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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/34611-8.txt b/34611-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..807c953 --- /dev/null +++ b/34611-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13121 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Geoffrey Hampstead, by Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +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: Geoffrey Hampstead + A Novel + +Author: Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD + + _A NOVEL_ + + BY THOMAS STINSON JARVIS + + + Consider the work of God: for who can make + that straight, which he hath made crooked? + + _Ecclesiastes vii, 13._ + + + NEW YORK + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + 1890 + + COPYRIGHT, 1890, + BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + I do not think + So fair an outward, and such stuff within, + Endows a man but he. + + _Cymbeline._ + + +The Victoria Bank, Toronto, is on the corner of Bay and Front Streets, +where it overlooks a part of the harbor large enough to gladden the eyes +of the bank-clerks who are aquatic in their habits and have time to look +out of the windows. Young gentlemen in tattered and ink-stained coats, +but irreproachable in the matter of trousers and linen, had been known +to gaze longingly and wearily down toward that strip of shining water +when hard fate in the shape of bank duty apparently remained indifferent +to the fact that an interesting race was being rowed or sailed. This, +sometimes, was rather a bad thing for the race; for the Victoria Bank +had, immured within its cut stone and plate glass, some good specimens +of muscular gentility; and in contests of different kinds, the V. B. had +a way (discomforting to other banks) of producing winners. The amount of +muscle some of them could apply to a main-sheet was creditable, while, +as to rowing, there were few who did not cultivate a back and thigh +action which, if not productive of so much speed as Hanlan's, was +certainly, to the uninitiated, quite as pleasant to look upon; so that, +in sports generally, there was a decided call for the Vics.; not only +among men on account of their skill, but also in the ranks of a gentler +community whose interest in a contest seemed to be more personal than +sporting. The Vics. had adopted as their own a particular color, of +which they would wear at least a small spot on any "big day"; and, when +they were contesting, this color would be prevalent in gatherings of +those interested personally. And who would inquire the reasons for this +favoritism? "Reasons! explanations!--why are men so curious? Is it not +enough that those most competent to decide have decided? What will you? +Go to!" Indeed, the sex is very divine. It is a large part of their +divinity to be obscure. + +Perhaps these young men danced with the ease and self-satisfaction of +dervishes. Perhaps their prowess was unconsciously admired by those who +formerly required defenders. But the most compelling reason, on this +important point, was that "ours" of the Victoria Bank had established +themselves socially as "quite the right sort" and "good form"--and thus +desirable to the Toronto maiden, and, if not so much so to her more +match-making mother, the fact that they were considered _chic_ provided +a feminine argument in their favor which had, as usual, the advantage of +being, from its vagueness, difficult to answer; so that the more +mercantile mother grew to consider that a "detrimental" who was _chic_ +was not, after all, as bad as a "det." without leaven. + +It has been said that bank-clerks are all the same; but, while admitting +that, in regard to their faultless trousers and immaculate linen, there +does exist a pleasing general resemblance, rather military, it must be +insisted that there are different sorts of them; that they are complete +in their way, and need not be idealized. The old barbaric love for +wonderful story-telling is still the harvest-ground of those who live +by the propagation of ideas, but must we always demand the unreal? + +There was nothing unreal about Jack Cresswell. As he stood poring over +columns of figures in a great book, one glance at him was sufficient to +dispel all hope of mystery. He was inclosed in the usual box or +stall--quite large enough for him to stand up in, which was all he +required (sitting ruins trousers)--and his office coat was all a +bank-clerk could desire. The right armpit had "carried away," and the +left arm was merely attached to the body by a few ligaments--reminding +one of railway accidents. The right side of the front and the left arm +had been used for years as a pen-wiper. A metallic clasp for a patent +pencil was clinched through the left breast. The holes for the pockets +might be traced with care even at this epoch, but they had become so +merged in surrounding tears as to almost lose identity with the original +design. + +The bank doors had been closed for some time, after three o'clock, on +this particular day in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred +and blank, and Jack Cresswell had been puzzling his brains over figures +with but poor success. Whether his head was dull, or whether it was +occupied by other things, it is hard to say--probably both; so, on +hearing Geoffrey Hampstead, the paying-teller, getting ready to go away, +he leaned over the partition and said, in an aggrieved tone: + +"Look here, Geoffrey, I'm three cents out in my balance." + +A strong, well-toned voice answered carelessly, "That is becoming a +pretty old story with you, Jack. You're always out. However, make +yourself comfortable, dear boy, as you will doubtless be at it a good +while." Then, as he put on his hat and sauntered away, Geoffrey added a +little more comfort. "If you really intend to bring it out right, you +had better arrange to guard the bank to-night. You can do both at once, +you know, and get your pay as well, while you work on comfortably till +morning." + +"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll get these three cents right for +me, I'll stand the dinners." + +"Much obliged. Mr. Hampstead has the pleasure of regretting. Prior +engagement. Has asked Mr. Maurice Rankin to dine with him at the club. +But perhaps, even without your handsome reward, we might get these +figures straightened out for you." Then, taking off his coat, "You had +better take a bite with us if we can finish this in time." + +Geoffrey came up to the books and "took hold," while Jack, now in +re-established good humor, amused himself by keeping up a running fire +of comments. "Aha! me noble lord condescends to dine the poor legal +scribe. I wonder, now, what led you to ask Maurice Rankin to dine with +you. You can't make anything out of Morry. He hasn't got a cent in the +world, unless he got that police-court case. Not a red shekel has he, +and me noble lord asks him to dinner--which is the humor of it! Now, I +would like to know what you want with Rankin. You know you never do +anything without some motive. You see I know you pretty well. Gad! I +do." + +Geoffrey was working away under this harangue, with one ear open, like a +telegraph operator, for Jack's remarks. He said: "Can not a fellow do a +decent thing once in a way without hearing from you?" + +"Not you," cried Jack, "not you. I'll never believe you ever did a +decent thing in your life without some underground motive." + +Geoffrey smiled over the books, where he was adding three columns of +figures at once, lost the addition, and had to begin at the bottom +again; and Jack, who thought that never man breathed like Geoffrey, +looked a little fondly and very admiringly at the way his friend's back +towered up from the waist to the massive shoulders--and smiled too. + +Jack's smile was expansive and contagious. It lighted up the whole +man--some said the whole room--but never more brightly than when with +Hampstead. Geoffrey had a fascination for him, and his admiration had +reached such a climax after nearly two years' intercourse that he now +thought there was but little within the reach of man that Geoffrey could +not accomplish if he wished. It was not merely that he was good looking +and had an easy way with him and was in a general way a favorite--not +merely that he seemed to make more of Jack than of others. Hampstead had +a power of some kind about him that harnessed others besides Jack to his +chariot-wheels; and, much as Cresswell liked to exhibit Geoffrey's seamy +side to him when he thought he discovered flaws, he nevertheless had +admitted to an outsider that the reason he liked Hampstead was that he +was "such an altogether solid man--solid in his sports, solid in his +work, solid in his virtues, and, as to the other way--well, enough +said." But the chief reason lay in the great mental and bodily vigor +that nearly always emanated from Geoffrey, casting its spell, more or +less effectively, for good or evil. With most people it was impossible +to ignore his presence; and his figure was prepossessing from the +extraordinary power, grace, and capacity for speed which his every +movement interpreted. + +It was his face that bothered observant loungers in the clubs. For +statuary, a sculptor could utilize it to represent the face of an angel +or a devil with equal facility--but no second-class devil or angel. Its +permanent expression was that which a man exhibits when exercising his +will-power. The tenacious long jaw had a squareness underneath it that +seemed to be in keeping with the length of the upper lip. The high, long +nose made its usual suggestions, two furrows between the thick eyebrows +could ordinarily be seen, and the protuberant bumps over the eyes gave +additional strength. The eyes were light blue or steel gray, according +to the lights or the humor he was in. An intellectual forehead, beveled +off under the low-growing hair, might suggest that the higher moral +aspirations would not so frequently call for the assistance of the +determination depicted in the face as would the other qualities shown in +the width and weight of head behind the ears. + +But Jack did not believe what he said in his tirades, and his good-will +makes him lax in condemnation of things which in others he would have +denounced. What Geoffrey said or did, so far as Jack knew, met, at his +hands, with an easy indifference if culpable, and a kindling admiration +if apparently virtuous. The two had lived together for a long time, and +no one knew better than Geoffrey how trustworthy Jack was. Consequently, +he sometimes entered into little confidences concerning his experiences, +which he glossed over with a certain amount of excuse, so that the moral +laxity in them did not fully appear; and what with the intensity of his +speech, his word painting, and enthusiastic face, a greater stoic than +poor Jack might have caught the fire, and perhaps condoned the offense. + +Jack thought he knew Hampstead pretty well. + +On the other side, Hampstead, though keen at discerning character, +confessed to himself that Jack was the only person he could say he knew. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his + statutes, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries.--_Hamlet._ + + +As Jack expected, it did not take long for his friend Hampstead to show +where the mistake about the three cents lay; and then they sallied forth +for a little stroll on King Street before dinner. + +They lived in adjoining chambers in the Tremaine Buildings on King +Street. The rooms had been intended for law offices, and were reached by +a broad flight of stairs leading up from the street below. Here they +were within five minutes' walk of their bank or the club at which they +generally took their meals. Hampstead had first taken these rooms +because they were in a manner so isolated in the throng of the city and +afforded an uncontrolled liberty of ingress and egress to young men +whose hours for retiring to rest were governed by no hard and fast +rules. + +A widow named Priest lived somewhere about the top of the building, with +her son, who was known to the young gentlemen as Patsey. Mrs. Priest +made the beds, did the washing, attended to the fires, and was generally +useful. She also cleaned offices, even to the uttermost parts of the +great building, and altogether made a good thing of it; for besides the +remunerations derived in these ways she had her perquisites. For +instance, in the ten years of her careful guardianship of chambers and +offices in the building, she had never bought any coal or wood. She +possessed duplicate keys for each room in her charge, and thus having a +large number of places to pillage she levied on them all, according to +the amount of fuel she could safely carry away from each place without +its being missed. Young men who occupied chambers there never had to +give away or sell old clothes, because they were never found to be in +the way. She asked for them when she wanted to cut them down for Patsey, +because it would not do to have the owners recognize the cloth on him. +The clothes which she annexed as perquisites she sold. + +Patsey was accustomed occasionally to go through the wardrobes of the +gentlemen with his mother, while she made the beds in the morning, and +he then chose the garments that most appealed to his artistic taste. +This interesting heir to Mrs. Priest's personal estate also had his +perquisites "unbeknownst to ma." He consumed a surprising amount of +tobacco for one so young, and might frequently be seen parading King +Street on a summer evening enjoying a cigar altogether beyond his years +and income. His clothes bore the pattern of the fashion in vogue three +or four years back; and, despite some changes brought about by the +scissors of Mrs. Priest, the material, which had been the best Toronto +could provide, still retained much of the glory that had captivated King +Street not so very long ago. Having finally declared war against +education in all its recognized branches, he generally took himself off +early in the day, and lounged about the docks, or derived an +indifferently good revenue from the sale of ferry-boat tickets to the +island; and in various other ways did Patsey provide himself with the +luxuries and enjoyments of a regular topsawyer. + +In the immediate neighborhood of Mrs. Priest, at an altitude in the +building which has never been exactly ascertained, dwelt Mr. Maurice +Rankin, barrister-at-law and solicitor of the Supreme Court. He resided +in Chambers, No. 173 Tremaine Buildings, King Street, West, Toronto, and +certainly all this looked very legal and satisfactory on the +professional card which he had had printed. But the interior appearance +of the chambers was not calculated to inspire confidence in the +profession of the law as a kind nurse for aspiring merit; and as for +the approach to No. 173, it was so intricate and dark in its last few +flights of stairs, that none but a practiced foot could venture up or +down without a light, even in the day-time. The room occupied by Mr. +Rankin could never have been intended to be used as an office, or +perhaps anything else, and consequently the numbers of the rooms in the +buildings had not been carried up to the extraordinary elevation in +which No. 173 might now be found. Still, it seemed peculiar not to have +the number of one's chambers on one's card, if chambers should be +mentioned thereon, so he found that the rooms numbered below ended at +172, and then conscientiously marked "No. 173" on his own door with a +piece of white chalk. He also carefully printed his name, "Mr. Maurice +Rankin," on the cross-panel and added the letters "Q.C."--just to see +how the whole thing looked and assist ambition; but he hurriedly rubbed +The Q.C. out on hearing Mrs. Priest approach for one of her interminable +conversations from which there was seldom any escape. When Rankin first +came to Tremaine Buildings he lived in one of the lower rooms, now +occupied by Jack Cresswell, and not without some style and +comfort--taking his meals at the club, as our friends now did. His +father, who had been a well-known broker,--a widower--kept his horses, +and brought up his son in luxury. He then failed, after Maurice had +entered the Toronto University, and, unable to endure the break-up of +the results of his life's hard work, he died, leaving Maurice a few +hundred dollars that came to him out of the life-insurance. + +It was with a view to economy that our legal friend came to live in the +Tremaine Buildings after leaving the university and articling himself as +a clerk in one of the leading law firms in the city, where he got paid +nothing. The more his little capital dwindled, the harder he worked. +Soon the first set of chambers were relinquished for a higher, cheaper +room, and the meals were taken per contract, by the week, at a cheap +hotel. Then he had to get some clothes, which further reduced the little +fund. So he took "a day's march nearer home," as he called it, and +removed his effects _au quatrième étage_, and from that _au +cinquième_--and so on and up. Regular meals at hotels now belonged to +the past. A second-hand coal-oil stove was purchased, together with a +few cheap plates and articles of cutlery; and here Rankin retired, when +hungry, with a bit of steak rolled up in rather unpleasant brown paper; +and after producing part of a loaf and a slab of butter on a plate, he +cooked a trifle of steak about the size of a flat-iron, and caroused. +This he called the feast of independence and the reward of merit. + +Among his possessions could be found a wooden bed and bedding--clean, +but not springy--also a small deal table, and an old bureau with both +hind-legs gone. But the bureau stood up bravely when propped against the +wall. These were souvenirs of a transaction with a second-hand dealer. +In winter he set up an old coal-stove which had been abandoned in an +empty room in the building, and this proved of vast service, inasmuch as +the beef-steak and tea could be heated in the stove, thereby saving the +price of coal-oil. It will occur to the eagle-eyed reader that the price +of coal would more than exceed the price of coal-oil. On this point +Rankin did not converse. Although he started out with as high principles +of honor as the son of a stock-broker is expected to have, it must be +confessed that he did not at this time buy his coal. Therefore there was +a palpable economy in the use of the derelict stove--to say nothing of +its necessary warmth. No mention of coal was ever made between Rankin +and Mrs. Priest; but as Maurice rose in the world, intellectually and +residentially, Mrs. Priest saw that his monetary condition was depressed +in an inverse ratio, and being in many ways a well-intentioned woman, +she commenced bringing a pail of coal to his room every morning, which +generally served to keep the fire alight for twenty-four hours in +moderate weather. Maurice at first salved his conscience with the idea +that she was returning the coal she had "borrowed" from him during his +more palmy days. After the first winter, however, when he had suffered a +good deal from cold, his conscience became more elastic and communistic; +and ten o'clock P.M. generally saw him performing a solitary and gloomy +journey to unknown regions with a coal-scuttle in one hand and a wooden +pail in the other. Jack Cresswell had come across this coal-scuttle one +night in a distant corridor. He filled it with somebody else's coal and +came up with it to Rankin's room--his face beaming with enjoyment--and, +entering on tip-toe, whispered mysteriously the word "pickings." Then, +after walking around the room in the stealthy manner of the stage +villain who inspects the premises before "removing" the infant heir, he +dumped the scuttle on the floor and gasped, breathlessly, "A gift!" + +Rankin put aside Byles on Bills and arose with dignity: "What say you, +henchman? Pickings? A gift? Ay, truly, a goodly pickings! Filched, +perchance, from the pursy coal-bins of monopoly?" + +"Even so," was the reply, given with bated breath; and with his finger +to his lips, to imply that he was on a criminal adventure, Jack again +inspected the premises with much stealth and agility, and disappeared as +mysteriously as he had come. If Jack or Geoffrey ever saw anything lying +about the premises they thought would be of use to Rankin, there was a +nocturnal steal, and up it went to Rankin's room. This was sport. + +In this way Rankin lived. With one idea set before him, he grappled with +the leather-covered books that came by ones and twos into his room, +until, when the great struggle came at his final examinations, he was +surprised to find he had come out so well, and quite charmed when he +returned from Osgoode Hall to his dreary room, a solicitor of the +Supreme Court and a barrister-at-law, with a light heart, and not a +single solitary cent in the wide world. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Frien'ship maks us a' mair happy, + Frien'ship gies us a' delight; + Frien'ship consecrates the drappie, + Frien'ship brings us here to-night. + + ROBERT BURNS. + + +At the opening of this story, about six months had elapsed since Rankin +had been licensed to prey upon the public, and as yet he had not +despoiled it to any great extent. If he had kept body and soul together, +it was done in ways that are not enticing to young gentlemen who dream +of attacking the law single-handed. + +An old lawyer named Bean had an office in the lower part of Tremaine +Buildings, and Maurice arranged with him to occupy one of the ancient +desks in his office, and, in consideration of answering all questions as +to the whereabouts of Mr. Bean, the privilege of office-room was given +to him rent-free. As Mr. Bean had no clients, and as Rankin never knew +where he was, this duty was a light one. He also had from Mr. Bean the +privilege of putting his name up on the door, and, of course, as +frequently and as alluringly along the passage and on the stairs as he +might think desirable. But it was set out very clearly in the agreement, +which Rankin carefully drew up and Bean pretended to revise, that Mr. +Rankin should not in any way interfere with the clients of Mr. Bean, and +that Mr. Bean should not in any way interfere with the clients of the +aforesaid Rankin. + +Bean had a little money, which he seemed to spend exclusively in the +consumption of mixed drinks; and whatever else he did during the day, +besides expending his income in this way, certainly engrossed his +attention to a very large extent. When he looked into the office daily, +or, say, bi-weekly, it was only for a few moments--except when he fell +asleep in his chair. + +It was after he had been five or six months with Mr. Bean that Geoffrey +Hampstead had asked Rankin to dinner. He locked up the office about five +o'clock, having closed the dampers in the stove (Bean supplied the +coal--a great relief) and putting the key in his pocket, he ascended to +No. 173 for a while, and then he came down to Hampstead's chambers, +where he found our two bank friends taking a glass of sherry and bitters +to give their appetites a tone, which was a very unnecessary proceeding. + +"Hello, old man! How are you?" cried Hampstead in a hearty voice, +handing him a wine glass. + +"Ah! How am I? Just so!" quoth Rankin, helping himself. "How should a +man be, who is on the high road to fortune?" + +"He ought to be pretty chirpy, I should think," said Jack. + +"Chirpy! That's the word. 'Chirpy' describes me. So does 'fit.' The +money is rolling in, gentlemen. Business is on the full upward boom, and +I feel particularly 'fit' to-day--also chirpy." + +"Got a partnership?" inquired Geoffrey, with interest. + +"I suppose you mean a partnership with Mr. Bean, and I answer +emphatically 'No.' I refer to _my own_ business, sir, and I have no +intention of taking Mr. Bean into partnership. Bean is dying for a +partnership with me. Sha'n't take Bean in. A client of mine came in +to-day--" + +"Great Scott! you haven't got a client, have you?" cried Geoffrey, +starting from his chair. + +"Don't interrupt me," said Mr. Rankin. "As I was saying," he added with +composure, "a client of mine--" + +"No, no, Morry! This is too much. If you want us to believe you, give us +some particulars about this client--just as an evidence of good faith, +you know." + +"The client you are so inquisitive about," said Rankin, with dignity, +"is a lady who has been, in a sense, prematurely widowed--" + +"It's Mrs. Priest," said Jack, turning to Geoffrey. "He has been +defending her for stealing coal, sure as you're born!" + +"The lady came to me," said Maurice, taking no notice of the +interruption, "about a month ago, apparently with a view to taking +proceedings for alimony--at least her statement suggested this--" + +"By Jove, this is getting interesting!" said Jack. + +"But on questioning the unfortunate woman as to her means, I found that +her funds were in a painfully low condition--in fact, at a disgustingly +low ebb, viewed from a professional standpoint. And I also found that +her husband had offered her four dollars a week, to be paid weekly, on +condition that he should never see her and that somebody else should +collect the money. The husband was evidently a bold, bad man to have +given rise to the outbursts of jealously which it pained me to listen +to, and the poor lady, forgetful of my presence, and with all the +ability of an ancient prophet, denounced two or three women both jointly +and severally. She then roused herself, and asked what I would charge to +collect her four dollars per week. This seemed to decide the alimony +suit in the negative, and from the fact that she was, not to put too +fine a point upon it, three parts drunk at the time, I thought it better +to say what I would do. So now I collect four dollars a week from her +husband and pay it over to her every Saturday, for which I deduct, each +time, the sum of twenty-five cents. There is a good deal of money to be +made in the practice of the law." + +"What about the husband?" asked Jack, laughing. + +"I believe that I was invited to-day to dine--at least I came with that +intention. Instead of talking any more, I would be better satisfied if +somebody produced so much as the photograph of a chicken--and after that +I will further to you unfold my tale." + +Mr. Rankin slapped a waistcoat that appeared to be unduly slack about +the lower buttons. + +They then repaired to the club, where, having but a small appetite +himself, and the representatives of bank distinguishing themselves more +than he could as trenchermen, Rankin kept the ball rolling by relating +his experiences as a barrister, which seemed to amuse his two friends. +These experiences, leading to police-court items and police-court +savages, brought up the question of "What is a savage?"--which +introduced the Fuegians, the wild natives of Queensland, the Mayalans, +and others, with whom Hampstead compared the lowest-class Irish. He had +profited by much travel and reading, and anthropology was a subject on +which he could be rather brilliant. To show how our civilization is a +mere veneer, he drew a comparison between savage and civilized fashions, +and brought out facts culled from many different peoples--not omitting +Schweinfurth's Monbuttoo women--as to the primitive nature of the +dress-improver. Then, somehow, the conversation got back to the police +court, and the question, "What is a criminal?" and they agreed that if +the harm done to others was one criterion of guilt, it seemed a pity +that some things--woman's gossip, for instance--went so frequently +unpunished. + +"And I think," broke in Cresswell, after the subject had been well +thrashed, "that you two fellows are talking a good deal of what you know +very little about. After all your chatter, I think the point is right +here (and I put it in the old-fashioned way). If one does wrong he +violates his own appreciation of right, and his guilt can only be +measured by the way he tramples on his conscience, and as conscience +varies in almost every person, I think we had better give up wading into +abstractions and come down to the concrete--to the solid enjoyment of a +pipe." And Jack pushed back his chair. + +"Then, according to you, Jack, a fellow with no conscience would in +human judgment have no guilt," laughed Hampstead. + +"I don't believe there exists a sane man in the world without a +conscience," replied Jack, with his own optimism. + +"I don't think I agree with you," said Rankin. "I feel sure there are +men who, if they ever had a conscience, have trained it into such +elasticity that they may be said to have none. Do you not think so, +Hampstead?" + +"Really, I hardly know. I haven't thought much upon the subject, but I +think we ought, if we do possess any conscience ourselves, to give Jack +a chance to light his pipe." + +They soon sauntered back to the Tremaine Buildings, where Jack sat down +at the piano and played to them. While Jack played on, Geoffrey seemed +interested in police-court items, but Rankin preferred listening to +Beethoven and Mozart to "talking shop." After they had sung some +sea-songs together and chatted over a glass of "something short," Rankin +said good-night and mounted to No. 173 on the invisible stairs with as +much activity as if daylight were assisting him. + +Having lit his lamp, he soliloquized, as he attended to some faults in +his complexion before a small looking-glass, "So I have got another +client, I perceive. That dinner to-day was a fee--nothing else in the +world. I don't know now that I altogether like my new client. He +evidently didn't get what he wanted. Perhaps Jack was in the way. Now, I +wonder what the beggar _does_ want. Chances are I'll have another dinner +soon. Happy thought! make him keep on dining me _ad infinitum_! +Ornamental dinner! Pleasant change!" + +Maurice undressed and walked up and down the room. "Perhaps I am all +wrong, though," said he. "I can't help liking him in many ways, and he's +chock-full of interesting information. How odd that he didn't know +anything about a fellow having no conscience. Hadn't thought over that +idea. Very likely! Gad! I could imagine him just such a one, now that I +have got suspicious. He has a bad eye when he doesn't look after it. It +doesn't always smile along with his mouth. I may be wrong, but I believe +there's something there that's not the clean wheat," and Maurice +ascended to the woolsack and disappeared for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + How can I tell the feelings in a young lady's mind; the thoughts in + a young gentleman's bosom? As Professor Owen takes a fragment of + bone and builds a forgotten monster out of it, so the novelist puts + this and that together: from the foot-prints finds the foot; from + the foot, the brute who trod on it; ... traces this slimy reptile + through the mud; ... prods down this butterfly with a pin. + --THACKERAY (_The Newcomes_). + + +Hampstead did not get to sleep, after Rankin had retired, as early as he +expected. Jack Cresswell followed him into his bedroom and sat down, lit +another pipe, and then walked about, and seemed preoccupied, as he had +all the evening. Geoffrey did not speak to him at first, as this was an +unusual proceeding between the two, but, having got into bed and made +himself comfortable by bullying the pillows into the proper shape and +position, addressed his friend: + +"Now, old man, unburden your mind. I know you want to tell me something, +but do not be surprised if you find me asleep before you get your second +wind. If you care for me, cut it short." + +"Got a letter to-day," said Jack, "from her." + +"Well, Jack, as you seem, with some eccentricity, to have only one +"her," of course I am interested. Your feelings in that quarter never +fail in their attraction. Pour into my devoted ear for the next five +minutes (not longer) a synopsis of your woes or joys. What is it you +want to-night? Congratulation or balm for wounds?" + +"Oh, I don't wish to keep you awake," said Jack testily, rising, as if +to depart. + +"Go on, sir. Go on, sir. Your story interests me." + +Geoffrey assumed an attitude of attention. Jack smiled and sat down +again. He had no intention of going away. He had thought over his letter +all day, till at last a confidential friend seemed almost necessary. + +"My letter comes from London. They've' returned from the Continent, and, +as they are now most likely on the sea, she'll be at home in about a +week." And Jack seemed in a high state of satisfaction. + +"Well, well! I never saw a real goddess in my life," said Geoffrey. "And +there is no doubt about Miss Lindon being one, because I have listened +to you for two years, and now I know that she is what I have long wished +to see." + +"It will give me the greatest pleasure to have you know her. I have +looked forward tremendously to that. Next to meeting her myself comes +the idea of we three being jolly good friends, and going around together +on little jamborees to concerts and that sort of thing. I haven't a +doubt but what we three will 'get on' amazingly." + +"Playing gooseberry with success requires a clever person," said +Geoffrey. "I don't think I'm quite equal to the call for the tact and +loss of individuality which the position demands. However, dear boy, I +am quite aware that to introduce me to the lady of your heart as your +particular friend is the greatest compliment one fellow can pay +another--all things considered. Don't you think so? Oh, yes, I dare say +we will be a trio quite out of the common. But, if she is as pretty as +you say she is, I'll have to look at her, you know. Can't help looking +at a handsome woman, even if she were hedged in with as many +prohibitions as the royal family. You'll have to get accustomed to +_that_, of course." + +"But that's the very reason why I want you to know her," said Jack, in +his whole-souled way. "I really often feel as if her beauty and +brightness and her power of pleasing many should not be altogether +monopolized by any one man. It would redouble my satisfaction if I +thought you admired her also." Jack stopped for a moment as he +considered that her power of "pleasing many" had been rather larger at +times than he had cared about. "It seems to me that she has enough of +these attractions for me, and some to spare for others." + +Geoffrey smiled as he wondered if the girl herself thought she had +enough to spare for others besides Jack. + +"Young man, your sentiments do you credit! It must make things much more +satisfactory to an engaged girl to understand that she is expected not +to neglect the outside world whenever she is able 'to tear herself +away,' as it were." + +"I see you grinning to yourself under the bed-clothes," said Jack, who +rather winced at this. "I don't know that I ever asked her to distribute +herself more than she did. On the contrary, if you must have the +unvarnished truth, quite the reverse." Jack reddened as he ventilated +some of the truths which are generally suppressed. "The fact is, it was +rather the other way. I frequently have acted like a donkey when I +didn't get her undivided attention. You know girls often get accused of +flirting, and when one hears their own explanation, nothing seems +clearer, you know, than that there was no occasion for the row at all." + +Geoffrey thought he did know, but said nothing. + +"Two years, though, make changes, and having seen nothing of her for +such a long time, I feel as if one glimpse of her would repay me for all +the waiting. I should never have thought of our differences again if you +had not raked them up." + +"Which I am sorry to have done," said Geoffrey. "No doubt, two years do +sometimes make a difference. I am sure you treat the _affaire_ +sublimely, and, if she is equally generous in her thoughts of you, it +will be a unique thing to gaze upon both of you at once." + +Jack took Geoffrey's remarks in good part, for he had got accustomed to +the cynical way the latter treated most things. It was _his way_, he +thought, and Geoffrey was "such an all-round good fellow, and all that +sort of thing, you know," that it was to be expected that he should have +"ways." Besides this, Jack had seen from time to time that, though very +ready to recognize sterling merit, Geoffrey had ability in detecting +humbug, and that he considered the optimist had too many chances against +him to make him valuable as a prophet. Thus, when he spoke in this way +of Nina Lindon, Jack supposed that his friend had his doubts, and, much +as he loved her, he stopped, like many another, and asked himself +whether she had such a generosity and nobility in her character as he +had supposed. This, he felt, was rather beneath him in one way, and +rather beyond him in another. When he looked for admirable traits, he +remembered several instances of good-natured impulse, and while the +graceful manner in which she had done these things rose before him, he +grew enthusiastic. Then he sought to call up for inspection the +qualities he took exception to. That she had seemed inconsiderate of his +feelings at times seemed true. There was, he thought, a frivolity about +her. He thought life had for him some few well-defined realities, and +that she had never seemed to quite grasp the true inwardness of his best +moments. But all was explained by her youth and the adulation paid to +her. And then the memory of her soft dark eyes and flute-like voice, the +various allurements of her vivacious manner and graceful figure, +produced an enthusiasm quite overwhelming. So he laughed at the defeat +of his impartiality, looked over at Geoffrey, who was peacefully snoring +by this time, and went away to his own room. But deep down in his heart +lay the shadow of a doubt which, with his instinctive courtesy, he never +approached even in an examination supposed to be a searching one. The +inspection of it seemed a sacrilege, and he put it from him. +Nevertheless, there had been times when Jack felt doubtful as to whether +Nina could be relied upon for absolute truth. + +Joseph Lindon, the father of Nina, came from--no person seemed to know +where. He, or his family, might have come from the north of Ireland or +south of Scotland, or middle of England, or anywhere else, as far as any +one could judge by his face; and, as likely as not, his lineage was a +mixture of Scotch, Irish, English, or Dutch, which implanted in his +physiognomy that conglomeration of nationalities which now defies +classification, but seems to be evolving a type to be known as +distinctively Canadian. His accent was not Irish, Scotch, English, nor +Yankee. It was a collection of all four, which appeared separately at +odd times, and it was, in this way, Canadian. + +His family records had not been kept, or Joseph would certainly have +produced them, if creditable. He had the appearance of a self-made man. +If want of a good education somewhat