possible, those +spotless and creaseless young men whom the illustrators draw with so +much unction. Then we might have imagined that he would step on, into +his brougham, to be whirled away to some smart dinner. Alas! his +equipage was not even a cab. His pair of prancing blacks were only his +galoches, and his protection against the weather a long ulster, a +chest-protector of thickly padded satin, and an opera-hat. The great +trouble which Marshall had on these nightly expeditions was getting +home. I do not mean to insinuate that it was to find Miss Minion's +door. It was to pass Miss Minion's door. There were several +absent-minded old gentlemen living in the house who had a way of +forgetting that they were not its sole occupants. Coming in from their +weekly or monthly trip to the theatre, the hour would to them seem +horribly late and they would catch the chain. Occasionally I was +myself their victim, and had to stand shivering outside, ringing the +bell with one hand and with the other playing a tattoo on the panels. +More generally it was Marshall, for, though I was frequently held very +late at my work downtown, he was abroad at his pleasures even later. +The lateness with which he pursued these pleasures was no evidence +against their innocence. Tom Marshall was one of the most innocent men +that I have ever known. He was not a New Yorker. He came, as he told +me, of the Marshalls of Pogatuck, in Maine. The way that he said it +made me understand that there was no bluer blood in the land than that +running in the veins of the Pogatuck Marshalls, and it explained why +the Knickerbockers were so willing to meet him as an equal. He had +come from Pogatuck by way of Harvard, and one advantage which his +education had given him was an acquaintance that he could turn to use, +inasmuch as his great ambition was to "go out." To him a card to the +Ruyters would have been an olive-wreath of victory. It was a trophy +that he hoped to win, and to that end he worked patiently, selling +bonds all day, and at night as patiently setting forth in his galoches, +his ulster, and his opera-hat to storm the outer works of society. He +belonged to innumerable dancing-classes. Indeed, it seemed to me that +he kept himself poor meeting their dues, for I remember more than one +occasion when he appealed to me in distress because he had to send +fifteen dollars to the treasurer of the Tuesdays or the Fridays and the +pater had forgotten to remit his allowance. Tom Marshall's father was +the most forgetful of men. + +I liked him. You could not help liking him. He was so thoroughly +good-natured and affable. His conversation was by no means +instructive, but there was an airiness about his views and ambitions +which was restful to one who was taking life as seriously as was I in +those days. I got to know him by having constantly to let him in. Of +all the lodgers in the house, I was the most likely to be up late, and +if one of the forgetful old gentlemen fastened the door-chain, to me +would fall the duty of answering the signals of distress from the stoop. + +Tom Marshall has played but a small part in my life. Like that of +Boller of '89, his place in the cast is a minor one. He is one of +those who fall in near the end of the line when the company joins hands +to sidle across the stage, bowing and smiling, after the second act. +Yet without him I wonder sometimes how my own play would have ended. +It seems to me now as though he must have been born in Pogatuck, as +though his whole life had been ordered, his love of going out +developed, so that at the proper moment he might enter the stage where +I was playing the hero to an empty house. He entered it at one o'clock +in the morning. The door was chained. At the moment I was sitting in +my room, on my one comfortable chair, my book on the floor at my side, +my pipe in my mouth, and I was smoking very hard. What countless pipes +I had smoked in this same way since the night, a month before, when I +had dined with Rufus Blight! What countless nights I had sat in this +same way, in this same month, with my book on the floor and my mind +revolving ceaselessly in a circle! This night I had come to that part +of the circle where I thought of Penelope, the lovely, the formal, the +distant Penelope, when down in the depths of the house I heard the +muffled clatter of the bell and faint rat-tats upon the front door. I +went to the window and put out my head, to see on the stoop the muffled +black figure of Tom Marshall. + +"It was old Ransome again, I'll bet you," he said, when I had unchained +the door and we stood in the dimly lighted hall. "This is the third +time this month that he has locked me out, confound him!" + +I raised my finger to my lips, cautioning Marshall not to arouse the +whole house. But he would not be silenced--it was early yet, +anyway--he had been to a Friday cotillon and it was a beastly +bore--even the supper was poor--he wanted something to eat. His foot +was on the stairs when he discovered that he was hungry. He discovered +at the same time that he was indebted to me for having let him in, not +alone this time but many others, and he insisted on showing his +appreciation by taking me out to a late supper. I demurred. Marshall +talked louder. I insinuated that he had been drinking, to which he +replied that the Fridays never served anything but weak punch. I +should have protested further, but Mrs. Markham's door opened at the +head of the stairs and I heard her breathing indignantly. For the sake +of quiet I consented, and so it happened that at one o'clock in the +morning I found myself in the street, with my arm tucked under +Marshall's and our faces set toward O'Corrigan's chop-house. + +O'Corrigan's has been torn down these many years, but you can see a +score of replicas of it on upper Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Its +plate-glass windows were adorned with set pieces of lobsters and +oysters, celery and apples, and you entered through a revolving door +into an atmosphere laden heavily with kitchen fumes, into a room which +multiplied itself in many mirrors. When you went there for the first +time the man who took you, if he knew his New York, would tell you of +O'Corrigan's rise from waiting at a downtown lunch-counter to the +ownership of these glittering halls. + +Of course, Tom Marshall knew O'Corrigan. He hailed him cordially, and +it seemed to me that he had no little pride in the privilege. He even +nodded to the bartender as we passed him, leading me to the archway +whence we could survey the adjoining room to see what was going on +there. But nothing was going on there. These late-night restaurants +are at their best in colored pictures. There they seem to own an +atmosphere of light and joy. There lovely women sip champagne, that +gayest of wines, from dainty glasses, and gallant men seem to say to us +that if you would have health and wealth and happiness you would never +go home until morning, but would live with them in this bright world of +wine and women and song. Really, they are melancholy places, +especially in their gayest hours. If vice really were attractive, how +vicious most of us would be! I do not say that O'Corrigan's was a +vicious place. At certain hours its patronage was of the dullest +respectability from the suburbs. Dull respectability is not supposed +to be abroad in the early hours of the morning, but it does seek at +times to hover on the edge of disrespectability with something of the +roguish curiosity of childhood. And now the respectables and the +unrespectables, a motley gathering in that garish room, amid the ugly +debris of their feasting, made an unattractive picture from which I +turned with a sense of relief to the quieter place behind us. + +As we moved to a table in a secluded corner, I saw Talcott and Bob +Grant sitting with their heads close together over a litter of plates +and glasses. Grant spoke to me. As he rose and offered his hand, I +noticed in his eyes that watery brightness which comes in certain +stages of conviviality. The effusiveness of his greeting might have +flattered me had I not realized that his heart was unduly expanded by +alcohol. To see such a great, good-natured animal as young Grant thus +exhilarated was not surprising to me, but with Talcott it was +different. I had known him only as a quiet, self-possessed man who, +from policy if nothing else, I believed must be as circumspect in his +life as in his clothes. Now he spoke to me. His greeting was +perfunctory. In his eyes was that watery dulness which comes with the +later stages of conviviality. His hair was tousled, his collar +crushed, his tie awry; for whiskey muddles the clothes as well as the +brain. He nodded to me; he wondered what I was doing out so late; he +snapped his fingers and called loudly for Andrew. The summons to the +waiter was for me a hint to be gone. + +Tom Marshall was greatly impressed by the fact that I knew Talcott and +Grant. When I rejoined him he seemed to treat me with greater respect +than hitherto, for he had been rather patronizing. It was surprising +to him, always so busy storming the outer works, to know that I, the +drudge of the fourth floor front, who never "went out," was so intimate +with these gallant cadets who lived in the citadel. He had come to +give me beer. Now in a faltering voice he suggested champagne, rubbing +his hands and smiling as he named it, as though it were his habit to +indulge nightly in so expensive a beverage. Remembering that he had +owed me five dollars for many months, I deemed it unwise to make an +unnecessary inroad into his pocket-book. With my refusal he grew +insistent, and at last consented, only with reluctance, to a modest +repast of welsh-rabbit and beer. + +"And the beer at once," he commanded the waiter. + +Then, unfolding his napkin on his knees and lighting a cigarette, he +looked over my shoulder to the distant table where the two heads were +close together over the litter of plates and glasses. "So you know +Talcott and Grant," he went on. "I'm sorry you didn't introduce me, +Malcolm. I've seen them around, of course, but, strangely, have never +met them. They are a great pair--stacks of money--Grant especially. +Talcott was in Harvard with me--was rather a snob and went with the +rich crowd--very smart now. He was one of Willie Ruyter's ushers." + +I smiled with compassion at this broken discourse. It brought to my +mind Mrs. Bannister. Tom Marshall and Mrs. Bannister looked at life +from the same view-point and I from one entirely different. To my mind +there was nothing very remarkable in having my existence acknowledged +by two very muddled young men, who in their present state acknowledged +also their brotherhood with the _roué_ whom I had seen in the next room +or the cabman sitting outside on his box in a half-stupor. I might +envy the good fortune which allowed them to move in the same world as +Penelope Blight, but to disavow intimacy with them, even to one so +strangely ambitious as Tom Marshall, called for no loss of pride. With +some show of temper I avowed that I hardly knew them. I had only met +them once or twice at the house of friends. But the sincerity with +which I disowned them served only to heighten the new-born respect with +which Marshall treated me. He did not know that I "went out." +Laughing, I retorted that I never did go out. He said that I must; +that he would take me out; he would present me to the right people. He +launched into the delights of going out and the necessity of going out +if a man was to be anybody at all; then suddenly stopped at the thought +that the beer ordered at once was very slow in coming. + +"That waiter is always confoundedly slow," he said. "I should have +insisted on having Andrew. I apologize, Malcolm--I should have thought +of Andrew. You would have enjoyed Andrew." + +"Andrew?" I repeated, questioning. + +"Yes, Andrew," replied Marshall. "Here's the beer. Now, George, hurry +those rabbits--I'm famished. Andrew," he went on, lighting a fresh +cigarette, "is a remarkable character. He is full of philosophy. He +quoted Herbert Spencer to me the other night. He has a sly way--and a +somewhat disconcerting one--when you order a drink, of trying to induce +you to take mineral water, and if he can, and O'Corrigan is not within +hearing, he serves a temperance lecture with every Scotch and soda." +Marshall tapped his forehead. "A little queer," he said sagely, "but +shrewd. By Jove, there he is now arguing with Bob Grant--a temperance +lecture, I'll bet--trying to persuade him to take plain soda." + +I looked over my shoulder to see this philosophic waiter who served +temperance lectures with whiskey. His back was to me. I saw only a +tall, loose-jointed figure clad in a waiter's jacket, a long, black arm +outstretched, a napkin draped over it, a long, thin hand clutching a +bill-of-fare, and a head of dark hair shot with white. The +bill-of-fare struck the table in emphasis, the napkin waved like a flag +of battle, both arms were stretched out wide in appeal. Grant laughed +again--uproariously. + +"I'll bet he is trying to uplift those fellows," said Marshall. "He +has a good chance to get in a word, as O'Corrigan is in the next room." + +I turned to my companion. At that moment I was more interested in the +non-arrival of the welsh-rabbit than in the scene behind me, for +waiters are by nature inclined to be voluble when the opportunity is +given them, and to me there was nothing particularly amusing in the +picture of young Grant, with that graciousness which comes with too +much drink, condescending to argue with this crack-brained fellow who +moved with his head in the clouds while his weary feet shuffled in and +out of O'Corrigan's kitchen. At the moment there was nothing familiar +to me in the tall, thin figure, nothing more than I should have seen in +any other lank, shambling waiter waving a napkin and a bill-of-fare. I +was growing tired. I was regretting that I had even allowed Tom +Marshall to inveigle me out so late, to breathe heavy air and to eat +heavy food at this hour, when I should be refreshing my body with sleep. + +But Tom Marshall's spirits grew higher as the night grew older. He was +immensely comfortable with his beer and cigarettes, immensely amused at +the argument which was going on behind my back. + +"You really must meet Andrew. You will enjoy him, Malcolm," he said. +"I'll call him over when he is through with those men. He is a +character worth knowing." + +"You speak of him as if you had known him for a long time," I returned, +and I think my lips must have curled a little; but if I was +unappreciative of the hospitality which I was enjoying, my excuse was +my great weariness. + +"Oh dear, no," he demurred; "I've been coming here for years--late at +night, you understand, for a bite occasionally. I never saw him until +last fall--got talking to him--I always like to talk to waiters, to get +their ideas. I found him a curious chap, better educated than most of +them and surprisingly well informed--surprisingly. He seemed to have +knocked around a good deal." + +"Had been a waiter in Hoboken, I suppose," said I, "and in +Philadelphia----" + +"In Hoboken!" My sarcasm nettled Marshall. "He told me that he had +never been a waiter at all until he came here; he was simply looking +for an opportunity to find something really congenial. He was fresh +from Canton. In Hoboken!" Tom Marshall leaned toward me aggressively. +"Why, man, he has been everywhere--through the South Seas, in----" + +There _was_ something familiar in the tall, thin figure, something that +even the waiter's jacket and the waving napkin could not hide. + +"What's up now?" Marshall cried. + +I had half risen from my chair and turned. Talcott and Grant were +leaning over their table, elbows resting there, heads close together. +And behind Talcott's chair the black figure was bent until the hands +could touch the floor. He was brushing up scattered crumbs. As I +looked, he raised his head, and it seemed to me that he had forgotten +his menial task, had forgotten his menial place, for he was very still. +He was no longer dusting. The napkin fell from his outstretched hand. +He was listening to the muttered, maudlin conversation as though from +the chaos of it he gathered some sober words of truth. + +I looked at my companion. "In the South Seas, you said, Marshall. Has +he spoken of San Francisco? Do you know his name?" + +Marshall sprang from his chair. I was up too, and it was to see the +Professor with a hand on Talcott's collar, shaking him, holding him at +arm's length as he shook him, as though this man were some contemptible +thing that he would touch as little as he could and yet must hold to +and shake until it was cleansed of its vileness. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +For myself I should have chosen the hut where I first met the Professor +above the home to which he led me in the early morning. If the old was +tumble-down, dark and ill-furnished, its air was the pure air of the +mountains and the way to it through things green and lovely. To the +new we went through squalid streets, westward, toward the river; we +turned into a dilapidated tenement; we climbed three flights of rickety +stairs into a room which compared to mine as mine to the house of Rufus +Blight. The lighted gas revealed hardly more than a narrow cell, with +dirty, torn paper on the walls, a narrow bed, a cheap table, and a +single chair. Giving me the chair, my host seated himself upon the +bed, so close to me, of necessity, that our knees touched. To my eyes +he was little older than that day fifteen years before when we had met. +He was old then to my youthful view. Thinner he could not have been, +and now only the scattered white hairs and the deepened lines of his +face marked his increased years. He had laid aside his overcoat, and +sat before me clad in his waiter's clothes, but the waiter's mien was +gone. With his legs crossed, his hands clasped over one knee, his head +drawn down between his shoulders, he seemed the languid, weary man of +the store-porch, whose eyes quickened only at the trumpet-call to +debate. Clearly his attitude toward me was one of antagonism. This I +saw in his quiet gaze and in the restless twitching of fingers, +impatient for the cut and thrust of argument. + +On our way from O'Corrigan's to his squalid room, the Professor had +spoken little. For the most part, as he plodded along at my side, he +had contented himself in expressing opinions not complimentary to +Herbert Talcott, in voicing his regret that he had not thrashed him +instead of merely shaking him. That he had not thrashed Talcott was +hardly evidence of the mildness of his attack. It was rather because I +had interposed; and then O'Corrigan, in the character of the outraged +proprietor of a highly respectable restaurant, had intruded himself +into the quarrel, even going so far as to threaten to call the police. +But I was first in the _mêlée_, and on me fell the blame of saving +Talcott from merited chastisement. For this the Professor upbraided +me. He spoke as though Talcott had been the aggressor. Had not +Talcott struck him a blow under the eye? Yes, but it was feebly given. +But the sting of it was to the Professor's pride, and he would regret +to his dying day that I had withheld him from giving the young +scoundrel his just deserts. + +Poor Talcott! I confessed to myself that it would have given me +pleasure to have had some part in his chastisement, and as we plodded +westward through the empty streets I pictured him driving home in a +hansom, trying to gather his scattered wits and to discover some reason +why a quiet, respectful waiter should have assailed him without cause. +Poor muddled Talcott! He did not know that his betrayer had been +distilled in far-off Scotland, and had lain away in vats a score of +years awaiting that very moment to make him speak his honest thought +just as the quiet, respectful waiter was bending behind him to pick up +crumbs. Perhaps he could not even remember what he was saying when he +was stopped by the long fingers which were thrust down the back of his +neck. Did he remember, what he was saying could be none of the +waiter's affair, anyway. It could matter nothing to that humble +creature if he did speak of Rufus Blight as a vulgar little brute and +of Penelope as "a bit raw, but worth marrying for her money alone." "A +woman's millions never grow _passé_," was an aphorism which fitted the +lips of the half-drunken cynic. To be sure, the things which he had +said were not such as a man would give expression to were he cold +sober, even if he thought them, and much less would he apply them to +particular persons, yet when you are sitting late at night with such a +good fellow as Bob Grant over your fifth Scotch and soda, you are +likely to be a little unguarded. For who would think of a waiter +objecting? Poor, muddled, drunken Talcott! He did not know that he +really had given the first blow, had changed the obsequious waiter into +a fury by striking him in the heart of his pride. And to such a fury +had the Professor been wrought, and so firmly did anger hold his mind, +that my own sudden interference was received by him as quite in the +ordinary, though he protested against my good offices. He remonstrated +indignantly when I acquiesced in O'Corrigan's assertion that my humble +friend must be demented, a plea which opened a way out of the +predicament. Fortunately, the Professor's own wisdom in refusing an +explanation of an apparently unprovoked assault gave color to this +theory, and as Talcott's one clear thought was to escape without any +unpleasant notoriety, O'Corrigan satisfied his ire by ordering his mad +employee out of the place. + +So the Professor came into my charge. Had we met after a separation of +only a day, his treatment of me could not have been more casual. He +consented to my accompanying him home, but this seemed less from a +desire to see me again than to protest against my having publicly +humiliated him by treating him as demented. He had always thought that +David Malcolm would understand him under every circumstance; that +whatever his condition and whatever mine, when we met again it would be +with mutual esteem. Yet David Malcolm had judged him by his clothes, +had given him a waiter's heart and mind with a waiter's garb! He was +bent on proving to me that, however low he might have fallen in the +world's eye, he was as sane as he ever had been, and that in accepting +O'Corrigan's opinion so readily I had done him a wrong. + +Now when we were sitting in his room, so close that our knees touched, +he seemed by his silence to tell me that he had spoken, and that my +part was to excuse and to explain what he deemed a reflection on +himself. I saw him in his shabby waiter's garb. This was the uniform +in which he marched, moved night after night with shuffling feet and +eyes alert lest he break the dishes--marched to the divine drumbeat, +marched under God's sealed orders. His own high-flowing phrases came +back to me, and I could have laughed, seeing him, but I remembered that +those phrases had been the sabre cuts which drove me into action, that +but for them I might be dozing like the very dogs, dozing with the +unhappy restlessness of enforced inaction. Perhaps I was moving to +barren conquests, but barren conquests are better than defeat. He had +moved to defeat, and I pitied him. He asked of me excuse and +explanation. I, having none to give, was silent. But I think he must +have seen in my eyes something of the same light which he found in them +that morning in the smoky cabin. Then he had reached down, taken me in +his arms and called me his only friend. Now with a sudden movement he +held out his hand to mine. Anger was gone. He had forgotten Talcott. +He had forgotten the stranger who seized his arm and thwarted his fury. +He saw only the boy who yesterday had stood at his side when every +man's hand was against him. + +"Davy--Davy," he cried, "you have come again to help me." + +"Yes--to take you home," said I, "to your brother and Penelope." + +He made a gesture of dissent and his eyes narrowed. "No," he returned +with sharpness. "That cannot be. Don't you suppose that I should have +gone to them of my own accord had it been possible?" + +"But it is possible," I said. "They want you. I have it from their +own lips." + +"I know--I know," he replied. "Rufus would give me a home. Rufus +would give me money--all I need a hundred times over. But is that what +I really need? I want to do something myself, David--to be somebody +myself. I have it in me. All I ask is an opportunity." He brought +his fist down on his knee. "And by heaven, I will find it! I will +show them I'm not the worthless fellow I seem." + +"But they don't think you worthless, Professor," said I, addressing him +as I might have, had we been in the cabin again. "They have been +searching for you everywhere----" + +"But never expecting to find me as I am now," he interrupted, spreading +wide his arms and inviting me to behold him as he was, a shabby waiter. +"Rufus, who has made what the world calls a success, would be proud of +me; and Penelope, who has learned to think with the rest of the world, +would be proud of me--proud to present me to her friends--to splendid +fellows like Talcott and his muddle-headed companion." He leaned +forward and tapped me on the knee with his long forefinger, and his +face broke into a bitter smile as he spoke more quietly. "David, I +have seen Penelope. I came to New York just to be near her, and many a +night I have stood for hours across the street from her house only to +get a glimpse of her. And sometimes as I see her stepping in or out of +her carriage I say to myself that she cannot be my daughter; and if I +spoke to her how high she would toss her head! Why, she would lose +less caste by walking with Talcott drunk than with me as I am now." + +"But she need not see you as you are now," I protested, half smiling at +the incongruous picture which he had drawn of Penelope walking down the +avenue by the side of this shabby waiter. "They need not even know----" + +I paused to grasp at some inoffensive phrase in which to describe his +forlorn condition. + +"That I have fallen so low," he exclaimed. He had been quick to see my +predicament, and laughed. "I know what you are thinking of, David. +You saw me an obsequious, tip-grasping fellow, with a spirit as heavy +as his feet. You think me broken and down and out." The hands spread +wide again. "I--down and out? Why, Davy, I've been like this a score +of times, and I am still game. You must not think that because of a +little temporary embarrassment I am in prime condition to go crawling +to Rufus and tell him that I have failed and need his help. I told +Rufus that I would come back and claim Penelope when she could be proud +to own me as her father." He brought his fist down on his knee again. +"She couldn't be very proud now, but I'll show them!" + +It was hard to combat so overwhelming a pride as this, a pride which +seemed to thrive in the ashes of hope. I tried to break it by speaking +of his brother and daughter, giving him an account of my renewed +acquaintance with them and of their talk of him. The effect was to set +him smoking a very black pipe. Rising and leaning over the foot-rail +of the bed, much as in the old days he leaned lazily over the store +counter, he held his eyes fixed on mine, and smoked while I argued. He +was a patient listener. My own story was interwoven with his, and that +he might understand my relations with his brother and Penelope, I told +him briefly all that had occurred with me since that day when we parted +in the clearing. When I came to the college lecture, and my efforts to +see him then, and to find him, he made a motion as though to interrupt. +I paused. He commanded me to go on, and the smile which came to his +face at my mention of his discourse on "Life" held there until I had +finished. But my story, intended to give force to my arguments for him +to surrender his pride, only served to put him in a reminiscent mood. + +"That was a lecture, wasn't it, David?" he said, laughing. "Why, do +you know that when I talked that night I almost imagined that I was a +success in life. It was the introduction that did it--distinguished +traveller--famous journalist. And you, I suppose, accepted it all as +truth. Still, you may be thankful you didn't have to hear Harassan--a +gigantic windbag, if there ever was one. I fell in with him one day in +a smoking-car and got to talking about my travels. He was preparing a +lecture on China, and as he had never been there, I was useful, so he +took me into his house until he had pumped me dry. I substituted for +him that night at your college for half the fee--was to read his +lecture, but when I got started on it I couldn't stand it. An +astonishing man, Harassan! When he died he left a modest fortune made +in spouting buncombe; and yet--" The Professor held out a hand in +appeal. "How many men are called great because they succeed in talking +buncombe and selling rubbish! That is what discourages me so; and +doesn't it make you a little bitter when you meet men surrounded by +every material evidence of success and go fishing in their brains and +can't hook up a single original idea of any kind? Why, I've met +hundreds of them, Davy. Now that night Harassan would have hurled at +you a lot of pompous commonplaces, and you would have hailed him as a +great and wise man. I broke from the beaten path. I told you plain +truth. Was I ever asked to lecture again? People won't pay to hear +plain truth, Davy. I suspect that I should have done better had I not +been trying all my life to drive plain truth into unwilling ears." + +"I suspect so, too," said I mildly. + +He laughed at my ready acquiescence. "I started wrong at home," he +went on. "Had I listened to Rufus and plodded along in his humdrum +way, I suppose I'd be rich now. But I couldn't. After I left the +valley I went to Kansas and really settled down, got a school to teach, +and for a time I was quite in the way of becoming a successful +educator--principal of a high-school, perhaps. I might even have +become president of a college, but to die the head of a fresh-water +college did not seem a very glorious end; nor did teaching a lot of +foolish young men to live what are held successful lives seem very +inspiring living. So I went on west to San Francisco and tried +newspaper work. It seemed just the vocation for me. Here I could use +my sword against the dragons of untruth and corruption. The beast +stalks forth brazenly enough, and without considering the moral side at +all, it is sport to attack him. To get myself into a position to +attack him, I had to serve an apprenticeship. You know what that +means--the daily digging for ephemeral facts. But I stuck to it. I +saw the day when I should be the most feared man on the coast, wielding +a pen as efficacious as a surgeon's knife. Unfortunately, my knife +first struck a politician named Mulligan, who owned some stock in the +paper. You know the result. I could direct my caustic pen against +O'Connor or Einstein, but from Mulligan came my living. I took to the +sea to breathe purer air, sailing as supercargo on a trading vessel. +For two years I knocked about the South Sea Islands and along the coast +of Asia, and it seemed that I was gathering a vast amount of +information which would be of service to the race if preserved in a +book. How I worked over that book! When I got back to San Francisco I +saw my fame and fortune about to be made by it. At last the power to +do something worth while was in my reach." + +The Professor paused. He spread wide his arms in a gesture to express +futility. "I had as well stood on the highest peak of the Rockies and +read my manuscript to space. The distinguished traveller and author!" +With a hand upon his heart, he bowed gravely. "The author of one +thousand volumes of uncut leaves. Useless! Well, I suppose Harassan +found the one I gave him of some service, for he got most of his famous +Chinese lecture out of it. There was some pretty good stuff in that +book, too, but Harassan was the only man I ever heard of who agreed +with me; and he--well, he was a successful idiot." + +"And of course you never shared the benefits he reaped," said I. + +"Benefits from Harassan?" The Professor laughed. "Why, David, you +might have thought that I had ruined Harassan from the way he talked +when he received a letter from Todd, that president of yours. Todd +said that I would subvert the morals of the country. So the Reverend +Valerian and I parted with words--he to go to China in his mind, I to +work my way there in the body." The Professor rested himself on the +bed, and between puffs at his pipe continued: "I had an idea of going +to Tibet. That seemed to be really doing something--to go to Lhasa and +unveil its mysteries to the world. I started from Peking, afoot +mostly, and so you see I didn't make very rapid progress, and while +walking I had plenty of time to think. When I was about half-way to +the border, the absurdity of the thing came to me--spending years to +get into Tibet, only to find there a filthy land ruled by a mad +religion. I got almost to Shen-si, and turned back. Somehow China +suited me. I fell into the Chinese way of thinking, and might have +gone on satisfied with a daily dole of rice and fish had it not been +for Penelope. I never could forget Penelope. Always, it seemed to me, +she must be waiting for me to come back with my promises fulfilled, to +return a man she could be proud to own her father. It looked pretty +black for me then, David. China isn't a place to accomplish much, and +I might as well have gone on to Lhasa as to do what I did--work three +years in the consulate at Che-Foo as interpreter and useful man, eyes, +arms, and brains for a politician from Missouri. But my one purpose +was to get home, to see Penelope, to see her a woman grown, and +perhaps--I would say to myself sometimes--to speak to her." + +"And you have found her a woman grown," said I. "Now you have only to +speak to her." + +He shook his head. "I've been here three months now, David, and I have +seen her perhaps a score of times; and when I see her, sometimes +entering that great house, sometimes driving in her carriage, always +the very picture of the ideal princess, she seems a creature of another +world than mine, and I laugh at myself for trying to believe that there +ever was a time when she sat on my knees and talked of days to come +when we should have a house like that and drive in such a carriage! +Would she understand me now? Would temporary necessity condone my +descending to this uniform? I tried to do better when I came here, but +I couldn't. I tried even your profession, but they wanted young men. +I came to this only to be near her. But I am away again, David. I +must be up and doing." He had risen, and was speaking rapidly as he +paced the narrow limits of the room. "Money is what I need and I will +have it. Money has always seemed to me a paltry thing to work for, but +now it is for Penelope's sake. There has been a plan in my mind for +some time, David, only I have delayed starting on it--for Penelope's +sake, you understand. I'm going to Argentina. There was a man on my +ship coming out from Yokohama who was bound for Argentina, and he told +me----" + +The Professor launched into a glowing account of the promise of the +southern country. To his mind, he had only to reach it to acquire the +wealth which he wanted. The man who had failed in every undertaking, +who had turned back from every goal to which he had set his eyes, would +win there in a few years that for which men in other parts of the world +strove a lifetime. I pointed out that the opportunity lay right at his +hand, and his answer was to spread wide his arms that I might see the +waiter's jacket. He had the better of the argument, but the reason lay +in his own character. Then I had recourse to pleading, and my plea was +made not for his sake, but for Penelope's, for only when I spoke of her +would he listen. I tried to show him Penelope's danger, as it had been +revealed to us that very night in Talcott's drunken talk. His reply +was a laugh. He had so idealized Penelope that it was inconceivable +that she should fall a victim to the attentions of such a vapid +creature. He had not seen, as I had, Talcott sober and correct in +deportment. He had not fallen, as I had, under the spell of Talcott's +easy manner when he had just dropped in from the club to talk of last +night's dance and to-morrow's opera. He did not know, as I did, that +the whole company from whom Penelope might choose a mate were to the +outward eye just such commonplace men whose power of fascination lay in +commonplace deeds and words. The Professor, whose whole life had been +spent pursuing shadows, was naturally of a romantic turn of mind, and +it was even difficult for him to conceive of Penelope marrying at all. +That she could be inveigled into so grave a step with a man whose sole +claim to merit was well-cut clothes and a command of social _patois_ +was quite beyond his comprehension. In vain I argued that most women +married just such men, and perhaps it was because the sex had attained +wisdom with experience, had discovered that a brilliant mind on parade +might be amusing, but that, like its duller fellows, it retired to +barracks and found contentment in the same humdrum existence as they. +The birth of eternal, enduring love was but a matter of propinquity. +Sitting on the front doorstep of an afternoon talking and strolling +down to the drugstore every evening for soda-water, Darby and Joan +discovered that existence apart was worse than death. And so might +Joan's richer sister in the old carved chair, under the eyes of +Reynolds's majestic lady, grow accustomed to the coming and going of +Darby's richer brother, confirm herself in the habit of taking narcotic +conversation, talk of last night's dinner and to-morrow's dance, until +he seemed to become essential to her existence. All this I explained +to the Professor. He retorted that I had grown cynical. Perhaps I had +grown cynical, but my cynicism was born of experience--bitter +experience, I called it then. Perhaps, imbittered by my own thwarted +hopes, I exaggerated the danger in which Penelope stood. Perhaps, in +my own vanity and jealousy, I magnified Talcott's sins, knowing well +enough that, after all, he was no worse than most of his brothers. Yet +there was a danger, and its avoidance was simple could I only induce +the man before me to abandon his foolish pride. At least, said I, his +brother should know of the night's occurrence. + +"Know that, after all my boasts, I had come to waiting in a restaurant +and quarrelling with drunken boys?" he cried, shaking his head and +waving an arm to deny my demand. "Of course, if there were any +possibility of Penelope marrying that fool it would be different. But, +David, I know Rufus. He is not brilliant, but he is shrewd, and I'll +trust him to find out if anybody is after his money. And Penelope? +Haven't I seen Penelope many a night stepping into her carriage--don't +you think I can trust her to look higher than that?" + +I could not change him, though we argued until dawn came. Then we +walked together, in the gray of the early morning, from the poor +quarter where he lived to Miss Minion's, a house that had grown in my +eyes, by contrast, palatial. The street was still deserted, and +standing by my door I made a last appeal. But he shook his head. + +"Davy, can't you understand?" he said, as he took my hand in parting. +"I admit that I have been a failure up to date, but Rufus and Penelope +are the last people in the world that I want to know it, and I'll trust +you to be discreet. Some day it may be best to tell them, but at +present, no. Silence, David; I have your promise. I'm to have one +more chance in Argentina, and if I fail you have your way; but I won't +fail." + +He turned from me and stood very straight. His overcoat collar was +buttoned to the neck, hiding the uniform of his adversity. For a +moment, as I watched him, he seemed to be in the gulch again; we looked +over the towering walls of brick and stone, and to me they were the +ridge-side, dark and sombre in the gray light; we looked beyond the +crest of it, beyond the chimneys, the tall pines which pierced the +sky-line, and our eyes rested on a flake of cloud. I think it must +have been there. I felt the pressure of his hand. + +"I'll not be gone long, Davy," he said. "I'm coming back very soon, +and till then you will take care of Penelope; won't you, boy?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Spring came and with it the Todds. All that winter they had been so +far from me, often so far from my thoughts even, that the remembrance +of them would bring a shock like a sudden consciousness of sin or the +recollection of a duty left undone. My fiancée's communication with me +had dwindled to a weekly post-card. At first these had carried to me +some little hint of affection, but latterly Gladys had contented +herself with commonplace scrawls announcing that this was where they +were staying for a few days or that the window in the hotel marked with +a cross was hers. And my replies, so conscientiously written every +Saturday night, had become rather brief and formal statements of facts. +I had long since ceased to take Miss Minion's stairs two steps at a +time in my eagerness to secure the portly epistle from abroad; the +post-card which had filled its place I regarded with languid interest. +You can imagine, then, that it was with surprise that I found, one +evening in May, a fat letter directed to me in the tall, angular hand. +The reading of it was like a blow which restored me to my senses. I +had awakened to find myself not only engaged but on the verge of +marriage. The Todds were coming home! + +If my fiancée had neglected me for many months, she now overwhelmed me +with sixty closely written pages of devotion. It was as though on +coming face to face with steamer tickets she, too, had awakened from a +dream and found herself engaged. It might well be true that the few +weeks in London before embarking on the homeward stage had been her +first opportunity to sit down with pen and paper to have what she +called "a talk" with me. A year before that talk would have been +highly gratifying and flattering, but now I read with a critical eye, +and while I could find no fault with the sentiments expressed, the form +of the expression irritated me. It was natural that the sentiment pent +up in those months of hurried sight-seeing should break forth in this +moment of leisure, but to me, grown practical, the form would have been +more effective if direct and simple. In those days Penelope was so +distant from me, so cold and implacable, that I might have turned to +Gladys Todd with a thought that here at last was peace, an end of +absurd and inordinate ambition, and perhaps content. Had she written +to me simply that she was coming home, I might have soothed myself with +the idea that I, too, was going home, back to the simple ways to which +I was born, back, after all, to my own people. But Gladys Todd, grown +more cultured than ever in the grand tour and revealing her mind in +poetical phrases, was as much a being of another world than mine as was +Penelope set in her frame of costly simplicity. I should go to the +pier to meet her, I said. I knew that it could not be gladly, but I +was bound by a sense of honor, by the remembrance of four years through +which she had waited for me so patiently, always cheerful and firm in +her faith in my power to win a home for us both. Because I was so +bound, I vowed that she should never know the change in me, and then if +I set myself to the task I might fan into flame the dead embers of my +boyish infatuation. + +So I stood on the pier that May morning when the Todds came home. So +grim was my determination that I might have stood there with a smiling, +expectant face had I not in that very hour seen Penelope. I had held +to that cherished custom of mine to begin my day with a walk up-town, +for always there was a bare chance that I might have a glimpse of her. +There was poor consolation in her passing bow; but I could not let her +go altogether out of my existence, and even her distant greeting served +to keep me in the number of her acquaintances. This day I wanted to +take a formal farewell, as if in doffing my hat I renounced all my +claims, abandoned all my idle dreams, and set myself to the right path. +Of course, I met her, and for a time I had cause to regret that I had +not taken the direct way to the pier, for Penelope that morning, as she +drove by me rapidly down the avenue, was the embodiment of loveliness, +a loveliness beyond the reach of him whom fortune held to the sidewalk. +Her horses seemed to step with pride at being a part of such a perfect +turnout, and the men on the box to have turned to statues by the +congealing of their self-importance. Seeing her, erect, a slender, +quiet figure in filmy black, with a white-gloved hand on her parasol, +you forgave the horses for lifting their feet so mincingly and the men +for staring before them with such hauteur. She whirled by me in all +that costly simplicity. I doffed my hat. She saw me and, strangely +enough, smiled at me more kindly than in many days. I watched until +even the men's tall hats were lost in the maze at Twenty-third Street, +and as I watched I said my silent farewell to Penelope Blight. + +On the pier, in the cheering, expectant throng that watched the steamer +turning into her dock, I leaned on my cane and fixed my eyes with +resolution on the ship which was bringing me a life of happiness. But +I was silent as I pondered over the radiant smile with which I had been +greeted as the carriage swept by. A week ago Penelope had given her +head just a tilt of recognition; this morning she had seemed genuinely +glad to see me, as though it were a pleasure to know that I lived in +the same world. This afternoon, I said forgetfully, I would call upon +her again--I had not called for so long. Then I heard my name. I came +back to the pier and the cheering crowd, and, looking up, saw Gladys +Todd. + +Beside me there was a young man who brandished his cane to the peril of +his neighbors' heads while he shouted again and again to his inamorata. +My duty was to evince just such joy, but when I tried to call her name +my lips refused to form it, and I only raised my hat and smiled. +Gladys, standing by the ship's rail, waved her hand at me. Then she +seemed to forget me entirely, and turned to a youngish-looking, stout +man at her side. + +The stout man began to interest me, because Gladys had written to me +that she would be on deck this day straining her eyes to the shore +where her knight would be waiting. Now it seemed as though a brief +glance at her knight was sufficient, and that she found more charm in +this portly fellow traveller. + +Ex-Judge Bundy had small side-whiskers, and always wore a large derby +and a frock coat, sometimes black, sometimes pale gray. This +youngish-looking stout man was clean shaven, and he had the ruddy skin +of the out-of-doors. His hat was brown felt, with its crown wound +around with a white pugree--a rather affected hat, but it harmonized +with his rough gray tweeds. His appearance was English; he might be, I +thought, the governor of some island colony. But when he raised +himself from the rail on which he had been leaning, slipped one hand +into the breast of his coat, and turned to address Doctor Todd, +speaking as though he were Jupiter and the doctor Mercury disguised in +dingy clerical clothes, I recognized the patron of my alma mater. + +They came down the gangway one by one, the ex-judge leading; then +Gladys Todd, rather mannish in a straight-cut English suit and a sailor +hat, slung from her shoulder a camera, and nestling in one arm a +Yorkshire terrier; then Doctor Todd, unchanged, in the same clothes in +which he had sailed, for he was one of those men who could go twice +around the world and collect nothing but statistics and postcards; then +Mrs. Todd with her two greatest acquisitions in bold evidence, a +lorgnette and a caged paroquet. + +For a moment I felt that I had come solely to welcome ex-Judge Bundy +home. He was first to get my hand, and he held it while he told me how +kind it was of me to take so much trouble; it was good to be home; he +was always glad to get back to America--speaking as though these +expeditions were annual events. He might have gone on and presented me +to his friends the Todds had I not disengaged myself and turned to my +fiancée with a hand outstretched. + +"Look out for Blossom," she warned me, hardly more than touching my +finger-tips. "Blossom always snaps at strangers." + +Blossom justified the statement by barking viciously at me. + +"I am so glad to have you back again, Gladys," I said, speaking in a +low voice, for I had an instinctive feeling that ex-Judge Bundy had +turned his head, though ostensibly he was busy with porters. + +"And it's so nice to see you," she replied, and her gaze wandered +vaguely about the pier. She had written that it would be so good just +to let her eyes rest on me, but now their appetite was quickly +satisfied, and it nettled me. + +I spoke to her again, louder, reiterating my delight, and she raised +her eyebrows and answered that she was glad that I was pleased. Doctor +Todd and Mrs. Todd, however, were not so casual in their greeting. The +doctor took both of my hands and declared that this was a happy family +reunion. Mrs. Todd kissed me on both cheeks and gave me the paroquet +to carry. As we made our way through the crowd, she asked me if I did +not think that Gladys had improved, but to myself, as I watched her +striding ahead of us in her mannish clothes, I said that she certainly +looked quite trim and smart, and I found myself wondering if she still +painted tulips on black plaques or would deign to sing "Douglas, tender +and true"? Perhaps, to her mind, broadened by a year of travel, I was +but a provincial fellow, whose musical education had not gone beyond +"The Minute Guns at Sea," who, never having seen the galleries of +Europe, could have no appreciation of art. + +I was irritated. I wanted to set myself right in her mind, to show her +that I, too, had grown broader and wiser. But there was no +opportunity. She was busy either with the trunks or in keeping Blossom +quiet. During the drive to the hotel the situation was little better. +We were in an ancient barouche, piled high with luggage, Mrs. Todd, +Gladys, and I, ex-Judge Bundy having tactfully suggested that he take +the doctor with him in a hansom. + +Mrs. Todd was voluble. She was artfully sentimental. She spoke of the +day when, as a young girl, she had left home for six weeks, and she +recalled her emotions as she came back to find the doctor waiting for +her at the station. They were married shortly afterward. How history +repeats itself! But Gladys was not impressed by the coincidence. She +merely said that she was glad to have Blossom ashore again, for at +times the dog had been fearfully sea-sick. I could have strangled +Blossom. Nothing is more humiliating to a man than to discover that a +woman's love for him is waning. Here is a reflection on his power of +fascination. But it is doubly humiliating to find himself supplanted +by a little woolly dog, to see the caresses which he would claim as his +showered with ostentation on a diminutive animal. At that moment it +seemed that Blossom had supplanted me. He nestled in her arm, and when +for the tenth time I expressed my delight in having her home, she +turned from me and stroked the creature's silky back. Time and again +I, striving to do my duty, charged against the steel points of her +indifference. Even Mrs. Todd noticed my plight. As we were leaving +the carriage at the Broadway hotel whither Judge Bundy had led the way +she whispered to me that evidently three was a crowd, and acting on +that belief, she contrived to leave the two of us alone in the great +parlor of the hotel while the doctor and the Judge held a colloquy with +the clerk. + +This Gladys Todd, sitting amid the faded grandeur of the hotel parlor, +this handsome mannish woman in a tweed suit, with a snappy dog in her +arm, was not the same girl beside whom I had sat ages ago, watching her +paint tulips and sprays of wisteria, not the same whose voice had +joined with mine in the sentimental strains of "Annie Laurie." But I +felt that I had a duty, and I sat down on the sofa and held out my hand +and in a voice of pleading asked her again if she was not glad to see +me. + +"No, David," she said, turning her eyes downward to Blossom. + +I was quite unprepared for such a frank admission, and it came like a +blow. In all my thought of Gladys Todd I had quite accustomed myself +to the confession that I did not look with pleasure to her home-coming, +but that she might regard me in the same light never occurred to me. +This knowledge was humiliating. I had been holding myself to the +strict line of duty and honor, but I had never suspected that she might +be impelled by exactly the same motives. Now I was hurt. As I sat +staring at her I cast about for the reason of the change. In my case +it was another woman, but a superlatively wonderful woman. In hers it +might be another man, a superlatively wonderful man. The idea was not +pleasant. In my case there was at least the excuse of old +acquaintance. In hers the change must have come in a single week at +sea, where miles of walking on the deck and hours leaning on the rail +with elbows close together might have revealed some kindred spirit. +There flashed to me her action in turning from me, the watcher on the +pier, to ex-Judge Bundy, and in him losing all thought of me. But +ex-Judge Bundy was not a superlatively wonderful man. He was only a +rich widower with two married daughters, and was old enough to be her +father. My estimate of my own worth was not so modest that I could +conceive of my interests ever being seriously jeopardized by this +pompous maker of nails. It was pleasanter to think that the fault lay +rather in my own unworthiness than in another's worth, and my pride +urged me to combat her, to prove that while I might not be all that a +woman of her ideals could ask, yet my shortcomings were those of my +fellows in mass and not of the individual. + +"I do not understand, Gladys," I said, and I held out my hand to take +hers and to reassert my old ascendancy, but I was foiled by Blossom, +who darted at me with such fierceness as to compel me to draw back. + +"David, I'm so sorry," she said. She looked me in the eyes and spoke +with the even voice of one who had entire command of herself. "The +plain truth is that I have made a great mistake. I really thought I +cared for you." + +"And now you think you don't," I said, brushing aside such an absurdity +with a wave of my hand. "Nonsense! After four years, you can not tell +me that you have suddenly discovered that you never cared for me. I +can not give you up for some absurd whim." + +She shook her head. "It is not a whim. I see clearly now. We were +very young when we became engaged, and I didn't understand how serious +the step really was. In the last week at sea I have had time to think +it all over, and now I know it best that after this we be just +friends--nothing more. You will forget me. You will find another +woman worthier of you." + +Little as I knew of women, I realized that while these last two +statements might be perfectly true, to accept them as true would sever +the last strand of the cord which bound us. At that moment I did not +want to lose Gladys Todd. She was very lovely as she sat there, with +her eyes downcast, caressing her dog. She was the promised reward of +my years of work. For her I had labored, scrimped and saved, cramped +myself in a narrow room in a boarding-house, and almost shunned my +fellows, to realize our dream of the little house on the bit of green. +At that moment the dream was very dear to me and I could not see it +wrecked for some whim. I grew belligerent. I reached out my hand +again, as though by mere physical power I would prove my unchanging +mind, but again Blossom was on guard. + +"I shall not forget you," I said, and I folded my arms with grim +determination and fixed my eyes on her face to break her by mere +will-power. And then to what untruth did pride drive me? "I have not +changed. I shall never change, Gladys. I love you now more than ever, +and I will not give you up." + +The light in her eyes was not quite so cold, nor was her voice so even +and at her command. "I am sorry, David, but you must." + +"But I won't," I returned. + +"Oh, why do you drive me to it?" she cried with a gesture of despair. +"Can't you see, David, that there is some one else to be considered?" + +"Some one else?" I exclaimed. + +"I didn't think you would be so ungenerous--so selfish," she said in a +low voice, while her hands played rapidly over Blossom's head. "I have +tried to be honorable and fair to you. But he was so kind, so good--he +is so lonely----" + +"He--who is he?" I demanded, in my anger abandoning all effort to hold +to the honorable course to which I had set myself. + +"You should not ask me," she replied, her voice growing hard. "After I +had come to know him, to know how fine he was, I really tried to keep +on caring for you, David, but I simply couldn't. I am fond of you, of +course, but not in the way I thought. You are too young. It is a +mistake for a woman to marry a man of her own age. She should marry +one whom she can look up to, honor and respect. Love in a cottage is +well enough to read of, I suppose, but enduring love must be built on +something more." + +I wanted to laugh at myself for the fool I had been. I arose. It was +useless to sit longer with folded arms and determined eyes fixed on her +face, to break her will by hypnotic power. I knew that I was defeated, +and however better defeat might be than victory, judged in wisdom, it +was not pleasant to a man of spirit. I stood before her pulling on a +glove and she looked up at me with a suggestion of defiance. I was not +heart-broken. I felt that I should be, but I knew that I was suffering +only in my pride. I wanted to sit down again in friendly fashion and +tell her how hard I had tried to do my duty, that I too loved another, +and that now she had made the way easy for me, but I refrained from +such petty revenge. + +I held out my hand. "I wish you all happiness, Gladys," I said. "You +must not trouble about me. No doubt you have chosen wisely." + +"You are a dear, good boy, David," she said, rising and addressing me +in a motherly tone as though she had suddenly attained twice my years. +"You will find another woman more worthy of you--I know you will. And +when you come to Harlansburg you must bring her to see us. We shall be +such good friends." + +To Harlansburg? The whole story was clear in my mind. I remembered +the Egyptian picture, the pyramids, the camels, and young Marshall's +warning. And I had been so blind that a moment since I was saying that +if another man had wrought this changed mind in Gladys Todd he must be +a superlatively wonderful man. After all, the superlatively wonderful +man was ex-Judge Bundy. Now the blow to my pride was fairly crushing. +It did seem that I had a few natural qualities which should have +weighed in the scales against such a rival. But if I had youth, he had +wealth; if I had promise, he had the same promise of youth fulfilled in +giant nail works; if I offered a vine-clad cottage on a bit of green, +he could give the big gray-stone house with many turrets, the lawn with +the marble lions and perfect terraces sloping down to the ornate fence. +The very absurdity of the situation saved me from regret. + +Gladys Todd was looking at me with narrowed eyes. I think she expected +some outburst of emotion. Perhaps she felt sorry for the pain that she +had caused me. But as I looked at her and remembered the past, as I +thought of the judge, the house, and the marble lions, even my wounded +pride was forgotten. I checked the smile which was threading my lips. +I took my congé as a man should, gravely, with head bowed under the +crushing blow, with eyes downcast as though they would never again look +up into the joyous sunlight. I turned and left the room. + +By the rule, I should have looked back, hesitated, and gone on. But my +mind was filled with the fear of meeting Doctor Todd or Mrs. Todd, or +worse, Judge Bundy. How to treat Judge Bundy, did I meet him, was not +clear--whether to pass him with a haughty stare, or to stop and +congratulate him, or even thank him. Discreetly I followed the dark +windings of the hall and left the hotel by a private entrance. In the +street I looked up into the sunshine. I was free. I could not +dissemble with myself any longer, and I turned to the avenue with a +quick and joyous step. A new life had opened to me and I was stepping +into it unburdened, and with a prize to fight for. In those few +moments Gladys Todd had gone into the past. She was hardly more than a +shadow to me now, hardly more real than Mr. Pound or Miss Spinner or +any other of the dim figures in my memory. Before me was Penelope--the +future and Penelope. Her world was not my world, but I vowed that I +would make it mine. + +Perhaps, I said, I shall see her again this very morning and perhaps +she will greet me again with that same kindly, glorious smile. And +surely she would smile did she know that I was free from the yoke to +which I had bent myself in a moment of forgetfulness. My duty had been +to Penelope since that day when we rode from the clearing, and from +that day my heart had always been with her. Reading from the past, her +destiny and mine were written before me in clear, bold letters. How +good the world was! How bright the day! How quick my step as I turned +up-town! + +And I saw Penelope. She bowed to me from a hansom, and I answered, +beaming. I halted. Herbert Talcott was sitting at her side. He +stared at me, tipped his hat brusquely, then turned to her and made +some laughing remark. + +I stood looking after the receding hansom until it disappeared in the +maze of traffic. I took my congé as a man does sometimes, with my head +bowed under the crushing blow, and my eyes downcast, knowing in my +heart that for me the sunshine could nevermore be joyous. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +There was no doubt in my mind that Penelope Blight was engaged to marry +Talcott. They announced the fact when they rode the length of the +Avenue together in a hansom. But had I questioned the meaning of their +appearing thus in public I could not long have cheered myself with vain +hope, for the papers next morning blazoned the news to all the world. +That they printed it under great staring head-lines was not surprising +to me, for to me this fact transcended all others in importance. +Beside it the rumblings of war in the Balkans, the devastating flood in +China, or the earthquake which wrecked a southern city were trifles. +So to my distorted view the papers were filled with the announcement of +my overwhelming misfortune. Only by the greatest effort could I drag +myself from reading and rereading to my humdrum task. Before me in +black and white was the last chapter in my own story, the story which +had begun that day when I went fishing. Every line of it, couched in +the hackneyed phrases of the business, was a cutting blow, and yet I +must return again and again to the beating. Had Rufus Blight been a +poor man, a worthy man whose sole claim to consideration lay in his +having discovered some balm for human ills, then a paragraph would have +sufficed for the announcement of his niece's engagement. But he was a +millionaire; he lived in one of the largest houses in town, and his +niece was the greatest catch of the day, measured in dollars; +therefore, the coming marriage was worthy of columns. The existence of +Herbert Talcott became also of prime importance, not because he had +ever done anything, but because he was to marry the heiress of the +Blight fortune. How many a worthy Jones or a poor but noble Robinson +has to descend to an advertisement to make his happiness known to the +careless world? How many a lovely Joan goes to her wedding unread-of +because her forebears were lacking, not in those qualities which open +the gates of heaven, but in acquisitiveness? + +To the public it could matter little that Rufus Blight was a simple, +kindly soul who was as contented years ago when he stood behind his +counter as to-day when he sought on the golf-links that sense of action +which is necessary to a man's happiness. The vital fact was that the +trust had paid him millions for his steel-works; not that Penelope was +a simple, lovely woman like thousands of her sisters, but that her +wedding-gifts would be worthy of the daughter of Maecenas. Accustomed +though I had become in the routine of my work to just such a judgment +of vital facts, now that the story told was my own last chapter I made +a silent protest against the manner of the telling. + +I thought of Rufus Blight as a quiet man, happiest not in the stately +library, but in his den surrounded by a medley of homely things. +Thinking of Penelope I turned to those vagrant dreams, now forbidden. +In them Penelope and I were to go back to the valley, to ride again +over the mountain road, to stand again as we had stood that day when +she led me over the tangled trail into the sunlit clearing. Those were +joys in which millions had no part. But as I read of the Blight +millions, and of that blue-blooded Talcott line which traced back a +hundred years to a member of the cabinet, it was hard for me to believe +that I knew these exalted beings, that I had sat with Rufus Blight and +talked of days in the valley, that Penelope and I had galloped over the +country astride the same white mule, that I even had engaged with one +so distinguished as Herbert Talcott in a brawl in a restaurant. Gilded +by those who report the comings and goings of those whom one should +know, as Mrs. Bannister might put it, they seemed aliens, manikins that +moved in a stage world. As such I tried to think of them, for it was +best, but I had as well set myself to efface my memory. + +The last chapter of my own story was written by unknown hands. The +epilogue remained, in which I was to go on seeking what contentment I +could find in action. But my whole story was not written on these +flimsy pages. It was before me always and always I was turning to it, +always asking myself how it would have run had this not happened or had +that occurred. Studying it over and over again in my room at night and +on my long walks up-town, I found that I could not think of Penelope +Blight as an alien creature for whose happiness I had no longer any +care. What of her story which was in the writing? Did she know this +Talcott whom she had chosen to fill its last pages? She knew him as I +knew him first, as a quiet, gentlemanly man with pleasant manners. Was +it not her right to know him as I knew him now, as a drunken brawler, +who in his cups had betrayed the unworthy motive of his devotion? +These questions troubled me for many days. I was not a prude. I knew +that all men have their foibles, that many great men have over-indulged +in liquor, that a man's whole character is not to be damned by a single +slip. I knew that did all women see the men whom they choose for +marriage as others see them we should have a plague of spinsters. But +I feared for Penelope Blight. This was not because Talcott was worse +than the mass of his fellows, but because the best of his fellows was +none too good for her. But how could I go to her and declare that +Talcott when drunk had avowed a purpose to marry her for her millions? +It seemed the part of a tattler. The world would say that I acted from +jealousy. Indeed, it was hard at times to convince myself that +jealousy was not the basis of my fear for her. Yet I felt that I must +save her from a disillusionment which might come too late. Were her +father here that disillusionment would be speedy; but he was far away, +and always his last words were with me, as he spoke them that night in +the street: "You will take care of Penelope, won't you, boy?" + +I had promised that. It was simply repeating my boyhood promise. And +now I kept asking myself if I was not forgetting that trust when I kept +silent because I feared in my pride to place myself in the light of an +intermeddler, a bearer of scandalous tales; I would remember that +morning when we had stood by the cabin door and I told her not to be +afraid for I was guarding her. Was I guarding her? + +For two weeks I kept puzzling over my course of action. I felt that +the knowledge I held was hers by right, and hers, not mine, to judge of +its triviality. Yet I could not bring myself to face her with it. +Then came the time when I had to speak at once if I was to speak at all. + +Mr. Hanks sent for me. As I stood before him, he studied me through +his spectacles with his cold eyes, as he had studied me in those days +when I was trying to persuade him to give me work, and I began counting +my sins, wondering if in the cataclysm of ill luck which had overtaken +me, I was to lose my position also. + +After a moment he asked, as casually as he might have assigned me to an +expedition to Harlem a few years before: "Malcolm, how soon can you +leave for London?" + +"At once," I said, and I spoke as casually as he, though my heart +leaped at the mention of London, for here I sensed an opportunity +beyond my wildest hopes. + +"At once," he laughed and rubbed his hands with satisfaction. "I told +the old man you would say that. He said that you were too young to +fill Colt's shoes. Colt is ill, Malcolm; has to come home for a year's +rest and I have backed you to do his work awhile. Of course, you won't +do it as well as he, but you will do it fairly well, I think." + +"I will do my best," said I, smiling. + +"That is the way to talk," he returned. "I need hardly tell you to +keep your head and work hard, and perhaps you will pull through till +Colt gets back. He will be a little hurt when he sees his substitute. +He has been there twenty years and feels himself quite a figure in the +world, but as he has cabled for relief at once, he can't complain if we +send him the one man who is always ready to go anywhere at once. +Really, you have three days; you sail on Saturday." + +I could have gone that day, had Hanks commanded it. The trust which he +imposed in me was my reward for always having obeyed him without +question, and in my state of mind that morning, between walking from +his office to the steamer for years of absence and staying as I was, I +should have chosen the former alternative. I wanted to get away. The +only place where I could find even the shadow of contentment was at my +desk. There imperative tasks filled a mind at other times occupied +with unwholesome brooding. I seemed to move through waste places, with +no object to catch the eye and thought and to drive away the +consciousness of my unhappiness. Even my walk on Fifth Avenue had been +abandoned lest at any moment Penelope might pass me with Talcott at her +side; Miss Minion's had become a place of terror, for by ill chance Tom +Marshall had been introduced to Talcott and he had developed a habit of +dropping in on me and telling me what he had said to Bert Talcott and +what Bert Talcott had said to him. He seemed to think that Talcott had +conferred knighthood on him by knowing him. There were times, even, +when I had gravely considered abandoning my chosen career and retiring +to a bucolic life of loneliness in the valley. And at other times, +into such depths of despondency was I plunged that I could seriously +consider abandoning self entirely and devoting the remainder of my +wrecked life to doing good, though just what trend my saintliness would +take I never determined. In monkish days, I suppose, I should have +gone into a cloister. But Hanks aroused me. Of course he did not know +my thoughts. With his clear eyes he did not see that my life was a +ruin. He regarded me rather as a fortunate man to whom opportunities +were opening wonderfully well, and I accepted his view; though I was +sure that I was taking a road which led to nowhere, yet travelling was +better than sitting still. Looking at Hanks, I forgot that he had a +wife and four accomplished daughters over in Jersey, and I said that I +should take life as he took it, with a cynical interest in the game, +with all thought on the run of the cards and little for personal +winnings. + +When I had cleared my desk for my successor and had bidden good-by to +my old known tasks, I found myself turning to the new and unknown with +more interest than I had believed myself capable of showing. So much +was to be done in those three days that I had little time for +self-condolence. One day had to be taken for a farewell to my parents; +and what a day it was, with my father and mother driving down to +Pleasantville in the late night to meet me that they might not lose one +moment of my visit! Only when I slept were they from my side, for my +mother's mind was filled with all the stories of shipwreck that she had +ever read, and my father had doubts as to whether or not the moral +environment of London was such as he would ask for his son. My father +never had much faith in my moral strength. Then Mr. Pound came up to +see me, having, as usual, commandeered Mr. Smiley's comfortable phaeton +for the transport of himself and Mrs. Pound. His hair was white now, +and he bent a little, and his voice had lost some of its pompous roll, +but his phrases were as round as ever. He insisted that I owned the +paper. He placed his hand on my head and for the information of Miss +Agnes Spinner named my good points much as a jockey would those of a +favorite horse. He congratulated himself on the success of his method +of training and called on Judge Malcolm to admit that his effort to +have his son go to Princeton had been based on a misconception of the +underlying merits of the McGraw system of education. + +The Pounds stayed to supper, much to my mother's suppressed +indignation, for she had invited them, never thinking that under such +unusual circumstances they would accept so promptly, so that by the +time they drove away I had begun to feel that I must have made this +hurried journey just to say good-by to my old mentor. In the hour, all +too brief, that remained to me my mother broached the subject of my +broken engagement, for in that she saw the reason of my melancholy, +which I had been at pains to conceal. It could not be hidden from her +quick eyes. She was convinced that Gladys Todd was not in her right +mind; no woman in her right mind would deliberately refuse to marry +such a man as her son. Was it a question of blood? Surely there was +none better in the land than that which flowed in the veins of the +McLaurins. Was it money? There was no finer farm in all the valley +than the one which some day would be mine, with the bridge stock and +the Kansas bonds. Was it character? Recalling the Sunday afternoons +when she and I had worked together so patiently over the catechism and +Bible lessons, she was sure that she had done her duty toward me and +could never dream of my having failed in mine. So, to my mother's +thinking, the loss was Gladys Todd's, a consoling view of my plight +which she endeavored to make me take, and she sought to cheer me with a +highly uncomplimentary estimate of the frivolous character of my +quondam fiancée. It could serve no purpose for me to enlighten her as +to the real truth, for did she know the truth she might be haunted by +the dread spectre of self-destruction. So her last words as we parted +were an admonition to me not to think that all women were as blind and +as faithless as Gladys Todd. + +Her arms were around my neck and she whispered in my ear, that even my +father might not hear her: "Davy, take Penelope. We McLaurins always +looked down on the Blights, but that makes no difference, Davy--take +Penelope." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +But one day was left to me before I went to my new life, and yet I was +still asking myself if I was taking care of Penelope. I had set myself +to go through life alone, regarding all women with cynical +indifference. But of her I could not think with cynical indifference. +Her one act which might have fed my cynicism was her choice of a man of +the character of Herbert Talcott. Then, after all, I reflected, she +did not know his true character. And yet did I? Was it my place to +become a bearer of tales? Over and over I asked myself the question, +and I could find no other answer than that of affirmation, for it was +her right to know what had occurred between her father and Talcott. +And she should know it, I said at last decisively; she should know it, +not from me, but from Rufus Blight. And, telling it, I must give up my +last hope of her. + +So I went to Rufus Blight on the afternoon before I sailed, and I went +not without misgivings as to the part that I was playing. Many times +in the walk up the Avenue I turned back, doubting, and then I would +repeat my old-time promise to Penelope and the Professor's injunction +given to me that early morning as we stood together on the street. And +so at last I found myself before the great house, and the grilled door +closed behind me, leaving no retreat. + +Mr. Blight was in his "den," resting after his day's golf in a deep +chair by an open window, and he rose from a litter of evening papers to +greet me. + +"Well, David, we thought that you had forgotten us," he said. +"Penelope remarked just this morning that it was high time you appeared +to offer your congratulations." + +"I have been very busy," I returned. "To-morrow I start abroad for a +year at least, and I came to say good-by and to tell you----" + +In my eagerness to have my story over I should have plunged right into +it, but he interrupted me. + +"Abroad, eh? Well, we may see you after the wedding. We are all going +over after the wedding." + +The calm way in which Mr. Blight spoke of the wedding chilled me. It +was so absolutely settled that there was to be a wedding that in me +there seemed to be embodied that mythical person who is commanded so +sternly to speak or forever hold his peace. For a time I did hold my +peace, but it was only because Rufus Blight evinced such a lively +interest in my affairs that I had no opportunity to speak of those +matters which touched him so intimately. + +"Well, we certainly shall hunt you up in London in September," he said. +"We shall be over in September. The wedding is to be in July at +Newport. We have taken a house there, or rather Mrs. Bannister has for +us." He saw that I could not restrain a smile at the mention of Mrs. +Bannister, and he laughed heartily. "I don't know how we should get +along without Mrs. Bannister. You see, David, all I know anything +about is the steel trade, and being out of that I have to have a +general manager for this social business. She certainly does manage. +Why, if it wasn't for her I doubt if we could arrange a wedding. +Indeed, I sometimes even doubt if there would be an engagement." + +This same doubt had been tenaciously present in my own mind for some +days, and much as I should have liked to express it with heat and to +join to it my opinion of the masterful woman's manoeuvres, I simply +laughed formally and said, "Indeed!" + +"I can talk to you confidentially, David," Rufus Blight went on, +leaning toward me with his cigar poised in the air. "It is good to +have an old friend to whom you can unburden your mind, and it has been +on my mind that Mrs. Bannister has had too large a finger in this +matrimonial pie--not, of course, that I am not pleased. I am getting +old, and it is a relief to think of Penelope settled in life with a +thoroughly respectable, steady young man like Talcott; but, do you +know, I suspect sometimes that Mrs. Bannister had more to do with +Penelope making up her mind than is altogether wise? She has talked +about him continually, and between his coming to the house continually +and Mrs. Bannister talking of him continually, Penelope didn't have a +fair chance." + +Rufus Blight smoked thoughtfully, and I remarked that I had no doubt +that Penelope knew her own mind. + +"Oh, yes," he returned. "Understand that I have nothing whatever +against Talcott. She might fare far worse. He is unapproachable as +far as character goes, but sometimes he seems to me rather dull. I +suppose that is because he doesn't do anything, and I wonder how long +Penelope will be satisfied with a man who doesn't do anything but what +Mrs. Bannister calls 'go everywhere.' Will she not soon weary of going +everywhere? I couldn't stand it myself. The other night I had to go +to Talcott's uncle's to dine, and how I wished that I was home! The +uncle is a respectable old man, too, who has never done anything +either, and all he talked about was terrapin and gout. When he had +finished with them in the smoking-room, his mind seemed exhausted, and +he left me to the mercy of another man who tried to pump me about +International Steel common. Is that pleasure?" Rufus Blight waved his +cigar with a gesture of contempt. "I suppose Penelope would be +perfectly safe with such people if anything happened to me; but would +she be happy? Mrs. Bannister says that I should be satisfied to have +her marry into a family so eminently respectable, and I suppose I +should." + +He looked at me, asking my opinion. + +"Undoubtedly the Talcotts are highly respectable," said I. "They are +one of the few old families who have succeeded in maintaining their +position in New York." + +"That is just what Mrs. Bannister says," he returned. "They are +certainly very kindly, and could not have treated Penelope better than +they have. Talcott's aunt has Penelope with her all the time. I +suppose I should be satisfied." He hesitated a moment. "But, confound +it, David, don't you see, I am not? Sometimes I think it must be +because I am jealous, and I try to put that feeling away and to look +impartially at Penelope's happiness. Then I must agree with Mrs. +Bannister. Here is Talcott, a young man of good family, of exemplary +conduct. The only thing against him is an idle life; but if he doesn't +have to work, why should he? Yet it seems to me that Penelope is not +the kind of woman who would be satisfied with a husband who sat around +the house all day and found his main interest in terrapin and gout. +Can't you see my predicament, David?" + +He rose and paced the room. Twice he circled the table, while I sat in +silence watching him. Then he halted at the fireplace and stood there, +forgetfully warming his hands at an imaginary blaze. After a moment he +faced me. "I know about making steel, David, but in matters like this +I am utterly lost. How I wish Hendry were here to advise me!" + +My opportunity had come more easily than I had expected. "I can help +you, perhaps," said I, "for I have seen him." + +"You have seen him?" cried Rufus Blight, and he crossed the room to me +in great excitement. "When, David, and where?" + +"Here in New York." + +"Splendid! And he is coming to us, eh? I know he is at last." + +"In two years. He has promised to come home in two years." + +Rufus Blight sat down in his old chair and stared at me. "In two +years? Why, David, we need him now. He must come now. We will bring +him home--you and I." + +"But we can't," said I. "He is far from here now; he went away last +winter." + +"You saw him and did not bring him home!" Rufus Blight's voice rose to +a pitch of indignation. "I don't understand. Did you tell him how we +wanted him--Penelope and I--how we had searched for him everywhere?" I +nodded. "You told him that and he would not come?" He leaned toward +me angrily. "Well, why didn't you let me know about him?" + +"Because it could have done no good," I answered. "I had to promise +him that I would not, yet because he feared that I should break my +promise, he slipped away. I saw him but once. When I went to see him +again he was gone--to Argentina." + +"I see," said Rufus Blight more gently. "You must pardon my losing my +temper, but it was hard to think that he was near us and yet we never +knew it; strange that you did not tell us of it earlier." + +"I should not tell you now were there not certain circumstances +connected with my meeting with your brother that it is best that you +know," I returned. + +I went on with my story very quietly, as if it were one in which I had +little personal concern. I knew that Rufus Blight was not quick to +catch the hidden meaning of a word or tone, so that it was not from any +fear of him discovering my biassed mind that I made my statement so +unimpassioned. It was because I wanted to satisfy myself that I was +acting alone for Penelope's good and disclosing the truth, uncolored, +for her to judge. Slowly I told it all, in a dry, unvarnished sequence +of facts. I told him of my visit to O'Corrigan's; of the fight and my +interference; of my hours with his brother and his account of his +wanderings and trials; of my vain plea to bring him back to Penelope +and his refusal to surrender his search for that chimerical prize for +which he had struggled so futilely. To me the vital part of my story +had to do with Herbert Talcott. But for its apparent effect on Rufus +Blight I had as well discovered his brother thrashing Tom Marshall. To +him that incident was trivial. What he wanted to know was how +Henderson looked. Was he well? Was he in absolute poverty? Did he +speak as though he really meant to come home in two years? When I had +finished he asked me these questions again and again. He thrashed the +whole story over, all but the essential part. He leaned back in his +chair and stared at the ceiling. Henderson in want? To think of his +brother in want and he so willing to share with him the fruits of his +enormous prosperity. Henderson going afoot to Tibet? What a man he +was! That was just the kind of thing he would do--some wild chase like +that. And the South Seas? How I should like to hear him tell about +them, David! He will come back--he has promised--in two years. He +will fail. Poor old Hendry always fails, but it will be good to have +him--he in that chair, I in this--and to hear him talk of it all. + +So always was the essential fact missed. I was angry with Rufus +Blight. I wanted to shake him, to shout into his ear, to drive into +his dull brain the real purpose of my story. But I held my temper and +reverted to the fight with quiet but meaning emphasis. + +"Hendry was always a handy man with his fists, David," said Rufus +Blight. "In his younger days he was hard to arouse, but get him angry +and he was the devil himself. He wasn't afraid of anything. It was +just like him to start alone to Lhasa--just like him, David." + +I had begun to suspect that Rufus Blight was not so obtuse as I judged +him, but was passing over that part of my story which had to do with +Talcott, because he really liked Talcott and was inclined to lighten +the shadow which his conduct that night had thrown on his exemplary +character. I had told him all. I had repeated the exact words which +the Professor had given me as the cause of the assault, and now in his +brother's mind they were lost in a rapt interest in his adventures. If +with design, then my mission had been futile, and it was wisdom to +retreat. If without design, I could not bring myself to the rôle of a +prosecutor, and to argue was to tread on dangerous ground. I had done +what I believed right. I had kept my promise. So I rose to go. I +must have given Rufus Blight a strange look as I held out my hand. I +was furious at him for his obtuseness or his cunning, and I must have +shown it, for he returned my gaze with a puzzled stare. Then a gleam +of light filtered into that brain, so competent to deal with +steel-works, so hopelessly dull on other matters. + +"David," he said, "you have delayed a long time in telling me this. +Now, why?" + +I answered him, speaking no longer in cold, business-like tones. I +held out my hands wide apart and took a step toward him to bring my +eyes nearer his, for every nerve was set to drive the truth into him. + +"I tell you now because your brother's last words to me were, 'Take +care of Penelope.' How can I take care of Penelope? She has gone far +from me. It is for you that his words have meaning. Can't you see?" + +His hands were groping vaguely in the air behind him. He found the +arms of his chair and sat down weakly, and with his head thrown back he +looked up at me with an expression of wonder on his face. + +"I leave to-morrow," said I. "It will be a long time before I see you +again. Will you say good-by to Penelope for me?" + +"I see, David," he exclaimed. His voice snapped, as I fancy it did +sometimes when affairs in the steelworks were awry. "I was so +interested in Hendry I forgot all about that fellow Talcott. Now, tell +me this--did he----" + +"I have told you everything," said I. "There is nothing left for me to +say except good-by." + + * * * * * * + +Far, indeed, had Penelope gone from me. So I had said to Rufus +Blight--almost my last word to him. So I said to myself as I stood by +the steamer's rail and looked back to the towering mass of the lower +city. That very morning I had seen her: she driving down the Avenue, +alone, sitting very straight and still in her victoria; I on the +pavement, taking my last walk up-town in the never failing hope to have +a glimpse of her. Now, what would I have given not to have yielded to +that temptation? She had seen me. I halted sharply and raised my hat, +thinking that she might stop to say good-by, for she knew that I was +going away. She did see me. She looked straight at me, coldly, and +not even by a tremor of her eyebrows did she give a sign that to her I +was other than any stranger loitering on the curb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Time, the philosopher said, takes no account of humanity. "The +activest man sets around mostly," I once heard Stacy Shunk remark as he +sat curled up on the store-porch, nursing a bare foot and viewing the +world through the top of his hat. Did the most active man calmly and +without egotism dissect the sum of his useful accomplishment, he would +be highly discouraged, for time is a relentless destroyer. But a man +can not take so disdainful a measure of his own value. He must live. +To superior minds like the philosopher's or Stacy Shunk's he may be +living his tale of years happy in constantly hoodwinking himself with +the idea that he is an important factor in some great purpose. Now in +certain moods I might attain to the lofty view of the philosopher and +Stacy Shunk. Then I would be confronted by my friend the Professor, +who would have been dissatisfied had he been the author of Plato's +dialogues or the victor of Waterloo. Then it seemed to me that the +wise man would allow himself to be hoodwinked, and would walk hard and +fast without too critical an eye on the results of his journey. It is +when he sits around that Stacy Shunk's active man is discontented, and +this is not because he accomplishes much when working, but because he +accomplishes less when idle. Here I had the example of Rufus Blight, +brought at last to expending his restless energy in chopping golf-balls +out of bunkers. So work became to me the panacea for my ills. I +plunged into the struggle harder than ever, and in working found that +self-forgetfulness which is akin to contentment. It was indeed +marching under sealed orders. + +Those nights at sea the Professor's words were often in my mind. I was +terribly lonely, and I could stand by the hour at the ship's rail +looking into the heavens, and beyond them into the limitless spaces +where our vulgar minds have placed the home of the Great Spirit whose +mysterious purposes we fulfil. How infinitesimal seemed my own part in +that purpose, though I played it as best I could. I turned in vain to +those limitless spaces to ask why and for what I lived? Did I ask how +I should live, the answer came from the limitless spaces within me as +clearly as though written on this page. My mother had written it +there, unscientifically yet indelibly, in my boyhood days, and Mr. +Pound had added his few words, almost hidden beneath a mass of verbiage +about Ahasuerus, and before them my forebears had every one of them +left imprinted some sage injunction gained from their experience in +living. So I gathered my strength to do my best. But there was a lack +of definiteness in my purpose. There was no goal at which I aimed. In +my younger days I had had instilled into me the necessity of aspiring +to a particular height, to something concrete, to become a leader at +the bar, in politics or commerce, a Webster, a Clay, or a Girard. But +now I cared little if I never owned the paper for which I worked. The +task at hand alone interested me, and to that I bent every energy. + +One task lay at my hand that year when I was in London, beside the +routine of my office, and now I undertook its completion for the +personal pleasure which it gave me to gather into concise form the +result of some years of study and patient digging for facts in +forgotten volumes and manuscripts. The result was surprising. The +book, offered to a publisher with diffident apology, raised a storm of +discussion in a half-dozen languages. To me it had been only a +pleasant intellectual exercise to trace "the habit of war" back to the +simple animal instincts of our ancestors; to follow the changing +methods of fighting from the days when men assailed one another with +stone axes to the modern expression of fighting intelligence in the +battleship; to show how, with every step which we had taken to +eradicate disease and alleviate suffering, we had taken two in refining +and organizing our power of destruction. I had facts and figures to +mark the steps in this twofold human progress, and to show the cost to +the race of a single century not only of warring, but of following the +sage injunction to be prepared for war in times of peace. Had I closed +my labor there, the book would have been lost on the shop-shelves; but +writing ironically, I went on to argue on the benefits of war and of +the necessity of the race continuing in the exercise of this elemental +passion. I had always abhorred preaching, and here to preach I used a +method of inversion, peppering my argument with platitudes on war as a +needed discipline for the spiritual in man by its lessons in fortitude +and self-sacrifice, and on the softening influences of peace. But what +I had intended as subtle irony was discovered by a great conservative +journal to be an unassailable argument, supported by facts and figures, +demonstrating the futility of the movements for international amity. I +was hailed as a bold, clear thinker who had pricked the bubble of +unintelligent altruism, who at a time when philanthropists were +preaching disarmament had proved that men could never disarm as long as +they were born with arms, legs and healthy senses. + +So David Malcolm was quite unexpectedly raised to some eminence by a +conservative English journal which was clamoring for increased naval +expenditure; and once discovered, he found himself not without honor in +his own country, for he was assailed from the platform of Carnegie Hall +by the advocates of a gentle life, and in Congress his work was used as +a text-book by those who were fighting for a larger military +establishment. The _Morgen-Anzeiger_, in Berlin, printed a translation +with the purpose of quelling the opposition to army service, while the +reading of a chapter in the French Chamber resulted in an appropriation +for experiments in submarines. Such was the effect of my well-intended +irony. To-day, of course, the true purport of the facts, figures and +argument are better known, but then I had the chagrin of seeing my +projectile explode in the wrong camp, and I did not try to right +myself, because I feared that to explain the error might nullify the +ultimate effect of the explosion. To my mother alone did I trouble to +point out my real meaning, and then because she had been shocked to see +me assailed in her favorite journal, the _Presbyterian Searchlight_, as +a notable example of the result of philosophy unwarmed by religion. + +That I should have to make my peace with my mother was not surprising, +but my old professional mentor, Mr. Hanks, loved a paradox; if he +wanted to call a man a fool, he praised him for his wisdom; if he +wished to disprove a proposition, he argued for it, adroitly exposing +its weakness, and yet he wrote to me indignantly. + +"I can not understand how from the mass of facts you have gathered you +could calmly advance to so cruel an argument," he said. "Your own +figures protest against your bloodthirsty philosophy. Machiavelli's +Prince is a mollycoddle beside your ideal modern statesman. And yet, +Malcolm, you could as easily have produced a work which would have +stood for years as a reproach to the diplomacy of our time." + +Dear old Hanks! It was from his suburban heart that he spoke thus, as +the father of four accomplished daughters, and not as the sceptic of +the office who was always quick to prick the bubbles of pretence. But +it was not long before he had an opportunity to turn ironical himself, +and I could fancy the grim smile with which he wrote the despatch which +sent me from the academic discussion of war to the study of war at +first hand. + +"Join the Turks at once." + +It was laconic. To me it said more. It was addressed to David +Malcolm, suddenly become known as an advocate of wholesale human +butchery, and told him to follow the camp and see how suffering +benefits the race, to stand by the guns and watch them take the toll +that nations pay for their aggrandizement. To-day, when the book is +understood, when peace conferences invite me to address them and navy +leagues condemn me in resolutions, Hanks wonders why I accepted his +commission with such hearty acquiescence. He deems me inconsistent. + +The truth was that my heart leaped at this opportunity for real +adventure. I was years older than in the days when I dreamed of +wearing a cork helmet and carrying the Gospel and an elephant gun into +darkest Africa; but few of us, when we become men, really put away +childish things. Here was my boyhood's dream come true and glorified. +And what a week I had buying my toys! The cork helmet became a +reality, and with it I equipped myself with smartly fitting khaki, and +in the quiet of my lodgings viewed myself with ineffable satisfaction. +I bought equipment enough to have lasted me through a three years' +campaign, as I have since learned from experience, for the exigencies +of transport made me abandon most of it at the very outset of my new +career. But the loss was more than compensated by the delight which I +had in the brief possession of so much warlike paraphernalia. + +For two years after that I lived in the midst of armies. It was +action, and to me inaction was a dreadful sickness. Even when we lay +in camps for weeks and months there was the never-ending preparation +for the struggles which lay ahead, and though there were hours as quiet +as Broadway in mid-August, days could not be dull when you could see +the smoke of hostile fires on distant mountains or a wild scout +hovering on the fringe of the desert. For me the happiest days were +when I could ride with the marching columns, when the distant barking +of the guns called me to a hard gallop, when at night by the scant +light of a candle I sat in my tent cross-legged, with my pad on my knee +and my pencil in hand. + +In war man strips himself of the unessential things which make up the +museum of superfluities that he calls his home. At home he has +countless troubles. Here he has few, but though they are simple, they +are vital. I faced these elemental problems for the first time when +with my little caravan I set out to join the Turkish army where it lay +camped near the Greek frontier. As I rode my vagrant thoughts might +turn back to home, and in my heart I might feel the old dull pain and +longing, but when a pack-horse was running away with half my +commissariat on his back such moody meditations had to be broken short. +Some days the question of mere bread for a crying stomach became vital, +or a flask of water for a parched throat. There were nights when I +should have given all I possessed, not for the folding-bed long since +abandoned, but for a blanket in which to wrap myself as I slept in a +trench. Within a week it was hard for me to believe that I had not +spent all my life in the wake of an advancing army. London, New +York--they were of another age. Home to me was a tent pitched by the +Thessalian roadside, with my shaggy horses picketed about and my +shaggier attendants chattering their strange jargon. This was luxury +to one who had slept the night before in the rain, or worse, perhaps, +in some shamble in a filthy Greek village. This was hardship, but I +came to love it for the action and the forgetfulness. In the brief +weeks of an opera-bouffe war I had my first taste of great adventure, +and once knowing the joy of it I forgot for a time my academic ideas on +the absurdity of international quarrels, and was happy only when I rode +with the marching columns. + +I came even to love the Turks, and I rode almost a Turk at heart over +the plain of Thessaly. For they were strong men, these sturdy brown +fellows who slouched as they marched, but always went forward, never +faltering when the bullets snapped around them and the red fezzes of +their comrades were dropping in the dust. It angered me to see my +fellow-Christians shoot them down and then run toward Athens and the +protecting skirts of the powers, for I knew that the powers would +render their battles futile and their conquests empty and send them +back with ranks depleted to their distant hills. They fought, most of +them, hardly knowing why, save that in some mysterious way it was for +their faith. They were dirty and ragged, but they were patient and +brave. Ill-fed and ill-clothed, they could march all day in the +scorching sun, uncomplaining, shiver all night in chilling winds, and +then shamble on in the face of death. + +The Greeks fought a little and ran. They would stand and fight a +little again--then run. I thought that we should chase them to Athens. +I had visions of riding into the city in the wake of Edhem Pasha and +pitching my ragged camp by the Acropolis. But I never passed Pharsala. + +It was there that I met the Professor again. + +He lay at the foot of a roadside shrine which had been wrecked by a +shell and hardly cast a shadow. But he had been dragged out of the +noonday heat into that bit of shadow by some kindly enemy and there +left to die. The war had finished with him and had swung on. He was +hardly worth even an enemy's glance. + +Riding by with my eyes intent on the moving fight ahead, I should have +passed him but for my dragoman. To Asaf there was nothing unusual in +the pitiful figure by the roadside, propped against a stone, with the +head fallen on an outstretched arm and a still hand clutching an empty +water-flask. It was the clothes that called a second glance. Save the +cartridge belt around the waist there was nothing to mark the man as a +soldier. The kindly hand which had placed him there had drawn over his +face a soiled gray hat; his suit was a worn blue serge, dyed now with +dark stains, and his feet were encased in patent-leather shoes, cracked +and almost soleless. The plain ahead was filled with the clamor of +battle; a pack-train clattered by me, hurrying to the front, and but +for these and for Asaf, the ragged Turk at my side, pointing mutely to +the still dark heap, I might have thought myself at home, in my own +valley, come suddenly on a mountain tragedy. And now I dismounted, +and, raising the hat, looked into the thin brown face that I had first +seen years ago so wistfully watching the little flake of cloud which +hovered over the ridges. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +I had thought this morning that at last I was to see a pitched battle, +for the Greek army was well intrenched in the hills north of Pharsala +and made some show of a stand there. At noon I stood on the crest of +the same hills watching the usual retreat. A few miles away, its gray +houses blotched against the mountains which guard southern Thessaly, +was the town, and in the valley, drawing in toward it, the Greeks, with +the enemy on their rear and flanks enclosing them in a narrowing +semicircle of fire. Before me stretched the road, a white band across +the undulating green of the plain. In that road, a mile away, I saw +the rear-guard as it retired swiftly but steadily, facing again and +again to deliver its volleys into the lines of the advancing foe. Once +before I had seen that same small company fighting bravely as they were +now, checking the advance of a whole division. I knew them for the +Foreign Legion. Little black patches were left in the road as they +fell back, and it made me sick at heart to think of these men throwing +away their lives in so futile a cause. That little black patch had +been perhaps a student filled with fervor for Pan-Hellenism, a college +boy out for an adventurous holiday, or perhaps a soldier of fortune who +held his life cheaply and was ready to give it for the brief joy of a +battle. Now I stood by one of those little black patches, by the first +still outpost which marked the fight down the road. + +Had the horse which I had bought from a dealer in Ellasona been four or +five years younger, I might never have noticed my friend as he lay +there by the ruined shrine. In the ride out from Larissa, on the day +before, I had found the animal a very unsteady framework on which to +load two hundred pounds. At the first gallop I put him to he went down +on his knees and rolled over on me, so that thereafter I had to content +myself with going more cautiously, keeping as close as I could to the +cloud of dust raised by the general staff. So it happened that I was +ambling along at a gait regulated only by my beast's vagrant will, when +Asaf's exclamation checked me. + +I stood now, gazing stupidly at the figure beneath me. He lay so still +that I thought him dead. Then his fingers tightened on the water-flask +and his arm trembled as he tried to draw it to him. + +This was no time to stand idly by, wondering how and why he had come to +this useless sacrifice. It was enough that he was here and living. I +knelt at his side, and though my surgery was rough, it stopped the flow +in which his life was draining away; his parched lips drank the +proffered water, and when his head was on my knees he turned his face +from the light and clasped his hands almost with contentment. He +seemed to know that a friend was with him. The friend who had bound +his wound and given him drink would find him a better bed than these +rough stones and a kinder shelter than this bit of shadow, swept by the +dust of endless pack-trains. + +In such a place a friend could avail little. We carried him back from +the turmoil of the road into the trampled wheat and there made him a +rude tent of my blanket and a pillow of my saddle. Then I looked about +me for help. The pack-trains clattered along the road and through them +wounded men were threading their way, painfully hobbling to the +field-hospital, miles away. Of ambulances there were none. I knew +that when night came they would stagger back from the fighting front +with their loads of wounded, and that so few were they in numbers the +chance of finding a place in them was of the smallest. The Turk does +not trouble much with the wounded. When a man is hit and he can hobble +miles to the hospital, then Allah be praised! If not, he lies where he +falls till night comes and his comrades find him and tie him like a bag +of grain on a pony's back and send him on a journey that would be death +to any Christian. If a surgeon finds him he is lucky. Remembering +this, I looked back over the road by which I had come, measuring the +miles we must cross before we reached help, and then at the Professor +lying at my feet hardly breathing. I knew that we stayed where we +were. Then I looked to the front. There was help there. There were +surgeons working in that wide-spread wreath of smoke. I pointed over +the plain and called to Asaf to hurry and bring me a surgeon. He +demurred, for he was always chary about entering the zone of fire. I +promised him a hundred pounds, a farm, a horse, a flock of sheep, if +only he would go and bring me a surgeon. Malcolm Bey was mad, he said; +no surgeon would come at such a time, miles for a single wounded man. +I knew that he was right, but I could not sit idly watching my friend's +life ebb away. I doubled the prize, and with a shrug of the shoulders +Asaf mounted and galloped off. + +I sat by the wounded man and waited. It was for hours. To me it +seemed days. Thousands passed by--the men of the trains, stragglers, +wounded, troops of the reserve. There were among them hands willing +enough to help, were there any help to be given, but between them and +me there was the inseparable gulf of language. One officer, a tall +Albanian, rode over, and in French asked if he could be of any +assistance; the man was a Greek; it made no difference, if he was a +friend of Malcolm Bey; he could spare a pony and men to take him back +to Larissa. I pleaded for a surgeon and an ambulance, pointing over +the plain as though there they could be had for the asking. He bowed +gravely--my request was a simple one; he would send them at once. And +he rode forward toward the smoke and the clamor. + +I sat watching. My hand held the Professor's. My eyes were turned +down the road to catch the first sign of Asaf and help. + +"Davy!" + +He was looking up at me from beneath half-raised lids. How long he had +been watching me I did not know. His voice was very low, but in it +there was no note of surprise. To him it was quite right that I should +be there. That was enough. His sickened mind could not trouble itself +with wherefores. + +"I am here, Professor," I said. The old nickname of the valley sounded +strangely, but I could not call him Mr. Blight when he lay this way, +looking up at me with eyes that seemed to smile with contentment +despite his pain. + +"You will be all right, Professor, but you must lie here quietly till +the surgeon comes." + +"I will be all right," he repeated slowly, and closed his eyes. + +I looked over the plain. Would Asaf never return? The dusk was +gathering and the wide-spread wreath of smoke mingled with it and was +lost. I could see the flash of the Greek guns as they made their last +stand to hold back the enemy till night came with its chance of escape. +Even the near-by road had its moments of quiet and the moving figures +grew blurred. Every clatter of hoofs might be Asaf coming, every +rumble of wheels the ambulance. But Asaf did not come. + +"Davy!" + +I looked down. He was indistinct in the shadow of the rough tent. He +had brought his other hand to cover mine. + +"It was a good fight, wasn't it, Davy?" + +"It was a grand fight," said I. + +"And you'll tell them at home, Davy?" + +"Yes, you and I will tell them together," I said with forced +cheerfulness. "But you must be quiet till the surgeon comes." + +It was growing dark. Over the plain the bark of heavy guns and the +crackle of rifles had stopped. Camp-fires were lighting, a circle of +them hemming in the town. Even the near-by road had grown quite quiet, +like any country road where the stillness is broken by the rare clatter +of hoofs or the curses of some stumbling pedestrian. + +His hands were pulling at mine and I leaned down over him in the +darkness. He could only whisper those last few words. + +One hand slipped from mine; from the other life seemed to have gone, it +was so still and listless. + +I leaned so close over the dark form that my face touched his. I knew +that he was going from me, and I wanted to hold him back. It was so +terrible for him to die this way, in this lonely field with no wise +hand to help him. My useless hands would have shaken him to arouse his +life again, but I stayed them. + +I knew that it was futile to speak, that my voice was falling on dulled +ears, but what else could I do to stir him to fight for life? + +"I'll tell them--we will tell them together," I cried. "We will go +home to Penelope, you and I, and they shall know how you fought. And +they will be proud of you, Professor; I know they will. And how glad +they will be to see you--how glad Penelope will be! Can't you hear me?" + +I looked up, straining my ears for the sound of hoofs, but the road was +as quiet as any country lane before dawn. I leaned over the dark form +and listened, and I knew that his march was ended. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +Through what quiet lanes of trivial circumstance do we move toward the +momentous events of our lives? We go our way, whistling thoughtlessly; +we turn a corner and stand face to face with the all-important. In my +boyhood I went fishing and tumbled into a mountain stream; I overheard +Boller of '89 speaking to Gladys Todd; I walked the Avenue at half past +three in the afternoon and met Penelope Blight. How finely spun is the +thread which holds together my story! A firmer foothold on the bank, +an ear less quick to catch an undertone, a moment's delay before +setting out on my daily airing, and there might have been no story to +tell you; the valley might have been all the world I know and the wall +of mountains my mind's horizon. + +Then I come to the matter of Philip Bennett's motor. It was always +breaking down. The delays that it caused as we journeyed north from +Naples were annoying, but at the time these were trivial events, as we +usually found a comfortable inn where we could wait while Bennett's man +lay in the dust and peered up into the vitals of the machine. It was +an adventurous thing to trust one's self to the mercy of the Italian +highway in the untrustworthy little cars of those days, but Stephen +Bennett insisted on our joining his brother, and as I was travelling +back to England with him after a hard year in the Sudan I consented. + +Bennett's brother met us at Naples, where we landed from the steamer, +and, after pointing out to us the marvels of his self-propelling +vehicle, put us into it, and took us puffing and rattling northward. +We broke down twice a day, but we did not mind it, for after the trip +from Khartum, the saddle over the desert, and the uncomfortable +Egyptian rail, this new invention was to us the height of luxury in +travel. + +Stephen Bennett was in the Egyptian army, in the camel corps. I had +ridden many a long march with him, and was beside him at Omdurman when +he was struck through the body by a Remington. We got in a nasty +corner that morning on the heights of Kerreri, and were so hard pressed +by the dervishes in the retreat that the wounded were saved with the +greatest difficulty. Bennett was so badly hurt that it took two of us +to hold him on my horse; but we got him back to the river and the +hospital, and after Khartum fell I picked him up at Fort Atbara. To +Cairo by rail, a week at sea, and in the October days we were rattling +northward and homeward over the white Italian roads. We reached Rome. +I had one day in the Eternal City while François replaced a broken +gear, and then we went on to Foligno, where we paced the Corso for an +afternoon and the Frenchman fixed up his brakes. Late that night at +Perugia we broke down at the foot of the hill and we had to climb to +our hotel. At this last mishap Bennett began to show annoyance, for he +had not as yet recovered his full strength, and the next morning, over +our coffee and rolls, he proposed that we go by rail to Florence, where +he knew people, and wait there until the car caught up with us. To +Bennett's brother this suggestion was a reflection on the power of his +beloved machine. He resented it, and I, not wishing to inject myself +into a fraternal argument of some heat, went out to see the town, +promising to return when they had amicably settled our plans. + +From the rampart, where I paused that morning, as I strolled out so +carelessly, leaning over the wall and looking over the Umbrian plain, +there is a fair prospect--the fairest, I think, that I have ever seen, +save one--and I hung there drinking in its peace and ruminating. +Across that plain, and I should take another step toward home. But it +was my boyhood's home alone, and yet I was going happily to sit again +on the horse-hair sofa in the parlor, with my father on one hand and my +mother on the other, and before me, perhaps, Mr. Pound, giving me his +blessing. I saw it all: the valley clad white in snow, the house on +the hill amid the bare oaks, the windows bright with potted plants, and +down the path my father and mother running to meet me. I thought, with +love in my heart, of that boyhood home and of my coming to it. Yet in +that same heart there was a longing unfulfilled. Where was my +manhood's home? Once I had had a tantalizing glimpse of it. That was +when I sat at Penelope's side by the carved mantel, under the eyes of +Reynolds's majestic lady. That for which I yearned so vainly was the +spot which she made sweeter by her presence. Were she here at my side, +looking with me over the Umbrian plain, this would be home. But +wherever I travelled, east or west, north or south, my journey could +have no such satisfying ending. Even in the valley, in the presence of +familiar, homely things, I knew that I should look away vaguely, as I +looked now, at distant mountains, wondering where Penelope was and how +the world went with her. + +After two years of absence from her and utter silence, I could drag out +of my memory no pictures of her save old ones, and one by one I brought +them forth, my favorite portraits, and saw her sitting in the carved +chair pouring tea or driving down the Avenue, very still and very +straight in her victoria. She must be in New York, I said, for in late +October she would be hurrying back to town for the old futile routine. +I went on, recklessly fancying Penelope leading that life, dancing, +dining and driving, as though this were all in the world she could +possibly be doing. I knew that she had not married Talcott. I had +learned this much of her from a stray newspaper which announced the +breaking of the engagement. I knew that it could make no difference to +me if she had married some one else. That was highly possible, yet it +was not a possibility on which I cared to dwell in my moments of +rumination. This day my mind dwelt on it, whether I would or not. +Over the plain, just beyond the mountains, I saw Penelope in my +visionary eye, and I asked myself if I should find another in that +coveted place from which I was barred. A bit of land, a bit of sea, +and there was home. In a few hours the same sun would be smiling on +it. At that moment I dreaded to go on. It was my duty, yet, could I, +I would have turned back to the Sudan, to ride again over the yellow +sands in the dust of marching regiments. I wanted action. Poor, +pitiful action it was to walk, but with every fall of my feet and every +click of my cane I could say to myself that I was going home, to my +boyhood's home, and it mattered little if I had no other. The clatter +of the Corso jarred on me. My mood demanded quiet places. The little +streets called to me from their stillness, and I answered them. They +led me higher and higher to the summit of the town. I crossed a +deserted piazza, and by a gentle slope was carried down to the terrace +of the Porta Sola. + +There was in this secluded spot a soothing shade and silence. Old +palaces, ghosts of another age, cast their shadows over it. Steps +wound from its quiet, down the hill into the clatter of the lower town. +A rampart guarded the sheer cliff, and with elbows resting there and +chin cupped in my hands I looked away to the Apennines. Below me two +arms of the town stretched out into the plain, but their mingling +discords rose to my ear like the drum of insects. Beyond them, in the +nearer prospect, the land seemed topsy-turvy, a maze of little hills +and valleys. A pink villa flamed against the brown, and its flat, +squat tower, glowing in the sunlight, called to its gaunt neighbor, +rising from a deserted monastery, to cheer up and be merry with it. +Distance levelled the land. It became broad plain, studded with gray +villages and slashed by the Tiber; it rose to higher hills; then lifted +sharply, the brown fading into the whiteness of massed mountain peaks. + +This is my fairest prospect. And yet at that moment it offered me no +peace. I was so infinitely lonely. With Penelope at my side, I said, +I could stand here for hours feasting my eyes on so lovely a picture. +To me, alone, it gave nothing. I should be happier with the Bennetts, +forgetting self and self's vague longings in a plunge into the +fraternal dispute. + +I turned away into a narrow alley, but I was unaccustomed to Perugian +streets and had not solved the mystery of their windings. Suddenly, +passing a corner, I found myself again in the deserted piazza, and, +looking down the slope, saw the same picture framed by palace walls. +First my eyes grasped the panorama of plain and mountain. Then I saw +only the terrace. + +It was not mine any longer to hold in loneliness. I brushed my hand +across my eyes to sweep away the taunting image. But she held there by +the wall, leaning over it, her chin resting in her hands, wrapped in +contemplation. Her face was turned from me, but there was no mistaking +that still, black figure. If she heard my footfalls and the click of +my cane, she gave no sign of being aware of my approach, but looked +straight out over the plain. I checked an impulse to call her name and +stood for a moment watching her. Would she greet me, I asked, with +that same chilling stare with which she had said good-by? I feared it. +But I tiptoed down the slope to the wall, and, leaning over it in +silence, enjoyed the stolen pleasure of her presence. Whether she +would or not, we looked together over the fair land. And what a +prospect it was with Penelope at my side! + +"David!" she said. + +She took a step back, and stood there, very straight, surveying me, as +though she were not quite sure that it could be. I searched her eyes +for a hostile gleam, but found none, and when her hand met mine it was +with a friendly and firm grasp. + +"Penelope," said I, "as I came down the hill there and saw you, I +thought that I dreamed." + +"And I," said she, "when I turned and found David Malcolm beside me. I +had heard that you were in the Sudan." + +"Much as I should have liked to bury myself in the Sudan, there were +calls from home," I returned. + +"From Miss Dodd--what are you laughing at, David? From Miss Todd, I +mean. How could you talk of burying yourself when you have such +happiness before you? But, David, why do you laugh?" + +With this reproof she tilted her head. That did not trouble me. I had +so often seen her tilt her head in the same scornful way in the old +days. And I laughed on joyfully at her calm assurance that I was going +back to Gladys Todd. + +"Gladys Todd is now Mrs. Bundy," I said. + +"Oh!" Penelope exclaimed, and her voice changed to one of sympathy. "I +am sorry, David. I see now what you meant by the Sudan." + +"Didn't you know that Gladys Todd had jilted me years ago?" I asked. + +"Why, no," she answered. "How should I? You never told me." + +"I was on my way to tell you one day," said I. "And then----" + +I stopped. Remembering why I had not told Penelope, I deemed it wiser +to be evasive. I remembered, too, that in my joy at seeing her again I +had been taking it for granted that she was still Penelope Blight. The +gulf between us, which had been closing so fast, yawned again. "Tell +me," said I in undisguised eagerness, "are you married, Penelope?" + +Then she laughed, and in the gay ring of her laughter, I read her +answer. She stepped back to a stone bench and seated herself, and I +took a place beside her, watching as she made circles in the sand with +the point of her parasol. There were a thousand commonplace questions +that I might have asked her, but I was contented with the silence. It +mattered little to me how she came there. It was enough that she was +at my side. It mattered little to me that Bennett and his brother +might have settled their dispute long since and be hunting for me, for +I had made my farewell to them. I was home. I intended to stay at +home. So I, too, fell to making circles in the sand, with my stick. + +Then Penelope looked up and asked me: "David, how do you come to be +here, in this out-of-the-way Italian town? I thought you were in the +Sudan. Uncle Rufus told me that you were in the Sudan. That is how I +happened to hear it. He always insists on reading to me everything of +yours he can find--rather bores me, in fact, sometimes--not, of course, +that I haven't been interested in what you were doing." + +She spoke so coldly that I feared that, after all, I had best go my way +with Bennett and his brother. I told her how I had travelled with +them, and how the motor had broken down, and how my finding her was by +the barest chance, for in a few hours I should have been on my way to +Florence. + +"It's strange," she said. "Our motor broke down, too, last night--just +as we reached the gates; but this afternoon we hope to be off again to +Rome." + +"We?" I questioned. + +"Uncle Rufus and I," she said. + +"And Mrs. Bannister?" + +"Married a year ago to a rich broker," she answered, laughing. + +"How long I have been away!" I exclaimed. + +I glanced covertly at Penelope. Despite the tone of formality in which +she addressed me she seemed quite content to sit here weaving +hieroglyphics with the point of her parasol, for I noticed that she was +smiling, unconscious, perhaps, that I was studying her face. A while +ago I had stood a little in awe of Penelope, but it was an awe inspired +by her surroundings rather than by her. Going from Miss Minion's to +face the critical eye of her pompous English butler was itself an +ordeal; to Mrs. Bannister I was a poor young man whom it was a form of +charity to patronize; the great library, the carved mantel, the +portrait, the heavy silver on the tea-table, these were emblems of +another world than mine. But here in this piazzetta, with the broad +Italian landscape before us, those days of awkward constraint were in +the far past. This quiet Penelope at my side contentedly tracing +circles in the sand was, after all, the simple, kindly Penelope of the +days in the valley. I had no fear of her. If she tossed her head +disdainfully, I could fancy the blue ribbon bobbing there again and +smile to myself as I recalled the morning when we had galloped together +out of the mountains on the mule. There were questions which I wanted +answered, and I dared to ask them. + +"Penelope," I said, "I am glad to hear that Mrs. Bannister is happily +married. Now tell me of my friend Talcott--what of him?" + +Penelope sat up very straight and her head tossed. "David, I should +think that one subject which you would avoid." + +"I confess myself consumed with merely idle curiosity," I returned. +"Talcott once made a great deal of trouble for me. Don't you remember +the day on the Avenue when you cut me?" + +"And if I had met you here a year ago, David, I should not have known +you," she said severely. "A woman resents being made a fool of, nor +can she easily forgive one who exposes the sham in which she has a +part. The fault was mine and Mrs. Bannister's, and back of it there +was something else." + +"Something else?" I questioned. + +Penelope did not answer. She had turned from me to the parasol and the +sand. I repeated the question. + +"Herbert Talcott is married--a year now," she said in a measured tone. +"His wife was a Miss Carmody--the daughter of Dennis Carmody, who owns +the Sagamore--or something like that--mine." A pause. Her head +tossed. "He recovered very quickly." + +"But the something else?" I insisted. + +"There are some things which you will never understand," she answered +carelessly. + +"There are some things which you must understand," I cried. "The +hardest task that ever I had was to go to your uncle as I did, like a +bearer of idle gossip. It would have been easier to let you go on as +you were going, ignorant and blind. I knew that it meant an end of our +friendship. That day when I spoke I believed that I was going out of +your life forever. I was not surprised when, on the Avenue, you looked +at me as though I were beneath your notice." I rose and stood before +her. "Had I to do it over again, I would, a thousand times, for your +sake. And didn't I prove that it was for your sake, when I banished +myself and gave up all claim to you?" + +"Claim to me?" Penelope's lips curled defiantly. "I should have +thought that you would have been occupied making good your claim to +Miss Dodd, or Bodd, or whatever her name was. I suppose you did right, +but none the less it was unpleasant. I thank you. You see I forgive +you, or we should not be here now talking." She raised her parasol as +though about to rise. "We must go. My uncle is waiting for me, and if +you care to, you may come with me and see him before we start for Rome." + +She did not rise; but the matter-of-fact tone in which she made the +threat chilled me, and for a moment I stood silent, looking down at the +black figure. The brim of her hat hid her face from me, but she was +making circles in the sand. I asked myself if this was the time for me +to speak of that claim, to speak my whole heart to her. + +She looked up. "David," she said, "you need not stand there so long. +It might be bad for your wound." + +"My wound?" I asked, and I took my old place at her side. + +"Why, yes," she said. "Were you not wounded in the Sudan? Uncle Rufus +told me that you were. He read about it in the papers. A Major +Bennett, or somebody, ran out under a heavy fire and pulled you out of +the hands of a lot of Arabs and saved your life." + +I laughed. I would have given all I owned in the world to have had at +that moment an interesting and conspicuous wound, for I knew how +sympathy formed love, and how to a woman's mind a wound added interest +to a man. A few weeks ago, though unwounded, I had at least been very +thin and brown; but even of those mild attractions I had thoughtlessly +allowed myself to be robbed by too high living and a kinder sun than +the desert's. How I envied Bennett with his sunken eyes and tottering +gait! + +"The telegraph evidently mixed the names," I said. "It was Bennett who +was shot." + +"And you saved his life!" Penelope cried, forgetting herself. + +However modest the man may be who hides his light under a bushel, it is +always pleasing to him to have another lift the basket. As a matter of +fact, on that morning at Omdurman it was almost as uncomfortable in the +disordered and retreating ranks as it was in our rear, where Bennett +lay crushed in the sand under his dead camel. If I did run back to him +in the face of the oncoming horde of dervishes, a half-dozen of his own +black troopers ran with me and helped to drag him to safety. It was an +ordinary incident of the heat of battle, yet I did wish that Bennett +were here to tell her about it, with his grateful exaggeration. To me +fell the hard task not only of hiding my light, but of blowing it out. + +"We got him away," I returned carelessly, accenting the pronoun as +though the whole corps were concerned. "A lot of his men ran back to +him and put him on my horse. I simply led him out of danger." + +"Oh!" Penelope exclaimed in a tone of disappointment. + +She looked over the plain; and I beside her, with my stick bent across +my knee, studied her face, trying to read in it some promise of +kindness and hope. But I found none. She seemed lost in the fair +prospect. She had met an old friend and had spoken to him. That was +enough. Now it mattered little whether he went away or stayed. It +came to me then to try an old, old ruse to test the quality of her +indifference. + +"We had best be going," I said, rising. + +To my consternation she rose, too, and began to move off carelessly, as +though she expected me to follow her to the hotel to see Rufus Blight +and then to bid her a casual farewell. I did not follow. Indifferent +she might be, but my mind was made up that she should hear me. There +was no longer any gulf between us. There was only the barrier of cool +indifference which she had raised, and I would fight to break it down. + +"Penelope," I said, "there are other things that you and I must speak +of before we go." + +"What?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder. + +"Of your father," I answered, stepping to the wall and leaning on it. + +I think that she saw reproof in my eyes. She hesitated, stirring the +sand with her parasol, and then came to the wall beside me. + +"Is there anything that I do not know of him?" she asked, as she stood +with her chin in her hands, looking over the plain. "You wrote so +fully--to my uncle. You might have written to me, David--but still you +wrote to my uncle." There was no hard note in Penelope's voice. "You +cared for him, David, and he died in your arms. It was for that I +forgave you--everything." + +"Everything? What do you mean by everything?" + +"There are some things that you will never understand." + +"But you speak as though I had done much that needed forgiveness." + +"We have been to Thessaly, David," she went on, as though she had not +heard me. "We found the very shrine where he died and the place where +you buried him, and we marked it. It seemed best that he should lie +there where he had fought so bravely--his last fight--as though he +would have it that way. How could I help forgiving you after +that--everything?" + +"Everything? Penelope, I do not understand." + +She laid a hand lightly on my arm. "Tell me, David, what were my +father's last words to you?" + +"I wrote them to you," I answered. + +"To Uncle Rufus--not to me." + +"How could I write to you after that day on the Avenue?" + +"That was a small thing, and I was foolish. Now I want to hear it from +you myself." + +I looked straight before me as I repeated the words which her father +had said that night as he lay dying on the plain of Thessaly. "Tell +them at home--it was a good fight." + +I felt her hand lightly on my arm again. I heard her quiet voice ask: +"Was that all?" + +"The rest I could not write," I answered, turning to her, and she +looked from me to the mountains. "He said to me: 'David, take care of +Penelope.'" + +For a moment Penelope was very still. It was as though she had not +heard me. Then she half-raised herself from the wall. One hand rested +there; the other was held out to me in reproof. + +"And how have you done it, David? With a year of silence." + +"But that day on the Avenue?" I said. + +"There were other days on the Avenue which you could have remembered," +she returned. "There was that day when we met--after long years. And +that day I remembered the valley and the boy who had come into the +mountains to help me; I remembered my father's last words to us, and +for a little while I was foolish enough to think that it must be for +that that I had found you again." + +I would have taken the outstretched hand, but she drew it away quickly +and stepped back. + +"And do you think I had forgotten the mountains that day?" I said. +"Why, Penelope, I loved you that day as I love you now, as I have from +the morning when you and I rode into the valley together." + +I took a step toward her, but she moved from me, and stood with her +hands clasped behind her back and her head tilted proudly as she looked +up at me. + +"It sounds well," she said, her lips curling in disdain. "But how +about Miss Dodd, or Miss Todd?" + +"Why will you be forever casting that up at me?" I protested. "For a +time I did forget. I was a plain fool. But, Penelope----" + +"I must be going," she said; but though she pointed toward the slope +down which I had come from the little piazza, she really went again to +the wall and stood there where I first found her, as though held +spellbound by the view. + +I was beside her. "Penelope," I said firmly, "there are some things +which you and I must straighten out here and now." + +"There is nothing to straighten out," she said. "Everything is +settled. We are friends." Lifting a hand, she pointed over the plain. +"What does that remind you of, David?" + +"A little of the valley," I answered. Then I raised my hand too. +"There are the mountains, Penelope, and just before them the ridge over +which we rode that morning. Do you remember it? Do you remember how +Nathan ran away over the trail, how you clung to me and called to me to +save you? Home should be down there where you see the village. Do you +remember----" + +Penelope was looking from me, as though at the stone house, its roof +just showing in the green of giant oaks. + +Again she raised her hand. "And the barn, David--the big white +barn--there!" she cried. Then she checked herself. She was very +straight and very still. "I was forgetting," she said. + +A step closer and I said: "You do remember, Penelope!" + +"I must be going," she returned in a low voice, but she did not move. + +I feared to speak now lest I should awaken her from the revery in which +she seemed to have suddenly forgotten my existence. + +"I must be going," she said again, and still she did not move. + +She was looking across our valley! I knew that she saw it as on the +morning when we rode in terror from the woods and it lay beneath us, a +friendly land, in the broad day, under the kindly eye of God. Then I +bent nearer her, an arm resting on the wall, my eyes on her averted +face, patiently waiting until she should speak. And I could wait +patiently now, for I believed that in the silence the memory of that +day was fighting for me. + +After a long time Penelope spoke. "David, do you remember--" She +paused. Her voice fell to a whisper. "What was it that you said to me +that morning--don't you remember?--don't cry, little one!" + +In all the world there is no fairer prospect than that on which I +looked from the little terrace in Perugia. For I saw not alone the +lovely Umbrian plain. Before me stretched a fair life itself, into the +unending years, from that moment when Penelope spoke, turning as she +spoke and looking up at me with a smiling face. What a blind, +blundering creature I had been! The black-gloved hand was close to +mine on the wall, and I took it. Then I leaned down to her and said: +"I remember, Penelope, and I will--I will take care of you always." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +"Yesterday, Harry, your mother laid a hand upon my arm, and, turning to +me with a curious, far-away light in her eyes, said: 'How time flies, +David!'" + +And I looked down at her proudly, as though this were another of the +innumerable new and clever ideas which she has a way of discovering and +expressing so concisely. + +"What made you think of that, Penelope?" + +She pointed over the tangled briers to the woods, to the very spot +where the path breaks through the bushes and leads to the brook. + +"Yesterday, David--it seems but yesterday--I dragged you out of the +deep pool, and to-day--a moment ago--I heard Harry there, shouting." + +"He has probably caught a trout," said I as I lighted a cigar. "A +small boy always shouts when he lands a fish." + +Penelope laughed. + +"And if," I went on, between critical puffs--"if he falls in, James is +with him and James will pull him out. You must not think that these +woods are full of small girls with blue ribbons in their hair who are +watching for an opportunity to rescue drowning boys." + +"How stupid you are, David!" said Penelope, "And yet at times you have +been monstrously stupid. Of course, I know that Harry is perfectly +safe with James; but what I meant was that it seems only yesterday----" + +"Since you pulled me out of the brook?" I said. + +Then I tucked her hand beneath my arm, and, standing there in the deep +weeds and briers, we looked about the clearing. Even the Professor's +care had long been missing. The roof of the cabin had fallen in years +ago, and the end of a single log, poking through a mass of green, +marked the stable from which the white mule had regarded me so +critically. Yet the mountains rose above us, the same mountains; the +same ridge sloped upward to the south, and above it was the same blue +sky and a white cloud hovering in it. A crow cawed from the pines. It +might have been the same crow that in other days called to me, now +cawing his welcome. It did seem but yesterday. How fast the weeds and +briers had grown, defying the Professor's languid hoe! How suddenly +had the timbers snapped which held the roof! And doubtless Nathan's +home went down in a gust of wind. + +"Yesterday, Penelope," I said, "you led me out of the woods, dripping +wet--don't you remember? from my tumble into the pool. Right there +your father stood, looking at that very cloud, wistfully." + +"And yesterday," Penelope said, pointing over the clearing, "in the +morning early, father and I were sitting by that very door, when we +heard a shout and, looking, saw you running toward us through the +brush. Don't you remember, David? You fell down out there--why, a +juniper tree has grown up there since yesterday." + +Then Penelope was very quiet. I saw her glance to the bushes, and her +hand gripped mine. I knew what was in her mind. I saw the same +picture; I could almost hear the brush crackling under the Professor's +flying feet, and leaning down over her I said: "Don't cry, little one; +I'll take care of you." + +That was really yesterday, Harry, and really yesterday Penelope and I +rode again over the trail along which the white mule had carried us at +such a terrible pace. We climbed the ridge, and at its crest Penelope +reined in her horse and pointed over the valley. I followed her raised +hand over the land, over the green of the fields and the white of +blossoming orchards, to the great barn, gleaming cheerfully in the +noonday sun, and to the dark roof nestling in the foliage of giant oaks. + +Penelope turned to me with smiling eyes and said: "It's all right, +David. Yon's our home!" + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of David Malcolm, by Nelson Lloyd + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAVID MALCOLM *** + +***** This file should be named 23741-8.txt or 23741-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/4/23741/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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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: David Malcolm + +Author: Nelson Lloyd + +Release Date: December 5, 2007 [EBook #23741] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAVID MALCOLM *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +DAVID MALCOLM + + +BY + +NELSON LLOYD + + + + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +NEW YORK + +1913 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + +Published August, 1913 + + + + +TO + +THE RARE, SWEET MEMORY OF + +SUSANNE LIVINGSTON GREEN LLOYD + +MY WIFE AND THE DEAR COMPANION + +WHO WORKED + +WITH ME OVER THESE PAGES + + + + +DAVID MALCOLM + + +CHAPTER I + +"Take care not to tumble into the water, David," said my mother. + +She was standing by the gate, and from my perch on the back of the +off-wheeler, I smiled down on her with boyish self-assurance. The idea +of my tumbling into the water! The idea of my drowning even did I meet +with so ludicrous a mishap! But I was accustomed to my mother's +anxious care, for as an only child there had fallen to me a double +portion of maternal solicitude. In moments of stress and pain it came +as a grateful balm; yet more often, as now, it was irritating to my +growing sense of self-reliance. To show how little I heeded her +admonition, how well able I was to take care of myself, as I smiled +loftily from my dangerous perch, with my legs hardly straddling the +horse's back, I disdained to secure myself by holding to the harness, +but folded my arms with the nonchalance of a circus rider. + +"And, David, be careful about rattlesnakes," said my mother. + +Had I not seen in her anxious eyes a menace against all my plans for +that day I should have laughed outright in scorn, but knowing it never +wise to pit my own daring against a mother's prudence, I returned +meekly, "Yessem." Then I gave the horse a surreptitious kick, trying +thus to set all the ponderous four in motion. The unsympathetic animal +would not move in obedience to my command. Instead, he shook himself +vigorously, so that I had to seize the harness to save myself from an +ignominious tumble into the road. + +"You won't let David wander out of your sight, now, will you, James?" +my mother said. + +James was climbing into the saddle. Being a deliberate man in all his +actions, he made no sign that he had heard until he had both feet +securely in the stirrups, until he had struck a match on his boot-leg +and had lighted his pipe, until he had unhooked the single rein by +which he guided the leaders and was ready to give his horses the word +to move. Then he spoke in a voice of gentle protest: + +"You hadn't otter worry about Davy, ma'am, not when he's with me." His +long whip was swinging in the air, but he checked it, that he might +turn to me and ask: "Now, Davy, you're sure you have your hook and +line?" + +I nodded. + +"And your can o' worms for bait?" + +Again I nodded. The whip cracked. And I was off on the greatest +adventure of my life! My charger was a shaggy farm-horse, hitched +ignominiously to the pole of a noisy wood-wagon; my squire, the lanky, +loose-limbed James; my goal, the mountains to which were set my young +eyes, impatiently measuring the miles of rolling valley which I must +cross before I reached the land that until now I had seen only in the +wizard lights of distance. + +Every one lives a story--every man and every woman. A million miles of +book-shelves could not hold the romances which are being lived around +you and will be unwritten. I am sure that when your own story has been +lived, when it is stored in your heart and memory, you will follow the +binding thread of it, and find it leading you back, as mine leads me to +one day like that day in May when I went fishing. There will be your +Chapter I. Before that, you will see, you were but a slip of humanity +taking root on earth. My own life began ten years before that May +morning, but on that May morning began my story. Then I rode all +unconscious of it. I was simply going fishing for trout. Yet, as I +clung to my heavy-footed horse and kept my eyes fixed on the distant +mountains, my heart beat quick with the spirit of adventure, for to +fish for trout in mysterious forests meant a great deal to one who had +known only the sluggish waters in the meadow and the martyrlike +resignation of the chub and sunny. I might begin my story on that +winter morning when I came into the world and bleated my protest +against living at all, but I pass by those years when I was only a slip +of humanity taking root on earth and come to that May day which is the +first to rise distinctly on my inward vision when I turn to retrospect. +Even now I mark it as a day of great adventure. Since then I have +battled with salmon in northern waters, I have felt my line strain +under the tarpon's despair, I have heard my reel sing with the rushes +of the bass, yet I do not believe that a whale with my harpoon in his +side, as he thrashes the sea, would give me the same exulting thrill +that came with a tiny trout's first tug at my hook. Filled with so +exciting a prospect, I did not look back as we swung down the hill from +the farmhouse. I dared not, lest I should see my too solicitous mother +beckoning me home to the protection of her eyes. Though I clutched the +harness and bounced about on my uncomfortable seat, the horse's rough +gait had no terrors for me when every clumsy stride was carrying me +nearer to the woods. As we rattled into the long street of the +village, it seemed to me that all the people must have come out just to +see us pass. The fresh beauty of the spring morning might have called +them forth, but from the proud height where I sat looking down on them +they had all the appearance of having heard in some mysterious way that +David Malcolm was going fishing. They hailed me from every side. Even +the Reverend Mr. Pound added to the glory of my progress, leaving his +desk and his profound studies of Ahasuerus to stand at the open window +as we passed. + +With boyish exultation I called to him: "I'm goin' a-fishin', Mr. +Pound--fishin' for trout." + +In Mr. Pound's personal catechism his own chief end was to utter +trenchant and useful warnings to all who came within reach of his +voice. Even to a lad riding forth under careful guidance to fish in a +little mountain stream he had to sound his alarm. The soft fragrance +of the May-day air, and the restful green and white of the May-day +coloring had brought to the minister's face a smile of contentment in +spite of his melancholy ponderings over the weaknesses of Ahasuerus; he +looked on me benignly from his window until I spoke, and then his face +clouded with concern. + +"David, David," he cried, stretching out his hand with fingers +wide-spread, "don't fall into the water." + +There was a mysterious note in his reverberating tones, which expressed +a profound conviction that not only should I fall into the water, but +that I should be drowned, and looking at his solemn face I could feel +the cold pool closing over my head. I tried to laugh away the fear +which seized me, but chill, damp currents seemed to sweep the shaded +street. Not till we reached the open sunlit square did my sluggish +blood start again. There I came under the genial influence of Squire +Crumple's radiating smile, and Mr. Pound and his lugubrious warning +were forgotten. The squire was trimming his lilac-bush, and from the +green shrubbery his round face lifted slowly, as the sun rises from its +night's rest in the eastward ridges and spreads its welcome light over +the valley. + +"Well, Davy, where are you bound?" he shouted, so pleasantly that I +could well believe my small wanderings of interest to so great a man. + +"Fishin'," I answered, drawing myself up to a dignity far above the +chub and sunny--"fishin' for trout." + +"Fishin', eh? Well, look out for rattlers." His voice was so cheery +that one might have thought these snakes well worth meeting for their +companionship. "This is the season for 'em, Davy--real rattler season, +and you're sure to see some." To make his warning more impressive, the +squire gave a leap backward which could not have been more sudden or +violent had he heard the dreaded serpent stirring in the heart of his +lilac. "Watch out, Davy; watch sharp, and when you meet 'em be sure to +go backward and sideways like that." + +He gave a second extraordinary leap, which was altogether too realistic +to be pleasant for the boy who saw the mountains, sombre and black, +beyond the long street's end, yet very near him. I forced a laugh at +his antics, but I rode on more thoughtfully, my hands clutching the +harness, my eyes fixed on my horse's bobbing mane. I feared to look up +lest I should meet more of these disturbing warnings, and yet enough of +pride still held in me to lift my head at the store. I had always +looked toward the store instinctively when I passed that important +centre of the village life, and now, as always, I saw Stacy Shunk on +the bench. + +He was alone, but alone or in the company of half a score, in silence +or in the heat of debate, Stacy had a single attitude, and this was one +of distortion in repose. Now, as always, he was sitting with legs +crossed, his hands hugging a knee, his eyes contemplating his left +foot. In the first warm days of spring, Stacy's feet burst out with +the buds, casting off their husks of leather. So this morning his foot +had a new interest for him, and he was absorbed in the study of it, as +though it were something he had just discovered, a classic fragment +recently unearthed, at the beauty of whose lines he marvelled. He did +not even look up when he heard the rumble of our wagon. Stacy Shunk +never troubled to look up if he could avoid it. He seemed to have a +third eye which peered through the ragged hole in the top of his hat, +and swept the street, and bored through walls, a tiny search-light, but +one of peculiarly penetrating power. I saw his head move a little as +we drew near, and his body shifted nervously as would a mollusk at the +approach of some hostile substance. Yet sitting thus, eying me only +through the top of his hat, he saw right into my mind, he saw right +into my pockets, he saw the mustard can full of worms, he saw the line, +and the fish-hooks which my mother had thoughtfully wrapped in a +pill-box. How else could he have divined all that he did? + +"Well, Davy," he said in a wiry voice, which cut through the din of +rattling harness and creaking wagon, "I see you're goin' a-fishin' for +trout?" + +"Yes, sir, Mr. Shunk," I returned, with a politeness that told my +respect for his occult powers. + +"Well, mind," he said, intently studying his foot as though he were +reading some mystic signals wigwagged from the gods, "mind, Davy, that +you don't fall into the hands of the Professor. If the Professor +catches you, Davy--" The foot stopped wiggling. The oracle was +silent. Did it fear to reveal to me so dreadful a fate as mine if I +fell into the Professor's clutches? I waved a hand defiantly to the +seer and I rode on. Rode on? I was dragged on by four stout horses +through the village to the mountains, for in my heart I was calling to +my mother, wishing that her gentle warnings had turned me back before I +heard the voice of doom sounding from the depths of Mr. Pound; before I +had seen the comic tragedy enacted by Squire Crumple; above all, before +the man who saw through the top of his hat had uttered his enigmas +about the Professor. + +There is something innately repugnant to man in the word "professor." +It makes the flesh creep almost as does the thought of the toad or +snake. Though when a boy of ten I had never seen a "professor," the +word alone was so full of portent that the prospect of seeing one, even +without being caught by him, would have frightened me. I suppose that +the chill which reverberated through my spine and legs echoed the +horror of many generations of my ancestors who had known professors of +all kinds, from those who trimmed their hair and dosed them with +nostrums to those who sat over them with textbook and rod. Being +myself thus perturbed, it was astonishing that James should show no +sign of fear, but should keep his horses in their collars, pulling +straight for the mountains where the dreaded creature lived. He smoked +his pipe nonchalantly, as though a hundred professors could not daunt +him. I was sure that there was something of bravado in his conduct +until he began to sing, and his voice rang out without a tremor, so +full and strong that it fanned a spark of courage into my cowering +heart. James had a wonderfully inspiring way of singing. He tuned his +voice to the day and to the time of the day. This morning the sky was +clear blue above us, and about us the orchards blossomed pink and +white, and the fresh green fields were all awave under the breeze, not +the grim wind of winter, but the soft yet buoyant wind of spring. So +his song was cheery. The words of it were doleful, like the words of +all his songs, but under the touch of his magic baton, his swinging +whip, a requiem could become a hymn of rejoicing. Now the birds in the +meadows seemed to accompany him, and our heavy-footed four to step with +a livelier gait in time to his rattling air, all unconscious that he +sang of "the old gray horse that died in the wilderness." It was a +boast of his that he could sing "any tune there was," and I believed +him, for I had a profound admiration of his musical ability. Indeed, I +hold it to this day, and often as I sit in the dark corner of an +opera-box and listen to the swelling harmonies of a great orchestra, I +close my eyes and fancy myself squatting on the grassy barn-bridge at +James's side when the shadows are creeping over the valley and he weeps +for Nellie Grey and Annie Laurie in a voice so mighty that the very +hills echo his sorrow. + +This May morning, as James sang, my spirits rose with his soaring +melody from the depths into which they had been cast in the passage of +the village, and when the last note had died away and he was debating +whether to light his pipe or sing another song, I asked him with quite +a show of courage: + +"Is it very dangerous in the mountains?" + +James looked down at me. A smile flickered around the corners of his +mouth, but he suppressed it quickly. + +"Yes--and no," he drawled. + +Inured as I was to his cautious ways, I was not taken aback by this +non-committal reply, but pursued my inquiry, hoping that in spite of +his vigilance I might elicit some encouraging opinion. + +"Am I likely to tumble into the water while I'm fishing, James?" + +"That depends, Davy." James looked profoundly at the sky. + +"And what's the chance of my being bit by a rattlesnake, James?" + +"I wouldn't say they was absolutely none, nor yet would I say they was +any chance at all." At every word of this sage opinion James wagged +his head. + +We rode some distance in silence, and then I came to the real point of +my examination. "James, what kind of a man is a professor?" + +James looked down at me gravely. "I s'pose, Davy, you have in mind +what Stacy Shunk said about him catchin' you." + +"Oh, dear, no," I protested. "I was just wondering what kind of a man +he was." + +"Well, Davy," James said, in a voice of mockery which silenced as well +as encouraged me, "if you can fall into the creek, be bit by a rattler, +and catched by the Professor all in the one-half hour we will be in the +mountains while I loaden this wagon with wood, I'll give you a medal +for being the liveliest young un I ever heard tell of. Mind, Davy, +I'll give you a medal." + +With that he checked further questioning by breaking into a song, and +had he once descended from the heights to which he soared and shown any +sign that he was aware of my presence, pride would have restrained me +from pressing my trembling inquiry. + +So, singing as we rode, we crossed the ridge, the mountain's guarding +bulwark; we left the open valley behind us and descended into the +wooded gut. We passed a few scattered houses with little clearings +around them, and then the trees drew in closer to us until the green of +their leafy masonry arched over our heads. At last I was in the +mountains! This was the mysterious topsy-turvy land, the land of +strange light and shadow to which I had so often gazed with wondering +eyes. In the excitement of its unfolding, in the interest with which I +followed the windings of the narrow road, I forgot the dangers which +threatened me in these quiet, friendly woods; and when I cast my line +into the tumbling brook I should have laughed at Mr. Pound, at Squire +Crumple, and Stacy Shunk, had I given them a thought. But even James's +kindly warnings were now uncalled for. That he should admonish me at +all I accepted as merely a formal compliance with his promise to my +mother that he would keep an eye on me. For him to keep an eye on me +was a physical impossibility, as the road plunged deeper into the +woods, bending just beyond the little bridge where he had fixed me for +my fishing. He was soon out of my sight, and his warning to me to stay +in that spot went out of my mind before the rumble of his wagon had +died away. Had he turned at the bend he would have seen me lying flat +on my back on the bridge, unbalanced by the eagerness with which I had +answered the first tug at the hook. + +I could have landed a shark with the strength which I put into that +wild jerk, but I saw only the worm bait dangling above my astonished +face. With my second cast I lifted a trout clear of the water; then +caught my line in an overhanging branch and saw my erstwhile prisoner +shoot away up-stream. The tangled line led me from my post of safety. +Had I returned to it; had I remembered the admonition of the cautious +James, and held to the station to which he had assigned me--my life +might have run its course in another channel. Now, as I look back, it +seems as though my story became entangled with my line in that +overhanging branch, as though there I picked up the strong, holding +thread of it, and followed its tortuous windings to this day. + +My blood was running quick with excitement. I had no fear. A +wonderful catch, a game fish six inches long filled me with the pride +of achievement, and with pride came self-confidence. The stream lured +me on. The rapids snapped up my hook, and with many a deceitful tug +enticed me farther and farther into the woods. The brush shut the +bridge from my view, but I knew that it was not far away, and that a +voice so mighty as James could raise would easily overtake my slow +course along the bank. So I went from rock to rock with one hand +guiding my precious rod, and the other clutching overhanging limbs and +bushes. + +What sport this was for a lad of ten who had known only the placid +brook in the open meadow and the amiable moods of its people! How many +a boyish shout I muffled as I made my cautious way along that +boisterous stream and pitted my wits against its wary dwellers! I +wormed through an abatis of laurel; I scampered over the bared and +tangled roots of a great oak; I reached a shelf of pebbly beach. +Around it the water swept over moss-clad rocks into a deep pool; above +it the arched limbs broke and let in the warm sunlight, making it a +grateful spot to one chilled by the dampness of the thicker woods. +Eager to try my luck in that enticing pool, I leaped from the massed +roots to the little beach without troubling to see what others might +have come here to enjoy with me a bit of open day. My hook touched the +stream; my line ran taut; my rod almost snapped from my hands. I +clutched it with all my strength. Every muscle of arms, legs, and body +was bent to land that gigantic fish. That it was gigantic I was sure, +from the power of its rush. I pitted my weight against his and felt +him give way. Then, shouting in exultation, I fell over backward. I +saw him leave the water, not quite the leviathan I had fancied; I saw +him fly over my head and heard him flopping behind me. Getting to my +feet, I turned to rush at my prize and capture him. I was +checked--first by my ears, for in them rang the sharp whir of a rattle. +Cold blood shot from my heart to the tips of my toes and the top of my +head. I needed nothing more to hold me back, but there before my eyes +was the other visitor to this pleasant sunny spot, his head rising from +his coiled body, his tail erect and lashing in fury. + +Since that day I have learned that the rattler when disturbed by man +will seek refuge in flight, and fights only when cornered. This +particular snake, I think, must have been told that a boy will glide +away into the bushes if a chance is given him, for he seemed determined +to stand his ground and let me flee. But where was I to escape when he +held the narrow way to the bank, and behind me roared the stream, grown +suddenly to mighty width and depth? How was I to move at all when +every nerve was numbed by the icy currents which swept through my +veins? Could I escape? Was it not foreordained that I should meet my +end in these woods? Had I not spurned the chance of life given me +through the prophecies of good Mr. Pound and the warning of the squire? + +The snake before me grew to the size of a boa-constrictor. The brook +behind me roared in my ears like Niagara. The snake began to drive his +head toward me, showing his fangs as though he were making a +reconnoissance of the air before his spring. He was so terrible that I +knew that when he did hurl himself at me I must go backward and fulfil +the prophecy of Mr. Pound. I had forgotten the man who saw through the +top of his hat. I awaited helplessly the triumph of Mr. Pound. + +From out of the bush, from out of the air, as though impelled by a +spirit hand, a long stick swung. It fell upon my enemy's head and +drove it to the ground. He lifted his head and turned from me, +striking madly, but the rod fell again upon his back. He uncoiled and +tried to run; he twisted and turned in his dying agony and lashed the +air in futile fury. The merciless rod broke him and stretched him to +his full length. But even though dead he was terrible to me, for had I +not heard that a snake never dies until sunset; could I not see the +body still quivering; might not the bruised head dart at me in dying +madness! + +I took a step backward, and hurtled into the water. For a long time I +groped in the depths of the pool. To me it seemed that I struggled +there for hours in the blackness; that serpents drew their slimy +lengths across my face; that fishes poked their noses with bold +inquisitiveness about me and dared to nibble at my hands; that Mr. +Pound looked up at me from the abyss, benignly in his triumph, and that +his solemn voice joined with the roaring of the torrent. Knowing well +that my end had come and that the prophecy was being fulfilled, I +struggled without hope, but my fingers clutching at the water at last +met some solid substance and closed on it. I felt myself turn, and +suddenly opening my eyes saw the sunlight pouring through the green +window in the tree-tops. My legs straightened; my feet touched the +stony bottom; my shoulders lifted from the stream, and I looked into a +small girl's face, while my hand was tightly clasped in hers. + +Since that day the sun's soft brown has faded from her cheeks, +uncovering their radiance; since then she has grown to fairest +womanhood, and I have seen her adorning the art of Paris and Vienna; +but to me she has given no fairer picture than on that May morning +when, shamefaced, I climbed from the mountain stream and looked down +from my ten years of height on the little girl in a patched blue frock. +Nature had coiffed her hair that day and tumbled it over her shoulders +in wanton brightness, but she had caught the crowning wisp of it in a +faded blue ribbon which bobbed majestically with every movement of her +head. Had some woodland Mr. Pound told her that I was coming? Since +then I have seen her more daintily shod than when her bare brown legs +hurried from view into broken shoes of twice her size. Since then the +hard little hand has turned white and thin and tapering, to such a hand +as women are wont to let dawdle over the arms of chairs. Then I was a +boy, with a boy's haughty way of regarding girlish softness. I was +haughtier that day because I sought in my pride to cover up my debt to +her. Now I am a man, but the boy's picture of Penelope Blight, the +little girl in the patched blue frock and broken shoes, standing by the +mountain stream, holds in the memory with clear and softening colors. + +She leaned, a tiny Amazon, on the stick which towered to twice her +height, and she said to me: "Boy, you hadn't otter be afraid of snakes." + +In my shame I answered nothing and my teeth chattered, for I was very +cold from fright and the ducking. + +Then she said to me: "Boy, you had otter come over to our house and get +warm." + +I remembered my dignity, and, in a tone of patronage assumed by right +of the one year of difference in our ages, I asked: "Where is your +house, young un?" + +She pointed over her shoulder, over the quivering body of the snake, +across the bushes, and through the green light of the woods. There I +saw a bit of blue sky, cut by a thin spire of smoke. + +"Yonder's our patch," she said, "and father will give you something to +warm you up." + +I asked: "Who is your father, little un?" + +She drew herself up very straight, and even the blue ribbon in her hair +rose in majesty as she answered. Then I almost tumbled into the pool +again, for she said: "Some call him the Professor." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The words of Penelope Blight fell on my ears as chillingly as the +rattler's whir. That the prophecies of Mr. Pound and Squire Crumple +had come to nothing was little consolation for me. So near had they +been to fulfilment that it seemed that I must have been spared only for +a harder fate, and the figure of Stacy Shunk peering at me through the +top of his hat, uttering his ominous warning, rose before my startled +eyes. I should have run, but my retreat was barred, the girl blocking +the way over the shelving beach. I took a backward step and for an +instant the Prophet Pound's star was in the ascendant, for the foot +touched the water. So great was my dread of the Professor that had I +been in a position to choose my course I should have taken my chances +in the stream, but I lost my self-control with my balance and made a +desperate clutch at the air. + +Again the brown hand caught mine, and this time it did not release me. + +"Come with me," my small captor said in a tone of command. + +I did not resist, but I went with fear. To resist would have been a +confession of cowardice, and there is no pride of courage like that of +a boy of ten in a girl's presence. I might have made excuses, but with +that little spire of smoke so close at hand, promising a fire, I, +dripping and shivering as I was, could think of nothing to say in +protest. I did declare feebly that I was not cold. My teeth +chattered, and my body shook, and the girl looked up at me and laughed, +and led me on. + +James, a man of a superstitious and imaginative mind, in the quiet +evenings on the barn-bridge had often told me strange stories in which +giants and dwarfs, witches and fairies, entangled men in their spells. +One of these tales, a favorite of his, came to me now and caused my +feet to lag and my eyes to study my guide with growing distrust. It +was of a lady called "Laura Lee," who, James said, sat on the bank of +the big river combing her hair and singing, the beauty of her face and +voice luring too curious sailormen to their destruction. It was a far +cry from the big river to the mountain brook, from the lovely "Laura +Lee" to this tiny girl, about whom all my careful scrutiny could +discover no sign of a comb. Yet it did seem to me that there was a +resemblance between the creature of the story, "the beautiful lady with +blue eyes and golden hair who hung around the water," and this child of +the woods who had no fear of snakes and boasted a professor for a +father. She felt the tug of my resisting hand. + +"You're not afraid of me, are you, boy?" she asked, turning to me +sharply. + +I, a boy of ten, afraid of this mite! Had she really been what I was +beginning to suspect, a decoy sent out by the Professor to lure me to +his den, she could not have used more cunning than to put to me such a +question. I afraid? Though the blood still waved through me, I +squared my shoulders, dissembled a laugh, and stepped before her, and +it was I who led the way along the path into the open day of the +clearing. There I came face to face with the Professor. + +First I saw that he was human in shape and attire. Indeed, both his +appearance and his occupation were exceedingly commonplace. When we +came upon him he was leaning on a hoe and watching a passing cloud. +Had he smiled at me, I think I must have fallen to my knees and lifted +my hands in pleading, but he gave no sign of pleasure that another +victim had fallen into his toils. In fact, there was something +reassuring in the perfect indifference with which he regarded me. When +the crackling of the bushes called his eyes to us, he threw one glance +our way as though a trifle annoyed at being disturbed in his study. +Then he returned to the contemplation of the sky. So I stood on the +edge of the woods my hand holding the girl's, and watched him, and as +the seconds passed and he did not change his form, but remained a lazy +man leaning on a hoe in a patch of riotous weeds, fear left me and +wonder took its place. + +There was nothing about this man to merit the opprobrium of his name, +and from appearances Stacy Shunk had as well warned me against being +caught by Mr. Pound. In the village Mr. Pound was the mould of +respectability. He always wore a short frock-coat of glossy black +material, which strained itself to reach across his chest. So did the +Professor. But his black had turned to green in spots, and he was so +thin and the tails were so short and the coat so broad that it seemed +as though its length and breadth had become transposed. It was a +marvellously shabby coat, but even in its poverty there was no +mistaking its blue blood. It was a decayed sartorial aristocrat, ill +nourished and sad, but flaunting still the chiselled nose and high, +white brow of noble lineage. Here it was all out of place. Mr. Pound +wore a great derby which swelled up from his head like a black ominous +cloud, and so dominated him that it seemed to be in him the centre of +thought and action, and likely at any moment to catch a slant on the +wind and carry him from earth. The Professor wore a great derby, too, +but one without the buoyant, cloud-like character of Mr. Pound's. It +was a burden to him. Only his ears kept it from dragging him to earth +and smothering him, and now as he looked up at the sky I saw clear cut +against its blackness a thin quixotic visage, shaded by a growth of +stubble beard. I marvelled at a man working in such attire, for the +sun baked the clearing, but watching, I saw how little he swung his hoe +and how much he studied the sky. The whole place spoke of one who kept +his coat on while he worked, and gazed at the clouds more than he hoed. +It was wretched and dismal. It hid itself away in the woods from very +shame of its thriftlessness. Age had twisted the house askew, so that +the mud daubing crumbled from between the logs, and the chimney was +ready to tumble through the roof with the next puff of wind. The +shanty barn was aslant and leaned heavily for support on long props. +The hay burst through every side of it, and the sole occupant, an +ancient white mule, had burst through too, and with his head projecting +from an opening and his ears tilted forward, he was regarding me +critically. Everywhere the weeds were rampant. Everywhere there were +signs of a feeble battle against them, bare spots where the Professor +had charged, cut his way into their massed ranks, only to retreat +wearied and beaten by their numbers. + +Over this wretchedness the girl waved her hand and said: "Here is our +farm." The blue ribbon in her hair bobbed majestically as she pointed +across the stretch of weeds to the cabin. "And yonder is our house." +She pinched my arm as a sign of caution. "And there is father," she +added in a voice of muffled pride. "He's studying. Father's always +studying." + +She would have led me on in silence, not to disturb his labors with +either mind or hoe, but he looked down and asked in a tone of yawning +interest: "Who's the lad, Penelope?" + +"I don't know," she answered. "He fell into the creek, and I pulled +him out. I've brought him in to warm him up." + +Wet, shivering boys emerging suddenly from the woods might have been a +common sight about the Professor's home, did one judge from the way he +received his daughter's explanation. He merely nodded and fell upon +the weeds with newly acquired vigor. As we walked on we heard the +spasmodic crunching of his hoe. But the noise stopped before we +reached the house door, and the silence caused us to turn. He was +standing erect looking at us. + +"I think you'd better have something, lad," he cried, and, dropping the +hoe, he hurried after us. + +So it came that the Professor did me the honors of his home, and with +such kindness that all my fear of him was soon gone. He stirred the +fire to a roaring blaze and placed me in front of it. He spread my +coat before the stove and drew my boots, and quickly my clothes began +to steam, and I was as uncomfortably warm as before I had been +uncomfortably cold. The shy politeness of my age forbade my protesting +against this over-indulgence in heat, and not until the Professor +declared that he must give me a dose to ward off sickness did I raise a +feeble voice in remonstrance. + +My protest was in vain. From the cupboard he brought a large black +bottle. Had I seen my mother approaching me with a bottle as ominous +as that, even her favorite remedy that I knew so well, the Seven Seals +of Health and Happiness, I should have fled far away, but now the girl +had my coat, and was turning it before the fire, while her father stood +between me and my boots. He smiled so benignly that had he offered me +our family nostrum I should have taken it without a grimace. I +accepted the proffered glass and drank. Never had anything more +horrible than that liquid fire passed my lips. In a moment I seemed to +be turned inside out and toasting at a roaring blaze, and to increase +my discomfort the Professor poured another dose, many times larger than +the first. Had he held it toward me I should have abandoned my coat +and boots, but to my relief he raised it to his lips and drained it off +with a smile of keen appreciation of its merits. + +"Now I feel better," he said, putting the bottle and glass on the +table, and dropping into a chair. + +It was strange to me that he, who was perfectly dry, should prescribe +for himself exactly the same remedy that he had given to me for my +wringing wetness. Yet there was no denying the beneficence of the +dose, for I was most uncomfortably warm, and had he been feeling badly +he was certainly now in fine spirits. + +Drawing his daughter between his knees, he enfolded her in his arms +protectingly. "Well, boy, I warrant you feel better," he said. + +I replied that I did, and if he did not mind I should like to sit a +little farther from the stove. + +He consented, laughing. "And now we should introduce +ourselves--formally," he went on. "You have met my daughter, Miss +Blight--Miss Penelope Blight. I am Mr. Blight--Mr. Henderson +Blight--in full, Andrew Henderson Blight. And you?" + +"I am David Malcolm, sir," I answered. + +"Ah!" He lifted his eyebrows. "You are one of those bumptious +Malcolms." + +"Yes, sir," I returned proudly, for the word "bumptious" had a ring of +importance in it, and I had every reason to believe that the Malcolms +were persons of quite large importance. + +Why Mr. Blight laughed so loud at my reply I could not understand, but +I supposed that in spite of his saturnine appearance he was a man of +jovial temperament and I liked him all the more. + +The wave of merriment past, he regarded me gravely. "Then you must be +the son of the distinguished Judge Malcolm." + +"Yes, sir," I said, pride rising triumphant over my polite humility. + +"Penelope," he said, as though addressing only his daughter, "we are +greatly honored. Our guest is a Malcolm--a sop of the celebrated Judge +Malcolm." + +By this adroit flattery my host won my heart, and in the comfort he had +given me I lost all care for passing time. When I recalled James, it +was with the thought that I was safe and he would find me, and I was +troubled by no obligation to save him worry. This strange man +interested me, he held my family in high regard, and I was well +satisfied to see more of him. So I fixed my heels on the rung of my +chair, folded my hands in my lap, sat up very straight, and watched him +gravely. In this was the one grudge that I long bore against the +Professor--that he baited me as he did, played with my child's pride, +and with my innocent connivance vented his contempt on all that I held +most dear. I did not understand the covert sneer against my father. +Years have given me a broader view of life than was my father's, and at +times I can smile with Henderson Blight at the solemnity with which he +invested his judgeship, but mine is the smile of affection. With no +knowledge of the law, with a power restricted to county contracts, when +he sat on the bench in court week with his learned confrere, drew his +chin into his pointed collar, and furrowed his brow, Blackstone beside +him would have appeared a tyro in legal lore. The distinguished Judge +Malcolm! So Henderson Blight spoke of him in raillery and so he was in +truth, distinguished in his village and his valley, and as I have come +to know men of fame in larger villages and broader valleys I can still +look back to him with loving pride. Yet that day I sat complacently +with my feet on the chair-rung, regarding the Professor with growing +friendliness. + +"You know my father?" I asked, seeking to draw forth more of this +agreeable flattery. + +"I have not the honor," he replied. "You see I am comparatively new in +these parts--driven here, as you may suspect, by temporary adversity. +But a man with ideas, David, must some day rise above adversity. All +he needs is a field of action." He looked across the bare room and out +of the door, where the weeds were charging in masses against the very +threshold; he looked beyond them, above the wall of woods, to a small +white cloud drifting in the blue. Young as I was, I saw that in his +eyes which told me that could he reach the cloud he might set the +heavens afire, but under his hand there lay no task quite worthy of +him. "A field of action--an opportunity," he repeated meditatively. +"It's hard, David, to have all kinds of ideas and no place to use them. +When a man knows that he has it in him and----" + +"Is that why Mr. Shunk calls you the Professor?" I interrupted. + +Henderson Blight turned toward me a melancholy smile. "Yes," he said. +"They all call me that, David, down in the village. Ask them who the +Professor is. They will tell you, a vagrant, a lazy fellow with a gift +of talking, a ne'er-do-well with a little learning. Ask Stacy Shunk. +Ask Mr. Pound--wise and good Mr. Pound. He will tell you that ideas +such as mine are a danger to the community, that I speak out of +ignorance and sin. As if in every mountain wind I could not hear a +better sermon than he can give me and find in every passing cloud a +text to ponder over. They don't understand me at all." + +The Professor drew his little daughter close to him and regarded me +fixedly, as though to see if I understood. + +"Yes, sir," I said. "I will ask them." + +At this matter-of-fact reply his mouth twitched humorously. "And +perhaps you will find that they are right," he said. "That's the worst +of it. Even dull minds can generate a certain amount of unpleasant +truth; that's what sets me on edge against them--when they ask me why I +don't carry out some of my fine ideas instead of criticising others." + +"Why don't you?" The question was from no desire to drive my host into +a corner, but came from an innocent interest in him and a wish to get +at something concrete. + +He took no offence at my presumption, but rose slowly, lifted his arms +above his head, and stretched himself. Unconsciously he answered my +question. + +"Had I the last ten years to live over again I would," he said as he +paced slowly up and down the room. "Perhaps I shall yet. Long ago, +when I was home on a little farm with the mountains tumbling down over +it, I used to plan getting out in the world and doing something more +than to earn three meals a day. It is stupid--the way men make meals +the aim of their lives. I wanted something better, but to find it I +had to have the means, and means could only be had by the most +uncongenial work. So here I find myself on a still smaller farm with +the mountains coming down on my very head. It was different with +Rufus." + +"Rufus who?" I demanded with the abruptness of an inquisitive youth who +was getting at the facts at last. + +The Professor halted by my chair. "My brother Rufus. You see, David, +I taught school because it was easy work and gave me time to think. +Rufus was a blockhead. He never had a real idea of any kind, but he +could work. When he owned a cross-road store he was as proud as though +he had written 'Paradise Lost.' He went to conquer the county town and +did it by giving a prize with every pound of tea. He wrote me about it +and you might have supposed that he had won a Waterloo. Yet he had his +good points. Now if Rufus and I could have been combined, his physical +energy with my mental, we should have done something really worth +while." + +"Yes, sir--yes, indeed, sir," I said politely. My conception of the +Professor's meaning was very faulty, but I found him engrossing because +he talked so fluently and made so many expressive gestures. He, I +suspect, was pleased with a sympathetic listener, though one so small. + +Laying a hand on my shoulder, he asked: "David, what are you going to +do when you grow up?" + +"I am going to be like my father," I replied. + +"Like the distinguished Judge Malcolm?" he exclaimed. "That's a high +ambition--for the valley." He was standing over me pulling his chin, +and from the manner in which he eyed me I believe that he quite +approved my choice of a model. Suddenly his arms shot out. "Try to be +more, David. Try to be what Rufus and I combined would have been. Try +to work for something better than three meals a day. Wake up, David, +before you fall asleep in a land where everybody dozes like the very +dogs." + +To enforce his admonition his hands closed on my shoulders; he lifted +me from my chair and began to shake me. Being so much in earnest he +was rather violent, so that James, now in the doorway, saw me wincing +and looking up with a grimace of fright and eyes of pleading. + +"Steady there, man," he cried. He thought that he was just in time to +rescue me from torture, and came forward with his whip raised. + +"I beg your pardon," said the Professor, dropping me gently into my +chair. "I didn't mean to hurt you, David. Did I hurt you?" + +"Not at all, sir," I answered, and feeling more at ease with James near +I made a dive for my coat and hat. + +"Well," said James, glaring at my host. "I advise you to keep your +hands off anyway, for if I catch you a-hurting of him again--" There +was a terrible threat in the eyes and in the upraised butt of the whip, +but suddenly the manner changed, for James was looking at the bottle on +the table and it had a strangely quieting influence on his temper. The +blaze died away from his eyes; his voice became soft to meekness; the +whip fell limply. "I might think you'd done it a-purpose, Professor, +and you know I allus tries to be friendly." + +"I hardly believe David will complain of my treatment," returned the +Professor. "You see he came to us all wet and cold from a tumble into +the creek." + +James turned to me with wide-opened eyes. "And I suppose you met a +rattler," he cried. + +"Oh, yes," I answered, as though this was but a petty incident of my +day. + +"Well, you are a boy!" From me his eyes moved to the bottle again, and +as he looked at it he began to tremble and his legs lost their strength +and he sank to a chair by the table. "You'll be the death of me yet, +Davy. Why, my nerves has all gone from just thinking of what might +have happened." + +His hand was groping toward the bottle, and he gave the Professor a +glance that asked for his permission. + +"Penelope," the Professor said quietly, "the gentleman would like a +glass of water." + +Evidently the gentleman did not think that water would quiet his +nerves, for he did not hear the command and was contented with the +healing power nearer at hand. He poured the tumbler almost full of the +fiery liquid and raised it to his lips. He winked gravely at Mr. +Blight, threw back his head, and drained the glass without taking +breath. The Professor failed to see the humor of the act, and, seizing +the bottle, drove the cork in hard, while the unabashed James beamed on +him, on Penelope, and on me. + +"Thank you," he said, rising, and slowly drawing his sleeve across his +mouth; "I feel better--much better. Another drop would set me up all +right, but, as you say--" He looked hopefully from the bottle in the +Professor's hands to the Professor's face, but finding there no promise +of more of the sovereign remedy, he took my arm and led me to the door. +"Davy, you must thank Mr. Blight and the young lady." + +"You'll come again, Davy," Penelope cried. + +"And all by yourself, Davy," the Professor added. + +To me this remark was of the kindest, but it irritated James. He +picked up his whip and fumbled with it while he stared at our host, who +stood by the table, with one hand on the bottle and the other pointing +the way over the clearing. "You're a good talker, Professor," James +drawled. "You can argue down Stacy Shunk and make Mr. Pound tremble, +but when it comes to manners--the manners of a gentleman--I never see +such a lack of them." + +With this parting shot he strode away so fast that I could hardly keep +pace with him. At the edge of the woods, I looked back and saw the +father and child in the slanting doorway waving their hands to me. +From his window in the barn the white mule was watching with ears +pricked, and now he brayed a hostile note, as though he divined the +trouble which could come at the heels of a wandering boy. I waved my +hat and plunged into the bush. + +"Now, Davy, tell me how it all happened," said James, drawing himself +up very straight in the saddle as he started the horses toward home. + +I began to tell him. He broke into a song. When I tried to make +myself heard, his voice swelled up louder. Never before had James sung +as he was singing now, and I watched him first with wonder and then +with increasing terror. As we dragged our way up the ridge, out of the +narrow gut, he droned his music in maudlin fashion in time to the slow +motion of the beasts. When the valley stretched before us he fairly +thundered, striving to make himself heard across the broad land. I +hoped that before we entered the village exhaustion would silence him, +but in answer to my appeals he raised his voice to a pitch and volume +that brought the people running out of their houses, and he seemed to +find great pleasure in the attention that he was attracting. The high +throne from which I had looked down so proudly that morning as I rode +to my fishing became a pillory of shame. I could not escape from it, +for the whip was swinging in time to the music, and the horses, +confused by the riot, were rearing and plunging. I had to cling to the +harness with all my strength. We halted at the store. It was quite +unintentional and made the climax of a boisterous progress. James, +lurching back in his saddle, would have fallen but for the support of +the rein. The horses stopped suddenly. He shot forward, clutching at +the air, and hurtled into the road. From my height and from my shame, +I saw the whole world running to witness our plight--men, women, and +children, it seemed to me hundreds of them, who must have been lying in +wait for this very thing to happen. Through them Mr. Pound forced his +way, waving back the press until he reached the side of the fallen man. + +"James," he said, looking down and speaking not unkindly, "how often +have I warned you!" + +The answer was a look of childish wonder. + +"Come, come," said Mr. Pound, taking a limp, sprawling arm and lifting +the culprit to his feet. "Tell me, who was the tempter who brought you +to this?" + +James gazed stupidly at the minister. Then a devil must have seized +him, for in his nature he was a gentle soul, as I knew, who had heard +him so often crooning over his horses or sitting on the barn-bridge of +an evening sorrowing for Annie Laurie and Nellie Grey, women whom he +had never seen. Before all the town he raised his hand and brought it +crashing down on Mr. Pound's cloud-like hat. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +My mother was a McLaurin of Tuckapo Valley. In the mid-part of the +eighteenth century, when that valley was a wild forest, her +great-grandfather, Angus McLaurin, came out of the air, out of the +nothingness of a hiatus in our genealogy, and settled along the banks +of the Juniata. His worldly goods were strapped on the back of a cow; +his sole companion was his wife; his sole defence his rifle. To the +dusky citizens of the valley he seemed a harmless person, and they sold +him some thousands of acres for a few pounds of powder and beads. They +must have smiled when he attacked the wilderness with an axe, as we +should smile at the old woman who tried to ladle up the sea. With what +chagrin must they look down now from the Happy Hunting Ground to see +McLaurinville the busy metropolis of McLaurin township, and McLaurins +rich and poor, McLaurins in brick mansions and McLaurins in log cabins +where they once chased the deer and bear! My mother was one of _the_ +McLaurins, which is to say that she was born on the very spot where +Angus felled the first tree in Tuckapo. These McLaurins were naturally +the proudest of all their wide-spread family, some of whom had gone +down to the poor-house, and some up and over the mountains to be lost +and snubbed among the great ones of other valleys. There was a +tradition in our family, which grew stronger as the years covered the +roots of our family tree, that Angus was really _The_ McLaurin, chief +of the clan, and had fled over the sea to save his head after Prince +Charlie's futile struggle for a crown. With my mother tradition had +become history. She had one grudge against Walter Scott, whose novels, +with the Bible, made her sole reading, and this was that he never +mentioned "our chief," as she called him. More than once I can +remember her looking up from the pages of "Redgauntlet," and declaring +that had the Prince been a more capable man we should be living in a +castle in Scotland. From the incompetence of Prince Charlie, then, it +came that my mother entered life in a red brick house in McLaurinville +instead of in a highland keep, and as it is just six miles as the crow +flies over the ridges to Malcolmville in Windy Valley, she met my +father in the course of time, and in the course of time the two great +families were united in my small self. The Malcolms were a great +family, too. They were a proud people, though not in the same way as +my McLaurin kin. They had no fine traditions based on the fragments of +a Scotchman's kilt. Quite to the contrary, my father used to boast +that they had been just simple, God-fearing folk, Presbyterians in +every branch for generations, and sometimes he delighted in the idea +that he was a self-made man. As he always chose a large company to +make this boast in, it was to my mother a constant source of +irritation, and she would contradict him with heat, and point out that +his father before him had farmed three hundred acres of land, while his +grandfather on his mother's side had been for fifty years the pastor of +the Happy Hollow church. + +Knowing this little of our family history, it is possible to realize +the consternation which prevailed when in the middle of a formal +dinner-party, in the presence of Mr. Pound, Squire Crumple, and that +most critical of women, Miss Agnes Spinner, in the presence of these +and a half-dozen others of the most important persons in the +neighborhood, in the silence which followed the appearance of the first +asparagus of spring, I, a small boy, suddenly projected my head from +the shadow of the good minister and asked: "Mother, what is a bumptious +Malcolm?" + +Mr. Pound lowered his fork, turned half around, and looked at me. Miss +Agnes Spinner began to choke and had to cover her face with her napkin, +while Squire Crumple with great solicitude fell to patting her very +hard between the shoulders. Mrs. Pound glanced at my father, and then +found a sudden interest in her coffee, pouring it from her cup into her +saucer, and from her saucer into her cup, so often that she seemed to +be reducing it to a freezing mixture. Mrs. Crumple discovered +something awry with the lace of her gown, for she drew in her chin, and +one eye examined her vertical front while the other covertly circled +the table. Old Mr. Smiley, never an adroit man in society, crossed his +knife and fork on his plate, lifted his napkin half across his face +like a curtain, and over the top of it stared at my mother as though he +were waiting with me to learn just what a bumptious Malcolm could be. + +My father never lost his self-command. He seemed not to have heard me, +for he leaned over the table, and in a voice designed to smother any +further interruptions from my quarter, said: "Mrs. Malcolm, my dear, +Mr. Pound's coffee is all." As a matter of fact Mr. Pound's coffee was +not "all." My mother, never niggardly, had just filled it for the +third time to overflowing, and a full cup rose from a full saucer; but +she had an opportunity, while turning solicitously to her guest, to +give me a frown, which in private would have found fuller expression in +a slipper. As Miss Spinner was still choking, my father proposed +dropping a brass door-key down her back as the most efficacious of +cures. Had she consented to this heroic treatment I might have been +shunted into silence, but her prompt refusal to allow any one to do +anything for her left diplomacy at its wit's end. In the portentous +silence which followed I was able to repeat my question with more +incisive force. + +"Yes, but, mother, what is a bumptious Malcolm?" + +"David," said my father sternly, "children should be seen and not +heard!" + +"But, father," I exclaimed, being aroused by this injustice to defend +myself, "Professor Blight said that I must be one of those bumptious +Malcolms. Those were his exact words--bumptious Malcolms." + +As the horse saith among the trumpets, ha! ha! and smelleth the battle +afar off--the thunder of the captains and the shouting--so Mr. Pound +lifted his great mane at the mention of the Professor and swept the +table with eyes full of fire. + +"Ha! Judge Malcolm, what have I not told you of this man? Don't you +recall that I warned you we should have to deal with him? When I found +him making trouble in my flock, setting the sheep against the shepherd, +I told you the time would come when he would strive to set the son +against the father." + +While I could not understand in what way I had turned against my +father, it was plain to me that the term which the Professor had +applied to my family was one of opprobrium. It was clear, too, that it +had considerable explosive power, for after the first frightened hush +it stirred the whole company into a terrific outburst against my friend +of yesterday. Even Miss Spinner stopped choking, and announced that +she "declared." What she declared was not imparted, but as the general +trend of exclamation was against the Professor I knew that did she +continue her statement it must be aimed at him. + +My father leaned back and grasped the knobs of his chair-arms. +"David," he said slowly, "when did Henderson Blight speak in terms so +disrespectful--no, that is not the word I want--in this sarcastic--that +is hardly correct--when did he speak thus of us?" + +"Yesterday, sir," I answered, "when I was in his house getting warm. +But he didn't mean anything bad, father. Why, he told me that you were +the celebrated Judge Malcolm." + +I expected that such gentle flattery would propitiate my father. +Instead, his brows knitted, and he shot forward his head and asked: +"The what kind of a judge, David?" + +Before I could reply Mr. Pound injected himself into the examination. + +"Pardon me, Judge, but I should like to ask my young friend if +Henderson Blight smiled as he said it." + +"No, sir," I answered promptly. "He was just as solemn as you are now." + +Miss Spinner fell to choking again. My mother gave vent to a +long-drawn "Dav-id!" an exclamation which I had come to fear as much as +the Seven Seals, and her use of it now so unjustly made me feel as if +every man's hand were against me, for Mr. Pound was solemn, and in +using the best comparison at hand I meant no ill. + +"Dav-id!" said my mother again, lifting an admonishing finger. + +The good minister saw nothing offensive in my remark, but even repeated +it with a nod of understanding. "As solemn as I am now. Judge +Malcolm, your son has quite accurately described this man Blight's way +of speaking--of saying one thing when he means quite another. I should +hardly dare repeat some of the terms which have come to my ears as +having been applied by him to me. Just the other day, as we were +walking through town, I overheard him talking to Stacy Shunk, and he +referred to my wife as the lovely Mrs. Pound. Now I have no objections +to persons speaking of my wife as lovely, but I want them to mean it +and not to infer quite the opposite." + +It was Mrs. Pound's turn to "declare," but she was clearer in the +meaning than Miss Spinner. She would have told us some of the things +Mr. Blight had said of Mr. Pound with a meaning quite as inverted. My +mother, seeing the tempest rising, sought to still it by protesting +that she was sure that in this instance the Professor was quite sincere. + +"I know he meant it," she said over and over again, until Mrs. Pound +was unable to make herself heard and retired to silence and coffee. + +But Mr. Pound, a believer in truth at all hazards, would not admit that +the Professor did mean it. "A person of such an insinuating character +is a danger to the community," he said. "I have repeatedly warned the +judge against him, Mrs. Malcolm, and now my warning has come home. +Yesterday's deplorable incident has been forgotten by me; I have +blotted it from my memory because I realized that you were in spirit +struck down as I was, though not so publicly. I have forgiven James. +Since he has come to me sober and penitent, and confessed where he got +the liquor, I have passed his part in the affair by with a kindly +warning. But I cannot pass by the real culprit, the man who struck at +me through the weak James, and almost felled me before the town, the +man who furnished James with the sources of his intoxication. His +punishment I leave to you." Mr. Pound drove his fork into an asparagus +stalk to show that he had said all that could be said and all that he +would say. That he had said enough to bring others to his way of +thinking was evident from the gravity with which my father shook his +head. + +"David, when I questioned you as to yesterday's unfortunate occurrence +you confessed that this man Blight gave James the liquor." + +"No, sir," I returned quickly. "I didn't say that." + +"How was it, then?" my father asked. + +I had pleaded with my mother to allow me to be one of this great +dinner-party, that I might partake, first-hand, of the good things +which I had seen preparing. I was to enjoy the feast in a silence +proper to my years. So I had promised. And now one of those dangerous +questions which rise like a rocket from a boy's lips had transformed me +from a small guest whose part was to sit silently in the shadow of the +mighty clergyman, and there only to even up the side of the table, into +a person of unpleasant importance. Had my father rapped for order, +risen, and announced that we had the good fortune to have with us +Master David Malcolm, who would tell us where James found the source of +his intoxication, he could not have made me more dreadfully +conspicuous. I wanted to run, but, if nothing else, my father's eyes +would have held me. I wanted, above all, to keep silent because I +loved James, who from the day when I had first toddled out of the house +into the broad world of hay and wheat fields had been almost my sole +playfellow. As yet I did not know what a bumptious Malcolm was; I did +not understand the man who always said what he did not mean; I +remembered him only as the kindly host who had found me dripping and +cold and had made me gloriously warm. And more than that, I remembered +the little girl who had dragged me from the creek. Something in the +gaunt man who lived among the clouds, something in the ragged creature +who lifted a smiling face and ribboned head above the weeds of that +lonely clearing, had touched me strangely. It seemed that I must be +their only friend, and for them I would tell the truth. I should have +told the truth but for Mr. Pound. + +"I said, sir," I answered my father, "that James just took the bottle +and----" + +"The bottle was Blight's, was it not?" broke in Mr. Pound. + +"Yes, sir," I said. + +It had dawned on me the afternoon before, as James and I rode home, +just what was the medicine I had taken. It was hard for me to believe +that the vilely tasting stuff was whiskey, which I had heard men drank +for pleasure, but when all doubt was removed by the exclamations of the +crowd who hovered about the prostrate man I was overwhelmed by a sense +of my own sin. Yet I had feared to confess to my mother the dose which +I had taken. It would only make her unhappy, I had told myself, and I +had tried to still my turbulent conscience with the plea that my +silence was saving others. Now simple justice demanded that I tell +everything, even to the admission of my own fault. + +"Father," I cried, "the Professor didn't want James----" + +"It is high time the community were rid of this man," Mr. Pound +interrupted. + +"David!" said my father, and I shrank into the minister's shadow. + +"And it seems to me, Squire Crumple," Mr. Pound went on, "it is clearly +your duty as a justice of the peace to act." + +"Act how?" cried the astonished squire. + +"Have him arrested!" replied Mr. Pound, making the dishes rattle under +the impact of his fist on the table. + +At this suggestion every one forgot the dinner and sat up very +straight, staring in amazement at the bold propounder of it. + +"Arrest him," exclaimed the squire, "and for what?" + +"For anything that will rid the community of him," snapped Mr. Pound. +"Do you not agree with me, Judge?" + +The Judge quite agreed with Mr. Pound. He admitted that until the +unfortunate occurrence of yesterday he had opposed any proceedings +which were not altogether regular in law. "And yet," he said gravely, +"it is incumbent on us to rid the community of him. We all know that +from the porch of Snyder's store he has been preaching doctrines that +are not only revolutionary but, if the ladies will pardon me, I will +call damnable. What good is it for us to have Mr. Pound in the pulpit +for one day of the week, and this glib-tongued man contradicting him +for seven. Yet no statute forbids him to do this. What can you +suggest, Mr. Pound?" + +Mr. Pound sought an inspiration in the ceiling. "The man has no +visible means of support," he said after a moment. "His child is badly +clothed, and, I presume, badly fed. Right there is an indictment. +Vagrancy." + +This bold suggestion was greeted with general approval save by the +squire, who protested that a man could not be called a vagrant who had +paid seventy dollars in cash for his clearing and was never known to +beg or steal. + +"But I tell you he is a moral vagrant," argued Mr. Pound, "and I will +make such a charge against him. It will be your duty then, Squire +Crumple, to offer him his choice between six weeks in jail and leaving +the valley and taking his bottle with him." + +Still the squire was unconvinced, but he saw himself being overawed by +my father and the minister, and his efforts to combat them evolved +futile excuses. + +"Who will arrest him?" he pleaded. + +"Haven't we a constable?" retorted my father. "What did we elect Byron +Lukens for?" + +"Precisely!" cried Mr. Pound. + +"The one arrest he has made was a source of endless trouble," returned +Squire Crumple. "He had to lock the prisoner overnight in his best +room, and his wife has since said distinctly and repeatedly that----" + +"You can avoid trouble with Mrs. Lukens by arresting him in the +morning," said Mr. Pound. + +"And the chances are he will leave the valley rather than go to jail," +my father added. + +"But suppose he is cantankerous and chooses jail, what will we do with +the girl?" argued the reluctant magistrate. + +"The girl?" Mr. Pound waved his great hands about the table. "Surely +we can find her a better home and better parents than she has now. +Surely there are among us good women who will esteem it a privilege to +care for an orphaned child." + +My mother said "surely," too, and so did all the other good women at +the board. Even Miss Spinner, while not prepared to receive the child +into her home, was ready to teach her "as she should be taught." + +"And she should be taught," my mother broke in. "Her father has been +the stumbling-block. I heard him say myself to a committee of our +Ladies' Aid that he would gladly place her in Miss Spinner's +Sunday-school class if Miss Spinner could convince him that she had any +knowledge worth imparting. I never liked to tell you that before, Miss +Spinner; I feared it might hurt your feelings." + +Miss Spinner's feelings were decidedly hurt, and she began to vie with +Mr. Pound in urging that the valley be rid of the obnoxious Professor. +So drastic were the measures which she called for, and so vigorous her +demands on the gentle squire, that he retreated on Mr. Pound for aid, +advocating all that the minister had proposed as the most humanitarian +method of dealing with the case. + +"A warrant will issue to-night, but to avoid trouble with the +constable's wife I shall order it served in the morning," he said at +last as he stood by his chair, folding his napkin. Thus he eased his +conscience by making the warrant responsible for its own existence, and +his words struck deeper into my heart for their impressive legal form. + +A warrant will issue! As I slipped out by the kitchen this rang in my +ears with the insistence of a refrain. Because I had disobeyed, left +my post of safety, and plunged into the woods in pursuit of a few small +trout, a warrant would issue, a ghoulish offspring of my reckless +spirit, seize the gentle Professor in its claws and drag him to +ignominy. A warrant would issue! And the blue ribbon would no longer +bob majestically in Penelope's hair, but would droop with her father's +shame. The picture of them standing in the cabin door, waving their +farewell and calling to me to come again, was very clear in my mind, +and made sharper the sense of the trouble which I had brought to them. +Three times I ran around the house wildly, as though I would blur the +picture by merely travelling in a circle; but instead it grew clearer, +and the Professor seemed to regard me with eyes more kindly and +Penelope to call to me in a more friendly voice. So became clearer my +obligation to help them, and intent on making my plea I burst into the +parlor. The scene there chilled my ardor. In the dim evening light, +like sombre ghosts, the company sat in a wide circle about the borders +of the room, erect and uncomfortable as one must sit on slippery +horse-hair, listening to Miss Spinner at the piano droning through the +first bars of "Sweet Violets." + +"Ssh!" exclaimed my father, and even the gloom could not hide his frown. + +"But, father, the Professor didn't----" + +My mother tiptoed across the room and gently pushed me out of the door. +"David, go to bed!" she commanded. + +To bed I went, but not to sleep. Did I close my eyes I saw the +Professor in the clutches of Byron Lukens being dragged along the +village street amid the jeers of the people. Swallows fluttered in the +chimney, and I heard there the echoes of the struggle when the +constable laid his hand on the shoulders of my friend. The wind moaned +in the trees, and I fancied Penelope now upbraiding me for the trouble +I had brought upon them, now pleading with me to send her father home +to her. A faint crowing sounded from the orchard, hailing the shadow +of the morning, the gray ghost rising from the dark ridges. I slipped +from my bed to the window, and watched the valley as it shook itself +from sleep. How slowly came that day! The birds stirred in their +nests, but, like me, they dared not venture forth into a world so +filled with uncanny shadows. Yet the day did come. Over by the dark, +towering wall that hemmed in the valley the gray turned to pink, and I +could see the trees on the ridge-top like a fringe against the +brightening sky. Louder sounded the crowing in the orchard, and to me +it brought a warning that I must hurry. I looked to the northward, and +saw only the mists covering the land, and in my fancy beyond them the +mountains where bear and wildcat lurked. There the Professor and +Penelope lay unconscious that even now the terrible warrant might be +issuing and at any moment would fall upon them. There was only one +thing for me to do, and though when I had closed the house door softly +behind me and turned my back to the reddening east the mists were +tenfold more mysterious and the mountains tenfold more forbidding, I +ran straight down the road into the gloom, as though the warrant were +racing with me. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +When with a last desperate spurt I ran into the clearing, I saw the +Professor sitting in the cabin door, smoking his pipe and basking in +the sunshine as though life held no trouble for him. I believed that I +was in time to warn him of the threatening danger, that I had outsped +the warrant, that I had outrun the redoubtable Lukens, and in the +luxury of that thought my overtaxed strength ebbed away and I sank down +on a stump, hot and panting. I had run a hard race for so small a boy. +At times it seemed as though the mountains drew back from me, that +every one of the five miles had stretched to ten, but I kept bravely +on, going at top speed over the level places, dragging wearily up the +steep hills, cutting through fields and woods where I could save +distance, following every brief rest with a spasmodic burst of energy, +and now I had come to the last stretch, the ragged patch of weeds, +exhausted. I tried to call my friend, but my throat was parched and I +could not raise my voice above a whisper, and as my head barely lifted +over the wild growth of his farm, he smoked on, unconscious of my +presence. Something in a distant tree-top engaged his attention, +something vastly interesting, it seemed to me, for he never turned my +way to see my waving hand. So I struggled to my feet and staggered on. +At last he heard me, sprang up, and came striding over the clearing. +Then my tired legs crumpled up; I sat down suddenly and, supported by +my sprawling hands, waited for him. + +"Davy--Davy Malcolm," he cried, "who has been chasing you now?" + +"A warrant!" I gasped. "Mr. Lukens, he is coming with a warrant to +arrest you!" + +The tall form bent over me and I was raised to my feet. Supporting me +in his strong grasp, he held me off from him, and for a moment regarded +me with grave eyes. + +"And you've come to warn me, eh, Davy?" he said. + +"Yes, sir," I answered. "Mr. Pound he thinks you are a dangerous man. +Mr. Pound he wants to get you out of the valley. Mr. Pound he----" + +The Professor seemed to have little fear of Mr. Pound and as little +interest in him. "Never mind the learned Doctor Pound," he exclaimed, +and his mouth twitched in a smile inspired by the mere thought of the +minister. "The point is, Davy, that you left home before daylight to +tell me, and you must have run nearly all the way--eh, boy?" + +"I had to," I panted. "You see, Mr. Lukens he was to come here early +for you, and I thought if I was in time you might run away." + +To run away seemed to me the only thing for the Professor to do, and I +expected that at the mere mention of the terrible Lukens he would +scurry to the mountain-top as fast as his legs would carry him. Yet he +held the constable in as little terror as he did Mr. Pound, for instead +of fleeing he drew me to him, and held me in an embrace so tight as to +make me struggle for breath and freedom. + +"Davy, Davy!" he cried; "you understand me, boy. You are a friend, a +real friend--my only friend." + +Again and again he said it--that I was his only friend--and not until I +cried out that I had had no breakfast and would he please not squeeze +me so tight did he release me, and then it was to keep fast hold on my +arm and lead me to the house. Penelope had heard us and met us +half-way, running, halting suddenly before us, and staring wide-eyed at +the bedraggled boy who lurched along at her father's side. + +"Davy," she cried, "have you come fishin' again?" + +My answer was to hold out my hand to her, and together we three went +into the house. There, with my breath regained, and my parched throat +relieved, and my tired legs dangling from the most luxurious of +rocking-chairs, my spirits rose with my returning strength. It nettled +me to see the Professor giving so little heed to my warning. I had +performed what was for me a herculean task, and yet the precious +moments which I had fought so hard to gain for him were being frittered +away in preparations for a breakfast for me. He was evidently grateful +for what I had done, but he was getting no good from it. Had I run all +those miles to tell him that the bogie man was coming he could not have +moved about his cooking with less concern. For a time I watched him +with growing indignation, yet I hesitated to mention the purpose of my +errand before Penelope, who had fixed herself before my chair and, with +her hands clasped behind her back and her head lifted high, was gazing +at me in admiring silence. My uneasiness increased as the minutes flew +by, and when the first sharp demands of appetite had been satisfied I +looked at the Professor, now seated at the other side of the table, and +nodded my head toward his daughter, and winked with a sageness beyond +my years. + +"Mr. Blight, hadn't you otter be going?" I asked. + +The Professor, in answer, laughed outright. He clasped his hands to +his sides and rocked on two legs of his chair in exuberance. +"Davy--Davy, you'll be the death of me yet!" + +To me this seemed a very hard thing to say, as I had no wish to be the +death of the Professor; but, quite to the contrary, had made a great +effort and had risked much trouble at home in my desire to help him. +Now I was beginning to think that I had done as well to drop a +post-card in the mail to warn him of his danger. The disappointment +brought tears to my eyes. He saw them. His face turned very gentle +and he leaned across the table toward me. + +"Davy, I can't thank you enough for what you have done. But don't +worry about me--I'm not afraid of Byron Lukens." + +At the name of the constable Penelope broke into laughter, and placed a +hand on my arm to draw my eyes to her. "Mr. Lukens was here this +morning, Davy, just before you came. And, oh, you should have seen +father knock him down!" + +My fork and knife clattered to the plate as I turned to the girl, and +she saw doubt and wonder in my eyes. + +"He did!" she cried. "And oh, Davy, you'd have died laughing if you +had seen Mr. Lukens tumble over the wood-pile and hit his head against +the rain-barrel." + +I stared at the Professor. I had liked him for his kindness to me and +had pitied him for his misfortune. Now I was filled with admiration +for the physical prowess of this man who could whip the intrepid +constable, for in Malcolmville there was no one whom I held in so much +awe as Byron Lukens. He was mighty in bulk; his voice was proportioned +to his size; his words fitted his voice. Often I had sat on the +store-porch and listened to his stories of his feats, and I believed +that to cross him in any way must be the height of daring. The tale of +the men whom he had whipped in the past and promised to whip in the +future if they raised a finger against him would almost have made a +census of the valley. That this frail man should have resisted him, +that those thin hands should have been raised against him, that the +intellectual Professor should have knocked down the Hercules of our +village, was beyond my comprehension. So my friend across the table +saw amazement welling up from my open mouth and eyes. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "There was nothing else to do, Davy. He +beat you here after all. Probably you missed him in your short cuts +over the fields. Why, it was hardly light when I heard him pounding at +the door. He said he had come to arrest me." Rising and drawing +himself to his full height, the Professor began to tell me of the early +morning conflict, forgetting, in his indignation, how small were his +two auditors, and throwing out his voice as though to reach a +multitude. "He had come to arrest me--me; said that I was a vagrant; +spoke to me as you wouldn't speak to a dog, and told me to come +along--to come along with him, a hulking, boastful brute. Why, it was +all I could do to keep my temper, Davy. I answered him as politely as +I could, said that I had done no wrong, and certainly would not allow +myself to be arrested. And then----" + +"Then father knocked him down," cried Penelope, clapping her hands. +"Oh, Davy, you'd otter seen it." + +"Should have, Penelope, should have seen," said the Professor +reprovingly, and having done his duty as a father and a man of +education he drove his fist into the air to show with what quickness +and force he could use it. "Yes, that's the way I did it, David. He +applied an oath to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. What else could +I do? I appeal to you--what else could I do but knock him down?" + +"And didn't he whip you for it, sir?" I cried, still doubting that the +giant could have fallen beneath such a blow. + +"Whip me?" The Professor laughed. "Do you think that great bully could +whip me? Why, David, you quite hurt my feelings. By the time he had +gone over the wood-pile into the rain-barrel there wasn't any fight +left in him. He didn't even speak till he was safe across the +clearing. Then you should have seen him. He has gone down to the +village to get help; he is going to teach me what it means to assault +an officer of the law; he is going to send me to jail for life." The +Professor glared out of the open doorway as fiercely as though the +constable were standing there and he defying him. Then suddenly he +leaned over the table to me, and fixing his eyes on mine asked in a +hoarse voice: "David, did you ever hear of such injustice?" + +"No, sir," I answered. "But Mr. Pound said----" + +At the mention of Mr. Pound the Professor sat down and the table reeled +under his fist. "Pound--he is at the bottom of it all. He has said +that I am a good-for-nothing loafer and the county should be rid of me. +Maybe he is right. But he won't have his way. I have done nothing and +I will not go--do you hear that, Davy, I will not go. Now tell me what +Mr. Pound said." + +In a faltering voice I began my story with that fateful home ride with +James. As I went on I lost my diffidence in my interest in the tale, +and spoke rapidly till the need of breath slowed me down. There were +retrogressions to speak of things which I had forgotten, and many +corrections where I had slightly misquoted Miss Spinner, Mr. Smiley, or +some other equally unimportant person. I told the story as a small boy +recites to his elders the details of some book which he has read; so +the Professor had to check me frequently with admonitions not to mind +what Mrs. Crumple said about my mother's ice-cream and such matters, +but to tell him exactly what my father said of him. Still I persisted +in my own way, bound that whatever I did should be done thoroughly, +even though he might hold in contempt my effort to be of service to +him. When at last there was not a word left untold, he leaned back in +his chair and gazed at me with a look of utter helplessness. + +"Well, what am I to do now?" he cried. His head shot toward me and his +hands were held out in appeal. "Davy, can't you suggest something?" + +In my pride at being asked for advice by one so old, I sat up very +straight as I had seen my father do and allowed a proper interval of +silence before I spoke. + +"Yes," I replied slowly. "If you were me I'd run away before Mr. +Lukens got back." + +This excellent suggestion was met by a frown so fierce that I pushed +back from the table in alarm. + +"Run away?" he exclaimed. "Why, that's just what they want me to do. +What have I done that I should run away? And if I did, what would +become of Penelope?" + +He drew his little daughter close to his side, while he looked out of +the door into the patch of blue sky, seeking there some inspiration. +His lips moved, and I knew that he was asking again and again of that +little patch of sky what he should do. Then suddenly he rose, as +though the answer had been given, for he clapped on his hat, stood +erect with shoulders squared and hands clasped behind him, facing the +open door with the demeanor of a man whose mind was made up, who was +ready to meet the world and defy it. This, to me, was the hero who had +knocked down the constable, and I imagined him confronting a dozen like +Byron Lukens and piling them one on top of the other, for surely things +had come to pass that the man would have to hold the clearing against +an army. But as suddenly the shoulders drooped, the back bowed, the +head sank, and he turned to me. + +"Davy, Davy, what shall I do?" he asked in a hoarse whisper. + +As I was silent, he addressed the same appeal to Penelope, and she, in +answer, ran to the door and pointed across the clearing. + +"Look, father," she shouted; "he has come back." + +Byron Lukens had indeed returned and with a heavy reinforcement. Five +men climbed out of the wagon which had appeared from the road, and now +they began a careful reconnoissance of the house. As they stood on the +edge of the woods looking toward us I marked each one of them, and the +problem uppermost in my mind concerned what I should do myself, for I +was fairly cornered. I could not run away, for they were watching +every exit from the cabin, and there was not one of them who would not +recognize me did I flee over the open. The presence of James alone +meant my undoing, and there he was, standing by the constable, eying +the place with a lowering glare which threatened a storm, for here he +had fallen and here he would redeem himself by some act of exceptional +daring. Caught in this net, I hid behind the door-post and peered +around it through a protecting shield made by the Professor's +coat-tails. In the silence I could hear my heart beat. + +There was one thing for the Professor to do now, and he did that well. +He gathered his scattered senses and stood quietly in the doorway, +smoking, leaving to the invaders the burden of action. Their +indecision gave him strength. + +"The idea of my giving in to a crew like that," he said to me in a +steady voice. "It's a pity Mr. Pound didn't come, and your father too, +David, that they might see how little I cared for their warrants." +Then, to show how undisturbed he was by their presence, he called to +them pleasantly: "Good morning, gentlemen." + +This mild greeting gave courage to our foes and Stacy Shunk advanced. +His coming was a sign that reason was to be used before force, and with +his first step he began to gesticulate and to protest his friendly +purpose. But he could not argue with any acumen while his bare feet +were traversing a carpet of briers, and a silence followed, broken by +exclamations as he came on slowly but resolutely as though he walked on +eggs. Half-way over the clearing he stopped with a cry of pain, and +the herald's mission was forgotten in the search for a thorn. The +picture of Stacy Shunk balancing on one foot while he nursed the other +in his hands made the Professor laugh hilariously and he called to him +to hurry. + +But Stacy would come no farther. He planted himself firmly on his +bleeding feet; his great black hat-brim hid his face, but the voice +which came from under it was soft, and he held out his hands as though +he offered his dear friend the protection of his arms. + +"You know what these other fellows want, Professor, and you know I'd +only come along to help you. The whole thing was only a joke first +off, but you've gone and assaulted the constable, and there'll be +trouble if you don't settle it and be reasonable. Now, my advice +is----" + +"Thank you for your advice, Stacy Shunk," exclaimed the Professor. +"But you know as well as I do that I have done nothing that I can be +arrested for." + +"Of course I do," returned the herald. "But you hadn't otter upset the +preacher so. You'd otter believe what he says, and when he preaches +about Noah and the like you hadn't otter produce figures in public to +show that Noah and his boys couldn't have matched up all the animals +and insects in the time they was allowed, let alone stabling 'em in a +building three hundred cupids long and thirty cupids wide and three +stories high. Now I allus held----" + +"I don't care what you held," said the Professor sharply. "You can't +get me into an argument now. I suppose it was unwise of me to try to +make you people think, but you can't arrest a man for simply being +unpopular. This is my home, and no law of your twopenny village can +make me leave it." + +"I'm not going to argue about Noah," protested Stacy Shunk. "As your +friend, I'm trying----" + +"As my friend, you had best go home and take your other friends with +you." The Professor's voice was dry and crackling. + +He reached behind the door and took up the long rifle which leaned +against the wall. There was no threat in his action, for he held it +under his arm and looked off to the mountain-top as though he were +trying to make up his mind whether or not it was a good day for +hunting. Stacy Shunk saw another purpose beneath this careless air, +and he abandoned argument. Without heeding the briers, he fled to his +friends; he did not even stop there, but plunged into the bushes, and +above them I saw his head and hands moving together in an excited +colloquy. The ludicrous figure which he cut in his retreat excited the +Professor to laughter, in which Penelope joined, clapping her hands +with mirth. I, wiser than she as to the danger of firearms, and +trusting less to her father's mild intentions, broke into tearful +pleading. + +"Please don't shoot, Professor," I whimpered, tugging at his coat-tails +to drag him back. "They won't hurt you, I know they won't." + +"Don't worry, Davy," the Professor said with a reassuring smile. "They +wouldn't hurt any one, nor would I. Didn't Shunk run at the mere sight +of a gun? Why, if I pointed it at the rest of them they would fly like +birds." + +It was not fair to judge the courage of the others by the cowardice of +Stacy Shunk. The constable's boasts came out of the past to goad him +into action, and while Joe Holmes, the blacksmith, might have been very +weak in the knees, he was not ready to retreat so early in the action +when his helper, Thaddeus Miller, was watching him. As for James, +despite the fall his moral qualities had taken in my estimation, I +believed him to be a man of unflinching bravery, and he it was that I +feared most when at last the advance began across the clearing, the +four moving abreast with military precision, while Stacy Shunk hurled +at them many admonitions to be cautious. I knew that nothing would +stop James; that while his comrades might scatter like birds, he would +come on to a deadly hand-to-hand conflict, and I pictured the Professor +and him swallowing each other like the two snakes of tradition. I +forgot my own safety, and threw both arms about one of the Professor's +legs and tried to pull him into the house. Penelope, too, lost her +courage when she saw the numbers of the enemy and their bold advance, +and she clung, wailing, to her father's waist. He shook us off, and +for the first time spoke to us sharply, and so sharply that the child +reached her hand to mine and together we slunk into a dark corner. + +Of what followed we saw nothing. We heard the voices, nearer and +nearer. Then the men seemed to halt and to address the Professor in +tones of argument. We are a peaceable folk in our valley and little +given to the use of firearms, and I suspect that the constable and his +aids really knew the Professor to be a peaceable man or they would not +have come thus far with such boldness. To come farther they hesitated +until they had made it perfectly clear that they acted in his best +interests. Even Byron Lukens was willing to let "bygones be bygones." + +"I'm just doing of my duty, Mr. Blight," he said in a wheedling tone, +"and if you'll come along quiet-like I'll say nothing about it to the +squire." + +"You can fix it all up with the squire," I heard Joe Holmes say. +"There's really nothing again you, only you must comply with the law." + +Then James spoke--to my astonishment not in a bold demand that the +Professor surrender, but softly, asking him to be careful with the gun. + +"Nobody has nothing again you, Professor," he said as gently as he +would have spoken to me, and hearing this I took heart, for with James +in such a temper there seemed no danger of a serious clash. + +"No one has nothing against me," the Professor repeated in a tone of +irony. "You only want to drag me through the village before the +squire. Tell the squire to come here to me and explain." + +There was a moment of silence. It was so quiet outside that even the +birds seemed to be listening and watching; then came the swish of weeds +trampled under foot. + +"Be off, the whole crew of you," cried the man in the doorway, and I +saw the butt of the gun rise to his shoulder. + +I wanted to cry out, but my throat was parched with fright, and +Penelope was clinging to my neck in silent terror. + +There was another moment of silence. Then James began to laugh in that +vast ebullient way of his, and a bit of dry brush snapped sharply under +some foot. The report of the rifle shook the cabin. It must have +shaken the mountains too, it seemed to me, for the floor beneath me +rocked in time to the echoes of it rattling among the hills, and I +heard a wild scream, the cry of a man hurt to death, and the shrill +cries of startled birds fleeing to the hiding of the trees. A puff of +wind swept a thin veil of smoke into the room, but for me the air was +filled with sickening fumes, and I sank to my knees and closed my eyes +as a child does at night to shut out the perils of the darkness. I +felt Penelope's arms gripped tightly about my neck, her dead weight +dragging me down. I heard the last echoes of the shot, faintly, down +the narrow valley, and outside the incoherent shouts of men. Then +there was a silence, broken only by Penelope's sobs. It seemed to me +long hours I was there on my knees before I dared to open my eyes and +bring myself into the world again. And when I did it was to see the +room darkened and the Professor leaning against the closed door with +his hands wide-spread, as though with every muscle braced to hold it +against an onslaught. Yet he trembled so that a child might have +brushed him aside. + +There was no onslaught. I waited the moment when the door would be +crashed in. I heard the clock ticking monotonously on the cupboard and +the wood crackling in the stove. The birds were singing again, and +outside in the clearing it was as peaceful as on that day when I first +came upon it, wet and shivering, to find joy in its cheerful sunniness. + +I broke from Penelope's embrace and got to my feet. The Professor, +hearing me, raised his head from the door and turned to me a face +chalky-white, whiter for the dishevelled hair that hung about it. + +"Davy," he whispered, "look out of the window and tell me what you see." + +I had no care for any trouble that might lie ahead for me. I wanted to +be seen. I wanted to be taken from this stifling cabin with its +deafening noises and sickening fumes and above all from this mad fellow +who looked as I had seen a rat look when cornered in a garner. I ran +to the window and peered through the smutted panes, but there was no +one outside to see or to help me. The clearing was as quiet as in the +earlier morning when I had looked over it at the Professor studying the +distant tree-top. + +"What do you see, Davy?" he asked in a hoarse voice. + +"Nothing," I answered. "They've gone away." + +"And isn't Lukens there--out there in the weeds?" + +I rubbed the smutted glass and peered through it again into every +corner of the clearing. "No," I said, "there's nothing there." + +The Professor drew back from the door and stood before me brushing his +matted hair from his face. + +"I didn't mean it, Davy," he said. "It was all a mistake. They were +going away and I was dropping the gun, and somehow I touched the +trigger and Lukens fell. They've taken him home, but they'll come +back--a hundred of them this time. Oh, Davy, Davy, help me!" + +I knew that I could not help him. My thought then was for myself, and +I did not answer, but measured the distance to the door and waited my +chance to dart to it and get away, for in him before me, driving his +long fingers through his hair and staring at me with frightened eyes, I +saw the man whom I had pictured in fear that first morning when I came +to the mountains. This was the real Professor and I was caught. + +"Oh, let me go!" I cried. + +"Why, Davy!" He gave a start of surprise. The frightened look passed +and he reached out his hands to my shoulders. I shrank back. The +scream of Byron Lukens still rang in my ears, and to me there was +something very terrible in this man who had dared to kill, this man for +whom all the valley would soon be hunting, this man who even now might +be standing in the shadow of the gallows. He saw the terror in my +face; to his eyes came that same look my dog would give me when I +struck him. + +"Why, Davy," he said, holding out two trembling hands. "Boy, I thought +you were my only friend." + +This was the cry of a man worse hurt than Byron Lukens, and in a rush +of boyish pity for him I forgot my dread and running to him threw my +arms about him, hugged him as I should have hugged my dog in a mute +appeal for pardon. So we three stood there in silence, the Professor, +Penelope, and I, with arms intertwined and our heads close together. +Then after a moment he raised himself and shook us off gently. + +"I've been a fool, Davy," he said, speaking quietly. "I've been an +idle, worthless fool and now I must pay for it. Soon they'll be coming +for me and I must run. But I'll come back; I'll make it all up--some +day Penelope will be proud of me. Until then, Davy, my friend, you'll +take care of Penelope, won't you--till I come back?" + +Hearing this, Penelope dragged his face down to hers imploring him to +take her with him. He kissed her. Then he lifted her high in his arms +as though in play and held her off that she might see how gayly he was +smiling and take heart from it. + +"I don't know where I am going, child," he said, "but I am coming back +for you very soon, and you will see what a man your father really is. +I haven't been fair to you, Penelope--but wait--wait till I come back. +And Davy will take care of you--won't you, Davy?" + +"Yes, sir," I said boldly. + +What else could a boy have said in such a case, when every passing +moment meant danger to his friend? I had no thought of the full +meaning of my promise, for I did not look beyond that day, and that day +my goal was home. Home there was safety for me and for Penelope as +well. Home all perplexing problems solved themselves. Home was a +place of great peace, and my father and mother benign genii who lived +only to make others happy. It was easy to lead Penelope home, and I +was sure that if I told my father and mother of my promise to take care +of her, they would make the way easy for me. So when the Professor had +kissed the child and lowered her to the floor, I put out my hand and +took hers in a self-reliant grasp. + +The Professor picked up the fallen rifle and put it away in its corner; +he pushed the kettle to the back of the stove; he seemed to be tidying +up the house. He blew the dust from his hat and crushed it down on his +head. Then standing in the open doorway, he surveyed the room +critically as if to make sure that all was in order before he strolled +down to the village. + +"Good-by, Penelope," he said in a quiet voice. "Stay with Davy till I +come back--I'll come back soon." + +For a moment Penelope believed him. "Good-by, father," she called as +he turned and walked away. + +He had passed the door. Hearing her voice, he gave a start, then broke +into a run. He ran as never I had seen a man run. He was not alone a +man in flight. Every limb was filled with fear and moving for its +life. Even his hat and coat were sensate things, struggling madly to +get away to a safe refuge. Seeing him flying thus across the clearing +toward the mountains, Penelope broke from me with a cry, but I caught +her and held her in my arms. She called to him wildly, yet he did not +turn, and in a moment had plunged into the bush. + +Long after he had gone we two stood in the cabin door searching the +silent wall of green for some sign of him. None was given. The shadow +of the ridge crept away as the sun climbed higher and the clearing was +bathed in its brightness. A crow called pleasantly from a tall pine. +The birds, back from their hiding, sang as though on such a day there +could be no trouble. + +I felt the blue ribbon brush my cheek, and two small bare arms about my +neck. + +I turned to Penelope and said: "Don't cry, little 'un. I'll take care +of you." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +To Nathan, the white mule, I owed it that I was able to take good care +of Penelope Blight in the first hours of my guardianship. But for him +I should have brought her face to face with the mob that rode out of +Malcolmville to storm the clearing. I knew but one road home from the +gut, and that was the way James had brought me fishing. Had we +followed it, we should have hardly crossed the ridge before we met the +van of an ill-organized but determined army, and then to her grief +terror must have been added by the wagons filled with men armed as +though they were going into battle. The obstinate temperament of the +mule served us a good turn. When Penelope and I led him from the barn +and climbed to his back, he must have supposed that we were going to +the store and should leave him tied for hours in the hot sun, switching +flies, while we sat comfortably in the shade of the porch discussing +the universe's affairs. Believing this, he protested, stopping in the +middle of the clearing to enjoy a few tidbits of sprouting corn. +Discovering that the small boy on his back lacked his master's strength +and courage, he decided to go on, but as he chose. He chose first a +trot. To Penelope and me it seemed a mad gallop, and I clung +desperately to his scanty mane while she clutched my waist and pleaded +with me to halt him and let her down. In this eternity of +suffering--ten minutes really--her greater grief was forgotten, and she +was spared the pang of a last look at her deserted home, for when +Nathan decided to walk she turned her head to see only a long archway +of trees ending in a green wall. + +"Davy," she cried, "please let me get off!" + +Now I wanted to get off myself, but I suspected her desire to run back +to the clearing, and my over-powering thought was to carry her away +from that forbidding place. I had promised the Professor to take care +of the girl, and responsibility had added years to my age and inches to +my stature. I was no longer a shivering, frightened boy clinging to +her hand, and, though I was not the master of the mule, while we stayed +on his back I was Penelope's master, and that was what I had determined +to be. + +"Don't be afraid, little 'un," I returned boldly, when I had recovered +my breath and balance. "I can handle him all right." + +To make good my boast, I even dared to kick Nathan, fearing lest a +pause in our journey might allow her to slip from his back. + +"I want to find father--to go with him," she pleaded. It was the +hundredth time she had told me that. + +"He said you were to come with me, Penelope," I argued. "And he told +me particular that he wouldn't be home till a week from Monday." + +This last was a little fiction of mine, which seemed warranted by the +circumstances, and had Penelope pressed me and asked me when her father +had made such a definite statement I was ready to go to any extent with +like imaginings if only I could keep her with me. She did not, and her +cheerier tone quieted my conscience. + +"Is he?" she cried. "Do you really think he will come home, Davy?" + +"Didn't he tell me so?" I returned haughtily. "And besides, what would +he stay away any longer for?" + +Still Penelope was inclined to doubt. She knew that the morning's +strange events had brought her father into great trouble, and she could +not believe that a vain search for him would satisfy his enemies. Two +weeks, she thought, would suffice to wear them out, but two weeks in +her small mind was an eternity when it was to be faced without him. + +"Oh, Davy, I wish he hadn't done it," she cried. "If he hadn't shot +Mr. Lukens, then he wouldn't have to run away, would he?" + +"That was just a mistake," I replied, as though shooting constables +were quite a favorite sport where I lived. "He told me particular he +didn't mean it, but having done it, and they not understanding that he +didn't mean it, he kind of had to get out till things blowed over." + +"Didn't he do wrong to shoot Mr. Lukens?" + +"Wrong?" My tone expressed the greatest astonishment at such an idea. +"Why, Penelope, if I was him I'd have done exactly the same +thing--exactly." + +My approval of her father's act was a great consolation to her. The +pressure of her encircling arms made me gasp, and there was a note of +gratitude in her voice. "Oh, Davy, I know you would; you are so brave." + +"And I'll take care of you, Penelope," I said, quite as though I +seconded her approval of my courage and had forgotten that there were +such things as rattlesnakes. "As long as you are with me you needn't +be afraid of anything." + +Nathan's pace was quieter and steadier, and being secure on his back I +felt capable of any heroism. We had passed the worst part of the road. +It was broader, the trees parted overhead, letting in the sunshine, and +danger never seems so near when one moves in the bright day; so my +heart grew lighter, and, had I known the words of any rollicking song, +I should have sung, like James, but lacking these I had recourse to +whistling. Nerves which had been set on edge by the rifle's report, +the fumes of smoke, the cries of pain and fright, were quieted first by +long-drawn, melancholy notes, and then I swung into a bold trilling, +more suited to my adventurous spirit, throwing back my head, extending +my lips heavenward, addressing my melody to the sky. Pausing, +exhausted, I expected to hear from behind me some expression of +astonishment and pleasure at my birdlike song. Instead there was only +a muffled sobbing. + +"Little 'un," I said in a chiding voice, "you hadn't otter cry when I'm +taking care of you. There's nothing to be afraid of. Why, we're going +home." + +Oh, wise Nathan! Then I thought him obstinate and contradictory. +Halting, he planted his feet as though no power on earth could move +him, and shot forward his long ears. Then it seemed to me that he was +trying to show how futile my boast, and in my anger I dared to kick +him. A fly would have moved him as well. His long ears trembled as he +watched the road rising to cross the ridge, and he seemed to see over +the crest and to hear noises too distant and indistinct for me. Then I +thought him obstinate; now I suspect that while the Professor had given +Penelope to my care, he must have ordered Nathan to watch over us both. +The mule looked right through that hill. He saw the threatening army +charging the other slope. He turned. The bushes opened, and we +plunged into a narrow path which skirted the base of the ridge. In +vain I tried to pull him back. In vain Penelope addressed to him her +appeals. He was fixed in his purpose neither to hear nor to obey, and +struck into a steady canter. I clung to his mane; Penelope, to me. +The earth swung around us. Solid became fluid. The path moved up and +down, and flowed beneath us like running water. Great trees broke from +their roots and ran at us, and when Nathan dodged them, they swung down +their branches to blind us with their leaves, and sometimes almost to +lift us in the air like Absalom. The memory of Absalom was very clear +in my mind, for just a week before I had seen his picture in our +Sunday-school quarterly, and now, confused in my eyes with the dancing +trees, I saw him, as I had seen him in the picture, suspended from a +limb by his long hair, quietly waiting to be taken down. There was +something more than a mere coincidence in that Sunday-school lesson. +Here was another warning neglected. With Mr. Pound and Stacy Shunk, +Miss Spinner took a place as a prophetess. She had taught me that boys +who mocked their respectable elders were eaten by bears, and I believed +her. She had demonstrated beyond all doubt that boys who defied their +parents and ran away from home must come to a dreadful end in the +entangling limbs of trees. With Absalom's example before me I had run +away from home, and here I was being carried through the forest on a +mad steed, and here were the trees running at me from every side, +reaching out their forked limbs to seize my hair. Penelope was +forgotten. More than once I tried to avert my impending fate by +letting go of Nathan's mane and taking my chances with his heels and +the stony path, but as I was about to close my eyes and let myself go +he rose in the air, and the distance between me and the earth seemed so +stupendous as to become the greater peril. Had the mule kept on his +wild career I might at last have gathered courage for the fall, but the +path came to an end, our pace slackened, the trees took root again; I +was conscious of Penelope's encircling arms, and raising my head saw +that we were in a broad road, and, better still, we were climbing the +hill; each step was carrying us nearer the clearest and bluest of skies +that always held over my home; I knew that from that line where ridge +and sky met, I should look down and see home itself. + +We reached the top of the ridge, and the valley lay beneath us. It was +young and cheerful in its fresh green, with here a brown checkering of +fallow, and there a white barn glistening in the sun, and orchards in +the full glory of their blossom. Below us a stone mill grumbled over +its unending task, and from the meadows came the blithe call of the +killdee. It was all home to me from the fringing pines on the +ridge-top, across the land to the mountains by the river, for on such a +threshold one casts off fear. Danger might lurk about us in the +shadows of the woods, but never out there in the broad day under the +kindly eye of God. Nathan might gallop through tangled brush, but here +even his mood changed and he walked sedately. Even the strange road +was friendly to me, for it led into a friendly land. It descended the +ridge, passed the mill, rose again over a hill; there at the crest I +lost it, but only for a moment while it crossed the hollow and came +into view on the easy slope beyond, going straight into the valley's +heart and beckoning me on. + +"It's all right now, Penelope," I cried, and I pointed to the two +steeples of Malcolmville, and then led her eyes to the right to a long +stone house, almost hidden in a clump of giant oaks. I could find it +by our barn, for our barn would dominate any land. In the distance it +seemed a mighty marble pile, lifting its white walls into the blue, and +then ambitiously reaching higher with red-tipped cupolas. The +Colosseum to-day is not half so large as our barn when placed in memory +beside it. So there was pride in my voice as I spoke. + +"Yon's our home, little 'un, and yon's our barn, and just the other +side is the meadow and the creek where I'll take you fishing." + +The splendid promise of fishing had little effect on Penelope's +spirits. Such a prospect as I offered, such a home, a Babylonian +palace beside the cabin in the clearing, with the added joys of the +meadow and the creek, should have compensated in part, at least, for +the temporary loss of her father, and I was much surprised that she +gave no sign of pleasure. She made no answer even, and I had no +evidence of her nearness to me but the two brown hands clasped before +me and the brush of the ribbon against my neck. So we rode on in +silence, save when I whistled, and I did not whistle very much, for my +thoughts were too busy with the morning's adventure and forecasting the +days to come. My mind was wonderfully clear about the future; the way +seemed very easy. Thereafter I should listen to warnings. I had +brought myself to unpleasant passes by a reckless disregard of +warnings, and now if Mr. Pound told me to beware, or Stacy Shunk to +look out, or Miss Spinner to remember Absalom, I should heed their +admonitions, yet those unpleasant passes became in retrospect +delightful adventures, and I congratulated myself that I was coming +through them with so much credit. That I was conducting myself with +credit, I had no doubt. My father could not have accepted the +Professor's charge more confidently than I, nor could he have used more +adroitness in persuading Penelope to leave the clearing. So I was sure +of commendation when I brought her home. Home was such a bountiful +place. My mother had impressed that on me very often. She had laid +emphasis on my obligation to share my riches with others--generally +when I had to carry heavy baskets down to the parsonage. To-day I was +mindful of that injunction, and to take care of Penelope was a pleasant +task, since for the present it meant simply to share with her from an +inexhaustible store. Considering the future, I wandered into hazy and +very muddled dreams. Did the Professor never return, I was quite +willing to keep my promise and to care for his daughter always. This +did not mean that I was contemplating matrimony at some remote time. +Matrimony, to my youthful observation, was a prosaic state. It did not +seem to me that my father and mother led an interesting life. If they +were happy in it, then it was in a very strange way, for they only knew +a dull routine of work and worry. Sometimes they laughed, and when +they did it was hard to discover the sources of their mirth. How my +father could find pleasure in Mr. Pound's sermons was a mystery, and +when my mother declared that the meeting of the Ladies' Aid had been +most enjoyable I was sure that she was pretending. No; the future held +something better for me than such dull days. Somehow, somewhere, when +I became a man I should live days like this day, I should live as now I +rode, with every sense keyed to the joy of living, and Penelope's arms +would encircle me and the blue ribbon would gently brush my neck. + +These pleasant dreams were disturbed by realities. I had come to one +of those dreadful moments when danger rises like an appalling cloud, +through which we can see no gleam of light beyond. This cloud, "at +first no larger than a man's hand," arose from a fence in the person of +Piney Savercool. I saw him with pleasure, for I knew that I was coming +to familiar roads, and then he was such a very small boy that I had not +that sense of humiliation which I must have felt had one of my own age +seen me riding with a girl. + +"Morning, Piney," I said grandly. + +For an answer Piney simply opened his mouth very wide, and his eyes +started from his head. + +My effect upon him was very pleasing to me, and I ventured still more +grandly: "Pleasant day, Piney." + +Then he found his voice, "Ma-ma--come quick!" he shrieked. "Davy +Malcolm's runnin' away with a lady!" + +This announcement brought Mrs. Savercool from the house, and in a few +bounds she was before us, checking our further advance with a +wide-spread apron. + +"Dav-id Malcolm," she cried, "the idea of you lettin' such a little 'un +as her set on such a dangerous animal. Stop! Get down, I say, both on +you!" + +I could not break through that apron, and my heart sank, for, instead +of riding grandly home and presenting Penelope to my parents with a +proper speech, we were threatened with an ignominious journey in the +Savercool buggy. With Mrs. Savercool's charge that we were foolish +children, and that she could never forgive herself if she did not stop +our wild career at once, years dropped from my age and inches from my +stature, and I was at the point of obeying her meekly. But Nathan took +offence at her tone. He bolted. Just what happened I could not see, +for I had to take myself to his mane again, and he held his terrific +pace until we reached the pike, and along the pike to the fork where +the road branched off to our farm. When he paused here it was to +consider whether he would go on toward Malcolmville or into the quiet, +shaded lane. He must have recalled the hitching-rail, the sun, and the +flies, and preferred to risk even a road that he did not know, for on +he went--quietly. + +We crossed the little knoll and the house came into view. The cry of +exultation which rose to my lips was checked when I saw, stretching +from the gate down the road, a long line of vehicles. The first held +the hitching-post. The others took to the fence--buggies, buckboards, +phaetons, single horses, and teams, an ominous picture. Not since my +grandfather's funeral had I seen quite such a sight before our house, +and my heart sank. Could death have come in my absence? On second +thought I remembered how brief that absence had been, measured in +hours, and I sought another reason for the gathering. I began at the +last vehicle and carried my eye along the line, to find that I knew +them all. There was Doctor Pearl's buckboard, with his mustang eating +a fence post; Squire Crumple's gray mare in his narrow courting buggy; +old Mr. Smiley's ponderous black with his comfortable phaeton, speaking +the presence of Mr. Pound and Mrs. Pound, who used it as their own; the +Buckwalters' rockaway and the Rickabachs' spring-wagon. Even Miss +Agnes Spinner's bicycle had a fence panel all to itself, as though it +were very skittish and likely to kick and set the whole road in +commotion. To my own unimportant self I never attributed this assembly +of all the great folk of the valley. There was some more potent +reason. As I pondered, hunting for it, we came to the lane. Until I +found that reason it seemed wise for me to turn there, and under the +cover of the orchard to reach the hiding of the barn, where I could +leave Penelope while I scouted and had a peep through the keyhole of +the back door. But Nathan saved me from such an ignominious return. +He kept right on. My efforts to stop him only made him trot, and in a +moment we were at the gate. He seemed to like the house and the shade +of the oaks, for he halted, let himself down on three legs complacently +and began to switch at flies. And I, with nothing left to do, was +measuring the distance to a safe landing when I heard a cry from the +door. + +"Davy! Davy!" I saw my mother running down the path with her arms +outstretched, and after her came a great company. + +"Davy--Davy, dear--we thought you had been drowned!" she cried. + +Here, then, was the reason for this great gathering. What a commotion +for so small a reason--as though a boy's chief end were to tumble into +the water, as though he never were to be trusted out of his mother's +sight? I dropped the reins; my eyes and my mouth opened wide with +astonishment. + +"Your father's dragging the mill-dam for you this very minute." She +was at the gate. "Where--where have you been?" + +She did not let me answer. She lifted her hands and caught me in her +embrace, and Penelope's arms were clutching me about the neck as she +was swung with me from Nathan's back. + +My mother was crying, from gladness I took it, for there certainly was +joy in her eyes when she held me off and looked down at me. Then came +astonishment, and she lowered her spectacles from the top of her head +to make sure that she saw aright. + +"But who--who is this?" she said. + +For answer I took Penelope's hand and faced the whole company; faced +Mr. Pound and the squire, old Mr. Smiley and Miss Spinner, Mrs. Pound, +and a score of others of the great folk of the valley. I faced them +with defiance in my eyes, for were not they the authors of the +Professor's troubles and was I not his only friend? + +"It's Penelope Blight," I said, "and I promised the Professor to take +care of her." + +"What?" cried Mr. Pound. "The Professor's daughter--the man who almost +killed Constable Lukens? Dav-id!" + +"Yes, sir," I said. Penelope's hand was tightening in mine, and I +glanced to my side, to see her standing very straight, and the blue +ribbon was tilted as proudly as on that morning when we met by the +mountain brook. + +"Dav-id!" cried my mother. + +"Yes, sir," I said, looking right at Mr. Pound. "I promised the +Professor that I would take care of her--always." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +It was well for me that in my hours of absence fear had brought my +parents to a just estimate of my character and to a truer appreciation of +my essentiality to their happiness. My mother had long been haunted by a +conviction that I should meet an early death by drowning or an accidental +gunshot, and this very morning she had awakened from a dream in which she +saw her only child floating on the murky waters of the mill-dam. Rushing +to my room and finding me gone, she had had her worst fears confirmed, +and at the moment of my reappearance Mr. Pound was endeavoring to console +her for her loss and to bring her to a state of Christian resignation. +So all was forgotten in the joy of my unexpected return, and though in +the eyes of the minister, Miss Spinner, and the others I was just a small +black sheep about whose absence an unnecessary pother had been raised, +there was only rejoicing in the home fold. Even my father did not +humiliate me with forgiveness, but took me in his arms silently and held +me there, as he might have held me had he just rescued me from the depths +of the mill-dam. To follow such a greeting with chastisement, however +well merited, was quite out of the question. In the seclusion of my own +room I did meet with gentle chiding for the anguish I had caused, but my +mother remembered her dream, and my father his hours of futile searching, +and I knew that the hands which pressed mine would not be raised against +me in harsh reproof. Below us, I was sure, ears were strained to hear +some real evidence that I was receiving my deserts, for there was a +silence there like that outside of the prison wall when the crowd waits +for the doleful tidings tolled by the prison bell. Perhaps the listeners +were disappointed. I remember that Mr. Pound looked rather nonplussed as +he saw us coming down-stairs, my father leading the way, smiling gravely, +my mother following, clutching my hand as though she would never release +it. + +I had told them everything then. The story I had tried in vain to tell +them at dinner on the previous day was now listened to with eagerness, +and my father, knowing the truth of James's fall from grace, was +outspoken in his declaration that an injustice had been done the +Professor. In a solemn conference in the parlor, with Mr. Pound and the +squire, Doctor Pearl, Mr. Smiley, and all the other important men of the +neighborhood, he decried the attack on Henderson Blight as an outrage; he +found solace alone in the fact that the constable had been more +frightened than hurt, for it seemed that the bullet had only clipped the +flesh of his leg; he took upon himself all the blame for the affair, on +the ground that he, at least, should have known better. Squire Crumple +heartily agreed with my father, and pointed out that on his part he had +only allowed the warrant to issue under protest; henceforth he would rely +on his own judgment and would not interpret the law to suit the whims of +his friends. Mr. Pound was contrite, but he took comfort in the thought +that they had acted for the best in the light of their knowledge of the +circumstances, but now, knowing the facts, he advised that the whole +matter be allowed to simmer down quietly. He still took issue with his +respected friend the squire on the illegality of the means used to rid +the community of a most undesirable member. The squire replied with +heat, referring to the case of The Commonwealth _versus_ Hodgins, and the +subsequent action of Hodgins _versus_ The Commonwealth for damages. It +was very evident that he would be relieved in mind if the case of The +Commonwealth _versus_ Blight did simmer down. But there was one obstacle +to this programme of forgetting. It was not the constable. Lukens could +be quieted easily. It was Penelope. Even the gentlest ministrations of +Miss Spinner had failed to bring the small girl to a realization of the +happy change in her lot. Even Mr. Pound was touched by her grief and so +troubled that he offered amends in a home under the parsonage roof. He +realized now that the reason he had never been blessed with a child of +his own was that when the time came there might be a place at his board +and a nook in his heart for this abandoned little girl. On the strength +of her husband's offer Mrs. Pound was claiming Penelope as her own, and +very soon was complaining that she had a most troublesome child to deal +with. Penelope had divined that Mr. Pound was her father's arch-enemy, +and she met his most benign approach with her head tilted defiantly and +her eyes flashing, so that now, in a quandary, he asked: "What shall we +do with the child?" + +The question was a sign that he surrendered her. He had shown an honest +desire to take her under his roof, and no one could say that if he had +fired the train which had wrecked her home, he was not willing to make +atonement. + +"What shall we do with the child?" my father repeated. He rose to show +that the conference was ended and the question settled. "David has +already answered that," he said, laying a hand upon my shoulder. "My boy +promised Henderson Blight to take care of her until he returned. They +have settled it among themselves, and I shall do nothing to interfere +with them." + +He spoke so firmly that no one dared to remonstrate, and so it came that +I kept my promise to the Professor as far as it was in my power. He must +have said himself that Penelope had a home better than any he could have +given her. She had a mother's care--a care so loving that I should have +grown jealous had I not found a certain compensation in the fact that the +watchfulness over me relaxed and I was less hampered in my comings and +goings. Before a month had passed my mother was confessing a dread that +the Professor might return and claim the child; she was pleading with my +father to abandon what she called a useless and an expensive search. +Chance had left the door open, and chance had brought me into the hall, +so I stopped and stood as silently as I could that I might not disturb +their conference. I was frightened by the sternness in my father's +voice. He spoke of his duty. To him duty summed up life. He had his +duty, even in the matter of so worthless a creature as this Henderson +Blight. Declaring this, he stamped the floor in emphasis. + +Often in the weeks that followed, when Penelope and I roamed over the +fields, when her merriment rang out the highest, and her laughter was so +free that it seemed she was forgetting the clearing and the days when her +sole companion was the gaunt and bitter-tongued Professor--often then I +would hear again the stamp of my father's foot and his stern avowal, and +to me it was as though he were conspiring against me in seeking to send +away the only comrade I had ever known, and would leave me to pass my +days in the wake of James. I abhorred James now. I had come to know the +pleasure of real companionship, and looked back to the old days wondering +how I had endured them, and with dread to those that seemed to lie ahead. +Penelope was a girl, to be sure, but she was not like the insipid +creatures of the village who were held in such contempt by boys of my +age. Where I dared to go she followed. Did I climb to the highest +girder in the barn and balance myself on the dizzy height, she was with +me. Did I venture to run the wildest rapids of the creek in the clumsy +box which I called my canoe, she trusted her newest frock and ribbons to +my seamanship. And better than all was the respect and admiration in +which she held me. To her I was no longer the frightened, shivering boy +of the mountain brook. I was in a land I knew and followed its familiar +ways without fear. One day she saw me tumble from the bridge into the +deep swimming-hole, and while she cried out in fright I swam nonchalantly +ashore, a full dozen strokes, and as I dried myself in the sun I reproved +her for her little faith in me. On another I presented her to old Jerry +Schimmel, sitting, a brown, dishevelled heap on his cobbler's bench, and +from my accustomed seat by his stove, in a voice cast into the echoing +hollows of my chest, I commanded him to tell us how he had fought in the +battle of Gettysburg. From my familiarity with the stirring incidents of +the fight as Jerry described them, Penelope thought that I must have had +a part in it too, and my modest disclaimer hardly convinced her that I +had not been a companion-in-arms of this battle-worn veteran. + +What days those were! Even the fear that my father would find the +missing Professor grew less. They drifted into weeks, and weeks into +months, and there was no sign of the fugitive. I found myself looking +into the future as though in the quiet evening I were turning my eyes +over the valley to the west and the golden clouds hovering there. I +dealt only with results. I crossed mountains without climbing them, and +always Penelope shared my glory with me. I look back now smiling at that +boyish self-reliance. Mountains have been crossed, but with what +heart-breaking struggles? Battles have been won, but with what a toll of +suffering? + +As I recall the day when I first came face to face with real trouble, +with a trouble that leaves in the heart a never-healing wound, it was the +brightest of all that summer. It was one of those days when there was +not the filmiest cloud to veil the sun; you could see the ether +shimmering over the land, and the fields of yellow grain looked like +lakes of molten metal. Shaded by our wide straw hats, Penelope and I had +no thought of the tropic heat. We were engrossed in the reaper as it cut +its way through the wheat; we followed it, counting the sheaves as they +dropped with mechanical precision; we stepped along untiringly in its +wake, as though the rough stubble were the smoothest of paths, and the +clatter of the machine the sweetest of music. Above the raucous clacking +I heard my mother calling, and, suspecting some needless injunction not +to get overheated, I pretended not to hear and looked the other way. But +she was insistent. When we had rounded the field again, she crossed the +road to the fence; the reaper stopped, and on a day so still that a dog's +bark carried a mile there was no escape from her uplifted voice. +Reluctantly Penelope and I abandoned our enchanting travel and obeyed the +summons. + +"Penelope," my mother said, taking the girl by the hand, "come into the +house. Your uncle is here." + +Penelope stopped and looked up into my mother's face, and there was +wonder in her eyes. She had forgotten her uncle, so rarely had she heard +her father speak of him, and I was quicker than she to grasp the meaning +of his coming, for I remembered that Rufus, who never had had a real +idea, who made his first success by giving away a prize with every pound +of tea. I believed that he had come to take Penelope from me, and with +every step I saw my fears confirmed. + +"Your Uncle Rufus," my mother said, and she closed her lips very tightly +as she walked on. + +The parlor shades were up--an ominous sign, for the parlor would only be +opened to a person of importance. Had the Professor visited us, the +humbler sitting-room would have been quite good enough to receive him in, +and it seemed a strange commentary on his harsh judgment that his brother +should be ushered into the stately chamber where the very air grew old in +dignified seclusion. Still more forcibly was this idea impressed on my +mind when I stood at the door and saw my father sitting very erect, on a +most uncomfortable chair, listening respectfully to the stranger's rapid +words. + +Rufus Blight spoke in a loud voice; he lolled in the big walnut rocker, +with his arm stretched across the centre table, to the peril of my +mother's precious Swiss chalet and the glass dome which protected it; on +the family Bible his fingers were beating a tattoo as carelessly as they +might have done on the counter of his general store. There was nothing +in his appearance to suggest kin to the lean and cadaverous Professor. +The Professor always seemed to move with effort, but his brother was +alive all over. Though short and fat, he had none of the placidity which +we associate with corpulence. As he talked his hands moved restlessly; +his bristling red mustache accentuated the play of his lips; his heavy +gold watch-chain moved up and down with his breathing; even his hair was +alert. + +"He is a remarkable man--I might say, a very remarkable man," were the +words that came to us as we entered the hall. "Of course, you couldn't +understand him--few could. He had to go his own way and would take help +from no one, not even his brother. Upon my word, Judge----" + +Our entrance checked him. He rose, and with arms akimbo stood gazing +down at Penelope. She, clinging to my mother, her cheek pressed against +her as she half turned from him, looked up at him, abashed and wondering, +for to her small mind there was in this stranger something awe-inspiring. +The sleek man in spotless, creaseless clothes, with polished boots and +close-shaved, powdered, barbered face, was so different from her unkempt +father that she could hardly believe him kin. Baal would have seemed as +near to her, and had the idol stretched out his arms to take her into his +destroying embrace, she could hardly have been more frightened than when +she saw Mr. Blight's fat hands reaching toward her. Mr. Blight smiled, +and well he might, for this slip of a girl gazing up at him was of his +own blood, and all that was good in that blood found expression in her +sweetness. He had come prepared to see a slattern, ill-fed, unkempt, the +true daughter of shiftless parents and a wretched mountain home; he had +found a graceful little body, and he wanted to take her into his +possession at once. + +"Penelope," he exclaimed, "don't you know your Uncle Rufus?" + +There was no particular reason why Penelope should know her Uncle Rufus. +She could have submitted herself as easily to the embrace of any +well-dressed, smiling stranger, and she shrank back, but my mother pushed +her forward within reach of the restless hands. + +"It's your dear uncle, child," she said soothingly. "He has come to take +you to a nice home." + +"And he is going to bring you up," my father added in a wonderfully +cheerful voice, born either from his own escape from responsibility or +her brightened prospects. "He is going to give you everything." + +Penelope was on the verge of tears, but she held them back. "I don't +want everything," she said, as she strove to check her forced advance by +planting her feet firmly and leaning back against my mother. "I just +want to stay here till father comes." + +"But your father will come to us--of course, he will come to us, +Penelope," Mr. Blight cried. His hands closed on hers, he hooked an arm +about her and held her very cautiously, as though he were as afraid of +her as she of him. "You mustn't be frightened, my dear," he went on, +and, soothed by his kindly tones, she leaned against his knee. "That's +better, child." Encouraged by her half-yielding attitude, he stroked her +hair. To me, watching them from the hiding of my mother's skirt, she had +fallen into a magician's clutches and was being lulled by soft words into +an indifference to danger. + +"I'm your father's brother, child," he pursued, in his insinuating tone. +"Next to him I'm nearer to you than any one else, and to me there is no +one as near as he. We will try to find him together--you and I, eh? And +we'll all live together in Pittsburgh. You'll like Pittsburgh--it's a +very lively, pushing town." + +"But I want to stay here with Davy," said Penelope in a low voice. + +"With Davy?" Mr. Blight stared at her in surprise. Then he began to +laugh as though he were contrasting all he could give her with Davy's +humble powers. "Child--child--you don't realize what you are refusing. +You don't realize what your Uncle Rufus is going to do for you. I've no +one to look after--you will be the joy of a poor old bachelor's heart, +won't you, now?" + +He spoke as though being a poor old bachelor was quite the pleasantest +possible condition, yet he rolled out the phrase twice as if to touch +Penelope's heart. Remembering the only other bachelor I had ever seen, I +stared at him in wonder. This other was Philip Spangler, who sat all day +in the store gazing vacantly at the stove. Once I asked Stacy Shunk why +he stayed there, and Stacy, lifting a warning finger, whispered: "He's +jest a bachelor, Davy, an old, old bachelor." Contrasting him with Mr. +Blight, I was puzzled. If it was a terrible thing to be an old bachelor, +certainly he accepted the condition lightly; he was trying to arouse +sympathy when it was plain that he did not need or deserve it, for +evidently he was quite well satisfied with a single state, however +deplorable it might come to be. Penelope was being enmeshed by unfair +means, and it was hard to keep still, but there was nothing that I could +do. + +Now my father lifted his chin clear of the high points of his collar. +"Penelope," he began, "you are fortunate--very fortunate--in having such +an uncle. Mr. Blight is a prominent man, and I might say"--glancing +apologetically at the guest--"a rich man." Then, meeting no +contradiction, he added--"a very rich man, who can give you such +advantages as would be far beyond my means, even were you my daughter." + +"I don't want advantages," said Penelope, hardly above a whisper, and for +want of a better resting-place she dropped her head on her uncle's +shoulder and burst into tears. + +"There--there--there--" cried Mr. Blight, patting her clumsily on the +back. Had she been a full-grown woman, he could hardly have been more +embarrassed, yet he was pleased that she clung to him thus, for he was +smiling. "I'll not give you any advantages you don't want--I promise +you. I just wish to make you happy. What's the use of my working all my +life, piling up money, capturing the steel trade, adding mills and mills +to my plants, if I have no one to look after. There--there--there--now, +child, don't cry. Won't you come with your poor, lonely, old uncle?" + +Even to my prejudiced mind, he was playing his part well, for this +awkward kindness touched Penelope at last. She did not reply, nor did +she demur, but she clung closer to him in silence. I saw my danger and +hers, and ran to him and grasped his knees. + +"Oh, Mr. Blight, don't take her away!" I cried. "I promised the +Professor I'd look after her. I promised----" + +"Dav-id!" exclaimed my father, and he grasped my arm and began to draw me +away. + +My fear of him even could not restrain me, and I resisted, digging my +fingers into the knees, clutching the folds of the trousers where Mr. +Blight had so carefully arranged them to prevent them bagging. He +intervened, as much, I think, to save his immaculate clothes as me from +being torn asunder. + +"Dav-id!" cried my father. + +"Mr. Blight--Mr. Blight--don't take her away!" I pleaded. + +Mr. Blight began to laugh. "Judge--Judge--release him," he said, and +freeing me from the paternal grasp, he drew me toward him. When he had +ironed out the wrinkled knees with his hand, he patted me on the head. +"You are a good boy, David," he went on, "and I understand exactly how +you feel. What you have done for Penelope will never be forgotten, will +it, my little girl?" The emphasis on the last phrase of possession +extinguished the spark of hope in me, and had he stopped there I should +have surrendered feebly, but turning to my father, he added: "You have a +fine boy, Judge, and I like him. When I get home I shall send him a gun. +What kind of a gun do you want, David?" + +Young as I was then, I had not yet learned to value the good things of +life in terms of dollars, and to the power of the dollar my eyes were +just being opened. This man wielded it. He was enticing Penelope behind +the barrier of his fat, oily prosperity where I could not reach her. +Holding her there, he was magnanimously compensating me with a gun, as +though we were making a trade in which the profit were mine, as though he +were valuing her in money. My dislike, born of the Professor's +contemptuous reference to him, had turned to distrust and aversion as I +watched him weaving his toils about Penelope. Now I hated him and drew +back from him as though his touch were baneful; I stamped a foot and +shook a fist and shouted: "I don't want your old gun; Penelope doesn't +want your money. You have no right----" + +My father's arms were about me. He lifted me from my feet and carried me +to the door, and as I struggled blindly to free myself and return to the +attack I looked back at Rufus Blight. It was not to see him sinking +under the shame of my anathema. Signs of anger in him would have +incensed me far less than his lofty unconcern. He even interceded for +me, but this only proved how secure was his victory, and that to his view +what fell to me was of little moment. + +"Don't be hard on Davy, Judge," he said, interrupting my father's +apologies for my rudeness. "He's just a boy. I don't know but what, if +I were in his place, I should do exactly the same thing--feel exactly the +same way." + +This was small consolation to me, for Penelope's head was buried in his +shoulder; her face was hidden by her tousled hair, but I could hear her +sobbing: "Uncle--uncle--let me stay with Davy." + +In the plea alone she acknowledged her kin to him and surrendered. He +could well afford to be generous. By every law of custom I had merited +severe punishment at my father's hands, and that his hands were stayed by +Mr. Blight's intercession was but another evidence of his power. When my +father reasoned with me kindly, instead of whipping me, I yielded, not to +his sophistry but to that masterful influence before which even he seemed +to bend. I realized the hopelessness of my cause, and found myself +facing Mr. Blight again, an humble suppliant for his pardon. Humbly I +asked him if I might not soon see Penelope again, and she joined in my +petition. Humbly I asked that some day he would bring her back to the +valley, and she seconded my prayer, standing at my side, clasping my hand +and looking up at her uncle from tearful eyes. He promised everything. +He took my hand and hers, and for the moment it seemed that this little +circle was my real family, and that my father and mother, standing over +us, were hardly more than law-given preceptors. Before our guest's +expanding smile and the magic of his tongue the clouds fled. Those which +hung heaviest he brushed away with his restless hands. Soon, very soon, +I was to go to that bustling, pushing town of Pittsburgh and with +Penelope explore its wonders. We should ride behind the fastest pair of +trotters in the State--his trotters; we should see the greatest mills in +the country--his mills--where steel was worked like wax into a thousand +giant forms; we should take long excursions on the river in a wonderful +new boat--his boat-- Why it would make a boy of him just to have us with +him! + +Under the spell of his words an hour flew by, and then my mother led +Penelope away to make her ready for the journey. She brought her back to +us decked in a hat and frock born of many days of planning and three +trips to the county town. The humble art of Malcolmville had not been +intrusted with so important a commission as Penelope's best clothes. For +these the shops of Martinsburg, crammed with the latest fashions of +Philadelphia, had been ransacked; the smartest modiste in Martinsburg had +trimmed the hat with many yards of tulle and freighted it with pink +roses; the smartest couturiere in Martinsburg had created that wonderful +blue chintz frock, with ribbons woven through mazes of flounces; the last +touch was my mother's--the plait of hair, done so masterfully that even +the weight of the great blue bow could not bend it. + +I looked at Penelope in awe. She was no longer the little girl whom I +had met by the mountain stream. I was still an uncouth boy, with face +smudged with the dust of the fields and hands blackened in play. Yet she +did not see the wide gulf which separated us, and, forgetting the hat, +the frock, the chaff that clung to my matted hair and the grime of my +shirt, she ran to me, threw her arms about my neck and cried: +"Davy--Davy--I don't want to go!" + +I knew that she had to go, and though the tears seemed to burst up in a +great flood from my heart, I would not show them in my eyes. Tears are +unmanly--unboyly rather--and I fought them back, but for them I could not +speak. My father took Penelope from me. He lifted her in his arms and +carried her out of the house and down the path to the gate, where the +carriage was waiting. He placed her on the seat; he straightened out her +rumpled frock, and even crossed her hands upon her lap, as though she +were quite incapable of doing anything for herself. Then he kissed her. +It was the first time I had ever seen him kiss her. When he spoke it was +to say good-by to Rufus Blight, who was in his seat, pulling on a pair of +yellow gloves. + +"We shall all meet again, very soon," said Mr. Blight omnipotently, as +though Fate were a henchman of his. "You must all come to Pittsburgh to +see us. It's a lively, pushing town, and you'll enjoy it." Leaning from +the carriage and holding out his hand to me, he added: "And you, +Davy--you will come very, very soon." + +I believed him. But the dream that he had conjured for us of the days to +come, of his lively, pushing town, the fastest trotters, the wonderful +boat, were shattered by contact with the harsh fact of this parting. + +I looked past him at Penelope, sitting very straight, with her hands in +her lap as my father had placed them. There was a giant frog in my +throat, but I conquered it as I had conquered my tears, and speaking very +steadily, I said: "Good-by, Penelope--I'll not forget. Some day I will +take care of you." + +She did not turn. Her eyes held right ahead, but she answered bravely: +"Good-by, Davy. I'll see you soon--very soon. Remember----" + +The rest I did not hear. A medley of hoofs, harness and wheels broke in +and she was away to a new world and a new life. The brave little figure +bowed suddenly, and the roses and the tulle, the precious creation of the +Martinsburg modiste, were ruthlessly crushed against the sleek bulk of +the man who had never had a real idea. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +That the Professor, with fear at his heels and the devils of +retribution clutching at his flying coat-tails, should have plunged +into silence when the bush closed around him was not strange. Every +circumstance of his parting argued a long absence, a discreet +obliteration of self. But Penelope left the valley in prosaic fashion, +in a livery wagon, with a man as easy to find as his own bustling, +pushing town; yet the dust-clouds which closed around them as they +drove away shut them from my ken as the mountains had enclosed her +father in their most secret hiding-places. It was the fault of Rufus +Blight. He had blown beautiful bubbles to divert us in those last +hours of his visit, and bubbles bursting silently into nothingness were +not more fragile than his promises. To the true value of those +promises I awoke slowly, as the months went by and there came no hint +of their fulfilment. + +I wrote to Penelope. My letters would have made volumes were their +length commensurate with the pain of composition. Even the heart of +Rufus Blight would have been touched could he have seen me, bent over a +table, digging my teeth into my tongue and my pen into the paper as +letter by letter and word by word I constructed those messages of my +boyish love. But he knew only the finished gem, and not the labor of +its cutting. The more I sought to break the silence, the surer I +became that he, the omnipotent one, had ordained it, and I fancied him +reading my letters and destroying them, a thin smile lighting his +chubby face as he thought of the easy way in which I was being +outwitted. I went to my mother for help. She knew nothing of my +unavailing struggles, and was herself offended and heart-sick. At my +entreaty she overcame her pride and wrote to Mr. Blight inquiring as to +Penelope's welfare. In return her existence was recognized; hardly +more than that, for the great man did not trouble himself with a +personal answer. His reply was given vicariously, through one P. T. +Mallencroft, his secretary, on flawless paper, three sentences in bold +clear type and a Spencerian signature closing it. It was a bloodless +thing. It spoke the commands of omnipotence as though carved on +tablets of stone. + +Mrs. Malcolm's favor of the 10th ultimo was acknowledged; Mr. Blight +instructed Mr. Mallencroft to thank Mrs. Malcolm for the interest which +she had shown, and to assure her that Miss Penelope was quite well. + +It was perfectly polite. It was the finished bow with which Rufus +Blight was backing from our presence, never to trouble us again. I +knew this when I saw the sheet drop from my mother's limp fingers and, +sinking to a chair, she tossed her apron over her head and rocked +violently to an accompaniment of muffled sobs. + +It was clear to me that Rufus Blight was not only neglectful of our +claims, but had been so with purpose, and as I wandered aimlessly +through the fields in the wake of James, and as in the evening I sat +again with him on the barn-bridge, looking over the darkening valley, +there held one enduring thought in the chaos of my brain. Looking back +now, I see in my childish enmity toward Rufus Blight the impulse that +set me on my course. But for that I might have stayed in the valley, +dozing, as the Professor had said, like the very dogs. In Rufus Blight +I was conscious of an opposing force. He had taken Penelope from me; +he had cheated me with flattery and broken promises; and the dominating +sense in my mind was one of conflict with him. I looked to the west. +Mountains rose there, range beyond range, and beyond them, miles away, +was his bustling, pushing town. To cross them and to close with him +was my one desire, and though time dulled the edges of my purpose and +the figures of the Professor, of Penelope and of Rufus Blight grew dim +in the distance, and at last the old motive was lost beneath a host of +new impelling forces, still it was Mallencroft's letter that touched +the quick and aroused me from my canine slumber. + +The Professor's words came back to me. The mountains seemed to echo +them always. "Wake up, Davy! Do something; be somebody; get out of +the valley." Here was my shibboleth. I must do something; I must be +somebody; I must get out of the valley! And then I should go to +Penelope Blight, and a hundred urbane, unctuous uncles could not +defraud me of my right in her. + +In my father I found the first mountain on the way that I had chosen, +for to his mind my destiny was settled and to be envied. All that was +his would some day be mine--the best farm in the county, his +Pennsylvania Railroad stock, his shares in the bridge company, and his +Kansas bonds. The dear soul had arranged my course so comfortably and +in such detail that in me he would have been living his own life over +again. And what my father said, my mother echoed. Was I too proud to +follow in his footsteps? Was I, a child in years, to hold myself above +the ways of my forebears? + +Such arguments came too late to my rebellious spirit. I should no +longer have told the Professor that I was going to be like my father. +Necessity had made me more ambitious. I dreamed now of the power and +fame of a Washington, a Webster, a Grant--names which stood to me as +symbols of accomplishment. So what my parents at first brushed aside +as the idle dreaming of a boy they soon realized to be a vague but +persistent purpose which must be beaten down. They gave me a certain +dignity by descending to debate. What did I want to be? How could I +answer, who could not even name the vocations in which men won their +way to coveted heights? My mother gave me the key which opened the +world to me. + +"William," she said, addressing my father, "I do believe Davy is +thinking of being a minister and is kind of ashamed to own it." + +I caught the softening note in my mother's voice and in her eyes a +light of pride as she regarded me inquiringly. Whatever obligation lay +on me to till the ancestral acres, there was a higher duty which would +absolve it. This she had pointed out. My plans at once took a +concrete form, and though my first faltering assent might have savored +of hypocrisy, I was soon sincere in my determination. And now the +opposition crumbled and my parents found pride in a son whose heart at +the age of ten was stirred by the need of lost humanity. My father +discovered that it had been his own early ambition to be a minister; it +was as though I was to erect the edifice to which he had feared to put +his strength, and it comforted him. He delighted to lay his hand upon +my head in the presence of company and to announce that his David was +going to do the work to which he had always believed he had himself +been called. With my mother the son's gifts became a subject on which +she never tired dilating, and naturally such flattery reconciled me to +a calling far removed from all my old ambitions; but had it been +intimated to me that I might become a plumber I should have accepted +that vocation just as readily, provided that by following it I should +go out of the valley, over the mountains, to Pittsburgh and the +presence of Rufus Blight. + +Now arose Mr. Pound to help me. Here was the crowning incongruity in a +chain of incongruous events. I had never liked Mr. Pound. He had +overwhelmed me too often. His sermon was the rack on which I was +stretched for an hour every Sunday to endure untold agonies of +restlessness; his house the temple to which too often I had to carry +propitiatory offerings of vegetables and chickens. And then his +persecution of my friend the Professor still rankled in me. Yet I +found myself, of necessity, using him as the one known quantity in the +equation over which I worked. He became my model. I fancied myself +attaining a mien like his, a deep, resonant voice and a vocabulary of +marvellous words. I dressed myself in material garments like his, in +spreading folds of awe-inspiring black; I wrapped myself in his +immaterial cloak, his dignity and goodness. I faced Rufus Blight and +he quailed before a presence so imposing, and when I spoke in a voice +vibrating truth my eloquence smothered his feeble, shifty protests. +Always I asserted my right to Penelope and led her from her prison. +And always, it seemed, with that victory I cast off my Pound-like +sanctity and became as other men. With it the great task of my +ministry was accomplished, though there was a certain charm in the idea +of continuing it in the hunting fields of Africa, an appeal of romance +in a kraal, a cork hat, and the picture of Penelope and me setting +forth with a band of faithful converts to the slaughter of elephants +and lions. + +Idle dreams of boyhood! Absurd, incongruous fancies! And but for them +I might at this very moment be dozing in the valley; I might be another +distinguished Judge Malcolm, with my little court of ministers and +squires, with old Mr. Smiley as master-of-the-horse and Miss Agnes +Spinner as lady-in-waiting. Instead? I did not stay in the valley. +Aroused by the sense of antagonism to Rufus Blight, and spurred on by +the ambition to confront and defeat him, I began my struggle to cross +the mountains, and Mr. Pound became my support and guide. He never +knew the real truth behind my commendable resolution. The inspiring +thought in my mind, as he insisted on judging it, was born of his own +teaching. As my father had planned to live his life over again in me, +so Mr. Pound saw a hope of his own intellectual immortality. Were not +the evidences of grace so suddenly revealed in me the reward of his own +labors? + +When he came to the house, summoned in consultation over my future, he +placed a hand upon my head and solemnly repeated the lines of the grand +old hymn: "God works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." +There was here a gentle hint that my past had not been altogether good +or full of promise, and as Mr. Pound undoubtedly believed this, it made +more generous his conduct toward me. He was a narrow man, an egotist, +unlearned, too, save in the cruder forms of his calling, but he was +sincere. He sought to mould me to what he thought the form a man +should take, and now as I look back on the five years through which he +labored with me, I may smile at the memory of his mien, his pomposity, +his bigotry, yet I smile too with affection. He taught me without pay. +His study became my school-room, and when at times I chafed under his +vigilant tutelage and wearied in my well-doing, he steeled himself with +the remembrance that Job endured more than he without complaint. In my +sulkiness or open rebellion he found evidences to confirm his belief in +the doctrine of innate evil; he seemed to rush singing into battle with +the devil that was in me. + +Through this intimate association I became a little Mr. Pound. How +could it have been otherwise when day after day, books in hand, I +walked down to his house to recite my lesson of Latin and Greek, and +with him worked through the mysteries of algebraic calculation and +studied the strange habits of the right line? He pressed me into his +mould. Years went by. In the valley the Professor was forgotten, and +to me Penelope was but a dim figure in the past. Even the memory of +Rufus Blight ceased to awaken rancor, and I could contemplate with +growing cynicism my old-time hatred of him. Unconsciously new +ambitions stirred within me, and they were fostered by the flattery of +my elders. In that Africa of my dream-land I no longer pictured myself +in a cork helmet slaying lions, but dying at the stake, a martyr to my +duty and--must I add it?--being preached about afterward from a +thousand pulpits. + +Mr. Pound was my model of deportment, my glass of fashion. I see him +now as we used to sit, vis-a-vis, at his study table. Samson's +physical strength came from his hair. From the same source, it seemed +to me, Mr. Pound derived that mental vigor with which he pulled down +the temples of ignorance and slew the thousand devils of unorthodoxy +which sprang from my doubting mind. From the top of his head a red +lock flamed up, licking the air; over its sides the hair tumbled in +cataracts, breaking about his ears; then the surging hair lost itself +in orderly currents which flowed, waving, from his cheeks, leaving a +rift from which sprang a generous nose and a round chin with many +folds. His mouth was formed for the enunciation of large words and +pompous phrases. From it monosyllables fell like bullets from a +cannon. He seldom descended to conversation. He declaimed. He sought +to impress on me the importance of using resounding sentences which he +said would keep reverberating in the caverns of the mind. For this +effect he had a theory that words ending in "ation" and "ention" were +especially fitted. Trumpet-words, he called them, brazen notes which +penetrated the deepest crevices of the brain. I must admit that in the +practice of his theory he was wonderfully successful, for after thirty +years I can still hear his sonorous voice filling the church with the +announcement that the "Jewish congregation was a segregation for the +preservation of the Jewish nation." I can see him pausing in his +discourse to lubricate his vocal chords with a glass of ice-water, and +then drawing himself to his full height, fix his eyes on his hushed +people and cry: "What did I say the Jewish congregation was? Let me +refresh your recollection." His answer must ring to-day in the caverns +of many minds. Others of his phrases, I know, still echo in my own. +But this is because so often in my own room I practised declaiming +them, striving to enunciate them with my mentor's finish. + +Was it a wonder that I became a little Mr. Pound? I suppose, too, that +I became a veritable little cad. Conscious of my advantages in birth +and breeding, much impressed on me by my mother, I had never been +intimate with the village boys. Now I shunned them altogether. To me +they were thoughtless heathen and unprofitable company. I strove for a +time to correct their evil ways and to bring them to repentance. That +was something which I could properly do without unnecessary +association. I had for my reward only taunts. They called me "Goody" +and "Miss Malcolm," and like names contemplated to shame me from the +course which I had chosen, but in the martyrdom which they made me +suffer I only gloried, and I could have let them stone me to death and +forgiven them, provided, of course, that Mr. Pound preached about me +afterward and that my name were enrolled in the company of well-known +martyrs. Looking back, I realize that I was playing. There was a fine +excitement in being hunted in my comings and goings through the +village. It became my Africa, where any tree might hide a deadly +enemy, and any fence an ambush. I discovered secret passages through +backyards. I matched cunning against overwhelming force, and +sometimes, when the odds were not too great against me, I remembered +Joshua and another David and turned on the Philistines and smote them +right manfully. At other times the hostilities lagged, but they never +ceased entirely, and often they broke out suddenly with increased fury. +It was a mass and class war. To the butcher's son and the blacksmith's +boy and their like, the restless masses, I was indeed a bumptious +Malcolm. Conscious of the superior quality of the blood of the +McLaurins, and a little inflated with the pride of wealth, I had long +patronized them, so there was needed only my assumption of virtue to +fan the flames. But as I grew in years and knowledge, and the days of +my departure from the valley drew nearer, I relied less on my fists for +protection and more on a defensive armor of dignity. I became less a +target for missiles and more an object of jibes. These I met with +contempt, for I was going to college; I was going to McGraw University, +the alma mater of Mr. Pound, and this thought alone nerved me to step +out of the course of a flying stone with unconcern and to move down the +street with Pound-like mien. + +There never was any discussion in our family as to where I should take +my collegiate training. Had there been, Mr. Pound would speedily have +quelled it. McGraw was the one college of which I knew anything. The +little that I could learn of others was through the sporting pages of +my father's Philadelphia paper, and here the name of Mr. Pound's alma +mater was strangely missing. But he drew a real picture of it for me; +gave me a concrete conception which I could not form from records of +touch-downs and runs and three-baggers to left field. Sometimes in the +study I would rise to points of information on Harvard, Princeton, or +Yale, but I was promptly declared out of order. Mr. Pound admitted +that these universities were larger than McGraw, and acknowledged that +in some special lines of education they might be in advance of McGraw; +yet, withal, had he a son he would intrust him only to the care of +Doctor John Francis Todd. As an educator and builder of character +Doctor Todd had no equal in the country. Mr. Pound could prove this. +He pointed to his old friend Adam Silliman, who graduated at Princeton +and was to-day a struggling coal merchant in Pleasantville, and drank. +With him he contrasted Sylvester Bradley, who got his degree at McGraw +in exactly the same year, '73, and had been three times moderator of +the Pennsylvania Synod. Of such comparisons between McGraw men who had +succeeded and other university men who had failed Mr. Pound had so many +at his fingers' ends as to be absolutely overwhelming. So before I had +seen McGraw I was a McGraw man to the core, and my mentor, with a +subtlety astonishing for him, missed no opportunity to increase my +devotion. He even taught me the college yell in one of his lighter +moments, and I, in turn, taught it to James that it might ring out with +more volume from the barn-bridge of an evening. + +You may think that I was to be disillusioned. That could not be. When +first I saw McGraw she was a giantess to my eyes. The time was to come +when I was to see her in a new light, to judge her from a new +perspective, to realize the incongruity between her aspiration and +accomplishment, to smile at her solemn adherence to academic ritual; +and yet to realize that in her littleness and poverty she gave me what +was good and all that was in her power. I may regret that I did not +delve deeper into the mysteries of those foot-ball scores and discover, +through them, the greater seats of learning. Perhaps I might have +known then that not all their sons became coal-merchants and drank, and +I might have gone much farther on that September day when first I set +out into the world beyond the mountains. But for all that I cannot +imagine the four years which I spent at that tiny college taken from my +life. For all the four years that might have been I would not exchange +them. + +That September day? It is a tall white mile-stone on my way. I can +look back and see its every detail. On its eve James and I sat for the +last time on the barn-bridge and he sang of Annie Laurie and Nellie +Gray. And when we heard my mother calling me, we stood together and +gave the college yell. + +"I s'pose, Davy," he said, as we were moving toward the house, "folks +will think I'm a little peculiar, but I'm going to give that cheer +every night, just for old times' sake--for your sake, Davy." + +Our elders have a fashion of making like inopportune remarks when we +are struggling to keep our hearts high. It seemed as though they were +trying to break my spirit. My mother's white silence, my father's long +prayer, James feverishly coming and going on that last morning--little +things like these almost made me abandon my great plans. But pride +sustained me--that same pride which sends men into battle for foolish +causes. I wanted to hurry the fall of the blow. I even protested +against my parents and Mr. Pound driving with me to the railroad, and +they did not understand. I had to meet their last embraces under the +eyes of the motley crowd who had come to the station to see the train, +and under such conditions I dared not show emotion. Again they did not +understand and were a little hurt by my coldness. I sprang up the car +steps jauntily. To show my independence I stood by the smoker door and +waved a smiling farewell to the silent, wondering three. I did not +wait there, as they waited, looking after me, but turned, tossed my new +bag into a rack, threw myself into a seat, and crossed my legs with the +nonchalance of one who left home every day. + +The river travelled with me out of the valley. I looked from the car +window and saw it at my side, and together we went away. I was silent, +wondering at the shadow which seemed to overcast the earth. The little +river was bright in the noonday sun--a cheery fellow-traveller through +the green land. I leaned from the car window in the suddenly born hope +that I might see the three still figures, back there in the hot glare +of the station. But the river had turned, and I saw not the roofs of +Pleasantville dozing in the sun like the very dogs, nor the court-house +tower and the tall steeples that pierced her shade, but a high wall of +mountains. We seemed to be driving straight for their heart. The +river's mood was mine. It shrank from that forbidding wall and the +mysteries beyond; it swept in a wide curve into pleasant lowlands. And +now I looked across it northward, to other mountains--to _my_ +mountains, to the friendly heights that watched over _my_ valley. +Closing my eyes I saw it as on that morning when Penelope and I rode in +terror from the woods. I looked across it as it lay in the broad day, +under the kindly eye of God, across the rolling green, checkered with +the white of blossoming orchards and the brown of the fallow, past the +village spires and up the long slope to the roof among the giant oaks. +You've had enough, the river seemed to say; and, turning, it charged +boldly into the other mountain's heart. I went with it, but my face +was pressed against the pane, that those who travelled with me might +not see. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Harlansburg, with practical sense, shields itself from northern winds +by a high hill, spreading over the barren southern slope. Trade clings +to the river-front, in a compact mass around the square, and from there +the town rises, scattering as it climbs, and the higher it goes the +larger are the houses and the more imposing, suggesting a contest in +which the stronger have overtopped their weaker brethren. But the +university, I suspect, was never surfeited with practical sense, else +she would not have settled on the very crest of the hill, to shiver the +winter through in icy winds and in the summer to bake in tropic heat. +There was, indeed, a delightful lack of responsibility about the +university. She had something of Micawber's nature, and was so inured +to adversity that she would have been ill at ease in a position less +imposing, even though less exposed. She might shiver, but she would +dominate the town. She was hopefully waiting for something to turn up, +and for such a purpose was well placed, for the railroad threaded the +narrow valley below, and at any moment some multi-millionaire might see +her from the car window, take pity and endow her. This impression of +worth in honorable tatters, of virtue appealing for aid, is made on me +to-day when the train swings around the jutting hill and I behold the +roof of "Old Main" rising from the trees, and the smutted white dome of +the observatory. But that afternoon when I first saw my alma mater, I +was quite overwhelmed by her magnificence. Before that I had known +McGraw only by an ancient wood-cut of Mr. Pound's, which showed a long +building, supremely bare, set among military trees; with a barouche in +the foreground in which was a woman holding a parasol; with +wooden-looking gentlemen in beaver hats pointing canes at the windows +as though they were studying the beauties of imagined tracery. The +military trees had grown, and through the gaps in the foliage as I drew +nearer I made out the detail of the most imposing structure I had ever +seen. Not St. Peter's, nor the Colosseum, nor the Temple of the Sun +have awakened in me the same thrill of admiration that shot through my +veins when "Old Main" stretched its bare brick walls before me to +incomprehensible distances, and rising carried my eyes to the sky +itself, where the Gothic wood-work of the tower pierced it. + +In the name, "Old Main," there is a suggestion of a score of collegiate +Gothic quadrangles clustering about their common mother, but these +existed only in the dreams of Doctor Todd, and the most tangible +expression they found was in a blue-print which was hung in a +conspicuous place in his study and presented his scheme of placing the +different schools in that hoped-for day when the multimillionaire +untied the strings of his money-bags. + +"Our founder, Stephen McGraw," Doctor Todd was fond of explaining, +"gave us the nucleus of a great educational institution. Our task is +to build on his foundation. It is true that in fifty years not a new +stone has been laid, but that must not discourage us. We shall go on +hoping and working." + +Dear old Doctor Todd! He still works on and hopes. He has had bitter +disappointments, but they have never beaten him down. Had Stephen +McGraw left his money and not his name to the university, the doctor's +task would have been easier, for it is not the way of men to beautify +another's monument. Once, I remember, a Western capitalist was +persuaded to make a great gift to McGraw. He made it with conditions, +and for a while our hopes blazed high and with exceeding fury. The +collegiate Gothic quadrangles were within our reach, as near to us as +the grapes to Tantalus. A half-million dollars was promised us if we +raised a like sum within a year. Doctor Todd tried to effect a +compromise by accepting two hundred thousand dollars outright, but the +philanthropist did not believe in making beggars of institutions by +surfeiting them with charity. So we cheered him right heartily and +went to work to gather our share. I remember it all very well because +I sang in the glee-club concert which we gave in the opera house to +help the fund, and because our classroom work was very light, as the +president and half of the faculty were canvassing the State for aid. +We worked desperately--faculty, alumni, and students. Even Mr. Pound +gave ten dollars from his meagre salary, and the Reverend Sylvester +Bradley, three times moderator of the synod, a round hundred. With +only a month in which to make up a deficit of four hundred thousand +dollars, we did not abandon hope. Every morning in chapel the doctor +prayed earnestly for a rain of manna or a visitation of ravens, which +we knew to be his adroit way of covering a more mercenary petition. +But heaven never opened, and a check never fluttered to earth from the +only source from which it could be expected. The year ended and our +would-be benefactor gave his money outright to Harvard or Yale, I +forget which, for a swimming tank or a gymnasium. + +Some day McGraw may get the coveted money. I know that were it in my +power the collegiate Gothic quadrangles would rise on the lines of +Doctor Todd's faded blue-print. I should build Todd Hall and McGraw +Library, but not one brick would I add to "Old Main." There would be +the only condition of my gift of millions. They might suggest oriel +windows to relieve the bare facade, buttresses to break the flatness of +the wall and pinnacles to beautify the roof, but I would have "Old +Main" always as I saw it on that September afternoon, when I had +climbed the hill, paused, set down my bag and stood with arms akimbo +while I scanned the amazing length and height of the splendid pile. My +heart at each remove from home had become a heavier weight until I +seemed to carry within me a solid leaden load. Now it lightened +mysteriously. Face to face with a new life that had its symbol in this +noble breadth of wall, the cords which held me to the old snapped. +That very morning seemed the part of another age, and yesterday was +spent in another world. I was wide awake at last. The cheer which Mr. +Pound had taught me was on my lips, and I should have given it as a +paean of thanksgiving had I not been embarrassed by the scrutiny of a +group of young men who loitered on the steps before me. So I picked up +my bag, a feather-weight to my new energy, and went boldly on. + +My impression of the splendor of college life was heightened by the +first acquaintance I made in my new environment. This was Boller of +'89, and today Boller of '89 holds in my mind as a true pattern of the +man of the world. His was the same stuff of which was made "the +perfect courtier." The difference lay solely in the degree of finish, +and justly considered, true value lies in the material, not in the +gloss. Boller, polished by the society of Harlansburg, appeared to my +eyes quite the most delightful person I had ever met. It was the +perfection of his clothes and the graciousness of his manner that awed +me and won my admiration. In those days wide trousers were the +fashion, and Boller was, above all, fashion's ardent devotee. His, I +think, exceeded by four inches the widest in the college. Recalling +him as he came forth from the group on the steps to greet me, I think +of him as potted in his trousers, like a plant, so slender rose his +body from his draped legs. His patent-leather shoes were almost +hidden, and from his broad base he seemed to converge into a gray derby +of the kind we called "the smoky city," the latest thing from +Pittsburgh. Looking at him, so wonderfully garbed, I became conscious +of my own rusticity, so old-fashioned did the styles of Pleasantville +appear beside the resplendent garments of my new friend. I was sure +that he must notice it. If he did, he gave no sign. + +"I'm Boller of '89," he said, grasping my hand cordially. "What's your +name?" + +"Malcolm, sir--David Malcolm," I answered. + +Boller clapped an arm across my shoulders in friendly fashion. "You're +three days late, Malcolm, but better late than never. I suppose you +were hesitating between McGraw and Harvard." + +"Oh, no!" I faltered, not fathoming his pleasantry. "I had to wait +until the tailor finished my new suit. It should have been done last +Monday, but----" + +Something in Boller's eyes checked me. He was regarding me from head +to foot so gravely that I divined that I might have joined the crew of +the Ark in my new clothes, judged by their cut. + +"You have come here to study agriculture, I presume," he remarked most +pleasantly. + +So subtle a reference to my bucolic appearance was lost on my innocent +mind. He seemed quite serious and as he was mistaken I wanted to set +him right. I was proud of my laudable ambition. Proclaiming it had +brought me only commendation, and I proclaimed it now. + +"I'm going to be a minister," I said, drawing myself up a little. + +"Indeed--a minister--how interesting!" returned Boller, raising his +eyebrows. + +Now had he laughed at me, had he called his fellows from the step to +mob me, in the glory of my martyrdom I should have held fast to my +purpose; or had he flattered me like Miss Spinner or Mr. Smiley, my +vanity would have carried me on my chosen path. His middle course was +disconcerting. He treated my ambition as though it were quite a +natural one and just about as interesting as to follow dentistry or +plumbing. + +"I'm going to be a missionary," I said in a louder tone, hoping to +arouse in him either antagonism or adulation. + +"Curious," he returned. "Very curious. Why I am thinking of taking up +the same line myself. It makes a man so interesting to the girls. +I've a cousin who is a minister, and last year he received seventeen +pairs of knit slippers from the young ladies of his congregation. +That's going some--eh, Malcolm?" + +What a different picture from my cherished one of cork hats and express +rifles! The suggestion was horribly insidious. To be interesting to +women _en masse_ was to my manly view exceedingly unmanly; to labor for +reward in knit slippers the depth of degradation. I was about to +declare to Boller that I was not going to be his kind of a clergyman +when I stopped to ask myself if I had ever known any other kind, if my +own ideal were not as unattainable as to be another Ivanhoe or Captain +Cook. Mr. Pound rose before me, his feet incased in the loving +handiwork of Miss Spinner. From him my mind shot wide afield to the +Reverend Doctor Bumpus, fresh from the dark continent, thanking our +congregation for the barrel of clothing sent to his eleven children in +far-off Zululand. Thoughts like these were as arrows in the heart of +my noble purpose. + +"I haven't absolutely made up my mind," I said suddenly. + +But Boller refused to accept such a qualification. He had me firmly by +the arm and brought me face to face with the loungers on the step. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "allow me to present to you the Reverend Doctor +David Malcolm!" + +And the loungers on the step saluted me as gravely as if I had been +that friend of Mr. Pound's, the Reverend Sylvester Bradley, thrice +moderator of the synod. + +It was thus that I became the Reverend David Malcolm, and this was all +the authority I ever had for so honorable a cognomen. So it was that +by the insidious raillery of a moment, Boller shook the foundations +laid by Mr. Pound in five years of labor, and it was not long before +the whole structure of his building tumbled into ruins. My first +violent protest against a nickname which seemed to me to savor of +sacrilege served only to fasten it to me more securely. Resigning +myself to it, I came to regard it lightly, and the longer I bore it in +jest the less I desired to earn it in honor. It was a far cry from Mr. +Pound to Boller of '89, but I doffed the vestment and donned the motley +that September day, for Boller became my mentor and in all things my +model. I was flattered by his condescending treatment. Before a week +had passed my engrossing ambition was to wear trousers as wide as his +and to crown myself with a "smoky city" derby. Having accomplished +this ambition by going into debt, I realized a greater, and pinned to +the lapel of my gayly checked coat, the pearl and diamond-studded pin +of Gamma Theta Epsilon. That, of course, was Boller's fraternity, and +I think he could have persuaded me to join whatever he asked, so wholly +was I captured by his kindness. + +In the study of Doctor Todd to which he led me, in the presence of the +great man, he did not venture any airy presentation. Boller of '89 +inside of the study door was quite a different person from the Boller +without it. The bold manner fled. He was suppressed, obsequious; even +his clothes seemed to shrink and grow humbly dun. We entered so +quietly that the doctor, bending over his desk, did not hear us, and we +had to cough apologetically to apprise him of our presence. + +"David Malcolm, sir--a new freshman," Boller said. + +The doctor rose. I saw a little man with a very large head covered +with hair which shot in all directions in scholarly abandon. His neck +seemed much too thin to carry such a weight, but that, I think, was the +effect of a collar much too large, and a white tie so long that its +ends trailed down over an expanse of crumpled shirt. The doctor's +black clothes looked dusty; the doctor himself looked dusty, yet the +smile with which he greeted me was as warm as the sunshine breaking +through the mist. + +"This is splendid," he cried, shaking my hand fervently. "Mr. Malcolm, +you are welcome. You make the thirty-ninth new man this year--a record +in our history. McGraw is growing. Have I not predicted, Mr. Boller, +that McGraw would grow?" + +To this Boller very readily assented, and the doctor, rubbing his hands +with delight at his vindication, placed a chair for me at his side and +began talking rapidly, not of me, nor of my plans, but of the +university. He did mention incidentally that he had heard of me +through his dear friend, Mr. Pound--a man of whom the university was +proud--yet, though I was sure Mr. Pound had spoken well of me, he made +no mention of it. I was of interest to him simply because by my coming +I had broken the records of McGraw's freshman class. Last year it +numbered thirty-eight; this year, thirty-nine. Through me the +university had taken another stately step onward. He showed me the +blue-print and explained it in detail. He spoke so earnestly that in a +moment he had abandoned the subjunctive mood, and was describing the +buildings as though they actually existed--here the new dormitory, +there the chemical laboratory, the gymnasium, the chapel. So potent +was his imagination that when I was dismissed and stood again on the +steps, I found myself sweeping the campus in search of the beautiful +structures which he had pictured for me. Not finding them, I was prey +to disappointment, so small did the McGraw that was appear beside the +McGraw that should be. I began to suspect that those other +universities upon which Mr. Pound looked with such contempt might +resemble the creation of Doctor Todd's imagination, that there might be +more behind those foot-ball scores than my old mentor had cared to +disclose. Distrust of him was rising in me, but I was not allowed to +remain long pondering over these things, for Boller had been waiting +for me and I was quickly in his possession. + +Had the murmurs of rebellion risen to a point where I was planning to +abandon McGraw, my new friend must have blocked me. He regarded me as +his property. He installed me in the bare little room which for four +years was to be my home. He took me to his own quarters and there gave +me such a glimpse of my new life as to make me forget my momentary +disillusionment. While he dressed, arrayed himself more impressively +than ever in evening clothes, I divided my eyes between him and the +pictures on the wall. Here Boller, in foot-ball clothes, sat on a +fence, wonderfully dashing, with a foot-ball under his arm; there he +was in base-ball toggery, erect with bat lifted, ready to strike; here +holding a baton, a conspicuous figure in a group of young men, looking +exceedingly conscious and uncomfortable in evening clothes--the glee +club, he explained, taken on their last tour of the State. And while +he dressed, he painted such a glowing picture of life at McGraw as to +make it of little moment to me now whether or not Doctor Todd's dream +ever came true. That I should grow to Boller's size and fashion was +all I asked. + +As I watched him soaping and brushing his hair, struggling a half hour +with his tie and setting that hair all awry again, soaping and brushing +once more and at last emerging flawless from the conflict, my own +self-confidence ebbed away and the sense of my own rusticity and +awkwardness oppressed me. I was to go with him to the first important +social event of the year, the reception to the new students, and seeing +how my friend arrayed himself for it, I wanted to crawl away to my own +room and hide there. But he would not let me. He laughed at my +excuses. To be sure my clothes were not the best form, but it was not +to be expected that a man new to university life should be--here Boller +surveyed himself in the glass and I understood the implication. So I +polished my shoes, wetted and soaped my own hair to rival his and went +with him. Had he been leading me into battle I could not have been +colder with fright. Had he not had a fast hold on my arm I am sure +that when I came face to face with the formidable array of faculty and +faculty wives waiting to receive me, I should have beaten a precipitate +retreat. I had never before been received; I had never before been a +guest at any formal social function, and it was appalling to have to +charge this battery of solemn eyes. But there was no escape. Boller +pushed me into the hands of Doctor Todd, who gave another hearty +handshake to the thirty-ninth and presented him to Mrs. Todd. She +assured me that it was a great pleasure to meet me, a statement +entirely at variance with the severity of her countenance and the +promptness with which she passed me on to Professor Ruffle, who +combined the chair of modern languages with the business management of +the college. He with a dexterous twist consigned me to his good lady, +and thus I passed from hand to hand down the dreaded line. + +The ordeal was over. I had had my baptism of social fire. Fear left +me, but not embarrassment. I forgot that thirty-eight other young men +were being received and were undergoing numberless bewildering +introductions. It seemed that the whole college was there simply to +meet me, and I returned its greeting in a daze. If I lost Boller in +the press, I felt the need of his supporting arm and peered longingly +among the jostling crowd to find him. He was continually going and +coming, but he never forgot me for any time. He was wonderfully kind +about informing as to whom it was worth my while to be agreeable. . . . +Don't trouble with Brown; be pleasant to Jones, but look out for +Robinson, the fellow with a Kappa Iota Omega pin. He had hardly warned +me against Robinson, before that young man was addressing me with great +cheerfulness. I saw nothing whatever repulsive about him; but to +Boller I was evidently in danger. + +"There's a young lady here who is dying to meet you," he whispered in +my ear as he drew me from the sinister clutches. + +Oh, subtle flattery! This was the first time I had ever had a young +lady dying to meet me. Of course I understood that Boller had spoken +figuratively, and yet I did not question that the young lady had seen +me, and I was vain enough to hold it not at all unlikely that something +in my appearance had interested her. Had not vanity overcome my +embarrassment, curiosity would have done so. I wanted to see what she +was like who had been so affected by the sight of me. And when I did +see her, when I stood before her on shifting feet, I would have given +the world to be somewhere else, yet, by a curious contradiction, +nothing could have dragged me from the spot, so fair was she to look on. + +"Miss Todd--Mr. Malcolm," said Boller of '89. Then he mopped his brow +with a purple silk handkerchief and added that it was very warm. I +said that it was very warm, and Miss Todd smiled quite the loveliest +smile that I had ever seen. + +I realized that this Miss Todd was the doctor's daughter, of whom I had +heard Boller speak in the most extravagant terms, and now it seemed to +me that his praise had quite failed to convey an adequate idea of her +charms. She was very fair, very pink and white, with a Psyche knot of +shimmering hair; a tall, slender girl, clad in clinging, gauzy blue. +To my mind came the picture of Penelope Blight, the only girl to whom I +had ever given a thought; I remembered her tanned cheeks, her brown +arms, and hard little hands, and it seemed to me that even she could +never grow to such loveliness as this. + +I loved Miss Todd. Had she offered herself to me at that moment, I +should have married her on the spot, and now there was shattered my +boyish contempt for all that was weak and gentle, however beautiful. +The ideas which composed my mind rattled and tumbled about like the +bits of colored glass in a kaleidoscope, and in a flash they formed a +softer and more harmonious design. The world was something more to me +than a happy hunting-ground, life more than an exciting adventure. The +world was the home of Gladys Todd; life was to win her love; happiness +was to sit at her side. + +And now I was sitting at her side in a seventh heaven; in one of the +silent places of the seventh heaven, for we had little to say to each +other. We were tyros in the art of conversing, and our promising ideas +born of long mental struggles were stilled with bludgeons of assent and +dissent. We knew not how to nourish and embellish them, and yet, +though there were long stretches of embarrassed silence, we were not +unhappy. Even Boller found his subterfuges to drag me away quite +futile, and Miss Todd herself seemed content, for she met a dozen like +efforts with a quiet and unpenetrable smile. + +So Gladys Todd and I sat the evening through as on a calm cloud, +looking down to earth and the antics of little men. They crowded close +to us, laughing and talking; they called up to us and we did not hear +them; they jostled one another and they jostled us, but they could not +entice us into their restless social game. They offered us coffee, +sandwiches and cake, and we brushed them away. The very thought of +food was repulsive to me, and this was not because I had reached that +point where the immeasurable yearning of the heart dwarfs all mean +desire. I was really hungry, but I had no mind to spoil the impression +which it was evident I had made; I had no mind to let Miss Todd see me +with a half-eaten sandwich poised in one hand and scattering crumbs +untidily, and in the other a cup of muddy, steaming fluid. She seemed +to have a like conception of the undignity of eating, for when she +declined the proffered feast it was with the air of one who never ate +at all, who never knew the pangs of appetite, but lived on something +infinitely higher. She even spurned the cake, and I was glad to let +her deceive me. I liked to coddle myself with the belief that she +never ate. I knew that she did not want me to see her eating, for then +I must have classed her with the mass of women--with Mrs. Ruffle, whom +I heard choking on a bit of nutshell; with her mother, who was standing +near us talking in a voice muffled in food; I must have slipped off the +cloud to earth. + +But Gladys Todd was wise, with that innate wisdom of her sex in matters +of appearance when appearance is to be considered, and we held in +silence, loftily on our cloud. And looking back on that evening, my +recollection is of misty, nebulous things; not of a passing flow of +incident, but of a welling up of new thoughts as I sat awkwardly +pulling at my fingers and caressing my collar. Yet there were +incidents, too, of high importance to McGraw. Doctor Todd declared +that the evening was historical. Standing in the centre of a hushed +company, he announced that the year had broken all records for +matriculation; McGraw was growing; McGraw could not long be contained +within her present walls, and the world must soon realize that in +simple justice something must be done for her. The doctor was not cast +down by the fact that nothing had been done and that there was no sign +of anything being done. Hope was his watchword, and so hopefully did +he speak of the future that the collegiate Gothic quadrangles began to +rise in the imaginations of the company as dreams almost accomplished, +and so infectious was his confidence that his hearers caught the high +pitch of his enthusiasm, and when he had finished Boller sprang to a +chair, and, waving a coffee-cup, struck the first deep tones of "Here's +to old McGraw, drink her down!" and everybody joined in as fervently as +though it were a hymn. They were not satisfied with it once, but +Doctor Todd himself cried, "Again," and, waving an imaginary cup, led +us off once more into the bibulous and inspiring song. + +I remember joining in the first bars, but not because I was unduly +stirred by the love of my alma mater. It was rather to give Gladys +Todd a hint of the rich depths of my voice. To make an impression on +Gladys Todd had become the business of my life. I was glad that I had +come to McGraw, because here I had met her. McGraw's past and future +were of no moment to me; her growth was nothing. She might shrivel up +until I was the only student, yet I should still be happy in my +nearness to Gladys Todd. And what of Penelope? I did think of +Penelope that night as I sat alone in my room, cocked on two legs of my +chair, gazing blankly at the ceiling. I remembered the foolish, +childish promises which I had made to her that I should never forget +her. Of course I should never forget her, no more than I should forget +the moon because I had beheld the sun's dazzling splendor. + +But a man's ideas change, I said; his view broadens. And I remembered +Penelope as I first saw her, in her tattered frock and with the faded +ribbon tossing in her hair. I liked Penelope. I thought of her with +brotherly affection. But I said to myself that she could never grow to +the wonderful beauty of this Miss Todd. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +I was not long at McGraw University before I had attained my ambition to +be like Boller of '89. I draped my legs in wide folds of shepherd's +plaid; the corners of a purple silk handkerchief protruded from my top +pocket; and as long as the "smoky city" was the proper form I crowned +myself with one of them, and as promptly discarded it for the newer +tourist's helmet, and that in turn for a yachting cap. Must I confess +it?