interfered with the completeness of +his social success, it certainly had not retarded him in business +circles. If he had swept out the store of his first employers, those +employers were now in their graves, and of those who knew his beginnings +in Toronto there were none with the temerity to remind him of them. Mr. +Lindon was not a man to be "sat upon." He had a bold front, a hard, +incisive voice, and a temper that, since he began to feel his monetary +oats, brooked no opposition. He might have been taken for a farmer, +except for the keenness of his eye and the fact that his clothes were +city made. These two differences, however, are of a comprehensive kind. + +Mr. Lindon, early in life, had opened a small shop, and then enlarged +it. Having been successful, he sold out, and took to a kind of broker, +money-lending, and land business, and being one who devoted his whole +existence to the development of the main chance, with a deal of native +ability to assist him, the result was inevitable. + +His entertainments gave satisfaction to those who thought they knew what +a good glass of wine was. Mr. Lindon himself did _not_. Few do. When +exhausted he took a little whisky. When he entertained, he sipped the +wine that an impecunious gentleman was paid to purchase for him, +regardless of cost. So, although there were those who turned up their +noses at Joseph Lindon while they swallowed him, there did not seem to +be any reluctance in going through the same motions with his wine. + +The fact that he was able to, and did entertain to a large extent was of +itself sufficient in certain quarters to provoke a smile suggesting that +_the_ society in that city did not entertain. Some members had been +among the exclusives for a comparatively short time, and the early +occupation of their parents was still painfully within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. A good many based their right on the fact that they +came "straight from England"--without further recommendation; while +others pawed the air like the heraldic lion because they had, or used to +have, a second cousin with a title in England. + +But these good people were partly correct when they hinted that some old +families did not entertain much. Either there had been some scalawag in +the family who had wasted its substance, or else the respected family +had had a faculty for mortgaging and indorsing notes for friends in +those good old times which happily are not likely to return. + +The consequence was that there was a good deal of satisfaction on both +sides. Joseph Lindon could pat his breeches pocket, figuratively, and, +not without reason, consider he had the best of it. Many a huge mortgage +at ruinous interest made by the first families, who never lived within +their means, had found its way to Lindon's office, and many an acre, +subsequently worth thousands of dollars, had been acquired by him in +satisfaction of the note he held against the family scalawag. During all +the times that these people had been "keeping up the name," as they +called it, Lindon had been salting down the hard cash, and if some of +his transactions were of the "shady" sort, he had, in dealing with some +of the patrician families, some pretty shady customers to look after. + +But these transactions were in the old times, when Lindon was rolling up +his scores of thousands. All he had to do now was to attend the board +meetings of companies of which he was president, and to arrange his +large financial ventures in cold blood over his chop at the club with +those who waited for his consent with eager ears. If there were few +transactions in business circles that he was not conversant with, there +were still fewer affairs in his own domestic circle that he knew +anything about. It was his wife that had brought him into his social +position, such as it was; that is, his wife's wishes and his money. + +Mrs. Lindon had been a pretty woman in her day, which, of course, had +lost its first freshness, and she was approaching that period when the +retrospect of a well-spent life is expected to be gratifying. Her +married life with Mr. Lindon had not been the gradual conquest of that +complete union which makes later years a climax and old age the harvest +of sweet memories in common, as marriage has been defined for us. On the +contrary, their married life had been a gradual acquisition of that +disunion which law and public opinion prevent from becoming complete. +The two had now established the semblance of a union--the system in +which the various pretenses of deep regard become so well defined by +long years of mutual make-believe, as to often encourage the married to +hope that it will be publicly supposed to be the glad culmination of +their courtship dreams. + +Mrs. Lindon said of herself that she had been of a Lower Canadian +family, with some French name, prior to her marriage, and her story +seemed to suggest, in the absence of further particulars, that Mr. +Lindon had married her more for her family than her good looks. The +"looks" were pretty nearly gone, but the "family" was still within the +reach of a sufficiently fertile imagination, and so often had the +suggestion been made that of late years the idea had assumed a +definiteness in her mind which materially assisted her in holding her +own in the society in which she now floated. A natural untidiness in the +way she put on her expensive garments, which in a poorer woman would +have been called slatternly, and the dark, French prettiness which she +still showed traces of (and which was rather of the nurse-girl type) +combined to suggest that in reality she was the offspring of Irish and +French emigrants, "and steerage at that"--some of the first families +said--"decidedly steerage." + +Mrs. Lindon was supremely her own mistress. This was not, perhaps, an +ultimate benefit to her, but, as she had nothing on earth to trouble +about, long years of idleness and indulgence in every whim had led her +to conjure up a grievance, which she nursed in her bosom, and on account +of it she excused herself for all shortcomings. This was that she was +left so much without the society of Mr. Lindon. Often, in the pauses +between the excitements she created for herself, tears of self-pity +would arise at the thought of her abandoned condition. The truth was +that she did not care anymore for Lindon than he did for her; but from +the fact that she really did desire to have a husband who would see +better the advantages of shining in society, the poor lady contrived to +convince herself that he had been greatly wanting in his duties to her +as a husband, that the affection was all on her side, and that that +affection was from year to year quietly repulsed. Their domestic bearing +toward each other was now that of a quiet neutrality. They always +addressed each other in public as "my dear," and, if either of them had +died, no doubt the bereaved one would have mourned in the usual way, on +the principle of "Nil de mortuis nisi _bunkum_." + +It had not occurred to Mrs. Lindon that, if more time had been spent +with her daughter in fulfilling a mother's duties toward a young girl, +there would have been less need for extraneous assistance to aid her in +her passage through the world. Nina was fond of her mother, and it was +strange that the two did not see more of each other. Nina could be a +credit to her in any social gathering, and this made it all the more +strange. But Mrs. Lindon was forever gadding about to different +institutions, Bible-readings, and other little excitements of her own +(for which Nina had no marked liking), and she seemed rather more easy +in her mind when Nina was not with her. Perhaps Mr. Lindon was not +solely at fault concerning the coolness pervading the domestic +atmosphere. + +The charitable institutions had been the salvation of Mrs. Lindon--that +is, in a mundane sense. When Joseph Lindon, with characteristic method, +came home one day and said, "My dear, I have bought the Ramsay mansion, +and now I am going to spend my money," Mrs. Lindon enjoyed a pleasure +exceeding anything she had known. That was a happy day for her! The +dream of her life was to be consummated! She immediately left the small +church which she had attended for years and changed her creed slightly +to take a good pew in a certain fashionable church. After this it was +merely a question of time and money, both of which were available to any +extent. She showed great interest in charities. She contributed humbly +but lavishly. The ladies of good position who go around with +subscription-books smiled in their hearts at seeing the old game going +on. They smiled and bled her profusely. They discussed Mrs. Lindon among +themselves--with care, of course, because they did not wish to appear to +have known her before. But as time wore on they thought she could be +bled to a much greater extent if she were induced to become "a worker in +the flock," which the good lady was quite willing to do. On being +approached by some of the leading spirits, she went first to a weekly +Bible-class, which she had previously been afraid to attend because the +audience was so select, and after this she showed such an interest in +various charities that she was soon placed upon committees. By ladies +with heads for real management on their shoulders she was led to +believe that they really could not do without her mental assistance, so +that at first when she was gravely consulted on a financial question and +asked for her advice she generally eased the tension on her mind by +writing a substantial check. This led her to believe that she had +something of the financier about her, and she even told her husband that +she was beginning to quite understand all about money matters, at which +Joseph smiled an ineffable smile. + +She could have been used more advantageously if she had been kept out of +the desired circle for a couple of years longer, because she was ready +to pay any price for her admission. The good ladies made a slight +mistake in being too hasty to control the bottomless purse, because, +after she had got fairly installed, the purse was worked in several +other ways, and the ecclesiastical drain on it became reduced to an +ordinary amount. She gave a fair sum to each of the charities and +accepted the attentions of those whom the odor of money attracted, +without troubling herself in the slightest degree about the periodical +financial difficulties of the institutions. + +Yet she never altogether relaxed her efforts in "working for the Lord," +as she called it, in such good company. She acquired a taste for it that +never left her. She would take a couple of the "poor but honest" ladies +of good family with her, in her sumptuous barouche, to the "Incurables" +and other places. After a capital luncheon at her house they would visit +the "Home," and sometimes kiss the poor women there; and if the +strengthening sympathy and religious value of Mrs. Lindon's kiss did not +bind them to a life of virtue ever afterward they must indeed have been +lost--in every sense of the word. + +Nina was not born for some time after Mr. and Mrs. Lindon had been +married. Her mother had kept her, when a child, very much in the dark as +to their antecedents, and, as the social position of the family had +been well established by Mrs. Lindon when Nina was very young, the girl +always had grown up with the idea that she was a lady; and in spite of a +few wants in her father and some doubts as to her mother's origin, she +came out into society with a fixed idea that she was "quite good enough +for the colonies," as she laughingly told her friends. + +No pains or expense had been spared in her education. She had first gone +to the best Toronto school, and had "finished" at a boarding-school in +England. Jack Cresswell knew her when she was at school, where she +shared his heart with several others. When she emerged from the +educational chrysalis and floated for the first time down a society +ball-room Jack was after the butterfly hat-in-hand, as it were, and +never as yet had he given up the chase. Mr. Lindon knew nothing of +domestic affairs, but he had found Jack so frequently at his house that +he had begun to see that his ambitious plans for his daughter were +perhaps in danger of being frustrated, and so, having at that time to +send a man to England to float the shares of some company on the London +market, he decided to go himself, and one day, when Jack was dining +there, he rather paralyzed all, especially Jack, by instructing his wife +and daughter to be ready in a week for the journey. + +The parting on Jack's part would have been tender if Nina had not been +in such exasperatingly high spirits--hilarity he found it quite +impossible to participate in or appreciate. He made her excuses to +himself, like the decent soul he was, although he really suffered a good +deal. He was an ardent youth, and for the week prior to departure he +received very little of the sympathy he hungered for, but he tried to +speak cheerfully as he held her hand in saying good-by. + +"Well, now, you won't forget your promise, old lady, will you?" he said, +while he tried to photograph her in his mind as she stood bewitchingly +before him. + +"What! and throw over the French count that proposed to me in London?" +she said archly. Jack muttered something under his breath that sounded +like hostility toward the French count. + +She heard him, however, and said: "Certainly. So we will. It will kill +him, but you will rejoice. And I will come back and marry Jack. There! +isn't it nice of me to say that? Now, kiss me and say good-by!" + +She withdrew, and held the porch door so that only her face appeared, +which Jack lightly touched with his lips, and then he went away +speechless. As he went he heard her singing: + + "And I'll come back to my own true love, + Ten thousand miles away." + +This sentiment, from one of his yachting songs, smoothed the ragged edge +of his feelings. He loved in an old-fashioned way, and in his ideas as +to carrying out the due formalities of a lover's leave-taking he was +conservative even to red-tapeism, and disappointment, tenderness, anger, +and hopelessness surged through his brain as they only can in that of a +young man. + +There was further tragedy in that Jack, unable to sleep at night and +despondent in the morning, must needs go down to the boat to see her +"just once more" before she left. The gangways had been hauled in and +the paddle-wheels were beginning to move. Nina was standing inside the +lower-deck bulwarks and leaned across the water to shake hands, but the +distance was too great She was in aggressively high spirits, and said to +him, as he moved along the end of the wharf, keeping pace with the boat: + +"Don't you remember what your pet authoress says?" + +"No," said Jack, hoping that she would say something nice to him. + +"She says that a first farewell may have pathos in it, but to come back +for a second lends an opening to comedy." + +Her rippling laugh smote Jack cruelly. Then she tried to soften this by +smiling and waving her hand to him as the boat swept away. Jack raised +his hat stiffly in return, and wandered back to the bank with a head +that felt as if it would split. + +And this was their parting two years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Fair goes the dancing when the sitar's tuned; + Tune us the sitar neither low nor high, + And we will dance away the hearts of men. + + The string o'erstretched breaks, and music flies; + The string o'erslack is dumb, and music dies; + Tune us the sitar neither low nor high. + + _Nautch girls' song.--The Light of Asia._ ARNOLD. + + +Mr. Lindon did not remain long with his family on the trip which Mrs. +Lindon thought was only to last a month or two. On arriving in England, +he transacted his business in a short time, and then proposed a run on +the Continent. By degrees he took the family on to Rome, where they made +friends at the hotel and seemed contented to remain for a while. He then +pretended to have received a cablegram, and came home by the quickest +route, having got them fairly installed in a foreign country without +letting them suspect any coercion in the matter. Afterward he wrote to +say he wished Nina to see something of England and Scotland, and, the +proposal being agreeable to Mrs. Lindon, they accepted invitations from +people they had met to pay visits in different places, so that, together +with an art course in Paris and a musical course at Leipsic, they +wandered about until nearly two years had elapsed, when they suddenly +suspected that Mr. Lindon preferred that they should be away, upon which +they returned at once. + +Whether Nina came back "in love" with Jack was a question as to which he +made many endeavors to satisfy himself. The ability to live up to the +verb "to love" in all its moods and tenses is so varied, and the outward +results of the inward grace are often so ephemeral that it would be +hazardous to say what particular person is sufficiently unselfish to +experience more than a gleam of a phase that calls for all the most +beautiful possibilities. It is not merely a jingle of words to say that +one who is not minded to be single should be single-minded. + +Let us pass over the difficult point and take the young lady's statement +for what it was worth. She said, of herself, that she _was_ in love with +Jack. He had extracted this from her with much insistence, while she +aggravatingly asserted at the same time, that she only made the +admission "for a quiet life," leaving Jack far from any certainty of +possession that could lead to either indifference or comfort. + +Two or three proposals of marriage which she had while away had +evidently not captured her, even if they had turned her head a little. +She had seen no person she liked better than Jack or else she would not, +perhaps, have come back in the way she did. The proposals, however, if +they ever had been made, served to turn Jack's daily existence into +alternations of hot and cold shower-baths. One day she would talk about +a Russian she had met in Paris. Then she solemnly gave the history of +her walks and talks with a naval officer in Rome, till Jack's brow was +damp with a cold exudation. But when it came to the delightful +appearance of Colonel Vere, and the devotion he showed when he took her +hand and asked her to share his estates, Jack said, with his teeth +clinched, that he had had enough of the whole business--and departed. He +then spent two days of very complete misery, barometer at 28°, until she +met him and laid her hand on his arm and said she was sorry; would he +stop being a cross boy? that she had only been teasing him, and all the +rest of it; while she looked out of her soft dark eyes in a way that +left no doubt in Jack's mind that he had behaved like a brute. + +In this way the first week of her return had been consumed, and as yet +he had not felt that he could afford to divide her society with anybody. +What with the rich Russian, the naval officer, and Colonel Vere--what +with getting into agonies and getting out of them--it took him pretty +nearly all his time to try to straighten matters out. So Geoffrey's +introduction had not been mentioned further by him, except to Nina, who +was becoming curious to see Jack's particular friend and Admirable +Crichton. The opportunity for this meeting seemed about to offer itself +in the shape of an entertainment where all those who remained in Toronto +during the summer would collect--one of those warm gatherings where the +oft-tried case of _pleasure vs. perspiration_ results so frequently in +an undoubted verdict for the defendant. + +The Dusenalls were among those wise enough to know that in summer they +could be cooler in Toronto, at their own residence, with every comfort +about them, than they could possibly be while stewing in an American +hotel or broiling on the sands of an American seaport. They objected to +spending large sums yearly in beautifying their grounds, merely to leave +the shady walks, cool arbors, and tinkling fountains for the enjoyment +of the gardeners' wives and children. In the thickness of their mansion +walls there was a power to resist the sun which no thin wooden hotel can +possess; therefore, in spite of a fashion which is somewhat dying out, +they remained in Toronto during the hot months, and amused themselves a +good deal on young Dusenall's yacht. + +Their residence was well adapted for such a party as they were now +giving, and the guests were made to understand that in the afternoon +there would be a sort of garden-party, with lawn-tennis chiefly in view, +and at dark a substantial high tea--to wind up with dancing as long as +human nature could stand the strain; and if any had got too old or too +corpulent or too dignified to play tennis, they could hardly get too +much so to look on; or, if this lacked interest, they could walk about +the lawns and gardens and converse, or, if possible, make love; or +listen to a good military band while enjoying a harmless cigarette; and +if they liked none of these things they could never have been known by +the people of whom this account is given, and thus, perhaps, might as +well never have been born. + +The men, of course, played in their flannels, which a few of them +afterward changed in Charley Dusenall's rooms when there was a +suspension of hostilities for toilets. Most of them went home to dinner +and appeared later on for the dancing. People came in afternoon-dress +and remained for tea and through the evening in that attire, or else +they dropped in at the usual time in evening-dress. It did not matter. +It was all a sort of "go-as-you-please." Some girls danced in their +light tennis dresses, and others had their maids come with ball dresses. +Of course the majority came late--especially the chaperons, the heavy +fathers, starchy bank-managers, and such learned counsel as scorned not +to view the giddy whirl nor to sample the cellars of the Dusenalls. + +Mrs. Lindon arrived with her daughter late in the evening, when +everything was whirling. Jack had his name down for a couple of dances, +and a few more were bestowed upon eager aspirants, and then she had no +more to give away--so sorry!--card quite filled! She told dancing fibs +in a charming manner that seemed to take away half the pang of +disappointment. This was a field-day, and the discarded ones could +receive more notice on some other, smaller occasion. + +To see Jack and Nina dancing together was to see two people completely +satisfied with themselves. As a dancer, Jack "fancied himself." He had +an eye for calculating distances and he had the courage of his opinions +when he proposed to dance through a small space. As for Nina, she was +the incarnation of a waltz. Her small feet seemed as quick as the pat of +a cat's paw. In watching her the idea of exertion never seemed to +present itself. There is a pleasure in the rhythmic pulsations of the +feet and in yielding to the sensuous strains of the music (which alone +seems to be the propelling power) that is more distinctly animal than a +good many of our other pleasures; and Nina was born to dance. + +At the end of Jack's first dance with her, Geoffrey came idling through +the conservatory, and entered the ball-room close beside the place where +Mrs. Lindon was seated with several other mothers. As the last bars of +the waltz were expiring, Jack brought up at what he called "the +moorings" with all the easy swing and grace of a dancer who loves his +dance. The act of stopping seemed to divide the unity in trinity +existing between his partner, himself and the music, and it was +therefore to be regretted, and not to be done harshly, but lingeringly, +if it _must_ be done, while Nina, as he released her, came forward +toward her mother with her sleeveless arms still partly hanging in the +air, and with a pretty little trip and slide on the floor, as if she +could not get the "time" out of her feet. Her head was slightly thrown +back, the eyelids were drooped, and the lips were parted with a smile of +recognition for Mrs. Lindon, while her attitude showed the curves of her +small waist to advantage; so that the first glimpse of Nina that +Geoffrey received was not an unpleasant one. She seemed to be moving +naturally and carelessly. She was only endeavoring to make the other +mothers envious, when they compared her with their own daughters. Such +wiles were part of her nature. When feeling particularly vigorous, +almost every attitude of some people is a challenge--males with their +bravery, females with their graces--and, whatever changes the future may +develop in the predilections of woman, there may for a long time be some +left to acknowledge that for them a likable man is one who is able to +assert, in a refined way, sufficient primitive force to make submission +seem like conquest rather than choice. + +Jack at once introduced Geoffrey--his face beaming while he did so. He +was so proud of Nina. He was so proud of Geoffrey. Nina was blushing at +having Hampstead witness her little by-play with her mother at the +conclusion of the dance--but not displeased withal. Jack thought he had +never seen her look so beautiful. And Geoffrey was such a strapper. Jack +surveyed them both with unbounded satisfaction. He slapped Hampstead on +the arm, and tightened the sleeve of his coat over his biceps, patting +the hard limb, and saying warmly: "Here's where the secret lies, Nina! +This is what takes the prizes." + +"So you are Jonathan's David, are you?" said Nina, smiling, as they +talked together. + +"Well, he patronizes me a good deal," said Geoffrey. "But don't you +think he looks as if he wished to find his next partner? Suppose we give +him a chance to do so; let us go off and discuss his moral character." + +He went away with Nina on his arm, leaving Jack quite radiant to see +them both so friendly. + +When they arrived in the long conservatory adjoining, Geoffrey held out +his hand for her card. He did not ask for it, except perhaps by a look. +Having possessed himself of it, he found five successive dances +vacant--evidently kept for some one, and he was bold enough suddenly to +conclude they had been kept for him. He looked at the card amused, and +as he scratched a long mark across all five, he drawled, "May I have the +pleasure of--some dances?" And then he mused aloud as he examined the +card, "Don't seem to be more than five. Humph! Too bad! But perhaps we +can manage a few more, Miss Lindon?" + +Nina was accustomed to distribute her favors with a reluctant hand and +with a condescension peculiarly her own, and to hear suppliant voices +around her. She would be capricious, and loved her power. Even Jack did +not count upon continued sunshine, and took what he could get with some +thanksgivings. She was a presumptive heiress, and had not escaped the +inflation of the purse-proud. But, on the other hand, since her return +she had heard a good deal about the various perfections of his friend, +and how well he did everything; and from what her girl friends said, she +had gleaned that Geoffrey was more in demand than would be confessed. He +was not very desirable financially, perhaps, but hugely so because he +was sought after. This much would have been sufficient to have made her +amused rather than annoyed at his cool way of assuming that she would +devote herself to him for an unlimited time, but there was something +more about Geoffrey than mere fashion to account for his popularity, and +that was the peculiar influence of his presence upon those with whom he +conversed. + +Thus Nina, if she came to the Dusenalls with the intention of having a +flirtation with Geoffrey, which the condition of her card and her +acquiescence to his demands confessed, had hit upon a person who was far +more than her match, for Hampstead's acquaintanceships were not much +governed by rule. As long as a girl diverted him and wished to amuse +herself he had no particular creed as to consequences, but merely made +it understood--verbally, at least--that there was nothing lasting about +the matter, and that it was merely for "the temporary mutual benefit and +improvement of both parties." This was a remnant of a code of +justification by which he endeavored to patch up his self-respect; but +nobody knew better than he that such phrases mean nothing to women who +are falling in love and intend to continue in love. + +Underneath the careless tones with which he spoke to Nina there was an +earnestness and concentration that influenced her. As he gravely handed +back her card and caught and held her glance with an intensity in his +gray eyes and will-power in his face, she felt, for the first time with +any man, that she was not completely at her ease. When obeying the +warning impulses that formerly fulfilled the offices of thought women do +not often make a mistake. By these intuitions, sufficient at first for +self-protection, she knew there was willfulness and mastery in him, and +that if she would be true to Jack she should return to him. If change of +masters be hurtful to women, this was the time for her to remember about +the woman who hesitates. Geoffrey said, "Let us go in and have a dance, +Miss Lindon," and she rose with a nervous smile and glanced across to +the place where her mother was sitting. But Mrs. Lindon had never been a +tower of strength to her, or she might have gone to her. She had a +distinct feeling that this new acquaintance was more powerful in some +way than she had anticipated, and that everything was not all right with +Jack's interests, and she was at one of those moments when a woman's +ability to decide is so peculiarly the essence of her character, +circumstances, and teaching as fairly to indicate her general moral +level. Goethe tells us "to first understand"; but if we can not know the +extent of Geoffrey's influence, or how far her unknown French lineage +assisted temptation, we would better leave judgment alone. Geoffrey said +something in her ear about the music being delicious. She listened for a +moment and longed for a dance with him. Rubbish! only a dance, after +all! And the next moment she was circling through the ball-room with his +arm around her. + +The band that played at the Dusenalls' was one that could be listened to +with pleasure. It was composed of bottle-nosed Germans who worked at +trades during the day and who played together generally for their own +amusement. In all they played they brought out the soul of the movement. +It was to one of the dreamiest of waltzes that Nina danced with +Geoffrey--one of those pieces where from softer cadences the air swells +into rapturous triumph, or sinks into despair, and wooes the dancer into +the most unintellectual and pleasant frame of mind--if the weather be +not too warm. + +A cool night breeze was passing through the room, bringing with it the +fragrance of the dewey flowers outside, and carrying off the odor of +those nauseating tube-roses (which people _will_ wear), and replacing it +with a perfume more acceptable to gods and men--especially men. + +If Jack "fancied himself" as a dancer, Geoffrey had a better right to do +so. His stature aided him also, and men with retreating chins were +rather inclined to give him the road. He had a set look about the lower +part of his face which in crowds was an advantage to him. It suggested +some _vis major_--perhaps a locomotive, which no one cares to encounter. + +In two minutes after they had embarked on this hazardous voyage Nina had +but one idea, or rather she was conscious of a pervading sense of +pleasure, that ran away with her calmer self. No thought of anything +definite was with her, only a vague consciousness of turning and +floating, of being admired, of being impelled by music and by Geoffrey. +As the dance went on it seemed like some master power that led through +the mazes delightfully and resistlessly. + +When the music ended, for they had never stopped, she sighed with +sorrow. It had been too short. She had yielded herself so completely to +its fascination that she seemed like one awakening from a dream. And +then her conscience smote her when she thought of Jack, and how in some +way she had enjoyed herself too much, and did not seem to be quite the +same girl that she had been half an hour before; but these thoughts left +her as they walked about and spoke a few words together. While circling +the long room she noticed Geoffrey bowing to a tall young lady whose +long white silk train swept behind her majestically. There was a respect +and gravity in his bow which Nina, with her quick observation, noticed. + +"Who is that you are bowing to?" she asked. + +"That is Miss Margaret Mackintosh." + +"Oh, I think she is perfectly lovely," said Nina, as she looked back +admiringly. + +"So do I," said Geoffrey. + +Nina turned about now with curiosity, in order to meet her again. Miss +Mackintosh came down the room once more with a partner who was one of +the very young persons who now are the dancing men in Toronto--called +the "infants" by a lady (still unwon) who remembers when there were +marriageable men to be found dancing at parties. This detrimental with +Miss Mackintosh was having an enjoyable time of it. What with the beauty +of his partner, her stately figure, gracious manner, and the rapidity +with which she talked to him, the little man did not quite know where he +was, and he could do little else than turn occasionally and murmur +complete acquiescence in what she was saying, while he sometimes glanced +at her active face for a moment. In doing this, though, he would lose +the thread of her discourse, in consequence of his unfeigned admiration, +and, as he was straining every nerve to follow her quick ideas, this was +a risky thing to do. Once or twice, seeing him turn toward her so +attentively, she turned also and said, "Don't you think so?" and then +the little man would endeavor to mentally pull himself together, and +with some appearance of deep thought would again acquiesce with unction. +Certainly he thought he did think so--every time. + +The close scrutiny of Hampstead and Nina did not seem to affect her as +she passed them with her face unlifted and earnest. She did not seem to +have any side eyes open to see who were regarding her. When the handsome +dress that had made such a cavern in her allowance money was trodden on, +she gathered it up with an active movement--not seeming to notice the +unpleasantness, nor for a moment abating the earnestness of her +conversation. Her idea seemed to be to prevent the dress from +interrupting her rather than to save it. One could see that, once on, +the dress was perhaps not thought of again, that it was not the main +part of her pleasure, but was lost in her endeavor to make herself +agreeable, and in this way to enjoy herself. + +"I am sure she must have a very kind heart," said Nina, smiling. + +"Why?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Because she takes so much trouble over such a poor specimen of a man." + +"Perhaps, as Douglas Jerrold said, she belongs to the Royal Humane +Society," added Geoffrey. + +As Nina could not remember being acquainted with any Mr. Jerrold, the +remark lost some of its weight. The true inwardness of the old wit that +comes down to us in books is our knowledge of the reputation of the +joker. + +"And does she dance well?" asked Nina. + +"No," said Geoffrey, as he still looked after Miss Mackintosh with grave +and thoughtful eyes. "I don't think she has in her enough of what +Goethe calls the 'dæmonic element' of our nature to dance well." + +"Not very complimentary, to those who can dance well," said Nina, archly +pointing to herself. + +Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at his partner. "Some +people prefer the dæmonic element," said he. But he turned again from +the rose to the tall, white lily, who was once more approaching them, +with something of a melancholy idea in his mind that men like him ought +to confine themselves entirely to the rose, and not aspire above their +moral level. Margaret Mackintosh was the one person he revered. She was +the symbol to him of all that was good and pure. He had almost forgotten +what these words meant, but the presence of Margaret always +re-interpreted the lost language. + +"And do you admire her very much?" Nina inquired. + +"I admire her more than any person I ever saw." + +Sooner or later, it would have gone hard with Geoffrey for making this +speech, if he had been any one else. But it occurred to Nina that he did +not care whether she took offense or not. He was leaning against the +wall, apparently oblivious, for the moment, to any of her ideas, charms, +or graces, but looking, withal, exceedingly handsome, and a thought came +to her which should not come to an engaged young lady. She made up her +mind that she would make him care for her a great deal and then would +snub him and marry Jack. + +The music commenced again. + +"Come now," said Nina, gayly, "and try a little more of the dæmonic +element." + +Geoffrey turned to her quickly, and his face flushed as, to quote +Shakespeare's sonnet, "his bad angel fired his good one out." He saw in +her face her intention to subjugate him, and knew that he had +accidentally paved the way for this new foolish notion of hers by his +candid admiration of Miss Mackintosh. + +"Have you any of it to spare?" said he, as his arm encircled her for the +dance. + +No verbal answer was given, but they floated away among the dancers. +Here she forgot her slight feelings of resentment and retained only the +desire to attract him, without further wish to punish him afterward. A +few turns around the room, and she was in as much of a whirl as she had +been before. They danced throughout the music--almost without ceasing; +and when it ended she unconsciously leaned, upon his arm, as they +strolled off together, almost as if she were tired. The thought of how +she was acting came to her, only it came now as an intruder. A usurper +reigned with sovereign sway, and Right was quickly ousted on his +approach. A little while ago, and the power to decide, for Jack or +against him, was more evenly balanced; but now, how different! She was +wandering on with no other impulse than the indefinite wish to please +Geoffrey. If she had been a man, sophisms and excuses might have +occurred to her. But it was not her habit to analyze self much, and even +sophisms require _some_ thought. + +They passed through the conservatory and out to the broad walk of +pressed gravel, where several couples were promenading. Here they walked +up and down once or twice in the cool breeze that seemed delicious after +the invisible dust of the ball-room. Nina was saying nothing, but +leaning on his arm, and it seemed to her that his low, deep tones +vibrated through her--as a sympathetic note sometimes makes glass +ring--as if in echo. + +Geoffrey was pondering where all the pride and self-assertion had gone +to in this girl who now seemed so trustful and docile. Even her answers +seemed mechanical and vague, as if she were in some way bewildered. + +Jack, in the mean time, was elbowing his way through a crowd, trying to +get one of his partners something to eat. He was the only person likely +to notice her absence, and this he did not do, and, as Geoffrey was down +for five dances, he knew no others would be looking for her. So he +walked on past the end of the terrace, and, descending some steps, +proceeded farther till they came to more steps leading down into a path +dark with overhanging trees. Nina hesitated, and said she was always +afraid to go among dark trees, but Geoffrey said, "Oh, I'll take care of +you." Then she thought it was pleasant to have an athlete for a +protector, and she glanced at his strong face and frame with confidence. +She no longer went with him as she had danced, with her mind in a whirl, +but peacefully and calmly, with no other thought than to be with him. He +took her hand as they descended the stairs, and, though she shrank a +little from a proceeding new to her, it seemed natural enough, and gave +her a sense of protection in the dark paths. It did not occur to her +that she could have done without it. She did not notice their silence. +Geoffrey, too, thought it pleasant enough in the balmy air without +conversation. He was interested by her beauty and her sudden partiality +for him. + +At length he stopped in one of the distant paths as they came to a seat +between the trunks of two large trees. Here they sat down at opposite +sides of the seat, and Geoffrey leaned back against the tree beside him. +The leaves on the overhanging boughs quivered in the light of the moon, +and the delicate perfume in the air spoke of flower-beds near by. He +thought it extremely pleasant here, and he laid his head back against +the tree beside him to listen to the tinkling of the fountain and to +enjoy the scent-laden night air. An idea was still with him that this +was the girl Jack was engaged to, and he thought it would be as well to +keep that idea before him. He said to himself that he liked Jack, and +thought he was very considerate, under the circumstances, for his friend +when he took out a little silver case and suggested that he would like a +cigarette. + +Nina did not answer him. She was in some phase of thought in which +cigarettes had no place, and only looked toward him slowly, as if she +had merely heard the sound of his voice and not the words. He selected +from the case one of those innocuous tubes of rice-paper and +prairie-grass, and, as he did so, the absent look on her face seemed +peculiar. With a fuse in one hand and the cigarette in the other, he +paused before striking a light, and they looked at each other for a +moment as he thought of stories he had read of one person's influence +over another. Like many, he had a general curiosity about strange phases +of mankind, and it occurred to him that Nina would make an interesting +subject for experiment. Presently he said, in resonant tones, deep and +musical: + +"Do you like to be here, Nina?" + +She did not seem to notice that he called her by this familiar name, but +she stood up and remained silently gazing at the moon through a break in +the foliage. Her beauty was sublimated by the white light, and, as +Geoffrey took a step towards her, he forgot about his cigarette, and, +taking both her hands in his, he repeated his question two or three +times before she answered. Then she turned impetuously. + +"Oh, why do you make me do everything that is wrong? I should not be +here. I should never have spoken to you. I was afraid of you from the +first moment I saw you." + +Geoffrey led her by one hand back to the seat. + +"Now answer me. Do you like to be here--with me, Nina?" + +She looked at the moon and at the ground and all about, but remained +mute and apparently pondering. + +He had forgotten Jack now as well as the cigarette, and was rapidly +losing the remembrance that this was to be merely a scientific +experiment. + +"Your silence makes me all the more impatient. I will know now. Do you +like to be here, Nina?" + +A new earnestness in his tone thrilled her and made her tremble. She +turned with a sudden impulse, as if something had made her reckless: + +"You are forcing me to answer you," she said vehemently, as she looked +at him with a constrained, though affectionate expression in her eyes. +"But I will tell you if I die for it. Oh, I am so wicked to say so, but +I must. You make me. Oh, now let us go into the house." + +Geoffrey's generous intention to act rightly by Jack departed from him, +and for a moment he drew her toward him, saying that she must not care +too much for being there, "because, you know," he said, "this is only a +little flirtation, and is quite too good to last." + +She seemed not to be listening to him, but to be thinking; and after a +moment she said, in long drawn out, sorrowful accents: + +"Oh--poor--Jack!" + +Something in the slow, melancholy way she said this, and the thought of +the poor place that Jack certainly held at the present time in her +affections, struck Geoffrey as irresistibly amusing, and he laughed +aloud in an unsympathetic way, which presented him to her in a new +light, and she sprang from him at once. Her emotion turned to anger as +she thought that the laugh had been derisive, and her blood boiled to +think he could bring her here to laugh at her after he had succeeded in +winning her so completely. + +"Come into the house at once," she cried. "I can't go in alone even if I +knew the way." + +Geoffrey rose and begged her pardon, assuring her that nothing but the +peculiarity of her remark had caused his laugh. + +"I will not stay here another instant. If you don't come at once I'll +find my way alone." And she stamped her foot upon the ground. + +Hampstead did not like to be stamped at, and his face altered. As long +as she had been facile and pleasing, a sense of duty toward her and Jack +had made him considerate. It had seemed to him while sitting there that +this girl was his; and the sense of possession had made him kind, but +now that she seemed to vex him unnecessarily it appeared to him like a +denial of his influence. The idea of the experiment suddenly returned, +together with a sense of power and a desire to compel submission which +displaced his wish to be considerate. He sat down on the seat again +facing her and said: + +"I want you to come here." He motioned to the seat beside him. + +"I won't go near you. I hate you! I'll run in by myself." + +"You can not run away--because I wish you to come here." + +Hampstead said this in a measured way, and his brow seemed to knot into +cords as he concentrated his will-power. His face bore an unpleasant +expression. A quarter of a minute passed and she stood trembling and +fascinated; and before another half-minute had elapsed she came very +slowly forward, and approached him with the expression of her face +changed into one of enervation. Her eyes were dilated, and her hands +hung loosely at her sides. Hampstead saw, with some consternation, that +she had become like something else, that she looked very like a +mad-woman. A shock went through him as he looked at her--not knowing how +the matter might terminate. He saw that she was mesmerized--an automaton +moved by his will only. The combined flirtation and experiment had gone +further than he had intended, and the result was startling--especially +as the possibility that she might not recover flashed through his mind. +The power he had been wielding (which receives much cheap ridicule from +very learned men who would fain deny what they can not explain) suddenly +seemed to him to be a devilish one, and he felt that he had done +something wrong. He had not intended it. An idea had seized him, and he +was merely concentrating a power which he unconsciously used almost +every hour of his life. He considered what ought to be done to bring her +back to a normal state. Not knowing anything better to do, he walked her +about quickly, speaking to her, a little sharply, so as to rouse her. + +Then, by telling her to wake up, and by asking her simple questions and +requiring an answer, he succeeded in bringing her back to something like +her usual condition. When she quite knew where she was, she thought she +must have fainted. All her anger was gone, and Geoffrey, to give the +devil his due, felt sorry for her. It had been an interesting +episode--something quite new to him in a scientific way--but uncanny. +She still looked to him as if for protection, and she would have wept +had he not warned her how she would appear in the ball-room. "Oh, Mr. +Hampstead, you have treated me cruelly," she said. Geoffrey felt that +this was true enough. + +"It was all my own fault, though. I do not blame you. You have taught me +a great deal to-night. I seem to know, somehow, your best and your +worst, and what a man can be." + +She leaned upon his arm, partly from weakness and partly because she +felt that, good or bad, he was master, and that she liked to lean upon +him. The movement touched Geoffrey with compassion. Having nothing to +offer in return, it distressed him to notice her affection, which he +knew would only bring her unhappiness. He tried, therefore, to say +something to remove the impressions that had come to her. + +"You speak of good and bad in me," he said quickly. "Now I think you are +so much in my confidence that I can trust you in what I am going to say. +Don't believe that there is any good in me. I tell you the truth now +because I am sorry that we have been so foolish to-night. There is no +good in me. It is all--the other thing." + + +Nina shuddered--feeling as if he had spoken the truth but that it was +already too late for her to listen to it. + +He took her back into the house, smiling and pleasant to those about +him, as if nothing had occurred, and left her with Mrs. Lindon. + +But he did not go to find Margaret Mackintosh again. He went home +somewhat excited, and smoked four or five pipes of tobacco. At first he +was regretful, for he knew he had been doing harm. He said he was a +whimsical fool. But after a couple of "night-caps" he began to think how +picturesque she had looked in the moonlight, and he afterward dropped +off into as dreamless and undisturbed a sleep as the most virtuous may +enjoy. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + For in her youth + There is a prone and speechless dialect, + Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous art, + When she will play with reason and discourse, + And well she can persuade. + + _Measure for Measure._ + + +If anybody had stated that Geoffrey Hampstead was a scoundrel, he would +have had grounds for his opinion. As he did not attempt to palliate his +own misdeeds, nobody will do so for him. He repudiated the idea of being +led into wrong-doing, or driven into it by outside circumstances. +Whatever he did, he liked to do thoroughly, and of his own accord. When +Nature lavishes her gifts, much ability for both good and evil is +usually part of the general endowment; and, although, perhaps, if we +knew more, all wrong-doing would receive pity, Geoffrey possessed a +knowledge of results that tends to withdraw compassion. But he had +overstepped the mark when he had told Nina there was no good in him. +Even his own statement reminded him how few things there are about which +a sweeping assertion can be made with truth. He grew impatient to find +that so many people do not hold opinions--that their opinions hold them; +and when the good equalities of a person under discussion met with no +consideration he invariably spoke of them. He had a good word to say for +most people, and no lack of courage to say it, and thus he gave +impression of being fair-minded, which made men like him. He had the +compassion for the faulty which seems to appear more frequently in those +whose lives have been by no means without reproach than among the +strictest followers of religions which claim charity as their own. He +thought he realized that consciousness of virtue does not breed so much +true compassion as consciousness of sin; and a young clergyman of his +acquaintance found that his arguments as to the utility of sin in the +world were very shocking and difficult to answer. + +Thus he alternated between good and evil, very much in the ordinary way, +with only these differences, that his good seemed more disinterested and +his evil more pronounced than with most people. The good which he did +was done without the bargaining hope of future compensation, and +therefore seemed more commendable. On the other hand, as he had almost +forgotten what the idea of hell was, he was not forced to brave those +consequences which, if some believe as they profess, must render their +deliberate wrong-doing almost heroic. + +What should a man be called who had in him these combinations? Too good +to be either a Quilp or a Jonas Chuzzlewit, and much too bad to resemble +any of the spotless heroes of fiction. It will settle the matter with +those who are intolerant of distinctions and who do not examine into +mixtures of good and evil outside their own range of life to have it +understood and agreed that he was a thoroughpaced scoundrel. This will +place us all on a comfortable footing. + +Some days after the Dusenalls' entertainment Geoffrey was strolling +along King Street when he caught sight of Margaret Mackintosh coming +along the street with quiet eyes observant. She walked with a long, +elastic step, which seemed to speak of the buoyancy of her heart. + +Geoffrey walked slower, so that he might enjoy the beauty of her +carriage, and the charm of her presence as she recognized him. It seemed +to him that no one else could convey so much in a bow as she could. With +the graceful inclination of the head came the pleasure of recognition +and a quick intelligence that lighted up her face. It was the bow of a +princess, as we imagine it; not, it will be remembered, as Canada has +experienced it. A nobility and graciousness in her face and figure made +men feel that she had a right to condescend to them. Innocence was not +the chief characteristic of her face. However attractive, innocence is a +poetic name for ignorance--the ignorance which has been canonized by the +Romish faith, and has thus produced all the insipid virgins and heroines +of the old masters and writers. She did not show that pliable, ductile, +often pretty ignorance, supposedly sanctified by the name of innocence, +which has been the priestly ideal of beauty for at least nineteen +hundred years--perhaps always. + +Hers was a good face, with a sweet, firm, generous mouth, possibly +passionate, and already marked by sympathetic suffering from such human +ills as she understood. She seemed to have nothing to hide, and she was +as free and open as the day, and as fresh as the dawn; and a large part +of the charm she had for all men lay in the fact that her self-respect +was so assured to her that she had forgotten all about it. She had none +of that primness which, is the outcome of an attempt to conceal the +fact, that knowledge of which one is ashamed is continually uppermost in +the mind. + +As soon as her eye rested on Geoffrey, it lighted up with that marvelous +quickness which is the attribute of rapidly-thinking people. In a flash +her mind apparently possessed itself of all she had ever known of him. +Five or six little things to say came tumbling over each other to her +lips, as she held out her long gloved hand in greeting. Even Hampstead +felt that her quick approach, earnest manner, and the way she looked +straight at him almost disconcerted him; but he had thought to wait till +she spoke to him to see what she would say. And she thought he would +speak first, so a little pause occurred for an instant that would have +been slightly awkward had they not both been young and very good-looking +and much interested in each other. + + +"And how are you?" said she heartily, as they shook hands. The pause +might have continued as far as either of them cared. They were +self-possessed persons--these two. + +"Oh, I am pretty well, thank you," said Geoffrey, without hastening to +continue the conversation. + +"And particularly well you look. Never saw you look better," said +Margaret. + +Geoffrey made a deep bow, extending the palms of his hands toward her +and downward in reverent Oriental pantomime, as one who should say: +"Your slave is humbly glad to please, and dusts your path with his +miserable body." + +"And what brought you into town to-day?" said he, as he turned and +walked with her. "Not the giddy delight of walking on King Street, I +hope?" + +"That was my only idea, I will confess. Home was dull, and I was tired +of reading. Mother was busy and father was away somewhere; so I came out +for a walk. Yes, King Street was my only hope. No, by the way--I had an +excuse. I have been looking for a house-maid. None to be had though." + +"Don't find one," said Geoffrey. "Just come out every day to look for +one. I know several fellows who would hunt house-maids with you forever +if they got the chance." + +"Ah! they never dare to say that to me. They might get snapped up. Yet +it is hard to only receive compliments by deputy, like this. Do they +intend that, after all, I shall die an old maid? And your banks friends +are such excellent _partis_! are they not?" + +"They are," said Geoffrey. "At least, they would be if they had a house +to put a wife into--to say nothing of the maid." + +"Talking of house-maids," said Margaret, "I just met Mrs. +whats-her-name--you know, the little American with the German name; and +she had just discharged one of her maids. She said to me, 'You know I +have just one breakfast--ice-cold water and a hot roll; sometimes a +pickle. Sarah said I'd kill myself, and in spite of everything I could +say she _would_ load the table with tea or coffee and stuff I don't +want. 'Last I got mad and I walked in with her wages up to date. I said, +'Sarah I guess we had better part. You don't fill the bill.' I told her +I would try and get Sarah myself, as I didn't object to her ideas in the +matter of breakfasts. I have been looking for her and wanting some nice +person to help me to find her. What are you doing this afternoon? Won't +you come and help me to find Sarah?" This, with a little pretense of +_implorando_. + +"If you think I 'fill the bill' as 'a nice person' nothing would give me +greater pleasure. Sarah will be found. No, I have nothing in particular +on hand to-day. I was going to the gymnasium to have a fellow pummel me +with the gloves. I am certain I have received more headaches and +nose-bleedings in learning how to defend myself with my hands than one +would receive in being attacked a dozen times in earnest." + +"Well, now would be a good time to stop taking further lessons," said +Margaret. "Why do you give yourself so much trouble?" + +"Oh, for the exercise, I suppose, or the prestige of being a boxer. +Keeps one's person sacred, in a manner; and among young men serves to +give more weight to the expression of one's opinions. I think it is a +mistake, though, as far as I am concerned. Nature made me speedy on my +feet, and when the time comes I'll use her gift instead of the +artificial one." + +"I have heard it said that it is much wiser for a gentleman to run from +a street fight than to stay in it--that the fact of his not using his +feet as a means of attack in a fight always places him at a +disadvantage. Could you not learn the manly art of kicking, as well?" + +"What a murderous notion!" exclaimed Geoffrey. "I don't think that +branch of self-defense is taught in the schools. It reminds one of a +duel with axes. For my part, I think that hunting Sarah is much more +improving. That is, if one did not have blood-thirsty ideas put into his +head on the way." + +And Margaret looked so gentle and pacific. + +"I always think a very interesting subject like this should be thought +out carefully," said she, smiling. + +If she could not talk well on all subjects, she was a boon to those who +could only talk on _one_--to those who resemble a ship with only one +sail to keep them going--slow to travel on, but capable of teaching +something, and not to be despised. + +With her tall figure, classic face, and blonde hair, Margaret Mackintosh +was a vision; but when she came, with large-pupiled eyes, in quest of +knowledge, even grave and reverend seigniors were apt to forget the +information she asked for. University-degree young men, the most +superior of living creatures, soon understood that she sought for what +they had learned, and not for themselves; and this demeanor on her part, +while it tended to disturb the nice balance in which the weight of their +mental talents was accurately poised against that of their physical +fascinations, went to make friends and not lovers. + +There was one person, however, to whose appearance she was not +indifferent; who always suggested to her the Apollo Belvedere, and gave +her an increased interest in the Homer of arts, whereas the vigorous +life, heroic resolve, and shapely perfection of the ancient hero meet +with but little response in women who exist with difficulty. She was +perhaps entitled, by a sort of natural right, to expect that a masculine +appearance should approach that grade of excellence of which she was +herself an example. + +"Do you know," she continued, as they proceeded up Yonge Street, "just +before I met you I passed such a horrible young man, with long arms +reaching almost to his knees and a little face. He made me quite +uncomfortable. It's all very well to believe in our evolution as an +abstract idea; but an experience like this brings the conviction home to +one's mind altogether too vividly. It was quite a relief to meet you. +You always look so--in fact, so different from that sort of person, +don't you know?" + +She nearly said he looked so like her Apollo, but did not. + +Geoffrey smiled. "There are times when the idea seems against common +sense," said he, with a short glance at her. + +"Ah! you intend that for me. But you are almost repeating father's +remark. You know he is a confirmed follower of the theory. A few days +ago he said that the only thing he had against you was that you upset +his studies. He says you ought to hire out to the special-creationists +to be used as their clinching argument. So you see what it is to be an +Ap--" + +She stopped. + +"Ah! you were going to say something severe, then," said Geoffrey. "Just +as well, though, to snub me sometimes. I don't mind it if nobody knows +of it. But, about your father? Do you assist him in his studies?" + +"I don't know that I assist him much. He does the hardest part of the +work, and then has to explain it all to me. But I read to him a good +deal when his eyes trouble him. After procuring a new book on the +subject he never rests till he has exhausted it. We often worry through +it together, taking turns at the reading. We have just finished +Haeckel's last. We are wild about Haeckel." + +"Yes, there is something very spiritual and orthodox about him," said +Geoffrey. "And now that you must have got about as far as you can at +present, how does the theory affect you?" + +"Not at all, except to make me long to know more. If one could live to +be two hundred years old, would it not be delightful?" said Margaret, +looking far away up the street in front of her. + +"But as to your religion?" asked Geoffrey. "Do you find that it makes +any difference?" + +"I don't think I was ever a very religious person," she replied, +mistaking the word religious for 'churchy.' "I never was christened, nor +confirmed, nor taught my catechism, nor anything of that sort. Nobody +ever promised that I should renounce the devil and all his works, and +so--and so I suppose I never have." + +She looked at Geoffrey with the round eyes of guilelessness, slightly +mirthful, as if, while deprecating this wretched state, she could still +enjoy life. + +Her companion could scarcely look away from her. There was such a +combination of knowledge and purity and all-round goodness in her face +that it fascinated him and induced him to say gravely: + +"Indeed, one might have almost supposed that you had enjoyed these +benefits from your earliest youth." + +"No," she answered, "I have been neglected in church matters. Who knows? +Perhaps, if I had been different, father and I would never have been +such companions. I never remember his going to church, although he pays +his pew-rent for mother and me to go. He is afraid people would call him +an atheist, you know, and no man cares about being despised or looked +upon as peculiar in that way. He says that as long as he pays his +pew-rent the good people will let him alone. As for mother, I hardly +know what her belief is now. She is mildly contemptuous of evolution; +chiefly, I think, because she does not know, or care anything about it. +She says the creed she was brought up in is quite enough for her, and if +she can keep the dust _out_ of the house and contentment _in_ it she +will do more than most people and fullfil the whole duty of woman. I +don't think she likes to be cross-questioned about her particular +tenets, which really seem to be sufficient for her, except when she is +worried over a new phase of the old family lawsuit, and then she +oscillates between pugnacity and resignation. So you see I was left +pretty much to myself as to assuming any belief that I might care +about." + +"And what belief did you come to care about?" he asked, feeling +interested. + +"Well, father seems to think that the most dignified attitude of our +ignorance is a respectful silence; but, as you have asked which belief I +_care about_, I can answer frankly that I like best going to church and +saying my prayers. It is so much more pleasant and comfortable to try to +think our prayers are heard, for, as mother says, reason and logic are +poor outlets for emotion when the lawsuit goes wrong. With our +information as it is, our conclusions seem to depend on whether we have +or have not in us the spirit of research. They tell me in the churches +that, being unregenerate, my heart is desperately wicked, and, as I have +nothing but a little bad temper now and then to reproach myself with, I +do not agree with them. On the contrary, I always feel that my life +rather tends to lead me toward believing--or, at any rate, does not make +me prejudiced. I like to believe that God watches over and cares for us. +There being no proof or disproof of the matter, I would find it as +difficult, by way of reasoning, to altogether disbelieve as to +altogether believe." + +"Then you make evolution a part of your religion?" asked Geoffrey. + +Margaret had been brought up in an advanced latter-day school. All the +unrecognized passion within her had gone out in quest of knowledge, +which her father had taught her to regard as a source of quiet +happiness, or at least as comforting to the soul during the maturer +years as an intricate knowledge of crochet and quilt work. When she took +to her bosom the so-called dry-as-dust facts of science she clothed them +in a sort of spirituality. Even slipper-working for a married curate has +been known to stir the pulses, and, though she knew that when the +objects of our enthusiasm seem to glow it is unsafe to say whether the +glow is not merely the reflection of our own fervor, she regarded the +lately dug-up facts of science somewhat as if they were mines of +long-hidden coal, capable of use and possessed of intrinsic warmth. Her +face brightened with all the enthusiasm of a devotee as she answered +Geoffrey's question. + +"Indeed, yes. The new knowledge seems like the backbone of my religion. +I often sit in church and think what a blessed privilege it is to be +permitted to know even as little as we do about God's plan of creation." + +She joined her hands before her quickly as she walked along, forgetful +of all but the idea that enchained her. Her face showed the devotion +seen in some old pictures of early saints, but it was too capable and +animated to be the production of any of the old masters. + +"Oh, it is grand to know even a little!" she exclaimed; "to think that +this is God's plan, and that bit by bit we are allowed to unravel it! Is +it not true that we acquire knowledge as we are able to receive it? Did +not the ruder people receive the simple laws which Moses learned in +Egypt? and did not Christianity expand those laws by teaching the +religion of sympathy? These are historical facts. Why, then, should we +not regard evolution as an advanced gospel, the gospel of the knowledge +of God's works, to bind us more closely to him from our admiration of +the excellence of his handiwork--as a father might show his growing son +how his business is carried on, and how beautiful things are made? Of +course, one may reply that all the discoveries do not show that there is +a God. Perhaps they don't; but I try to think they do. I never have been +able to find that verbal creeds do much toward making us what we are. +The gloomy distort Christ's life to prove the necessity for sorrow; the +joyous do just the opposite. The naturally cruel practice their cruelty +in the name of religion. Though all start with perhaps the same words on +their lips, each individual in reality makes his religion for himself +according to his nature. Look at the difference between Guiteau and +Florence Nightingale. They both had the same creeds." + +Hampstead was silent. + +"I know that my religion might not suffice for others, because it has no +terrors, but to me it is compelling. When I turn it all over more +minutely, the beauty of the thoughts seems to carry me away. Let those +whose brittle creeds are broken grope about in their gloom, if they +will. To me it is glorious first to try to understand things, and then +to praise God for his marvelous works." + +Margaret grew more intense in her utterance as her subject grew upon +her. They had turned off on a quiet street some time before, so there +was nothing to interrupt her. As her earnestness gave weight to her +voice, the words came out more fervently and more melodiously. Both her +hands were raised, in an unconscious gesture, while the words welled +forth with a depth and force impossible to describe. + +Geoffrey walked on in silence. + +He thought of the passage, "I came not to call the righteous, but +sinners to repentance," and he wondered whether Christ would have +thought that such as Margaret stood in need of any further faith. The +shrine of Understanding was the only one she worshiped at, arguing, as +she did, that from a proper understanding and true wisdom followed all +the goodness of the Christ-life. He became conscious of a vague regret +within him that he had, as he thought, passed those impressionable +periods when a man's beliefs may be molded again. There was a distinct +longing to participate in the assurance and joy which any kind of fixed +faith is capable of producing. The Byronic temperament was not absent +from him. He was keenly susceptible to anything--either moral or +immoral--which called upon his ideality; and these ideas of Margaret's, +although he had thought of them before, seemed new to him. + +"It seems strange," he said musingly, "to hear of some of the most +learned men of the day erecting an altar similar to that which Paul +found at Athens 'to the unknown God,' and to find them impelled to +worship something which they speak of as unknown and unknowable." + +"And yet," she answered, "it is the work of some of these very men, and +their predecessors, that gives the light and life to the religion which +I, for one, find productive of comfort and enthusiasm. One can +understand the practicability of a heaven where a gradual acquisition of +the fullness of knowledge could be a joyful and everlasting occupation; +and I think a religion to fit us for such a heaven should, like the +Buddhist's, strive to increase our knowledge instead of endeavoring to +stifle it. What is there definitely held out as reward by religions to +make men improve? As far as I can see, there is nothing definite +promised, except in Buddhism perhaps, which men with active minds would +care to accept. But knowledge! knowledge! This is what may bring an +eternity of active happiness. Here is a vista as delightful as it is +boundless. Surely in this century, we have less cause to call God +altogether 'unknown' than had the men of Athens. In the light of +omniscience the difference may be slight indeed, but to us it is great. +I do hope," she added, "that what I have said does not offend any of +your own religious convictions." + +"I have none," said Geoffrey simply; "and it is very good of you to tell +me so much about yourself. I have been wanting something of the kind. +You know Bulwer says, 'No moral can be more impressive than that which +shows how a man may become entangled in his own sophisms.' He says it is +better than a volume of homilies; and it is difficult sometimes, after a +course of reading mixed up with one's own vagaries, to judge as to one's +self or others from a sufficiently stable standpoint. You always seem to +give me an intuitive knowledge of what good really is, and to tell me +where I am in any moral fog." + +They walked on together for some little distance further when Margaret +stopped and began to look up and down the street. + +"Why, where are we?" she said. "What street is this?" + +"I can not help you with the name of the street. I supposed we were +approaching the domicile of Sarah. We are now in St. John's Ward, I +think, and unless Sarah happens to be a colored person you are not +likely to find her in this neighborhood." + +"Dear me," said Margaret, as she descended from considering the possible +occupations of the heavenly host to those usual in St. John's Ward, "I +have not an idea where we are. We must have come a long distance out of +our way. It is your fault for doing all the talking." + +"On the contrary, Miss Margaret, I have been unable to get a word in +edgewise." + +The search for Sarah was abandoned, and they wended their way toward +Margaret's home, the conversation passing to other subjects and to Nina +Lindon, whom they discussed in connection with the ball at the +Dusenalls'. + +"They certainly seem very devoted, do they not?" said Margaret, +referring to Jack Cresswell also. + +"Yes, their attachment for each other is quite idyllic," said Geoffrey, +lapsing into his cynical speech, "which is as it should be. I did not +see them much together, as I left early." + +"I noticed your absence, at least I remembered afterward not having seen +you late in the evening, but, as you take such an interest in your +friend, you should have stayed longer, if only to see the very happy +expression on his face. You know she is spoken of as being the _belle_, +and certainly he ought to be proud of her, as the attention she +attracted was so very marked. I thought her appearance was charming. +They seemed to make an exception to the rule among lovers that one loves +and the other submits to be loved." + +"I am glad to hear you say this," said Geoffrey, as he silently +reflected as to the cause of Nina's return to do her duty in a way that +would tend to ease her conscience. "Jack is worthy of the best of girls. +Have you ever called upon the Lindons?" + +"No, not yet. But Mr. Cresswell spoke to me about Miss Lindon and said +he would like me to know her. So I said we would call. I am afraid, +however, that mother will complain at the length of her visiting list +being increased. She will have to be coaxed into this call to please +me." + +"Jack cherishes an idea that Miss Lindon, he, and I will become a trio +of good friends," said Geoffrey. "Now, if anything could be done to make +it a quartette, if you would consent to make a fourth, Miss Margaret, I +am certain the new arrangement would be more satisfactory to all +parties, especially so to me considered as one of the trio. A +gooseberry's part is fraught with difficulties." + +"The more the merrier, no doubt, in this case. Numbers will release you +from your responsibilities. I have myself two or three friends that +would make excellent additions to the quartette. There's Mr. Le Fevre, +of your bank, and also Mr.--" + +"Ah, well!" said Geoffrey, interrupting. "Let us consider. I don't think +that it was contemplated to make a universal brotherhood of this +arrangement. If there are to be any more elected I should propose that +the male candidates should be balloted for by the male electors only, +and that additional lady members should be disposed of by their own sex +only. Let me see. In the event of a tie in voting, the matter might be +left to a general meeting to be convened for consultation and ice-cream, +and, if the candidate be thrown out by a majority, the proposer should +be obliged to pay the expenses incurred by the conclave." + +"That seems a feasible method," said Margaret. "Although I tell you, if +we girls do not have the right men, there will be trouble. And now we +ought to name the new society. What do you say to calling it 'An +Association for the Propagation of Friendly Feeling among Themselves'?" + +"Limited," added Geoffrey, thinking that the membership ought to be +restricted. + +"Oh, limited, by all means," cried Margaret. "I should rather think so. +Limited in finances, brains, and everything else. And then the rules! +Politics and religion excluded, of course, as in any other club?" + +"Well, I don't mind those so much as discussions of millinery and +dress-making. These should be vetoed at any general meeting." + +"Excuse me. These are subjects that come under the head of art, and +ought to be permissible to any extent; but I do make strong objection to +the use of yachting terms and sporting language generally." + +"Possibly you are right," said Geoffrey. "But Jack--poor Jack! he must +refer to starboard bulkheads and that sort of thing from time to time. +However, we will agree to each other's objections, but we must certainly +place an embargo upon saying ill-natured things about our neighbors--" + +"Good heavens, man! Do you expect us to be dumb?" cried Margaret. "Very +well. It shall be so. We will call it the 'Dumb Improvement Company for +Learned Pantomime.'" + +And thus they rattled on in their fanciful talk merrily +enough--interrupting each other and laughing over their own absurdities, +and sharpening their wits on each other, as only good friends can, until +Margaret's home was reached. + +To Geoffrey it seemed to emphasize Margaret's youth and companionability +when, in following his changing moods, she could so readily make the +transition from the sublime to the ridiculous. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + ROSALIND. Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown more than + your enemies.