--before Boller left McGraw I had quite surpassed him as a model of +fashion. But my ambition did not end here. The very conceit which had +made me such an insufferable youth in my last days at home was the spur +which drove me to win every honor that could come to an undergraduate. +As Boller stepped out of offices I stepped into them--in presidencies and +secretaryships almost innumerable, into editorships, and even +captaincies. Physically timid, I endured much pain in winning these last +honors. The stretch of rolling turf which we called the foot-ball field +became the arena in which I suffered martyrdom daily. I hated the game. +When I donned my padded toggery it was with the secret spirit I should +have felt in preparing for the rack, yet I played recklessly for the +_eclat_ it gave me. To-day I have an occasional reminder of those +struggles in a weak knee, which has a way of twisting unexpectedly and +causing excruciating pain, but I consider that these twinges are fair +payment for the pleasure with which I contemplated my picture years ago +in the Harlansburg _Sentinel_, showing me in my foot-ball clothes, poised +on a photographer's fence. The subject, the _Sentinel_ explained, was +Captain Malcolm of McGraw, who had made the winning touch-down in the +Thanksgiving-Day game with the Northern University of Pennsylvania. The +photographer's fence, you might think, was the summit of my career at +McGraw, reached as it was in my last year there. To the admiring eyes of +my fellows it was, but the McLaurins of Tuckapo and the Malcolms of Windy +Valley were above all a practical people and to them I am indebted for a +little common-sense, which told me that I could not play foot-ball all my +life, nor would the heavy bass voice, so effective in the glee club, +support a family, and deep in my heart I admitted the possibilities of a +family. I might strive to keep that thought in the background, but it +would rise when I dreamed of a home. That home was not a plain stone +farm-house, hidden among giant trees. My view had broadened. I dreamed +of a Queen Anne cottage, with many gables, and a flat clipped lawn, with +a cement walk leading over it to an iron gate. I looked back with +affectionate contempt to the art I had known in my youth, to the Rogers +group, Lady Washington's ball, Lincoln and his cabinet, the lambrequin +and the worsted motto. On my walls there would be a Colosseum, +Rembrandt's portrait of himself, a smattering of Madonnas, a Winged +Victory, and a Venus de Milo. To preside with me over such a house, to +sit at the piano of an evening and play accompaniments while I sang +sentimental songs, to fly with me over the country in a side-bar buggy, +behind a fleet trotter, I thought only of Gladys Todd. She was +accomplished, highly trained, it seemed to me, in all the finer arts of +life. In our valley the women never rose above their petty household +problems. They could talk, but only of recipes and church affairs, and +if they left this narrow environment at all it was to fare far--to India +and China, the foreign mission field. My view had broadened. Gladys +Todd had her being in higher airs. She painted. Pastels of flowers and +plaques adorned with ideal heads covered the walls of the Todd parlor. +She wrote. Doctor Todd assured me, speaking without prejudice, that his +daughter's essay on "The Immortality of the Soul," which she had written +out of pure love of the labor, equalled, if it did not surpass, the best +work of the senior class. She sang. Perhaps I see her now in the same +wizard lights of distance that glorified the mountains in my boyhood, but +I always recall her as a charming old-fashioned picture, sitting at her +piano and babbling her little songs in French and German. Of the quality +of her French and German I had no means of judging, but that she could +use them at all was to me surpassingly enchanting. + +So Gladys Todd had her part in completing the wreck of my worthy +ambition. What Boller had begun, she unconsciously finished. Yesterday +I had planned to make self-sacrifice the key-note of my life. To-day I +could not picture her contented to move in the narrow sphere of a Mrs. +Pound, cramping her talents in the little circle of the Sunday-school and +the Ladies' Aid. Her influence for good must be a subtler one than this. +To wield it, she must have her being in higher airs, in an atmosphere of +Colosseums, of Rembrandts, and Madonnas. Remember, she was no longer the +shy girl whom I had met on the first night of my university life. Then +she was only in her fifteenth year. I was a junior when she produced her +lauded essay on "The Immortality of the Soul," and it revealed to me the +profundity of her mind. To match her, I must sit many a night driving my +way through difficult pages of the classics, and often when my heart was +in some smoky den with a few choice spirits, my body bent over my table +and my brain wearied itself with abstruse equations. + +If Gladys Todd unconsciously wrecked my early scheme of life, she +unconsciously spurred me to the hard task of learning. I flattered +myself that in the new calling which I had chosen I should be able to be +even a greater power for good than in the old. Having attained to +Boller's perfection, as I had abandoned Mr. Pound for him, I now +abandoned him for ex-Judge Bundy. As Harlansburg was far above +Malcolmville, so ex-Judge Bundy was above Mr. Pound. He was not the +creator of Harlansburg, but he was its providence. He owned the bank and +the nail works, he was a patron of its churches, the leading figure at +the bar, and a man of wonderful eloquence. Every year he delivered the +graduation address at the university, and mentally I modelled my future +appearance on the rostrum from his benign demeanor, his forceful +gestures, his rolling periods. Yet deep as was my admiration, he held +views on which I differed with him. I felt that I had gone deeper than +he into the logic of things. To him, for example, the high tariff was +the source of all good, of life, health, food, clothes, and even morals. +My view was broader. I brushed aside the beneficent local effect of any +system and went on to study its relation to all mankind. He was prone to +forget mankind, and yet his faults were those of his generation and he +remained a heroic figure in my eyes, and it seemed to me that in setting +myself to reach the mark he had made I was aiming very high indeed. +Perhaps I should have gone on, striving to attain to the Bundian +perfection had not the ex-judge himself been the instrument by which I +was awakened and shaken out of my self-complacence. Among the +benefactions which had brought him such high esteem in our college +community was "the Richardson Bundy course of lectures on the activities +of life." He paid for the services of orators whom Doctor Todd delighted +to call "leaders in every branch of human endeavor." In my last year at +McGraw we heard the Fourth Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on +"Finance," the art critic of a Philadelphia paper on "Raphael," and as a +fitting climax to the course we were to listen to the famous Armenian +scholar and philosopher, the Reverend Valerian Harassan in a discourse on +"Life." The adjective is not mine. I had never heard of the famous +Armenian until Doctor Todd in chapel announced his coming, and made it +clear that it was a special privilege to listen to the eloquent preacher, +and that we owed a tremendous debt to our friend and benefactor, Judge +Bundy. + +The picture of the Reverend Valerian Harassan, which was posted on the +bulletin-board, gave promise of a realization of the hopes which the good +doctor had raised. It showed a man in evening clothes, impressively +massive, with a clean-shaven face and Roman features, a broad, low +forehead from which the hair rolled back in glistening black folds, +curling around his ears to the line of his collar. The deep-set eyes +seemed to look out from a mind packed with knowledge, and the firmly set +mouth to hold in check a voice of marvellous power for eloquence. + +In high spirits I went one evening to hear this eastern philosopher. It +was cold and raining, but in those days the worst of weather could cast +no shadow over me. It was a pleasure even to battle with the elements +with no other weapon than an umbrella, and multiplied a hundred-fold was +that pleasure when with that weapon I was battling also for Gladys Todd. +Though as yet I had said nothing to her of my cherished hope, I know that +when we stepped out together into the night, we both believed that we +should face many another storm under the same umbrella. I was conscious +that she clung more closely than usual to my arm, and, with spirits keyed +high with the sense of protecting her, my feet hardly touched the +dripping pavement which led from the doctor's house to the college +building and the chapel. We said little on the way. We had long since +passed the point where idle chatter is needed in communing. I remember +that I did ruminate pleasantly on my good fortune in having found this +sympathetic spirit to share with me the intellectual pleasure of a +scholarly discourse, whose heart could beat quicker in time with mine at +the inspiration of some fine thought. I remember that she broke the +current of these meditations to ask if I had decided to make Harlansburg +my home after my approaching graduation. She asked it with a tone of +deep personal interest. At that moment I should have proposed to Gladys +Todd had not the wind been tugging at the umbrella, and had we not come +from the shadow of the trees into the glare of the college lights. So I +answered affirmatively. Of course I should remain in Harlansburg. At +that moment my resolution was fixed unalterably, if only for the sake of +Gladys Todd; and if I had settled in my mind that I should walk in the +way of Judge Bundy till, like him, I dominated the town and the county +and my name was known in the farthest corners of the State, that, too, +would be for the sake of this gentle, clinging girl whose nearness to me +made my umbrella seem like the sheltering roof of home. But in this +calculation I left out of my equation one important element--the throat +of the Reverend Valerian Harassan. + +The source of the Armenian's flowing eloquence would have seemed as far +from affecting my life as the source and flow of the sacred Ganges, and +yet it was some trivial irritation of it that kept us from hearing his +philosophy that night, and, more important to me, that sent another to +expound ideas far different than could ever have come from the famous +thinker. All the college, all in Harlansburg who were well-to-do and +wise, watched for his coming expectantly; but when the door on the chapel +platform opened and Judge Bundy stepped forth, he had on his arm, not the +monumental preacher of the clean-shaven face and rolling black hair, but +a man who in no line met the hopes raised by the impressive picture. A +murmur of disappointment ran through the hall. Doctor Todd, following +the great men in the humble capacity of beadle, stilled it with a raised +hand. + +To Judge Bundy's mind, as he expressed it to us, there was no cause for +disappointment. While the Reverend Valerian Harassan's bronchial +affection was unfortunate for us and for him, yet for us it was in a way, +too, a blessing, for he had sent in his place to speak to us on "Life" no +other than the famous journalist and traveller Andrew Henderson. The +judge paused to give time for a play of our imaginations, and such a play +was needed. I do not think that a soul in the audience had ever heard of +the famous journalist and traveller, but we should not have admitted it, +and set ourselves to looking as though his name were a household word. +It was enough that Judge Bundy declared him to be famous. It was +decreed, and for Harlansburg, at least, he became a celebrity. Having +given us time to imagine the deeds which had won fame for the lecturer, +Judge Bundy saw no need to trouble himself with specifications. The +rolling periods of his speech would have been rudely halted by facts, so +he spoke in general terms of the inspiration it would give to the young +men before him to see such a man face to face--a man who knew life, a man +who had lived life, who had ideas on life. It seemed as though the judge +himself was about to deliver the lecture on "Life," but he paused, out of +breath, and Andrew Henderson, mistaking the moment of rest for the end of +the introduction, rose from the chair about which he had been shifting +uneasily and came to the rostrum's edge. + +He came with a shambling gait. The tall, thin, loose-jointed man, +resting with one hand on the pulpit at his side, in every way belied the +pompous tribute which had just been paid him. + +I watched him. I studied the face masked in a close-cropped gray beard. +I studied the angles of the loosely hung limbs and the swinging body clad +in unobtrusive brown. For a moment I doubted. Then he spoke. I heard +his voice, and it seemed as though it were threaded with a sharp, shrill +note of bitterness. His eyes were not turned to us. Gladys Todd must +have thought them fixed on a spot in the ceiling, but to me they were +watching a flake of cloud hovering just above the tall pine across the +clearing. Gladys Todd must have thought me beside her, sitting upright +on the very edge of my seat, but I was back in the mountains; I could +feel Penelope's brown hand in mine and I could see her proud smile as she +looked up at me and said: "That's father; he's studying"; I could see her +father as he leaned on his hoe, beaten in his fight with the +ever-charging weeds; I could see him in the murky light of the cabin, a +trembling hazy figure in the gun smoke; and again, with the devils of +retribution at his heels, flying for the bush. Now the worthless, +shiftless man, after long years, stood before me, a professor in truth, a +professor of life, and perhaps he would give belated expression to what +was in his mind that day as he studied the flake of cloud. + +Unrolling a portentous manuscript on the pulpit, the lecturer began to +read in a mechanical voice. The restless shuffling of feet and a volley +of dry coughs soon spoke the hostile attitude of the audience, a longing +for the coming of Valerian Harassan. The Professor did not heed them. +He read on, pompous phrases such as might have come from the lips of Mr. +Pound. He was unconscious of the increasing hostility of his hearers. +When he stopped suddenly, it was not because the feet in the rear of the +hall were shuffling a rising chorus of protest, despite the frantic +signals of Judge Bundy and Doctor Todd's upraised hand. What he saw in +his own manuscript checked him, for stepping back from the desk, he +frowned at it. The corners of his mouth twitched in a passing smile, and +pouncing upon his handiwork, he held it at arm's length, dangling before +the astonished eyes of the company. + +"What rot!" he cried. "What utter rot!" + +A shout from the rear of the room evidenced the approval of his younger +hearers. The elders glowered at what they thought a trick to catch their +attention. But trick or not, he did catch their attention, and he held +it; he ceased to be the utterer of pompous platitudes; dropping his paper +to show that he had done with it, he leaned across the pulpit and brought +his long arms into action. He became the caustic iconoclast of the +valley. + +"We all agree that what I have been reading is nonsense," he said in a +sharp-edged voice. "But I am here in the place of Valerian Harassan, and +it seemed to me that I must give you what you were paying him for. I +have been trying to say the kind of things he would have said. If you +had been able to stand it a little longer, I should have told you that +all the world's a stage and men and women but the players. I might even +have attacked your risibles by anecdotes about my little boy at home and +the southern colonel. Of course, I should have given you some inspiring +thoughts, convinced you that life was a wonderful gift, something to be +treasured and joyously lived, that work was a pleasure, that happiness +came from accomplishing a set task. It's all here in this paper. I +wrote it--and it was easy enough to do--because that is the kind of stuff +you pay for. But it is one thing to write what you don't believe; quite +another to speak it face to face. And yet if I am to speak the truth as +I see it on such a simple little subject as life, I guess I am here on a +fool's errand." + +Doctor Todd and Judge Bundy seemed to be of the same mind, for they were +whispering together; debating, I suspected, whether it were better to let +him go on and try to talk fifty dollars' worth or to break abruptly into +his discourse and end it. For so harsh a measure as the last they lacked +courage, and the Professor hurled on, unconscious of the hostile stares +with which they were stabbing him in the back. + +Now, optimism was the foundation on which McGraw strove to build up +character. Optimism permeated every part of our life there. From a +narrow environment we looked out hopefully into broadening distances. +Every year some confident youth told us from the college rostrum in +rounded sentences that life was worth living; that sickness, poverty, +disappointment, the countless evils which dog our footsteps, were nothing +in the scale against the boon of opportunity. Every morning in chapel +the doctor voiced our gratitude for the privilege of living and working. +And now over heads that moved in such charged airs the Professor cast his +pall of pessimism. He took his text from Solomon, and found that all was +vanity. It mattered little whether or not what he said was true. He +believed it to be true, and for the moment at least his incisive voice +and long forefinger carried with them conviction. He railed at the old +dictum that man was God's noblest work. The ordinary dog, he declared, +was more pleasing to the eye than the ordinary man, and the life of the +ordinary dog more to be envied than that of the ordinary man. Knowledge +only lifted us above the animal to be more buffeted by a complexity of +desires. The greatest thing in the world was self, and even the roots of +our goodness burrowed down into the depths where the ego was considering +its own comfort either in this world or the next. The proud man for whom +the universe was made was nothing but a fragile thread of memories +wrapped in soft tissue, packed away in a casket of bone, and made easily +portable by a pair of levers called legs. After countless ages spent on +earth seeking the true source of happiness men were still countless ages +from agreement. One half sought by goodness to attain happiness in +immortality; the other in Nirvana. One half found the shadow of +happiness in inertia, in stupefaction, a mere satisfying of physical +needs; the other in motion, joining in the mad procession which we call +so boastfully Progress. By accident of birth we were of the progressive +half and we paraded around and around, puffed up with pride of our little +accomplishment, until we fell exhausted and another took our place. + +Judge Bundy nudged Doctor Todd again. Doctor Todd shook his head and +looked at the ceiling, as if to show that he found more of interest there +than in the speaker's words, and he held them there defiantly as the +Professor went on to controvert the optimistic philosophy which had been +taught at McGraw for so many years. That knowledge was the greatest +source of unhappiness was a bold dictum to hurl at a company of seekers +after it, but Henderson Blight had little respect for mere persons. The +ignorant animal did not exist, he argued; it was with knowledge that the +plague of ignorance came to man. A draught of knowledge was like a cup +of salt-water to the thirst, and the more we learned the less value we +could place on the things for which we labored. A man worked a lifetime +to obtain a peach-blow, and it crumbled to dust in his hands. What, +then, should we strive for? + +At this question Doctor Todd brought his eyes down from the ceiling and +Judge Bundy lifted his from the red rug of the platform. The judge was +our great authority on striving. He had qualified himself by years of +successful labor. To us he was a living example of the rewards which +come to endeavor, and so it was with evident self-consciousness that he +now sat very erect, thinking, perhaps, that he would hear some views akin +to his own. + +"I was born in a narrow valley," the Professor pursued, "and perhaps I +might have dozed there like the dogs, but I learned that beyond the +mountains there was another valley, broader and richer. I longed to live +there. One day I crossed the mountains to it and I found it all that I +had heard. But it, too, had its wall of mountains and my eyes followed +them, and I learned that beyond them was still another valley, broader +and richer. And I went on. So it will be with you. There is a big nail +factory down by the river--I saw it as I came in, and I am sure that to +some of us to own that factory might be a life's ambition. How fine it +would be when our work was ended to fold our hands peacefully and say: 'I +have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have made a million +kegs of nails!'" + +Judge Bundy half rose from his chair. Through the hall sounded a +smothered murmur of applause, for it is always satisfying to hear a truth +which hits another. Judge Bundy would have wholly risen from his chair, +but he was checked by a hundred covert smiles and Doctor Todd laid a hand +upon his quivering, indignant knee. All unconscious of the cause of this +stifled mirth, and fired by it as in the old days he was fired when Stacy +Shunk leered beneath the shadow of his hat, the Professor leaned far over +the desk with both hands outstretched. + +"I have failed utterly in my own living," he cried. "I have loafed and +lagged. At times I have worked hard until I wearied myself chasing +shadows. But in my failure I have learned a few things. We may live and +doze in our little valley, but still we shall long for the broader and +richer valley across the mountains. The yearning for that something +better is born in us all. Shall we call it simply something more; shall +we measure our service in kegs of nails or shall we seek for something +really better? If we listen we can hear in the depths of our souls the +divine drumbeat, and it is strange what cowards we are when we come to +march to it. But we can march to it. We may not know why we go, nor +where, but we can go straight. The country we travel may seem waste, but +we cross it under God's sealed orders, given to us when we opened our +eyes on life, and only when our eyes are closed again will they be opened +to us." + +So it was that the Professor carried me again from my little valley! The +great Judge Bundy standing at the platform's edge, brusquely dismissing +us, had dwindled to pygmy height. He was a mere maker of nails. Life a +moment since had been very simple, very concrete, a mere game in which +the stake was food and clothes, a Queen Anne house, a clipped lawn and +trotting horses. Now it was a mysterious expedition into the unknown. +With the Professor's last word I rose, ready to march, not knowing +whither, but sure that it would not be to a conquest measured in kegs of +nails. In this exalted mood Gladys Todd could have no part, for I knew +that I could go faster and farther in light marching order, unhampered by +impedimenta of any kind. Gladys Todd suddenly took her place with +impedimenta. Her first act was to confirm this judgment of her, for as I +was forcing my way down the crowded aisle, intent on reaching my old +friend, she kept tugging at my sleeve and entreating me not to hurry. +Her remonstrances aroused my antagonism. Inwardly I was calling down +maledictions on her head, for I saw the Professor's tall form receding +through the door. I would have rushed after him; there were a thousand +things I wanted to know, a thousand questions I had to ask him. But I +was checked. I could not abandon Gladys Todd; nor had I the courage to +present myself to him after so many years in the light of a youth given +to sentimental dalliance. He would remember the boy who had come to him, +cold and wet, from the depths of a mountain stream, the boy who had run +miles in the early morning to warn him of the approach of the terrible +Lukens, the boy whom he had called his only friend. He would see me +dignified by a tail coat and beautified by a mauve tie, a white waistcoat +and gleaming patent-leather shoes. He would remember me as I stood by +the cabin door, a strong, rugged lad. He would see me a devotee of +fashion, a dawdler after a pretty face. So it was with a feeling of +relief that I saw the study door close after my friend. I intended to +find him, but not until I was as free as on that day when I first came +upon him in the clearing. + +Gladys Todd was inclined to lag. There were a dozen persons to whom she +wished to speak, but with rude insistence I hurried her away. Outside +the rain fell heavily. I held my umbrella at arm's length now and +abandoned my fine feathers to the storm. She feigned not to notice my +changed demeanor and tried to talk pleasantly, but I answered only in +monosyllables, and brusquely, I fear. The interminable journey ended. +From the steps of the president's house, with all the graciousness she +could command, she asked me not to hurry away when we had so many things +to talk over. My answer was a quick "good-night," and I ran as I had run +years before to the mountains, with my heart in every stride. + +When I entered the doctor's study I found him alone. Mr. Henderson, he +explained, had gone to Judge Bundy's. Judge Bundy always entertained the +lecturer, and he was too generous a man to make an exception even in this +case. In speaking of the lecturer the doctor made a wry face. He could +not understand how a man of Valerian Harassan's reputation ever allowed +such a mountebank to take his place. At McGraw we believed in life; we +believed in ambition, and it was terrible--terrible, sir, to have to sit +in silence and hear our dearest traditions assailed by one who admitted +that he was a failure. Did Mr. Malcolm hear the brutal cut at Judge +Bundy? Judge Bundy, sir, was---- + +I did not stop to hear the eulogy, nor did I consider how I might be +prejudicing myself with the president by so rudely breaking from him. +But the Professor had come back to me. I cleared the college steps with +a bound, and ran over the campus and down the hill into the town. I ran +with all a boy's reckless waste of strength, so that when I had covered +my half-mile course I had to lean for support against the iron fence +which guarded the Bundy home. The great stone pile, with many turrets +and a dominating cupola, with wide-spreading verandas and marble lions on +the lawn, in the daylight comported itself with dignified aloofness, and +now, when night exaggerated its size and a single lonely light flickered +in all its vast front, it was forbidding. With something of that forced +boldness with which years before I had braved the dark mountains, I made +the gate ring a proper notice of my approach and groped my way about the +door until I found the bell. The answer came from over my head. +Stepping back and looking up, I saw framed in a lighted window a white +figure, coatless and collarless, not the distinguished jurist, but a +portly man who had been interrupted in the act of preparing for bed. +Clothes go a long way toward making a man, and the lack of them brought +the judge down to hailing distance. + +"What do you want?" he demanded of me, addressing me as any disrobed +plebeian might have done. + +"I'm Malcolm, sir, David Malcolm," I returned apologetically. "I wish to +see Mr. Henderson." + +"Henderson, eh?" The judge leaned over the window-sill, and he spoke less +sharply. "You'll find him at the station waiting for the night train +out. I tried to persuade him to stay, but he wouldn't. How in the +world, Mr. Malcolm, could Harassan have sent such a fool in his place? +Did you ever hear such utter nonsense? I forgive him about the +nails--that was inadvertent, but that stuff about ambition----" + +I did not wait to hear the judge controvert my friend's pessimistic +philosophy, but with a brusque "good-night" hurried away. The window +banged behind me, a sharp commentary on my rudeness. The iron gate +clanged again, and I was off down the hill, running toward the lower town. + +A shrill whistle stopped me. Looking into the valley I saw a chain of +lights weaving their way along the river. They wound through the gap in +the mountain, and I saw them no longer. I heard the whistle again, far +off now, and it seemed to mock me. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +I listened to hear the divine drumbeat. I set myself to march under +sealed orders. + +To most of us the Professor's speech had been pessimism compact; to me +it was inspiring, though wofully lacking in details. I seemed to be +marking time. The duties which lay at my hand were unchanged, and I +was plodding along as I had plodded before through a commonplace +routine. I sought to give to my duties some of the glamour of +conquests, but they soon failed to lend themselves to any simulation of +romance. After all, marching to the divine drumbeat was simply to +follow the precepts ingrained in me as a child, but it is much easier +to make a quick charge amid the blare of bugles than to plod along day +after day to the monotonous grumble of the drum. I wished that the +Professor had been a little more explicit, and yet his last words were +always with me. It was as though they were intended for me alone, and +I coupled them with his admonition to me that day long ago in the +cabin: "Get out of the valley. Do something. Be somebody." My great +desire was to see him, for I believed that he could help me to set my +course. I wanted help, and my father, my natural adviser, was of +little service to me. To him my opportunity was the small one that lay +at home. Mr. Pound had washed his hands of me that day when I was bold +enough to renounce my purpose of entering the ministry, and now, when +in the exultation of the moment my mind reverted to that abandoned +plan, I found my own ideas too nebulous to permit me to set myself up +as a teacher of divine truth. The law had taken its place with the +making of nails, and I did not believe that when my race was run, when +I had counted up the wills I had drawn, the bad causes I had defended, +the briefs I had written in useless litigations, I could content myself +with the thought that I had fought a good fight. For there is a good +fight, and to the weakest of us must come a sense of futility in those +moments when we awaken from our sloth and hear the distant din of the +battle. I thought of medicine, of all professions in itself the most +altruistic, and then I found myself face to face with that distressing +commonplace, the need of money, for though my father was accounted a +rich man in the valley, his wealth was proportioned to the valley +standards. A commercial life alone seemed left to me, and then I +remembered the million kegs of nails, and I recalled Rufus Blight's +achievement of giving away a prize with every pound of tea. Here +indeed was a march through waste-lands. + +You will think that I was a dreamy, egotistical youth for whom not only +the ways of home but the ways of the mass of his fellows were not quite +good enough. Perhaps I was. But you must remember a boyhood passed in +loneliness; long days when my feet followed the windings of the creek, +but my eyes were turned to the distant mountains; the evenings when +from the barn-bridge I watched the shadows fall and saw the valley +peopled with mysterious shapes. I was ambitious, and I coddled myself +with the belief that my ambition did not spring from selfishness, from +what the Professor had called the yearning for something more, but from +the desire for something better. I did not drag up the roots of my +motives to light. Had I, the cynical philosopher must have found that +they were nurtured in the same soil that nurtured the ambitions of +Judge Bundy. + +I had faith in the Professor and I wanted to find him. I could see the +inconsistency of his practice and his preaching, but truth is truth no +matter by whom uttered. I believed that he could help me, and I wrote +to him in the care of Valerian Harassan. The writing of this letter +was an evening's labor, for in it I had to tell him what had passed +after that day when he had fled into the mountains, of the coming of +Rufus Blight and the disappearance of Penelope out of my life; I had +much to ask him of her and of himself, and then to lead on to my +present quandary. The labor was without any reward. Weeks passed and +he did not answer. I wrote to Valerian Harassan and was honored with a +prompt reply--his friend Mr. Henderson had returned to San Francisco +and he had forwarded my letter there. "But you had as well try to +correspond with the will-o'-the-wisp," he wrote. "When last I talked +with him, he spoke rather vaguely of going to China and making a trip +afoot to Lhasa." Nevertheless, I wrote again, and it was a year later +when both of my letters came back to me bearing the post-marks of many +cities from coast to coast, to be opened at last by the dead-letter +office. + +The Professor was silent. Within a week of my graduation I found +myself still in a quandary as to my course, and then it came about that +it was set for me by the last man in the world whom at that moment I +would have chosen for a pilot. This was Boller of '89. + +Boller's father was the owner of a daily newspaper in a small inland +city, and in the two years since he had left McGraw the son had risen +to the chief editorship. His return to college that year was in the +nature of a triumphal progress. He sat with the faculty in the morning +chapel service, and Doctor Todd took occasion to refer to the presence +of a distinguished alumnus who had made his mark in the profession of +journalism. In two years Boller had matured to the wisdom and manner +of fifty. He had abandoned the exaggerated clothes of his college days +for careless, baggy black. His hair had grown long and was dishevelled +by much combing with the fingers, and the mustache, once so carefully +trimmed and curled, now drooped mournfully, and he had added a tiny +goatee to his facial adornments. Drooping glasses on his nose, with a +broad black ribbon suspended from them, gave him an appearance of +intellectuality, so astonishing a transformation that it was hard for +me to believe that this was the same Boller who had greeted me four +years before on the college steps. The next morning after his +reappearance Doctor Todd announced that our distinguished alumnus had +been induced to speak informally to the students that evening on +journalism and its appeal to young men. In the role of a very old man, +Boller from the chapel rostrum descanted learnedly on what he termed +the "greatest power for righteousness in modern times and the dynamic +force through the operation of which the race is to attain its ideals." +To my mind Boller's view of the power for righteousness troubled itself +chiefly with the opposing political party, as was shown by the instance +he cited where his own paper had exposed the corrupt Democratic ring in +Pokono County and had put in its place a group of Republican patriots. +Doctor Todd, however, said afterward that Boller had treated the +subject in masterly fashion and that he was proud that McGraw had had +its part in forming such a mind. While I had listened to Boller in all +seriousness, the Professor's diatribe was too vividly in my memory for +me to accept without reservation everything that our distinguished +alumnus said. But he did bring to my mind the idea that here possibly +was the opportunity which I sought, and long before he had finished my +thoughts had wandered far from the chapel and I was picturing myself in +an editorial chair and with a caustic pen attacking the devils of which +poor man is possessed. + +I met Boller in the hall afterward, and as he took my arm +condescendingly and walked with me a little way I summoned up courage +to invite him to my room and there to open my heart to him. + +He lighted one of his own cigars after having declined that which I +offered him, and this little evidence of his superior taste served to +confirm my opinion of his importance. He crossed his legs carelessly, +leaned back and watched a long spire of smoke rise ceilingward. "So +you are thinking of journalism, eh, Malcolm?" + +"You have set me thinking of it," I returned. "Somehow the law doesn't +appeal to me any more. The truth is--" I hesitated, recalling how +Boller's subtle ridicule had shaken the purpose so carefully nourished +by my parents and Mr. Pound. Though his talk that night had been +filled with high-flying phrases about ideals of citizenship and useful +manhood, I still had lingering doubts of his entire sincerity, and I +cast about for some way of expressing my thoughts without making myself +ludicrous in his eyes. + +"The truth is--" Boller repeated. + +"That I want to take up work that means something more than bread and +butter," I responded. "I don't want to be a big fish in a small pond." + +"And you think that journalism offers a chance of becoming a whale in a +big pond. It does, Malcolm, it does," said Boller. "Journalism is the +greatest power in the country to-day. We used to call you the Reverend +David. Well, if you still have any lingering desire to be a preacher, +the paper is the place for you, not the pulpit. The editorial is the +sermon of the future. If you would become a preacher, by all means +take up journalism. If you have red blood in your veins you will be a +journalist." + +Having delivered this advice, Boller sat in silence, regarding me +through his drooping glasses and pulling at his goatee, and at that +moment I decided to be a journalist. It was the picture which Boller +made that settled my mind. There was something attractive in his +careless attire--the baggy clothes, the flowing tie; and the glasses +with the broad ribbon gave an air of dash and intellectuality which I +had never seen in the stiff uniform of the bar, even as worn by that +leader, Judge Bundy. It is often such absurd impressions on our +unsophisticated minds that set the course of our lives. It was so with +me. I compared Boller with Doctor Todd, with Mr. Pound, and in the +younger generation with Simmons of his own class, who had become +principal of a high-school, and I said to myself that the profession +which in two years had made him this confident, masterful man offered +the opportunity that I sought. + +"If you have red blood, Malcolm--" Boller went on as he polished his +glasses. There was a suggestion in his careless manner that he waded +in red blood set flowing by his pen. "Journalism is one long fight. +If you have ideals, Malcolm--" He looked at me, and then my cheeks +flushed as by an inclination of the head I confessed to the possession +of ideals. "If you have ideals, you can make a fight for right. In +journalism we stand aloof from the play itself, but we endeavor to make +the actors perform their parts properly. You remember my description +of how we exposed the Pokono County ring. It's a fight like that all +the time, but you make yourself felt, you know." + +Thoroughly pleased with the militant side of the profession, and having +decided that I should enter it, I lost no time inquiring how I should +begin. This question took some thought on Boller's part, and he combed +his hair with his fingers while he gave it consideration. + +"I could put you on the _Sentinel_," he said at last. "You will have +to start at the bottom, as a reporter, you understand." + +He evidently believed that I should jump at such a prospect, but he did +not know that the Professor had filled me with the hope of bigger +things. I had taken what Boller had said, and I enlarged it to a wider +scale of life. I had no intention of exchanging the opportunities of +Harlansburg for those of Coal City. Even the Pokono County gang would +be small game for me. But before I could thank Boller for his interest +and decline it, he hurried on to fix my salary and to explain the +nature of my work. He nettled me, and I protested with heat that I +wished to start in a broader field. + +"That's all right, Malcolm," said my mentor, undisturbed by the +reflection on his own city. "But you can get an invaluable experience +on the _Sentinel_. If you start right for New York how are you going +to get a job? On the other hand, look at Bob Carmody. He learned with +us--three years--and now he has a splendid place on the New York +_Record_, making forty a week--covered the Douglas murder trial. Look +at Bush, James Woodbury Bush--he went to Philadelphia after two years +with us, and he is literary editor of the _Gazette_--landed it easily. +He has already published one book--'Anna Virumque'--a charmingly clever +story of early Babylon." + +The success of Bob Carmody and James Woodbury Bush, while they +confirmed me in my respect for the profession of journalism and in my +resolve to enter it, did not shake my purpose to waste no time in +desultory skirmishing. That I decided so promptly that New York was to +be my scene of action was due to Boller's casual mention of Bob +Carmody's salary, which by rapid calculation I found to equal Doctor +Todd's and to surpass my father's income. The figures were large. I +flattered myself that I found no appeal in the money, but regarded it +simply as the measure of the power and importance which Bob Carmody had +attained. The value of his brain labor was nearly double the value of +the foodstuff produced on my father's farm. The figures were +impressive. I knew, however, that I could not argue with Boller, +supported as he was by experience, and my way with him lay in an +obstinate declaration of my purpose. + +"It's good of you to offer me a place," I said. "But I'm not going to +waste any time. A few days at home, and I am off to New York." + +If Boller felt any irritation at my rejection of his offer, he did not +show it. Doubtless he laid my refusal to the ignorance of youth, for +he stood over me, regarding me through the drooping glasses, as my +father would have regarded me had I declared to him some reckless +purpose. + +"You make a mistake, David," he said. He stood at the door, with one +hand fumbling the knob. "Still, I wish you success. Suppose I give +you a letter to Carmody. It would be a great help, you know. And I'll +write for you a general recommendation--to whom it may concern--on our +letterhead; it will be of service." He opened the door and stepped +out. He hesitated and came back. "I might tell you, Malcolm, that I +hope soon to launch into New York journalism, when I have exhausted the +possibilities of Coal City. A man can't sit still, you know--that is, +if he has red blood in his veins." + +Boller said no more that night, but his manner in parting made it clear +to me that if he came to New York it was his purpose to be of great +service to me, to lift me up with him. His assumption of superiority +filled me with a desire to outrun him. Vanity is a great stimulus to +action, and the inspiring note of my life was forgotten as I +contemplated David Malcolm in his sanctum, at a table littered with +pages, every one of which would stab some devil of corruption or +brighten some lonely hour, pausing at his labor to blow spires of smoke +ceilingward while he gave kindly advice to the man who sat before him, +respectfully erect on his chair, regarding him through drooping glasses. + +The college lights were out. I moved to the window and stayed there +for a long time, looking into the summer night. The street lamps +checkered the slope below me, but my eyes went past them; in the depths +of the valley the nail-works were glowing, piling up their tale of +kegs, but I looked beyond them to the mountain which rose from the +river and travelled away like a great shadow, cutting the star-lighted +sky. Where mountain and sky mingled, indefinable in the night, my eyes +rested, but my mind plunged on. My arms lay folded on the window-sill, +and into them my head sank. I crossed mountain after mountain, and +they were but shadows to my youthful strength. What a man David +Malcolm became that night! He won everything that the world holds +worth striving for. He won them all so easily by always doing what was +right. He travelled far because he marched so straight. Then he +mounted to the highest peak--a feat so rare that even his great modesty +could not suppress a cry of exultation. He heard the crunching of a +hoe, and, following the sound, saw the Professor battling with the +ever-charging weeds. The gaunt man regarded him quietly; then said: +"David, you have come far." He raised the hoe and pointed to the sky. +"And I suppose they have heard of it off there--in Mars and Saturn." +He turned to the ground, to an army of ants working on a pyramid of +sand. "And down there--I suppose they have heard of it." David +Malcolm looked about him. The world seemed waste as far as his mind +could carry. The Professor saw the disappointment clouding his face, +for he stepped closer to him and, laying a hand upon his shoulders, +said: "Remember, David, sealed orders." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +In those last days at college, when in moments of contemplation I +sketched with free imagination a long and unbroken career of success, +whether I would or not, Gladys Todd was always gliding into my dreams. +She had been too long a central figure in them for me to evict her +easily. I knew that I had best begin my march unhampered by +impedimenta of any kind, but I found it no easy task to get myself into +light marching order. While I had never made a serious proposal for +her hand, I had in sentimental moments said things which implied that +at the proper time I should offer myself formally. That the offer +would bring her prompt acquiescence I never for a moment doubted. But +more embarrassing was the attitude of Doctor and Mrs. Todd. They +treated me as though I were a member of the family. Mrs. Todd's eyes +always beamed with a peculiarly motherly light when they rested on me, +and now I recalled with something akin to terror an evening when Gladys +at the piano was accompanying me as I sang "The Minute Guns at Sea." +Her mother entered the parlor. It did her good, she said, to see us, +for it brought back the dear days when she and Doctor Todd had sung as +we were singing at that very same piano. Doctor Todd never expressed +his thoughts with quite such frankness, but now I could remember many +times when he had treated me with fatherly consideration. To end +abruptly such a friendship seemed not alone a gross abandonment of +Gladys Todd, but of Doctor Todd and Mrs. Todd. The sensible thing to +do was clear to me in my saner moments. During the few days that +remained to me at college I should continue the friendship, but it +would be friendship and nothing more. Then I would go away, politely, +as hundreds of other young men before me had left Harlansburg, with a +formal parting handshake to hundreds of other young women who had +played soft accompaniments while they sang "The Minute Guns at Sea"; as +for Doctor and Mrs. Todd, another young man would soon be standing by +that same piano awakening their cherished memories. + +It was in this other hypothetical young man that I found the +stumbling-block whenever my mind was settled to do the sensible thing. +The trouble was that I loved Gladys Todd. When I fixed my purpose to +march to the strife unhampered by any domestic ties, I felt that I was +making myself a martyr to duty. I began to compromise. In a few +years, when my feet were firmly set in the road and I had grown strong +enough to march with impedimenta, I should come back and claim Gladys +Todd, and my return would be a triumph like that of Boller of '89, only +in a degree far higher, for from her hands I should receive the +victor's garland. + +I might have struggled on with such confused ideas as these had it not +been for the hypothetical other man. He haunted me. The hypothesis +became a fact. It found embodiment in Boller of '89. When after three +interminable days of self-denial I presented myself one evening at the +president's house, a look of annoyance with which Gladys greeted me +seemed connected in some way with the presence of Boller. In my state +of mind I should have suspected any octogenarian who smiled on Gladys +Todd as plotting against my happiness. That she was essential to my +happiness I realized as I watched her, in the shaded lamplight, her +face turned to him as she listened intently to an account of his recent +visit to Washington. They did not treat me as though I made a crowd. +That, at least, would have given me some importance. My role was a +younger brother's. Boller's greeting was kindly, but he made +unmistakable his superiority in years and wisdom as he lapsed into an +arm-chair and toyed with the broad black ribbon adorning his glasses, +while I was condemned to sit upright on a spindly chair. When he +addressed me it was to explain things of which he presumed that I was +ignorant, and he gave no heed to my vehement protests to the contrary. +When Gladys Todd addressed me it was to call attention to some +peculiarly interesting feature of Boller's discourse. They did not +drive me to despair, though I was sure this to be their aim. They +simply aroused my fighting blood. All other thoughts for the future +were forgotten, buried under the repeated vow that I would repay Gladys +Todd a thousand times for this momentary coldness and would deal a +stinging blow to Boller's self-complacency. + +Boller announced to us in confidence that, having seen Washington, it +was now his intention to go abroad. I could not understand why we were +pledged to secrecy as to his plans, for the country would not be +entirely upset by his departure; but it was clear to my suspicious mind +that his revelations had a twofold purpose--to lift himself to greater +heights of superiority over the humble college boy and to make himself +a more desirable _parti_ for Gladys Todd. In his words, in the quiet +smile with which he was regarding her, I read his secret hope that when +he went abroad she would be with him as Mrs. Boller. Restless, +uncomfortable, and angry as I was, I had been at the point of leaving, +but this disclosure changed my purpose. I realized that I was in no +mere skirmish and I dared not give an inch of ground. I stayed. +Boller talked on. The clock on the mantel struck the hour, then the +half. He looked at me significantly, but I did not move. The clock +struck the hour again, and Boller rose with a sigh. He suggested that +I go with him, but I shook my head and stood with my hands behind my +back, tearing at my fingers. He smiled and stepped to the door, with +Gladys Todd following. They paused. He spoke in an undertone, and I +caught but two words, "At three." He raised his voice and bade me +good-night, calling me "Davy" as though I were a mere boy. Again he +said, "At three," jotting the hour indelibly in his mind. + +Gladys Todd from the shaded lamplight looked at me with a face clouded +with displeasure. I, sitting on my spindly chair, very upright, heard +the cryptic number three ringing in my brain. What was going to happen +"at three"? At three to-morrow they would walk along the lane which +wound around the town and down to the river. I thought of it now as +"our lane," a sanctuary that would be desecrated by Boller's mere +presence. The plausible theory became a fact. I must act, and act at +once. For me to act was to avow my love. I must propose to Gladys +Todd. In that purpose all else was forgotten--even Boller. Over and +over again I declared to myself that I loved her, but the simple words +halted at my lips. A thousand protestations of my undying love pushed +and crowded and jostled one another until they were strangling me. +Without a tremor in my voice I could have told Gladys Todd that some +other man loved her to distraction, and yet, when it was so vital to my +happiness that I speak for myself, the simple words halted at my lips +and checked the whole onrush of passionate avowal. + +Thinking that distance might have some part in my unnerving, I joggled +my chair a few feet nearer, grasped a knee in each hand, and leaning +forward fixed a determined gaze upon her face. I had abandoned all +idea of saying those three words as they should be said for the first +time. To say them at all, I must blurt them out, but I believed that +with them said the floodgates would be opened and the true lover-like +appeal burst forth. Gladys Todd must have thought that I was angry, +for she asked me what was the matter. Some inane reply forced its way +through the press of unuttered avowals. Now, I said, I will tell her +what the matter really is, and I have always believed that I should +have done so at that moment had not the front door banged, heralding +the coming of Doctor Todd. + +He entered the room, and I numbered him with Boller among the enemies +of my happiness. He took the very chair which Boller had occupied, and +made himself comfortable for the rest of my stay. + +"Well, David, you will soon be leaving us forever," he said, bringing +his hands together and smiling at me over his wide-spread fingers. In +that word "forever" I saw a hidden meaning, and behind my back I +clinched my hands and registered my unalterable will. "You are going +out into the world to make your name, David," the doctor went on, +growing grave. "I do hope that you will succeed as well as Boller of +'89. Boller, David, is a man of whom McGraw is proud--a remarkable +young man. He dropped into my study for a few minutes this evening and +it was a pleasure to listen to him. Such a breadth of view! Such +nobility of purpose! He will rise high--that young man. We shall hear +much of Boller." + +It had been my intention to try to sit out Doctor Todd, but I was in no +mood to listen to these praises of Boller from one whom I now regarded +as his confederate. I took my leave as quickly as I could, but it was +with the inwardly avowed purpose of returning as quickly as I could. +Then, I said, the three words would be spoken, not rudely blurted out, +but spoken as they should be for the first time. The mention of Boller +had brought back to my mind the haunting "three," to echo in every +corridor of my brain, and before I fell asleep that night, exhausted by +over-thinking, I lifted my hands into the blackness and whispered what +had so long hung unuttered on my lips. To-morrow, I said, I shall say +it--at two. + +At two in the afternoon I found Gladys Todd in the little vine-covered +veranda in the rear of the house, painting. I am sure that had I seen +her for the first time as she sat there at her easel beautifying a +black plaque with a bunch of tulips, every wave of her hand as she +plied the brush would have struck the divine spark in my heart. +Marguerite at her spinning was not more lovely. The place was ideal +for my purpose. We were above the town, hidden by height from its +sordidness, and we looked far into mountain-tops where white clouds +loitered on the June-day peace. The fresh green of early summer was +about us, and the only sound was the drum of bees in the honeysuckle. +The time, too, was ideal, for it was a whole hour until "three." My +position was ideal, for I placed my chair very close to her and leaned +forward with one hand outstretched to support my appeal. Thus I +stayed, mute, like an actor who has forgotten his lines. The three +words came to my lips, only to halt there. + +Fortunately Gladys Todd did not notice my embarrassment, for her eyes +were on her work, and while she painted she was telling me of a game of +tennis which she had played that morning with the three Miss Minnicks. +To the three Miss Minnicks I laid the blame of my silence. Had she +been talking of any one else or of anything else, I said, I could have +uttered the vital fact which hung so reluctantly on my lips, but to +break in rudely in a recitation of fifteen thirties, vantages in and +vantages out, with an announcement that I loved her would be quite +ridiculous. I dropped my hand and stretched back in my chair. Gladys +Todd talked on and painted. + +The college clock struck the half-hour, and for me the one clanging +note was a solemn warning. I sat up very straight, I grasped the sides +of the chair, and the words were uttered. But to me it seemed that +some other David Malcolm had spoken them--mere shells of words that +rattled in my ears. + +"David!" The voice and tone were like my mother's. Gladys Todd +stopped painting and, turning, looked at me strangely. I could not +have faced that gaze of hers and said another word, but she quickly +averted her eyes, abandoned brush and palette, and sat studying her +clasped hands. + +There was nothing now to hold back the flood of passionate avowal. +Perhaps my voice was a little weak, but it grew stronger as I took +heart at the sight of her listening so quietly. I told her that I had +loved her that evening when we first met; that since then, in all my +waking moments, she had been in my thoughts; I had never loved another +woman; I never could love another woman. With my outstretched arm +hovering so near to her I might have taken her unawares, taken her into +my possession and throttled any rising protest; but to touch her with +my little finger would have seemed to me a profanation. I expected her +to sink into the embrace of that solitary arm. + +But she did not. She looked up at me and said: "David, I am sorry--so +sorry." + +"Sorry?" + +There was a ring of indignation in my voice. I was not prepared for +such an enigmatic answer. Indeed, I had expected but one response, the +one that was mine by right of four years of devotion, by right of those +beacon-lights which I had seen so often in her eyes. Sorry? If she +was sorry, why had she led me to spend so many hours in her company, +why had she walked with me in "our lane," where the very air seemed to +brood with sentimental thought? I doubted if I heard her rightly. + +"Very, very sorry, David," she repeated. "I never dreamed that you +cared for me in this way. I thought you were a good friend. I never +could think of you as anything else than a good friend." + +I was too much stunned to speak. For days I had been rehearsing in my +mind what I should say to her when her hand was in mine, but I had not +prepared for a contingency like this. I was helpless. I could only +lean back in my chair and gaze at her reproachfully. + +"You will forget me very soon," she said, looking up after a moment. +"You are going away in a few days. You must forget me, David. Promise +me you will." + +She took up her brush and palette and began to touch the plaque +lightly. As I remember her now, Gladys Todd's face was loveliest in +profile. "Promise me," she said, tossing her head and focussing her +eyes on the tulips. + +Poor David Malcolm! You were young then and little learned in the ways +of women. You did not know that to a woman a proposal is a thing not +to be ended lightly with consent. You did not know that when the +gentlest woman angles she is as any fisher who plays the game with rod +and reel and delights in the rushes of the victim. You made no mad +rushes. You sat stupidly quiescent. You saw the fair profile dimly as +though it were receding into the mists beyond your reach. Your pride +was hurt. You were angry and would have flung yourself out of her +presence, but you could not endure the shame of defeat. + +The college clock struck three. It aroused me from my stupor, and I +did make one mad rush, in my confusion acting with more acumen than I +knew. + +"I never will forget you--I never can forget you," I said brokenly. + +The door creaked and I arose, but it was not to face Boller. Knitting +in hand, Mrs. Todd bustled out. She made no apology for her intrusion. +The veranda was the coolest place in the house, and as she sank into a +chair I numbered her with Boller and Doctor Todd, with the enemies of +my happiness. Her round, innocent face seemed to mask a grim purpose +to sit there for the rest of the afternoon. Gladys Todd talked of the +three Miss Minnicks again as she plied her brush, and Mrs. Todd of Mr. +Minnick and Mrs. Minnick as she worked her needles. They crushed the +struggling hope I had for one moment more in which to make a last +appeal. Boller did not come. The college clock struck four and still +there was no sign of him. I was sure that he had some knowledge of my +presence, and perhaps waited for a signal from the house announcing my +departure. In that case it was useless for me to stay longer listening +to idle chatter about the Minnicks, and so, utterly unhappy, smarting +with the sense of defeat, humiliated, I made my departure, and fled +across the campus to the college and my room. + +I took no supper. The mere idea of food was nauseating. I paced the +floor with my thoughts in chaos. Of consolation I had but one unsteady +gleam--at least I should be burdened with no harassing financial +problem. Sometimes the question of my meagre resources had been +amazingly persistent, but I had fought it down as unworthy to have a +place with nobler thoughts. Now it rose again, and for a moment it +seemed that I had escaped a heavy burden. Then I remembered Boller. I +pictured Boller sitting in the vine-clad veranda while Gladys Todd +painted; Boller in the Todd parlor, standing under a bower of clematis, +while Gladys Todd moved toward him in step to the wedding-march played +by the eldest Miss Minnick. In the sleepless hours that followed, one +purpose fixed itself in my mind. I should leave McGraw next day at the +sacrifice of a useless diploma. So I wrote to Gladys Todd. I wrote +many notes before I was satisfied, and the one I despatched had, I +thought, a manly, sensible tone. I did not wish to spend another week +in sight of her home and yet banished from it, I said; I had cherished +certain hopes, and now I could not stand idle in their wreckage; I had +my work to do and was away to do it, but I could not leave without a +friendly good-by to her and without expressing a wish for her +happiness. This last was a subtle reference to Boller. Having made +it, the words which followed were astonishing, but they were born of a +faint hope that after all I might not have to go. I told her that she +knew best and I would forget her, and now I was going for a last walk +in the lane where we had spent so many happy hours, and then to take +myself to new scenes, bearing with me the memory of her as just a +friend. + +The afternoon found me in the lane, on a knoll where the leafage broke +and gave a vista of rolling country. My eyes were turned to the hills, +but my ears were quickened to catch the sound of foot-falls. In my +heart I said that I should never hear them; my dismissal had been too +peremptory for me to cozen myself with so absurd an idea. But the hope +which had brought me there would not die. Sometimes the wind stirred +the leaves and grass, and I would start and look up the lane. Time +after time I was the victim of that teasing wind, and with recurring +disappointments my spirits sank lower. Then when an hour remained +before my train left, and I was standing undecided whether or not to +keep to my vigil, I heard a sharp crackle of dry twigs behind me. + +Gladys Todd had come. She was carrying her sketch-book, and dropped it +in confusion when she saw me emerge from behind the trunk of a great +oak. I seized it and held it as a bond against her retreat, affecting +not to see the hand which she held out commanding its return. I had +planned exactly what I should say did she appear in just this way, and +now my well-turned phrases scattered and I stood before her, silent, +regarding her. It was just as well. My solemn eyes must have said +more than any wordy speech. + +"I did not expect to find you here, Mr. Malcolm," she said, dropping +her hand as a sign of momentary surrender. + +Her tone was one of genuine surprise, and though the statement was +astonishing I could not conceive a woman of her character deviating +from the straight line of truth, and the hope which had soared high at +her coming in answer to my subtle call now sank away. I held out the +book mutely. + +She did not see it. "I was on my way to the river to sketch," she +said. "I had no idea--" She dropped down on the bank and began to +pick vaguely at the clover. "Please go. Good-by." + +The brim of her sailor hat guarded her face, so that she really did not +see the book which I was holding toward her. I placed it on the grass +beside her and turned to obey, intending to march away in military +fashion, perhaps whistling my defiance. + +"You'll promise to forget me," I heard her say. + +I looked down at her, but the hat screened her face. + +"Yes," I answered, with a steadiness that was surprising, for my throat +was parched and my knees had become very weak, so weak that I gave up +all thought of marching in military fashion and gathered strength to +drag myself out of her sight. I went up the lane slowly. I looked +back and saw her sitting very still, one hand on her big portfolio, the +other listless on the clover. I reached the bend in the lane. Passing +it, I should march on to my conquests, unhappy, wofully unhappy, but +going faster because alone. + +"David," she called. + +I stepped back, hardly believing my ears. She was sitting very still, +looking over the lane and the hills. I went nearer. She was like +stone. I sat down at her side and somehow my hand touched her hand on +the big portfolio, and her hand did not move. And somehow my hand +closed on hers. + +"David," she said, looking up, "you won't forget me, will you?" + +Forget you! I swore to Gladys Todd that I had been idly boasting. I +would have carried her image to the grave, burned on my heart. The +memory of her would have been the only light in all my life of +darkness. But now there was no darkness. For us there was only +glorious day. The astonishing thing, the incomprehensible thing, was +that Gladys Todd could love me; that it was really true that she loved +me that first night we met; that she loved me yesterday when she sat on +the vine-clad porch painting tulips so carelessly. + +"But I did, David," she protested. + +"Then why didn't you say so?" I returned reproachfully. + +"Because I wanted to make you say so," she answered. + +"But, Gladys," I cried, "I was sure you were in love with Boller." + +She stared at me with eyes full of wonder. + +"With Boller," I exclaimed. "Boller of '89." + +"Why, David Malcolm, you poor, dear child," she cried. "How could you +have been so foolish. He left yesterday--yesterday at three." + +A cloud suddenly hurled itself across the brightness of my day. It +seemed that after all I had hurried unnecessarily, for the financial +problem forces itself even into the seventh heaven of love, and now it +came like a ghoul to devour my happiness. It assumed concrete form in +a picture of Doctor Todd when I went to him empty-handed, and I could +not help feeling that it would have been better had I not let suspicion +and jealousy hurry me to the attainment of what could have been mine a +year later under less embarrassing circumstances. + +My moment of abstraction was quickly noticed. Gladys Todd wanted to +know my troubles. They were hers now, she said, for thenceforth we +must share our burdens. I rose, for I was young. I laughed, and with +my laugh the clouds were swept away, for no cloud could veil the +sunshine from my heart when the big sketch-book was under my right arm +and her small hand was under my left arm as we walked together down +that clover-carpeted lane. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +I have travelled far in my life, travelled the seven seas by sail and +steam, and on horse and camel crossed plain and desert. The Pacific, +the Indies, the Arctic--I count over the coasts where my ships have +cast anchor; I go back in my memory to the first foreign shores on +which my eyes rested, and you perhaps will smile when I tell you that +they were the Jersey meadows. I saw them from a car window on a June +evening. The train had crossed the bridge at Newark, and below me in +the river lay ships--tiny coasters, I know now, but then in the dusk +magnified for me to the dignity of world-wanderers. In the salt vapors +of the marshes I scented the sea and the far-borne aroma of the +tropics, the lands of palm and spice, and I looked away to the +encircling hills and their scattered lights with something of the +exultation of Columbus when he spied the blazing torch which marked the +New World. This was a new world to me. I had known only the inland, +little valleys where life moved as placidly as the little rivers which +threaded them. Now the sight of mast and spar, the salt vapors, the +far-spread lights told me that I had come to a strange land, and I was +eager to reach its heart and to see its mysteries. I was keyed high +with the hope of conquest. With the salt marshes behind me, I left +behind me, too, the Old World, the little valleys, the placid streams, +and very straight I was, and very self-confident, when at last I looked +across the dark river to the towering shadow of the city, pierced by +its myriad stars. I felt neither fear nor loneliness. This city had +been building for these hundreds of years for just this hour. It +waited to receive me. + +But the David Malcolm who stood bewildered in the streets was not the +conqueror who had stepped ashore from the ferry-boat. The life a +moment ago so precious had suddenly lost its value in the eyes of the +unknowing. Yesterday he had walked through Malcolmville, and every +man, woman and child in its straggling length had come out to bid him +farewell. His departure was an event. His arrival in these strange +streets was an event, but to him alone. His very existence was not +recognized save by those churlish souls with whom his awkwardness +brought him into physical contact. A belt-line car charged at him as +though it mattered little if he were ground beneath its wheels. A +truck hurled at him as though it were a positive blessing could the +world be rid of him. Plunging to safety, he bowled over a man who made +it perfectly plain that he regarded himself as just as important as +Malcolm of '91. Pausing on a corner with his shining suit-case at his +feet, he looked about him. Then he became in his own mind but another +ant in a giant hill. + +I was lonely now, but I had no fear. I watched the unceasing flow of +life around me, and I said that I could move in it as boldly as any +man, and perhaps a little better than most men, and if the time came +when I must at last be caught beneath a belt-line car my removal from +these mad activities would at least be dignified by a notice in the +papers. The shrinkage to my self-importance added fire to my ambition. +More carefully but resolutely I threaded my way up Cortlandt Street, +and at every step my sense of my unimportance increased. Even my hotel +seemed to be a hotel of no importance. Mr. Pound had stayed there in +1876, and his account of its magnitude and luxury had led me to believe +that I could find it merely by asking. Three men met my simple inquiry +with shakes of the head and hurried brusquely on, and yet they were +respectable and intelligent-looking. The policeman at the Broadway +corner had at least heard of my hostelry; he remembered having seen it +when he first came on the force, but he was inclined to believe that it +had long since been torn down. This was discouraging, but I did not +abandon my search, for Mr. Pound had advised me to make myself known to +Mr. Wemple, the head clerk, a friend of his, who would doubtless be of +service to me. And now in my great loneliness I wanted to find not the +hotel, but Mr. Wemple, for I knew that with him I could talk on terms +of friendship, however frail. From the horse-car jogging up Broadway I +watched for the corner where the policeman told me the hotel had been; +I reached it and saw a tall building adorned by many golden signs, +inviting me not to the comfort of bed and board but to the purchase of +linens and hosiery. It was growing late. The part of the town through +which I was passing had put out its lights and gone home to bed, so I +had to abandon hope of finding Mr. Wemple, and turned into the first +hotel I saw, an imposing place with a broad window in which sat a +solemn, silent row of men gazing vacantly into the street. + +Here at last I ended my journey, weary and lonely, without even Mr. +Wemple to welcome me to the city where I had cast my fortunes. Before +long I joined the solemn line and sat watching the street, and Broadway +below Union Square at night, even in those times, was not an enlivening +scene. My conquest was forgotten; my mind wandered back to the valley +at home. Here I sat listlessly, in a hot, narrow canyon through which +swept a thin, sluggish stream of life; above me was just a patch of +sky; before me was a tall cliff of steel and stone, pierced by +numberless dead windows. As I sat in the glare of electric lights, in +smoke-charged air, my ears ringing with the harsh medley of the street, +I fancied myself on the barn-bridge again. The moon would be rising +over the ridges and the valley would lie at my feet with its checkered +fields of brown and gray rolling away to the mountains, and the music +of the valley would be no harsh clatter of bells and hoofs; I should +hear the wind in the trees, the rustle of the ripening grain, the +whippoorwill calling from the elm by the creek, and the restless +bleating of sheep in the meadow. Thinking of these things, I asked +myself if the life I had left was not far better than the one I had +chosen; if the highest reward for my coming years of labor would not be +the right to return to it. But for pride I could have abandoned all my +mighty plans at that moment and gone back, even, as the Professor had +said, to doze like the very dogs. I dared not. My parents' joy at my +return might over-balance the loss of their high hopes for my fame, and +had they alone been in my thoughts I should have taken the night train +home. But I could not go back to Gladys Todd beaten before I had even +come to blows with life. + +The last picture I had of her was the heroic one of a woman speeding +her knight to battle. Gladys had an embarrassing way of calling me +"her knight." She stood on the platform of the Harlansburg station, +and I leaned from a window of the moving train. Beside her was Doctor +Todd waving his hat, and behind her the three Miss Minnicks with +handkerchiefs fluttering. She was very straight and very still, but I +knew what was in her thoughts. She had faith in my strength; when she +saw me again my feet would be firmly set on the ladder by which men +climb above the heads of their herded fellows. In the hours of the +long journey the picture of her was very clear to me; I seemed to be +wearing her colors as I went to the conflict; with her spirit watching +over me, I could strike no mean blow nor use my strength in any +unworthy cause. + +How glad I was that she could not see me now, as I sat in the hotel +window on two legs of my chair, with my feet on the brass rail, a +figure of dejection. The glamour of my great adventure was gone. I +had come quickly to the waste places of which the Professor had spoken. +When I closed my eyes to the noisome street and the clamor, when I saw +the pines on the ridge-top clear cut against the moonlit sky, when I +heard the whippoorwill calling from the elm and the sheep bleating in +the meadow, I believed that I was marching to barren conquests and +fighting for worthless booty. But I dared not turn back. + +In the morning, however, I looked at that same street with different +eyes. The thin, sluggish stream of life had swollen to a mighty +current. The raucous little medley of the night was lost in the +thunders of the awakened city. The towering canyon was swept by the +brightest of suns. I seemed to be standing idle in the midst of the +conflict, and I was eager to plunge into it. So at noon that day I +began my fight. I presented myself at the editorial rooms of _The +Record_ and asked for Mr. Carmody. In my hand I held a letter to him +from Boller, recommending me in such high terms that it seemed highly +improbable that he could refuse me his good offices. To support +Boller's assertions as to my acquirements I had also letters from +Doctor Todd and Mr. Pound. According to Doctor Todd, the journal which +secured the services of David Malcolm was to be congratulated; he +recited my high achievements, my graduation with honors in the largest +class in the history of McGraw, my winning of the junior oratorical +contest with a remarkable oration on "Sweetness and Light." Mr. Pound +was less fulsome in his praises, for he was by nature a pessimistic +man, but he could vouch for my honesty, though, to be frank, he had +been disappointed by my abandoning my purpose to enter the ministry; +yet he had known me from infancy, he had had a little part in the +development of my mind, and he was confident that I needed but the +opportunity to make my mark in any profession. + +With such support, my air when I asked for Mr. Carmody was naturally +one of assurance. The office-boy, an ancient man in the anteroom, +handed my card and Boller's letter to a very young assistant, and where +my eyes followed him through a door I saw a number of men seated at +battered desks. Some were writing; some were reading; some merely +smoking; some had their heads together and talked in low tones. All +were in their shirt-sleeves; and none presented the dignified +appearance of my conception of a journalist, and especially of so +successful a journalist as Mr. Bob Carmody. I was confident that the +very young office-boy would pass them and go to the doors beyond, which +must lead to the true sanctum. No; where he stopped I saw a +wide-spread paper; over the top of it a mop of flaming red hair, and +bulging from the sides of it the sleeves of a very pink shirt. The +curtain was lowered, disclosing a round, red face heavily blotched with +shaving-powder. There was nothing of dignity in Mr. Carmody's +appearance; there was nothing in his rotund features to suggest any +high purpose or distinguished ambition; indeed, it seemed that he would +be content to sit forever on that small chair at that battered desk. + +He dropped the paper, looked at my card, and read Boller's letter. +Evidently it amused him, for the half-burned cigarette in his mouth +moved convulsively, and as he came toward me there sprang up in my mind +doubts as to Boller's estimate of him. But he proved a good-natured +young man and certainly very modest. Sitting on the ancient +office-boy's desk, he addressed me in low tones, as though he feared to +be overheard. He was glad to know any friend of Boller's, but +evidently Boller was laboring under a misapprehension as to his +importance. He disavowed having any influence. Had he the power, +nothing would delight him more than to give a friend of Boller a job. +I had never thought of myself hunting anything so commonplace as a job, +but as I listened to him and looked past him into the editorial room my +ideas of my chosen profession were rapidly readjusting themselves and I +was casting about for a way in which to continue my quest without the +influence on which I had counted so heavily. I protested that I had +never dreamed of him giving me a job; I had come to him simply for +advice, and perhaps an introduction to the real powers. + +Mr. Carmody gave an uneasy glance over his shoulders to a large desk in +the corner, where sat a tall, thin man who seemed absorbed in a game of +checkers played with newspaper clippings. Mr. Hanks, the city editor, +he explained; nothing that he could say would have any influence on Mr. +Hanks. On my insisting, however, he at last consented to sound Mr. +Hanks on my behalf; he approached him with something of the caution he +would have used in confronting a tiger; he waved his hand to me to +assure me that all was well, and when I stood by the big desk he +disappeared, and it was many days before I saw him again. + +There was nothing repelling in Mr. Hanks. Indeed, he seemed rather a +mild man, but when he turned on me a pair of large spectacles I felt +suddenly as though I were a curious insect being examined under +magnifying-glasses. Mr. Hanks, with his thin, pale face and +dishevelled hair, appeared more an entomologist than a militant editor. +In a moment, however, I saw him in action. He shot his bare arm across +the littered desk, he seemed to try to destroy his brass bell, and with +every ring he shouted, "Copy--copy!" Office-boys sprang from the floor +and dropped from the ceiling; they tumbled over one another in their +hurry to answer the summons. He reprimanded them for being asleep. I +thought that they would be ordered to bring Mr. Malcolm a chair, but +instead one received from a waving hand a bunch of paper, and they +retired as they had come, into the floor and the ceiling. I was under +the magnifying-glasses again. + +"Well, Mr. Malcolm," said Mr. Hanks, leaning back in his chair and +clasping his hands behind his head, "ever done any newspaper work?" + +"No, sir," I answered boldly. "I have just graduated from McGraw." + +"And where in the devil is McGraw?" he asked in a slow, wondering voice. + +How I wished for Doctor Todd! In five minutes this self-confident +journalist would blush for his own ignorance. But Doctor Todd not +being here to confound him with facts, there was nothing better for me +to do than to hand him the letter. His face lighted with a smile as he +read it. The effect was so good that I followed it with Mr. Pound's. +The effect of Mr. Pound's was so good that I was confident that I +should soon be a journalist in fact, for Mr. Hanks read it over twice. + +"My boy," he began, regarding me through his spectacles benignly. At +that familiar address my heart leaped. "Let me give you some advice." +My heart fell. "Take those letters and lock them up to read when you +are ten years older. Then start out and go from office to office until +you get a place. Don't be discouraged. Some day you'll break in +somewhere." + +"But I want to work on _The Record_," I cried. "It's politics agree +with mine--it is Republican. It is a respectable paper. It----" + +Mr. Hanks was leaning over his desk. "Pile," he said, addressing the +fat man who sat across from him, "that was a good beat we had on the +Worthing divorce--I see all the evenings are after it hard. We must +have a second-day story." + +"I am ready," I said a little louder, "to begin with any kind of work." + +Mr. Hanks looked up as though surprised that I was still there. +"You've come at a bad time," he said brusquely. "Summer--we are +letting men go every day. But don't get discouraged. I worked four +months for my first job, and I didn't come from McGraw either. Keep +going the rounds." + +Then he seemed to forget my existence and resumed his game of checkers. + +His dismissal was a terrible blow, but I had read enough of great men +to know that they had to fight for their opportunities, and I was +determined not to be a weakling and go down in the first skirmish. For +a moment I stood bewildered at the entrance of _The Record_ building, +stunned by the unexpected outcome of my visit there. I was indignant +at Boller for having raised my hopes so high. I was indignant at Mr. +Carmody for not measuring up to Boller's estimate. I was indignant at +Mr. Hanks for not making a searching inquiry into my attainments, for +his ignorance of McGraw and his amusement over my precious letters. I +vowed that some day Mr. Hanks should be put under my magnifying-glass, +to shrivel beneath my burning gaze. + +To break in somewhere proved a long task. From Miss Minion's +boarding-house on Seventeenth Street, where I established myself, I +went forth daily to the siege of Park Row. I was shot up to heaven to +editorial rooms beneath gilded domes, and as quickly shot down again. +I climbed to editorial rooms less exaltedly placed, up dark, +bewildering stairways which seemed devised to make approach by them a +peril. I soon knew the faces of all the city editors in town, and all +the head office-boys were as familiar with mine. At the end of the +first round I began to look more kindly on Mr. Hanks and to realize the +wisdom of his advice that I lock away my letters. I recalled the +varied receptions they had met, and when I started on my second round +they were hidden in my trunk. Repeated rebuffs had a salutary effect. +My egotism was reduced to a vanishing-point, my pride was quickened, +and with my pride my determination to accomplish my purpose. Even had +I lacked pride, I must have been nerved to my dogged persistence by the +memory of Gladys Todd with Doctor Todd and the three Miss Minnicks +speeding me to my triumphs. Every evening when I came home, tired and +discouraged, to Miss Minion's, I found a letter addressed to me in a +tall, angular hand--a very fat letter which seemed to promise a wealth +of news and encouragement. But Gladys Todd could say less on more +paper than I had believed possible. Encouragement she gave me, but +never news. News would have spoiled the graceful flow of her +sentences. Yet she was wonderfully good in the way she received my +accounts of my disappointments. She was prouder than ever of "her +knight"; her faith in him was firmer than ever; as she sat in the +evening, in the soft light of the lamp, she was thinking of me with +lance couched charging again and again against the embattled world. + +At first in my replies I found a certain satisfaction in recounting my +defeats; for in fighting on I seemed to be proving my superior worth +and strength, and I became almost boastful of my repeated failures. +But the glamour of defeat wears off as the cause for which one fights +becomes more hopeless, and after a month I seemed farther than ever +from attaining my desire. I became depressed in the tone of my +letters, but as my spirits sank Gladys Todd's seemed to soar. + +One particularly fat epistle I found on my bureau on an evening when I +was so discouraged that I was beginning to consider heeding my father's +appeal that I return home and study for the Middle County bar. I +opened it with dread. I wanted no comfort, but here in my hands were +twenty pages of Gladys Todd's faith in me and her pride in me. She was +sure that I should have the opportunity which I sought, and, having it, +would mount to the dizziest heights. She likened me to a crusader who +wore her colors and was charging single-handed against the gates of the +Holy City and shouting his defiance of the infidels who held it. It +was an exalted idea, but I remembered my tilt that afternoon with the +ancient office-boy of _The Record_, and his refusal to take my seventh +card to Mr. Hanks. The comparison was so absurd that I laughed as I +had not laughed in many days, and with the sudden up-welling of my +mirth, lonely mirth though it was, the blood which had grown sluggish +quickened, the drooping courage rose, I saw the world through clearer +eyes. The next afternoon when I faced the ancient office-boy the +remembrance of Gladys Todd's metaphor made me smile, and so overcome +was he by this unusual geniality that he did take in my card to Mr. +Hanks. + +"Again," said Mr. Hanks, leaning back in his chair and surveying me +through his magnifying-glasses. "Young man, are you never going to +give me a rest?" + +"Never," said I, smiling. "You advised me to go the rounds and not to +be discouraged." + +"Have you got your letters with you?" he asked mildly. + +"They are locked away in my trunk," said I. + +"You certainly have taken my advice with a vengeance," said he. "I +suppose I shall have to do something to protect myself." + +He leaned over his desk and became absorbed in his everlasting game of +checkers. The smile left my face, for I thought that he had forgotten +my presence, as he had forgotten it so many times before. But after a +moment he slanted his head, focussed one microscope on me, and said: +"Do you think you could cover Abraham Weinberg's funeral this +afternoon?" + +So it was that Gladys Todd's crusader at last broke down the gates of +the Holy City. But I fear that it was to become one of the defending +infidels. Doctor Todd, in his letter to whom it might concern, +announced that David Malcolm was about to launch himself into +journalism. And now, after long waiting, David Malcolm was launched. +Just when he was despairing of ever leaving the ways he had shot down +them suddenly into the Temple Emanu-El and the funeral of Abraham +Weinberg. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +You can well understand the elation with which I announced my success +to Gladys Todd. It was magnified by the month of disappointment, and +to her I felt that I owed a debt. Though I had come to look with irony +on her high-flown expressions of faith in me, I realized that the fear +of her equally high-flown scorn had more than once kept me from +abandoning my project. With pride I enclosed in my letter my account +of the funeral of Mr. Weinberg, though I refrained from marring the +trophy with an explanation that this first public production of my pen +had been allowed to attain the length of a column because his store +covered half a block and his advertisements many pages of _The Record_. +As a trophy Gladys Todd received it. Declaring that she lacked words +in which to express her pride in her knight, she flew to greater +heights than ever before. She had placed my first journalistic effort +in a scrap-book, and all that I wrote was to be preserved in like +manner. I must send her every published line that came from my pen. +Her knight had triumphed in his first real passage at arms, and she +sent to me a chaplet of victory. It came--not a wreath, but a cushion +worked with her own hands, mauve and white, the colors of McGraw, with +'91 in black on one side and on the other the word "Excelsior." + +The scrap-book grew rapidly to alarming proportions, for having now my +opportunity I worked hard, and Mr. Hanks was fond of telling me that I +was rapidly outgrowing the reputation Doctor Todd and Mr. Pound had +made for me on Park Row. Accounts of murders, suicides, yacht-races, +robberies, public meetings, railroad accidents--all the varied events +which make up a day's news--followed the funeral into Gladys Todd's +archives. You can readily imagine that my views of life soon underwent +a change. They became rather distorted, as I see them now; and was it +a wonder when my day began at noon and ended in the small hours of the +morning, carried me through hospitals, police-stations, and courts, +from the darkest slums to the stateliest houses on the Avenue, from the +sweatshop to the offices of the greatest financiers. To me all men +were simply makers of news, and by their news value I judged them. A +man's greatness I measured by the probable length of his obituary +notice. Indeed, greatness itself was but the costume of a puppet, so +often did I see the sawdust stuffing oozing from the gashes in the +cloth. When I met one bank cashier simply because he had stolen, I +forgot the thousands of others who were plodding away through lives of +dull honesty. Because one Sunday-school superintendent sinned, I +classed all his kind as sinners. Becoming versed in the devious ways +of statesmen, I began to doubt the virtues of my old heroes whose +speeches I had often declaimed with so much unction. I became a cynic. +At twenty-two my thoughts matched the epigrams of Rochefoucauld and my +philosophy that of Schopenhauer. All my old ideas as to the importance +of the work I had chosen and of my own value to the world were quickly +dissipated. Often I had cause to remember the Professor and his +argument that even of our good actions selfishness was the main-spring, +and accepting it as true, and laying bare the roots of my own motives +and of those around me, I should have moved confusedly in the darkness +had I not come to see more clearly what he meant by marching under +sealed orders and to realize that I had a duty and that it was to live +by the light I had. I did try to do this. I had a conscience, and +though I might believe that it was but a group of conceptions as to the +nature of right and wrong poured into my mind by my early instruction, +it protested as strongly against abuse as did my digestive organs. +Sometimes I had to effect strange compromises with it. Sometimes, in +my never ceasing search for facts, I found myself causing pain and +trouble to those who were innocently brought under the shadow of crime +and scandal, but I justified myself by the theory that they suffered +for the good of the many. To me the old dictum that the end justifies +the means became a useful balm. + +You might think that, with so radical a change in my ideas, I should +see Gladys Todd in another light than that of my college days. Indeed, +looking back, those college days did seem of another age and another +world, but in them Gladys Todd had become linked to me by ties as +indissoluble as those which bound me to my father and mother. To what +I deemed my broader view of life, their ways of living and their ways +of thinking were certainly exceedingly narrow, but none the less I +thought of them only with reverence and affection. So it was with +Gladys Todd. That mirthful outburst over her effusion about the +crusader was followed by many of its kind as her daily letters came to +me, but this meant simply that I was growing older than she, and she to +my mind became a child, but was none the less lovely for her +unsophistication. In the turmoil of my daily work, in the unlovely +clatter of Miss Minion's boarding-house, I often recalled the vine-clad +veranda and our walks in the grass-grown lane, looked back to them +regretfully, looked forward yearningly to the renewal of such hours. + +Sometimes when my evening was free from my routine duty, and I was +working harder than ever I had worked in my college days, I would +forget my task to dream of the time when Miss Tucker's piano would no +longer be clattering beneath me, and I should be no more disturbed by +Mrs. Kittle, who had a habit of jumping her chair around the room next +to mine, when somewhere in the city's outskirts I should have a house +of my own, a little house in a bit of green, where I could find quiet +and peace and Gladys Todd. For the realization of that dream all that +I needed was money. By the lack of it I was condemned to Miss +Minion's. Even when I had attained to the munificent salary of Mr. +Carmody, a figure which Boller had announced to me with so much awe, I +was still far from having an income to keep two in the simplest +comfort. It was difficult to make this clear to Gladys Todd. Her +father and mother had married on eight hundred dollars a year, and even +now my salary equalled the doctor's as president of the college. To +her my salary read affluence, and in my letters I began to have +difficulty to convince her that I had not grown exceedingly worldly and +was not putting material comfort in the balance against unselfish and +uncomplaining love. On my third biannual visit to Harlansburg I went +armed with facts and figures as to house rents and flat rents, the +prices of meats per pound, the cost of fuel, light, and clothing. +Having in my pocket such a tabulated statement which showed for +incidentals a balance of but fifty dollars, I could not but smile +ironically at the manner in which Doctor Todd presented me to his +friends. Boller was forgotten. Boller's achievements were outshone by +those of David Malcolm. Malcolm's success demonstrated the high +character of McGraw's system of training. Malcolm was already being +heard from! + +Malcolm, with the problem which confronted him, was inwardly gauging +his success by his bank account, and even the pride of Gladys Todd was +a little clouded when she was called upon to use the same measure. + +Sitting in the very chair in the shaded lamplight from which she had +looked so admiringly on Boller two years before, she now studied the +prospectus of our contemplated venture. She was very lovely, but I +remember noticing what I had never before noticed, the wisps of hair +which floated a little untidily about her ears. And I did what I had +never done before--I compared her with another woman, with Miss Tucker, +whose piano had so often disturbed my evening labors. Miss Tucker +taught mathematics in an uptown girls' school. She was not as pretty +as Gladys Todd, but I remembered how wonderfully neat she was, with +never a hair blowing loose, and I remembered too that, though she had +disturbed me with her music, I never complained of it, for the sake of +the picture which she made every morning when she descended the stoop +beneath my window, going to her work as cheerfully and daintily as many +of her sisters would to a dinner or a dance. + +"We shall only have a hundred dollars left for doctor's bills and +car-fare then, David," said Gladys Todd, looking up from the paper. +There were tears in her eyes, but they did not affect me as much as her +way of doing her hair. How I longed for the courage to tell her that +it was decidedly bad form! + +"But we shall only have to wait a little longer, Gladys," said I, and I +moved my chair beside her chair. + +"I know," she returned more bravely, putting her hand in mine. "But +you don't realize how lonely I am without you. I want to be with you, +helping you--to be at your side comforting you when you are tired, +cheering you when you are discouraged." + +For that moment I forgot the stray wisps and the Langtry knot. + +"But it is only a little while longer," I pleaded. "Let us say in +June. I shall come for you in June. You will wait for me till June?" + +Her hand was on my shoulder, and I forgot all about Miss Tucker. For +that moment I was the happiest of men. + +"Wait for you till June?" she cried. "Why, David, I'd wait for you to +eternity." + +"You need not," I replied, laughing. "In June I am coming to take you +to a little house on a green hill, with a veranda where we can sit on +my holidays, you painting tulips on black plaques, and I--well, I with +you, just thinking how wonderful it all is and----" + +"How wonderful it will be in June!" said Gladys Todd. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Fifth Avenue was in those days a favorite resort of mine. Every +morning I plunged into the rush downtown I dived from the elevated +railway station into the tatterdemalion life of Park Row, and when I +raised my head above that ragged human maelstrom and climbed to the +editorial room of _The Record_ it seemed as though I lifted my body out +of a little muddy stream and plunged my mind into a Charybdis which +embraced the whole world. Its centre was the same desk which I had so +often approached with trembling in the days when I was breaking spears +with the ancient office-boy and Mr. Hanks. I was fixed now in a chair +opposite Mr. Hanks. I had become an editor. But I was not hurling my +spears against the devils that possess poor man. My principal daily +task was to read the newspapers with a microscopic eye, to glean from +them every hint of news to come and to be covered, to present the +clippings to Mr. Hanks ready for his easy perusal, and though in our +province we had to do only with events of a local character, the life +of the city was so interwoven with that of the whole world that to me +our desk seemed a high lookout tower from which we kept an eye on the +very corners of the globe. Did I look from the smutted window at my +side, it was into the struggling throng on the pavement below or, over +the line of push-carts displaying tawdry wares, into the park where the +riff-raff seemed to reign, because the riffraff was always there, +dozing on the benches. Did I look to the other hand, it was through +the great murky room, through air charged with tobacco smoke and laden +heavily with the fumes of ink, molten lead, and paper which filtered +from the floors below through every open door. In a distant corner, a +gloomy figure in the light of a single lamp, I could see the keeper of +the "morgue" cutting his way through piles of papers, filing away his +printed references to Brown, or Jones, or Robinson, against that day +when Brown might die, Jones commit some crime, or Robinson, perchance, +do something virtuous. I could see, in nearer prospect, the rows of +little desks and the reporters at them, some writing, some reading, +some smoking wearily; some young men fresh from college and keyed high +with ambition; some old men shabbily dressed and carelessly groomed who +had spent their lives at those little desks and asked nothing more than +the privilege of ending them there; some of more corpulent minds, like +the great Bob Carmody, who were happy in the attainment of a life's +ambition to become authorities on base-ball, foot-ball, or rowing. +Wherever I looked I seemed to see nothing but the titanic tread-mill +and to hear the clatter of its cogs: within, where the presses rumbled +deep in the ground below me, where the telegraph clicked in the +adjoining room and overhead the typesetting-machines rattled +incessantly; without, in the medley of the street, the cries of the +hawkers, the clang of car gongs, and the never-ending shuffle of feet. +Uptown life seemed on its surface to be lighter, and the curse of Adam +to rest more easily on the shoulders of his children. + +Of Fifth Avenue this was especially true. It was not a canyon of brick +and stone in those days. Trade had just begun its invasion and had +gained a foothold only in the few blocks above and below Twenty-third +Street, and for the rest it was still a street of homes, where people +moved in a more leisurely fashion than in the crowded thoroughfares +downtown. The very air was charged with a healthier life, and here +amid the opulence one could forget the near presence of the squalid +alley. So it had become a habit of mine always to begin my day with a +walk uptown, as a gentle tonic for my body and to give my mind a brief +but more cheerful outlook than through the smutted office windows. I +never tired of the life which I saw about me. And it was about me and +I not of it, for though I might pause at a tailor's to examine his +fabrics, it was always through his plate-glass window; beyond the +window I could afford to go only in the cheaper Nassau Street; and I +might stop in front of a picture-shop, but only to o select prints for +that dream-land house on the hill, set on the bit of green. Smart +carriages rolled by me, manned by immaculate, haughty servants, drawn +by horses stepping high in time with the jingle of their harness. At +one time I had planned an equipage such as these for myself; but now, +computing, from past experience, my future possibilities in finance, I +saw them fascinating as ever, yet as far from me as though they dashed +through some Martian city, and their occupants as removed from my ken +as the inhabitants of the farthest planets. Indeed, even in the +commoner throng about me I knew no one. It was seldom that I was +called on to doff my hat, and then to some of the queer old women who +were moulding away in the corners of Miss Minion's boarding-house or to +Miss Tucker hurrying to her school. + +One morning in May, as was my custom, I set out for work by my +circuitous route, with the intention of walking to Fifty-eighth Street +and taking an elevated train downtown. The day was one of the +loveliest of spring. The brightest of suns swept the Avenue. In +Madison Square the fresh green had burst from the trees overnight, and +I should have liked to drop down on one of the benches there, to look +upward through the branches into the clouds and forget the enclosing +wall of buildings and the tumultuous streets. But I was late, and I +had no mind to hurry on such a day. The languor of the spring was in +my veins, and I strolled on, almost unconscious of the life about me. +Ahead, at the crest of Murray Hill, the city seemed to end, and I to +look through a great gate-way into the blue sky, and I fancied myself +standing there in that gate-way, with the valley lying at my feet, my +valley awakened from its winter's sleep, its hill-sides decked with +blossoming orchards, its mountains carpeted with the soft shadows of +the clouds. I saw the ridge, its green slope slashed by the white +winding road which crossed it. That was the same road up which I had +climbed on a May morning long ago, when I hurried to the Professor's +aid, and I followed it now to the clearing; I saw the clearing with the +Professor leaning on his hoe studying a fleck of cloud, and Penelope +watching him silently, fearing to disturb his important meditations. +In these busy years Penelope had been rarely in my thoughts; if at all, +it was as a little girl with a blue ribbon in her hair, the companion +of a few brief weeks of my boyhood. I dared not picture her as growing +up, for I had no faith in the influence of Rufus Blight, whom I had +always associated with packages of tea and prizes. Penelope grown, I +feared, might have become fat and florid, might speak with a twang and +wear gaudy hats and gowns. My life in New York, even though I was but +a quiet observer, had made me critical of women, and when I could brood +unhappily over Gladys Todd's stray wisps of hair I could have little +sympathy with the type of the imaginary Penelope Blight. But this +morning, when the far-borne freshness of the woods and fields was in +the air, and I longed to feel the soft earth beneath my feet, to break +from the enclosing walls and to stride over the open fields, I recalled +days like this when the wine of spring was in my veins and I had run +through the meadows in a wasteful riot of energy; and then a particular +day like this when Penelope and I had ridden out of the woods, had come +to the ridge-top and looked over the smiling valley. I seemed to feel +Penelope's arms drawn tightly around me as I pointed across the +friendly land and promised to take care of her. I had had no fear then +that she would ever grow corpulent and florid, and now I found myself +asking if my boyish intuition might not have been right, and she +fulfilled entirely the promise of her girlhood, defying the insidious +generosity of time and the vulgar influence of Rufus Blight. Should I +ever know? Should I ever see her? + +I must have been looking at the clouds as I asked myself these +questions, for I walked right into an elderly woman, a tall, buxom +woman who carried in her arms a tiny Pomeranian. The force of our +collision made her drop her pet, and for an instant he hung suspended +by the leash and choking. I apologized humbly, bowing; but my +victim--for such she seemed to think herself--the victim of my +premeditated brutality, lifted the frightened dog back to the refuge of +her arms, glared at me, turned, and swept on to a modiste's door. Her +haughtiness angered me. I held the fault as much hers as mine, for the +pavement was not crowded and she seemed to have risen from it just to +obstruct my passage. I looked about me to discover whence she had come +so suddenly, and in a carriage standing at the curb I found an +explanation. I said to myself that if she had emerged from so smart an +equipage I had indeed committed _lese-majeste_, for it was such a +turnout as I had dreamed of in my days of opulent dreaming; it was such +a turnout as a poor poet could have used without offending his sense of +the beauty of simplicity. The high-headed horses with their shining +harness, the smart brougham, so spotless that it was hard to imagine +its wheels ever touching the street, the men in their unobtrusive +livery, spoke of unostentation in its most perfect and most expensive +form. The woman of the Pomeranian, I said to myself, must be surely +some _grande-dame_, a leader in that mysterious circle which I knew +only by its name "society." My view of that circle in those days was +tinged with the cynicism of one who knew nothing of it; and though at +the boarding-house table I was prone to rail at it, secretly I had to +admit that my raillery was born of envy. So now it was with a mind +filled half with awe and half with envy that I turned to look after the +imposing woman with the dog. + +For the first time I noticed that she had a companion. First, the +companion was but a slender figure in black, smartly clad. I could see +only her back, and yet as I carried my eye from the dainty boot which +rested on the lowest step to the small gloved hand on the railing, to +the small black hat with its blue wings airily poised, I found myself +making comparisons between this daintiness and the untidy loveliness of +Gladys Todd. I was almost angry with Gladys Todd because she did not +dress with such simplicity, not knowing that all her wardrobe cost +hardly as much as this unobtrusive gown, this masterpiece of a tailor's +art. + +Gladys Todd was not long in my mind. It was as though the memory of +her was swept away by the turn of the blue wings on which my eyes +rested. They moved with a majesty that sent my thoughts hurling down +into the past to match them. I matched them with a bit of blue ribbon. +It had moved as majestically as they. I almost laughed outright. It +was absurd to compare the forlorn child of the clearing with this +smartly groomed young woman, and remembering Nathan, the white mule, I +looked again to the perfectly turned-out carriage at the curb. You +must suspect that there was in my mind, born of a wild hope, a +suspicion that I was seeing Penelope Blight. True. But from Nathan, +the white mule, to this perfect carriage with the haughty footman at +the door was so far a cry that I was about to go on. The girl had +turned also, and I found myself halted and staring at her. I was sure +that she had been studying my back at that moment when I was looking at +the carriage, but being discovered in such interest she gave a start, +recovered herself, and with an angry toss of her head sprang up the +steps and through the door. + +In that moment when our eyes met I was sure that I was face to face +with Penelope Blight. + +The old Florentine writer, Firenzuola, commends nut-brown as the +loveliest color for a woman's eyes, declaring that it gives to them a +soft, bright, clear and kindly gaze and lends to their movement a +mysteriously alluring charm. These eyes were blue, but in that +fraction of an instant when I looked into them, their light was soft +and bright, clear and kindly; I was sure that they were the same +mysteriously alluring eyes that I had first known years before when I +had crawled, wet and cold, from the depths of the mountain brook. +Knowing no more I should have spoken her name, my hand was rising to my +hat, but the soft and kindly light changed suddenly to hostility, and +she was gone. + +I hesitated, not knowing what step to take next. With hesitation doubt +came. I began to argue. The hostile flash of her eyes angered me. +She had tacitly charged me with impertinence, with the manners of a +common Broadway lounger. Then I said, had this really been Penelope +she must have recognized me, for twelve years could not have +obliterated all outward traces of the boy whom she had once known as +her only friend. Remembering that time, remembering the forlorn cabin +in the mountains and the brown, barefooted girl, remembering the +promise of later days given by the sleek vulgarity of Rufus Blight, I +said that she could not have grown to this faultless picture of young +womanhood. Yet the forlorn hope that I might be mistaken would have +held me there awaiting her return had it not been for the haughty +footman by the carriage door. He had been a silent observer of what +had passed, and seeing me now loitering, staring at the modiste's shop, +he cast off his expressionless mask and assumed a very threatening and +scowling appearance. Evidently he, too, thought me a street lounger +who, not satisfied with nearly killing madam, was bent on thrusting his +impertinent attentions on the young mistress. I could not explain to +him that I had known the young mistress years ago when she lived in a +log hut in a mountain valley. His own perfection as a servant made +such an explanation the more incredible; and though loath to abandon +the opportunity to convince myself that I was mistaken, I saw nothing +left for me but to go my way downtown. + +As I sat at my desk I was so distrait that Mr. Hanks accused me of +being in love, speaking as though I were the victim of a mental +derangement which unfitted me for serious labor. After the way of men, +I boldly denied his charge. He paid no attention to my protest, but +expressed himself freely on the unwisdom of a man allowing himself to +fall under the influence of delusions which cost him his mental poise +and might disarrange his whole life. Hearing Mr. Hanks, it was +difficult for me to believe that he had ever been in love himself. +Watching him at his work, with his sharp, restless eyes always alert, +and listening to his voice as incisive as his shears, he seemed a man +whose whole mind was possessed by the pursuit of news, a man whose +brain and body worked with such machine-like accuracy that he could +never fall into the puerile errors of his fellows. Now when he was +misusing his authority to browbeat me into what he termed sanity, I +found comfort in recalling that after all he had once in a moment of +forgetfulness confessed to having a home at Mentone Park, with a wife +and four daughters of whose accomplishments he spoke almost with +boasting. So I troubled no longer with denials, but sat listening to +him with a smiling face. Whereupon he brought his fist down on the +desk and called me a soft-brained idiot. + +"Of course, Malcolm," he said, "I don't know who she is, but my advice +to you is, whoever she is and whatever she is, get her out of your +mind." + +At that very moment Malcolm's mind was occupied with just these +questions: Who was she? What was she? + +With a sense of duty to Gladys Todd I strove hard to put Penelope +Blight out of my thoughts, but I could not. Sometimes I would recall +the face of the girl whom I had seen in the morning, and every feature +would bring back the child of the mountains. Then I went to +directories and searched them for the name of Rufus Blight, but I could +get no trace of him. I evolved a theory that Penelope was the guest of +the woman with the Pomeranian. The carriage must belong to either the +elder or the younger woman. Granting that the younger was Penelope, +then the elder could not be her mother. As I had examined many +directories and found none that gave her uncle's name as living in the +city, I had to conclude that the owner of the Pomeranian was her +hostess and that I was the victim of a trick of fate which had allowed +her to flash across my path and disappear, which had allowed me to have +but this tantalizing glimpse. Then I found consolation in the thought +that after all a glimpse was enough for my peace of mind. Indeed, if +this really were Penelope, then it had been best that I had never seen +her at all, grown to such loveliness. + +Considering myself as I sat in my shirt-sleeves amid grimy workaday +surroundings, remembering the frayed environment of my life uptown, +this Penelope, stepping, daintily booted and gloved, out of that +perfect equipage, was indeed a being who moved in higher airs than I. +Here was an insuperable difficulty. In the valley, David Malcolm, with +the blood of the McLaurins in his veins, might look with contempt on +the Blights and their kind. But we were no longer in the valley, and a +Blight driving down the Avenue in a brougham, drawn by high-headed +horses and manned by haughty servants, would see me not as the head of +a wealthy patrician house, but as a young man on his way from his +boarding-house to labor for a petty wage. Such a reversal of our +relative conditions was so incredible that I found myself arguing that +I could not have seen Penelope Blight, and I tried to return to loyal +devotion to Gladys Todd. + +We were to be married in June. There was no reason why we should not +be married in June if we were content to begin our venture in a modest +five-room flat in Harlem, abandoning for a while the house on the bit +of green. Gladys was not only contented but was enthusiastic over the +prospect. In my pocket was her last night's letter asking if I had yet +rented the apartment. She had already planned it in her mind--here the +piano on which she would play soft accompaniments while I sang "The +Minute Guns at Sea"; there by the window her easel, and near it the +table where her brilliant husband was to sit at night writing novels +and plays and poems which would carry us not only to the green hill but +to the Parnassian heights. When in the quiet of my room I had first +read her letter, I had been lifted on the wave of her ardor, but now, +struggle though I might to look forward to June with contentment, down +in my heart I had to confess a strange uneasiness. It seemed to me +that we were rushing into matrimony. With my mind revolving such +problems over and over, was it a wonder that Mr. Hanks noticed my +distraction and pounded the desk and spoke cuttingly of the effect of +love on a man's mental balance! All that day I neglected my tasks for +the study of my own engrossing business, but when evening came and I +started home I was able to say to myself that I had reached a definite +and unchanging conclusion--I loved Gladys Todd; like all of us, she had +her peccadilloes, and yet I was not worthy of her, but I would try to +be; the girl with the blue wings bobbing so majestically in her hat was +not Penelope Blight. + +Having reached this unchangeable decision, the very next morning, and +every morning after that, I walked up Fifth Avenue with but one thought +in my mind, and this was to see again a small black hat with blue +wings. I became argus-eyed. I peered boldly into passing carriages, +watched the foot traffic on both sides of the street, scanned the +windows of dwelling-houses, and even developed a habit of looking +behind me at fixed intervals that my vigilance might be still more +effective. One day I went boldly into the shop which I had seen the +stranger enter that day with the woman of the Pomeranian, and asked if +I could have Miss Blight's address. A saleswoman, a very blond and +very sinuous person who was standing by the door revolving a large hat +about on one hand while she caressed its plumes daintily, replied that +no Miss Blight was known there. I described her hat with the blue +wings, her companion with the Pomeranian, the very hour of her visit, +but my persistence brought only the information that hundreds of the +shop's patronesses wore blue wings and thousands carried Pomeranians. +The sinuous young woman became so cold and biting in her tone that I +was sure that she believed that I had been fascinated by her own charms +and was using a ruse for the pleasure of this brief interview, so I +made a hasty retreat. My only clew to the owner of the blue-winged hat +had failed me, and all that was left to me was to patrol the Avenue day +after day, forever hoping and forever being disappointed. + +June came. The five-room flat was still unrented. My daily letter +from Harlansburg breathed devotion and happiness over the approach of a +day as yet unset--unset because I had been rather procrastinating about +arranging leave of absence from the office. Doctor and Mrs. Todd had +wanted a college wedding in the chapel. They had even gone so far as +to suggest appropriate music by the glee club and the seniors as +ushers, but when that proposal was made to me I had found to my +distress that I could not leave New York before the summer vacation had +begun. June brought me, too, the very last good fortune I should have +asked at that moment, an unexpected increase in my salary, and unless I +lowered myself by an act of despicable cunning I could not withhold +news of such good import from the future companion of my joys and +sorrows. So I went uptown one night struggling hard to imagine myself +supremely happy. I knew my duty--it was to be supremely happy. I +should write that night to Gladys Todd and announce my coming on the +29th; to-morrow I should find the flat; the next day I should order new +clothes and look at diamond pins. + +I opened Miss Minion's front door with my pass-key, and as I climbed to +my room I seemed to emphasize with my feet the fact that I loved Gladys +Todd and was in an ecstasy of happiness. I slammed my hat down on the +bureau as I vowed again that I loved Gladys Todd. Then I drew back and +stared at my pin-cushion. The usual corpulent letter was not leaning +there; its place had been taken by an emaciated telegram. + +"Do not rent flat. Have written explanation." Such was the message to +me that day. + +At that moment I loved Gladys Todd, and I did not have to stamp the +floor to prove it. I was sure that I had lost her, and it was the +sense of my loss that made my love well up from unfathomable depths to +overwhelm me. I was angry. My pride was hurt. I counted over the +years of my untiring devotion to her, and they seemed to sum up the +best years of my life. That the telegram foreran a more explicit +statement there could be no doubt. After all she had written about the +flat, her instructions that the furniture which she had inherited from +her aunt must fit in, that my table must be near her easel--after all +these evidences of her thought--her command could mean only that our +romance was at an end and our dreams dissipated into air. There was +some other man, I thought--perhaps Boller of '89--and remembering him, +his picturesque garb and ridiculous pose, my own vanity was deeply cut. +Until late that night I sat smoking violently and turning over in my +mind the problem and all its dreadful possibilities. In bed, Sleep, +the friend of woe, was long coming with her kindly ministrations, and +yet held me so long under her beneficent influence that when I awoke I +found lying beside my bed, tossed there through a crack in the door, +the corpulent letter addressed in the tall, angular hand. + +The first line reassured me. Strangely enough, being reassured, +knowing that all the night's fears were silly phantasies born of a +jealous mind, I fell back on my pillow and, holding the letter above my +eyes, read as I had read a hundred of its fellows. Strangely enough, I +said over and over to myself with grim determination that I loved +Gladys Todd. From what she had written it was evident that I need have +no fear that her love was not altogether mine. She believed that where +two persons loved as we did, two persons who possessed each other in +such perfect happiness, it was our duty to sacrifice ourselves a little +for those less blessed than we were. As we gave so we received, and in +giving up our summer of happiness for the happiness of others our +winter would be doubly bright. I must confess that while I agreed with +her as to the duty of self-sacrifice I was a little irritated when I +found that our happiness must be deferred for Judge Bundy's sake. He +was the last person in the world whom I had expected could have any +influence on a matter so personal as the date of my marriage. Now +Gladys called to my mind the recent death of his wife, and she spoke of +his being ill, inconsolable, and miserably lonely. His life was at +stake unless he could have a change of air and scene. His physicians +had ordered for him three months' travel abroad, and he simply would +not go unless Doctor and Mrs. Todd went with him. Unfortunately, +Doctor and Mrs. Todd could not go without their daughter. Surely +David, always self-denying, would understand. On one side was her own +happiness; on the other her duty to her parents to whom had come this +opportunity to see Europe, their life dream, as guests of this generous +friend. It was very hard for her to have to choose. David knew, of +course, what she would say were she really free to choose, but, after +all, it was only for four months, and all that time I should know that, +though she was far away, her eyes were turned over-sea. + +I did not read the last five pages. They fluttered to the floor from +my listless fingers, and I turned again to my pillow and sought the +friend of woe, and again Sleep came to me with her kindly +ministrations. And again I walked the Avenue, and by a modiste's door +I saw a slender figure, a little, spotless, booted foot upon the step, +a little, spotless, gloved hand on the rail, and a small black hat with +long blue wings moving majestically. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +"Penelope!" I exclaimed, holding out both hands as though her joy at +the meeting must match mine and she would spring forward to seize them. +Then I checked my ardor, for it was the highest presumption for me to +address so familiarly this woman grown, even though in years gone by +she had raced with me over the fields and had ridden behind me on such +a poor charger as Nathan, the white mule. "Miss Blight," I added, with +a formal bow. + +"I beg your pardon," she returned, implying that she had not the +remotest idea who the man could be who had so boldly spoken, halted +her, barred her passage from the brougham to the modiste's door. + +"Don't you remember David Malcolm?" I said. + +The frown fled from her face. She regarded me a moment with wide eyes. +"Of course I remember David Malcolm," she cried, and, smiling, she held +out a small gloved hand. "And I have seen you before at this very +spot--I was sure it was you. But why didn't you speak to me then?" + +"Because I was not sure," I returned, laughing aloud for the joy of +this meeting. "You have changed since I saw you last, Penelope. It is +hard even now to believe----" + +Again I checked myself. I was looking past Penelope to the woman with +the Pomeranian. Disapproval of me was so plainly evident in her eyes, +she seemed in herself so far removed from mountain cabins, and if +Penelope had grown worthy of such distinguished company, discretion +bade me be silent. + +Penelope divined my thoughts. "And it is equally hard for me to +believe that this tall man is the boy I pulled out of the water." Half +turning, she addressed her companion. "This is David Malcolm, Mrs. +Bannister--an old, old friend of mine." + +Mrs. Bannister probably had her own ideas of Penelope's old, old +friends, but she was fair enough to examine me from head to foot before +she condemned me with the mass of them, and then finding that, to the +eyes at least, I presented no glaring crudities, she accepted me on +sufferance, inclining her head and parting her lips. + +"But tell me, David," said Penelope eagerly, "where have you been all +these years and how do you happen to be here?" + +Had I told Penelope the truth I should have replied that I happened to +be there because for four long months I had been looking for her, +whenever I could, walking the streets with eyes alert, even on +midsummer days when I had as well searched the Sahara as the deserted +town. Perhaps in thus surrendering to the hope that, after all, I +should find her, I had laid myself open to a self-accusation of +disloyalty to Gladys Todd; but she was far away in those months, and +the daily letter had become a weekly and then a semimonthly budget, and +though their tone was none the less ardent I had begun to suspect that +Europe was a more attractive abiding-place than the little flat with +the easel by the window. In one letter she spoke of her longing to be +home; she knew that there would be music in every beat of the ship's +propeller which carried her nearer me. In her next she announced her +parents' decision to prolong their stay abroad on Judge Bundy's account +and her regret that she could not leave them. There was something +contradictory in these statements, and yet I accepted them +complacently. Then postcards supplanted the semimonthly budget, and +only by them was I able to follow the movements of the travellers all +that autumn. One letter did come in October. It covered many sheets, +but said little more than that it had been simply impossible to write +oftener, but she would soon be following her heart homeward. Enclosed +was a photograph of the party posed on camels with the pyramids in the +background, and I noticed with a twinge of jealousy that Judge Bundy's +camel had posted himself beside the beast on which Gladys was +enthroned, while Doctor and Mrs. Todd had less conspicuous positions to +the left and rear. Studying the judge, I laughed at my twinge of +jealousy, for knowing him I could not doubt that Doctor and Mrs. Todd +kept always to the left and rear, which was but right considering the +generosity with which he treated them; but he looked so little the +dashing Bedouin in his great derby and his frock-coat, so hot and +uncomfortable that even the burning sands, the pyramids, and the +curious beast which he straddled could not make of him a romantic +figure. + +Young Tom Marshall, who honored Miss Minion's with his presence, +studying the photograph on my bureau one evening, asked me who was "the +beauty with the pugree." And when I replied with pride that she was my +_fiancee_ he slapped my back in congratulation. + +"And Julius Caesar," he went on--"Caesar visiting his African dominions +is, I suppose, her father, and the little fellow in the top-hat his +favorite American slave, and----" + +With great dignity I explained to young Marshall the relations of the +members of this Oriental group. At his suggestion that I had best take +the first steamer for Egypt I laughed. The implication was so absurd +that I even told Gladys Todd about it in my next letter to her, for I +still sat down every Saturday night and wrote to her voluminously of +all that I had been doing. Yet I was growing conscious of a sense of +her unreality. I seemed to be corresponding with the inhabitant of +another planet, and when I looked at the girl on the camel, with the +strange pugree flowing from her hat, and the pyramids in the +background, it seemed that she could not be the same simple girl who +had painted tulips on black plaques. + +Penelope Blight was a much more concrete figure. At any moment as I +walked the Avenue she might come around the corner, or step from a +brougham, or be looking at me from the windows of a brown-stone +mansion. Was it a wonder that my eyes were always alert? One morning +three lines in a newspaper convinced me at last that the girl with the +blue feathers was Penelope Blight. They announced that Rufus Blight, +the Pittsburgh steel magnate, had bought a house on Fifth Avenue and +would thereafter make New York his home. That night the city seemed +more my own home than ever before and the future to hold for me more +than the past had promised. The drawn curtains of this house might be +hiding Penelope from me; she might be in the dark corner of that smart +carriage flying northward; even the slender figure coming toward me +through the yellow gloom, with her muff pressed against her face to +guard it from the November wind, might be she. And when on the next +afternoon--by chance, it seemed, as by chance it seems all our lives +are ordered--when at last by the same modiste's shop the same smart +brougham drew up at the curb, the same haughty footman opened the door, +and I saw the very same blue wings, I knew that I had found Penelope at +last and I spoke without fear. + +She asked me what I had been doing all these years. I laughed +joyfully, but I did not tell her. For all these years I had been +working for this moment! + +"What have I been doing?" I said. "Why, Penelope, it would take me +forever to tell you." + +"You must begin telling me right now," she returned quickly. "You must +walk home with me to tea and I can hear all about it as we go. To me +it seems just yesterday since we went fishing in the meadow. Mrs. +Bannister won't mind driving back alone--will you, Mrs. Bannister?" + +Mrs. Bannister did mind it very much. She was, I learned afterward, +introducing Miss Blight to the right people, and it was a violation of +her contract with Rufus Blight to allow his niece to walk in the public +eye with a man who might not be the kind of a person Miss Blight should +be seen with at a time when her whole future depended on her following +the narrow way which leads to the social heaven. Of course she would +not mind driving home alone, but what about the hats? Mr. Malcolm +would pardon her mentioning such intimate domestic matters, but Miss +Blight had been away all summer and had not a hat of any kind fit to be +seen in. + +"Bother the hats!" said Miss Blight. + +She laid a hand on her chaperon's arm and pushed her gently into the +carriage. Mrs. Bannister made feeble protests. Penelope was the most +wilful girl she had ever seen and knew perfectly well that she had not +a thing to wear to the Perkins tea; if she had to go home she objected +to being arrested this way and clapped into a prison van. The last was +hurled at us as the footman was closing the door, and when Mrs. +Bannister fell back in the seat, angry and silent, the Pomeranian +projected his head from the window and snapped at us. + +"Mrs. Bannister is a good soul," Penelope said when, side by side, we +were away on that wonderful walk uptown. "She has to be properly +handled though or I should be her slave. Her husband was a broker, or +something like that, and died during a panic, and as she was in +straitened circumstances she came to us. You see, she knows everybody, +and is awfully well connected. You must be very nice to her, David." + +She called me David as naturally as though it really had been yesterday +that we went fishing in the meadow. My heart beat quicker. I laughed +aloud for the sheer joy of living in the same world with her. I vowed +that I should be very nice indeed to Mrs. Bannister. Had Penelope +asked me to be very nice to her friend Medusa I should have given her +my pledge. Subtly, by her admonition, she had conveyed to me the +promise that this walk was to be but the first of many walks, the +rambles of our childhood over again, but grown older and wiser and more +sedate. Under what other circumstances could I be nice to Mrs. +Bannister? + +Having settled my line of conduct toward the martial woman with the +Pomeranian, I began my account of the years missing in our friendship. +It was very brief. It is astonishing in how few words a man can sum up +his life's accomplishment if he holds to the essential facts. Since +that day when she had left the farm with Rufus Blight I had studied +under Mr. Pound, spent four years in college and three years working on +a newspaper. Was I successful in my work? she asked. Fairly so, I +answered modestly. I might have told her that I had gone ahead a +little faster than my fellows, but even then seemed to advance at a +snail's pace to petty conquests, for if at the end of years I attained +to Hanks's place, I was beginning to doubt that it was worth the pains +which I was taking to win it. I did not tell her of the ambitions +which had led me into my profession, nor how all my fine ideas had been +early dissipated and I had settled down to a struggle for mere +existence. On one essential fact, too, was I silent. It arose to my +mind as I told my brief story and it spread like a cloud darkening this +brightest of my days. You know what the shadow was. By her absence, +by her remoteness, Gladys Todd had for me a shadow's unreality. At +this moment the tie between us was so attenuated that it was hard for +me to believe that it existed at all. I knew that it did exist, but I +could not surrender myself to be bound by so frail a thread. I was +silent. Childlike, I wished the clouds away. Royally, I commanded the +sea to stand back. + +"And you--what have you been doing all these years?" I asked, turning +suddenly to Penelope. + +"Just growing up," she answered, laughing. "It's very easy to grow up +when one has such a kind uncle as mine. You remember the poverty in +which he found me. I was a mere charity child, and he took me----" + +"To his lively, pushing town," said I. + +"Yes," Penelope went on, "to a big stone house with a green lawn about +it dotted with queer figures in iron and marble. They were the most +beautiful things I had ever seen--those statues. Now they are all +stored in the stable, for we grew up, uncle and I, even in matters of +art. But it was like heaven to me then, after the mountains and the +smoky cabin, after the clearing and the weeds----" + +"After our farm," I broke in with a touch of irony, "and to ride behind +the fast trotters compared with our farm wagon----" + +"David," returned Penelope in a voice of reproach, "I have never +forgotten the mountains, or the cabin, or the farm. In the first days +away from them I was terribly homesick for them all. My uncle suffered +for it. His patience and his kindness were unfailing, and he softened +me at last. There is nothing in the world that I have wanted that he +has not given me." + +I was silent. The old boyish dislike of Rufus Blight had never died. +I could think of him only as a sleek, vulgar man who by the force of +his money had taken Penelope from me. His money had raised her far +above my reach, and even the cloud which shadowed this day which might +have been my brightest seemed to have had its birth in vapors of his +gold-giving furnaces. That I had forgotten Penelope and entangled +myself in the cords of a foolish sentimentality I charged to him, and +Penelope, seeing how I walked, silent, with eyes grimly set ahead, +divined that I still nourished the aversion to which in my childish +petulance I had given vent so long ago. + +"You are still prejudiced against poor Uncle Rufus, I see," she said, +smiling. "I remember how badly you treated him that day when he came +to take me away." + +"Yes, I never have forgiven him," I snapped out. "He may have reason, +and justice, and saintliness on his side, yet I never can forgive him." + +"Oh, yes, you can," said Penelope with an indulgent laugh. "You will +when you come to know him as I do. You must, for my sake." + +"Perhaps, for your sake," said I, relenting a little. + +"I knew you would for my sake, David," said Penelope. "Why, I owe +everything I have in the world to him. Since he has retired, sold his +works to a trust, I think they call it, his whole life seems to be to +look after me. Pittsburgh isn't much of a place for a man who has no +business; so we thought we should try New York for a while, and we +bought the house last spring and spent the summer in Bar Harbor. Now +we are just settling down." + +I was hardly listening as she spoke, for my mind was occupied by Rufus +Blight. He had reason and justice on his side. That much I +surrendered to him, but I clung obstinately to my dislike. I thought +of the Professor flying over the clearing to the hiding of the +mountains; I remembered him in the college hall, with his bitter words +pointing the way from which his own weakness held him back, the man +whose imagination ranged so far while his hands were idle. I pictured +his brother grown fat and happy at the trough of gold at which he fed, +and even had I not felt a personal feud with Rufus Blight, my sympathy +for the under-dog must have aroused my antipathy. But I hated him for +my own sake. For every foolish step that I had taken since that day +when he had carried Penelope away the fault seemed to have been his as +much as mine, and yet I was wise enough to see that if I would hold +Penelope's regard it would be very rash to show by word or deed that I +nursed any resentment. + +"For your sake I will, Penelope," I said. + +So soft and satisfied was the smile with which she rewarded me that I +vowed to myself that I really would forgive my old archenemy. A moment +before it had been on my lips to speak of my confiscated letters, for I +had no doubt that Rufus Blight had intercepted them. Now I realized +that in them was a mine which I might fire only to shatter our +new-found friendship. That treachery, too, I said, I should forgive. +When Penelope set the light to the fuse, I with rare presence of mind +stamped out the flames and prevented a disaster. + +We had passed Fiftieth Street, and I was telling her of my last visit +home, of my father and mother, of Mr. Pound, and of all the friends of +our younger days, when she suddenly turned to me. It was as though the +question had for some time been hanging on her lips. "David, why did +you never answer the letters I wrote you?" + +"Because." I was playing for time. To carry out my plan of silence, +it seemed that I must deceive her, and I hesitated to tell her an +untruth. + +"Because why?" she insisted. + +"Because I never received them," I answered, cheered by the thought +that thus far I could tell her the truth. "Did you really write to me?" + +"Many times," she said; "until I got tired of writing and receiving no +answer. You made me very angry." + +"The letters must have been lost in the mail," said I, bent on keeping +this disagreeable subject in the background. "Country post-offices are +very careless in the way they handle things, and mine to you--my +letters--must have gone astray too." + +"Then you did write to me as you promised, David?" she exclaimed. + +"Until I got tired of receiving no answer," I returned, laughing. "But +of course it is too late to complain to the government now." + +Penelope was not satisfied. Her brows were knitted. I believed that +there lurked in her mind a suspicion that not the government alone was +concerned in the interruption of that early correspondence, but I was +determined to ignore a subject which, if too closely pressed, might +bring about unpleasant consequences. The easiest way was to turn the +trend of her thought with a bold question, which had been hanging on my +lips through many blocks of the walk. And so, as casually as though I +inquired of her about some distant friend or relative, I spoke of her +father. + +Penelope stopped short and laid a hand upon my arm. Then as suddenly +she strode ahead. + +"I know nothing of him, David," she said in a voice almost harsh. "I +have not seen him since that dreadful day in the clearing. Once I +heard from him--a few lines--but that was so long ago that at times I +almost forget that I ever had a father." + +"What did he write to you, Penelope?" + +She seemed not to hear my question, for she was walking very fast, with +her eyes set straight ahead of her. "He might pass me at this minute, +David, and I should not know him. That might be he, standing by that +window, and I should be none the wiser, yet the fault is his. I try +always to think of him as I should, but at times it seems as though he +had disowned me, abandoned me on his brother's doorstep and then run +away. You ask of the letter. It came to me soon after I left the +farm. He said that it was best that my uncle should have me, better +than to condemn me to shift about the world with him; he said that he +had been a lazy, worthless creature, but he was going to do something, +to be somebody--those were his words; and some day, when I could be +proud of him, he would come back and claim me, and, David, he has never +come. Will he ever come, do you think?" + +"I think he will," I answered. "For I have seen him." + +"You have seen him!" The hand was on my arm again, and, forgetful of +the hurrying crowd around us, we stood there face to face, while I told +her of the brief glimpse I had had of him four years before. She +listened, breathless, and, when I had finished, walked on in silence. + +We were crossing the Plaza when she spoke again, half to me, half +ruminating. "Poor father! He must have tried and failed. He was +going to Tibet, David, you told me; that was four years ago. Where can +he be now? Wandering around the world alone, in want, perhaps, and I +have everything. Do you suppose he believes that I have forgotten +him--as if I could forget those evenings when we sat together and +painted pictures of the times when we should be rich! He called me the +princess and planned great houses in which we should live, and he would +talk of our travels and the wonderful places we should see together. +Even then I had faith that our dreams would come true, though it did +seem that we were getting poorer and poorer all the time, and father +doing nothing to help our plight. The dreams came true, David--for me. +Why doesn't he come and share them with me, with me and Uncle Rufus? +That is what troubles me; that is what I can never understand." + +I said to myself that Rufus Blight, were he so minded, could clear the +mystery away. I thought of him as a selfish, arrogant man, who was, +perhaps, too well satisfied not to have an undesirable third person in +his household to undertake any sincere search for his brother. But +these thoughts I concealed. There was something behind it all that we +two could not understand, I said, and Penelope looked up to me with +clouded eyes. + +"But we will find him, Penelope!" My stick hit the pavement as I +registered a vow. "We will find him--you and I." + +"How like the little David you are," she cried, and then smiling light +broke through the clouded eyes. "We shall try to find him, anyway, +shall we not--to bring father home. For look, David!" She had halted. +The small gloved hand was lifted, and the blue wings in her hat moved +with an old-time majesty. "There is the palace we dreamed of!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Penelope and I were standing before a great gray-stone house. I +carried my eyes from the doors of iron grill-work over the severe +breadth of wall, broken only by rank above rank of windows so heavily +curtained that one might have suspected those within to live in +darkness, fearing even to face the sunlight. I laughed. When I had +been searching for the girl with the blue feathers in her hat, I had +never given this house more than a passing glance, deeming it +altogether too palatial in its size and too severe in its aspect to +shield a man of so garish a mind as I attributed to Rufus Blight, +judging him from memory alone. I should have placed him rather next +door to it, behind the over-ornate Moorish front and had him look out +on the world through curtains of elaborately figured lace. But within, +I now said to myself, I shall find the expression of the man in a riot +of color in walls and hangings and in ill-assorted mobs of furniture. +Here again I was wrong. We passed the grilled doors into a place so +gray and cold that it might have led us to a cloister. We mounted +broad stairs, our footfalls muffled by a heavy carpeting of so +unobtrusive a color that I cannot name it. We crossed a white panelled +hall, so sparsely furnished that the untutored might have thought that +the family were just moving in or just moving out. Penelope pushed +through heavy portieres and we stood at last in a room that seemed +designed for human habitation. But it was the design of an alien mind, +not of the owner. The owner had not been allowed to fit it to himself +as he would his clothes. The alien mind had said: You do not know; you +must allow me to arrange your habitat. Here I have placed the +wonderful old fireplace which I bought for you in France, and above it +the Reynolds for which you paid forty thousand dollars; here in the +centre is the carved table which I got for you in Florence, and +geometrically arranged about its corners are books of travel; with its +back to it, a great divan covered with most expensive leather, so that +you can lounge in its depths and watch the fire. Around it I have +arranged sundry other chairs done in deep-green velour to tone in with +the walls, and along the walls are bookcases, fronted with diamond +panes and filled with leather-bound volumes--for this, sir, is your +library. + +The room was so perfect that Mrs. Bannister, seated before the fire, +brewing herself a lonely cup of tea, seemed a jarring note. She would +have been as much in place in a corner of the _Galerie-de-Glace_ at +Versailles, and but for her presence and her domestic occupation I +might have said to myself after a languid survey, "So, this is where +the king lounged"--then waited to be led on. + +Mrs. Bannister was expecting us. She spoke as though in having tea +waiting she had acted in the forlorn hope that some time we might +return, and as though for hours she had been a prey to the gravest +apprehensions, for Penelope's safety. In bringing Penelope back at all +I had in some degree allayed the hostility with which she at first +regarded me, but though she was now outwardly quite cordial, I was +conscious that over the top of her cup she was studying me closely as I +sat on the divan stirring my tea and striving to be thoroughly at home. +Her subtle scrutiny made me very uncomfortable. She asked me questions +with an obvious purpose of putting me at my ease, and I answered in +embarrassed monosyllables. Whether I would or no, I seemed constantly +to slide to the perilous edge of my seat, and no matter what care I +used, I strewed crumbs over the rug until it seemed to me that my bit +of cake had a demoniacal power of multiplying itself. + +I was angry--this hour, this formal passage of inane conversation, was +so different from what I had pictured my first meeting with Penelope to +be. I was angry at my weakness in letting this perfect room overpower +me, and this woman of the world, with no other weapon than the +knowledge of the people one should know, transfix me, silence me, +transform me into a dull, bucolic boor. Penelope was annoyed. I knew +that she was chagrined at my lack of _savoir faire_, for in one of the +long pauses following an abrupt response of mine I caught a glance of +mute despair. She seemed to accuse me of falling short of her +expectations by my lamentable lack of the social graces. + +I was for flight then. I rose to go. I paused to dispute in my mind +whether I must say farewell first to the older or the younger woman, +and from the hopelessness of ever solving the question I might have +stood there for an hour pulling at my hands had not the portieres +opened and Rufus Blight come in. + +I should not have known him as Rufus Blight but for Penelope's joyous +hail. I had expected to see him as I saw him that day when he came to +the farm to take Penelope away--a short, fat, pompous man with a +bristling red mustache and a hand that moved interminably; a sleek man +in spotless, creaseless clothes who might have stood in his own +show-window to inspire his fellows to sartorial perfection. I saw, +instead, a small man, rather thin, and slightly bald. The bristling +red mustache had turned to gray and drooped. His whole figure drooped. +His black clothes hung in many careless creases, and as he came forward +it was not with his old quick, all-conquering step, but haltingly, as +though Mrs. Bannister owned the room and he doubted if he were welcome. +I lost my embarrassment in wonder. I recalled my old fond pictures of +Rufus Blight when he should have grown older and fatter, more pompous +and more all-commanding. I watched the little dusty man draw +Penelope's head down to him and kiss her. I looked around the room, at +the great fireplace, at the Reynolds, at the carved table and the +costly empty spaces, and I lost myself in the marvel that he should +have attained them. + +"Uncle Rufus," Penelope said, drawing him toward me, "here is some one +you will be glad to see. It's David Malcolm, my old friend David +Malcolm." + +"Why, David Malcolm--my old friend, too," cried Mr. Blight, his face +lighting genially as he took my hand. "The boy who wouldn't let me +have Penelope. Upon my word, David, I didn't blame you." + +He laughed and shook my hand again and again. He asked after my father +and mother as though they were his dearest friends, and I contrasted +his cordial mention of them with his once cavalier treatment, but when +he made me sit beside him on the divan and meet and answer a rapid fire +of questions as to myself and my occupation, the old prejudices began +to disappear before his simple, unaffected kindness. Penelope was on +his other side, and her hand was in his. I forgave him. I forgot the +neglect of long ago. I forgot even the mystery of the letters. I +forgot the fat, pompous, all-commanding man. This was a meeting of +three rare old friends. Mrs. Bannister, too, had gone from my +thoughts. If she still regarded me over the top of her cup, I was +unconscious of it, for I was telling how I had come to meet Penelope +again, and he was recalling the day when, as a small boy, I had +resisted him so vigorously. + +"It has all turned out well, eh, David?" Rufus Blight said, laying a +hand upon my knee. "Here we are--the three of us--just as if we had +never quarrelled--good friends; and it is good to find old friends. We +haven't many old friends, Penelope and I. Indeed, but for Mrs. +Bannister"--he bowed to the majestic woman--"we should have few new +ones. An old one recovered is too precious to lose; and we are not +going to lose you again--are we, Penelope?" + +The color shot high on Penelope's cheeks as she laughingly assented, +and I flattered myself that she had forgotten the boor who a few +moments before had shown to such disadvantage under Mrs. Bannister's +critical eye. + +"You must come to us often," Rufus Blight pursued. "I shall be glad to +see you any time. It is good to have an old friend about when time +hangs so heavily on one's hands as it does on mine. Never go out of +business, David. Take warning from me, and don't let yourself be +stranded, with nothing to do but to play golf. Golf is a poor +occupation. I was out to-day--couldn't find a soul around the +club--had to take on the professional--spoiled my score by getting into +the brook on the tenth hole, and came home utterly miserable and +dissatisfied with life. But when you get well wetted you appreciate +the kitchen stove, as old Bill Hansen, in our town, used to say--eh, +Mrs. Bannister?" + +From this I surmised that Mr. Blight as well as the ball had gone into +the brook, and in the homely aphorism I divined a subtle purpose to +bait Mrs. Bannister, which showed an astonishing courage in so +mild-mannered a little man. Such was the awe in which I held Mrs. +Bannister that I could have loved any one who dared in her presence to +acknowledge an acquaintance with old Bill Hansen. If Mrs. Bannister +did disapprove, she was careful not to show it. Her lips parted in a +half smile and she observed to me that Mr. Blight had a jovial way of +quoting Mr. Hansen, as though Mr. Hansen were his dearest friend. + +"He is," declared Mr. Blight. "To be sure, I haven't seen him for +years, but I always remember him as the wisest man I ever knew. Why, +if it wasn't for Penelope I should go back to the valley, just to be +near him. It would be better than golf--to sit with him on the store +porch on a sunny day listening to the mill rumbling by the creek and +the killdee whistling in the meadow, to watch the shadows crawl along +the mountains, and now and then to hear Bill Hansen say something. +That would be living--eh, David?" + +Rufus Blight touched a train of thought which had been often in my +mind. Here was a man who had won in the great fight and he seemed to +be camping now on the field which he had taken. About him were the +spoils--the Reynolds, the fireplace, the perfectly bound books, and the +costly spaces of the great room. Yet he was voicing the same longing +that I, whose fight was just beginning, had often felt--the longing to +step aside from the struggle for vain things, the longing to turn from +the smoke and grime of the conflict to the quiet and peace of the +valley. Now I voiced that longing too, forgetting Mrs. Bannister and +her evident creed that man's chief end was to know the right people. + +"It would be living, indeed," I said with enthusiasm. "More than once +I have been on the point of going back to stay. I don't suppose you +ever knew my old friend Stacy Shunk, did you? When it comes to real +wisdom I'd rather talk to Stacy Shunk than----" + +Mrs. Bannister had half risen--I thought in horror. It was really the +butler who had brought my eulogy of Stacy Shunk to a sudden close, for, +appearing in half-drawn portieres, he announced: "Mr. Talcott." + +The mere entrance of Mr. Talcott carried us far from the valley and +such rude associates as old Bill Hansen and his kind. I think that +even Rufus Blight would have been too discreet to refer to them in his +presence--for Penelope's sake, if nothing else. He was a slender young +man of medium height, clean-shaven, perfectly groomed, and perfectly +mannered. He was as much at ease as I had been ill at ease, and I +envied him for it. He declined tea because he had just come from the +club, and I envied him this delightful way of avoiding cake and +embarrassing crumbs. Mrs. Bannister addressed him as Herbert, and I +knew at once that he was Edward Herbert Talcott, whose name I had often +seen in my paper-reading task. His claim to distinction was descent +from the man whose name he bore, a member of the cabinet of one of our +early presidents. A dead statesman in a family is always a valuable +asset, and the longer dead the better. Statesmen, like wines, must be +hidden away in vaults long years to be properly mellowed for social +uses. I think that Mr. Secretary Talcott would have been astonished, +indeed, could he have measured his influence after a century by the +numbers, collateral and direct, who were proud to use his name. There +were Talcott Joneses, and Talcott Robinsons, and Talcott Browns by the +score in town, but one and all they acknowledged the primacy of this +Edward Herbert Talcott, and never lost an opportunity of speaking of +him as their cousin. He had written, I learned afterward, a monograph +on his great-grandfather, which had given him a certain literary +distinction in his own set, and it was generally understood that, while +he might easily have earned a livelihood by his pen, he had been +relieved of the necessity of doing it by his ancestors' investments in +Harlem real estate. + +Talcott looked perfectly inoffensive, and yet he had hardly been seated +before I conceived a profound aversion to him. Mrs. Bannister's +treatment of him did much to arouse it. Here, she seemed to say, is a +human being, a sentient creature with ideas in his head, a finished man +with an appreciation of the finer things of life. She asked him if he +was going to the Martin dance. + +Mr. Talcott did not know--he might--he hadn't made up his mind. + +"There will probably be a rather mixed crowd," he said, with his lips +twitching into a cynical smile. + +Rufus Blight, who had moved to a chair by the fire, shook his head in +disapproval of mixed crowds, and Mrs. Bannister said that, +nevertheless, the Martins were getting along and certainly would get in. + +"And sometimes, you know, mixed crowds are rather fun," said Talcott; +and turning to Penelope: "I suppose you are not going?" + +"I certainly am," Penelope answered heartily. "I love dancing so." + +"Well, I shall, then," said Talcott. "You see, I was up awfully late +at the Coles's last night--three o'clock when I left. Why did you go +so early? I looked for you everywhere. I rather thought I should lay +off to-night and rest up for a dinner, the opera, and the Grants +to-morrow evening. But I'll go to-night anyway. We'll get up a little +crowd of our own for supper. That's the thing about mixed crowds: at +least you can have your own little set for supper." + +Having settled this problem and taken possession of Penelope for that +evening, Talcott went on to outline a jolly little plan of his to take +possession of her for an entire day in the near future--as soon as +there was skating at Tuxedo. Quite a large party were going up, Bobby +This and Willie That, to all of which Penelope assented, while Mrs. +Bannister laughed merrily. She understood that Bobby This was not +going anywhere this year. Between them they drove me quite mad. A +moment ago I had been so much at home; now I should have been more at +ease in a company of astronomers talking of the stars, though I knew +nothing of the heavens. I could only smile vaguely in a pretence of +entering into all that they were saying; and when Talcott looked at me, +when he pronounced his dictum that mixed crowds were a bore, I gave a +feeble assent. When, to make my presence felt, I boldly asserted that +I had never been to Tuxedo, Talcott replied that some time I must go +there--I should like it--he was sure that I should like it, though the +crowd was getting rather mixed. Having thus quieted me, he reverted to +Bar Harbor and the summer, to various persons and events concerning +which I was supremely ignorant. I left abruptly perhaps. I had +forgotten the problem as to whom I should say my farewell last. +Penelope said that I must come again and often. Mrs. Bannister gave me +a pleasant but, I thought, a condescending smile, and Rufus Blight +followed me down the stairs, talking platitudes about the weather while +he called a man to bring my coat and hat. + +The grilled door closed behind me, and I walked down the darkening +street. I had found Penelope grown lovelier than the loveliest figure +of my boyish dreams. Yet it was as though I had found her in another +world than mine, and moving among another race. She might remember the +boy whom she had dragged from the mountain stream, the boy whom she had +carried to the desolation of her humble home; could she long remember +the awkward man who sat on the edge of his chair and scattered crumbs, +who when he talked could talk only of old Bill Hansen and Stacy Shunk? +The longing for the valley was gone. Had the world been mine I would +have given it for a card to the dance that night, however mixed the +crowd, for then I should be near her. If I would be near her, then her +friends must be my friends, and, whether they would or no, I swore that +day they should be. + +The hall of Miss Minion's house smelled terribly of cooking that night +as I passed through it. Standing at last in my own narrow room, I +brought my clinched fist down on my table as I registered my vow that I +would attain to her world. Then I sank down and covered my face with +my hands, for out of the little frame Gladys Todd was looking at me. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +When I sat again on the great divan, I said to myself that, after all, +the alien mind who designed this room had worked with cunning; he must +have seen in his fancy the very picture that was now so delightful to +my eyes--the gray old fireplace with its tall columns wound with vines +whose delicate leaves quivered as the firelight fanned them; before it +Penelope, a slender figure, softly drawn in the evening's shadow, bent +over the low tea-table as she worked with the rebellious lamp; from +above, looking down kindly, half smiling, Reynolds's majestic lady, +frilled and furbelowed; at her feet a giant white bear, its long claws +gripping the polished floor, its jaws distended fiercely as though it +stood guard, ready to spring at him who dared to cross the charmed +circle drawn by the glowing coals. I sat in the half-darkness, for it +was late in the day, and but a single shaded lamp burned in a distant +corner. What was new in the room grew old under the wizard touch of +shadows. The mahogany bookcases stretched away on either hand, and +there were cobwebs on the diamond panes and dust on the ancient tomes. +Penelope was in her home! A hundred years ago that majestic lady in +frills and furbelows sat by this same fireplace, in that same old +carved chair, making tea, and now she smiled with great content as from +her frame she looked down on this child of her blood and bone. And the +ancestor who had gathered those dusty volumes--what of him? Two +hundred years it was, perhaps, since he had burrowed among the cobwebs, +now caressing his rare old Horace, now turning the yellow pages of his +learned treatise on astrology. He was a distinguished figure in his +wig, his velvet coat and smallclothes, and something of his features, +refined by intellectual pursuit, I read in the face that now was turned +to mine. For blood does tell. Father Time is a reckless artist, +clipping and cutting and recasting incessantly, and producing an +appalling number of failures; but now and then it would seem that he +did take some pains and, studying his models, combine the broad, low +brow of this one with another's straight and finely chiselled nose, and +still another's smoothly rounded cheek; and sometimes, in his cynical +way, he will spoil it all with a pair of coarse hands borrowed from one +of his rustic figures or the large, flat feet of some study of peasant +life, which we should have thought cast away and forgotten. In +Penelope we were offended by none of these grotesque fragments. They +must have been long since cleared out of her ancestral line. When she +raised herself after her battle with the rebellious lamp, it was with +the grace of unconscious pride, with the majesty of the lady in the +frame, but finer drawn, thanks to the thin old gentleman of the books, +who had overfed his mind and bequeathed to his descendants a legacy of +nerves. + +This Penelope Blight, daintily clothed in soft black webs woven for her +by a hundred toiling human spiders, was not even the Penelope Blight of +my wildest boyish dreams. Our dreams are circumscribed by our +experience, and in those days it had been inconceivable to me that she +should grow more lovely than Miss Mincer, the butcher's daughter, and I +had pictured myself walking proudly through the streets of Malcolmville +at the side of a tall, slender girl, her head crowned by a glazed black +hat, her body incased in a tight-fitting jersey. This Penelope Blight +in the carved chair where generations of her grandmothers had made tea +before her, by the stately fireplace at which her forebears had warmed +their hands and hearts, could have no kin with the barefooted girl who +had stood with me at the edge of the clearing and, pointing over the +weeds to the forlorn cabin, called it home. + +Was it a wonder that my tone was formal; that, overcome by a sense of +estrangement, I talked of the weather as I sipped my tea; that I asked +her if she had enjoyed last night's dance, speaking as though dancing +were my own favorite amusement; that when I pronounced her name it was +in a halting, embarrassed undertone? Even speaking, it thus seemed +gross presumption. How unlikely, then, that I should refer to by-gone +days in her presence when it was incredible that there had ever been +days like those! In all probability she would draw herself up and +reply that I must be thinking of some other Penelope Blight, that to +her I was nothing more than a formal creature whom she had met +somewhere, where she could not remember, a man like hundreds of others +whom she knew, lay figures for the tailor's art, who spoke only a +language limited to the last dance and the one to come. Believing +this, I finished my tea, and, putting down my cup, I abandoned my one +resource when conversation lagged. Why had I come at all? + +I had come to sit with Penelope, just as we were sitting now, in the +shadows, in the firelight. At home we had often sat together on the +back steps, in the shadows of the valley, in the firelight of the +clouds glowing in the last sun flames. Now we should be, as then, good +comrades, and freely as I had talked to her then as from our humble +perch we watched the departing day, so freely could I talk to her now +in the statelier environment. In that short walk uptown I had left a +thousand things unsaid. But one special thing I had left unsaid, one +vital fact in my life unrevealed, that was of paramount importance. In +the excitement of our first meeting my silence had been discretion, but +discretion became deception as time passed, and every day was adding to +its sum. Sometimes I could forget the vital fact. Sometimes at night +in my room, sitting with my book at my side neglected, I would stare +vacantly at the wall and treat myself to a feast of dreams, contentedly +munch the most delicate morsels of the past and present. And by right +of that past and present it was almost fore-ordained that Penelope and +I were to go down the years together. Then I would remember. I would +start from my chair with a despairing laugh and pace up and down my +narrow room, restless and unhappy. I knew that I could not long delay +revealing to Penelope the paramount fact, and in revealing it to her I +seemed to say that after all she was only a casual friend, that all my +life's interest was bound up in Gladys Todd, and my life's ambition +expressed in a room with an easel by the window, a bird's-eye-maple +mantel, and around the walls a rack for odd lots of china and +black-framed prints. It was hard to tell her that, but I knew that I +must, and I said that I should talk freely as in the old days of +brotherly confidence, as though of all others she would be happiest in +hearing of my good fortune. With my mind made up to face boldly this +bad situation, I could not crush the consoling hope that in hearing she +would give some sign of the pain of the wound that I was making. What +a fatuous illusion! In her presence, in an environment which made that +which I planned for myself seem so narrow and commonplace, she became a +spirit thoroughly alien. I could as easily have talked to some foreign +princess of the blood of Mr. Pound or Stacy Shunk. I could as easily +have announced to Mrs. Bannister that I was engaged to Gladys Todd. +And I must have gone away, fled ignominiously after one cup of tea, had +not Penelope, with a sudden impatient movement, turned her chair and +leaned forward with her chin cupped in her hands, as she used to sit in +the old days on the back steps, with her eyes fixed on mine. + +"David," she said, "did you really come here to talk to me about the +weather or to tell me things I really want to know--of Mr. Pound, of +Miss Spinner and Stacy Shunk. Who drives the stage now?" + +I was on the edge of the divan, my hands playing an imaginary game of +cat's-cradle when she spoke, and now I pushed back into the comfortable +depths and stared at her in surprise. I was amazed at hearing this +princess of the blood descend to an interest in such plebeians. She, +seeing that I was silent, leaned back too, each small hand gripping an +arm of that throne-like chair. + +"Well?" she said; and when still I was silent she repeated more +insistently: "Well, David?" Then raising her voice a little to a tone +of command: "I asked you who drives the stage." + +I forgot the carved chair and Reynolds's majestic lady. I forgot the +imposing fireplace and the old gentleman in wig and smallclothes. I +laughed with the sheer joy of being with Penelope again. I forgot even +the great divan and made a futile effort to jump it nearer her in my +burst of enthusiasm for our new-born friendship. + +"Why, Joe Hicks," I said. "You remember Joe Hicks, Penelope?" + +"Joe Hicks," she said, pronouncing the name as though it were that of +some dear friend suddenly dragged out of the by-gone years. "Surely +not the same Joe Hicks who used to let us ride with him sometimes from +Malcolmville out to the farm?" + +"The same Joe Hicks," said I, and with a strange disregard for forms +and effects I gave way to a natural desire of hunger and dived at the +curate's delight, forgetting entirely the crumb-begetting habits of +cake. "Try one of those," I went on, indicating the topmost plate, and +to my delight she helped herself, almost with avidity. "You remember, +Penelope, how we used to loiter near the kitchen when we smelled cake +in the oven?" + +Then Penelope laughed as though in the sheer joy of casting years away +and living over her childhood. + +"Indeed I do," she returned. "But we were speaking of Joe Hicks. You +surprised me. He was an old man when we knew him." + +"He was seventy then. He is still seventy," I returned. +"Stage-driving, you know, is conducive----" + +"I used to think I'd like to be a stage-driver when I grew up," she +interrupted. "You would see so much of the world with so little +trouble, just holding the reins as the horses ambled along. How our +ideas change, David!" + +It was on the old and unchanged ideas that I wanted to dwell. The new +would bring me back all too quickly to ancestral portraits, to imposing +fireplaces and costly bear-skin rugs. I assented readily to her +self-evident proposition and brushed it aside for the most interesting +matter of Joseph Hicks. + +"You used to love to drive," I said. "I can see you now wheedling Joe +into letting you have the reins. Don't you remember his telling you +that no self-respecting woman was ever seen driving more than one +horse?" + +"How shocked he would be could he see how I handle four," she said. + +Should we never get out of the shadow of costly things, out of the +clutch of changed ideas? For a moment I had a picture of Penelope on +the box of a coach, ribbons and whip in hand, with four smart cobs +stepping to the music of jingling harness, with bandy-legged grooms on +the boot, and beside her some perfectly tailored creature in a +glistening top-hat. It was a gallant picture, and one in which there +was no part for me. Metaphorically I hurled at it a missile of the +common clay of which, after all, we were both made. Surely fishing was +a subject on which her ideas could not change. + +"Do you remember the great expeditions we used to have along the +creek?" I said. + +"Remember them? Why, David, I never could forget such days as those." +She leaned forward, with her hands clasped in her lap, as though to +bring herself into closer touch with the kindred spirit on the divan. +"I often laugh over the time I caught the big turtle on my hook. You +remember--we were on the bridge at the end of the meadow, and I thought +I had captured a whale, and when I saw it I was so astonished that I +went head-first into the water." + +"And I dived after you," I cried excitedly, "into two feet of water and +three feet of mud." + +"And we both ran home soaking wet and covered with green slime," she +went on rapidly. "Will you ever forget her look when mother----" + +"Mother?" There was in my exclamation a note of surprise in which was +almost lost the delight I felt in her use of that word. + +She caught the surprise alone, and spoke now as though offended at what +she thought my protest. "Yes, mother. Why, David, don't you remember +I always called her mother? And she was the only mother I ever +knew--even if only for a brief summer." + +"I was glad, Penelope," I said. "Yet you surprised me just a little, +because I feared that so much had come into your life you might have +forgotten----" + +"Forgotten?" she returned with a gesture of impatience. "You do not +grant me much heart if you think I could ever forget those who took me +in when I was homeless, the mother who tucked me into bed every night, +who taught me the first prayer I ever uttered." She paused for a +moment, and sat with her eyes fixed on her clasped hands. I, too, was +silent. Suddenly she looked up. "You are right, David; I had +forgotten. I was ungrateful, too; but seeing you again and talking +with you has brought those days very near to me. When I have thought +of your father and mother it was as though they lived in another world, +as though, if I would, I could never see them, they were so far away." +She leaned back in her chair and broke into a little laugh. "How +foolish of me! Why, David, we shall go to see them--you and I and +Uncle Rufus. We shall go very soon, David." Her slender figure was +clear-cut in the firelight and a hand was held out to me in invitation. + +Had the world been mine to give, how gladly would I have lost it for +the right to answer her as she asked; to go with her and to walk by the +creek to that deep sea of our childhood where she had caught the +turtle; to ride with her again over the mountain road where we had +careered so madly on the white mule; to sit with her on the humble back +steps and watch the sun sink into the mountains, and listen to the +sheep in the meadow, the night-hawk in the sky, the rustle of the wind +in the trees--to the valley's lullaby. From this I was held by the +vital fact still unrevealed. I folded my arms and looked at the floor, +to shut from my eyes the idle vision of the days to which Penelope +would lead me, to shut from them Penelope herself sitting very +straight, with head high, so that I had fancied the blue bow tossing +there. + +"We'll go in May," she said with a sweep of a small hand, as though our +great adventure were settled. "We will go when the orchards are in +blossom, David. The valley is loveliest then." + +To go in May! To go when the hills were clad in the pink and white! +To sit with her on the grassy barn-bridge in the evening as we had sat +in the old days watching the mountains sink into the night, listening +to the last faint echoes of the valley as she turned to restful sleep. +Had the universe been mine to give, I would have bartered it for the +power to answer her as she asked. Such joys as these I dared not even +dream of now, but still I had not the strength to cut myself forever +from the last faint hope of them. I looked up into her face aglow with +prospect of a return to those simple, kindly days; into her eyes, +kindled with that same light that glowed in them in the old time when +she would slip her hands so trustingly in mine as we trudged together +over the fields. I could say nothing. + +"Why, David!" she cried, and again a hand was held out to me in appeal. +"Don't you want to go with us?" + +I laughed. And what a struggle I had to force into that laugh a note +of happy gayety! I sat on the edge of the divan, very erect, pulling +at my fingers, for I was no longer David Malcolm, a dreaming boy; I was +a man with a vital fact to meet. Meeting it, I must become to her as +any other man she knew--a formal creature, a lay figure for the +barber's and tailor's art, with a gift of talking inanities. + +"It's not because I don't want to go," I said. I was glad that I was +in the shadow, for though my voice was steady I felt the blood leave my +face. "But you see--there is something I have been wanting to tell +you. I'm to be married." + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. + +If I had hoped to hear more of a cry of pain than that one exclamation +of surprise, I must have been disappointed. But I cherished no such +hope now. I was utterly miserable. I was awkward and ill at ease. +The Penelope Blight I had known lived in another world, and this +Penelope Blight who was regarding me so quietly, meeting my covert +glance with a friendly smile, could, after all, never be more than a +casual acquaintance. + +"How splendid!" she said. Mrs. Bannister, I think, would have spoken +in that same way, as though the news were quite the most delightful +that she had ever heard. "Who to? Quick--I must hear all about it." + +"To a Miss Todd," I answered, and, though I struggled against it, I +cleared my throat dryly. "A Miss Gladys Todd." + +The name sounded harshly in my ears. I was conscious that I had used +it in the manner of the select circles of Harlansburg, and I was angry +that, though knowing better, I had let myself lapse into the ways of a +manikin. When I had spoken of Joe Hicks it was from my heart; I had +forgotten my hands, and Penelope and I had laughed together. When I +spoke of Gladys Todd my voice was tainted with apology. Inwardly I was +calling myself a cad, for it mattered little whether or not I loved +her. I had won her trust, and my first duty was to speak her name with +pride. But I had had that brief glimpse of Penelope Blight, the +companion of my boyhood; I had walked with her, grown lovelier than my +dreams, through visionary woods and fields. She was before me, a +dainty woman of the world; behind her the firelight fanned the leaves +carved for her long ago by the old Italian artist; from above +Reynolds's majestic lady looked down at her kindly, at me with a +haughty stare, as if she read presumption in my mind. Never could I +imagine her photographed on a camel's back by the side of ex-Judge +Bundy. For this alone, it seemed to me as though I were unfolding to +her the love story of a Darby and Joan, adorned with a chaos of easels +and camels, bird's-eye-maple mantels and gayly painted plaques; as +though I had come to tell the great lady of it, because she had always +taken a kindly interest in my affairs. + +Against this absurd humiliation I was fighting when again I coughed +dryly and said: "She is the daughter of Doctor Todd, the president of +McGraw." + +"Oh, I see," returned Penelope brightly. "She must be very learned, +David. But of course I knew that you would marry a clever woman." To +this gentle flattery I raised my hand and shook my head in protest. +"And I see, too, how it all came about--at college. How romantic! +Just like you, David. And yet I can hardly think of you as a married +man. It was only yesterday that I pulled you out of the creek; +to-morrow you are to marry a charming woman--an accomplished woman, I +know. She must sing and play the piano and do all kinds of things like +that. How proud you should be!" + +"I am," said I in a sepulchral tone, much as I might have answered to +my name at roll-call. + +"When she comes to town you must let me know--I shall call on her." +There was no note but one of kindliness in Penelope's easily modulated +voice, nothing but friendliness in the smile which parted her lips. As +she leaned forward again, grasping the carved arms of her chair, she +was speaking with queenly condescension, and it nettled me to find +myself reduced to the level of the herd. + +So there was in my voice a faint ring of pride when I said: "Gladys is +abroad now." At least in this august presence a fiancee abroad sounded +more impressive than a fiancee in Harlansburg, and I wanted it known +that mine was a woman of the world and not simply the accomplished +daughter of a small country town. + +I think that the point struck home, for a hopeful "Oh!" escaped from +Penelope's lips, as though she were giving vent to bottled-up doubts as +to whether or not she could ever more than call on Gladys Todd. I +think that she divined what I wanted her to understand--that though +Gladys Todd had painted tulips on black plaques, she had acquired the +dignity that comes with travel and the grace of a widened view. + +"You must both come and dine with me when she gets home," Penelope +said, with a manner of increased interest. "I suppose she is studying, +David, music or painting." + +"Travelling," I answered, encouraged to nonchalance by the impression I +was making, for to travel merely sounded much more prosperous than to +be working at the rudiments of an art. "She has been over since last +May--just travelling around." + +"And gathering together a trousseau--how delightful! You must be +counting the days till she comes home, David?" + +I nodded. I tried my best to look as though at that very moment I was +busy with the fond calculation. + +"And who is with her--some friend?" Penelope asked. + +"Her father and mother," I answered. That sounded still more +prosperous: the family of three--the learned doctor, his wife and +accomplished daughter--wandering where they willed about the world. I +should have stopped there, but I am one of those unfortunate persons +who in telling anything must tell it all. My better judgment made me +hesitate. My habit carried me on. "And Judge Bundy," I added. + +"Judge who?" she exclaimed. + +I fancied that I detected a strange note in her voice. + +"Bundy--Judge Bundy," I replied, my own voice rising to a pitch of +irritation. + +Would she go on and make me spell the name that sounded so strangely +when spoken in her presence? I was angry. It was at myself for my +uncalled-for frankness. For one brief moment I had almost raised +myself again to the level of the dainty creature in the old carved +chair, to the approval even of the majestic lady above the great +fireplace; speaking so nonchalantly of my friends who could wander +where they willed over the face of the globe, I had almost made myself +one with those for whom Italian sculptors drove the chisel and Reynolds +plied his brush. But that name, so unwisely given, called to my mind +the figure on the camel, and I was sure that by some strange freak of +conjury Penelope must see it too; and worse, that other, the girl in +the pugree, and behind them, discreetly placed, Doctor Todd, +uncomfortably balancing on his giant beast, and Mrs. Todd taken +inopportunely as she was mopping her brow. Well might Penelope look at +me with quizzical eyes. I had tumbled again among the common herd. In +my desperation I might have gone on to the whole truth recklessly; told +her what an absurd man Judge Bundy really was, and how the Todds were +being dragged over Europe on a glorified Cook's tour, captives at the +wheels of his chariot; told her how I appreciated her sweet +condescension in offering to call on the woman I loved. The woman I +loved? For that moment I think I did love Gladys Todd, for I was +standing to her defence against the crushing weight of millions of +money and the bluest of blood. Yes, I am sure that I should have gone +on and told her all, but Fate, wiser than I, intervened, and the butler +announced Mr. Talcott. + +As usual, Mr. Talcott did not wish tea--he had just come from the club, +but he could not see why we were sitting in utter darkness. With +Penelope's assent, he turned a button, showing thereby an exasperating +familiarity with the room, and, seating himself comfortably before her, +expressed his wonder that he had not seen her last night; he had hunted +for her everywhere to join his party at supper. And now the lights +were on and I a mere spectator at the play; I was having a glimpse of +the stage on which I could never move. The lights burned high; they +swept the dust and cobwebs from the diamond panes; they drove the +flames to hiding in the ashes; their touch turned the leaves of the +fireplace to dead stone. But Penelope they could not change. In the +soft black webs, woven for her by a hundred toiling human spiders, she +held still the heritage of the proud woman in frills and furbelows and +the fine old man in wig and smallclothes. She was more radiant, as +though her blood ran quicker in the joy of the part she played. Enter +the butler. Enter Mr. Grant, a tall young man in business clothes, a +good-natured fellow who laughed joyously at nothing. He had just +dropped in on his way home after a beastly day downtown--a horrible +day--a new attack on the trusts and a smash in the market. He fixed +himself close to the curate's delight and beginning at the bottom +worked upward, fortifying himself, as he explained, for a late dinner. +Talcott thought that he had heard Grant say that he was going to the +opera. Grant had never said any such thing. Didn't Mr. Malcolm agree +with him that more than one act of opera was a bore? Mr. Malcolm quite +agreed. Mr. Talcott wondered if Miss Blight had heard that Jerry White +was engaged. Miss Blight was at once dying to know to whom. Mr. +Talcott admonished her to think. Mr. Grant wanted to know if Mr. +Malcolm had heard. But Mr. Malcolm had a strange unappreciation of +important news. He moved in another world than this and he wanted to +flee from it. He was homesick for familiar scenes and faces, for Miss +Minion's and the long table in the basement to which the wizened old +women would soon be crawling down for their evening nourishment, for +Miss Tucker and his neighbor, Mr. Bunce, who by day made tooth-powder +and by night talked Pater. He rose and held out his hand to the +princess of the blood. Graciously she rose from her throne. + +Graciously she said: "Good-by, David. It was good of you to drop in." + +And graciously she added, as he backed awkwardly away: "Remember, you +must let me know when Miss Todd comes. I shall call." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +I dined with the Blights. It had been a month since the afternoon when +I talked with Penelope, and this evening in December I went to the +house with hope high that in seeing her again I might have an +opportunity of regaining a little of our lost friendship. The +invitation had come from her, over the telephone, to dine with them +most informally, and though she cleared herself of any charge of +interest in the matter by adding that Mr. Blight wished to see me, I +flattered myself with the hope that she might be speaking more +personally than she cared to admit. How soon was that illusion +wrecked! I entered the great library. Mrs. Bannister was standing by +the fireplace, her eyes fixed on the opposite wall, her mind occupied +with a struggle to suppress a yawn of boredom. Rufus Blight was +reading a newspaper, but when I was announced he came forward and +greeted me cordially. With his arm in mine he led me to Mrs. +Bannister, and she allowed me to raise her hand and drop it. She said +something, made some conventional remark on the great pleasure it gave +her to see me; the yawn almost forced itself into view, but she set her +lips firmly and drove it back. As I made my response to these friendly +expressions of welcome my eyes swept the room and rested at last on the +door through which I had come. There they held expectantly. + +Mrs. Bannister read my thoughts. "Penelope is so distressed that she +cannot see you to-night," she said, drawing her scarf across her bared +and massive shoulders, so that I wondered if my entrance had suddenly +chilled the air. "She had expected to be here, but this afternoon the +Ruyters called up and insisted that she dine with them and go to the +opera. It's 'Tristan.' She is mad about 'Tristan.'" + +So faded the last vain hope! Had Penelope spent hours in devising a +way of making it plain to me that the link between the past and the +present was broken, she could not have been more adroit. Had David +Malcolm, the boy, been coming to dine that night I know that she would +have been standing there at Mrs. Bannister's side, her own eyes fixed +expectantly on the door. But between the company of such excellent +folk as these Ruyters, with the glorious music of "Tristan," and this +awkward man whose people were not her people, who found content in the +lodges of the Todds and Bundys, there could be but one choice. I was +humiliated. The good-natured grace with which I expressed my +disappointment to Mrs. Bannister belied my angry mind, and as we moved +toward the dining-room, she chattering incessantly, she must have +believed that I was entirely satisfied with just her company. +Fortunately I had only to smile my responses, while my thoughts were +busy with the cavalier way in which I had been treated. I was incensed +at Penelope, but had it been any balm to my wounds to make her feel the +weight of my anger, I knew well enough that she was far beyond the +reach of my reproaches. But hopelessly I repeated over and over to +myself that I never could forgive her. Then, by a sudden weak +reversal, I did forgive her and let my anger evaporate into a silent +protest against the unkind fate which had decreed that her people +should no longer be my people. + +It was when I saw her that I forgave her. As we three sat at dinner, +Mrs. Bannister chattering on, Rufus Blight meditative but offering a +mono-syllable now and then as evidence that he listened, I smiling +responsively, Penelope came in. How could I not forgive her when I saw +her thus, gowned in the daintiest art of the Rue de la Paix, cloaked in +soft white fur, capped with a scarf of filmy lace, and one small hand +held out to mine. + +The fault, I said, was my own, mine and the Fates which had ordered +that the orbits in which we moved should meet but rarely. The fault, +too, lay with my forebears, who, had they considered me, would have +settled on the shores of the Hudson instead of pushing westward so +recklessly. Then I might now be going to the Ruyters', to sit at +dinner at her side, to sit behind her in the shadow of an opera-box and +whisper in her ear the ten thousand things which I had to say. I +forgave Penelope. I called down maledictions on the robust Malcolms +and McLaurins who had carried me out of her world and abandoned me to +the garrulous Mrs. Bannister and the taciturn Rufus Blight. + +Penelope was exceedingly sorry to be going out, but she knew that David +would understand and would come some other night. David understood +thoroughly; there was no reason for her to apologize, and, of course, +he would come again. Penelope was immensely relieved to find him so +complacent; she even wished he were to be of the company to which she +was going. She had just come in to have a glimpse of him, and now she +must be hurrying. And so she went away to take her bright place in +that social firmament of which the abandoned Mr. Malcolm thought with +so much envy and longing while he dallied again with sweetbreads and +peas. + +"It was very late when I got home," said Mrs. Bannister, taking up the +thread of her narrative, "and who should I find here, as usual, but +Herbert Talcott!" + +The emphasis which she put on the words "as usual" aroused Mr. Blight +from his placid interest in his glass of claret. "And who," said he, +"is Talcott, anyway? What does he do?" + +"Herbert Talcott is a remarkable man," replied Mrs. Bannister. "He +does nothing." + +It should have mattered little to me that Herbert Talcott refused tea +from Penelope's hands every day of the week because he had just come +from the club. Had Mrs. Bannister announced that he was calling daily +on Gladys Todd, then I should very properly have been startled. Yet I +sat up straight now as though she had named an archenemy of my +happiness and my ears were keen to hear every word. + +"He does absolutely nothing," she continued. "He has absolutely +nothing, in spite of the reports that he is quite well off. I know +positively that his father left him only ten thousand a year, and yet +he knows everybody and goes everywhere. He is undeniably clever and +was a great favorite at Harvard." + +"Doesn't he work at all?" said Mr. Blight with a rising inflection of +astonishment. + +"Why, no," replied Mrs. Bannister. She saw the disapproval in my +host's face and was quick to bring herself into sympathy. "That is +what I can't understand. Now, there is Bob Grant, who is very rich in +his own right, and yet goes religiously down to the Stock Exchange +every day because he feels an obligation to be of some use in the +world. But of the two men, Herbert Talcott is the more sought after." + +"Sought after?" said my host inquiringly. + +"Yes, sought after," repeated Mrs. Bannister. "He is asked everywhere. +I suppose his name has something to do with it, but in these days, when +name counts for so little and money for so much, it is remarkable." + +"It is remarkable," said Rufus Blight, with a return to the spirit of +the day when I had known him as a bustling, pompous man. "It is +remarkable that he can be happy doing nothing. Look how restless I am +with nothing to do but to play golf and read magazines. I can't +understand him. And yet he seems a decent young man." + +"But, you must remember, he is going out all the time," said Mrs. +Bannister. "A man simply couldn't go out as he does and do anything. +He is always in demand. Why, I know a dozen families into which he +would be heartily welcomed. Last year it was reported that he was +engaged to marry Jane Carmody, the mine man's daughter; but she was +rather plain--to be truthful, very plain--and I will say for Herbert +Talcott that he is not the kind who would marry solely for money." + +Mrs. Bannister went on chattering her praise of Herbert Talcott, with a +subtle purpose, I suspected, of impressing on me the utter absurdity of +my entering the lists with him and of bringing Rufus Blight to a keener +appreciation of the man whom he might be called on any day to welcome +into his own family. With me her efforts were quite unneeded. With +Rufus Blight the impression which she seemed to create was alone one of +astonishment that any man could be happy doing nothing. Again and +again he interrupted her to express his doubt on that point, and when +dinner was over and Mrs. Bannister had retired, and we were smoking in +the room which he called his den, he unmasked to me a mind weary of +working over nothing. He should never have sold out to the trust, he +said; in the mills he had been happy; every hour had its task and every +day its victories in orders for rails and armor-plate. Now in a single +day every month he could cut coupons and attend to dividends, and the +others he must pass with golf and magazines. + +His den? How quickly does this bourgeois phrase call up before us a +hodgepodge room, an atmosphere of stale tobacco smoke, a table covered +with pipes, books and magazines, littered with tobacco, walls burdened +with hideous prints, a mantel adorned with objects dear to their owner +from their associations, to the visitor hideous. The alien mind which +had conceived the great library had evidently been held at bay when +Rufus Blight was fitting himself into this den, his real home. + +Over the fireplace was a great steel plate of the regretted mills, a +world covered with immaculate smokeless buildings and cut with streets +in which women were taking the air in barouches as though in a park; +before the fireplace two patent rockers, and behind them a table +littered with magazines and novels; in the corners golf sticks of +innumerable designs, and wherever the eye turned it met coldly colored +prints showing trotting horses in action. I had one of the +rocking-chairs and Rufus Blight the other, and he was looking up at the +mills when he spoke so regretfully of them. He referred again to +Talcott. + +"I can't understand it--a man happy doing nothing. I suppose I am a +sort of machine--I must have work fed into me. Here I am at fifty-five +and not a wheel moving. It was the power of the mills that kept me +running. Now I have lost that." For a moment he was silent. Then he +leaned toward me and said in a wistful voice: "David, you remember my +brother. He could be happy just sitting thinking. Now if my energy +could have been combined with his mentality, what----" + +I finished the sentence. From the past came the picture of the +Professor at the bare table in the cabin, pointing a long finger at me. +"What a man we would have made." + +Rufus Blight's eyes opened wide. "How did you read my thoughts so +well!" he exclaimed. + +"The conclusion was simple," said I. "Years ago I heard your brother +say the same thing." + +"Oh! Well it does express the case exactly. Henderson was always a +wonderful man for thinking, David. In his young days he was perfectly +happy with a book. There were not many books in our valley, but he +read them all and it was very interesting to hear the ideas he formed +from them. He was a wonderful talker." Rufus Blight nodded his head +reminiscently. "A wonderful talker. But when it came to practical +things he was quite helpless. It wasn't that he was lazy. If there +had been at hand anything big to do, anything that appealed to him, he +would have done it. What he needed was an opportunity. He really +never had half a chance. He did try working in the store with me--and +he tried hard, but a mind like his could not be happy measuring out +sugar and counting eggs. Such work seemed to lead to nothing--I know +it did to me. But I had a different kind of a mind. I had to feed it, +like a machine, with figures and facts. But to him it was of no +importance that butter had gone up a cent a pound. He would say that +the ants weren't worried about it, nor the birds, nor the people of +other planets. Do you know, David, I really used to envy Hendry his +way of seeing things." + +For a few moments Rufus Blight was silent, and my eyes were on the +picture of the great mills to which the counting of sugar and eggs had +led. From the mills they wandered to what they had given the man who +built them, from the golf sticks to the prints of trotting horses and +to the litter on the table. This den measured the true extent of his +conquest. I looked at him. With a movement of weariness he stretched +his feet toward the fire and leaned back and gazed at the ceiling, with +a whimsical smile playing around the corners of his mouth. + +"I had to work, David," he went on. "Hendry could earn a living +teaching school, but I hadn't the brains, so I toiled away in the store +from early morning until late at night. Teaching school was easier. +He used to say that if the sluggard did actually go to the ant he would +probably find him a most uninteresting creature to talk to. I guess +Hendry was right. I do know that he had little of the virtue of the +ant, but he was one of the most interesting men I ever heard talk. +When I was behind the counter it was my main pleasure to listen to him, +perched on a chair in front of it." Rufus Blight laughed. "Really, +David, in those days I was proud of having such a distinguished +brother. I had always looked up to him. He was older than I, four +years, and he was my protector against the assaults of other lads--my +ready compendium of universal knowledge. I never dreamed but that if I +prospered he would prosper; and if he, then I. Why, David, I can feel +him now clapping me on the back and calling me his grub-worm. 'Some +day,' he would say, 'I'll come and ask a bed in your garret.' And I +would laugh at him and talk of the time when we--I always said +'we'--when we should have a pair of fine trotters, and should go +skimming over the country together instead of crawling along behind our +blind mare." Rufus Blight paused. The whimsical smile was gone and he +was looking at me through narrowed eyes. "Then the break came." And +quickly, as he said it, he turned from me and began to smoke very hard. + +"The break?" said I in a questioning tone; for I believed that at last +I was to know the mystery which lay behind the Professor's conduct if +only I could lead him on. + +"Yes," said he in an even voice, "the break. The break came and I had +to leave the valley. I wouldn't stay after that, David. There was +nothing left for me there, but I had my work; I could go on weighing +butter and counting eggs." Rufus Blight's voice was low and he spoke +rapidly. He seemed to have it in his mind that I knew the story of +those early days, had heard it, perhaps, from the lips of his brother +or from common report, for men are prone to think their fellows well +informed of the conspicuous facts of their lives. I dared not +interrupt again for an explanation, lest my question should betray me +to him as nothing more than a curious stranger. I know the story now +in all its detail, but it came to me only from Rufus Blight, and from +him in a few scattered threads, dropped for me to weave while in his +den that night; feeling that he had found one whom he could trust, he +unburdened his heart. Doubtless he had no such thought when he led me +into the room, but there might have been in my eyes, when he spoke of +the valley, some light of sympathy. And when he turned from that great +hall, from his heavy table and his liveried servants, to speak of +counting eggs and weighing butter, I had not even smiled at the +incongruity. Then the dam broke, and memories backed up in years of +silence broke forth in a quick and troubled flood. + +"It was my fault, David, as much as his. I was a grub--a dull, toiling +grub. But those long hours that I was toiling came to be good hours +for me when it was for her sake. Why, it seemed that every pound of +sugar I sold, that every little profit I made, was for her. I planned +the finest house in the country as I stood all day at the counter, and +it was for her. She was to have it all, and I only asked to be allowed +to grub away--for her. She didn't understand me, David. She used to +taunt me with being sordid, and said that I stayed at the store early +and late because I loved a dollar most. I didn't understand women. I +guess at least I should have closed up the store for an evening or two +a week, and yet"--Rufus Blight hesitated--"and yet it wouldn't have +made any difference. Hendry was a tall fellow. I was short and rather +fat. Hendry could talk in a wonderful way. I was always silent except +when it came to a trade. It had to be as it was, David, but it was +hard--very hard. I don't think I said any more than most men would +have said to him--perhaps less, because I never was a talker. And, +after all, I couldn't blame them. Why, I remember, as I was leaving +the valley, I said to him that if they ever needed a home they must +come to me. He was offended. He drew himself up and said proudly that +when I needed help I must come to them. Poor Hendry! It wasn't long +before he did need help; but could you imagine him taking it from any +one? He lost the school--he had become not quite orthodox in his ideas +and was inclined to rail at church doctrine. He never was intended for +manual labor; he worked hard when he could get work, but everything +seemed against him. Then Penelope came, and he was left alone with +her, and it made him bitter. I tried to get him to come to me; but +could you imagine a man as proud as he, David--a man of his +mind--coming to me after what had happened! Why, he called my offer +charity. Then he left the valley, too, and I wrote to him from +Pittsburgh, where I had bought a little mill. I wanted them to come to +me--him and Penelope--for I was lonely. I had nothing but the mill; +why, only in the mill was I happy. But could you imagine a man as +proud as he, David, taking help from me? He answered rather curtly; +said that some day I should see what he was worth; that he was not the +idler he seemed. He said that again to me face to face, that once when +I have seen him in all the years since the break." + +Rufus Blight left his chair and stood by the fireplace, a hand on the +mantel, his eyes watching the flames. + +"Could I have done more, David? That night when I saw him I had come +in from the mills late, and the servants would not let him wait for me +even in the hall. He told me how he had shot the constable. He feared +he had killed him, but he did not know, not daring to turn back to find +out. He had walked the whole way, travelling day and night. I wanted +him to stay, but he said that in Mary he had taken from me everything I +had ever had; he could take no more. He had come not to beg, but to +give me Penelope; and when he came again it would not be as a brother +who could be turned from my door by the servants; when he came again it +would be as a father of whom Penelope could feel no shame. I could not +move him. I did my best, David, but he laughed and slapped me on the +back and called me his old grub; said that some day I should really see +what was in him. Then he went away--God only knows where." + +"To the West," said I. "To the East, to Tibet." + +"Yes," said Rufus Blight. He was standing before me, his hands clasped +behind him, his eyes intent on the ceiling. + +"And you came to us for Penelope," I said. The last trace of my +antipathy to this man, once to me so fat and pompous, was gone. + +He looked at me with a faint smile of embarrassment. "And what an +ungrateful brute I was!" he exclaimed. "David, did you remember the +promises I made that day?" + +"I used to remember them," I answered, "and to wonder." + +"You had the right," he said. "But remember what I was--just a lonely +grub. Till Penelope came to me I had nothing but the mills. Having +her, I wanted her entirely." He held out his hand. "She was only that +high, David, and I was getting gray. I never looked at her but there +came into my mind another just that high who had a desk in school in +front of mine, and sometimes I seemed to be looking again over the top +of my spelling-book at the same bright hair and the same bobbing bit of +ribbon. Can't you see what she meant to me, David? She hated me at +first--she spoke always of her father and of you--and I was jealous." + +"I understand," said I. + +He had not spoken of the letters. There was no need of it. I knew +that they were in his mind and that he was perfectly conscious of the +pettiness of his action. But for me his simple confession had absolved +him. + +"I wanted her entirely," he went on, throwing himself into a chair at +my side. "I wanted something to live for beside the mills. In +Penelope I found it. What the mills gave me was for her. Every hour I +worked was happier because it was for her good. Sometimes I have to +fight against a dread that Hendry will come back and take her from me, +and yet when I think of him, tumbling around the world alone, I want +him too--want him in that very chair you are sitting in. It would be +so good just to hear him talk, and it wouldn't make any difference to +us now if he did just talk." Rufus Blight brought a fist down on the +arm of his chair. "David, I must find him!" + +"He went to Tibet," said I. + +"To the South Seas, to the Arctic, to Tibet--everywhere, David. His +trail has led me all over the world. I can never catch up to him. The +Philadelphia man you told me of--Harassan--dead three years. My +secretary, Mallencroft, has found that in San Francisco a man named +Henderson worked on _The Press_ there, but only two men remembered him. +They said he was erratic, always in trouble by writing things contrary +to the paper's policy, and gave up in disgust, to ship as supercargo on +a vessel trading in the South Seas. He wrote a book after that, but +the publishers failed, and Mallencroft couldn't even find a copy of it. +That must have been about the time you saw him--when he lectured on +'Life.' Poor old Hendry! It's his pride, his confounded pride--that's +the trouble." + +I had risen. Rufus Blight came to me and laid a hand on each of my +shoulders. What a change since that day long ago! He had to reach up +to me, and I looked down into his face. + +"You'll think me a strange fellow, David. I didn't mean to tell you so +much, but it just would come out when I saw that you understood. We +must find him--you and I. We may find him any day; at this very minute +he may be going by the Old Grub's door. Watch for him." + +I promised. I must come often, he said; it was good to have such a +friend as I was, one who could understand, to whom he could talk of old +days in the valley. He had never really been at home since he left the +valley. He had lived in strange places, among strange people. We must +all go back--back to the valley, he and Penelope and I--we should go in +May--Penelope had talked of it--in May, when the orchards were in +blossom. + +Rufus Blight laughed at the joyous prospect. And I? I closed my eyes +to it. I turned away, through the great hall, but he, with unwelcome +kindness, followed me to the stairs. What a great expedition it would +be--to the valley--just he and I and Penelope! I laughed +ironically--at myself. I plunged down the deep-carpeted steps. The +grilled door closed behind me. I paused a moment to turn up my collar +against the cold, to button my gloves and collect my scattered +thoughts. How the wind bit! + +Across the Avenue a dark figure leaned against the wall of the park. +As I stepped over the pavement the man seemed to think that I was +moving toward him, for he roused himself quickly and walked rapidly up +the street. I laughed at his fright and turned on my way downtown, for +I was thinking of myself and of what I had lost, and I had no care for +shivering tramps. I reached the corner. Rufus Blight's words came +back to me. Had that man been watching the Old Grub's door? I turned +sharply, but I saw nothing, no sign of a living thing save the lights +of a retreating cab. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +I have spoken casually, in this rambling story of mine, of young +Marshall, a fellow-lodger at Miss Minion's. He was the Brummel of the +boarding-house. The fact that he occupied the smallest rear +hall-bedroom, with the minimum of daylight, in no way affected his +standing, for everybody knew that he went out in society. Indeed, for +him more spacious quarters were hardly needed, as he was seldom at home +except to dress and to sleep. By day he hurried about Wall Street, +buying and selling bonds. On the winter evenings he stepped forth from +his cell a splendid figure, realizing, as nearly as possible, those +spotless and creaseless young men whom the illustrators draw with so +much unction. Then we might have imagined that he would step on, into +his brougham, to be whirled away to some smart dinner. Alas! his +equipage was not even a cab. His pair of prancing blacks were only his +galoches, and his protection against the weather a long ulster, a +chest-protector of thickly padded satin, and an opera-hat. The great +trouble which Marshall had on these nightly expeditions was getting +home. I do not mean to insinuate that it was to find Miss Minion's +door. It was to pass Miss Minion's door. There were several +absent-minded old gentlemen living in the house who had a way of +forgetting that they were not its sole occupants. Coming in from their +weekly or monthly trip to the theatre, the hour would to them seem +horribly late and they would catch the chain. Occasionally I was +myself their victim, and had to stand shivering outside, ringing the +bell with one hand and with the other playing a tattoo on the panels. +More generally it was Marshall, for, though I was frequently held very +late at my work downtown, he was abroad at his pleasures even later. +The lateness with which he pursued these pleasures was no evidence +against their innocence. Tom Marshall was one of the most innocent men +that I have ever known. He was not a New Yorker. He came, as he told +me, of the Marshalls of Pogatuck, in Maine. The way that he said it +made me understand that there was no bluer blood in the land than that +running in the veins of the Pogatuck Marshalls, and it explained why +the Knickerbockers were so willing to meet him as an equal. He had +come from Pogatuck by way of Harvard, and one advantage which his +education had given him was an acquaintance that he could turn to use, +inasmuch as his great ambition was to "go out." To him a card to the +Ruyters would have been an olive-wreath of victory. It was a trophy +that he hoped to win, and to that end he worked patiently, selling +bonds all day, and at night as patiently setting forth in his galoches, +his ulster, and his opera-hat to storm the outer works of society. He +belonged to innumerable dancing-classes. Indeed, it seemed to me that +he kept himself poor meeting their dues, for I remember more than one +occasion when he appealed to me in distress because he had to send +fifteen dollars to the treasurer of the Tuesdays or the Fridays and the +pater had forgotten to remit his allowance. Tom Marshall's father was +the most forgetful of men. + +I liked him. You could not help liking him. He was so thoroughly +good-natured and affable. His conversation was by no means +instructive, but there was an airiness about his views and ambitions +which was restful to one who was taking life as seriously as was I in +those days. I got to know him by having constantly to let him in. Of +all the lodgers in the house, I was the most likely to be up late, and +if one of the forgetful old gentlemen fastened the door-chain, to me +would fall the duty of answering the signals of distress from the stoop. + +Tom Marshall has played but a small part in my life. Like that of +Boller of '89, his place in the cast is a minor one. He is one of +those who fall in near the end of the line when the company joins hands +to sidle across the stage, bowing and smiling, after the second act. +Yet without him I wonder sometimes how my own play would have ended. +It seems to me now as though he must have been born in Pogatuck, as +though his whole life had been ordered, his love of going out +developed, so that at the proper moment he might enter the stage where +I was playing the hero to an empty house. He entered it at one o'clock +in the morning. The door was chained. At the moment I was sitting in +my room, on my one comfortable chair, my book on the floor at my side, +my pipe in my mouth, and I was smoking very hard. What countless pipes +I had smoked in this same way since the night, a month before, when I +had dined with Rufus Blight! What countless nights I had sat in this +same way, in this same month, with my book on the floor and my mind +revolving ceaselessly in a circle! This night I had come to that part +of the circle where I thought of Penelope, the lovely, the formal, the +distant Penelope, when down in the depths of the house I heard the +muffled clatter of the bell and faint rat-tats upon the front door. I +went to the window and put out my head, to see on the stoop the muffled +black figure of Tom Marshall. + +"It was old Ransome again, I'll bet you," he said, when I had unchained +the door and we stood in the dimly lighted hall. "This is the third +time this month that he has locked me out, confound him!" + +I raised my finger to my lips, cautioning Marshall not to arouse the +whole house. But he would not be silenced--it was early yet, +anyway--he had been to a Friday cotillon and it was a beastly +bore--even the supper was poor--he wanted something to eat. His foot +was on the stairs when he discovered that he was hungry. He discovered +at the same time that he was indebted to me for having let him in, not +alone this time but many others, and he insisted on showing his +appreciation by taking me out to a late supper. I demurred. Marshall +talked louder. I insinuated that he had been drinking, to which he +replied that the Fridays never served anything but weak punch. I +should have protested further, but Mrs. Markham's door opened at the +head of the stairs and I heard her breathing indignantly. For the sake +of quiet I consented, and so it happened that at one o'clock in the +morning I found myself in the street, with my arm tucked under +Marshall's and our faces set toward O'Corrigan's chop-house. + +O'Corrigan's has been torn down these many years, but you can see a +score of replicas of it on upper Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Its +plate-glass windows were adorned with set pieces of lobsters and +oysters, celery and apples, and you entered through a revolving door +into an atmosphere laden heavily with kitchen fumes, into a room which +multiplied itself in many mirrors. When you went there for the first +time the man who took you, if he knew his New York, would tell you of +O'Corrigan's rise from waiting at a downtown lunch-counter to the +ownership of these glittering halls. + +Of course, Tom Marshall knew O'Corrigan. He hailed him cordially, and +it seemed to me that he had no little pride in the privilege. He even +nodded to the bartender as we passed him, leading me to the archway +whence we could survey the adjoining room to see what was going on +there. But nothing was going on there. These late-night restaurants +are at their best in colored pictures. There they seem to own an +atmosphere of light and joy. There lovely women sip champagne, that +gayest of wines, from dainty glasses, and gallant men seem to say to us +that if you would have health and wealth and happiness you would never +go home until morning, but would live with them in this bright world of +wine and women and song. Really, they are melancholy places, +especially in their gayest hours. If vice really were attractive, how +vicious most of us would be! I do not say that O'Corrigan's was a +vicious place. At certain hours its patronage was of the dullest +respectability from the suburbs. Dull respectability is not supposed +to be abroad in the early hours of the morning, but it does seek at +times to hover on the edge of disrespectability with something of the +roguish curiosity of childhood. And now the respectables and the +unrespectables, a motley gathering in that garish room, amid the ugly +debris of their feasting, made an unattractive picture from which I +turned with a sense of relief to the quieter place behind us. + +As we moved to a table in a secluded corner, I saw Talcott and Bob +Grant sitting with their heads close together over a litter of plates +and glasses. Grant spoke to me. As he rose and offered his hand, I +noticed in his eyes that watery brightness which comes in certain +stages of conviviality. The effusiveness of his greeting might have +flattered me had I not realized that his heart was unduly expanded by +alcohol. To see such a great, good-natured animal as young Grant thus +exhilarated was not surprising to me, but with Talcott it was +different. I had known him only as a quiet, self-possessed man who, +from policy if nothing else, I believed must be as circumspect in his +life as in his clothes. Now he spoke to me. His greeting was +perfunctory. In his eyes was that watery dulness which comes with the +later stages of conviviality. His hair was tousled, his collar +crushed, his tie awry; for whiskey muddles the clothes as well as the +brain. He nodded to me; he wondered what I was doing out so late; he +snapped his fingers and called loudly for Andrew. The summons to the +waiter was for me a hint to be gone. + +Tom Marshall was greatly impressed by the fact that I knew Talcott and +Grant. When I rejoined him he seemed to treat me with greater respect +than hitherto, for he had been rather patronizing. It was surprising +to him, always so busy storming the outer works, to know that I, the +drudge of the fourth floor front, who never "went out," was so intimate +with these gallant cadets who lived in the citadel. He had come to +give me beer. Now in a faltering voice he suggested champagne, rubbing +his hands and smiling as he named it, as though it were his habit to +indulge nightly in so expensive a beverage. Remembering that he had +owed me five dollars for many months, I deemed it unwise to make an +unnecessary inroad into his pocket-book. With my refusal he grew +insistent, and at last consented, only with reluctance, to a modest +repast of welsh-rabbit and beer. + +"And the beer at once," he commanded the waiter. + +Then, unfolding his napkin on his knees and lighting a cigarette, he +looked over my shoulder to the distant table where the two heads were +close together over the litter of plates and glasses. "So you know +Talcott and Grant," he went on. "I'm sorry you didn't introduce me, +Malcolm. I've seen them around, of course, but, strangely, have never +met them. They are a great pair--stacks of money--Grant especially. +Talcott was in Harvard with me--was rather a snob and went with the +rich crowd--very smart now. He was one of Willie Ruyter's ushers." + +I smiled with compassion at this broken discourse. It brought to my +mind Mrs. Bannister. Tom Marshall and Mrs. Bannister looked at life +from the same view-point and I from one entirely different. To my mind +there was nothing very remarkable in having my existence acknowledged +by two very muddled young men, who in their present state acknowledged +also their brotherhood with the _roue_ whom I had seen in the next room +or the cabman sitting outside on his box in a half-stupor. I might +envy the good fortune which allowed them to move in the same world as +Penelope Blight, but to disavow intimacy with them, even to one so +strangely ambitious as Tom Marshall, called for no loss of pride. With +some show of temper I avowed that I hardly knew them. I had only met +them once or twice at the house of friends. But the sincerity with +which I disowned them served only to heighten the new-born respect with +which Marshall treated me. He did not know that I "went out." +Laughing, I retorted that I never did go out. He said that I must; +that he would take me out; he would present me to the right people. He +launched into the delights of going out and the necessity of going out +if a man was to be anybody at all; then suddenly stopped at the thought +that the beer ordered at once was very slow in coming. + +"That waiter is always confoundedly slow," he said. "I should have +insisted on having Andrew. I apologize, Malcolm--I should have thought +of Andrew. You would have enjoyed Andrew." + +"Andrew?" I repeated, questioning. + +"Yes, Andrew," replied Marshall. "Here's the beer. Now, George, hurry +those rabbits--I'm famished. Andrew," he went on, lighting a fresh +cigarette, "is a remarkable character. He is full of philosophy. He +quoted Herbert Spencer to me the other night. He has a sly way--and a +somewhat disconcerting one--when you order a drink, of trying to induce +you to take mineral water, and if he can, and O'Corrigan is not within +hearing, he serves a temperance lecture with every Scotch and soda." +Marshall tapped his forehead. "A little queer," he said sagely, "but +shrewd. By Jove, there he is now arguing with Bob Grant--a temperance +lecture, I'll bet--trying to persuade him to take plain soda." + +I looked over my shoulder to see this philosophic waiter who served +temperance lectures with whiskey. His back was to me. I saw only a +tall, loose-jointed figure clad in a waiter's jacket, a long, black arm +outstretched, a napkin draped over it, a long, thin hand clutching a +bill-of-fare, and a head of dark hair shot with white. The +bill-of-fare struck the table in emphasis, the napkin waved like a flag +of battle, both arms were stretched out wide in appeal. Grant laughed +again--uproariously. + +"I'll bet he is trying to uplift those fellows," said Marshall. "He +has a good chance to get in a word, as O'Corrigan is in the next room." + +I turned to my companion. At that moment I was more interested in the +non-arrival of the welsh-rabbit than in the scene behind me, for +waiters are by nature inclined to be voluble when the opportunity is +given them, and to me there was nothing particularly amusing in the +picture of young Grant, with that graciousness which comes with too +much drink, condescending to argue with this crack-brained fellow who +moved with his head in the clouds while his weary feet shuffled in and +out of O'Corrigan's kitchen. At the moment there was nothing familiar +to me in the tall, thin figure, nothing more than I should have seen in +any other lank, shambling waiter waving a napkin and a bill-of-fare. I +was growing tired. I was regretting that I had even allowed Tom +Marshall to inveigle me out so late, to breathe heavy air and to eat +heavy food at this hour, when I should be refreshing my body with sleep. + +But Tom Marshall's spirits grew higher as the night grew older. He was +immensely comfortable with his beer and cigarettes, immensely amused at +the argument which was going on behind my back. + +"You really must meet Andrew. You will enjoy him, Malcolm," he said. +"I'll call him over when he is through with those men. He is a +character worth knowing." + +"You speak of him as if you had known him for a long time," I returned, +and I think my lips must have curled a little; but if I was +unappreciative of the hospitality which I was enjoying, my excuse was +my great weariness. + +"Oh dear, no," he demurred; "I've been coming here for years--late at +night, you understand, for a bite occasionally. I never saw him until +last fall--got talking to him--I always like to talk to waiters, to get +their ideas. I found him a curious chap, better educated than most of +them and surprisingly well informed--surprisingly. He seemed to have +knocked around a good deal." + +"Had been a waiter in Hoboken, I suppose," said I, "and in +Philadelphia----" + +"In Hoboken!" My sarcasm nettled Marshall. "He told me that he had +never been a waiter at all until he came here; he was simply looking +for an opportunity to find something really congenial. He was fresh +from Canton. In Hoboken!" Tom Marshall leaned toward me aggressively. +"Why, man, he has been everywhere--through the South Seas, in----" + +There _was_ something familiar in the tall, thin figure, something that +even the waiter's jacket and the waving napkin could not hide. + +"What's up now?" Marshall cried. + +I had half risen from my chair and turned. Talcott and Grant were +leaning over their table, elbows resting there, heads close together. +And behind Talcott's chair the black figure was bent until the hands +could touch the floor. He was brushing up scattered crumbs. As I +looked, he raised his head, and it seemed to me that he had forgotten +his menial task, had forgotten his menial place, for he was very still. +He was no longer dusting. The napkin fell from his outstretched hand. +He was listening to the muttered, maudlin conversation as though from +the chaos of it he gathered some sober words of truth. + +I looked at my companion. "In the South Seas, you said, Marshall. Has +he spoken of San Francisco? Do you know his name?" + +Marshall sprang from his chair. I was up too, and it was to see the +Professor with a hand on Talcott's collar, shaking him, holding him at +arm's length as he shook him, as though this man were some contemptible +thing that he would touch as little as he could and yet must hold to +and shake until it was cleansed of its vileness. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +For myself I should have chosen the hut where I first met the Professor +above the home to which he led me in the early morning. If the old was +tumble-down, dark and ill-furnished, its air was the pure air of the +mountains and the way to it through things green and lovely. To the +new we went through squalid streets, westward, toward the river; we +turned into a dilapidated tenement; we climbed three flights of rickety +stairs into a room which compared to mine as mine to the house of Rufus +Blight. The lighted gas revealed hardly more than a narrow cell, with +dirty, torn paper on the walls, a narrow bed, a cheap table, and a +single chair. Giving me the chair, my host seated himself upon the +bed, so close to me, of necessity, that our knees touched. To my eyes +he was little older than that day fifteen years before when we had met. +He was old then to my youthful view. Thinner he could not have been, +and now only the scattered white hairs and the deepened lines of his +face marked his increased years. He had laid aside his overcoat, and +sat before me clad in his waiter's clothes, but the waiter's mien was +gone. With his legs crossed, his hands clasped over one knee, his head +drawn down between his shoulders, he seemed the languid, weary man of +the store-porch, whose eyes quickened only at the trumpet-call to +debate. Clearly his attitude toward me was one of antagonism. This I +saw in his quiet gaze and in the restless twitching of fingers, +impatient for the cut and thrust of argument. + +On our way from O'Corrigan's to his squalid room, the Professor had +spoken little. For the most part, as he plodded along at my side, he +had contented himself in expressing opinions not complimentary to +Herbert Talcott, in voicing his regret that he had not thrashed him +instead of merely shaking him. That he had not thrashed Talcott was +hardly evidence of the mildness of his attack. It was rather because I +had interposed; and then O'Corrigan, in the character of the outraged +proprietor of a highly respectable restaurant, had intruded himself +into the quarrel, even going so far as to threaten to call the police. +But I was first in the _melee_, and on me fell the blame of saving +Talcott from merited chastisement. For this the Professor upbraided +me. He spoke as though Talcott had been the aggressor. Had not +Talcott struck him a blow under the eye? Yes, but it was feebly given. +But the sting of it was to the Professor's pride, and he would regret +to his dying day that I had withheld him from giving the young +scoundrel his just deserts. + +Poor Talcott! I confessed to myself that it would have given me +pleasure to have had some part in his chastisement, and as we plodded +westward through the empty streets I pictured him driving home in a +hansom, trying to gather his scattered wits and to discover some reason +why a quiet, respectful waiter should have assailed him without cause. +Poor muddled Talcott! He did not know that his betrayer had been +distilled in far-off Scotland, and had lain away in vats a score of +years awaiting that very moment to make him speak his honest thought +just as the quiet, respectful waiter was bending behind him to pick up +crumbs. Perhaps he could not even remember what he was saying when he +was stopped by the long fingers which were thrust down the back of his +neck. Did he remember, what he was saying could be none of the +waiter's affair, anyway. It could matter nothing to that humble +creature if he did speak of Rufus Blight as a vulgar little brute and +of Penelope as "a bit raw, but worth marrying for her money alone." "A +woman's millions never grow _passe_," was an aphorism which fitted the +lips of the half-drunken cynic. To be sure, the things which he had +said were not such as a man would give expression to were he cold +sober, even if he thought them, and much less would he apply them to +particular persons, yet when you are sitting late at night with such a +good fellow as Bob Grant over your fifth Scotch and soda, you are +likely to be a little unguarded. For who would think of a waiter +objecting? Poor, muddled, drunken Talcott! He did not know that he +really had given the first blow, had changed the obsequious waiter into +a fury by striking him in the heart of his pride. And to such a fury +had the Professor been wrought, and so firmly did anger hold his mind, +that my own sudden interference was received by him as quite in the +ordinary, though he protested against my good offices. He remonstrated +indignantly when I acquiesced in O'Corrigan's assertion that my humble +friend must be demented, a plea which opened a way out of the +predicament. Fortunately, the Professor's own wisdom in refusing an +explanation of an apparently unprovoked assault gave color to this +theory, and as Talcott's one clear thought was to escape without any +unpleasant notoriety, O'Corrigan satisfied his ire by ordering his mad +employee out of the place. + +So the Professor came into my charge. Had we met after a separation of +only a day, his treatment of me could not have been more casual. He +consented to my accompanying him home, but this seemed less from a +desire to see me again than to protest against my having publicly +humiliated him by treating him as demented. He had always thought that +David Malcolm would understand him under every circumstance; that +whatever his condition and whatever mine, when we met again it would be +with mutual esteem. Yet David Malcolm had judged him by his clothes, +had given him a waiter's heart and mind with a waiter's garb! He was +bent on proving to me that, however low he might have fallen in the +world's eye, he was as sane as he ever had been, and that in accepting +O'Corrigan's opinion so readily I had done him a wrong. + +Now when we were sitting in his room, so close that our knees touched, +he seemed by his silence to tell me that he had spoken, and that my +part was to excuse and to explain what he deemed a reflection on +himself. I saw him in his shabby waiter's garb. This was the uniform +in which he marched, moved night after night with shuffling feet and +eyes alert lest he break the dishes--marched to the divine drumbeat, +marched under God's sealed orders. His own high-flowing phrases came +back to me, and I could have laughed, seeing him, but I remembered that +those phrases had been the sabre cuts which drove me into action, that +but for them I might be dozing like the very dogs, dozing with the +unhappy restlessness of enforced inaction. Perhaps I was moving to +barren conquests, but barren conquests are better than defeat. He had +moved to defeat, and I pitied him. He asked of me excuse and +explanation. I, having none to give, was silent. But I think he must +have seen in my eyes something of the same light which he found in them +that morning in the smoky cabin. Then he had reached down, taken me in +his arms and called me his only friend. Now with a sudden movement he +held out his hand to mine. Anger was gone. He had forgotten Talcott. +He had forgotten the stranger who seized his arm and thwarted his fury. +He saw only the boy who yesterday had stood at his side when every +man's hand was against him. + +"Davy--Davy," he cried, "you have come again to help me." + +"Yes--to take you home," said I, "to your brother and Penelope." + +He made a gesture of dissent and his eyes narrowed. "No," he returned +with sharpness. "That cannot be. Don't you suppose that I should have +gone to them of my own accord had it been possible?" + +"But it is possible," I said. "They want you. I have it from their +own lips." + +"I know--I know," he replied. "Rufus would give me a home. Rufus +would give me money--all I need a hundred times over. But is that what +I really need? I want to do something myself, David--to be somebody +myself. I have it in me. All I ask is an opportunity." He brought +his fist down on his knee. "And by heaven, I will find it! I will +show them I'm not the worthless fellow I seem." + +"But they don't think you worthless, Professor," said I, addressing him +as I might have, had we been in the cabin again. "They have been +searching for you everywhere----" + +"But never expecting to find me as I am now," he interrupted, spreading +wide his arms and inviting me to behold him as he was, a shabby waiter. +"Rufus, who has made what the world calls a success, would be proud of +me; and Penelope, who has learned to think with the rest of the world, +would be proud of me--proud to present me to her friends--to splendid +fellows like Talcott and his muddle-headed companion." He leaned +forward and tapped me on the knee with his long forefinger, and his +face broke into a bitter smile as he spoke more quietly. "David, I +have seen Penelope. I came to New York just to be near her, and many a +night I have stood for hours across the street from her house only to +get a glimpse of her. And sometimes as I see her stepping in or out of +her carriage I say to myself that she cannot be my daughter; and if I +spoke to her how high she would toss her head! Why, she would lose +less caste by walking with Talcott drunk than with me as I am now." + +"But she need not see you as you are now," I protested, half smiling at +the incongruous picture which he had drawn of Penelope walking down the +avenue by the side of this shabby waiter. "They need not even know----" + +I paused to grasp at some inoffensive phrase in which to describe his +forlorn condition. + +"That I have fallen so low," he exclaimed. He had been quick to see my +predicament, and laughed. "I know what you are thinking of, David. +You saw me an obsequious, tip-grasping fellow, with a spirit as heavy +as his feet. You think me broken and down and out." The hands spread +wide again. "I--down and out? Why, Davy, I've been like this a score +of times, and I am still game. You must not think that because of a +little temporary embarrassment I am in prime condition to go crawling +to Rufus and tell him that I have failed and need his help. I told +Rufus that I would come back and claim Penelope when she could be proud +to own me as her father." He brought his fist down on his knee again. +"She couldn't be very proud now, but I'll show them!" + +It was hard to combat so overwhelming a pride as this, a pride which +seemed to thrive in the ashes of hope. I tried to break it by speaking +of his brother and daughter, giving him an account of my renewed +acquaintance with them and of their talk of him. The effect was to set +him smoking a very black pipe. Rising and leaning over the foot-rail +of the bed, much as in the old days he leaned lazily over the store +counter, he held his eyes fixed on mine, and smoked while I argued. He +was a patient listener. My own story was interwoven with his, and that +he might understand my relations with his brother and Penelope, I told +him briefly all that had occurred with me since that day when we parted +in the clearing. When I came to the college lecture, and my efforts to +see him then, and to find him, he made a motion as though to interrupt. +I paused. He commanded me to go on, and the smile which came to his +face at my mention of his discourse on "Life" held there until I had +finished. But my story, intended to give force to my arguments for him +to surrender his pride, only served to put him in a reminiscent mood. + +"That was a lecture, wasn't it, David?" he said, laughing. "Why, do +you know that when I talked that night I almost imagined that I was a +success in life. It was the introduction that did it--distinguished +traveller--famous journalist. And you, I suppose, accepted it all as +truth. Still, you may be thankful you didn't have to hear Harassan--a +gigantic windbag, if there ever was one. I fell in with him one day in +a smoking-car and got to talking about my travels. He was preparing a +lecture on China, and as he had never been there, I was useful, so he +took me into his house until he had pumped me dry. I substituted for +him that night at your college for half the fee--was to read his +lecture, but when I got started on it I couldn't stand it. An +astonishing man, Harassan! When he died he left a modest fortune made +in spouting buncombe; and yet--" The Professor held out a hand in +appeal. "How many men are called great because they succeed in talking +buncombe and selling rubbish! That is what discourages me so; and +doesn't it make you a little bitter when you meet men surrounded by +every material evidence of success and go fishing in their brains and +can't hook up a single original idea of any kind? Why, I've met +hundreds of them, Davy. Now that night Harassan would have hurled at +you a lot of pompous commonplaces, and you would have hailed him as a +great and wise man. I broke from the beaten path. I told you plain +truth. Was I ever asked to lecture again? People won't pay to hear +plain truth, Davy. I suspect that I should have done better had I not +been trying all my life to drive plain truth into unwilling ears." + +"I suspect so, too," said I mildly. + +He laughed at my ready acquiescence. "I started wrong at home," he +went on. "Had I listened to Rufus and plodded along in his humdrum +way, I suppose I'd be rich now. But I couldn't. After I left the +valley I went to Kansas and really settled down, got a school to teach, +and for a time I was quite in the way of becoming a successful +educator--principal of a high-school, perhaps. I might even have +become president of a college, but to die the head of a fresh-water +college did not seem a very glorious end; nor did teaching a lot of +foolish young men to live what are held successful lives seem very +inspiring living. So I went on west to San Francisco and tried +newspaper work. It seemed just the vocation for me. Here I could use +my sword against the dragons of untruth and corruption. The beast +stalks forth brazenly enough, and without considering the moral side at +all, it is sport to attack him. To get myself into a position to +attack him, I had to serve an apprenticeship. You know what that +means--the daily digging for ephemeral facts. But I stuck to it. I +saw the day when I should be the most feared man on the coast, wielding +a pen as efficacious as a surgeon's knife. Unfortunately, my knife +first struck a politician named Mulligan, who owned some stock in the +paper. You know the result. I could direct my caustic pen against +O'Connor or Einstein, but from Mulligan came my living. I took to the +sea to breathe purer air, sailing as supercargo on a trading vessel. +For two years I knocked about the South Sea Islands and along the coast +of Asia, and it seemed that I was gathering a vast amount of +information which would be of service to the race if preserved in a +book. How I worked over that book! When I got back to San Francisco I +saw my fame and fortune about to be made by it. At last the power to +do something worth while was in my reach." + +The Professor paused. He spread wide his arms in a gesture to express +futility. "I had as well stood on the highest peak of the Rockies and +read my manuscript to space. The distinguished traveller and author!" +With a hand upon his heart, he bowed gravely. "The author of one +thousand volumes of uncut leaves. Useless! Well, I suppose Harassan +found the one I gave him of some service, for he got most of his famous +Chinese lecture out of it. There was some pretty good stuff in that +book, too, but Harassan was the only man I ever heard of who agreed +with me; and he--well, he was a successful idiot." + +"And of course you never shared the benefits he reaped," said I. + +"Benefits from Harassan?" The Professor laughed. "Why, David, you +might have thought that I had ruined Harassan from the way he talked +when he received a letter from Todd, that president of yours. Todd +said that I would subvert the morals of the country. So the Reverend +Valerian and I parted with words--he to go to China in his mind, I to +work my way there in the body." The Professor rested himself on the +bed, and between puffs at his pipe continued: "I had an idea of going +to Tibet. That seemed to be really doing something--to go to Lhasa and +unveil its mysteries to the world. I started from Peking, afoot +mostly, and so you see I didn't make very rapid progress, and while +walking I had plenty of time to think. When I was about half-way to +the border, the absurdity of the thing came to me--spending years to +get into Tibet, only to find there a filthy land ruled by a mad +religion. I got almost to Shen-si, and turned back. Somehow China +suited me. I fell into the Chinese way of thinking, and might have +gone on satisfied with a daily dole of rice and fish had it not been +for Penelope. I never could forget Penelope. Always, it seemed to me, +she must be waiting for me to come back with my promises fulfilled, to +return a man she could be proud to own her father. It looked pretty +black for me then, David. China isn't a place to accomplish much, and +I might as well have gone on to Lhasa as to do what I did--work three +years in the consulate at Che-Foo as interpreter and useful man, eyes, +arms, and brains for a politician from Missouri. But my one purpose +was to get home, to see Penelope, to see her a woman grown, and +perhaps--I would say to myself sometimes--to speak to her." + +"And you have found her a woman grown," said I. "Now you have only to +speak to her." + +He shook his head. "I've been here three months now, David, and I have +seen her perhaps a score of times; and when I see her, sometimes +entering that great house, sometimes driving in her carriage, always +the very picture of the ideal princess, she seems a creature of another +world than mine, and I laugh at myself for trying to believe that there +ever was a time when she sat on my knees and talked of days to come +when we should have a house like that and drive in such a carriage! +Would she understand me now? Would temporary necessity condone my +descending to this uniform? I tried to do better when I came here, but +I couldn't. I tried even your profession, but they wanted young men. +I came to this only to be near her. But I am away again, David. I +must be up and doing." He had risen, and was speaking rapidly as he +paced the narrow limits of the room. "Money is what I need and I will +have it. Money has always seemed to me a paltry thing to work for, but +now it is for Penelope's sake. There has been a plan in my mind for +some time, David, only I have delayed starting on it--for Penelope's +sake, you understand. I'm going to Argentina. There was a man on my +ship coming out from Yokohama who was bound for Argentina, and he told +me----" + +The Professor launched into a glowing account of the promise of the +southern country. To his mind, he had only to reach it to acquire the +wealth which he wanted. The man who had failed in every undertaking, +who had turned back from every goal to which he had set his eyes, would +win there in a few years that for which men in other parts of the world +strove a lifetime. I pointed out that the opportunity lay right at his +hand, and his answer was to spread wide his arms that I might see the +waiter's jacket. He had the better of the argument, but the reason lay +in his own character. Then I had recourse to pleading, and my plea was +made not for his sake, but for Penelope's, for only when I spoke of her +would he listen. I tried to show him Penelope's danger, as it had been +revealed to us that very night in Talcott's drunken talk. His reply +was a laugh. He had so idealized Penelope that it was inconceivable +that she should fall a victim to the attentions of such a vapid +creature. He had not seen, as I had, Talcott sober and correct in +deportment. He had not fallen, as I had, under the spell of Talcott's +easy manner when he had just dropped in from the club to talk of last +night's dance and to-morrow's opera. He did not know, as I did, that +the whole company from whom Penelope might choose a mate were to the +outward eye just such commonplace men whose power of fascination lay in +commonplace deeds and words. The Professor, whose whole life had been +spent pursuing shadows, was naturally of a romantic turn of mind, and +it was even difficult for him to conceive of Penelope marrying at all. +That she could be inveigled into so grave a step with a man whose sole +claim to merit was well-cut clothes and a command of social _patois_ +was quite beyond his comprehension. In vain I argued that most women +married just such men, and perhaps it was because the sex had attained +wisdom with experience, had discovered that a brilliant mind on parade +might be amusing, but that, like its duller fellows, it retired to +barracks and found contentment in the same humdrum existence as they. +The birth of eternal, enduring love was but a matter of propinquity. +Sitting on the front doorstep of an afternoon talking and strolling +down to the drugstore every evening for soda-water, Darby and Joan +discovered that existence apart was worse than death. And so might +Joan's richer sister in the old carved chair, under the eyes of +Reynolds's majestic lady, grow accustomed to the coming and going of +Darby's richer brother, confirm herself in the habit of taking narcotic +conversation, talk of last night's dinner and to-morrow's dance, until +he seemed to become essential to her existence. All this I explained +to the Professor. He retorted that I had grown cynical. Perhaps I had +grown cynical, but my cynicism was born of experience--bitter +experience, I called it then. Perhaps, imbittered by my own thwarted +hopes, I exaggerated the danger in which Penelope stood. Perhaps, in +my own vanity and jealousy, I magnified Talcott's sins, knowing well +enough that, after all, he was no worse than most of his brothers. Yet +there was a danger, and its avoidance was simple could I only induce +the man before me to abandon his foolish pride. At least, said I, his +brother should know of the night's occurrence. + +"Know that, after all my boasts, I had come to waiting in a restaurant +and quarrelling with drunken boys?" he cried, shaking his head and +waving an arm to deny my demand. "Of course, if there were any +possibility of Penelope marrying that fool it would be different. But, +David, I know Rufus. He is not brilliant, but he is shrewd, and I'll +trust him to find out if anybody is after his money. And Penelope? +Haven't I seen Penelope many a night stepping into her carriage--don't +you think I can trust her to look higher than that?" + +I could not change him, though we argued until dawn came. Then we +walked together, in the gray of the early morning, from the poor +quarter where he lived to Miss Minion's, a house that had grown in my +eyes, by contrast, palatial. The street was still deserted, and +standing by my door I made a last appeal. But he shook his head. + +"Davy, can't you understand?" he said, as he took my hand in parting. +"I admit that I have been a failure up to date, but Rufus and Penelope +are the last people in the world that I want to know it, and I'll trust +you to be discreet. Some day it may be best to tell them, but at +present, no. Silence, David; I have your promise. I'm to have one +more chance in Argentina, and if I fail you have your way; but I won't +fail." + +He turned from me and stood very straight. His overcoat collar was +buttoned to the neck, hiding the uniform of his adversity. For a +moment, as I watched him, he seemed to be in the gulch again; we looked +over the towering walls of brick and stone, and to me they were the +ridge-side, dark and sombre in the gray light; we looked beyond the +crest of it, beyond the chimneys, the tall pines which pierced the +sky-line, and our eyes rested on a flake of cloud. I think it must +have been there. I felt the pressure of his hand. + +"I'll not be gone long, Davy," he said. "I'm coming back very soon, +and till then you will take care of Penelope; won't you, boy?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +Spring came and with it the Todds. All that winter they had been so +far from me, often so far from my thoughts even, that the remembrance +of them would bring a shock like a sudden consciousness of sin or the +recollection of a duty left undone. My fiancee's communication with me +had dwindled to a weekly post-card. At first these had carried to me +some little hint of affection, but latterly Gladys had contented +herself with commonplace scrawls announcing that this was where they +were staying for a few days or that the window in the hotel marked with +a cross was hers. And my replies, so conscientiously written every +Saturday night, had become rather brief and formal statements of facts. +I had long since ceased to take Miss Minion's stairs two steps at a +time in my eagerness to secure the portly epistle from abroad; the +post-card which had filled its place I regarded with languid interest. +You can imagine, then, that it was with surprise that I found, one +evening in May, a fat letter directed to me in the tall, angular hand. +The reading of it was like a blow which restored me to my senses. I +had awakened to find myself not only engaged but on the verge of +marriage. The Todds were coming home! + +If my fiancee had neglected me for many months, she now overwhelmed me +with sixty closely written pages of devotion. It was as though on +coming face to face with steamer tickets she, too, had awakened from a +dream and found herself engaged. It might well be true that the few +weeks in London before embarking on the homeward stage had been her +first opportunity to sit down with pen and paper to have what she +called "a talk" with me. A year before that talk would have been +highly gratifying and flattering, but now I read with a critical eye, +and while I could find no fault with the sentiments expressed, the form +of the expression irritated me. It was natural that the sentiment pent +up in those months of hurried sight-seeing should break forth in this +moment of leisure, but to me, grown practical, the form would have been +more effective if direct and simple. In those days Penelope was so +distant from me, so cold and implacable, that I might have turned to +Gladys Todd with a thought that here at last was peace, an end of +absurd and inordinate ambition, and perhaps content. Had she written +to me simply that she was coming home, I might have soothed myself with +the idea that I, too, was going home, back to the simple ways to which +I was born, back, after all, to my own people. But Gladys Todd, grown +more cultured than ever in the grand tour and revealing her mind in +poetical phrases, was as much a being of another world than mine as was +Penelope set in her frame of costly simplicity. I should go to the +pier to meet her, I said. I knew that it could not be gladly, but I +was bound by a sense of honor, by the remembrance of four years through +which she had waited for me so patiently, always cheerful and firm in +her faith in my power to win a home for us both. Because I was so +bound, I vowed that she should never know the change in me, and then if +I set myself to the task I might fan into flame the dead embers of my +boyish infatuation. + +So I stood on the pier that May morning when the Todds came home. So +grim was my determination that I might have stood there with a smiling, +expectant face had I not in that very hour seen Penelope. I had held +to that cherished custom of mine to begin my day with a walk up-town, +for always there was a bare chance that I might have a glimpse of her. +There was poor consolation in her passing bow; but I could not let her +go altogether out of my existence, and even her distant greeting served +to keep me in the number of her acquaintances. This day I wanted to +take a formal farewell, as if in doffing my hat I renounced all my +claims, abandoned all my idle dreams, and set myself to the right path. +Of course, I met her, and for a time I had cause to regret that I had +not taken the direct way to the pier, for Penelope that morning, as she +drove by me rapidly down the avenue, was the embodiment of loveliness, +a loveliness beyond the reach of him whom fortune held to the sidewalk. +Her horses seemed to step with pride at being a part of such a perfect +turnout, and the men on the box to have turned to statues by the +congealing of their self-importance. Seeing her, erect, a slender, +quiet figure in filmy black, with a white-gloved hand on her parasol, +you forgave the horses for lifting their feet so mincingly and the men +for staring before them with such hauteur. She whirled by me in all +that costly simplicity. I doffed my hat. She saw me and, strangely +enough, smiled at me more kindly than in many days. I watched until +even the men's tall hats were lost in the maze at Twenty-third Street, +and as I watched I said my silent farewell to Penelope Blight. + +On the pier, in the cheering, expectant throng that watched the steamer +turning into her dock, I leaned on my cane and fixed my eyes with +resolution on the ship which was bringing me a life of happiness. But +I was silent as I pondered over the radiant smile with which I had been +greeted as the carriage swept by. A week ago Penelope had given her +head just a tilt of recognition; this morning she had seemed genuinely +glad to see me, as though it were a pleasure to know that I lived in +the same world. This afternoon, I said forgetfully, I would call upon +her again--I had not called for so long. Then I heard my name. I came +back to the pier and the cheering crowd, and, looking up, saw Gladys +Todd. + +Beside me there was a young man who brandished his cane to the peril of +his neighbors' heads while he shouted again and again to his inamorata. +My duty was to evince just such joy, but when I tried to call her name +my lips refused to form it, and I only raised my hat and smiled. +Gladys, standing by the ship's rail, waved her hand at me. Then she +seemed to forget me entirely, and turned to a youngish-looking, stout +man at her side. + +The stout man began to interest me, because Gladys had written to me +that she would be on deck this day straining her eyes to the shore +where her knight would be waiting. Now it seemed as though a brief +glance at her knight was sufficient, and that she found more charm in +this portly fellow traveller. + +Ex-Judge Bundy had small side-whiskers, and always wore a large derby +and a frock coat, sometimes black, sometimes pale gray. This +youngish-looking stout man was clean shaven, and he had the ruddy skin +of the out-of-doors. His hat was brown felt, with its crown wound +around with a white pugree--a rather affected hat, but it harmonized +with his rough gray tweeds. His appearance was English; he might be, I +thought, the governor of some island colony. But when he raised +himself from the rail on which he had been leaning, slipped one hand +into the breast of his coat, and turned to address Doctor Todd, +speaking as though he were Jupiter and the doctor Mercury disguised in +dingy clerical clothes, I recognized the patron of my alma mater. + +They came down the gangway one by one, the ex-judge leading; then +Gladys Todd, rather mannish in a straight-cut English suit and a sailor +hat, slung from her shoulder a camera, and nestling in one arm a +Yorkshire terrier; then Doctor Todd, unchanged, in the same clothes in +which he had sailed, for he was one of those men who could go twice +around the world and collect nothing but statistics and postcards; then +Mrs. Todd with her two greatest acquisitions in bold evidence, a +lorgnette and a caged paroquet. + +For a moment I felt that I had come solely to welcome ex-Judge Bundy +home. He was first to get my hand, and he held it while he told me how +kind it was of me to take so much trouble; it was good to be home; he +was always glad to get back to America--speaking as though these +expeditions were annual events. He might have gone on and presented me +to his friends the Todds had I not disengaged myself and turned to my +fiancee with a hand outstretched. + +"Look out for Blossom," she warned me, hardly more than touching my +finger-tips. "Blossom always snaps at strangers." + +Blossom justified the statement by barking viciously at me. + +"I am so glad to have you back again, Gladys," I said, speaking in a +low voice, for I had an instinctive feeling that ex-Judge Bundy had +turned his head, though ostensibly he was busy with porters. + +"And it's so nice to see you," she replied, and her gaze wandered +vaguely about the pier. She had written that it would be so good just +to let her eyes rest on me, but now their appetite was quickly +satisfied, and it nettled me. + +I spoke to her again, louder, reiterating my delight, and she raised +her eyebrows and answered that she was glad that I was pleased. Doctor +Todd and Mrs. Todd, however, were not so casual in their greeting. The +doctor took both of my hands and declared that this was a happy family +reunion. Mrs. Todd kissed me on both cheeks and gave me the paroquet +to carry. As we made our way through the crowd, she asked me if I did +not think that Gladys had improved, but to myself, as I watched her +striding ahead of us in her mannish clothes, I said that she certainly +looked quite trim and smart, and I found myself wondering if she still +painted tulips on black plaques or would deign to sing "Douglas, tender +and true"? Perhaps, to her mind, broadened by a year of travel, I was +but a provincial fellow, whose musical education had not gone beyond +"The Minute Guns at Sea," who, never having seen the galleries of +Europe, could have no appreciation of art. + +I was irritated. I wanted to set myself right in her mind, to show her +that I, too, had grown broader and wiser. But there was no +opportunity. She was busy either with the trunks or in keeping Blossom +quiet. During the drive to the hotel the situation was little better. +We were in an ancient barouche, piled high with luggage, Mrs. Todd, +Gladys, and I, ex-Judge Bundy having tactfully suggested that he take +the doctor with him in a hansom. + +Mrs. Todd was voluble. She was artfully sentimental. She spoke of the +day when, as a young girl, she had left home for six weeks, and she +recalled her emotions as she came back to find the doctor waiting for +her at the station. They were married shortly afterward. How history +repeats itself! But Gladys was not impressed by the coincidence. She +merely said that she was glad to have Blossom ashore again, for at +times the dog had been fearfully sea-sick. I could have strangled +Blossom. Nothing is more humiliating to a man than to discover that a +woman's love for him is waning. Here is a reflection on his power of +fascination. But it is doubly humiliating to find himself supplanted +by a little woolly dog, to see the caresses which he would claim as his +showered with ostentation on a diminutive animal. At that moment it +seemed that Blossom had supplanted me. He nestled in her arm, and when +for the tenth time I expressed my delight in having her home, she +turned from me and stroked the creature's silky back. Time and again +I, striving to do my duty, charged against the steel points of her +indifference. Even Mrs. Todd noticed my plight. As we were leaving +the carriage at the Broadway hotel whither Judge Bundy had led the way +she whispered to me that evidently three was a crowd, and acting on +that belief, she contrived to leave the two of us alone in the great +parlor of the hotel while the doctor and the Judge held a colloquy with +the clerk. + +This Gladys Todd, sitting amid the faded grandeur of the hotel parlor, +this handsome mannish woman in a tweed suit, with a snappy dog in her +arm, was not the same girl beside whom I had sat ages ago, watching her +paint tulips and sprays of wisteria, not the same whose voice had +joined with mine in the sentimental strains of "Annie Laurie." But I +felt that I had a duty, and I sat down on the sofa and held out my hand +and in a voice of pleading asked her again if she was not glad to see +me. + +"No, David," she said, turning her eyes downward to Blossom. + +I was quite unprepared for such a frank admission, and it came like a +blow. In all my thought of Gladys Todd I had quite accustomed myself +to the confession that I did not look with pleasure to her home-coming, +but that she might regard me in the same light never occurred to me. +This knowledge was humiliating. I had been holding myself to the +strict line of duty and honor, but I had never suspected that she might +be impelled by exactly the same motives. Now I was hurt. As I sat +staring at her I cast about for the reason of the change. In my case +it was another woman, but a superlatively wonderful woman. In hers it +might be another man, a superlatively wonderful man. The idea was not +pleasant. In my case there was at least the excuse of old +acquaintance. In hers the change must have come in a single week at +sea, where miles of walking on the deck and hours leaning on the rail +with elbows close together might have revealed some kindred spirit. +There flashed to me her action in turning from me, the watcher on the +pier, to ex-Judge Bundy, and in him losing all thought of me. But +ex-Judge Bundy was not a superlatively wonderful man. He was only a +rich widower with two married daughters, and was old enough to be her +father. My estimate of my own worth was not so modest that I could +conceive of my interests ever being seriously jeopardized by this +pompous maker of nails. It was pleasanter to think that the fault lay +rather in my own unworthiness than in another's worth, and my pride +urged me to combat her, to prove that while I might not be all that a +woman of her ideals could ask, yet my shortcomings were those of my +fellows in mass and not of the individual. + +"I do not understand, Gladys," I said, and I held out my hand to take +hers and to reassert my old ascendancy, but I was foiled by Blossom, +who darted at me with such fierceness as to compel me to draw back. + +"David, I'm so sorry," she said. She looked me in the eyes and spoke +with the even voice of one who had entire command of herself. "The +plain truth is that I have made a great mistake. I really thought I +cared for you." + +"And now you think you don't," I said, brushing aside such an absurdity +with a wave of my hand. "Nonsense! After four years, you can not tell +me that you have suddenly discovered that you never cared for me. I +can not give you up for some absurd whim." + +She shook her head. "It is not a whim. I see clearly now. We were +very young when we became engaged, and I didn't understand how serious +the step really was. In the last week at sea I have had time to think +it all over, and now I know it best that after this we be just +friends--nothing more. You will forget me. You will find another +woman worthier of you." + +Little as I knew of women, I realized that while these last two +statements might be perfectly true, to accept them as true would sever +the last strand of the cord which bound us. At that moment I did not +want to lose Gladys Todd. She was very lovely as she sat there, with +her eyes downcast, caressing her dog. She was the promised reward of +my years of work. For her I had labored, scrimped and saved, cramped +myself in a narrow room in a boarding-house, and almost shunned my +fellows, to realize our dream of the little house on the bit of green. +At that moment the dream was very dear to me and I could not see it +wrecked for some whim. I grew belligerent. I reached out my hand +again, as though by mere physical power I would prove my unchanging +mind, but again Blossom was on guard. + +"I shall not forget you," I said, and I folded my arms with grim +determination and fixed my eyes on her face to break her by mere +will-power. And then to what untruth did pride drive me? "I have not +changed. I shall never change, Gladys. I love you now more than ever, +and I will not give you up." + +The light in her eyes was not quite so cold, nor was her voice so even +and at her command. "I am sorry, David, but you must." + +"But I won't," I returned. + +"Oh, why do you drive me to it?" she cried with a gesture of despair. +"Can't you see, David, that there is some one else to be considered?" + +"Some one else?" I exclaimed. + +"I didn't think you would be so ungenerous--so selfish," she said in a +low voice, while her hands played rapidly over Blossom's head. "I have +tried to be honorable and fair to you. But he was so kind, so good--he +is so lonely----" + +"He--who is he?" I demanded, in my anger abandoning all effort to hold +to the honorable course to which I had set myself. + +"You should not ask me," she replied, her voice growing hard. "After I +had come to know him, to know how fine he was, I really tried to keep +on caring for you, David, but I simply couldn't. I am fond of you, of +course, but not in the way I thought. You are too young. It is a +mistake for a woman to marry a man of her own age. She should marry +one whom she can look up to, honor and respect. Love in a cottage is +well enough to read of, I suppose, but enduring love must be built on +something more." + +I wanted to laugh at myself for the fool I had been. I arose. It was +useless to sit longer with folded arms and determined eyes fixed on her +face, to break her will by hypnotic power. I knew that I was defeated, +and however better defeat might be than victory, judged in wisdom, it +was not pleasant to a man of spirit. I stood before her pulling on a +glove and she looked up at me with a suggestion of defiance. I was not +heart-broken. I felt that I should be, but I knew that I was suffering +only in my pride. I wanted to sit down again in friendly fashion and +tell her how hard I had tried to do my duty, that I too loved another, +and that now she had made the way easy for me, but I refrained from +such petty revenge. + +I held out my hand. "I wish you all happiness, Gladys," I said. "You +must not trouble about me. No doubt you have chosen wisely." + +"You are a dear, good boy, David," she said, rising and addressing me +in a motherly tone as though she had suddenly attained twice my years. +"You will find another woman more worthy of you--I know you will. And +when you come to Harlansburg you must bring her to see us. We shall be +such good friends." + +To Harlansburg? The whole story was clear in my mind. I remembered +the Egyptian picture, the pyramids, the camels, and young Marshall's +warning. And I had been so blind that a moment since I was saying that +if another man had wrought this changed mind in Gladys Todd he must be +a superlatively wonderful man. After all, the superlatively wonderful +man was ex-Judge Bundy. Now the blow to my pride was fairly crushing. +It did seem that I had a few natural qualities which should have +weighed in the scales against such a rival. But if I had youth, he had +wealth; if I had promise, he had the same promise of youth fulfilled in +giant nail works; if I offered a vine-clad cottage on a bit of green, +he could give the big gray-stone house with many turrets, the lawn with +the marble lions and perfect terraces sloping down to the ornate fence. +The very absurdity of the situation saved me from regret. + +Gladys Todd was looking at me with narrowed eyes. I think she expected +some outburst of emotion. Perhaps she felt sorry for the pain that she +had caused me. But as I looked at her and remembered the past, as I +thought of the judge, the house, and the marble lions, even my wounded +pride was forgotten. I checked the smile which was threading my lips. +I took my conge as a man should, gravely, with head bowed under the +crushing blow, with eyes downcast as though they would never again look +up into the joyous sunlight. I turned and left the room. + +By the rule, I should have looked back, hesitated, and gone on. But my +mind was filled with the fear of meeting Doctor Todd or Mrs. Todd, or +worse, Judge Bundy. How to treat Judge Bundy, did I meet him, was not +clear--whether to pass him with a haughty stare, or to stop and +congratulate him, or even thank him. Discreetly I followed the dark +windings of the hall and left the hotel by a private entrance. In the +street I looked up into the sunshine. I was free. I could not +dissemble with myself any longer, and I turned to the avenue with a +quick and joyous step. A new life had opened to me and I was stepping +into it unburdened, and with a prize to fight for. In those few +moments Gladys Todd had gone into the past. She was hardly more than a +shadow to me now, hardly more real than Mr. Pound or Miss Spinner or +any other of the dim figures in my memory. Before me was Penelope--the +future and Penelope. Her world was not my world, but I vowed that I +would make it mine. + +Perhaps, I said, I shall see her again this very morning and perhaps +she will greet me again with that same kindly, glorious smile. And +surely she would smile did she know that I was free from the yoke to +which I had bent myself in a moment of forgetfulness. My duty had been +to Penelope since that day when we rode from the clearing, and from +that day my heart had always been with her. Reading from the past, her +destiny and mine were written before me in clear, bold letters. How +good the world was! How bright the day! How quick my step as I turned +up-town! + +And I saw Penelope. She bowed to me from a hansom, and I answered, +beaming. I halted. Herbert Talcott was sitting at her side. He +stared at me, tipped his hat brusquely, then turned to her and made +some laughing remark. + +I stood looking after the receding hansom until it disappeared in the +maze of traffic. I took my conge as a man does sometimes, with my head +bowed under the crushing blow, and my eyes downcast, knowing in my +heart that for me the sunshine could nevermore be joyous. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +There was no doubt in my mind that Penelope Blight was engaged to marry +Talcott. They announced the fact when they rode the length of the +Avenue together in a hansom. But had I questioned the meaning of their +appearing thus in public I could not long have cheered myself with vain +hope, for the papers next morning blazoned the news to all the world. +That they printed it under great staring head-lines was not surprising +to me, for to me this fact transcended all others in importance. +Beside it the rumblings of war in the Balkans, the devastating flood in +China, or the earthquake which wrecked a southern city were trifles. +So to my distorted view the papers were filled with the announcement of +my overwhelming misfortune. Only by the greatest effort could I drag +myself from reading and rereading to my humdrum task. Before me in +black and white was the last chapter in my own story, the story which +had begun that day when I went fishing. Every line of it, couched in +the hackneyed phrases of the business, was a cutting blow, and yet I +must return again and again to the beating. Had Rufus Blight been a +poor man, a worthy man whose sole claim to consideration lay in his +having discovered some balm for human ills, then a paragraph would have +sufficed for the announcement of his niece's engagement. But he was a +millionaire; he lived in one of the largest houses in town, and his +niece was the greatest catch of the day, measured in dollars; +therefore, the coming marriage was worthy of columns. The existence of +Herbert Talcott became also of prime importance, not because he had +ever done anything, but because he was to marry the heiress of the +Blight fortune. How many a worthy Jones or a poor but noble Robinson +has to descend to an advertisement to make his happiness known to the +careless world? How many a lovely Joan goes to her wedding unread-of +because her forebears were lacking, not in those qualities which open +the gates of heaven, but in acquisitiveness? + +To the public it could matter little that Rufus Blight was a simple, +kindly soul who was as contented years ago when he stood behind his +counter as to-day when he sought on the golf-links that sense of action +which is necessary to a man's happiness. The vital fact was that the +trust had paid him millions for his steel-works; not that Penelope was +a simple, lovely woman like thousands of her sisters, but that her +wedding-gifts would be worthy of the daughter of Maecenas. Accustomed +though I had become in the routine of my work to just such a judgment +of vital facts, now that the story told was my own last chapter I made +a silent protest against the manner of the telling. + +I thought of Rufus Blight as a quiet man, happiest not in the stately +library, but in his den surrounded by a medley of homely things. +Thinking of Penelope I turned to those vagrant dreams, now forbidden. +In them Penelope and I were to go back to the valley, to ride again +over the mountain road, to stand again as we had stood that day when +she led me over the tangled trail into the sunlit clearing. Those were +joys in which millions had no part. But as I read of the Blight +millions, and of that blue-blooded Talcott line which traced back a +hundred years to a member of the cabinet, it was hard for me to believe +that I knew these exalted beings, that I had sat with Rufus Blight and +talked of days in the valley, that Penelope and I had galloped over the +country astride the same white mule, that I even had engaged with one +so distinguished as Herbert Talcott in a brawl in a restaurant. Gilded +by those who report the comings and goings of those whom one should +know, as Mrs. Bannister might put it, they seemed aliens, manikins that +moved in a stage world. As such I tried to think of them, for it was +best, but I had as well set myself to efface my memory. + +The last chapter of my own story was written by unknown hands. The +epilogue remained, in which I was to go on seeking what contentment I +could find in action. But my whole story was not written on these +flimsy pages. It was before me always and always I was turning to it, +always asking myself how it would have run had this not happened or had +that occurred. Studying it over and over again in my room at night and +on my long walks up-town, I found that I could not think of Penelope +Blight as an alien creature for whose happiness I had no longer any +care. What of her story which was in the writing? Did she know this +Talcott whom she had chosen to fill its last pages? She knew him as I +knew him first, as a quiet, gentlemanly man with pleasant manners. Was +it not her right to know him as I knew him now, as a drunken brawler, +who in his cups had betrayed the unworthy motive of his devotion? +These questions troubled me for many days. I was not a prude. I knew +that all men have their foibles, that many great men have over-indulged +in liquor, that a man's whole character is not to be damned by a single +slip. I knew that did all women see the men whom they choose for +marriage as others see them we should have a plague of spinsters. But +I feared for Penelope Blight. This was not because Talcott was worse +than the mass of his fellows, but because the best of his fellows was +none too good for her. But how could I go to her and declare that +Talcott when drunk had avowed a purpose to marry her for her millions? +It seemed the part of a tattler. The world would say that I acted from +jealousy. Indeed, it was hard at times to convince myself that +jealousy was not the basis of my fear for her. Yet I felt that I must +save her from a disillusionment which might come too late. Were her +father here that disillusionment would be speedy; but he was far away, +and always his last words were with me, as he spoke them that night in +the street: "You will take care of Penelope, won't you, boy?" + +I had promised that. It was simply repeating my boyhood promise. And +now I kept asking myself if I was not forgetting that trust when I kept +silent because I feared in my pride to place myself in the light of an +intermeddler, a bearer of scandalous tales; I would remember that +morning when we had stood by the cabin door and I told her not to be +afraid for I was guarding her. Was I guarding her? + +For two weeks I kept puzzling over my course of action. I felt that +the knowledge I held was hers by right, and hers, not mine, to judge of +its triviality. Yet I could not bring myself to face her with it. +Then came the time when I had to speak at once if I was to speak at all. + +Mr. Hanks sent for me. As I stood before him, he studied me through +his spectacles with his cold eyes, as he had studied me in those days +when I was trying to persuade him to give me work, and I began counting +my sins, wondering if in the cataclysm of ill luck which had overtaken +me, I was to lose my position also. + +After a moment he asked, as casually as he might have assigned me to an +expedition to Harlem a few years before: "Malcolm, how soon can you +leave for London?" + +"At once," I said, and I spoke as casually as he, though my heart +leaped at the mention of London, for here I sensed an opportunity +beyond my wildest hopes. + +"At once," he laughed and rubbed his hands with satisfaction. "I told +the old man you would say that. He said that you were too young to +fill Colt's shoes. Colt is ill, Malcolm; has to come home for a year's +rest and I have backed you to do his work awhile. Of course, you won't +do it as well as he, but you will do it fairly well, I think." + +"I will do my best," said I, smiling. + +"That is the way to talk," he returned. "I need hardly tell you to +keep your head and work hard, and perhaps you will pull through till +Colt gets back. He will be a little hurt when he sees his substitute. +He has been there twenty years and feels himself quite a figure in the +world, but as he has cabled for relief at once, he can't complain if we +send him the one man who is always ready to go anywhere at once. +Really, you have three days; you sail on Saturday." + +I could have gone that day, had Hanks commanded it. The trust which he +imposed in me was my reward for always having obeyed him without +question, and in my state of mind that morning, between walking from +his office to the steamer for years of absence and staying as I was, I +should have chosen the former alternative. I wanted to get away. The +only place where I could find even the shadow of contentment was at my +desk. There imperative tasks filled a mind at other times occupied +with unwholesome brooding. I seemed to move through waste places, with +no object to catch the eye and thought and to drive away the +consciousness of my unhappiness. Even my walk on Fifth Avenue had been +abandoned lest at any moment Penelope might pass me with Talcott at her +side; Miss Minion's had become a place of terror, for by ill chance Tom +Marshall had been introduced to Talcott and he had developed a habit of +dropping in on me and telling me what he had said to Bert Talcott and +what Bert Talcott had said to him. He seemed to think that Talcott had +conferred knighthood on him by knowing him. There were times, even, +when I had gravely considered abandoning my chosen career and retiring +to a bucolic life of loneliness in the valley. And at other times, +into such depths of despondency was I plunged that I could seriously +consider abandoning self entirely and devoting the remainder of my +wrecked life to doing good, though just what trend my saintliness would +take I never determined. In monkish days, I suppose, I should have +gone into a cloister. But Hanks aroused me. Of course he did not know +my thoughts. With his clear eyes he did not see that my life was a +ruin. He regarded me rather as a fortunate man to whom opportunities +were opening wonderfully well, and I accepted his view; though I was +sure that I was taking a road which led to nowhere, yet travelling was +better than sitting still. Looking at Hanks, I forgot that he had a +wife and four accomplished daughters over in Jersey, and I said that I +should take life as he took it, with a cynical interest in the game, +with all thought on the run of the cards and little for personal +winnings. + +When I had cleared my desk for my successor and had bidden good-by to +my old known tasks, I found myself turning to the new and unknown with +more interest than I had believed myself capable of showing. So much +was to be done in those three days that I had little time for +self-condolence. One day had to be taken for a farewell to my parents; +and what a day it was, with my father and mother driving down to +Pleasantville in the late night to meet me that they might not lose one +moment of my visit! Only when I slept were they from my side, for my +mother's mind was filled with all the stories of shipwreck that she had +ever read, and my father had doubts as to whether or not the moral +environment of London was such as he would ask for his son. My father +never had much faith in my moral strength. Then Mr. Pound came up to +see me, having, as usual, commandeered Mr. Smiley's comfortable phaeton +for the transport of himself and Mrs. Pound. His hair was white now, +and he bent a little, and his voice had lost some of its pompous roll, +but his phrases were as round as ever. He insisted that I owned the +paper. He placed his hand on my head and for the information of Miss +Agnes Spinner named my good points much as a jockey would those of a +favorite horse. He congratulated himself on the success of his method +of training and called on Judge Malcolm to admit that his effort to +have his son go to Princeton had been based on a misconception of the +underlying merits of the McGraw system of education. + +The Pounds stayed to supper, much to my mother's suppressed +indignation, for she had invited them, never thinking that under such +unusual circumstances they would accept so promptly, so that by the +time they drove away I had begun to feel that I must have made this +hurried journey just to say good-by to my old mentor. In the hour, all +too brief, that remained to me my mother broached the subject of my +broken engagement, for in that she saw the reason of my melancholy, +which I had been at pains to conceal. It could not be hidden from her +quick eyes. She was convinced that Gladys Todd was not in her right +mind; no woman in her right mind would deliberately refuse to marry +such a man as her son. Was it a question of blood? Surely there was +none better in the land than that which flowed in the veins of the +McLaurins. Was it money? There was no finer farm in all the valley +than the one which some day would be mine, with the bridge stock and +the Kansas bonds. Was it character? Recalling the Sunday afternoons +when she and I had worked together so patiently over the catechism and +Bible lessons, she was sure that she had done her duty toward me and +could never dream of my having failed in mine. So, to my mother's +thinking, the loss was Gladys Todd's, a consoling view of my plight +which she endeavored to make me take, and she sought to cheer me with a +highly uncomplimentary estimate of the frivolous character of my +quondam fiancee. It could serve no purpose for me to enlighten her as +to the real truth, for did she know the truth she might be haunted by +the dread spectre of self-destruction. So her last words as we parted +were an admonition to me not to think that all women were as blind and +as faithless as Gladys Todd. + +Her arms were around my neck and she whispered in my ear, that even my +father might not hear her: "Davy, take Penelope. We McLaurins always +looked down on the Blights, but that makes no difference, Davy--take +Penelope." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +But one day was left to me before I went to my new life, and yet I was +still asking myself if I was taking care of Penelope. I had set myself +to go through life alone, regarding all women with cynical +indifference. But of her I could not think with cynical indifference. +Her one act which might have fed my cynicism was her choice of a man of +the character of Herbert Talcott. Then, after all, I reflected, she +did not know his true character. And yet did I? Was it my place to +become a bearer of tales? Over and over I asked myself the question, +and I could find no other answer than that of affirmation, for it was +her right to know what had occurred between her father and Talcott. +And she should know it, I said at last decisively; she should know it, +not from me, but from Rufus Blight. And, telling it, I must give up my +last hope of her. + +So I went to Rufus Blight on the afternoon before I sailed, and I went +not without misgivings as to the part that I was playing. Many times +in the walk up the Avenue I turned back, doubting, and then I would +repeat my old-time promise to Penelope and the Professor's injunction +given to me that early morning as we stood together on the street. And +so at last I found myself before the great house, and the grilled door +closed behind me, leaving no retreat. + +Mr. Blight was in his "den," resting after his day's golf in a deep +chair by an open window, and he rose from a litter of evening papers to +greet me. + +"Well, David, we thought that you had forgotten us," he said. +"Penelope remarked just this morning that it was high time you appeared +to offer your congratulations." + +"I have been very busy," I returned. "To-morrow I start abroad for a +year at least, and I came to say good-by and to tell you----" + +In my eagerness to have my story over I should have plunged right into +it, but he interrupted me. + +"Abroad, eh? Well, we may see you after the wedding. We are all going +over after the wedding." + +The calm way in which Mr. Blight spoke of the wedding chilled me. It +was so absolutely settled that there was to be a wedding that in me +there seemed to be embodied that mythical person who is commanded so +sternly to speak or forever hold his peace. For a time I did hold my +peace, but it was only because Rufus Blight evinced such a lively +interest in my affairs that I had no opportunity to speak of those +matters which touched him so intimately. + +"Well, we certainly shall hunt you up in London in September," he said. +"We shall be over in September. The wedding is to be in July at +Newport. We have taken a house there, or rather Mrs. Bannister has for +us." He saw that I could not restrain a smile at the mention of Mrs. +Bannister, and he laughed heartily. "I don't know how we should get +along without Mrs. Bannister. You see, David, all I know anything +about is the steel trade, and being out of that I have to have a +general manager for this social business. She certainly does manage. +Why, if it wasn't for her I doubt if we could arrange a wedding. +Indeed, I sometimes even doubt if there would be an engagement." + +This same doubt had been tenaciously present in my own mind for some +days, and much as I should have liked to express it with heat and to +join to it my opinion of the masterful woman's manoeuvres, I simply +laughed formally and said, "Indeed!" + +"I can talk to you confidentially, David," Rufus Blight went on, +leaning toward me with his cigar poised in the air. "It is good to +have an old friend to whom you can unburden your mind, and it has been +on my mind that Mrs. Bannister has had too large a finger in this +matrimonial pie--not, of course, that I am not pleased. I am getting +old, and it is a relief to think of Penelope settled in life with a +thoroughly respectable, steady young man like Talcott; but, do you +know, I suspect sometimes that Mrs. Bannister had more to do with +Penelope making up her mind than is altogether wise? She has talked +about him continually, and between his coming to the house continually +and Mrs. Bannister talking of him continually, Penelope didn't have a +fair chance." + +Rufus Blight smoked thoughtfully, and I remarked that I had no doubt +that Penelope knew her own mind. + +"Oh, yes," he returned. "Understand that I have nothing whatever +against Talcott. She might fare far worse. He is unapproachable as +far as character goes, but sometimes he seems to me rather dull. I +suppose that is because he doesn't do anything, and I wonder how long +Penelope will be satisfied with a man who doesn't do anything but what +Mrs. Bannister calls 'go everywhere.' Will she not soon weary of going +everywhere? I couldn't stand it myself. The other night I had to go +to Talcott's uncle's to dine, and how I wished that I was home! The +uncle is a respectable old man, too, who has never done anything +either, and all he talked about was terrapin and gout. When he had +finished with them in the smoking-room, his mind seemed exhausted, and +he left me to the mercy of another man who tried to pump me about +International Steel common. Is that pleasure?" Rufus Blight waved his +cigar with a gesture of contempt. "I suppose Penelope would be +perfectly safe with such people if anything happened to me; but would +she be happy? Mrs. Bannister says that I should be satisfied to have +her marry into a family so eminently respectable, and I suppose I +should." + +He looked at me, asking my opinion. + +"Undoubtedly the Talcotts are highly respectable," said I. "They are +one of the few old families who have succeeded in maintaining their +position in New York." + +"That is just what Mrs. Bannister says," he returned. "They are +certainly very kindly, and could not have treated Penelope better than +they have. Talcott's aunt has Penelope with her all the time. I +suppose I should be satisfied." He hesitated a moment. "But, confound +it, David, don't you see, I am not? Sometimes I think it must be +because I am jealous, and I try to put that feeling away and to look +impartially at Penelope's happiness. Then I must agree with Mrs. +Bannister. Here is Talcott, a young man of good family, of exemplary +conduct. The only thing against him is an idle life; but if he doesn't +have to work, why should he? Yet it seems to me that Penelope is not +the kind of woman who would be satisfied with a husband who sat around +the house all day and found his main interest in terrapin and gout. +Can't you see my predicament, David?" + +He rose and paced the room. Twice he circled the table, while I sat in +silence watching him. Then he halted at the fireplace and stood there, +forgetfully warming his hands at an imaginary blaze. After a moment he +faced me. "I know about making steel, David, but in matters like this +I am utterly lost. How I wish Hendry were here to advise me!" + +My opportunity had come more easily than I had expected. "I can help +you, perhaps," said I, "for I have seen him." + +"You have seen him?" cried Rufus Blight, and he crossed the room to me +in great excitement. "When, David, and where?" + +"Here in New York." + +"Splendid! And he is coming to us, eh? I know he is at last." + +"In two years. He has promised to come home in two years." + +Rufus Blight sat down in his old chair and stared at me. "In two +years? Why, David, we need him now. He must come now. We will bring +him home--you and I." + +"But we can't," said I. "He is far from here now; he went away last +winter." + +"You saw him and did not bring him home!" Rufus Blight's voice rose to +a pitch of indignation. "I don't understand. Did you tell him how we +wanted him--Penelope and I--how we had searched for him everywhere?" I +nodded. "You told him that and he would not come?" He leaned toward +me angrily. "Well, why didn't you let me know about him?" + +"Because it could have done no good," I answered. "I had to promise +him that I would not, yet because he feared that I should break my +promise, he slipped away. I saw him but once. When I went to see him +again he was gone--to Argentina." + +"I see," said Rufus Blight more gently. "You must pardon my losing my +temper, but it was hard to think that he was near us and yet we never +knew it; strange that you did not tell us of it earlier." + +"I should not tell you now were there not certain circumstances +connected with my meeting with your brother that it is best that you +know," I returned. + +I went on with my story very quietly, as if it were one in which I had +little personal concern. I knew that Rufus Blight was not quick to +catch the hidden meaning of a word or tone, so that it was not from any +fear of him discovering my biassed mind that I made my statement so +unimpassioned. It was because I wanted to satisfy myself that I was +acting alone for Penelope's good and disclosing the truth, uncolored, +for her to judge. Slowly I told it all, in a dry, unvarnished sequence +of facts. I told him of my visit to O'Corrigan's; of the fight and my +interference; of my hours with his brother and his account of his +wanderings and trials; of my vain plea to bring him back to Penelope +and his refusal to surrender his search for that chimerical prize for +which he had struggled so futilely. To me the vital part of my story +had to do with Herbert Talcott. But for its apparent effect on Rufus +Blight I had as well discovered his brother thrashing Tom Marshall. To +him that incident was trivial. What he wanted to know was how +Henderson looked. Was he well? Was he in absolute poverty? Did he +speak as though he really meant to come home in two years? When I had +finished he asked me these questions again and again. He thrashed the +whole story over, all but the essential part. He leaned back in his +chair and stared at the ceiling. Henderson in want? To think of his +brother in want and he so willing to share with him the fruits of his +enormous prosperity. Henderson going afoot to Tibet? What a man he +was! That was just the kind of thing he would do--some wild chase like +that. And the South Seas? How I should like to hear him tell about +them, David! He will come back--he has promised--in two years. He +will fail. Poor old Hendry always fails, but it will be good to have +him--he in that chair, I in this--and to hear him talk of it all. + +So always was the essential fact missed. I was angry with Rufus +Blight. I wanted to shake him, to shout into his ear, to drive into +his dull brain the real purpose of my story. But I held my temper and +reverted to the fight with quiet but meaning emphasis. + +"Hendry was always a handy man with his fists, David," said Rufus +Blight. "In his younger days he was hard to arouse, but get him angry +and he was the devil himself. He wasn't afraid of anything. It was +just like him to start alone to Lhasa--just like him, David." + +I had begun to suspect that Rufus Blight was not so obtuse as I judged +him, but was passing over that part of my story which had to do with +Talcott, because he really liked Talcott and was inclined to lighten +the shadow which his conduct that night had thrown on his exemplary +character. I had told him all. I had repeated the exact words which +the Professor had given me as the cause of the assault, and now in his +brother's mind they were lost in a rapt interest in his adventures. If +with design, then my mission had been futile, and it was wisdom to +retreat. If without design, I could not bring myself to the role of a +prosecutor, and to argue was to tread on dangerous ground. I had done +what I believed right. I had kept my promise. So I rose to go. I +must have given Rufus Blight a strange look as I held out my hand. I +was furious at him for his obtuseness or his cunning, and I must have +shown it, for he returned my gaze with a puzzled stare. Then a gleam +of light filtered into that brain, so competent to deal with +steel-works, so hopelessly dull on other matters. + +"David," he said, "you have delayed a long time in telling me this. +Now, why?" + +I answered him, speaking no longer in cold, business-like tones. I +held out my hands wide apart and took a step toward him to bring my +eyes nearer his, for every nerve was set to drive the truth into him. + +"I tell you now because your brother's last words to me were, 'Take +care of Penelope.' How can I take care of Penelope? She has gone far +from me. It is for you that his words have meaning. Can't you see?" + +His hands were groping vaguely in the air behind him. He found the +arms of his chair and sat down weakly, and with his head thrown back he +looked up at me with an expression of wonder on his face. + +"I leave to-morrow," said I. "It will be a long time before I see you +again. Will you say good-by to Penelope for me?" + +"I see, David," he exclaimed. His voice snapped, as I fancy it did +sometimes when affairs in the steelworks were awry. "I was so +interested in Hendry I forgot all about that fellow Talcott. Now, tell +me this--did he----" + +"I have told you everything," said I. "There is nothing left for me to +say except good-by." + + * * * * * * + +Far, indeed, had Penelope gone from me. So I had said to Rufus +Blight--almost my last word to him. So I said to myself as I stood by +the steamer's rail and looked back to the towering mass of the lower +city. That very morning I had seen her: she driving down the Avenue, +alone, sitting very straight and still in her victoria; I on the +pavement, taking my last walk up-town in the never failing hope to have +a glimpse of her. Now, what would I have given not to have yielded to +that temptation? She had seen me. I halted sharply and raised my hat, +thinking that she might stop to say good-by, for she knew that I was +going away. She did see me. She looked straight at me, coldly, and +not even by a tremor of her eyebrows did she give a sign that to her I +was other than any stranger loitering on the curb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Time, the philosopher said, takes no account of humanity. "The +activest man sets around mostly," I once heard Stacy Shunk remark as he +sat curled up on the store-porch, nursing a bare foot and viewing the +world through the top of his hat. Did the most active man calmly and +without egotism dissect the sum of his useful accomplishment, he would +be highly discouraged, for time is a relentless destroyer. But a man +can not take so disdainful a measure of his own value. He must live. +To superior minds like the philosopher's or Stacy Shunk's he may be +living his tale of years happy in constantly hoodwinking himself with +the idea that he is an important factor in some great purpose. Now in +certain moods I might attain to the lofty view of the philosopher and +Stacy Shunk. Then I would be confronted by my friend the Professor, +who would have been dissatisfied had he been the author of Plato's +dialogues or the victor of Waterloo. Then it seemed to me that the +wise man would allow himself to be hoodwinked, and would walk hard and +fast without too critical an eye on the results of his journey. It is +when he sits around that Stacy Shunk's active man is discontented, and +this is not because he accomplishes much when working, but because he +accomplishes less when idle. Here I had the example of Rufus Blight, +brought at last to expending his restless energy in chopping golf-balls +out of bunkers. So work became to me the panacea for my ills. I +plunged into the struggle harder than ever, and in working found that +self-forgetfulness which is akin to contentment. It was indeed +marching under sealed orders. + +Those nights at sea the Professor's words were often in my mind. I was +terribly lonely, and I could stand by the hour at the ship's rail +looking into the heavens, and beyond them into the limitless spaces +where our vulgar minds have placed the home of the Great Spirit whose +mysterious purposes we fulfil. How infinitesimal seemed my own part in +that purpose, though I played it as best I could. I turned in vain to +those limitless spaces to ask why and for what I lived? Did I ask how +I should live, the answer came from the limitless spaces within me as +clearly as though written on this page. My mother had written it +there, unscientifically yet indelibly, in my boyhood days, and Mr. +Pound had added his few words, almost hidden beneath a mass of verbiage +about Ahasuerus, and before them my forebears had every one of them +left imprinted some sage injunction gained from their experience in +living. So I gathered my strength to do my best. But there was a lack +of definiteness in my purpose. There was no goal at which I aimed. In +my younger days I had had instilled into me the necessity of aspiring +to a particular height, to something concrete, to become a leader at +the bar, in politics or commerce, a Webster, a Clay, or a Girard. But +now I cared little if I never owned the paper for which I worked. The +task at hand alone interested me, and to that I bent every energy. + +One task lay at my hand that year when I was in London, beside the +routine of my office, and now I undertook its completion for the +personal pleasure which it gave me to gather into concise form the +result of some years of study and patient digging for facts in +forgotten volumes and manuscripts. The result was surprising. The +book, offered to a publisher with diffident apology, raised a storm of +discussion in a half-dozen languages. To me it had been only a +pleasant intellectual exercise to trace "the habit of war" back to the +simple animal instincts of our ancestors; to follow the changing +methods of fighting from the days when men assailed one another with +stone axes to the modern expression of fighting intelligence in the +battleship; to show how, with every step which we had taken to +eradicate disease and alleviate suffering, we had taken two in refining +and organizing our power of destruction. I had facts and figures to +mark the steps in this twofold human progress, and to show the cost to +the race of a single century not only of warring, but of following the +sage injunction to be prepared for war in times of peace. Had I closed +my labor there, the book would have been lost on the shop-shelves; but +writing ironically, I went on to argue on the benefits of war and of +the necessity of the race continuing in the exercise of this elemental +passion. I had always abhorred preaching, and here to preach I used a +method of inversion, peppering my argument with platitudes on war as a +needed discipline for the spiritual in man by its lessons in fortitude +and self-sacrifice, and on the softening influences of peace. But what +I had intended as subtle irony was discovered by a great conservative +journal to be an unassailable argument, supported by facts and figures, +demonstrating the futility of the movements for international amity. I +was hailed as a bold, clear thinker who had pricked the bubble of +unintelligent altruism, who at a time when philanthropists were +preaching disarmament had proved that men could never disarm as long as +they were born with arms, legs and healthy senses. + +So David Malcolm was quite unexpectedly raised to some eminence by a +conservative English journal which was clamoring for increased naval +expenditure; and once discovered, he found himself not without honor in +his own country, for he was assailed from the platform of Carnegie Hall +by the advocates of a gentle life, and in Congress his work was used as +a text-book by those who were fighting for a larger military +establishment. The _Morgen-Anzeiger_, in Berlin, printed a translation +with the purpose of quelling the opposition to army service, while the +reading of a chapter in the French Chamber resulted in an appropriation +for experiments in submarines. Such was the effect of my well-intended +irony. To-day, of course, the true purport of the facts, figures and +argument are better known, but then I had the chagrin of seeing my +projectile explode in the wrong camp, and I did not try to right +myself, because I feared that to explain the error might nullify the +ultimate effect of the explosion. To my mother alone did I trouble to +point out my real meaning, and then because she had been shocked to see +me assailed in her favorite journal, the _Presbyterian Searchlight_, as +a notable example of the result of philosophy unwarmed by religion. + +That I should have to make my peace with my mother was not surprising, +but my old professional mentor, Mr. Hanks, loved a paradox; if he +wanted to call a man a fool, he praised him for his wisdom; if he +wished to disprove a proposition, he argued for it, adroitly exposing +its weakness, and yet he wrote to me indignantly. + +"I can not understand how from the mass of facts you have gathered you +could calmly advance to so cruel an argument," he said. "Your own +figures protest against your bloodthirsty philosophy. Machiavelli's +Prince is a mollycoddle beside your ideal modern statesman. And yet, +Malcolm, you could as easily have produced a work which would have +stood for years as a reproach to the diplomacy of our time." + +Dear old Hanks! It was from his suburban heart that he spoke thus, as +the father of four accomplished daughters, and not as the sceptic of +the office who was always quick to prick the bubbles of pretence. But +it was not long before he had an opportunity to turn ironical himself, +and I could fancy the grim smile with which he wrote the despatch which +sent me from the academic discussion of war to the study of war at +first hand. + +"Join the Turks at once." + +It was laconic. To me it said more. It was addressed to David +Malcolm, suddenly become known as an advocate of wholesale human +butchery, and told him to follow the camp and see how suffering +benefits the race, to stand by the guns and watch them take the toll +that nations pay for their aggrandizement. To-day, when the book is +understood, when peace conferences invite me to address them and navy +leagues condemn me in resolutions, Hanks wonders why I accepted his +commission with such hearty acquiescence. He deems me inconsistent. + +The truth was that my heart leaped at this opportunity for real +adventure. I was years older than in the days when I dreamed of +wearing a cork helmet and carrying the Gospel and an elephant gun into +darkest Africa; but few of us, when we become men, really put away +childish things. Here was my boyhood's dream come true and glorified. +And what a week I had buying my toys! The cork helmet became a +reality, and with it I equipped myself with smartly fitting khaki, and +in the quiet of my lodgings viewed myself with ineffable satisfaction. +I bought equipment enough to have lasted me through a three years' +campaign, as I have since learned from experience, for the exigencies +of transport made me abandon most of it at the very outset of my new +career. But the loss was more than compensated by the delight which I +had in the brief possession of so much warlike paraphernalia. + +For two years after that I lived in the midst of armies. It was +action, and to me inaction was a dreadful sickness. Even when we lay +in camps for weeks and months there was the never-ending preparation +for the struggles which lay ahead, and though there were hours as quiet +as Broadway in mid-August, days could not be dull when you could see +the smoke of hostile fires on distant mountains or a wild scout +hovering on the fringe of the desert. For me the happiest days were +when I could ride with the marching columns, when the distant barking +of the guns called me to a hard gallop, when at night by the scant +light of a candle I sat in my tent cross-legged, with my pad on my knee +and my pencil in hand. + +In war man strips himself of the unessential things which make up the +museum of superfluities that he calls his home. At home he has +countless troubles. Here he has few, but though they are simple, they +are vital. I faced these elemental problems for the first time when +with my little caravan I set out to join the Turkish army where it lay +camped near the Greek frontier. As I rode my vagrant thoughts might +turn back to home, and in my heart I might feel the old dull pain and +longing, but when a pack-horse was running away with half my +commissariat on his back such moody meditations had to be broken short. +Some days the question of mere bread for a crying stomach became vital, +or a flask of water for a parched throat. There were nights when I +should have given all I possessed, not for the folding-bed long since +abandoned, but for a blanket in which to wrap myself as I slept in a +trench. Within a week it was hard for me to believe that I had not +spent all my life in the wake of an advancing army. London, New +York--they were of another age. Home to me was a tent pitched by the +Thessalian roadside, with my shaggy horses picketed about and my +shaggier attendants chattering their strange jargon. This was luxury +to one who had slept the night before in the rain, or worse, perhaps, +in some shamble in a filthy Greek village. This was hardship, but I +came to love it for the action and the forgetfulness. In the brief +weeks of an opera-bouffe war I had my first taste of great adventure, +and once knowing the joy of it I forgot for a time my academic ideas on +the absurdity of international quarrels, and was happy only when I rode +with the marching columns. + +I came even to love the Turks, and I rode almost a Turk at heart over +the plain of Thessaly. For they were strong men, these sturdy brown +fellows who slouched as they marched, but always went forward, never +faltering when the bullets snapped around them and the red fezzes of +their comrades were dropping in the dust. It angered me to see my +fellow-Christians shoot them down and then run toward Athens and the +protecting skirts of the powers, for I knew that the powers would +render their battles futile and their conquests empty and send them +back with ranks depleted to their distant hills. They fought, most of +them, hardly knowing why, save that in some mysterious way it was for +their faith. They were dirty and ragged, but they were patient and +brave. Ill-fed and ill-clothed, they could march all day in the +scorching sun, uncomplaining, shiver all night in chilling winds, and +then shamble on in the face of death. + +The Greeks fought a little and ran. They would stand and fight a +little again--then run. I thought that we should chase them to Athens. +I had visions of riding into the city in the wake of Edhem Pasha and +pitching my ragged camp by the Acropolis. But I never passed Pharsala. + +It was there that I met the Professor again. + +He lay at the foot of a roadside shrine which had been wrecked by a +shell and hardly cast a shadow. But he had been dragged out of the +noonday heat into that bit of shadow by some kindly enemy and there +left to die. The war had finished with him and had swung on. He was +hardly worth even an enemy's glance. + +Riding by with my eyes intent on the moving fight ahead, I should have +passed him but for my dragoman. To Asaf there was nothing unusual in +the pitiful figure by the roadside, propped against a stone, with the +head fallen on an outstretched arm and a still hand clutching an empty +water-flask. It was the clothes that called a second glance. Save the +cartridge belt around the waist there was nothing to mark the man as a +soldier. The kindly hand which had placed him there had drawn over his +face a soiled gray hat; his suit was a worn blue serge, dyed now with +dark stains, and his feet were encased in patent-leather shoes, cracked +and almost soleless. The plain ahead was filled with the clamor of +battle; a pack-train clattered by me, hurrying to the front, and but +for these and for Asaf, the ragged Turk at my side, pointing mutely to +the still dark heap, I might have thought myself at home, in my own +valley, come suddenly on a mountain tragedy. And now I dismounted, +and, raising the hat, looked into the thin brown face that I had first +seen years ago so wistfully watching the little flake of cloud which +hovered over the ridges. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +I had thought this morning that at last I was to see a pitched battle, +for the Greek army was well intrenched in the hills north of Pharsala +and made some show of a stand there. At noon I stood on the crest of +the same hills watching the usual retreat. A few miles away, its gray +houses blotched against the mountains which guard southern Thessaly, +was the town, and in the valley, drawing in toward it, the Greeks, with +the enemy on their rear and flanks enclosing them in a narrowing +semicircle of fire. Before me stretched the road, a white band across +the undulating green of the plain. In that road, a mile away, I saw +the rear-guard as it retired swiftly but steadily, facing again and +again to deliver its volleys into the lines of the advancing foe. Once +before I had seen that same small company fighting bravely as they were +now, checking the advance of a whole division. I knew them for the +Foreign Legion. Little black patches were left in the road as they +fell back, and it made me sick at heart to think of these men throwing +away their lives in so futile a cause. That little black patch had +been perhaps a student filled with fervor for Pan-Hellenism, a college +boy out for an adventurous holiday, or perhaps a soldier of fortune who +held his life cheaply and was ready to give it for the brief joy of a +battle. Now I stood by one of those little black patches, by the first +still outpost which marked the fight down the road. + +Had the horse which I had bought from a dealer in Ellasona been four or +five years younger, I might never have noticed my friend as he lay +there by the ruined shrine. In the ride out from Larissa, on the day +before, I had found the animal a very unsteady framework on which to +load two hundred pounds. At the first gallop I put him to he went down +on his knees and rolled over on me, so that thereafter I had to content +myself with going more cautiously, keeping as close as I could to the +cloud of dust raised by the general staff. So it happened that I was +ambling along at a gait regulated only by my beast's vagrant will, when +Asaf's exclamation checked me. + +I stood now, gazing stupidly at the figure beneath me. He lay so still +that I thought him dead. Then his fingers tightened on the water-flask +and his arm trembled as he tried to draw it to him. + +This was no time to stand idly by, wondering how and why he had come to +this useless sacrifice. It was enough that he was here and living. I +knelt at his side, and though my surgery was rough, it stopped the flow +in which his life was draining away; his parched lips drank the +proffered water, and when his head was on my knees he turned his face +from the light and clasped his hands almost with contentment. He +seemed to know that a friend was with him. The friend who had bound +his wound and given him drink would find him a better bed than these +rough stones and a kinder shelter than this bit of shadow, swept by the +dust of endless pack-trains. + +In such a place a friend could avail little. We carried him back from +the turmoil of the road into the trampled wheat and there made him a +rude tent of my blanket and a pillow of my saddle. Then I looked about +me for help. The pack-trains clattered along the road and through them +wounded men were threading their way, painfully hobbling to the +field-hospital, miles away. Of ambulances there were none. I knew +that when night came they would stagger back from the fighting front +with their loads of wounded, and that so few were they in numbers the +chance of finding a place in them was of the smallest. The Turk does +not trouble much with the wounded. When a man is hit and he can hobble +miles to the hospital, then Allah be praised! If not, he lies where he +falls till night comes and his comrades find him and tie him like a bag +of grain on a pony's back and send him on a journey that would be death +to any Christian. If a surgeon finds him he is lucky. Remembering +this, I looked back over the road by which I had come, measuring the +miles we must cross before we reached help, and then at the Professor +lying at my feet hardly breathing. I knew that we stayed where we +were. Then I looked to the front. There was help there. There were +surgeons working in that wide-spread wreath of smoke. I pointed over +the plain and called to Asaf to hurry and bring me a surgeon. He +demurred, for he was always chary about entering the zone of fire. I +promised him a hundred pounds, a farm, a horse, a flock of sheep, if +only he would go and bring me a surgeon. Malcolm Bey was mad, he said; +no surgeon would come at such a time, miles for a single wounded man. +I knew that he was right, but I could not sit idly watching my friend's +life ebb away. I doubled the prize, and with a shrug of the shoulders +Asaf mounted and galloped off. + +I sat by the wounded man and waited. It was for hours. To me it +seemed days. Thousands passed by--the men of the trains, stragglers, +wounded, troops of the reserve. There were among them hands willing +enough to help, were there any help to be given, but between them and +me there was the inseparable gulf of language. One officer, a tall +Albanian, rode over, and in French asked if he could be of any +assistance; the man was a Greek; it made no difference, if he was a +friend of Malcolm Bey; he could spare a pony and men to take him back +to Larissa. I pleaded for a surgeon and an ambulance, pointing over +the plain as though there they could be had for the asking. He bowed +gravely--my request was a simple one; he would send them at once. And +he rode forward toward the smoke and the clamor. + +I sat watching. My hand held the Professor's. My eyes were turned +down the road to catch the first sign of Asaf and help. + +"Davy!" + +He was looking up at me from beneath half-raised lids. How long he had +been watching me I did not know. His voice was very low, but in it +there was no note of surprise. To him it was quite right that I should +be there. That was enough. His sickened mind could not trouble itself +with wherefores. + +"I am here, Professor," I said. The old nickname of the valley sounded +strangely, but I could not call him Mr. Blight when he lay this way, +looking up at me with eyes that seemed to smile with contentment +despite his pain. + +"You will be all right, Professor, but you must lie here quietly till +the surgeon comes." + +"I will be all right," he repeated slowly, and closed his eyes. + +I looked over the plain. Would Asaf never return? The dusk was +gathering and the wide-spread wreath of smoke mingled with it and was +lost. I could see the flash of the Greek guns as they made their last +stand to hold back the enemy till night came with its chance of escape. +Even the near-by road had its moments of quiet and the moving figures +grew blurred. Every clatter of hoofs might be Asaf coming, every +rumble of wheels the ambulance. But Asaf did not come. + +"Davy!" + +I looked down. He was indistinct in the shadow of the rough tent. He +had brought his other hand to cover mine. + +"It was a good fight, wasn't it, Davy?" + +"It was a grand fight," said I. + +"And you'll tell them at home, Davy?" + +"Yes, you and I will tell them together," I said with forced +cheerfulness. "But you must be quiet till the surgeon comes." + +It was growing dark. Over the plain the bark of heavy guns and the +crackle of rifles had stopped. Camp-fires were lighting, a circle of +them hemming in the town. Even the near-by road had grown quite quiet, +like any country road where the stillness is broken by the rare clatter +of hoofs or the curses of some stumbling pedestrian. + +His hands were pulling at mine and I leaned down over him in the +darkness. He could only whisper those last few words. + +One hand slipped from mine; from the other life seemed to have gone, it +was so still and listless. + +I leaned so close over the dark form that my face touched his. I knew +that he was going from me, and I wanted to hold him back. It was so +terrible for him to die this way, in this lonely field with no wise +hand to help him. My useless hands would have shaken him to arouse his +life again, but I stayed them. + +I knew that it was futile to speak, that my voice was falling on dulled +ears, but what else could I do to stir him to fight for life? + +"I'll tell them--we will tell them together," I cried. "We will go +home to Penelope, you and I, and they shall know how you fought. And +they will be proud of you, Professor; I know they will. And how glad +they will be to see you--how glad Penelope will be! Can't you hear me?" + +I looked up, straining my ears for the sound of hoofs, but the road was +as quiet as any country lane before dawn. I leaned over the dark form +and listened, and I knew that his march was ended. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +Through what quiet lanes of trivial circumstance do we move toward the +momentous events of our lives? We go our way, whistling thoughtlessly; +we turn a corner and stand face to face with the all-important. In my +boyhood I went fishing and tumbled into a mountain stream; I overheard +Boller of '89 speaking to Gladys Todd; I walked the Avenue at half past +three in the afternoon and met Penelope Blight. How finely spun is the +thread which holds together my story! A firmer foothold on the bank, +an ear less quick to catch an undertone, a moment's delay before +setting out on my daily airing, and there might have been no story to +tell you; the valley might have been all the world I know and the wall +of mountains my mind's horizon. + +Then I come to the matter of Philip Bennett's motor. It was always +breaking down. The delays that it caused as we journeyed north from +Naples were annoying, but at the time these were trivial events, as we +usually found a comfortable inn where we could wait while Bennett's man +lay in the dust and peered up into the vitals of the machine. It was +an adventurous thing to trust one's self to the mercy of the Italian +highway in the untrustworthy little cars of those days, but Stephen +Bennett insisted on our joining his brother, and as I was travelling +back to England with him after a hard year in the Sudan I consented. + +Bennett's brother met us at Naples, where we landed from the steamer, +and, after pointing out to us the marvels of his self-propelling +vehicle, put us into it, and took us puffing and rattling northward. +We broke down twice a day, but we did not mind it, for after the trip +from Khartum, the saddle over the desert, and the uncomfortable +Egyptian rail, this new invention was to us the height of luxury in +travel. + +Stephen Bennett was in the Egyptian army, in the camel corps. I had +ridden many a long march with him, and was beside him at Omdurman when +he was struck through the body by a Remington. We got in a nasty +corner that morning on the heights of Kerreri, and were so hard pressed +by the dervishes in the retreat that the wounded were saved with the +greatest difficulty. Bennett was so badly hurt that it took two of us +to hold him on my horse; but we got him back to the river and the +hospital, and after Khartum fell I picked him up at Fort Atbara. To +Cairo by rail, a week at sea, and in the October days we were rattling +northward and homeward over the white Italian roads. We reached Rome. +I had one day in the Eternal City while Francois replaced a broken +gear, and then we went on to Foligno, where we paced the Corso for an +afternoon and the Frenchman fixed up his brakes. Late that night at +Perugia we broke down at the foot of the hill and we had to climb to +our hotel. At this last mishap Bennett began to show annoyance, for he +had not as yet recovered his full strength, and the next morning, over +our coffee and rolls, he proposed that we go by rail to Florence, where +he knew people, and wait there until the car caught up with us. To +Bennett's brother this suggestion was a reflection on the power of his +beloved machine. He resented it, and I, not wishing to inject myself +into a fraternal argument of some heat, went out to see the town, +promising to return when they had amicably settled our plans. + +From the rampart, where I paused that morning, as I strolled out so +carelessly, leaning over the wall and looking over the Umbrian plain, +there is a fair prospect--the fairest, I think, that I have ever seen, +save one--and I hung there drinking in its peace and ruminating. +Across that plain, and I should take another step toward home. But it +was my boyhood's home alone, and yet I was going happily to sit again +on the horse-hair sofa in the parlor, with my father on one hand and my +mother on the other, and before me, perhaps, Mr. Pound, giving me his +blessing. I saw it all: the valley clad white in snow, the house on +the hill amid the bare oaks, the windows bright with potted plants, and +down the path my father and mother running to meet me. I thought, with +love in my heart, of that boyhood home and of my coming to it. Yet in +that same heart there was a longing unfulfilled. Where was my +manhood's home? Once I had had a tantalizing glimpse of it. That was +when I sat at Penelope's side by the carved mantel, under the eyes of +Reynolds's majestic lady. That for which I yearned so vainly was the +spot which she made sweeter by her presence. Were she here at my side, +looking with me over the Umbrian plain, this would be home. But +wherever I travelled, east or west, north or south, my journey could +have no such satisfying ending. Even in the valley, in the presence of +familiar, homely things, I knew that I should look away vaguely, as I +looked now, at distant mountains, wondering where Penelope was and how +the world went with her. + +After two years of absence from her and utter silence, I could drag out +of my memory no pictures of her save old ones, and one by one I brought +them forth, my favorite portraits, and saw her sitting in the carved +chair pouring tea or driving down the Avenue, very still and very +straight in her victoria. She must be in New York, I said, for in late +October she would be hurrying back to town for the old futile routine. +I went on, recklessly fancying Penelope leading that life, dancing, +dining and driving, as though this were all in the world she could +possibly be doing. I knew that she had not married Talcott. I had +learned this much of her from a stray newspaper which announced the +breaking of the engagement. I knew that it could make no difference to +me if she had married some one else. That was highly possible, yet it +was not a possibility on which I cared to dwell in my moments of +rumination. This day my mind dwelt on it, whether I would or not. +Over the plain, just beyond the mountains, I saw Penelope in my +visionary eye, and I asked myself if I should find another in that +coveted place from which I was barred. A bit of land, a bit of sea, +and there was home. In a few hours the same sun would be smiling on +it. At that moment I dreaded to go on. It was my duty, yet, could I, +I would have turned back to the Sudan, to ride again over the yellow +sands in the dust of marching regiments. I wanted action. Poor, +pitiful action it was to walk, but with every fall of my feet and every +click of my cane I could say to myself that I was going home, to my +boyhood's home, and it mattered little if I had no other. The clatter +of the Corso jarred on me. My mood demanded quiet places. The little +streets called to me from their stillness, and I answered them. They +led me higher and higher to the summit of the town. I crossed a +deserted piazza, and by a gentle slope was carried down to the terrace +of the Porta Sola. + +There was in this secluded spot a soothing shade and silence. Old +palaces, ghosts of another age, cast their shadows over it. Steps +wound from its quiet, down the hill into the clatter of the lower town. +A rampart guarded the sheer cliff, and with elbows resting there and +chin cupped in my hands I looked away to the Apennines. Below me two +arms of the town stretched out into the plain, but their mingling +discords rose to my ear like the drum of insects. Beyond them, in the +nearer prospect, the land seemed topsy-turvy, a maze of little hills +and valleys. A pink villa flamed against the brown, and its flat, +squat tower, glowing in the sunlight, called to its gaunt neighbor, +rising from a deserted monastery, to cheer up and be merry with it. +Distance levelled the land. It became broad plain, studded with gray +villages and slashed by the Tiber; it rose to higher hills; then lifted +sharply, the brown fading into the whiteness of massed mountain peaks. + +This is my fairest prospect. And yet at that moment it offered me no +peace. I was so infinitely lonely. With Penelope at my side, I said, +I could stand here for hours feasting my eyes on so lovely a picture. +To me, alone, it gave nothing. I should be happier with the Bennetts, +forgetting self and self's vague longings in a plunge into the +fraternal dispute. + +I turned away into a narrow alley, but I was unaccustomed to Perugian +streets and had not solved the mystery of their windings. Suddenly, +passing a corner, I found myself again in the deserted piazza, and, +looking down the slope, saw the same picture framed by palace walls. +First my eyes grasped the panorama of plain and mountain. Then I saw +only the terrace. + +It was not mine any longer to hold in loneliness. I brushed my hand +across my eyes to sweep away the taunting image. But she held there by +the wall, leaning over it, her chin resting in her hands, wrapped in +contemplation. Her face was turned from me, but there was no mistaking +that still, black figure. If she heard my footfalls and the click of +my cane, she gave no sign of being aware of my approach, but looked +straight out over the plain. I checked an impulse to call her name and +stood for a moment watching her. Would she greet me, I asked, with +that same chilling stare with which she had said good-by? I feared it. +But I tiptoed down the slope to the wall, and, leaning over it in +silence, enjoyed the stolen pleasure of her presence. Whether she +would or not, we looked together over the fair land. And what a +prospect it was with Penelope at my side! + +"David!" she said. + +She took a step back, and stood there, very straight, surveying me, as +though she were not quite sure that it could be. I searched her eyes +for a hostile gleam, but found none, and when her hand met mine it was +with a friendly and firm grasp. + +"Penelope," said I, "as I came down the hill there and saw you, I +thought that I dreamed." + +"And I," said she, "when I turned and found David Malcolm beside me. I +had heard that you were in the Sudan." + +"Much as I should have liked to bury myself in the Sudan, there were +calls from home," I returned. + +"From Miss Dodd--what are you laughing at, David? From Miss Todd, I +mean. How could you talk of burying yourself when you have such +happiness before you? But, David, why do you laugh?" + +With this reproof she tilted her head. That did not trouble me. I had +so often seen her tilt her head in the same scornful way in the old +days. And I laughed on joyfully at her calm assurance that I was going +back to Gladys Todd. + +"Gladys Todd is now Mrs. Bundy," I said. + +"Oh!" Penelope exclaimed, and her voice changed to one of sympathy. "I +am sorry, David. I see now what you meant by the Sudan." + +"Didn't you know that Gladys Todd had jilted me years ago?" I asked. + +"Why, no," she answered. "How should I? You never told me." + +"I was on my way to tell you one day," said I. "And then----" + +I stopped. Remembering why I had not told Penelope, I deemed it wiser +to be evasive. I remembered, too, that in my joy at seeing her again I +had been taking it for granted that she was still Penelope Blight. The +gulf between us, which had been closing so fast, yawned again. "Tell +me," said I in undisguised eagerness, "are you married, Penelope?" + +Then she laughed, and in the gay ring of her laughter, I read her +answer. She stepped back to a stone bench and seated herself, and I +took a place beside her, watching as she made circles in the sand with +the point of her parasol. There were a thousand commonplace questions +that I might have asked her, but I was contented with the silence. It +mattered little to me how she came there. It was enough that she was +at my side. It mattered little to me that Bennett and his brother +might have settled their dispute long since and be hunting for me, for +I had made my farewell to them. I was home. I intended to stay at +home. So I, too, fell to making circles in the sand, with my stick. + +Then Penelope looked up and asked me: "David, how do you come to be +here, in this out-of-the-way Italian town? I thought you were in the +Sudan. Uncle Rufus told me that you were in the Sudan. That is how I +happened to hear it. He always insists on reading to me everything of +yours he can find--rather bores me, in fact, sometimes--not, of course, +that I haven't been interested in what you were doing." + +She spoke so coldly that I feared that, after all, I had best go my way +with Bennett and his brother. I told her how I had travelled with +them, and how the motor had broken down, and how my finding her was by +the barest chance, for in a few hours I should have been on my way to +Florence. + +"It's strange," she said. "Our motor broke down, too, last night--just +as we reached the gates; but this afternoon we hope to be off again to +Rome." + +"We?" I questioned. + +"Uncle Rufus and I," she said. + +"And Mrs. Bannister?" + +"Married a year ago to a rich broker," she answered, laughing. + +"How long I have been away!" I exclaimed. + +I glanced covertly at Penelope. Despite the tone of formality in which +she addressed me she seemed quite content to sit here weaving +hieroglyphics with the point of her parasol, for I noticed that she was +smiling, unconscious, perhaps, that I was studying her face. A while +ago I had stood a little in awe of Penelope, but it was an awe inspired +by her surroundings rather than by her. Going from Miss Minion's to +face the critical eye of her pompous English butler was itself an +ordeal; to Mrs. Bannister I was a poor young man whom it was a form of +charity to patronize; the great library, the carved mantel, the +portrait, the heavy silver on the tea-table, these were emblems of +another world than mine. But here in this piazzetta, with the broad +Italian landscape before us, those days of awkward constraint were in +the far past. This quiet Penelope at my side contentedly tracing +circles in the sand was, after all, the simple, kindly Penelope of the +days in the valley. I had no fear of her. If she tossed her head +disdainfully, I could fancy the blue ribbon bobbing there again and +smile to myself as I recalled the morning when we had galloped together +out of the mountains on the mule. There were questions which I wanted +answered, and I dared to ask them. + +"Penelope," I said, "I am glad to hear that Mrs. Bannister is happily +married. Now tell me of my friend Talcott--what of him?" + +Penelope sat up very straight and her head tossed. "David, I should +think that one subject which you would avoid." + +"I confess myself consumed with merely idle curiosity," I returned. +"Talcott once made a great deal of trouble for me. Don't you remember +the day on the Avenue when you cut me?" + +"And if I had met you here a year ago, David, I should not have known +you," she said severely. "A woman resents being made a fool of, nor +can she easily forgive one who exposes the sham in which she has a +part. The fault was mine and Mrs. Bannister's, and back of it there +was something else." + +"Something else?" I questioned. + +Penelope did not answer. She had turned from me to the parasol and the +sand. I repeated the question. + +"Herbert Talcott is married--a year now," she said in a measured tone. +"His wife was a Miss Carmody--the daughter of Dennis Carmody, who owns +the Sagamore--or something like that--mine." A pause. Her head +tossed. "He recovered very quickly." + +"But the something else?" I insisted. + +"There are some things which you will never understand," she answered +carelessly. + +"There are some things which you must understand," I cried. "The +hardest task that ever I had was to go to your uncle as I did, like a +bearer of idle gossip. It would have been easier to let you go on as +you were going, ignorant and blind. I knew that it meant an end of our +friendship. That day when I spoke I believed that I was going out of +your life forever. I was not surprised when, on the Avenue, you looked +at me as though I were beneath your notice." I rose and stood before +her. "Had I to do it over again, I would, a thousand times, for your +sake. And didn't I prove that it was for your sake, when I banished +myself and gave up all claim to you?" + +"Claim to me?" Penelope's lips curled defiantly. "I should have +thought that you would have been occupied making good your claim to +Miss Dodd, or Bodd, or whatever her name was. I suppose you did right, +but none the less it was unpleasant. I thank you. You see I forgive +you, or we should not be here now talking." She raised her parasol as +though about to rise. "We must go. My uncle is waiting for me, and if +you care to, you may come with me and see him before we start for Rome." + +She did not rise; but the matter-of-fact tone in which she made the +threat chilled me, and for a moment I stood silent, looking down at the +black figure. The brim of her hat hid her face from me, but she was +making circles in the sand. I asked myself if this was the time for me +to speak of that claim, to speak my whole heart to her. + +She looked up. "David," she said, "you need not stand there so long. +It might be bad for your wound." + +"My wound?" I asked, and I took my old place at her side. + +"Why, yes," she said. "Were you not wounded in the Sudan? Uncle Rufus +told me that you were. He read about it in the papers. A Major +Bennett, or somebody, ran out under a heavy fire and pulled you out of +the hands of a lot of Arabs and saved your life." + +I laughed. I would have given all I owned in the world to have had at +that moment an interesting and conspicuous wound, for I knew how +sympathy formed love, and how to a woman's mind a wound added interest +to a man. A few weeks ago, though unwounded, I had at least been very +thin and brown; but even of those mild attractions I had thoughtlessly +allowed myself to be robbed by too high living and a kinder sun than +the desert's. How I envied Bennett with his sunken eyes and tottering +gait! + +"The telegraph evidently mixed the names," I said. "It was Bennett who +was shot." + +"And you saved his life!" Penelope cried, forgetting herself. + +However modest the man may be who hides his light under a bushel, it is +always pleasing to him to have another lift the basket. As a matter of +fact, on that morning at Omdurman it was almost as uncomfortable in the +disordered and retreating ranks as it was in our rear, where Bennett +lay crushed in the sand under his dead camel. If I did run back to him +in the face of the oncoming horde of dervishes, a half-dozen of his own +black troopers ran with me and helped to drag him to safety. It was an +ordinary incident of the heat of battle, yet I did wish that Bennett +were here to tell her about it, with his grateful exaggeration. To me +fell the hard task not only of hiding my light, but of blowing it out. + +"We got him away," I returned carelessly, accenting the pronoun as +though the whole corps were concerned. "A lot of his men ran back to +him and put him on my horse. I simply led him out of danger." + +"Oh!" Penelope exclaimed in a tone of disappointment. + +She looked over the plain; and I beside her, with my stick bent across +my knee, studied her face, trying to read in it some promise of +kindness and hope. But I found none. She seemed lost in the fair +prospect. She had met an old friend and had spoken to him. That was +enough. Now it mattered little whether he went away or stayed. It +came to me then to try an old, old ruse to test the quality of her +indifference. + +"We had best be going," I said, rising. + +To my consternation she rose, too, and began to move off carelessly, as +though she expected me to follow her to the hotel to see Rufus Blight +and then to bid her a casual farewell. I did not follow. Indifferent +she might be, but my mind was made up that she should hear me. There +was no longer any gulf between us. There was only the barrier of cool +indifference which she had raised, and I would fight to break it down. + +"Penelope," I said, "there are other things that you and I must speak +of before we go." + +"What?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder. + +"Of your father," I answered, stepping to the wall and leaning on it. + +I think that she saw reproof in my eyes. She hesitated, stirring the +sand with her parasol, and then came to the wall beside me. + +"Is there anything that I do not know of him?" she asked, as she stood +with her chin in her hands, looking over the plain. "You wrote so +fully--to my uncle. You might have written to me, David--but still you +wrote to my uncle." There was no hard note in Penelope's voice. "You +cared for him, David, and he died in your arms. It was for that I +forgave you--everything." + +"Everything? What do you mean by everything?" + +"There are some things that you will never understand." + +"But you speak as though I had done much that needed forgiveness." + +"We have been to Thessaly, David," she went on, as though she had not +heard me. "We found the very shrine where he died and the place where +you buried him, and we marked it. It seemed best that he should lie +there where he had fought so bravely--his last fight--as though he +would have it that way. How could I help forgiving you after +that--everything?" + +"Everything? Penelope, I do not understand." + +She laid a hand lightly on my arm. "Tell me, David, what were my +father's last words to you?" + +"I wrote them to you," I answered. + +"To Uncle Rufus--not to me." + +"How could I write to you after that day on the Avenue?" + +"That was a small thing, and I was foolish. Now I want to hear it from +you myself." + +I looked straight before me as I repeated the words which her father +had said that night as he lay dying on the plain of Thessaly. "Tell +them at home--it was a good fight." + +I felt her hand lightly on my arm again. I heard her quiet voice ask: +"Was that all?" + +"The rest I could not write," I answered, turning to her, and she +looked from me to the mountains. "He said to me: 'David, take care of +Penelope.'" + +For a moment Penelope was very still. It was as though she had not +heard me. Then she half-raised herself from the wall. One hand rested +there; the other was held out to me in reproof. + +"And how have you done it, David? With a year of silence." + +"But that day on the Avenue?" I said. + +"There were other days on the Avenue which you could have remembered," +she returned. "There was that day when we met--after long years. And +that day I remembered the valley and the boy who had come into the +mountains to help me; I remembered my father's last words to us, and +for a little while I was foolish enough to think that it must be for +that that I had found you again." + +I would have taken the outstretched hand, but she drew it away quickly +and stepped back. + +"And do you think I had forgotten the mountains that day?" I said. +"Why, Penelope, I loved you that day as I love you now, as I have from +the morning when you and I rode into the valley together." + +I took a step toward her, but she moved from me, and stood with her +hands clasped behind her back and her head tilted proudly as she looked +up at me. + +"It sounds well," she said, her lips curling in disdain. "But how +about Miss Dodd, or Miss Todd?" + +"Why will you be forever casting that up at me?" I protested. "For a +time I did forget. I was a plain fool. But, Penelope----" + +"I must be going," she said; but though she pointed toward the slope +down which I had come from the little piazza, she really went again to +the wall and stood there where I first found her, as though held +spellbound by the view. + +I was beside her. "Penelope," I said firmly, "there are some things +which you and I must straighten out here and now." + +"There is nothing to straighten out," she said. "Everything is +settled. We are friends." Lifting a hand, she pointed over the plain. +"What does that remind you of, David?" + +"A little of the valley," I answered. Then I raised my hand too. +"There are the mountains, Penelope, and just before them the ridge over +which we rode that morning. Do you remember it? Do you remember how +Nathan ran away over the trail, how you clung to me and called to me to +save you? Home should be down there where you see the village. Do you +remember----" + +Penelope was looking from me, as though at the stone house, its roof +just showing in the green of giant oaks. + +Again she raised her hand. "And the barn, David--the big white +barn--there!" she cried. Then she checked herself. She was very +straight and very still. "I was forgetting," she said. + +A step closer and I said: "You do remember, Penelope!" + +"I must be going," she returned in a low voice, but she did not move. + +I feared to speak now lest I should awaken her from the revery in which +she seemed to have suddenly forgotten my existence. + +"I must be going," she said again, and still she did not move. + +She was looking across our valley! I knew that she saw it as on the +morning when we rode in terror from the woods and it lay beneath us, a +friendly land, in the broad day, under the kindly eye of God. Then I +bent nearer her, an arm resting on the wall, my eyes on her averted +face, patiently waiting until she should speak. And I could wait +patiently now, for I believed that in the silence the memory of that +day was fighting for me. + +After a long time Penelope spoke. "David, do you remember--" She +paused. Her voice fell to a whisper. "What was it that you said to me +that morning--don't you remember?--don't cry, little one!" + +In all the world there is no fairer prospect than that on which I +looked from the little terrace in Perugia. For I saw not alone the +lovely Umbrian plain. Before me stretched a fair life itself, into the +unending years, from that moment when Penelope spoke, turning as she +spoke and looking up at me with a smiling face. What a blind, +blundering creature I had been! The black-gloved hand was close to +mine on the wall, and I took it. Then I leaned down to her and said: +"I remember, Penelope, and I will--I will take care of you always." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +"Yesterday, Harry, your mother laid a hand upon my arm, and, turning to +me with a curious, far-away light in her eyes, said: 'How time flies, +David!'" + +And I looked down at her proudly, as though this were another of the +innumerable new and clever ideas which she has a way of discovering and +expressing so concisely. + +"What made you think of that, Penelope?" + +She pointed over the tangled briers to the woods, to the very spot +where the path breaks through the bushes and leads to the brook. + +"Yesterday, David--it seems but yesterday--I dragged you out of the +deep pool, and to-day--a moment ago--I heard Harry there, shouting." + +"He has probably caught a trout," said I as I lighted a cigar. "A +small boy always shouts when he lands a fish." + +Penelope laughed. + +"And if," I went on, between critical puffs--"if he falls in, James is +with him and James will pull him out. You must not think that these +woods are full of small girls with blue ribbons in their hair who are +watching for an opportunity to rescue drowning boys." + +"How stupid you are, David!" said Penelope, "And yet at times you have +been monstrously stupid. Of course, I know that Harry is perfectly +safe with James; but what I meant was that it seems only yesterday----" + +"Since you pulled me out of the brook?" I said. + +Then I tucked her hand beneath my arm, and, standing there in the deep +weeds and briers, we looked about the clearing. Even the Professor's +care had long been missing. The roof of the cabin had fallen in years +ago, and the end of a single log, poking through a mass of green, +marked the stable from which the white mule had regarded me so +critically. Yet the mountains rose above us, the same mountains; the +same ridge sloped upward to the south, and above it was the same blue +sky and a white cloud hovering in it. A crow cawed from the pines. It +might have been the same crow that in other days called to me, now +cawing his welcome. It did seem but yesterday. How fast the weeds and +briers had grown, defying the Professor's languid hoe! How suddenly +had the timbers snapped which held the roof! And doubtless Nathan's +home went down in a gust of wind. + +"Yesterday, Penelope," I said, "you led me out of the woods, dripping +wet--don't you remember? from my tumble into the pool. Right there +your father stood, looking at that very cloud, wistfully." + +"And yesterday," Penelope said, pointing over the clearing, "in the +morning early, father and I were sitting by that very door, when we +heard a shout and, looking, saw you running toward us through the +brush. Don't you remember, David? You fell down out there--why, a +juniper tree has grown up there since yesterday." + +Then Penelope was very quiet. I saw her glance to the bushes, and her +hand gripped mine. I knew what was in her mind. I saw the same +picture; I could almost hear the brush crackling under the Professor's +flying feet, and leaning down over her I said: "Don't cry, little one; +I'll take care of you." + +That was really yesterday, Harry, and really yesterday Penelope and I +rode again over the trail along which the white mule had carried us at +such a terrible pace. We climbed the ridge, and at its crest Penelope +reined in her horse and pointed over the valley. I followed her raised +hand over the land, over the green of the fields and the white of +blossoming orchards, to the great barn, gleaming cheerfully in the +noonday sun, and to the dark roof nestling in the foliage of giant oaks. + +Penelope turned to me with smiling eyes and said: "It's all right, +David. Yon's our home!" + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of David Malcolm, by Nelson Lloyd + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAVID MALCOLM *** + +***** This file should be named 23741.txt or 23741.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/4/23741/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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