--_As You Like It._ + + +In the few weeks following the entertainment of the Dusenalls, Hampstead +had not seen Nina. He felt he had been doing harm. The memory of that +which had occurred and a twinge or two at his unfaithfulness to his +friend Jack had made him avoid seeing her. But afterward, as fancy for +seeing her again came to him more persistently, he gradually reverted +to the old method of self-persuasion, that if she preferred Jack she +might have him. He said he did not intend to show "any just cause or +impediment" when Jack's marriage bans were published, and what the girl +might now take it into her head to do was no subject of anxiety to him. + +She, in the mean time, had lost no time in improving her acquaintance +with Margaret after the calls had been exchanged. Margaret was not +peculiar in finding within her an argument in favor of one who evidently +sought her out, and the small amount of effusion on Nina's part was not +without some of its desired effect. Nina wished to be her particular +friend. She had perceived that a difference existed between them--a +something that Geoffrey seemed to admire; and she had the vague impulse +to form herself upon her. + +Huxley explained table-turning by a simple experiment. He placed cards +underneath the hands of the people forming the charmed circle round the +table, and when they all "willed" that the table should move in a +particular direction the cards and hands moved in that direction, while +the table resisted the spirits and remained firm on its feet. In a +similar way, Nina's impulse to know Margaret and frame herself upon her +were all a process of unconscious self-deception which resembled the +illusions of unrecognized muscular movements. She had no fixed ideas +regarding Hampstead. Her actions were simply the result of his presence +in her thoughts. She moved toward him, distantly and vaguely, but +surely--somewhat as the card of a ship-compass, when it is spinning, +seems to have no fixed destination, though its ultimate direction is +certain. + +She found it easy to bring the Dusenall girls to regard Margaret as +somebody worth cultivating. The family tree of the Dusenall's commenced +with the grandfather of the Misses Dusenall, who had got rich "out +West." On inquiry they found that Margaret's family tree dwarfed that of +any purely Canadian family into a mere shrub by comparison; and on +knowing her better they found her brightness and vivacity a great +addition to little dinners and lunches where conversational powers are +at a premium. + +With plenty of money, no work, an army of servants, a large house and +grounds, a stable full of horses, and a good yacht, three or four young +people can with the assistance of their friends support life fairly +well. Lawn-tennis was their chief resource. Nina, being rather of the +Dudu type, was not wiry enough to play well, and Margaret had not +learned. She was strong and could run well, but this was not of much use +to her. When the ball came toward her through the air she seemed to +become more or less paralyzed. Between nervous anxiety to hit the ball +and inability to judge its distance, she usually ended in doing nothing, +and felt as if incurring contempt when involuntarily turning her back +upon it. If she did manage to make a hit, the ball generally had to be +found in the flower-beds far away on either side of the courts. In +cricketing parlance, she played to "cover point" or "square leg" with +much impartiality. + +So these two generally looked on and made up for their want of skill in +dignity and in conversation among themselves and with the men too +languid to play. The wonder was that the marriageable young women liked +Margaret so well. With her long, symmetrical dress rustling over the +lawn and her lace-covered parasol occasionally hiding her dainty bonnet +and well-poised head, Margaret might have been regarded as an enemy and +labeled "dangerous," but the girls trusted her with their particular +young men, with a sort of knowledge that she did not want any of them, +even if the men themselves should prove volatile and recreant. After +all, what young girls chiefly seek "when all the world is young, lad, +and all the trees are green," is to have a good time and not be +interrupted in their whims. So Margaret, who was launching out into a +gayer life than she had led before, got on well enough, and the wonder +as to what girls who did nothing found to talk about was wearing off. If +she was not much improved in circles where general advantages seemed to +promise originality, it was no bad recreation sometimes to study the +exact minimum of intelligence that general advantages produced, and the +drives in the carriages and Nina's village-cart were agreeable. She was +partial to "hen-parties." Nina had one of these exclusive feasts where +perhaps the success of many a persistent climber of the social ladder +has been annihilated. It was a luncheon party. Of course the Dusenall +girls were there, and a number of others. Mrs. Lindon did not appear. +Nina was asked where she was, but she said she did not know. As she +never did seem to know, this was not considered peculiar. + +On this day Margaret was evidently the particular guest, and she was +made much of by several girls whom she had not met before. It was worth +their while, for she was Nina's friend and Nina had such delicious +things--such a "perfect love" of a boudoir, all dadoes, and that sort of +thing, with high-art furniture for ornament and low-art furniture in +high-art colors for comfort, articles picked up in her traveling, +miniature bronzes of well-known statues, a carved tower of Pisa of +course, coral from Naples, mosaics from Florence, fancy glassware from +Venice--in fact a tourist could trace her whole journey on examining the +articles on exhibition. A French cook supplied the table with delectable +morsels which it were an insult to speak of as food. Altogether her home +was a pleasant resort for her acquaintances, and there were those +present who thought it not unwise to pay attention to any person whom +Nina made much of. + +There were some who could have been lackadaisical and admiring nothing, +if the tone of the feast had been different, but Margaret was for +admiring everything and enjoying everything, and having a generally +noisy time and lots of fun. She was a wild thing when she got off in +this way, as she said, "on a little bend," and carried the others off +with her. + +What concerns us was the talk about the bank games. Some difference of +opinion arose as to whether or not these were enjoyable. Not having been +satisfied with attention from the right quarter at previous bank games, +several showed aversion to them. Nina was looking forward with interest +to the coming events, and Margaret, when she heard that Geoffrey and +Jack and other friends were to compete in the contests, was keen to be a +spectator. Emily Dusenall remarked that Geoffrey Hampstead was said to +be a splendid runner, and that these games were the first he had taken +any part in at Toronto, as he had been away during last year's. It was +arranged that Nina and Margaret should go with the Dusenalls to the +games after some discussion as to whose carriage should be used. Nina +asserted that their carriage was brand new from England and entitled to +consideration, but the Dusenalls insisted that theirs was brand new, +too, and, more than that, the men had just been put into a new livery. +It was left to Margaret, who decided that she could not possibly go in +any carriage unless the men were in livery absolutely faultless. + +Some days after this the carriage with the men of spotless livery rolled +vice-regally and softly into the great lacrosse grounds where the Bank +Athletic Sports were taking place. The large English carriage horses +pranced gently and discreetly as they heard the patter of their feet on +the springy turf, and they champed their shining bits and shook their +chains and threw flakes of foam about their harness as if they also, if +permitted, would willingly join in the sports. There was Margaret, +sitting erect, her eyes luminous with excitement. Inwardly she was +shrinking from the gaze of the spectators who were on every side, and as +usual she talked "against time," which was her outlet for nervousness in +public places. Mrs. Mackintosh had made her get a new dress for the +occasion, which fitted her to perfection, and Nina declared she looked +just like the Princess of Wales bowing from the carriage in the Row. The +two Dusenalls were sitting in the front seat. Nina sat beside Margaret. +Nina was looking particularly well. So beautiful they both were! And +such different types! Surely, if one did not disable a critical +stranger, the other would finish him. + +The whole turn-out gave one a general impression of laces, French +gloves, essence of flowers, flower bonnets, lace-smothered parasols, and +beautiful women. There was also an air of wealth about it, which tended +to keep away the more reticent of Margaret's admirers. She knew men of +whose existence Society was not aware--men who were beginning--who lived +as they best could, and, as yet, were better provided with brains than +dress-coats. Moreover, the Dusenalls had a way of lolling back in their +carriage which they took to be an attitude capable of interpreting that +they were "to the manor born." There was a supercilious expression about +them, totally different from their appearance at Nina's luncheon, and +they had brought to perfection the art of seeing no person but the right +person. Consequently, it required more than a usual amount of confidence +in one's social position to approach their majesties. The wrong man +would get snubbed to a dead certainty. + +After passing the long grand stand the carriage drew up in an +advantageous spot where they could see the termination of the mile +walking match. The volunteer band had brokenly ceased to play God save +the Queen on discovering that theirs was _not_ the vice-regal carriage, +and, in the field, Jack Cresswell was coming round the ring, with +several others apparently abreast of him, heeling and toeing it in fine +style. As they watched the contest, sympathy with Jack soon became +aroused. Margaret heard somebody say that this was the home-stretch. +Several young bank-clerks were standing about within earshot, and she +listened to what they were saying as if all they said was oracular. + +"Gad! Jack's forging ahead," said one. + +"Yes, but Brownlee of Molson's is after him. Bet you the cigars Brownlee +wins!" + +This was too much for Margaret. She stood up in the carriage and, +without knowing it, slightly waved her parasol at Jack, not because he +would see her encouragement, but on general principles, because she felt +like doing so, regardless of what the finer feelings of the Dusenalls +might be. The walkers crossed the winning line, and it was difficult to +see who won. Margaret sat down again, her face lighted with excitement, +and said all in a breath: + +"Was not that splendid? How they did get over the ground! What a pace +they went at! Poor Jack, how tired he must be! I do hope he won, Nina," +and she laid her hand on Nina's tight-sleeved soft arm with emphasis. + +The Dusenalls did not think there was much interest in a stupid +walking-match, and they thought standing up and waving one's parasol +rather bad form, so they were not enthusiastic. + +Nina said softly: "Indeed, if you take so much interest in Jack I'll get +jealous." + +While she said this her face began to color, and Margaret's reply was +interrupted by Geoffrey Hampstead's voice which announced welcome news. +He gave them all a sort of collective half-bow and shook hands with Nina +in a careless, friendly way. + +"I come with glad tidings--as a sort of harbinger of spring, or Noah's +dove with an olive-branch--or something of the kind." + +"Is your cigar the olive-branch? To represent the dove you should have +it in your mouth," said Nina. "Stop, I will give you an olive-branch, so +that you may look your part better." + +She wished Geoffrey to know that she felt no anger for what had occurred +at the ball. Geoffrey saw the idea, and answered it understandingly as +she held out a sprig of mignonette. + +"I suppose this token of peace can only be carried in my mouth," said +Geoffrey, throwing away his cigar. + +"Certainly," said Nina, and her gloved fingers trembled slightly as she +put the olive-branch between his lips, saying "There! now you look +wonderfully like a dove." + +Margaret was smiling at this small trifling, but her anxiety about the +walking-match was quite unabated. She said: "I do not see why you call +yourself a harbinger of spring or anything else unless you have +something to tell us. What is your good news? Has Mr. Cresswell won the +prize?" + +"By about two inches," said Geoffrey. "I thought I might create an +indirect interest in myself, with Miss Lindon at least, by coming to +tell you of it." He wore a grave smile as he said this, which made Nina +blush. + +"And so you did create an indirect interest in yourself," said Margaret. +"Now you can interest us on your own account. What are you going to +compete for to-day?" + +Hampstead was clad in cricketing flannels--his coat buttoned up to the +neck. + +"I entered for a good many things," said he, "in order that I might go +in for what I fancied when the time came. They are contesting now for +the high-pole jump. Perhaps we had better watch them, as they have +already begun to compete. I am anxious to see how they do it." + +High leaping with the pole is worth watching if it be well done. +Margaret's interest increased with every trial of the men who were +competing, and she almost suffered when a "poler" did his best and +failed. One man incased in "tights" was doing well, and also a small +young fellow who had thrown off his coat, apparently in an impromptu +way, and was jumping in a pair of black trousers, which looked peculiar +and placed him at a disadvantage from their looseness. The others soon +dropped out of the contest, being unable to clear the long lath that was +always being put higher. These two had now to fight it out together. +They had both cleared the same height, and the next elevation of the +lath had caused them both to fail. Margaret was on her feet again in the +carriage, her face glowing as she watched every movement of the +"polers." Her sympathies were entirely with the funny little man in +black trousers. The other at length cleared the lath, amid applause. But +the little hero in black still held on and made his attempts gracefully. + +"Oh," said Margaret, gazing straight before her, "I would give anything +in the world to see that circus-man beaten!" + +"How much would you give, Miss Mackintosh?" said Geoffrey. + +Margaret did not hear him. + +"Oh, I want my little flying black angel to win. Is it impossible for +anybody to beat the enemy?" Then, turning excitedly to the girls, she +said hurriedly, "I could just love anybody who could beat the enemy." + +"Does 'anybody' include me?" asked Geoffrey, laughing. + +"Yes, yes," cried Margaret, catching at the idea. "Can you really defeat +him? Yes, indeed, I will devote myself forever to anybody who can beat +him. Have you a pole? Borrow one. Hurry away now, while you have a +chance." In her eagerness her words seemed to chase each other. + +"Well--will you all love me?" inquired Geoffrey, with an aggravating +delay. + +There was a shrill chorus of "Until death us do part" from the girls, +and Geoffrey skipped over a couple of benches and ran over to the +"polers," where he claimed the right to compete, as he had been entered +previously in due time for this contest. Strong objection was +immediately raised by the man in tights. The judges, after some +discussion, allowed Geoffrey to take part amid much protestation from +the members of the circus-man's bank. + +Geoffrey took his pole from Jack Cresswell, who had competed on it +without success. It was a stout pole of some South American wood, and +very long. He threw off his coat, displaying a magnificent body in a +jersey of azure silk. After walking up to look at the lath he grasped +his pole and, making a long run, struck it into the ground and mounted +into the air. He had not risen very high when he saw that he had +miscalculated the distance; so he slid down his pole to the earth. +Derisive coughs were heard from different parts of the field, and +"Tights" looked at Geoffrey maliciously and laughed. + +At the next rush that Geoffrey made, he sailed up into the air on his +pole like a great bird, and as he became almost poised in mid-air, he +went hand over hand up the stout pole. Then, by a trick that can not be +easily described, his legs and body launched out horizontally over the +lath, and throwing away his pole he dropped lightly on his feet without +disturbing anything. + +"Tights" was furious, and he said something hot to Geoffrey, who, +however, did not reply. + +A difficulty arose here because there were no more holes in the uprights +to place the pegs in to hold up the lath. Geoffrey was now even with the +enemy, but not ahead of him. So he asked the judges to place the lath +across the top of the uprights. This raised the lath a good fifteen +inches, and nobody supposed that it could be cleared. + +There was something stormy about Hampstead when a man provoked him, and +"Tights" had been very unpleasant. He pointed to the almost absurd +elevation of the lath; his tones were short and exasperating as he +addressed his very savage rival: + +"Now, my man, there's your chance to exhibit your form." + +"Tights" refused to make any useless trial, but relieved the tension of +his feelings by forcing a bet of fifty dollars on Geoffrey that he could +not clear it himself. + +The excitement was now considerable. Geoffrey took the offered bet, +pleased to be able to punish his antagonist further. But really the +whole thing was like child's-play to him. It seemed as if he could clear +anything his pole would reach. His hand-over-hand climbing was like +lightning, and he went over the lath, cricket trousers and all, with +quite as much ease as when it was in the lower position, and this amid a +wild burst of applause. + +He then grabbed his coat and made for the dressing-room, to prepare for +the hurdle race, for which the bell was ringing. + +When he ran out into the field again, after about a moment, he was clad +in tights of azure silk with long trunks of azure satin, and his feet +wore running shoes that fitted like a glove. No wonder girls raved about +him. So did the men. He was a grand picture, as beautiful as a god in +his celestial colors. + +But there was work for him to do in the hurdle race. The best amateur +runners in Canada were to be with him in this race, and there is a field +for choice among Canadian bank athletes. They were to start from a +distant part of the grounds, run around the great oval, and finish close +to our carriage, where eager faces were hopeful for his success. +Geoffrey made a bad start--not having recovered after being once called +back. The first hurdle saw him over last, but between the jumps his +speed soon put him in the ruck. There is no race like the hurdle race +for excitement. At the fourth hurdle some one in front struck the bar, +which flew up just as Geoffrey rose to it. His legs hit it in the air +and he was launched forward, turned around, and sent head downward to +the ground. The thought that he might be killed went through many minds. +But those who thought so did not know that he could gallop over these +hurdles like a horse, lighting on his hands. No doubt it was a great +wrench for him, but he lit on his hands and was off again like the wind. + +The fall had lost him his chance, he thought, but he went on with +desperation and pain, his head thrown back and his face set to win. It +was a long race, and five more hurdles had yet to be passed. The first +of these was knocked down so that in merely running through he gained +time by not having to jump, and he rapidly closed on those before him. +His speed between jumps was marvelous. His hair blew back in blonde +confusion, and he might well have been taken to represent some god of +whirlwinds, or an azure archangel on some flying mission. He hardly +seemed to touch the earth, and Margaret, who delighted in seeing men +manly and strong and fleet, felt her heart go out to him in a burst of +enthusiasm that became almost oppressive as the last hurdle was +approached. + +There were now only two men ahead of him, and Geoffrey was so set on +winning that it seemed with him to be more a matter of mind than body. A +yell suddenly arose from all sides. One of the two first men struck the +last hurdle and went down, and Geoffrey, shooting far into the air in a +tremendous leap to clear the flying timber, passed the other man in the +last arrow-like rush, and dashed in an undoubted winner. + +The enthusiasm for him was now unmingled. The sensation of horror that +many had felt on seeing him fall head downward during the race had given +way to a keen admiration for his plucky attempt to catch up with such +hopeless odds against him. There were old business men present whose +hearts had not moved so briskly since the last financial panic as when +the handicapped hero in azure leaped the last hurdle into glory. There +were men looking on whose figures would never be redeemed who, at the +moment, felt convinced that with a little training they could once more +run a good race--men whose livers were in a sad state and who certainly +forgot the holy inspiration before rising that night from their late +dinners. Surely if these old stagers could be thus moved, feminine +hearts might be excused. It was not necessary to know Geoffrey +personally to feel the contagious thrill that ran through the multitude +at the vision of his prowess. The impulse and the verdict of the large +crowd were so unanimous that no one could resist them. + +As for Margaret, she was, alas, _standing on the seat_ by the time he +raced past the carriage--a fair, earnest vision, lost in the excitement +of the moment. With her gloved hands tightly closed and her arms braced +as if for running, she appeared from her attitude as if she, too, would +join in the race where her interest lay. The true woman in her was wild +for her friend to win. Geoffrey's appearance appealed to all her sense +of the beautiful. Knowledge of art led her to admire him--art of the +ancient and vigorous type. All the plaudits that moved the multitude +were caught up and echoed even more loudly within her. It was a +dangerous moment for a virgin heart. As Geoffrey managed to land himself +a winner against such desperate odds, she saw in his face, even before +he had won, a half supercilious look of triumph and mastery that she had +never seen there before. In a brief moment she caught a glimpse of the +indomitable will that with him knew no obstacles--a will shown in a face +of the ancient type, with gleaming eyes and dilated nostrils, heroic, +god-like, possibly cruel, but instinct with victory and resolve. + +To her the triumph was undiluted. At the close of the race her lungs had +refused to work until he passed the winning line, and then her breath +came in a gasp, as she became conscious that her eyes were filled with +tears of sympathy. + +With Nina it was different. That she was intensely interested is true. +Everybody was. But, instead of that whirl of sympathetic admiration +which Margaret felt, the strongest feeling she had was a desire that +Geoffrey would come to her first, would lay, as it were, his honors at +her feet--a wish suggesting the complacency with which the tigress +receives the victor after viewing with interest the combat. + +When Geoffrey rejoined them half an hour afterward he was endeavoring to +conceal an unmistakable lameness resulting from striking the hurdle in +the race. He had had his leg bathed, which he afterward found had been +bleeding freely during the run, and had got into his flannels again. In +the mean time a small circle of admirers had grouped themselves about +the Dusenalls' carriage. + +Jack had been in to see them for a moment with a hymn of praise for +Geoffrey on his lips, but Nina made him uncomfortable by treating him +distantly, and, although Margaret beamed on him, he departed soon after +Geoffrey's arrival, making an excuse of his committee-man's duties. + +Geoffrey noticed that, on his reappearing among them, Margaret did not +address him, but left congratulations to Nina and the Dusenalls. In the +interval after the race she had suddenly begun to consider how great her +interest in Geoffrey was. She had known him for over a year. During that +time he had ever appeared at his best before her. It was so natural to +be civilized and gentle in her presence. And Margaret was not devoid of +romance, in spite of her prosaic studies. Her ideality was not checked +by them, but rather diverted into less ordinary channels, and she was as +likely as anybody else to be captivated by somebody who, besides other +qualities, could form a subject for her imaginative powers. +Nevertheless, in spite of this sometimes dangerous and always charming +ideality, she had acquired the habit of introspection which Mr. +Mackintosh had endeavored to cultivate in her. He told her that when she +fell in love she "would certainly know it." And it was the remembrance +of this sage remark that now caused her to be silent and thoughtful. She +was wondering whether she was going to fall in love with Geoffrey, and +what it would be like if she did do so, and if she could know any more +interest in him if it so turned out that she eventually became engaged +to him. Then she looked at Geoffrey, intending to be impartial and +judicial, and thought that his looks were not unpleasing, and that his +banter with Miss Dusenall was not at all slow to listen to. She was +pleased that he did not address her first. She felt that she might have +been in some way embarrassed. Sometimes he glanced at her, as if +carelessly, and yet she seemed to know that all his remarks were to +amuse her, and that he watched her without looking at her. She had never +thought of his doing this before. + +Bad Margaret! Full of guilt! + +Geoffrey was endeavoring to make the plainest Miss Dusenall fix the day +for their wedding, declaring that it was she who had promised to marry +him if he won at jumping with the pole, and that she alone had nerved +him for the struggle, and he went on arranging the matter with a +volubility and assurance which she would have resented in anybody else. +She had affected to belittle Geoffrey somewhat, not having been much +troubled with his attentions, and she was conscious now that this banter +on his part was detracting from her dignity. But what was she to do? The +man was the hero of the hour, and cared but little for her dignity and +mincing ways. She would have snubbed him, only that he carried all the +company on his side, and a would-be snub, when one's audience does not +appreciate it, returns upon one's self with boomerang violence. After +all, it was something to monopolize the most admired man in six thousand +people, even if he did make game of her and treat her, like a child. + +As for Nina, she answered feebly the desultory remarks of several young +men who hung about the carriage, and she listened, while she looked at +the contests, to one sound only--to the sound of Geoffrey's voice. From +time to time she put in a word to the other girls which showed that she +heard everything he said. This sort of thing proved unsatisfactory to +the young men who sought to engage her attention. They soon moved off, +and then she gave herself up to the luxury of hearing Geoffrey speak. It +might have been, she thought, that all his gayety was merely to attract +Margaret, but none the less was his voice music to her. Poor Nina! She +would not look at him, for fear of betraying herself. She lay back in +the carriage and vainly tried to think of her duty to Jack. Then she +thought herself overtempted, not remembering the words: + + The devil tempts us not--'tis we tempt him, + Beckoning his skill with opportunity. + +This meeting, which to her was all bitter-sweet, to Geoffrey was +piquant. To make an impression on the woman he really respected by +addressing another he cared nothing about was somewhat amusing to him, +but to know that every word he said was being drunk in by a third woman +who was as attractive as love itself and who was engaged to be married +to another man added a flavor to the entertainment which, if not +altogether new, seemed, in the present case, to be mildly pungent. + +After this Nina deceived herself less. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Come o'er the sea, + Maiden with me, + Mine through sunshine, storm, and snows. + Seasons may roll, + But the true soul + Burns the same wherever it goes. + + Is not the sea + Made for the free, + Land for courts and chains alone? + Here we are slaves; + But on the waves + Love and liberty's all our own. + + MOORE'S _Melodies._ + + +Mr. Maurice Rankin was enjoying his summer vacation. Although the courts +were closed he still could be seen carrying his blue bag through the +street on his way to and from the police court and other places. It is +true that, for ordinary professional use, the bag might have been +abandoned, but how was he to know when a sprat might catch a whale?--to +say nothing of the bag's being so convenient for the secret and +non-committal transportation of those various and delectable viands that +found their way to his aerial abode at No. 173 Tremaine Buildings. He +was now provided by the law printers with pamphlet copies of the +decisions in different courts, and a few of these might always be found +in his bag. They served to fill out to the proper dimensions this badge +of a rank entitling him to the affix of esquire, and they had been well +oiled by parcels of butter or chops which, on warm days, tried to +lubricate this dry brain food as if for greater rapidity in the bolting +of it. + +In this way he was passing his summer vacation. Many a time he thought +of his father's wealth before his failure and death. Where had those +thousands melted away to? Oh, for just one of the thousands to set him +on his feet! This perpetual grind, this endless seeking for work, with +no more hope in it than to be able to get even with his butcher's bill +at the end of the month! To see every person else go away for an outing +somewhere while he remained behind began to make him dispirited. The +buoyancy of his nature, which at first could take all his trials as a +joke, was beginning to wear off. After yielding himself to their +peculiar piquancy for six months, these jokes seemed to have lost their +first freshness, and he longed to get away somewhere for a little +change. The return, then, he thought, would be with renewed spirit. + +While thinking over these matters his step homeward was tired and slow. +He was by no means robust, and his narrow face had grown more hatchety +than ever in the last few hot days. Hope deferred was beginning to tell +upon him, but a surprise awaited him. + +Jack Cresswell and Charley Dusenall were walking at this time on the +other side of the street. They sighted Rankin going along gloomily, +with his nose on the ground, well dressed and neat as usual, but +weighted down, apparently with business, really with loneliness, law +reports, and lamb-chops. + +They both pointed to him at once. Jack said, "The very man!" and Charlie +said, nodding assent, "Just as good as the next." Jack clapped Charley +on the back--"By Jove, I hope he will come! Do him all the good in the +world." + +Charley was one of those happy-go-lucky, loose-living young men who have +companions as long as their money lasts, and who seem made of some +transmutable material which, when all things are favorable, shows some +suggestion of solidity, but, when acted upon by the acid of poverty, +degenerates into something like that parasitic substance remarkable for +its receptibility of liquids, called a sponge. He liked Rankin, although +he thought him a queer fish, and he would laugh with the others when +Rankin's quiet satire was pointed at himself, not knowing but that there +might be a joke somewhere, and not wishing to be out of it. + +The two young men crossed the road and walked up to Rankin who was just +about to enter Tremaine Buildings. Charlie asked him to come on a +yachting cruise around Lake Ontario--to be ready in two days--that Jack +would tell him all about it, as he was in a hurry. He then made off, +without waiting for Maurice to reply. + +Jack explained to Rankin that the yacht was to take out a party, with +the young ladies under the chaperonage of Mrs. Dusenall, that the two +Misses Dusenall, and Nina and Margaret were going, that he and Geoffrey +Hampstead and two or three of the yacht-club men would lend a hand to +work the craft, and that Rankin would be required to take the helm +during the dead calms. As Rankin listened he brightened up and looked +along the street in meditation. + +"The business," he said thoughtfully, "will perish. Bean can't run my +business." + +His large mouth spread over his face as he yielded himself to the warmth +of the sunny vista before him. Already he felt himself dancing over the +waves. Suddenly, as they stood at the entrance to Tremaine Buildings, he +caught Jack by the arm and whispered--so that clients, thronging the +streets might not overhear: + +"The business," he whispered. "What about it?" He drew off at arm's +length and transfixed Jack with his eagle eye. Then, as if to typify his +sudden and reckless abandonment of all the great trusts reposed in him, +he slung the blue bag as far as he could up the stairs while he cried +that the business might "go to the devil." + +"Correct," said Jack. "It will be all safe with him. You know he is the +father of lawyers. But I say, old chap, I am awfully glad you are coming +with us. You see, the old lady has to get those girls married off +somehow, and several fellows will go with us who are especially picked +out for the business. Then, of course, the Dusenall girls want +'backing,' and they thought Nina and I could certainly give them a lead. +And Nina would not go without Margaret. I rather think, too, that +Geoffrey would not go without Margaret. Wheels within wheels, you see. +Have you not got a lady-love, Morry, to bring along? No? Well, I tell +you, old man, I expect to enjoy myself. I've been round that lake a good +many times, but never with Nina." + +Jack blushed as he admitted so much to his old friend, and after a pause +he went on, with a young man's facile change of thought, to talk about +the yacht. + +"And we will just make her dance, and don't you forget it." + +"But, my dear fellow, won't she object?" + +"Object? No--likes it. She is coming out in a brand-new suit. Wait till +you see her. She'll be a dandy." + +"I can quite believe that she will appear more beautiful than ever," +said Maurice, rather mystified. + +"She is as clean as a knife, clean as a knife. I tell you, Morry, her +shape just fills the eye. She--" + +"Oh, yes, I understand. You are speaking of the yacht. I thought when +you said you would make her dance that you referred to Miss Lindon. +Excuse my ignorance of yachting terms. I know absolutely nothing about +them." + +"Never mind, old man, you might easily make the mistake. Talking of +dancing now, I had a turn with her the other day and I will say this +much--that she can waltz and no mistake. You could steer her with one +finger." + +"And shall we rig this spinnaker boom on her?" asked Rankin, with +interest. "What is a spinnaker boom? I have always wanted to know." + +"Spinnaker on who? or what?" cried Jack, looking vexed. "Don't be an +ass, Rankin." + +"My dear fellow--a thousand pardons--I certainly presumed you still +spoke of the yacht. It is perfectly impossible to understand which you +refer to." + +"Well, perhaps it is," replied Jack; "I mix the two up in my speech just +as they are mixed up in my heart, and I love them both. So let us have a +glass of sherry to them in my room." + +"I think," said Rankin, smiling, with his head on one side, "that to +prevent further confusion we ought to drink a glass to each love +separately, in order to discriminate sufficiently between the different +interests." + +"Happy thought," said Jack. "And just like you robbers. Every interest +must be represented. Fees out of the estate, every time." + +After gulping down the first glass of sherry in the American fashion, +they sat sipping the second as the Scotch and English do. It struck +Rankin as peculiar that Mr. Lindon allowed Nina to go off on this +yachting cruise when he must know that Jack would be on board. He asked +him how he accounted for his luck in this respect. + +Jack said: "I can not explain it altogether to myself. The old boy sent +her off to Europe to get her away from me, and that little manoeuvre +was not successful in making her forget me. I think that now he has +washed his hands of the matter, and lets her do entirely as she +pleases--except as to matrimony. They don't converse together on the +subject of your humble servant. He is fond of Nina in his own way--when +his ambition is not at stake. One thing I feel sure of, that we might +wait till crack of doom before his consent to our marriage would be +obtained. I never knew such a man for sticking to his own opinion." + +"But you could marry now and keep a house, in a small way," said Rankin. + +"Too small a way for Nina. She knows no more of economy than a babe. No; +I may have been unwise, from a practical view, to fall in love with her, +but the affair must go on now; we will get married some way or other. +Perhaps the old boy will die. At any rate, although I have no doubt she +would go in for 'love in a cottage,' I don't think it would be right of +me to subject her to the loss of her carriage, servants, entertainments, +and gay existence generally. Of course she would be brave over it, but +the effort would be very hard upon the dear little woman." + +When Jack thought of Nina his heart was apt to lose some of its +chronometer movement. He turned and began fumbling for his pipe. + +Maurice wished to pull him together, as it were, and said, as he grasped +the decanter and filled the wine glasses again: + +"Thank you; I don't mind if I do. Now I come to think of it, your first +proposed toast was the right one. For the next three weeks at least we +do not intend to separate the lady from the yacht. Why should we drink +them separately? Ho, ho! we will drink to them collectively!" He waved +his glass in the air. "Here's to The Lady and the Yacht considered as +one indivisible duo. May they be forever as entwined in our hearts as +they are incomprehensibly mixed up in our language!" + +"Hear, hear!" cried Jack, with renewed spirit. "Drink hearty!" And then +he energetically poured out another, and said "Tiger!"--after which they +lit cigars and went out, feeling happy and much refreshed, while Rankin +quite forgot the blue bag and the contents thereof yielding rich juices +to the law-reports in the usual way. + +About ten o'clock on the following Saturday morning valises were being +stowed away on board the yacht Ideal, and maidens fair and sailors free +were aglow with the excitement of departure. The yacht was swinging at +her anchor while the new cruising mainsail caused her to careen gently +as the wind alternately caught each side of the snowy canvas. A large +blue ensign at the peak was flapping in the breeze, impatient for the +start, while the main-sheet bound down and fettered the plunging and +restless sail. Lounging about the bows of the vessel were a number of +professional sailors with Ideal worked across the breasts of their stout +blue jerseys. The headsails were loosed and ready to go up, and the +patent windlass was cleared to wind up the anchor chain. Away aloft at +the topmast head the blue peter was promising more adventures and a new +enterprise, while grouped about the cockpit were our friends in varied +garb, some of whom nervously regarded the plunging mainsail which +refused to be quieted. Rankin was the last to come over the side, clad +in a dark-blue serge suit, provided at short notice by the +long-suffering Score. His leather portmanteau, lent by Jack, had +scarcely reached the deck before the blocks were hooked on and the gig +was hoisted in to the davits. Margaret, sitting on the bulwarks, with an +arm thrown round a backstay to steady her, was taking in all the +preparations with quiet ecstasy, her eyes following every movement aloft +and her lips softly parted with sense of invading pleasure. + +Mrs. Dusenall was down in the after-cabin making herself more busy than +useful. Instead of leaving everything to the steward, the good woman was +unpacking several baskets which had found their way aft by mistake. In a +very clean locker devoted solely to charts she stowed away five or six +pies, wedging them, thoughtfully, with a sweet melon to keep them quiet. +Then she found that the seats at the side could be raised, and here she +placed a number of articles where they stood a good chance of slipping +under the floor and never being seen again. Fortunately for the party, +her pride in her work led her to point out what she had done to the +steward, who, speechless with dismay, hastily removed everything eatable +from her reach. + +As the anchor left its weedy bed, the brass carronade split the air in +salute to the club and the blue ensign dipped also, while the headsail +clanked and rattled up the stay. There was nobody at the club house, but +the ladies thought that the ceremony of departure was effective. + +Jack was at the wheel as she paid off on the starboard tack toward the +eastern channel, and Geoffrey and others were slacking off the +main-sheet when Rankin heard himself called by Jack, who said hurriedly: + + +"Morry, will you let go that lee-backstay?" + +Maurice and Margaret left it immediately and stood aside. Jack forgot, +in the hurry of starting, that Rankin knew nothing of sailing, and +called louder to him again, pointing to the particular rope: "Let go +that lee-backstay." + +"Who's touching your lee-backstay?" cried Morry indignantly. + +The boom was now pressing strongly on the stay, while Jack, seeing his +mistake, leaned over and showed Rankin what to do. He at once cast off +the rope from the cleat, and, there being a great strain on it, the end +of it when loosed flew through his fingers so fast that it felt as if +red hot. + +"Holy Moses!" cried he, blowing on his fingers, "that rope must have +been lying on the stove." He examined the rope again, and remarked that +it was quite cool now. The pretended innocence of the little man was +deceiving. The Honorable Marcus Travers Head, one of the rich intended +victims of the Dusenalls, leaned over to Jack and asked who and what +Rankin was. + +"He's an original--that's what he is," said Jack, with some pride in his +friend, although Rankin's by-play was really very old. + +"What! ain't he soft?" inquired the Hon. M. T., with surprise. + +"About as soft as that brass cleat," said Jack shortly. "I say, old +Emptyhead, you just keep your eye open when he's around and you'll learn +something." + +There was a murmur of "Ba-a Jeuve!" and the honorable gentleman regarded +Rankin in a new light. + +The Ideal was a sloop of more than ordinary size, drawing about eight +feet of water without the small center-board, which she hardly required +for ordinary sailing. Her accommodations were excellent, and her +internal fittings were elegant, without being so wildly expensive as in +some of the American yachts. Her comparatively small draught of water +enabled her to enter the shallow ports on the lakes, and yet she was +modeled somewhat like a deep-draught boat, having some of her ballast +bolted to her keel, like the English yachts. Her cruising canvas was +bent on short spars, which relieved the crew in working her, but, even +with this reduction, her spread of canvas was very large, so that her +passage across the bay toward the lake was one of short duration. + +To Margaret and Maurice the spirited start which they made was one of +unalloyed delight. For two such fresh souls "delight" is quite the +proper word. They crossed over to the weather side and sat on the +bulwarks, where they could command a view of the whole boat. It was a +treat for all hands to see their bright faces watching the man aloft +cast loose the working gaff-topsail. When they heard his voice in the +sky calling out "Hoist away," Morry waved his hand with _abandon_ and +called out also "Hoist away," as if he would hoist away and overboard +every care he knew of, and when the booming voice aloft cried "Sheet +home," it was as good as five dollars to see Margaret echo the word with +commanding gesture--only she called it "Sea foam," which made the +sailors turn their quids and snicker quietly among themselves. But when +the huge cream-colored jib-topsail went creaking musically up from the +bowsprit-end, filling and bellying and thundering away to leeward, and +growing larger and larger as it climbed to the topmast head, their +admiration knew no bounds. As the sail was trimmed down, they felt the +good ship get her "second wind," as it were, for the rush out of the +bay. It was as if sixteen galloping horses had been suddenly harnessed +to the boat, and Margaret fairly clapped her hands. Maurice called to +Jack approvingly: + +"You said you would make her dance." + +"She's going like a scalded pup," cried Jack poetically in reply, and he +held her down to it with the wheel, tenderly but firmly, as he thereby +felt the boat's pulse. When they came to the eastern channel Jack eased +her up so close to the end of the pier that Maurice involuntarily +retreated from the bulwarks for fear she would hit the corner. The +jib-topsail commenced to thunder as the yacht came nearer the wind, but +this was soon silenced, and half a dozen men on the main-sheet flattened +in the after-canvas as she passed between the crib-work at the sides of +the channel in a way that gave one a fair opportunity for judging her +speed. + +A moment more and the Ideal was surging along the lake swells, as if she +intended to arrive "on time" at any place they pointed her for. The +main-sheet was paid out as Jack bore away to take the compass course for +Cobourg. This put the yacht nearly dead before the wind, and the pace +seemed to moderate. Charlie Dusenall then came on deck, after settling +his dunnage below and getting into his sailing clothes. Charlie had been +"making a night of it" previous to starting, and felt this morning +indisposed to exert himself. Jack and he had cruised together in all +weathers, and they were both good enough sailors to dispense with +pig-headed sailing-masters. Jack had sailed everything, from a +birch-bark canoe to a schooner of two hundred tons, and had never lost +his liking for a good deal of hard work on board a boat. As for his +garb, an old flannel shirt and trousers that greased masts could not +spoil were all that either he or Charlie ever wore. These, with the +yachting shoes, broad Scotch bonnet, belt, and sheath-knife, were found +sufficient, without any finical white jackets and blue anchors, and, if +not so fresh as they might have been, these garments certainly looked +like business. + +Before young Dusenall put his head up the companion-way he knew exactly +where the boat was by noticing her motions while below. There was +something of the "old salt" in the way he understood how the yacht was +running without coming on deck to find out. Generally he could wake up +at night and tell you how the boat was sailing, and almost what canvas +she was carrying, without getting out of his berth. These things had +become a sort of second nature. + +He was yawning as he hauled on a stout chain and dragged up from his +trousers pocket a silver watch about the size of a mud-turtle. Then he +looked at the wake through the long following waves and glanced rapidly +over the western horizon while he counted with his finger upon the face +of the enormous timepiece. "We will have to do better than this," he +said, after making a calculation, "if we wish to dance at the Arlington +to-night." + +"They are just getting the spinnaker on deck," said Jack, nodding toward +the bows. "As you say, it won't do her any harm. This breeze will +flatten out at sundown, and walloping about in a dead calm all night is +no fun." + +"What a time they take to get a sail set!" said Charlie impatiently, as +he looked at the sailors for a few moments. "I have a good mind to ask +some of you fellows to go forward and show them how." + +"Oh, never mind," said Jack, "We are not racing, and hurrying them only +makes them sulky." + +But Charlie's nerves were a little irritable to-day, and he swung +himself on deck and went forward. A long boom was lowered out over the +side and properly guyed; then a long line of sail, tied in stops, went +up and up to the topmast-head; the foot of it was hauled out to the end +of the boom; then there was a pull on a rope, and, as the wind broke +away the stops, hundreds of yards of sail spread out as if by magic to +the breeze, filling away forward like a huge three-cornered balloon, the +foot of which almost swept the surface of the water. + +"Look at that for a sail, Nina," said Jack. "Now you'll see her git +right up and git." + +When Jack was talking about yachts or sailing it was next to impossible +for him to speak in anything but a jargon of energetic slang and +metaphor picked up among the sailors, who, in their turn, picked up all +they could while ashore. He seemed to take a pleasure in throwing the +English grammar overboard. His heart warmed to sailors. He was fond of +their oddities and forcible unpolished similes; and when he sometimes +sought their society for a while, he was well received. When a man in +good clothes begins to talk sailing grammatically to lake-sailors they +seem to feel that he is not, as far as they can see, in any way up to +the mark. His want of accuracy in sailing vernacular attaches to his +whole character. + +If Jack intended to say that the spinnaker would make the Ideal go fast, +he was right. She was traveling down the lake almost as fast as she +would go in a race with the same breeze. A long thin line of fine white +bubbles extending back over the tops of several blue waves showed where +her keel had divided the water and rubbed it into white powder as she +passed. Jack had no time for continued conversation now. He had to watch +his compass and the sails, the wind, and the land. He did not wish the +wake behind the vessel to look like a snake-fence from bad steering, and +to get either of the sails aback, while under such a pressure, would be +a pretty kettle of fish. He was enjoying himself. Some good Samaritan +handed him a pipe filled and lighted, and with his leg slung comfortably +over the shaft of the wheel, his pipe going, Nina in front of him, and +all his friends around him, he felt that the moment could hardly be +improved. + +Some time after the buildings of Toronto had dwindled away to nothing, +and the thin spire of St. James's Cathedral had become a memory, the +steward announced that luncheon was ready. One of the hands relieved +Jack at the wheel, and all went below except Mrs. Dusenall, who was left +lying among cushions and pillows arranged comfortably on deck, where she +preferred to remain, as she was feeling the motion of the boat. + +Luncheon was a movable feast on the Ideal--as liable to be shifted about +as the hands of a wayward clock. The cabin was prettily decorated with +flowers, and the table, weighted so as to remain always horizontal, was +covered with snowy linen and delicate glass, while a small conceit full +of cut flowers faced each of the guests. The steward and stewardess +buzzed about with bottles and plates, and any appetite that could not +have been tempted must have been in a bad way. The absence of that +apology for a chaperon, who was trying to enjoy the breezes overhead, +gave the repast an informality which the primness of the Misses Dusenall +soon failed to check, although at first their precise intonations and +carefully copied English accent did something to restrain undue hilarity +on the part of those who did not know them well. + +The idea of being able to entertain in this style gave the Misses +Dusenall an inflation which at first showed itself in a conversation and +manner touchingly English. The average English maiden, though by nature +sufficiently insular in manner and speech, is taught to be more so. The +result is that among strangers she rarely seems quite certain of +herself, as if anxious lest she should wreck herself on a slip of the +tongue or the sounding of a false note. Her prudish manners and her +perfect knowledge of what not to say often suggest Swift's definition of +"a nice man." One trembles to think what effect the emancipation of +marriage will have upon some of these wildly innocent creatures. In +Canada, and especially in the United States, we are thankful to take +some things for granted, without the advertisement of a manner which +seems to say: "I am so awfully pure and carefully brought up, don't you +know." + +The Misses Dusenall on this occasion soon found themselves in a minority +(not the minority of Matthew Arnold), and before leaving the table they +adopted some of that more genial manner and speech which, if slightly +faulty, we are satisfied to consider as "good enough for the colonies." + +Maurice seemed to expand as the English fog gradually lifted. The aged +appearance that anxiety was giving him had disappeared. Amid the chatter +going on, in which it was difficult to get an innings, Jack Cresswell +seized a bottle of claret and called out that he proposed a toast. + +"What? toasts at such an informal luncheon as this, Jack?" exclaimed +Propriety, with the accent somewhat worn off. + +"What's the odds as long as you're happy and the 'rosy' is close at +hand?" said Jack. "Besides, this is a case of necessity--" + +"I propose that we have a series of toasts," interrupted Charlie; who +was beginning to feel himself again. "With all their necessary +subdivisions," added Rankin, in his incisive little voice, which could +always make itself heard. + +"There you are again, Rankin," cried Jack. "I proposed a toast with +Rankin two days ago, ladies, and, as I live by bread, he subdivided it +sixteen times." + +Dusenall was calling for a bottle of Seltzer water. + + +"Never mind your soda," commanded Jack. "Soda can't do justice to this +toast. I propose this toast because I regard it as one of absolute +necessity--" + +"They all are," called Maurice. + +"Gentlemen, I must protest against my learned friend's interrup--" + +"Go on, Jack. Don't protest. Propose. I am getting thirsty," cried +Hampstead's voice among a number of others. + +"Well, gentlemen, am I to proceed or not? Have I the floor, or not?" + +"That's just what he said after those sixteen horns," said Rankin, +addressing the party confidentially. "Only, then he did not 'have the +floor,' the floor had him." + +His absurdity increased the hubbub, as Jack rapped on the table to +command attention. + +"The toast I am about to propose is one of absolute neces--" + +"Oh, my!" groaned Rankin, "give me something in the mean time." He +grasped a bottle, as if in desperation. "All right, now. Go on, Jack. +Don't mind me." + +The orator went on, smiling: + +"It is, as I think I have said before, one of absolute--" + +Here the disturbance threatened to put an end to the proposed toast. + +"Take a new deal." + +"Got any more toasts like this?" + +"Oh, I would like a smoke soon. Hurry up, Jack." + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen," said Jack, banging on the table to quell +the tumult; "I will skip over the objectionable words, and propose that +we drink to the health of one who has been unable to be with us to-day, +and who needs our assistance; who perhaps at this moment is suffering +untold troubles far from our midst. Ladies and gentlemen, have you +charged your glasses?" + +Answers of "Frequently." + +"Well, then," said Jack, as he stood with a bottle in one hand and a +glass in the other, "I ask you to drink with me to the health of 'The +Chaperon,' who is nigh unto death." + +All stood up, and were loudly echoing, "The Chaperon--nigh unto death!" +when a long hand came down the skylight overhead and a voice was heard +from on high, saying: + +"Nothing of the kind. How dare you, you bad boy? Just put something into +my hand and I'll drink my own health. I don't need your assistance at +all." + +Cheers broke out from the noisy gathering, and they all rushed on deck +to see Mrs. Dusenall drink her own health, which she bravely +accomplished. + +They were a riotous lot. All the boat wanted was a policeman to keep +them in something more like order, for a small joke received too much +credit with them, and they laughed too easily. + +Frenchman's Bay and Whitby were passed before they came up from lunch. +Oshawa could be seen far away on the shore, as the yacht buzzed along +with unabated speed. A speck on the horizon had risen up out of the sea +to be called Raby Head--the sand-bluff near Darlington. Small yellow and +green squares on the far-off brown uplands that rolled back from the +shores denoted that there were farms in that vicinity; dark-blue spots, +like feathery tufts, appeared here and there where the timber forests +had been left untouched, and among them small marks or lines of white +would occasionally appear where, on looking through the glasses, little +railway trains seemed to be toiling like ants across the landscape. + +There was no ceremony to be observed, nor could it be seen that anybody +endeavored to keep up conversations which required any effort. The men, +lounging about on the white decks, seemed to smoke incessantly while +they watched the water hissing along the sides of the vessel, or lay on +their backs and watched the masthead racing with the white clouds down +the lake, and the girls, disposed on cushions, tried to read novels and +failed. The sudden change to the fresh breezes of the lake, and the long +but spirited rise and fall of the vessel made them soon doze away, or +else remain in that peaceful state of mind which does not require books +or masculine society or music, or anything else except a continuation of +things just as they are. Granby and Newcastle were mentioned as the +yacht passed by, but most of the party were drowsy, and few even raised +their heads to see what little could be seen. Port Hope created but +feeble interest, though the Gull Light, perched on the rocks far out in +the lake, appeared romantic and picturesque. It seemed like true +yachting to be approaching a strange lighthouse sitting like a white +seabird on the dangerous-looking reefs, where the waves could be seen +dashing up white and frothy. + +Somewhere off Port Hope, about three or four miles away from the "Gull," +one of the sailors had quietly remarked to the man at the wheel: + +"We're a-goin' to run out of the wind." + +Margaret was interested in this, wondering how the man knew. Far away in +front and to the eastward could be seen a white haze that obliterated +the horizon, and, as the yacht bore down to the Gull Light, one could +see that beyond a certain defined line stretching across the lake the +bright sparkle and blueness of the waves ceased, and, beyond, was a +white heaving surface of water, without a ripple on it to mark one +distance from another. It seemed strange that the wind blowing so +freshly directly toward this calm portion of the lake should not ruffle +it. The yacht went straight on before the wind at the same pace till she +crossed the dividing line and passed with her own velocity into the dead +air on the other side. The sails, out like wings, seemed at once to fill +on the wrong side, as if the breeze had come ahead, and this stopped her +headway. She soon came to a standstill. Every person at once +awoke--feeling some of that numbness experienced in railway trains when, +after running forty miles an hour for some time, the brakes are suddenly +put on. + +For half an hour the yacht lay within pistol-shot of the dancing, +sparkling waves, where the breeze blew straight toward them, as far as +the mysterious dividing line, and then disappeared. The spinnaker was +taken in, and the yacht, regardless of the helm, "walloped" about in all +directions, as the swells, swashing against the bow, or pounding under +the counter, turned her around. This was unpleasant, and might last all +night, if "the calm beat back the wind," as the sailors say, so Charley +sent out the crew in the two boats, which were lowered from the davits, +to tow the yacht into Cobourg, now about three miles away. The +main-sheet was hauled flat aft to keep the main-boom quiet, and soon she +had steerage way on. + +To insure fine weather at home one must take out an umbrella and a +water-proof. On the water, for a dead calm, sending the boats out to tow +the yacht is as good as a patent medicine. Before very long the topsail +seemed to have an inclination to fill on one side more than on the +other, so one boat was ordered back and a club-gaff-topsail used in +races was sent aloft to catch the breath moving in the upper air. This +sail had huge spars on it that set a sail reaching a good twenty-five +feet above the topmast head, and about the same distance out from the +end of the gaff. It was no child's-play getting it up, and the sailors' +chorus as they took each haul at the halyards attracted some attention. +Perhaps no amateur can quite successfully give that break in the voice +peculiar to a professional sailor when hauling heavily on a rope. And +then the interjections: + +"O-ho! H'ister up." + +"Oh-ho! Up she goes." + +"O-ho! R-Raise the dead." + +"Now-then-all-together-and-carry-away-the-mast, O-ho!" etc. + +Some especial touches were put on to-day for the benefit of the ladies, +and when the man aloft wished those on deck to "sheet home" the big +topsail, the rascal looked down at Margaret and called "sea foam!" In +the forecastle she was called "Sea Foam" during the whole trip, not +because she wore a dress of cricketing flannel, but on account of her +former mistake in the words. To Rankin and some others who saw the +little joke, the idea seemed poetical and appropriate. + + +Not more than a breath of wind moved aloft--none at all below--but it +proved sufficient to send the yacht along, and about half-past six in +the evening they slipped in to an anchor at Cobourg, fired a gun, and +had dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Ah, what pleasant visions haunt me + As I gaze upon the sea! + All the old romantic legends, + All my dreams, come back to me. + + Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, + Such as gleam in ancient lore; + And the singing of the sailors, + And the answer from the shore. + + Till my soul is full of longing + For the secret of the sea, + And the heart of the great ocean + Sends a thrilling pulse through me. + + LONGFELLOW. + + +Nothing tends to convince us of the element of chance in our lives more +than noticing the consequences of whims. We act and react upon each +other, after joining in a movement, till its origin is forgotten and +lost. A politician conceives a whim to dazzle a fighting people with a +war, and the circumstances of thousands are unexpectedly and +irretrievably altered. We map out our lives for ourselves, and propose +to adhere to the chart, but on considering the effects of chance, one's +life often seems like an island upheaved from the sea, on which the +soil, according to its character, fructifies or refuses the seeds that +birds and breezes accidentally bring. + +Our yachting cruise seemed to be like this. One evening when Nina was +dining at the Dusenalls', Charley had proposed the trip in an idle sort +of way. Nina fastened on the idea, and during little talks with Mrs. +Dusenall, induced her to see that it might be advantageous for her +daughters to make a reality of the vague proposal. + +In thus providing opportunity for sweet temptation, Nina was not +deceiving herself so much as formerly, and she knew that her feeling for +Geoffrey was deep and strong. But she would morally bind herself to the +rigging and sail on without trouble while she listened to the song as +well. Would not Jack be with her always to serve as a safeguard? Dear +Jack! So fond of Jack! Of course it would be all right. And then, to be +with Geoffrey all the time for two or three weeks! or, if not with him, +near enough to hear his voice! After all, she could not be any _more_ in +love with him than she was then. Where was the harm? + +Margaret's presence on the yacht, if at times rather trying, would +certainly make an opening for excitement, and, on the whole, it would be +more comfortable to have both Geoffrey and Margaret on the yacht than to +leave them in Toronto together. This friendship between them--what did +it amount to? She had a desire to know all about it--as we painfully +pull the cot off a hurt finger, just to see how it looks. + +For Geoffrey the trip promised to be interesting, and, having in the +early days examined Cupid's armory with some curiosity, he tried to +persuade himself that the archer's shafts were for him neither very keen +nor very formidable. As Davidge used to say, "too much familiarity +breeds despisery," and up to this time of his life it had not seemed +possible for him to care for any one very devotedly--not even himself. +Yet Margaret Mackintosh, he thought, was the one woman who could be +permanently trusted with his precious future. No one less valuable could +be the making of him. He agreed with the Frenchman in saying that "of +all heavy bodies, the heaviest is the woman we have ceased to love," and +he hoped when married to be able to feel some of that respect and trust +which make things different from the ordinary French experience. But +when he thought of Margaret as his wife the thought was vague, and not +so full of purpose as some of his other schemes. The mental picture of +Margaret sitting near him by the fireside keeping up a bright chatter, +or else playing Beethoven to him, the music sounding at its best through +the puff-puff of a contemplative pipe, had not altogether dulled his +appreciation of those pleasures of the chase, as he called them, over +which he had wasted so much of his time. Moreover, he felt that it was +altogether a toss-up whether she would accept him or not, and that he +did not appeal to her quite in the same way that he did to other women. +This threw his hand out. If he wished her to marry him at any time, he +thought he would have to put his best foot foremost, and tread lightly +where the way seemed so precarious. He knew that she liked him very much +as she would a work of art. It was a good thing to have a tall figure +and clean-cut limbs, but it seemed almost pathetic to be ranked, as it +were, with old china, no matter how full of soul the willow-pattern +might be. + +Now that Nina had fairly commenced the yachting cruise, she could be +pleasant and jolly with Jack on board the boat, but when it came to +leaving the ball-room at the Arlington for a little promenade with him +on the verandas, the idea seemed slow and uninviting. After a dance, +Jack moved away with her, intending to saunter out through one of the +low windows. + +"Don't you think it is pleasanter in here?" she said. + +"Well, I find it a little warm here, don't you? Besides the moon is +shining outside, and we can get a fine view of the lake from the end of +the walk." + +"But, my dear Jack, have we not been enjoying a fine view of the lake +all day? You see I don't want every person to think that we can not be +content unless we are mooning off together in some dark corner. It does +not look well; now, does it?" + +Jack raised his eyebrows. "I did not think you were so very careful of +Mrs. Grundy. When did you turn over the new leaf? I suppose the idea did +not occur to you that being out with Geoffrey for two or three dances +might also excite comment." + +Nina had already surveyed the lake to some extent during the evening +under pleasing auspices, but she did not like being reminded of it, and +answered hotly: + +"How then, do you expect me to enjoy going to look at the lake again? I +have seen the lake three times already this evening, and no person has +made me feel that there was any great romance in the surroundings. +Surely you don't think that you would conjure up the romance, do you?" + +"Evidently I would not be able to do that for you," said Jack slowly, +while he thought how different her feelings were from his own. It galled +him to have it placed before him how stale he had become to her. He +conquered his rising anger, and said: + +"I am afraid that our engagement had become very prosaic to you." + +"Horribly so," said Nina. "It all seems just as if we were married. Not +quite so bad, though, because I suppose I would then have to be civil. +What a bore! Fancy having to be civil continually!" + +"I believe that a fair amount of civility is considered--" + +"Oh, you need not tell me what our married life will be. I know all +about it. Mutual resignation and endearing nothings. Church on Sundays; +wash on Mondays. It will be respectable and meritorious and virtuous and +generally unbearable--" + +"Hush, hush, Nina! Why do you talk in this strain? Why do you go out of +your way to say unkind things? I know you do not mean a quarter of what +you say. If I thought you did I--" + +"Was I saying unkind things?" interrupted Nina. "I did not think of +their being unkind. It seems natural enough to look at things in this +way." + +She was endeavoring now to neutralize her hasty words by softer tones, +and she only made matters worse. It is difficult to climb clear of the +consciousness of our own necessities when it envelops us like a fog, +obscuring the path. In some way a good deal of what she said to Jack now +seemed tinged with the wrong color, and out of the effort to be pleasant +had begun to grow a distaste for his presence. Much as she still liked +him, she always tried during this cruise to get into the boat or into +the party where Jack was not. + +It had been his own proposal that she should see a good deal of +Hampstead, and so it never occurred to him to be jealous; and afterward +she became more crafty in blinding his eyes to the real cause of the +dissatisfaction she now expressed. While in Jack's presence her manner +toward Geoffrey was studiously off-hand and friendly. Whatever her +manner might be when they strolled off together, it was certain that an +understanding existed between the two to conceal from Jack whatever +interest they might have in one another. She was forced to think +continuously of Geoffrey so that every other train of thought sank into +insignificance, and was crowded out. A colder person, with temptation +infinitely less, would have done what was right and would have captured +the world's approbation. It would do harm to examine too closely the +natures of many saints of pious memory and to be obliged to paint out +their accustomed halo. If the convicted are ever more richly endowed +than the social arbiters, they are different and not understood, and +therefore judged. No sin is so great as that which we ourselves are not +tempted to commit. Ignorance either deifies or spits upon what can not +be understood. But, after all, we must have some standard, some social +tribunal; and social wrong, no matter how it is looked at, must be +prevented, no matter how well we understand that some are, as regards +social law, made crooked. + +But let us hasten more slowly. + +Sunday morning, strangely enough, followed the Saturday night which had +been spent at the Arlington. The daylight of Sunday followed about two +hours after the last man coaxed himself to his berth from the yacht's +deck and the tempting night. When all the others were fairly off in a +solid sleep, as if wound up for twenty-four hours, one individual +arrived at partial consciousness and wondered where he was. A sensation +of pleasure pervaded him. Something new and enjoyable lay before him, +but he could not make up his mind what it was. That he was not in 173 +Tremaine Buildings seemed certain. If not there, where was he? To fully +consider the matter he sat up in his berth and gave his head a thump on +a beam overhead, which conveyed some intelligence to him. Then, lying +back on the pillow, he laughed and rubbed his poll. "A lubber's +mistake," quoth he; and then, after a little, "I wonder what it's like +outside?" A lanky figure in a long white garment was presently to be +seen stumbling up the companion-way, and a head appeared above the deck +with hair disheveled looking like a sleepy bird of prey. All around it +was so still that nothing could be heard but some one snoring down +below. The yacht lay with her anchor-chain nowhere--a thread would have +held her in position. The boats behind were lying motionless with their +bows under the yacht's counter, drawn up there by the weight of their +own painters lying in the water. Maurice gazed about the little +wharf-surrounded harbor with curiosity and artistic pleasure. It could +only have been this and the feeling of gladness in him that made him +interested in the lumber-piles and railway-derricks about him, but it +was all so new and strange to him. "Gad! to be off like this, on a +yacht, and to live on board, you know!" said he, talking to himself, as +he hoisted himself up by his arms and sat on the top of the sliding +hatchway. He moved away soon after sitting down, because of about half +an inch of cold dew on the hatch. This awakened him completely. He +walked gingerly toward the stern and looked at the blaze of red and gold +in the eastern sky where the sun was making a triumphal entry. Then he +walked to the bow and watched the light gild the masts of the +lumber-schooners and the fog-bank over the lake, and the carcass of a +drowned dog floating close at hand. He saw bits of the shore beyond the +town and wanted to go there. He wanted to inspect the little squat +lighthouse that shone in its reflected glory better than it ever shone +at night. Yes, he must see all these things. It was all fairyland to +him. The gig was carefully pulled alongside when, happy thought! a smoke +would be just the thing. The weird figure dived down for pipe, matches, +and "'baccy," and soon came up smiling. "Never knew anything so quiet +as this," he said, as he filled the pipe. The snore below seemed to be +the only note typical of the scene--not very musical, perhaps, but +eloquent and artistically correct. + +He had not gone far in the gig when he came across the picturesque +drowned dog. Really it would be too bad to allow this to remain where it +was, even though gilded. The sun would get up higher, and then there +would be no poetry about it, but only plain dog. So he went back to the +deck and saw a boat-hook. That would do well enough to remove the +eyesore with, but how could he row and hold the boat-hook at the same +time? If he only had a bit of string, now, or a piece of rope! But these +articles are not to be found on a well-kept deck, and it would not be +right to wake up anybody. Happy thought! He took the pike-pole and rowed +rapidly toward the dog, and, as he passed it, dropped the oars and +grabbed the dog with the end of the pike-pole. His idea was that the +momentum of the boat would, by repeated efforts, remove the dog. But the +deceased was not to be coaxed in this way from the little harbor where +he had so peacefully floated for four weeks. So Maurice, after suffering +in the contest, went on board again. Still the snore below went on, and +still nobody got up to help him. He searched the deck for any part of +the rigging that would suit him, determined to cut away as much as he +wanted of whatever came first. Ah! the signal halyards! He soon had +about two hundred feet unrove, little recking of the man who had to +"shin up" to the topmast-head to reeve the line again. The dog must go. +That Margaret's eyes should not be insulted was so settled in his +chivalrous little head that--well, in fact, the dog would have to go, +and, if not by hook or by crook, he finally went lassoed a good two +hundred feet behind, Rankin rowing lustily. + +After this object had been committed to the deep, a seagull came and +lighted on a floating plank to consider the situation, and gave a cry +that could be heard a vast distance. Maurice rowed out about half a mile +into the lake, and then could be seen a lithe figure diving in over the +side of the boat and disporting itself, which uttered cries like a +peacock when it came to the surface, and interested the lethargic +seagulls. + +While he was doing this the fog bank slowly moved in from the lake and +enveloped him, so that he began to wonder where the shore was. He got +into the boat, without taking the trouble to don his garment, and rowed +toward the place where he thought the shore was. Half an hour's rowing +brought him back to some driftwood which he had noticed before, so he +gave up rowing in circles, put on the garment, settled himself in the +stern-sheets, and lit a pipe. The air was warm, and a gentle motion in +the lake rocked him comfortably, until a voice aroused him that might +have been a hundred yards or two miles off. + +"Ahoy!" came over the water. + +"Ahoy yourself," called Rankin. + +Jack had got up, and, having missed the gig, had come to the end of the +wharf in his basswood canoe, which the Ideal also carried in this +cruise. + +"By Jove," thought Jack, "I believe that's Morry out there in the fog; +he will never get back as long as he can not see the shore." + +"Ahoy there," he called again. + +"Ahoy yourself," came back in a tone of indifference. + +"Where are you?" + +"Never you mind." + +"Who is out there with you?" + +"The gulls," answered Maurice, as he smiled to himself. + +Jack did not quite hear him. "The Gull?" thought he. "Surely not! Why, +he must be at least three miles off." + +"Do you mean the Gull Light?" he called. + +"Ya-as. What's the matter with you, any way?" + +They were so far apart that their voices sounded to each other as if +they came through a telephone. + +At this time the fog had lifted from Maurice, and he lay basking in the +sun, perfectly content with everything, while Jack, still enveloped in +fog, was feeling quite anxious about him. He paddled quickly back to the +yacht and got a pocket compass, and with this in the bottom of the canoe +steered sou'-sou'west until he got out of the fog, and discovered the +gig floating high up at the bow and low down aft, puffing smoke and +drifting up the lake before an easterly breeze and looking, in the +distance, rather like a steam-barge. + +"Is that the costume you go cruising in?" asked Jack, as he drew near. + +"This is the latest fashion, Mother Hubbard gown, don't you know!" said +Maurice, as he viewed his spindle calves with satisfaction. "Look at +that for a leg," he cried, as he waved a pipe-stem in the air. "No +discount on that leg." + +"Nor anything else," growled Jack. "What do you mean by going off this +way with the ship's boats?" + +"Not piracy, is it?" asked Morry. + +"Don't know," said Jack, "but I am going to arrest you for being a +dissolute, naked vagrant, without visible means of support, and I shall +take you to the place whence you came and--" + +"Bet you half a dollar you don't. I'm on the high seas, so 'get out of +me nar-east coorse,' or by the holy poker I'll sink you." + + +Jack came along to tie the gig's painter to his canoe and thus take it +into custody. Then a splashing match followed, during which Jack got +hold of the rope and began to paddle away. This was but a temporary +advantage. A wild figure leaped from the gig and lit on the gunwale of +the canoe, causing confusion in the enemy's fleet. Jack had just time to +grab his compass when he was shot out into the "drink," as if from a +catapult, and when he came to the surface he had to pick up his paddle, +while Morry swam back to the gig, proceeding to row about triumphantly, +having the enemy swamped and at his mercy. The overturned canoe would +barely float Jack, so Rankin made him beg for mercy and promise to make +him an eggnog when they reached the yacht. When on board again they +slept three hours before anybody thought of getting up. + +As eight o'clock was striking in the town, these two children thought it +was time for everybody to be up. They were spoiling for some kind of +devilment. Geoffrey and Charley and others were already awake, and had +slipped into shirt and trousers to go away for a morning swim in the +lake. + +Jack visited the sleepers with a yell. Mr. Lemons, another proposed +victim of the Dusenalls, still slept peacefully. + +"Now, then, do get up!" cried Jack, in a tone of reproach. + +"Wha's matter?" + +"Get up," yelled Jack. + +"Wha' for?" + +"To wash yourself, man." + +Suppressed laughter was heard from the ladies' cabins. + +"Gor any washstands on board?" still half asleep, but sliding into an +old pair of sailing trousers. + +"Washstands? Well, I never! Wouldn't a Turkish bath satisfy you? No, +sir! You'll dive off the end of the pier with the others." + +"Not much. Gimme bucket an' piece soap." + +"What! you won't wash yourself?" cried Jack, at the top of his voice. +"Oh, this is horrible! I say there, aft! you, fellows, come here! Lemons +says he won't wash himself." + +At this four or five men ran in and pulled him on deck, where Charley +stood with a towel in his hand. No one would give Lemons a chance to +explain. They said, "See here, skipper, Lemons won't wash himself." + +Charley's countenance assumed an expression of disgust. "Oh, the dirty +swab! Heave him overboard!" + +Lemons broke away then and tried to climb the rigging, but he was caught +and carried back, two men at each limb, who showered reproach upon him. +The victim was as helpless as a babe in their hands, and was conscious +that the ladies had heard everything. + +Charlie rapped on the admiralty skylight and asked for instructions. He +declared Lemons would not wash himself, and he asked what should be done +with him? In vain the victim cried that the whole thing was a plot. A +prompt answer came, with the sound of laughter, from the admiralty that +he was to go overboard. This was received with savage satisfaction, and, +after three swings backward and forward, Lemon's body was launched into +the air and disappeared under the water. + +But Lemons did not come up again. In two or three seconds it occurred to +some one to ask whether Lemons could swim. They had taken it for granted +that he could. The thought came over them that perhaps by this time he +was gone forever. Without waiting further, Geoffrey dived off the +wall-sided yacht to grope along the bottom, which was only twelve feet +from the surface. He entered the water like a knife, and from the +bubbles that rose to the surface it could be seen that a thorough search +was being made. Each one took slightly different directions, and went +over the side, one after another, like mud-turtles off a log. Between +them all, the chance of his remaining drowned upon the bottom was small. +Several came up for air, and dived again in another place and met each +other below. There was no gamboling now. They were horrified, and looked +upon it as a matter of life or death. They dived again and again, until +one man came up bleeding at the nose and sick with exhaustion. Geoffrey +swam to help him to reach the yacht, when an explosion of laughter was +heard on the deck, and there was Lemons, with the laugh entirely on his +side. As soon as he had got underneath the surface he had dived deep, +and by swimming under water had come up under the counter, where he +waited till all were in the water, and then he came on deck. + +Revenge was never more complete. Lemons was the hero of the hour. The +girls thought him splendid, and afterward the sight of eight pairs of +trousers and eight shirts drying on the main-boom seemed to do him good. + +Charlie said they ought not to make a laundry clothes-horse of the yacht +on Sunday, and proposed to leave Cobourg. Mrs. Dusenall made a slight +demur to leaving on Sunday. Jack explained that if it blew hard from the +south they could not get out at all without a steam-tug from Port Hope. +This seemed a bore--to be locked up, willy-nilly, in harbor--so the +yacht was warped to the head of the east pier, where, catching the +breeze, she cleared the west pier and headed out into the lake. Outside +they found the wind pretty well ahead and increasing, but, with sails +flattened in, the Ideal lay down to it, and clawed up to windward in a +way that did their hearts good. + +Some topsails were soon descried far away to windward, showing where two +other vessels were also beating down the lake. This gave them something +to try for, and when the topmast was housed and all made snug not a +great while elapsed before the hulls of the schooners became +occasionally visible. The sea was much higher and the motion greater +than on the previous day, but the breeze, being ahead, was more +refreshing, and nobody felt in danger of being ill after the first hour +out. They "came to" under the wooded rocks of Nicholas Island, put in a +couple of reefs, for comfort's sake, and "hove to" in calm water to take +lunch quietly. + +After lunch, as the yacht paid off on a tack to the southward to weather +the Scotch Bonnet Lighthouse, they found, on leaving the shelter of the +island, a sea rolling outside large enough to satisfy any of them. One +hardly realizes from looking at a small atlas what a nice little jump of +a sea Ontario can produce in these parts. The hour lost in mollycoddling +for lunch under the island made a difference in the work the yacht had +to do. The two schooners, having received another long start, were +making good weather of it well to windward of the light, and, when on +the tops of waves, their hulls could be seen launching ahead in fine +style through the white crests. The yacht's rigging, as she soared to +the top of the wave, supplied a musical instrument for the wind to play +barbaric tunes upon, which to Jack and some others were inspiring. As +she swept down the breezy side of a conquered wave, her rigging sounded +a savage challenge to the next bottle-green-and-white mountain to come +on and be cut down. + +Mrs. Dusenall went below and fell asleep in her berth, and some of the +others were lying about the after-cabin dozing over books. Nina and the +Dusenall girls lay on the sloping deck, propped against the +companion-hatch, where they could command the attention of several other +people who were sprawled about in the neighborhood of the wheel. +Margaret and Rankin persisted in climbing about the slanting decks, +changing their positions as new notions about the sailing of the vessel +came to them. They seemed so pleased with each other and with +everything--exchanging their private little jokes and relishing the odd +scraps culled from favorite authors that each brought out in the talk, +as old friends can. Maurice made love to her in the openest way--every +glance straight into her deep-sea eyes. Not possessing a muscle or a +figure, he wooed her with his wits and a certain virtuous boldness that +asserted his unmixed admiration and his quaint ideas with some force. +And she to him was partly motherly, chiefly sisterly, and partly +coquettish, like one who accepts the admiration of half a score before +her girlish fancies are gathered into the great egotism of the one who +shall reign thrice-crowned. Just look at Geoffrey now, as he nears this +schooner, steering the yacht as she comes up behind and to leeward of +the big vessel that majestically spurns the waves into half an acre of +foam. They tell him he can't weather her, that he'll have to bear away. +Now look at his muscular full neck and thick crisp curls. See his jaw +grow rigid and his eye flash as he calculates the weight of the wind and +the shape of the sea, the set of the sails, and the distances. +Obviously, a man to have his way. Objections do not affect him. See how +Margaret's eyes sweep quickly from the schooner back to Geoffrey, to +watch what he is doing. Why is it when they say he can't do it that it +never occurs to her that he won't? She looks at him open-eyed and +thoughtful, and thinks it is fine to carry the courage of one's opinions +to success, and she smiles as the yacht skillfully evades the main-boom +of the schooner and saws up on her windward side. + +The sunrise that Maurice saw early in the morning was too sweet to be +wholesome. As the day wore on, the barometer grew unsteady. A leaden +scud came flying overhead, and the fellows began to wonder whether they +would have to thrash around Long Point all night. A good many opinions +were passed on the weather, which certainly did not look promising. +Margaret suggested that it would be more comfortable to go into port, +but was just as well pleased to hear that they had either to go about +forty miles further for a shelter or else run back to Cobourg. Presque +Isle was not spoken of, since it was too shallow and intricate to enter +safely at night. Lemons suggested that they should go back and anchor +under Nicholas Island, where they had lunched. + +"Might as well look for needle in a hay-stack," said Charley. "It's +going to be as black as a pocket when daylight is gone. And if you did +get there it is no place to anchor on a night like this." + +Jack did not say anything. He knew that Charley would go on to South +Bay, and he looked forward to another night of it round Long Point. The +only person who cared much what was done was Mr. Lemons. Towards evening +he began to think about the next meal. + +"My dear skipper, how can you ever get a dinner cooked in such a sea as +this? The cook will never be able to prepare anything in such a +commotion," said he regretfully. + +"Won't he!" exclaimed Charley decisively. "Just wait and see. My men +understand that they have to cook if the vessel never gets up off her +beam ends." + +"What, you do not mean to say it will be all--" Mr. Lemons came and laid +his head on Charley's shoulder--"that it will be all just as it was +yesterday? Oh, say that it will. 'Stay me with flagons; comfort me with +apples.'" + +"Get up--off me, you fat lump," cried Charley, pushing him away +vehemently. "I say that we will do better to-day, or we'll put the cook +in irons. I hate a measly fellow who gives in just when you want him. I +have sacked four stewards and six cooks about this very thing, and it is +a sore subject with me." + +"De-lightful man," said Lemons, gazing rapturously at Charley. + +"Rankin will tell you," said Jack. "He drew the papers. The whole thing +is down in black and white." + +"True enough," said Maurice. "But I don't see how signing papers will +teach a man to cook on the side of a stove, when the ship is lying over +and pitching like this." + +"No more do I," said Lemons anxiously. + +"Why, man alive!" said Charley, "the whole stove works something like a +compass, don't-you-know. He has got it all swinging--slung in irons." + +"That is far better than having the cook in irons," suggested Margaret. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Lemons, as he gazed at the sky, "that remark appeals to +me. The lady is correct." + +Then he arose and grasped Charley in a vice-like grip, for though fat he +was powerful. He pinned the skipper to the deck and sat upon him. + +"Say, dearest," he cooed into his ear, "at about what hour will this +heavenly-repast be ready?" + +"Pull him off--somebody!" groaned Charley. "I hate a man that has to be +thrown in the water to--" a thump on the back silenced him. + +"May I convey your commands to the Minister of the Interior," asked his +tormentor. + +"Oh, my ribs! Yes. Tell him to begin at it at once." + +"I don't mind if I do," said Mr. Lemons sagaciously; and he disappeared +down the companion-way to interview the cook. + +"Ain't he a brick?" said Charley, after Lemons had gone forward. "He's a +regular one-er, that chap! Give him his meals on time and he's the +gamest old sardine. By the way, let us have a sweepstake on the time we +drop anchor in South Bay." + +"We haven't any money in these togs," said Geoffrey. + +"Well, you'll all have to owe it, then. We'll imagine there's a quarter +apiece in the pool." + +Margaret wanted to know what was to be done. It was explained that each +person had to write his name on a folded paper with the time he thought +anchor would be dropped in South Bay. The names were read out afterward. +They all, with two exceptions, ranged between one o'clock at night and +seven the next morning. The sea was running tremendously high and the +wind dead ahead. It was now seven o'clock in the evening and with some +thirty-five miles yet to beat to windward. What surprised them all was +that Jack had chosen ten o'clock and Charley half-past ten of the same +evening. They explained that they had based their ideas on the clouds. + +"If you look carefully," said Jack, "you'll see that close to this lower +scud coming from the east, there is a lighter cloud flying out the south +and west." + +"I wish, Jack, you had not come on this trip," said Charley. "I could +make lots of money if you were not on board." + +Sure enough, the yacht began to point up nearer and nearer to her +course, soon after they spoke. Presently she lay her course, with the +sheet lightly started, mounting over the head seas like a race-horse, +and roaring straight into the oncoming walls of water till it seemed as +if her bowsprit would be whipped out. The wind kept veering till at last +they had a quarterly breeze driving them forcibly into the seas that had +been rising all day. Ordinarily they would have shortened sail to ease +the boat, but now that dinner was ordered for half-past nine o'clock, +they drove her through it in order that they might dine in calm water. + +They raced past the revolving light on Long Point faster than they had +expected to pass it that night. The twenty-five miles run from here was +made in darkness and gloom. The boom was topped up to keep it out of the +water, and the peak of the reefed mainsail was dropped, as the +increasing gale threatened to bury the bows too much in the head seas. +Although early enough in the evening, everything around was, as Charley +had predicted, as black as a pocket. Now and then some rain drove over +them. Maurice and Margaret sat out together on deck, wrapped in heavy +coats, and watched what little they could see. The howling of the wind +and roaring of the black surges beneath them were new experiences. Close +to them was Jack, standing at the wheel, tooling her through. By the +binnacle-light his face, which was about all that could be seen, seemed +to be filled with a grave contentment that broke into a grim smile when +the boat surged into a wall of water that would have stopped a +bluff-bowed craft. Soon after dropping Long Point, he leaned over the +hatchway and called down to Charley, who was lying on his back on gay +cushions, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper. "Got the Duck +Light, skip." + +"All right, old boy. Wire in." + +Dusenall turned over his newspaper, but did not take the trouble to come +on deck to investigate. + +"Say!" he called. + +"Hello." + +"Won't she take the peak again? I've got a terrible twist on me for +dinner." + +"No. Bare poles is more what she wants just now," said Jack. + +"The deuce! Who's forrud?" + +"Billy and Joe." + +"All right. Must be damp for 'em up there." + +"Can't see. Guess it's blue water to the knees, most of the time." + +"Shouldn't wonder. Do 'em good." + +After this jargon was finished, it did not take long to run down to the +False Duck Light. Here the double-reefed mainsail was "squatted" and the +fourth reef-pennant hauled down. The reefed staysail was taken in and +stowed; and under the peak of the mainsail they jibed over. Steering by +the compass, they then rounded to leeward of Timber Island and hauled +their wind into South Bay. + +To put the Ideal over so far with so little canvas showing, it must have +been blowing a gale. They sped up into the bay close hauled, and "came +to" in about four fathoms. Down went the big anchor through the hissing +ripples to that best of holding-grounds, and the vessel, drifting back +as if for another wild run, suddenly fetched up with a grind on her iron +cable. The mad thing knew that unyielding grip, and swung around +submissively. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Full souls are double mirrors, making still + An endless vista of fair things before, + Repeating things behind. + + GEORGE ELIOT'S _Poems._ + + +There is a want of primness in the manners and customs of my characters +which a reviewer might take exception to. To be sure he might with +effect criticise their making up a pool on Sunday. But the fact was that +nobody remembered it to be Sunday until Jack wanted to collect his +winnings after dinner. At this, Mrs. Dusenall held up her hands in high +disapproval. While out in the lake, in the worst part of the sea, she +had commenced to read her Bible, and had felt thankful to arrive in +shelter. Consequently she remembered the day. + +"Surely, Charley, you have not been gambling on Sunday?" said she +reprovingly. + +The girls looked guilty, with an expression of "Oh, haven't we been +bad?" on their faces. + +Rankin endeavored to relieve the situation by explaining in many words +that the whole thing was a mere matter of form, and no more than an +expression of opinion as to the time the boat would reach the harbor, +because no money was put up--in fact, as the arrangement was made on +Sunday, the whole thing was illegal, and no money ever would be put up, +etc. + +Jack kicked him under the table for arguing away his winnings, and +Margaret quoted at him: + + "His tongue + Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear + The better reason, to perplex and dash + Maturest counsels." + +"Good," said Geoffrey. "Give him the rest of it, Miss Margaret. Rub it +in well." + +Margaret continued, and with mirthful eyes declaimed at Maurice: + + "For his thoughts were low; + To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds + Timorous and slothful: and yet he pleas'd the ear, + And with persuasive accent thus began." + +This amused Margaret, because Maurice was such a decent little man. But +Geoffrey's enjoyment of it was different. Rankin felt that there was +growing in him an antagonism to Hampstead. He was afraid of him for her +sake--afraid she would learn to like him too much. At any other time +chaff would have found him invulnerable, but Geoffrey's amusement made +him redden. + +"You seem to be well acquainted with the characteristics of Belial, +Hampstead," he said. "Margaret, your memory is excellent. Could you +favor us with the lines just preceding what you first quoted?" + +Why should Margaret have blushed as she did so? She quoted: + + "On th' other side up rose + Belial, in act more graceful and humane; + A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd + For dignity compos'd and high exploit: + But all was false and hollow; though his tongue + Dropp'd manna," etc. + +"Thank you," said Maurice. "You see the lines are intended to describe a +person far different from me in appearance. Hampstead, you observe, had +studied the passage. A coincidence, is it not?" + +Soon they were all composing themselves for sleep. Margaret was +listening peacefully to the shrieking of the wind in the rigging as she +thought how every moment on board the yacht had been one of unclouded +enjoyment. An unconscious smile went over her face that would have been +pleasant to see. Then she thought of Geoffrey and smiled again. This +time she caught herself, and asked herself why? All day, since she had +watched Geoffrey steering the yacht beside the schooner in the lake, her +mind had been chanting two lines of poetry. When asked in the evening to +repeat the lines aloud she had blushed because it seemed like confessing +herself. + + A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed + For dignity composed and high exploit. + +In her mind Geoffrey had become identified with these two lines. But +what had friend Maurice meant by saddling the context on him in that +malevolent way? Could he really have thought that Belial's character +was also Geoffrey's? She put away this idea as untenable. She was one of +those born in homes where the struggle for existence has not for +generations taught the household to be suspicious; with the innate +nobility that tends, whether rightly or wrongly, to think the best of +others; she was one of those whom men turn to with relief after the +cunning and suspicion of the business world, each feeling the assistance +it is to meet some one who is ready to take him at the valuation he +would like to be able justly to put upon himself. + +When morning broke, there were eight or ten schooners to be seen on +different sides that had run in for shelter during the night. About six +o'clock Margaret crept out to satisfy her curiosity as to what kind of +place they were in. With only her head above the hatchway at the top of +the stairs leading up from the ladies' cabin she gazed about for some +time before she spied Maurice sitting on the counter with his back to +her, his feet dangling over the water while he watched the vessels. + +She crept toward him and gave a cry close to his ear, to startle him. + +"Don't make so much noise," said he, quite unstartled. "I don't like you +to call out like that in my ear." He added, perforce, as he looked at +her, "At least I don't like it when I can't see you." + +"Don't tell stories, Morry. You know you would like me to do it at any +time." + +"I would not, indeed," he asserted. "Come and sit down and keep quite +silent. Just when I was having such a happy, peaceful time you come and +spoil it all." + +Margaret sat down on the rail and turned herself about so that she could +sit in the same position beside him. His helping hand still held hers as +they sat together. He was almost afraid to turn toward her, for fear he +would look too tenderly. She might go away if he did. His _rôle_ was to +bully her, and then she would never know how exquisite it was for him +to have her sit beside him. + +"There, now! Sit perfectly quiet and don't say another word. Just look +around and enjoy yourself in a reasonable manner. I'm not going to have +my morning disarranged and my valuable reveries disturbed." + +The wind had shifted to the northwest in the morning and had blown +itself out and down to a moderate breeze with a clearing sky, with +patches of blue and broken clouds overhead. + +"Now listen to the chorus of the sailors as they get up their anchor. +Does it not seem a sweet and fitting overture to the whole oratorio of +the voyage before them? I have been watching the vessels go out, one by +one, for over an hour. I must say there are some uncommonly rude men +among the sweet singers we are listening to, and--and--" He stopped and +forgot to go on. + +"And what?" cried Margaret peremptorily. + +Maurice had lost himself in the contemplation of some locks of sunny +hair, that were flying in the breeze from Margaret's forehead, and the +graceful curve of her full neck as she looked away at the ships. + +"Oh, yes. And that's Timber Island over there, covered with trees and +stamped out round like a breakfast bun, and that's the False Duck +Island, where we came in last night. The schooner sailing yonder is +going to take the channel between that white line of breakers and South +Bay Point running out there, and those huts you see nestling in the +trees far away on the main-land are fishermen's houses--" + +He was not looking at any of these things, but was following out two +trains of thought in his active head while he talked against time. What +really absorbed him was Margaret's ear, and a sort of invisible down on +the back part of her cheek. He was thinking to himself that if five +dollars would purchase a kiss on that spot he would be content to see a +notice in the Gazette: "Maurice Rankin, failed: liabilities, $5.00." + +Margaret was listening, gravely unconscious of being so much admired, +enjoying all he said, and feasting her eyes upon the distances, the +brilliant colors, and the fleeting shadows of the broken clouds upon the +water. + +"Why, what a nice old chappie you are!" she exclaimed, giving his hand a +pat and taking hers away. "How did you manage to find out all about the +surroundings?" + +"Been around boarding the different schooners lying at anchor. Examining +their papers, you know," said he grandly. "Went around in the canoe to +the first fellow--a coal vessel. A man appeared near the bow and looked +down at me as if I were a kind of fish swimming about. 'Heave-to, or +I'll sink you,' I said in the true old nautical style. He did not say a +word, but stooped down and did heave two, in fact three, pieces of coal +at me. I passed on, satisfied that his vessel needed no further +inspection. I was then attracted by the name of another schooner, on +whose stern was painted the legend 'Bark Swaller.'" + +"What a strange name," said Margaret, as Maurice spelled it out. + +"Well, it puzzled me a good deal, as I examined it closely, being in +doubt whether Barque Swallow was intended, or perhaps the name of some +German owner. At all events a sailor spied me paddling about under the +stern of the boat and regarded me with evident suspicion. I thought I +would deal more gently with this man than with the other fellow. 'Can +you tell me,' I asked, 'the name of that round island over there?' The +only answer I got was unsatisfactory. 'Sheer off,' said he, 'wid your +dirty dug-out.' This seemed rather rude, but I did not retaliate. I +thought I might go further and fare worse, so I endeavored to mollify +him. Perhaps, I thought, being up all night in hard weather had made +these sailors irritable. + +"'Can you drink whisky?' I said--" Margaret was looking at Maurice with +a soft expression of interest and mirth. He was talking on in order that +he might continue to bask in the beauty of the face that looked straight +at him. But the strain for a moment was too great. For an instant he +slacked up his check-rein, and while he narrated his story he continued +in the same tone with: "(Believe me, my dear Margaret, you are looking +perfectly heavenly this morning) and the effect on this poor toiler of +the sea was, I assure you, quite wonderful." Rankin's tongue went +straight on, as if the parenthesis were part of the narrative. Margaret +saw that it was useless to speak, and resigned herself to listen again. +"Quite wonderful," he continued. "The fellow motioned to me to come to +the bow of the vessel, and when I got there he came over the bulwarks +and dropped like a monkey from one steel rope to another till he stood +on the bobstay chains." + +"'Whist!' said he. 'Divil a word! Have you got it there?' + +"'There is some on the yacht,' I said, 'and I want to ask you some +questions about this place. What island is that over there?' + +"'Mother of Pathrick,' said he, 'an' did ye come down all the way in +your yacht and not know Timber Island when you'd see it?' + +"He looked at me as if I was some strange being. + +"'And where was ye last night, might I axe?' + +"'Where we axe now,' I said. + +"'Faith, it was a big head that brought you into the nursery here +before last night came on! More be-token, I have'nt had a dhry rag on me +for tin hours, and divil a sail we've got widout a shplit in it the size +of a shteam-tug. Bring it in a sody-bottle, darlint, and the Lord'll +love ye if ye don't spoil it. Whisht, love! You drink my health in the +sody and don't lave any in the bottle.' + +"I came back and got him a soda-bottle of the genuine article, and while +he drank it the rapidity of his tongue was peculiar. 'So you have been +here before?' I asked. + +"'Whisht, darlint! till the captain won't hear you. Been here before? +Begorra, this place has been a mine of goold to me many a time. For +siventeen days at a slap I've laid here in Dicimber at four dollars a +day, with nothin' to do but play checkers and sphlit wood for the shtove +and pray for a gale o' wind down the lake till shpring-time.' + +"This eloquence continued until I thought he would certainly fall off +the bobstay. + +"'Tell me, now,' he said, after I had got all the information I wanted, +'have ye a berth for an old salty aboard that craft?' + +"I said we had not. + +"'Faith, perhaps you're right. I kin see by the stow on yer mainsail and +by the nate way yer heads'ls is drag-gen' in the wather that you're born +and bled up to the sea and don't require no assistance.' + +"With these sarcastic words he gave me his blessing, threw away the +bottle, and disappeared again over the bow." + +"I gather from your remarks that your friend was of Hibernian origin," +said Margaret. "Perhaps a good dynamiter spoiled. But we will speak of +him again. What I have been wanting for some time has been a trip in the +canoe to the beach over there. I want to walk over the sand bar and get +close to those great breakers rolling in on the shingle. Unhitch your +canoe-string and bring the canoe alongside." + +"Unhitch your canoe-string!" repeated Rankin contemptuously. "You must +speak more nautically or I won't understand you." + + +"Well, what ought I to say?" + +"Dunno. 'Cast adrift your towline' sounds well." + +"It does, indeed," said Margaret, as Morry swung the light cockleshell +into position and she descended into it with care. "'Cast adrift your +towline' has a full, able-bodied seaman sort of sound; but it has not +the charm of mystery about it that some expressions have. Now 'athwart +your hawse' seems portentous in its meaning. I don't want to know what +it means. I would rather go on thinking of it as of the arm that handed +forth the sword Excalibur,' clothed in white samite--mystic, wonderful.' +Do you know I read all Clark Russell's sea stories, and drive through +all his sea-going technicalities with the greatest interest, although I +understand nothing about them. When he goes aloft on the main-boom and +brails up his foregaff-bobstay I go with him. Sometimes he describes how +small the deck below looks from the dizzy height when, poised upon the +capstan-bars, he furls the signal halyards that flap and fill away and +thunder in the gale; and then I see it all--" + +"So do I, so do I!" cried Morry, as he paddled dexterously to the shore. +"You've got Clark Russell to a T. He goes on like that by the hour +together. I read every word, and the beauty of it is I always think I +understand. Why do we like his stories so much, I wonder?" + +"One reason is because his heroes are manly men and have brave hearts," +said Margaret confidently. "I think that is why they appeal to women; he +always arouses a sentiment of pity for the hero's misfortunes. Few women +can resist that." And Margaret, somewhat stirred, looked away over the +broad sea. Almost unconsciously there flashed before her the image of a +Greek god winning a foot-race under circumstances that aroused her +sympathy. Again she saw him steering a yacht, keen, strong, active, +determined, and calm amid excitement. A flush suffused her countenance, +and her eyes became soft and thoughtful as she gazed far away. Ah, these +rushes of blood to the head! How they kindle an unacknowledged idea into +activity! A moment and, like a flash, a latent, undeveloped instinct +becomes a living potent force to develop us. The admirer becomes a +lover, the plotter a criminal, and the religious man a fanatic. + +When the canoe pushed its way through the rushes and beached itself upon +the soft sand the two jumped out and crossed over to the lake side, +where the heavy ground swells of the last night's gale were still +mounting high upon the shingle. The bar leading toward them from False +Duck Island was a seething expanse of white breakers, and over the lake +to the south and west, as far as the eye could reach in the now rarefied +atmosphere a tumbling mass of bright-green waters could be seen, which +grew blue in color at the sharply cut horizon. Not far off the "Bark +Swaller" was buffeting her way to the southward, toward Oswego, and +around the wooded island with the lighthouse on it, the mail steamer, +twelve hours detained, was getting a first taste of the open water. + +It was a morning that made the two feel as if it were impossible to keep +still. The flat shingle, washed smooth by the high waves of the previous +night, was firm under foot as they walked and trotted along between the +wreckage and driftwood on one side and the highest wash of the hissing +water on the other. An occasional flight of small plover suggested the +wildness of the spot, and something of the spirit of these birds in +their curving and wheeling flight seemed to possess the two young +people--making them run and caper on the sands. + +"You ought to be able to run a pretty good race," said Maurice, +glancing at the shapely figure of his companion. + +"So I am," said Margaret, as she sprang up on a large piece of +driftwood. "I'll run you a race to that bush on the far point around the +little bay. Do you see it?" + +"I see it," said Maurice. "Are you ready? Go!" + +Margaret sprang down from the stump and was off like an arrow. Morry +thought it was only a sham and a pretense of hers, as he bounded off +beside her. He soon found his mistake, however, as his unaccustomed +muscles did their utmost to keep him abreast of the gliding figure in +the dark-blue skirt and jersey. They rounded the curve of the bay, +Maurice on the inside track. But this advantage did not give him a lead. +The distance to the winning point seemed fatal to his chances, but he +hung on, hoping his opponent would tire. Again he was mistaken. + +"Come on, Morry! Don't be beaten by a woman." + +Her voice, as she said this, seemed aggressively fresh, and the taunt +brought Rankin even with her again. He had no breath left to say +anything in reply as they came to a small indentation filled with water +where the shore curved in, making another little bay. Margaret ran +around it, but Maurice, as a last chance, splashed through it, +regardless of water up to his ankles. He gained about ten feet by this +subterfuge. A few gliding bounds, impossible to describe, and Margaret +was beside him again. + +"That was a shabby advantage to take," she said as she passed his +panting form. "Now I'll show you how fast I _can_ run." + +She left him then as he labored on. She floated away from him like a +thistle-blossom on the breeze. He forgot his defeat in his admiration of +that fleeting figure which he would have believed to move in the air had +he not seen marks in the sand made by toes of small shoes. He could +hardly comprehend how she could run away from him in this way. Yet there +was no wings attached to the lithe form before him. No wings, but a bit +of silk ankle which seemed far preferable. + +Margaret stopped at the bush which was to be the winning post. Morry +then staggered in exhausted and threw himself sideways into the yielding +mass of the willow bush and fell out on the other side. + +"Oh," he said, as he rolled over on his back with his head resting in +his hands, "wasn't that beautiful?" + +"The race--yes, indeed, it was splendid." + +"No, I don't mean the race. That was horrible. I mean to see you run." +(Gasp.) + +Margaret's face was sparkling with excitement and color, while her bosom +rose and fell after her exertion. + +"I can run fast, can I not?" Her arms were hanging demurely at her side +again. She could run, but she never seemed to be at all masculine. + +"I never ran a race with a man before," she said, laughing. + +"And never will run another with this individual," said Rankin. "Nothing +goes so fast as a train you have missed, just as it leaves the station, +and yet I have caught it sometimes. You can go faster than anything I +ever saw." (A breath.) "It is a good thing to know when one is beaten. +You will always be an uncatchable distance before me." (A sigh.) + +"My shoes are full of sand," said Margaret ruefully, looking down at +them. + +"Mine are full of water," said Maurice. He did not seem to care. He was +quite content to lie there and gaze at her without reservation. And, +with his heightened color and excitement, he actually appeared rather +good looking. + +"I think the least you could do would be to offer to take the sand out +of my shoes," said Margaret. + +"If I don't have to get up I could do it. I won't be able to get up for +about twenty minutes. But if you sit on that stump--so--I think I could +manage it." + +Resting on one elbow, he unlaced the shoes, knocked the sand out of +them, and spent a long time over the operation. Then he wondered at +their small size, and measured them, sole to sole, with his own boots +while he chattered on, as usual, about nothing. Hers were not by any +means microscopic shoes, but they seemed so to him, and he regarded them +with some of the curiosity of the miners of Blue Dog Gulch, Nevada, when +a woman's boot appeared among them after their two years' isolation from +the interesting sex. There was something in the way he handled them that +spoke of exile--something that stirred the compassion one might feel on +seeing the monks of Man Saba tend their canaries. + +The left shoe was put on with great care, and then he sat looking over +the lake for a while in silence before beginning with the second. It was +a long, well-chiseled foot, with high instep, and none of those knobs +which sometimes necessitate long dresses, and in men's boots take such a +beautiful polish. He pretended to brush some sand away, and then, +banding over, kissed the silk-covered instep, and received an admonitory +tap for his boldness. + +"Fie, Morry! to kiss an unprotected lady's foot," said Margaret archly, +as she took the shoe from him and put it on herself. "You have insulted +me." + +"Nay, Margaret, 'twas but the sign of my allegiance and fealty," said +he, looking up with what tried to be an off-hand manner. "It is the old +story," he said lightly; "the worship of the unattainable--the remnant, +perhaps, of our old nature worship. If you were not better acquainted +with the subject than I am, I could give you a discourse which would be, +I assure you, very instructive as to how we have always striven after +what we think to be good in the unattainable. We have been forbidden to +worship the sun or to appease the thunders and lightnings, and, one by +one, nearly all the objects of worship have been swept away, leaving a +world that now does not seem to know what to do with its acquired +instincts. One object is left, though, and I am inclined to think that +men are never more thoroughly admirable than when influenced by the +worship of the women who seem to them the best, that many thus come to +know the pricelessness of good and the despair of evil, with quite as +satisfactory practical results as any other creed could bring about." + +"What, then, becomes of the search for the unattainable after marriage?" +asked Margaret practically. + +"I imagine that the search would continue, that the greatest peace of +marriage is the consciousness of approaching good in being assisted to +live up to a woman's higher ideals. It seems as if the condition of +Milton's idyllic pair--'he for God only, she for God _in him_'--has but +little counterpart in real life, and that, in a thousand cases to one, +the morality of the wife is the main chance of the husband." + +"I understand, then, that we are to be worshiped as a means toward the +improvement of our husbands. I was hoping," said Margaret smiling, "that +you were going to prove us to be real goddesses, worthy of devotion for +ourselves--without more." + +"You are raising a well-worn question--as to what men worship when they +bow before a shrine. If you were the shrine, I should say generally the +shrine. At other times they worship that which the shrine suggests. What +I mean is, that it is a good thing for one to have a power with him +capable of improving all the good that is in him. For myself, the point +is somewhat wanting in interest, as I never expect to be able to put it +to a practical test." + +"Not get married, Maurice? Why will you never get married?" + +"I intended to have casually mentioned the reason a minute ago, only you +interrupted me just as I was coming to the interesting part." + +"Then tell me now, and I won't interrupt." + +"Well, you know I am like the small boys who want pie, and won't eat +anything if they don't get it," said he, striving to be prosaic. "I love +you far too well to make it possible for me to marry anybody else." + +In spite of the assistance that pulling his hair gave him, as his head +lay back in his hands, his voice shook and his form stiffened out along +the sand in a way that told of struggle. Margaret was surprised, but she +hardly yet understood the matter enough to feel pained. She had not been +led to expect that men would first express their love while lying on +their backs. + +"I thought I would tell you of it, as you would then know how +particularly well you could trust me--as your friend--a very faithful +one. You know, even in my present state, I would be full of hope, if +things were different, because the money is bound to come sooner or +later; but you, Margaret, I know, without your words, will never be +attainable--that the moon would be more easy for me to grasp." + +Margaret was not often at a loss for a word, but now she knew not what +to say. It did not seem as if anything could be said. She essayed to +speak; but he stopped her. + +"I know what you would say," he said. "They would be kind words in their +tone, full of sympathy, words that I love to hear--that I hear like +music in my ears when you are out of sight? You must, and I know you +will, forgive me for all these confessions," said he, smiling, "you +have made such a change come over my life. You have given me so much +happiness." + +"I don't see how," said Margaret, not knowing what to say. + +"No--you could hardly know why. If you knew what a different life I have +led from that of others you would understand better the real happiness +you have given me. My life of late years has been unlovely. I have not +had the soft influences of a home as it should be, but I have always +yearned for them." + +The pretense of being off-hand in his manner had left him. He talked +disjointedly, and with effort. "You can not know what it is to feel +continually the want of affection. You have never hungered for the +luxury of being in some way cared for. But these weaknesses of mine will +not bore you, because you are kind. It will make my case plainer when I +tell you that for years--as long as I can remember--there never has been +a night that a longing for the presence of my parents has not come over +me. Until I saw you. Now you have come to fill the gap. Now I think of +you, and listen to your voice, and look at your face, and care for you. +You fill more places in my heart than you know of. You are father and +mother and all beside to me, and I shall go back to my dreary life +gladder for this experience, this love for you which will remain with me +always. Still, it is dreadful to look into a future of loneliness! Oh, +Margaret, it is dreadful to be always alone--always alone." + +Margaret was watching the part of his face not covered with his cap as +his words were ground out haltingly, and she could see his lips twitch +as old memories mingled with his present emotions. As he proceeded she +saw from his simple words how deep-seated were his affections, and she +wondered at the way he had concealed his love for her. A great +compassion for him was welling up in her heart. As she listened to his +words, it came upon her what it might be to love deeply and then to +find that it only led to disappointment. She felt glad that she had +given him some happiness--glad when he said he could look forward more +cheerfully to going back to his hopeless existence. It was brave to +speak of it thus--asking nothing. But when he said it was dreadful to be +alone--always alone--his voice conveyed the idea of horror to her, and, +in a moment, without knowing exactly why, the tears were in her eyes, +and she was kneeling beside him on the sand asking what could be done, +and blaming herself for giving him trouble. Her touch upon his hand +thrilled him. He dared not remove his cap. He dared not look at her for +very fear of his happiness; but then he heard a half sob in her voice, +and that cured him. It would never do for her to be weeping. He had said +too much, he thought. He partly sat up, leaning upon his hand, and was +himself again. Margaret was looking at him (so beautiful with her dewy +eyes), with but one thought in her mind, which was how to be kind to +him, how to make up to him some of the care that his life had been shorn +of. It was all done in a moment. Margaret said tearfully, "Oh, what can +I do?" and Rankin's native quickness was present with him. He leaned +forward, inspired by a new thought, and said, "Kiss me," and Margaret, +knowing nothing but a great compassion for him, in which self was +entirely forgotten, said: "Indeed, I will, if you would care for that." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +YACHTING ONLY. + + +Some hearts might have yearned to have been on board during the fishing +in Hay Bay, and to have enjoyed those evenings when the yacht anchored +in the twilight calm, beside rocky shores, or near waving banks of sedge +and rushes, where the whip-poor-will and bull frog supplied all the +necessary music. I abandon all that occurred at pretty Picton and +Belleville, but I must not forget the little episode that happened one +evening near Indian Point as the yacht was on her way to Kingston. A +fresh breeze had been blowing during the afternoon, and the two reefs, +taken in for comfort's sake, still remained in the mainsail, as no one +after dinner felt equal to the exertion of shaking them out. The wind +had almost died away as they approached Indian Point, and not far off, +on the other side of this long, narrow arm of the sea called the Bay of +Quinte, lay MacDonald's Cove, a snug little place for anchorage in any +kind of weather. A heavy bank of clouds was rapidly rising over the +hills in the west, and hastening up the sky to extinguish the bright +moon that had been making a fairy landscape of the bay and its +surroundings, and the barometer was falling rapidly. + +This condition of affairs Jack reported to Charley, who was below with +several others having a little game in which the word "ante" seemed to +be used sometimes in a tone of reproach. Charles answered gayly, without +looking away from the game, that Jack had better get the yacht into the +Cove while there was wind to take her there, and Jack, who observed that +he was "seeing" and "raising" an antagonist for the fifth time on a pair +of fours, thought a man should not be disturbed at such a time, and went +on deck to shake out the reefs so as to drift into the Cove, if +possible, before the storm came on. But when in the middle of the bay +the wind gave out entirely. For half an hour the Ideal lay becalmed and +motionless. Oilskin suits and sou'westers were donned. Now fringes of +whitish scud, torn from the driving clouds, could be seen flying past +the bleared moon, and it seemed in the increasing darkness, while they +were waiting for the tumult, as if the shores around contracted, so as +to give the yacht no space for movement. Jack took the compass bearings +of the lighthouse, expecting soon to be in total darkness, and he had +both anchors prepared for instant use. The sails had been close-reefed, +but after being reefed they were lowered again so as to present nothing +but bare poles to the squall. The darkness came on and grew intense. +Between the rapidly increasing peals of thunder the squall could be +heard approaching, moaning over the hills in the west and down the bay +as if ravening for prey, while the lightning seemed to take a savage +delight in spearing the distant cliffs which, in the flashes, were +beautifully outlined in silhouette against an electric atmosphere. Still +the yacht lay motionless in the dead air difficult to breathe and +oppressive; and still Charley continued to "raise" and get "raised" in +the cheerfully lighted cabin, whence the laughter and the talk of the +game mingled strangely, in the ears of those on deck, with the sounds of +the coming tempest. Margaret, with her head out of the companion-way, +watched the scene with a nervousness that impending electrical storms +oppressed her with. Her quick eyes soon caught sight of something on the +water, not far off. A mystic line of white could be seen coming along +the surface. She asked what it was at a moment when the deadness and +blackness of the air seemed appalling, and the ear was filled with +strange swishing sounds. She never heard any answer. Another instant and +the yacht heeled over almost to the rail in that line of white water, +which the whips of the tornado had lashed into spume. Blinding sheets of +spray, picked up by the wind from the surface of water, flew over those +on deck, and instantly the lee scuppers were gushing with the rain and +spray which deluged the decks. Word was carried forward by a messenger +from the wheel to hoist a bit of headsail, and when this was +immediately done the yacht paid off before the squall, running easterly, +with all the furies after her. The darkness was so great that it was +impossible to see one's hand close to one's eyes. The thunderclaps near +at hand were rendered more terrific by the echoes from the hills, and +only while the lightning clothed the vessel in a spectral glare could +they see one another. Still the yacht sped on, while Jack jealously +watched the binnacle where the only guide was to be found. The Indian +Point light, though not far off, was completely blotted out by the rain, +which seemed to fall in solid masses, and even the lightning failed to +indicate the shores or otherwise reveal their position. + +A wild career, such as they were now pursuing, must end somewhere, and +in the narrow rock-bound locality they were flying through, the chance +of keeping to the proper channel entirely by compass and chart did not +by any means amount to a certainty. Nor was anchoring in the middle of +the highway to be thought of, especially as some trading vessels were +known to be in the vicinity. The chance of being cut down by them was +too great. Jack felt that an error now might cause the loss of the +yacht. After calculating a variation of the compass in these parts, he +decided to run before the gale for a while and keep in the channel if +possible--hoping for a lull in the downfall of rain, so that his +whereabouts could be discovered. + +A high chopping sea was driving the yacht on, while she scudded under +bare poles before the gale, and Jack had been for some little time +endeavoring to estimate their rate of speed when the deluge seemed to +abate partly and the glimmer of a light could be seen to the southward. +A sailor called out "There's Indian Point light." If it had been the +light he mentioned they would have had all they wanted. Jack feared +they had run past it, but, to make sure, he asked the sailors their +opinion. They all said they were certain it was Indian Point light. One +of them declared he had seen the lighthouse itself in one of the +flashes. So Jack had the peak of the mainsail partly hoisted and they +drew around to the southward, so as to anchor under the lee of the +lighthouse point. As the yacht came round sideways to the wind she lay +down to it and moved slowly and heavily through the short angry seas +that, hitting the side, threw spray all over her. Jack was feeling his +way carefully and slowly through the inky blackness of the night with +the lead-line going to show the depth of the water, when the lookout on +the bowsprit-end, after they had proceeded a considerable distance to +the south, suddenly cried "Breakers ahead!" and he tumbled inboard off +the bowsprit, as if he thought the boat about to strike at once. "Let +her go round, sir, for God's sake! We're right on the rocks." + +Jack, back at the wheel, had not been able to get a glimpse of the +foaming rocks in the lightning which the man on the bowsprit had seen. +He despaired of the boat's going about, but he tried it. The high +chopping sea stopped the yacht at once. He knew it was asking too much +of her to come about with so little way on, and the canvas all in a bag, +so, as there was evidently no room to wear the ship, he had the big +anchor dropped. His intention was to come about by means of his anchor +and get out on the other tack into the channel and anywhere away from +the rocks and the breakers that could be heard above the tempest roaring +close to them on the port side. While the chain was being paid out, the +close-reefed mainsail was hoisted up to do its work properly. The storm +staysail was also hoisted and sheeted home on the port side to back her +head off from the land. As this was being done, the sailors paid out the +anchor-chain rapidly. To do so more quickly they carelessly threw it +off the winch and let it smoke through the hawse-pipe at its own pace. +But suddenly there came a check to it, which, in the darkness, could not +be accounted for. A bight or a knot in the chain had come up and got +jammed somewhere, and now it refused to run out. The Ideal immediately +straightened out the cable, and, at the moment, all the king's horses +and all the king's men would have been powerless to clear it. Jack came +forward, and with a lantern discovered how things were. "Never mind," he +thought. "If she will lie here for a while no harm will be done." In the +mean time, while the men were getting a tackle rigged to haul up a bit +of the chain, so as to obtain control of it again, the rain ceased to +fall, while the lightning, by which alone the men could see to work, +served only to make the succeeding darkness more profound. + +The place they had sailed into was on the north shore of Amherst Island. +As Jack feared, the sailors had been wrong in thinking that the light +they saw was the one on Indian Point. It was a lantern on a schooner +which had gone ashore on the rocks close to where the Ideal now lay. + +The worst of their anxiety was, however, yet to come. During a vivid +flash, after the rain had partly cleared away, a reef of rocks was +discovered a short distance off, trending out from the shore directly +behind the yacht. Jack had been lying with his hand on the cable to feel +whether the anchor was holding or not. He soon found that the yacht was +"dragging." The sails were lowered at once, and the second anchor was +left go, in the hope that it might catch hold when the first one had +dragged back far enough to allow the second to work. + +With the rocks behind waiting for them, it was now a question of anchors +holding, or nothing--yacht or no yacht. Every moment as she pitched and +ducked and tossed against the driving seas and wind she dropped back +toward a black mass over which the waves broke savagely. The yacht was +literally locked up to the big anchor. They could neither haul up nor +pay out its cable, so that, until this was remedied by means of a tackle +(which takes some time in a jumping sea and darkness) sailing again was +impossible. Carefully they paid out chain enough for the second anchor +to do its work. Not till they were close to the rocks did they allow any +strain to come upon it. Then they took a turn on its chain and waited to +see how it would hold. + +Feeling the cable, when there is nothing to hope for but that the hook +will do its work, is a quiet though anxious occupation. Jack waited for +the sensations in the hand which will often tell whether the anchor is +holding or not, and then rose, and in the moonlight which now began to +break through the clouds his face looked anxious. "Flat rock," he +muttered, "with a layer of mud on it." + +By this time the men had got control of the big anchor's chain again and +had knocked the kink out of it. But there was no room now to slip cables +and sail off. + +The rocks were too close. The idea struck him of winding in the first +anchor a bit--in the hope that it might catch in a crack in the rock, or +on a bowlder, before it got even with the second one. + +This proved of no use, and the yacht was now approaching, stern-first, +the point or outward rock of the reef which stood up boldly in the +water. Only a few feet now separated this outside rock from the counter +of the yacht. In two minutes more the stem would be dashing itself into +matches. + +Jack's brain, you may be sure, was on the keen lookout for expedients. +He had the mainsail hoisted and the staysail flattened down to the port +side--so as to back her head off. He hoped by this possibly to grind +off the rocks by his sails after striking, and by then slipping his +cables to get out into deep water before the stern was completely stove +in. But while this was being done the thought came into his mind whether +the stern might not clear the outer rock without hitting it. The +changeable gusts of wind had been swinging the yacht sidewise--first a +little one way and then a little the other. At the time he looked back +at the yacht, they were just about near enough to strike when the wind +shifted her a little toward the north, and for a moment the stern +pointed clear of the outer rock. His first idea was that the wind was +shifting permanently. But suddenly it came to him that this might be his +only chance. He did not wait to command others, but flew to the anchor +chains and threw off the coils. The yacht shot astern like the recoil of +a cannon. He threw the chains clear of the windlass so that the vessel +could dart backward without any check. It seemed a mad thing to do--to +let both anchors go overboard--but it was a madness which when +successful is called genius. It was genius to conceive and carry out the +idea in an instant, and single handed, too, as if he were the only one +on the boat, genius to know quickly enough exactly how the vessel would +act. Half a dozen seconds sufficed to throw off the chains, and then he +got back to the wheel, steering her as she went backward grazing her +paint only against the rock, while the chains rushed out like a +whirlwind over the bows. The staysail sheets had already been flattened +down on the port side and the yacht's head paid off fast on the port +tack, while Jack rapidly slacked the main sheet well off, and as she +gathered way and plunged out into the open channel, an understanding of +the quick idea that had saved the vessel trickled through the brains of +the hired men. Instead of climbing to the rocks from a sinking yacht, as +they expected to be doing at this moment, here they were heading out +into deep water again--with the old packet good as new. + +Cresswell called to the mate to keep her "jogging around" till he spoke +to the owner about getting back the anchors, and then went below with +the other men of the party who had remained on deck throughout the +uncomfortable affair. + +The workers on deck, who looked like submarine divers, slipped out of +their oil-skins and descended from the deck to the gay cabin below. +Charley still continued to "raise" and get "raised" with a pertinacity +which defied the elements. His game had had the effect of making his +mother and the others think, in spite of their tremors, that the danger +lay chiefly in their own minds, and, under the circumstances, Charley +had no easy time of it. He had listened to every sound, and knew a good +deal more about the proximity of the rocks, and the trouble generally, +than any one would have supposed. + +He decided not to attempt to pick up the anchors that night, so they +beat back to MacDonald's Cove, where they entered, in the moonlight, and +made fast for the night to some trees beside a steep rocky shore. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + BASSANIO: So may the outward shows be least themselves; + The world is still deceived with ornament. + In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, + But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, + Obscures the show of evil? In religion, + What damméd error, but some sober brow + Will bless it, and approve it with a text, + Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? + + * * * * * + + SALARINO: My wind, cooling my broth, + Would blow me to an ague when I thought + What harm a wind too great might do at sea. + ... Should I go to church, + And see the holy edifice of stone, + And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks? + + _Merchant of Venice._ + + +When approaching from the west among picturesque islands and past wooded +points of land, our old city of Kingston affords the traveler a pleasant +scene. Above the blue and green expanse of her spacious harbor, the +penitentiary with its high wall and surrounding turrets suggests the +Canadian justice we are proud of; and, further up, rises the asylum, +suggestive only of Canadian lunacy, for which we do not claim +pre-eminence, while beyond, some little spires and domes, sparkling in +the sun, are seen over the tops of some English-looking stone +residences, where the grassy lawns stretch down to the line of waves +breaking on the rocky shore. Further off one sees the vessel-masts along +the ship-yards and docks; here and there some small Martello forts try +to look formidable; large vessels cross and recross the harbor, while +others lie at anchor drying their sails; and beyond all, on the hill at +the back, rises the garrison walls, where-- + + In spite of all temptation, + Dynamite and annexation, + +Canada is content, for the present at least, to see the English flag +instead of our own. + +As our friends came on deck the next morning (Sunday) they were able to +enjoy this pleasant approach to Kingston. Mrs. Dusenall and others had +wished to attend church if possible in the limestone city, and an early +start had been made by the sailors long before the guests were awake. +The wind came lightly from the southward, which allowed them to pick up +the anchors without difficulty, and it took but a short time to sweep in +past the city and "come to" off the barrack's wharf, where a gun was +ceremoniously fired as the anchor was lowered from the catheads. + +Mrs. Dusenall piped all hands for divine service. They came out of the +ark two by two and filed up the streets in that order until the church +was reached. The boys came out in "heavy marching order"--Sunday coats, +and all that sort of thing--which made a vast change from the +picturesque and rather buccaneer-like appearance they presented on the +yacht. + +If a traveling circus had proceeded up the center aisle of the +attractively decorated edifice, no greater curiosity could have been +exhibited among the worshipers. Mrs. Dusenall had some of the imposing +mien of a drum-major as she led her gallant band to seats at the head of +the church, and Charley was justly proud of the fine appearance they +made. He had surveyed them all with pleasure while on the sidewalk +outside, and had paid the usher half a dollar to lead them all together +to front seats. Walk as lightly as they could, it was impossible in the +stillness of the church to prevent their entrance from sounding like +that of soldiery, and once the eyes of the worshipers rested on the +noble troop they became fixed there for some time. There was a ruddy, +bronzed look about the yachting men's faces which, innocent of limestone +dust tended to deny the almost aggressive respectability which good +tailoring and cruelty collars attempted to claim for them. In the hearts +of the fair Kingstonians who glanced toward them there arose visions of +lawn-tennis, boating, and buccaneer costumes suggested by that +remarkably able-bodied and healthy appearance which a fashionable walk, +bank trousers, and a gauzy umbrella may do much to modify but can not +obliterate. As for the male devotees, it was touching to mark their +interest in Margaret as she went up the aisle keeping step with the +shortened pace of the long-limbed Geoffrey. The clergyman was just +saying that the scriptures moved them in sundry places when all at once +he became a mere cipher to them. After their first thrill at the beauty +of her face, their eyes followed Margaret and that wonderful movement of +hers that made her, as with a well-ordered regiment, almost as dangerous +in the retreat as in the advance. But Nina came along close behind her, +and those who, though disabled, survived the first volley were +slaughtered to a man when the rich charms of her appearance won her a +triumph all her own. Jack, walking by her side, full of gravity but +happy, took in the situation with pride at her silent success. Then all +the others followed, and when they were installed in a body in the three +front pews, and after they had all bowed their heads and the gentlemen +had carefully perused the legend printed in their hats--"Lincoln Bennett +& Coy, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London. Manufactured expressly for +Jas. H. Rogers, Toronto and Winnipeg"--they got their books open and +admitted that they had done things they ought not to have done and that +there was no health in them. + +The interior of the church was a luxury to the eye in its mellow +coloring from stained-glass windows and carefully-arranged lights, and +in its banners, altar-cloths, embroidery, and church millinery +generally, it left little to be desired. The clergyman was a young +unmarried offspring of a high-church college who, with a lofty disregard +for general knowledge, had acquired a great deal of theology. He it was +who arranged that dim religious light about the altar and walled up a +neighboring window so that the burning of candles seemed to become +necessary. Never having been out of America, it was difficult to imagine +where he acquired the ultra-English pronunciation that had all those +flowing "ah" sounds which after a while make all words so pleasantly +alike in the high-pitched reading of prayers when, it may be inferred, +that word-meanings are perhaps of minor import. It seemed that he alone +was, from the holiness of his office, qualified to enter that mysterious +place at the head of the chancel where, with his back to the +congregation, at stated times he went through certain genuflexions and +other movements in which the general public did not participate further +than to admire the splendor of his back. The effect of the many +mysteries on some of the Kingston men was to keep them away from the +church. A few fathers of families and others came to please wives, +sweethearts, or clients, and in the cool, agreeable edifice enjoyed some +respectable slumber or watched the proceedings with mild curiosity or +had their ears filled either with good music or the agreeable sound of +the intoning. + +The effect of the little mysteries on the well-to-do women of the church +(for it was no place for a poor man's family) was varied. On the +large-eyed, nervous, impressionable, and imaginative virgins--those who +could always be found ready in the days of human sacrifices--the +clergyman's mysteries and the exercise of the power of the Church, as +exhibited in the continual working of his strong will upon them, had of +course the usual results in enfeebling their judgment and in rendering +them very subservient. In the case of some unimaginative matrons and +more level-headed girls these attractions did not unfit them for +every-day life more than continual theatre-going, and they took a pride +in and enjoyed a sense of quasi-ownership in the man whom it tickled +their fancy to clothe in gorgeous raiment. To these solid, +pleasure-loving, good-natured women, whose religion was inextricably +mixed up with romance, the mysteries, sideshows, and formalities of +their splendid _protégé_ brought satisfaction; and in their social +gatherings they discussed the doings of their favorite much as a +syndicate of owners might, in the pride of ownership, discuss their +horse. It may be pleasing to be identified with the supernatural, but +one's self-respect must need all such compensations to allow one to +become a peg for admiring women to hang their embroidery on--to be +largely dependent upon their gratuities, subject to some of their +control, to put in, say, two fair days' work in seven, and spend the +rest in fiddle-faddle. + +"There is but one God. What directly concerns you, my friends, is that +Mohammed _is his Prophet_--to interpret the supernatural for you." It +would be interesting to find out if there ever existed a religion, +savage or civilized, whose public proclamation did not contain a +qualifying clause to retain the power in the priests. + +The sermon on this occasion was on the observance of the Sabbath. It +contained much church law and theology, and in quotations from different +saints who had lived at various periods during the dark ages, and whose +sayings did not seem to be chosen so much on account of their force as +for the weight given by the names of the saints themselves, which were +delivered _ore rotundo_. But it is doubtful whether the most erudite +quotation from obscure mediæval saints is capable of carrying much +conviction to the hearts of a Canadian audience, and Jack and Charley +had to be kicked into consciousness from an uneasy slumber. + +From the saints the priest descended to Chicago, a transition which +awoke several. And he sought to illustrate the depravity of that city by +commenting upon the large facilities there provided for +Sabbath-breaking. He spoke of the street-cars he had seen there running +on that day, and of the suburban trains that carried thousands of +working-women and girls out of the city. He did not say that the cars +were chiefly drawn by steam-power, nor that these poor, jaded, +hollow-eyed girls worked harder in one day than he did in three weeks; +nor did he speak of the weak women's hard struggle for existence in the +life-consuming factories; nor of the freshness of the lake breezes in +the spots where the trains dropped thousands of their overworked +passengers. + +Margaret Mackintosh had seen these dragged, dust-choked, narrow-chested, +smoke-dried girls, with all the bloom of youth gone from them, trying to +make their drawn faces smile as they go off together in their clean, +Sunday print dresses, too jaded for anything save rest and fresh air. +She knew that any man not devoid of the true essence of Christ might +almost weep in the fullness of his sympathy with them. But the young +priest convicted them of sacrilege, and did not say he was thankful for +being privileged to witness such a sight, or that Chicago existed to +shame the more priest-ridden cities of Canada. + +When this story was concluded, Mrs. Dusenall, and many of her kind; and +the unimpressionable girls looked acquiescence, because the words were +backed by the Church, but their hearts went out to the poor sinners in +Chicago. Only with those who took their mental bias from the priest did +his words find solid resting-place. Geoffrey sat with an inmovable face, +impossible to read. His subsequent remark to Margaret, when she had +delivered her opinions about the matter, was, however, characteristic. +He said simply, as if deprecating her vehemence: + +"The man must live, you know, and how is he to live if people go out of +town on Sunday." To Geoffrey a short time was sufficient to satisfy him +that the preacher ought to have lived in the days when mankind were +saturated with belief in miracle and looked for explanation of events +by miracle without dreaming of other explanation. + +During the next five minutes the sermon rather wandered from the +subject, but fastened upon it again in an anecdote of an occurrence said +to have taken place at an American seaport town, during the preacher's +visit there. + +Several young mechanics, instead of going to church one Sunday morning, +had engaged a yawl, and also the fishermen who owned it, to take them to +a village on the coast and back again. It appeared from the account that +for a day and a night the yawl had been blown away from the coast, and +then that the wind had changed, so as to drive it back again; and the +story of the voyage naturally found attentive listeners among our +yachting friends. + +"All through that first terrible day, and all through the long, black +night they were tossed about among the giant billows of a most +tempestuous ocean. And what, dear friends, must have been the agony and +remorse of those misguided young men when they thus realized the results +of their deliberate breaking of the holy day. As they clung to the frail +vessel, which reeled to and fro beneath them like a drunken man, and +which now alone remained to possibly save them from a watery grave--as +they perceived the billows breaking in upon that devoted ship, insomuch +that it was covered with waves, what must have been their sensations? +And when the wind suddenly changed its direction and blew them with +terrible force back again toward the rocky coast, we can imagine how +earnestly they made their resolutions never again to transgress in this +way. Once more, after a while, they saw the land again, and as they came +closer they could discern the spires of those holy edifices which they +had abandoned for the sake of forbidden pleasures and in which they were +doomed never to hear the teachings of the Church again. There lay the +harbor before them, as if in mockery of all their attempts to reach it; +and while raised on high in the air, on the summit of some white, +mountainous billow, they could obtain a Pisgah-like view of those homes +they were destined never again to enter." + +Jack was broad awake now and wondering why, with the wind dead after +them, the fishermen in charge of the boat could not make the harbor. + +"Suddenly there came a great noise, which no doubt sounded like a death +knell in the hearts of the terrified and exhausted young men. It was +soon discovered that the mainsail of the ship had been blown away by the +fury of the tempest." + +"Now what was their unhappy condition? How could they any longer strive +to reach the longed-for haven when the mainsail of the yawl was blown +away?" + +Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably at this point. He was saying to +himself: "Why not sneak in under a jib? Or even under bare poles? Or, if +the harbor was intricate, why not heave to under the mizzen and signal +for a tug?" Half a score of possibilities followed each other through +his brain, which in sailing matters worked quickly. He always inclined +from his early training to accept without question all that issued from +the pulpit; but this story bothered him. The instructor went on: + +"Clearly there was now no hope for the devoted vessel. Even the anchor +was gone; the anchor of Hope, dear friends, was gone. The strong +trustworthy anchor (in which mariners place so great confidence that it +has become the type or symbol of Hope) was gone--washed overboard by the +temptuous waves." + +Charley here received a kick under the seat from Jack whose face was now +filled with a blank incredulity, which showed that the influence of his +early training had departed from him. + +In one way or another, the preacher succeeded in irritating some of the +Ideal's crew. He went on to say that the yawl was dashed to pieces on +the rocks, and that only one man--a fisherman--survived; from which he +drew the usual moral. + +With three or four exceptions, our friends went out of church not as +good-humored as when they came in. Geoffrey alone seemed to have enjoyed +himself. His heart-felt cynicism pulled him through. He said aloud to +Mrs. Dusenall, when they were all together again, that he thought the +preacher's description of the perils of the deep was very beautiful. +(Dead silence from Jack and Charley). Mrs. Dusenall concurred with him, +and said it was wonderful how clergymen acquired so much general +knowledge. + +Presently Charley, thoughtfully: "Say, Jack, what was the matter with +that boat, any way?" + +"Blessed if I could find out," said Jack. + +"Why! did you not hear? Her mainsail was gone," said Geoffrey gravely, +to draw Jack out. + +"Well, who the deuce cares for a mains'l?" answered Jack, rising testily +to the bait. "The man does not know what he is--well, of course, he is a +clergyman, but then, you know--my stars! not make a port in broad +daylight with the wind dead aft! Perfectly impossible to miss it! And, +then the anchor--a fisherman's anchor!--washed overboard!" + +Geoffrey persisted, more gravely, in a reproachful tone; "You don't mean +to say, Jack, that you doubt that what a clergyman says is true?" + +The Misses Dusenall also looked at him very seriously. + +Jack was a candid young man, and had his religious views fixed, as it +were, hereditarily. He looked at his boots, as if he would like to evade +the question; but, seeing no escape, he came out with his answer like +parting with his teeth. + +"When the parson," he said with stolid determination, "goes in for +mediæval saints, I don't interfere. He can forge ahead and I won't try +to split his wind. But when he talks sailing he must talk sense. No, +sir! I do _not_ believe that story--and no Angel Gabriel would make me." + +There was a force behind his tones of conviction which amused some of +his hearers. + +"Jack Cresswell! You surprise me," said Geoffrey loftily. + +After lunch the ladies went up into the city to visit some friends, and +the men were lying about under the awning, chatting, smoking, and +sipping claret. + +"Well, there was one thing about that boat that caused the entire +disturbance," said Charley, sagaciously. "I've thought the whole thing +out; and I put down the trouble to the usual cause--and that is--whisky. +When the fishermen found there was liquor on board they 'steered for the +open sea,' and when they were all stark, staring, blind drunk they went +ashore." + +"I fancy you have solved the difficulty," said Mr. Lemons. "The preacher +did not, somehow, seem to get hold of me. My notion is that he should +come down to your level and help you up--like those Arab chaps that lug +and butt you up the Pyramids--not stand at the top and order you to +climb." + +"Just so," said Geoffrey. "A speaker must in some way make his listeners +feel at home with him, just as a novel, to sell well, must contain some +one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin. The sympathies must +be excited. In books accepted by gentle folk the "one touch" of +attractive and primitive nature is refined, and in this shape it is +called poetry--in this shape it creates vague and pleasant wonderings, +especially in the minds of those whose fancies are capable of no higher +intellectual flight. When we see that people so universally seek +productions in which nature is only more or less disguised, we seem to +understand man better." + +"What are you trying to get at now?" asked Jack, with a smiling show of +impatience. + +"Why," said Hampstead, "take the work of the sprightliest modern novel +writers--say, for instance, Besant and Rice. Deduct the fun from their +books and the shadowy plot, and what remains? A girl--a fresh, young, +innocent girl--who, with her beautiful face and figure, charms the +heart. She does not do much, and (with William Black) she says even +less; but the people in the book are all in love with her, and the +reader becomes, in a second-hand and imaginative way, in love with her +also. She is quiet, lady-like, and delicious; her surroundings assist in +creating an interest in her; but in the dawn and development of love +within her lies the chief interest of most readers. The mind +concentrates itself without effort when lured by any of our earlier +instincts. What we want is a definition as to what degree of careful +mental exertion is worthy of being dignified by the name of "thought," +as distinguished from that sequence of ideas, without exertion, which is +sufficient in all animals for daily routine and the carrying out of +instinct." + +"There are some of your ideas, Hampstead, which do not seem to promise +improvement to anybody," said Jack. + +"And, for you, the worst thing about them is that they have a semblance +of truth," replied Hampstead. + +"Sometimes--yes," admitted Jack. "But I would not excuse you because +they happened to be true. The only way I excuse you is because, after +your scientific mud-groveling, you sometimes point higher than others. +Are we to understand, then, that you object to novel reading on moral +grounds?" + +"Don't be absurd. A novel may be all that it should be. I am stating +what I take to be facts, and I think it interesting to consider why we +enjoy what ladies call 'a good love-story.' You will notice that people +who adopt an over-ascetic and unnatural life and do not seek nature, +give up reading 'good love-stories.' Perhaps they vaguely realize that +the difference in the interest created by Black's insipid Yolande and +Byron's Don Juan is merely one of degree." + +"Now, will you be so good as to say candidly what gain you or any one +else ever received from thinking in such channels as these?" inquired +Jack, with impatience. + +"Certainly. It keeps me from transcendentalism--from being led off into +vanity--thoughts about my immortality--" + +"Surely," interrupted Jack, "the aspirations of one's soul are +sufficient to convince us that we will live again." + +"Jack, a man's soul is simply his power of imagining and desiring what +he hasn't got. Once a day, more or less, his soul imagines immortality. +The rest of the time it imagines his sweetheart. If a poet, his soul +combines the two. Or else it is the mighty dollar, or hunting, or +something else. Shall all his aspirations toward nature go for nothing? +His soul will conjure up his sweetheart nine thousand times for one +thought of his future state. Because he has acquired neither. If he had +acquired either, he would soon be quite as certain that there was +something still better in store for him. With our minds as active and +refined as they are, it would be quite impossible for men to do +otherwise than have their imaginings about souls and immortality. These +make no proof; the savage has none of them; and if they were proof, +whither do man's aspirations chiefly point? To earth or to heaven?" + +"Well, I suppose your answer," said Jack, "is sufficient for yourself. +You study science, then, to persuade yourself that when you die you will +remain teetotally dead?" + +"Rather to make myself content with a truth which is different from and +not so pleasant as that which we are taught in early life." + +"For goodness' sake," cried Mr. Lemons, yawning, "pass the claret." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Visam Britannos hospitibus feros. + + HORACE, _Lib. 3, Carm. 4._ + + +Mrs. Dusenall liked the visit to Kingston. She was proud of the +appearance her guests and family made at the church, and she thought of +going home and writing a book as prodigal of pretty woodcuts and +fascinating price-lists as those published by other gilded ladies. True, +she had with her no young children wherewith to awake interest in +foreign places by detailing what occurred in the ship's nursery; and +thus she might have been driven to say something about the foreign +places themselves, which, in a book of travels, are perhaps of secondary +importance when a whole gilded family may be studied in their +interesting retirement. + +They kept a log on the Ideal, and each one had to take his or her turn +at keeping the account of the cruise posted up to date. + +Some events on board or near the Ideal did not come under Mrs. +Dusenall's notice and did not appear in the log-book. Nobody flirted +with Mrs. Dusenall to make her experience exciting, and her book, if +written, would have been one long panorama of landscape interlarded with +the mildest of items. But compress your world even to the size of a +yacht, and there will be still more going on, in the same eternal way, +than any one person can observe, especially if that person happens to be +a chaperon. + +The first evening among the islands was spent in different ways. Some +paddled about to explore or bathe. Flirtation of a mild type was +prevalent--interesting possibly to the parties concerned, and, as usual, +to themselves only. Toward dusk the gig was manned by the crew for the +transportation of Mrs. Dusenall and part of her suite across the river +through the islands to the hotels at Alexandria Bay on the American +shore. The hotel guests on the balconies and verandas were continuing to +enjoy or endure that eternal siesta which at these places seems to be +quite unbroken save at meal times, and the arrival of a number of very +presentable people in a handsome gig, rowed in the man-of-war style by +uniformed sailors and steered by a person with a gold-lace badge on his +cap, created a ripple of interest. Among those on the verandas engaged, +perhaps overtaxed, in the digestion of their dinners, not a few were +slightly interested by what they saw. In a group of a dozen or more a +gentleman behind a solitaire shirt-stud, worth a good year's salary for +a Victoria Bank clerk seemed to be speaking the thoughts of the party, +though his words came out chiefly as a form of soliloquy. He seemed to +be taking a sort of admiring inventory of the gig and its occupants as +it approached the landing wharf: + +"Small sailor boy--standing in the bow--with a spear in his hand." + +It was a boat-hook in the boy's hand, but it might have been a trident. + +"He's real cunnin'--that boy--in his masquerade suit. Four sailors--also +in masquerade costume. And they can make her hump up the river, +sure's-yer-born. Now I wonder who those fellows are--in buttons--with +gold badges on their hats. Wonder what those badges might imply! Part of +the masquerade, I guess. But stylish--very." + +Then, turning to a friend, he said: + +"Cha'ley, those people are yachting round here." + +At this discovery the exhausted-looking refugee from overwork in some +city addressed as "Cha'ley," whose face was lit up solely by a cigar, +answered slowly but decisively: + +"Looks like it--very." + +Then followed a quick mental calculation in the head of the gentleman +behind the solitaire, and, as the boat came alongside the landing, the +oars being handled with trained accuracy, he said: + +"I wonder how many of those paid men they have on board. I like it. I +like the whole thing. I shall do it myself next summer. And right up to +the handle. Cha'ley, bet you half a dollar that those are first-class +gentlemen and ladies down there, and we ought to go down and _re_ceive +them." + +"Why, certainly," said the other in grave, staccato tones, which seemed +to deny the exhaustion of his appearance by indicating some internal +strength. "James," he added in solemn self-reproach, "we should have +been down--on the landing--to assist the ladies from their canoe." + +As they left the veranda several ladies called after them: + +"Mr. Cowper, we would be pleased to have you bring the ladies up." + +Mr. Cowper bowed with gravity, but did not say anything, as he was +preparing within him his form of self-introduction. + +In a few moments Mr. Cowper and Mr. Withers met our party as they slowly +meandered up the ascent toward the hotel. Mr. Cowper, hat in hand, gave +them collectively a bow, which, if somewhat foreign in its nature, was +not without dignity, and he addressed them with unmistakable +hospitality, while Mr. Withers, by a flank movement, attacked the left +wing of the party, where he conducted a little reception of his own. + +Mr. Cowper said, "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?" + +Mrs. Dusenall bowed and smiled, and the others, wondering what was +coming, bowed also as they caught Mr. Cowper's encompassing eye. "We +regret," he said, looking toward Geoffrey, to whom he was more +especially attracted on account of his cap-badge and greater stature. +"We regret, captain, that we did not notice your arrival in time to be +on the landing to assist the ladies from your canoe." + +Geoffrey's smile only indicated his gratification and had no reference +to Mr. Cowper's new name for the yacht's gig. + +"We are only guests in the hotel ourselves, but if we had known of your +coming some of us certainly would have been down to _re_ceive you in the +proper manner." + +What "proper manner" of reception Mr. Cowper had in his head it is +difficult to say. His words showed Mrs. Dusenall, however, that he was +not the custom-house officer or the hotel-keeper, which relieved her of +some anxiety lest she should make a mistake. At a slight pause in his +flow of language she thanked him in her most reassuring accents, and +continued in those suave tones and with that perfect self-possession, +with which the English duchess, her head a little on one side and chin +upraised, has been supposed carelessly to assert her person, crown, and +dignity. + +"I assure you," she said, "that we are only knocking about, as it were, +quite informally, from place to place in the yacht." + +"Quite informally," echoed Geoffrey, who was enjoying Mrs. Dusenall. + +She added: "So, of course, we could not think of allowing you to give +yourselves any trouble on our account." + +In what pageantry Mrs. Dusenall proceeded when not traveling quite +informally Mr. Cowper did not give himself the trouble to consider. The +thought came to him that he might be entertaining an English duchess +unawares, but the succeeding consciousness that he could probably buy up +this duchess "and her whole masquerade" fortified him as with triple +brass. + +"Madam," he said, with that distinctness and intensity with which +Americans convey the impression that they mean what they say, "if we +have neglected you and your friends at first, we will be pleased if you +will allow us now to try to make your visit attractive." + +Mrs. Dusenall thought this was assuming a heavy responsibility. + +"If you will come up on the pe-az-a, there are a number of real nice +ladies who would be most pleased to meet you." + +Several of the party began to think that the cares of "knocking about +quite informally" were about to commence. But as there was no escape, +and all smiled pleasantly, and Mr. Cowper conversed as he and Mr. +Withers led them up to the "pe-az-a." He was gratified at the way they +responded to his endeavors; and perhaps he was not without a latent wish +to show his hotel friends how perfectly at home he was in "first-class +British society." + +"There is always something going on here," he said; "and if there is +nothing on just now we will get up something real pleasant--or my name's +not Cowper." + +This hint as to his identity was not thrown away, and as it seemed more +than likely that they were about to be entertained immediately by this +gentleman behind the solitaire headlight, it occurred to Geoffrey that +it would be as well for the party to know what his name was. + +"Mr. Cowper, let me introduce you to Mrs. Dusenall." + +This quickness on Geoffrey's part relieved Mr. Cowper from any +difficulty in mentioning his own name. Mrs. Dusenall then introduced him +in a general way to the remainder of the party. To Miss Dusenall it was +impossible for him to do more than bow, as she was chilling in her +demeanor. She had received, as has been hinted, that final distracting +finishing polish which an English school is expected to give, and she +sought to be so entirely English as not to know what cosmopolitan +courtesy was. + +Margaret's face, however, gave Mr. Cowper encouragement and pleasure, +and, as he shook hands warmly with her, something in her appearance gave +a new spur to his hospitable intentions. The energy of a new nation +seemed bottled up within him, as he said to Margaret: + +"If I can't get up something here to make you enjoy yourself, why--why +don't believe in me any more." + +His evident but respectful admiration could only elicit a laugh and a +blush. It was impossible to resist Mr. Cowper in his energetic intention +to be host, and, in spite of his dazzling headlight, the national +generosity and forgetfulness of self were so apparent in him that +Margaret "took to him" in a way that mystified the other girls, who +regarded the headlight only as a warning beacon placed there by +Providence to preserve young ladies with an English boarding-school +finish from undesirable associations. + +Mr. Cowper was what is called "self-made"--a word that in the States +conveys with it no implied slur--for the simple reason that there is not +the same necessity for it as in England. Speaking generally, an American +has a generous consideration for women and a largeness of character, or +rather an absence of smallness, not yet sufficiently recognized as +national characteristics. He is generally the same man after "making his +pile" as before--not always fully acquainted, perhaps, with social +veneer, but kind, keen, and generous to a fault. It would be an insult +to such a one to compare him with the "self-made" Englishman, whose rude +pretension of superiority to those poorer than himself, truckling +servility to rank and position, and ignorance of everything outside his +own business render him very unlovely. + +"Now," said Mr. Cowper, when he had been introduced to them all. "Now," +he said, "we're all solid. We will just step up-stairs, if you please." +He looked at them all pleasantly as he offered his arm to assist Mrs. +Dusenall's ascent. When they arrived on the veranda above, his idea was +that, in order to bring about the perfect concord he desired to see, +individual introductions were necessary. To Mrs. Dusenall he introduced +a large number of lean girls and stout women, ninety per cent of whom +said "pleased to meet you," and Mrs. Dusenall, appearing, with +surprising activity of countenance, to be freshly gratified at each +introduction, quite won their hearts. + +But when Mr. Cowper commenced to introduce them all over again to +Margaret, that young person, not being afraid of women, rebelled, and, +touching his arm to stay his impetuous career, said: "Oh, no, it will +take too long. Let me do it." Then she turned to the company. "As Mr. +Cowper says, my name is Mackintosh," and she ducked them a sort of +old-fashioned courtesy. The company bowed--some smiling and some solemn +at her audacity. "And very much at your service," she added, as she +dipped again to the solemn ones--capturing them also. Then she turned to +the others. "And this is Miss Dusenall," and so-and-so, and so-and-so, +until they were all made known. + +"And this is Morry," she said lastly, taking the little man by the +coat-sleeve. "Make your bow, Morry." + +Rankin remained gazing on the ground until she shook him by the sleeve. +Then he took a swift, scared glance at the assembly, and said, "I'm +shy," and hid his head behind tall Margaret's shoulder. This absurdity +amused the American girls, and five or six of them, forgetting their +stiffness, crowded around to encourage him. A beaming matron came up to +Margaret and took her kindly by the elbows. + +"I must kiss you, my dear. You did that so charmingly." + +"Indeed, it's very kind of you to say so," replied Margaret, as she +received an affectionate salute. "Long introductions are so tiresome, +are they not?" + +"They do take time, my dear," said the motherly person, as they sat down +together. + +"Yes, time and introductions should be taken by the forelock," smiled +Margaret. + +"Just what you did, my dear. I _do_ wish I had a daughter like you. Oh +my!" And the little woman's face grew long for a moment at some sad +recollection. An interesting episode of family sorrow would have been +confided to Margaret if they had not been interrupted by the arrival of +four tall young men, in company with Mr. Withers. The grave, worn-out +face of Mr. Withers had just a flicker in it as his strong +ratchet-spring voice addressed itself to our party: + +"Mrs. Dusenall and friends, permit me to introduce to you the 'Little +Frauds.'" + +The four tall young men bowed with the usual gravity, and then mixed +with the company. They wore untanned leather and canvas shoes, dark-blue +stockings, light-colored knickerbocker trousers, and leather belts. +Navy-blue flannel shirts, with white silk anchors on the broad collars, +completed their costume, with the exception of black neck-ties and stiff +white linen caps with horizontal leather peaks. Taken as a whole, their +costume was such a happy combination of a baseball player's and a +Pullman-car conductor's that the brain refused to believe in the +maritime occupation suggested by the white anchors. + +Mr. Withers explained who they were. + +"The Little Frauds," he said, "are a party of young men who live +together in a kind of small shanty on one of the neighboring islands. +Although the locality is picturesque, they do not live here during the +winter, but only migrate to these parts when--well, when I suppose no +other place will have them. They come here every year to enjoy the +solitude of a hermit-life. Here they withdraw themselves from their +fellow-man, and more especially their fellow-woman." + +The gentlemen referred to were taking no manner of notice of Mr. +Withers, and in their chatter with the girls were not living up to their +character. + +"The reason why they are called 'Little Frauds' has now almost ceased to +be handed down by the voice of tradition," continued Mr. Withers. "It is +not because they are intrinsically more deceptive than other men. No man +who had any deception in his nature would go round with a leg like this +without resorting to artifice to improve its shape." + +Mr. Withers here picked up a blue-covered pipe-stem which served one of +the Frauds with the means of locomotion. + +"That, ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Withers, slowly, in the tone of a +lecturer, and poising the limb in his hand, "is essentially the leg of a +hermit. If for no other reason than to hide that leg from the public, +its owner, ladies, should become a hermit." + +The leg here became instinct with life, and Mr. Withers suddenly stepped +back and gasped for breath. Then he explained further: + +"Seeing that the origin of the name is now almost lost in obscurity, the +Little Frauds themselves have lately taken advantage of this fact, +ladies, to palm off upon the public a spurious version of the story. +They say, in fact, that because they systematically withdrew themselves +into a life of celibacy and retirement, and being, as they claim, very +desirable as husbands, this name was given to them as being frauds upon +the matrimonial market." + +Somebody here called out: "Oh, dry up, Withers!" + +Mr. Withers took a glass of champagne from one of the waiters passing +with a tray and did quite the reverse. He took two gulps, threw the rest +over the railing, and continued: + +"One glance, ladies, at these people, who are really outcasts from +society, will satisfy you that their explanation of the term is as +palpably manufactured as the manuscripts of Mr. Shapira--" + +"Mister who?" inquired a profane voice. + +"Unaccustomed as they are to the usages of polite society, ladies, you +will excuse any utterances on their part that might seem intended to +interrupt my discourse. The real reason of this ridiculous name is as +follows--" + +Here, a remarkably good-looking Fraud stood up before Mr. Withers and +obliterated him. He spoke in a voice something like a corn-craik: + +"We commissioned Mr. Withers to speak to you, Mrs. Dusenall, and to your +party, on a topic of great interest to ourselves, but as the night is +likely to pass before Mr. Withers gets to the point, we will have to +dispense with his services." + +Mr. Withers had already retired behind his cigar again, with the air of +a man who had acquitted himself pretty well. + +The Frauds then begged leave to invite by word of mouth all our party to +a dance next evening on their island. + +Mrs. Dusenall accepted for all, as she rose to go, suggesting, at the +same time, that perhaps some of her new friends, if they did not think +it too late, would accompany them across the water in the moonlight to +examine their yacht. + +After some conversation, a number went with Mrs. Dusenall in the gig, +while Margaret and the rest of our party were ferried over by Frauds and +others in their long and comfortable row-boats. + +Some more champagne was broached on the yacht, but Mr. Withers said he +remembered once, early in life, drinking some of the old rye whisky of +Canada, and that since then he had always sought for annexation with +that delightful country. + +To the surprise of Mrs. Dusenall, both he and all the "Melican men" took +rye whisky, and ignored her champagne. + +The dismay of Mr. Cowper on hearing that the yacht would depart on the +morning after the Frauds' dance was unfeigned. He said it "broke him all +up." + +"Just when we were getting everything down solid for a little time +together," he said. + +Mrs. Dusenall explained that the yacht was to take part in a race at +Toronto in a few days, and must be on hand to defend her previously won +laurels. + +"Well, Mrs. Dusenall," said Mr. Cowper thoughtfully, "I have myself, +over there in the bay, a small smoke-grinder that--" + +"A--what?" inquired Mrs. Dusenall. + +"A steamboat, madame--a small steam-yacht. Nothing like this, of +course." He waved his hand airily as if he considered himself in a +floating palace. "But very comfortable, I do assure you. Now, if you are +going away so soon, the only thing I can do is to get you all to visit +the different islands round here in my steam-barge. I call her the old +roadster, madame, because she can't do her mile in better than three +minutes." + +As this represented a speed of twenty miles an hour, Mrs. Dusenall said +it was fast enough for her. If he could have got a steamboat fast enough +to beat the best trotting record Mr. Cowper would have been content. + +It was settled that at eleven o'clock next day the steamer should call +and take the whole party off to visit the islands; and he suggested +that, as there would be "a sandwich or something" on the boat, Mrs. +Dusenall need not think about a return to the Ideal for luncheon. + +He then gravely addressed himself to the four Frauds and to Mr. Withers: + +"Gentlemen, before we leave this elegant vessel, I wish to remind you +that no real old Canadian rye whisky will pass our lips again until such +a chance as this once more presents itself. Gentlemen, as this is the +last drink we will have to-night, we will, with Mrs. Dusenall's +permission, make ready our glasses, and we will dedicate and consecrate +this toast to the success of the Ideal and her delightful crew. Mrs. +Dusenall--ladies and gentlemen of the Ideal--this toast is not only to +celebrate our new acquaintance, which we hope may have in the future +more chances to ripen into intimacy (and which on our part will never be +forgotten), but we drink it also for another reason--for another less +worthy reason--and I can not disguise from you the fact that, to speak +plainly, _we like the liquor_. Madame, the gentlemen of the Ideal have +consented to come back with me now, to smoke just one cigar on the hotel +before we all retire for the night. Citizens of the United States, +Frauds, and others, as this is the last drink we are to have to-night, +we will drink the toast in silence." + +The gravity of the Americans is a huge national sham, throwing into +relief their humor and sunshiny good-will, as in a picture a somber gray +background throws up the high lights. + +In half an hour more all the men were back at the hotel with Mr. +Cowper; but, instead of pursuing the tranquil occupation of smoking a +cigar, as he proposed, they were led in and confronted with a banquet in +which the extensive resources of the hotel had been taxed to the utmost +Mr. Cowper called it the "little something to eat," as he pressed them +to come from the verandas into the hotel. But really it was a +magnificent affair, and, as Mr. Lemons, who was eloquent on the subject, +said, it was calculated to appeal to a man's most delicate +sensibilities. + +We will not follow them any further on this evening. Mr. Cowper's idea +was to all have a good time together--banish stiffness, promote +intimacy, and to drive to the winds all cares. He certainly succeeded, +for at twelve o'clock there was not a "Mister" in the room for anybody. +At one o'clock it was "Jack, old man," and "Cowper, old chappie," all +round. At two o'clock the friendship on all sides was not only +hermetically sealed, but it promised to be eternal, and after that, it +was thought the night was a little dark for Charley Dusenall to return +with the others to the yacht, so he remained at the hotel till morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + FERDINAND:... Full many a lady + I have eyed with best regard; and many a time + The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage + Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues + Have I liked several women; never any + With so full a soul but some defect in her + Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed, + And put it to the foil; but you, O you + So perfect and so peerless, are created + Of every creature's best. + + _The Tempest._ + + +The "old roadster" had a busy time of it the next morning preparing for +the visit to the islands. She was steaming up and down the river for a +long while before our friends knew it was time to get up. At eleven +o'clock she took on board the Canadians, and away they went--not at +"better" than twenty miles an hour, but pretty fast. Mr. Cowper's hint +that the Ideal was magnificent in its fittings had pleased the +Dusenalls. They thought he had been somewhat impressed by a swinging +chandelier over the cabin table. Mr. Cowper had examined this, found it +did not contain the last improvements, said it was splendid, and the +Dusenalls were pleased. But their pleasure was damped when they were led +into the main cabin of the "old roadster." The crimson silk-plush +cushions covering the divan around the apartment, into which they sank +somewhat heavily, did not at first afford them complete repose. The +window curtains and _portières_ throughout the vessel were all of thick +corded silk or silk plush. The walls and ceilings in the cabins were +simply a museum of the rarest woods, and in the main cabin was a little +tiled fireplace with brass dogs and andirons, its graceful curtains +reined in with chains. The cabins alone had cost a fortune, and the +Dusenalls were for once completely taken aback. Mrs. Dusenall did not +get her head over on one side _a la duchesse_ any more that day, and it +ended in her coming to the conclusion that Americans in their +hospitalities may frequently have no other motive than to give pleasure. +This could only be realized by Britons able to denationalize themselves +so far as to understand that there may be a life on earth which is not +alternate patronage and sponging. It is to be feared though that most of +them receive attentions from Americans only as that which should, in the +ordinary course of things, be forthcoming from a people blessed with a +proper power to appreciate those excellent qualities of head and heart +with which the visitor represents his incomparable nation. + +Mr. Cowper did not do things by halves. As they sped about among the +many islands the strains of harps and violins came pleasantly from some +place about the boat where the musicians could not be seen. A number of +people from the hotels and islands were also among Mr. Cowper's guests, +and Mr. Withers, as a sort of aid-de-camp, assisted the host in bringing +everybody together and in seeing that the colored waiters with trays of +iced liquids did their duty. One room down below was reserved for the +inspection of "the boys," a room which had received a good deal of +personal attention and in which any drink known to the civilized world +could be procured. Mr. Withers confidentially invited our friends to +name anything liquid under the sun they fancied--from nectar to nitric +acid. For himself, he said that "that champagne and stuff" going round +on deck was not to his taste, and he had the deft-handed "barkeep" mix +one of his own cocktails. His own invention in this direction was +composed of eight or ten ingredients, and the Canadians were polite +enough to praise the mixture; but, afterward, when among themselves, +Jack's confession met with acquiescence when he said it seemed nothing +but hell-fire and bitters. + +The long, narrow craft threaded its tortuous way like a smooth-gliding +fish through the little channels between the islands, passing up small +natural harbors or coming alongside a precipitous rock. They several +times disembarked to see how much art had assisted nature on the +different islands, and viewed the fishponds, summer houses, awnings, and +hammocks, and the taste displayed in the picturesque dwellings. Mr. +Cowper's assurances that the owners of the islands would not object to +be caught in any kind of occupation or garment were corroborated by the +warm welcomes extended to them. Such is the freedom of the American +citizen, that a good many of the islanders who heard Mr. Cowper was +having a picnic "guessed they'd go along, too." It was evidently +expected that they would do just as they liked, without being invited; +in fact, Mr. Cowper loudly objected in several cases, declaring he had +no provisions for them. "Never mind, old man, we're not proud. We'll +whack up with your last crust, and bring a pocket-flask for ourselves." + +This seemed friendly. + +Of course the lunch, which was found to be spread under a large marquee +on a distant island, was really another banquet. The hotel retinue had +been up all night preparing for it. The waiters, glass, table-linen, +flowers, and everything else showed what money could do in the way of +transformation scenes. The only fault about it was that it was too +magnificent for a picnic. It can not be a picnic when there is no chance +of eating sand with your game-pie, no chance of carrying pails of water +half a mile, no difficulty in keeping stray cows, dogs, and your own +feet out of the table-cloth spread upon the ground. And when the trip in +the steamer had ended and most of our crew were having a little doze on +the Ideal during the latter part of the afternoon, the curiosity which +Mr. Cowper had awakened was still at its height. + +After dinner that evening, about eight o'clock, a pretty picture might +have been made of the Ideal, as she lay in the shadows, moored to a +well-wooded island where the rock banks seemed to dive perpendicularly +into blue fathomless depths. The party were taking their coffee in the +open air for greater coolness, and all had arrayed themselves for the +dance in the evening. The delicately shaded muslins and such thin +fabrics as the ladies wore blended pleasantly with the soft evening +after-glow that fell upon the rustling trees and running water. Seated +on the overhanging rocks beside the yacht, or perched up on the stowed +mainsail, they not only supplied soft color to the darkling evening +hues, but seemed to have a glow of their own, and reminded one of +Chinese lanterns lit before it is dark. This may have been only a fancy, +helped out by radiant faces and the slanting evening lights, but, even +if the simile fails, they were certainly prepared to shine as brightly +as they knew how at the ball later on. + +The little basswood canoe, with its comfortable rugs and cushions, lay +beside the yacht, bobbing about in the evening breeze, and Margaret sat +dreamily watching its wayward movements. + +"A penny for your thoughts?" asked somebody. + +"I was thinking," answered Margaret, "that the canoe is the only craft +that ought to be allowed in these waters, and that the builders of +houses on these islands ought to realize that the only dwelling +artistically correct should be one that either copies or suggests the +wigwam. No one can come among these islands without wondering how long +the Indians lived here. All the Queen Anne architecture we have seen +to-day has seemed to me to be altogether misplaced." + +"What you suggest could hardly be expected here," said Geoffrey, +"because, putting aside the difficulty of building a commodious house +which would still resemble a wigwam, there remains the old difficulty of +getting people to see in imagination what is not before them--the old +difficulty that gave us the madonnas, saints, and heroes as Dutch, +Italian, or English, according to the nationality of the painter. Of all +the pictures of Christ scattered over Europe, none that I have seen +could have been like a person living much in the open air of the Holy +Land. They will paint Joseph as brown as the air there will make +anybody, because it does not matter about Joseph, but the Christs are +always ideal." + +"Still, I am sure something might be done to carry out my idea," said +Margaret, keeping to the subject. "Surely localities have the same right +to be illustrated according to their traditions that nations have to +expect that their heroes shall be painted so as to show their +nationality. No one would paint the Arab desert and leave out the squat +black tent, the horse, and all the other adjuncts of the Bedouin. Why, +then, build Queen Anne houses in a place where the mind refuses to think +of anything but the Indian?" + +"Perhaps," said Hampstead, "the case here is unique. It is difficult to +find a parallel. But the same idea would present itself if one attempted +to build an English Church in the Moorish style instead of the Gothic or +something similar. I fancy that the subscribers would feel that the +traditions of their race and native land were not being properly +represented, as you say, in their architecture--that they would resent +an Oriental luxury of outline suggesting only Mohammed's luxurious +religion, and that nothing would suit them but the high, severe, and +moral aspect of their own race, religion, and churches. By the way, did +you ever consider how the moral altitude of each religion throughout the +world is indelibly stamped in the very shape of each one's houses of +worship. Begin at the whimsical absurdities of the Chinese, and come +westward to the monstrosities of India, then to the voluptuous domes of +the Moor and the less voluptuous domes of Constantinople, then to the +still less Oriental domes of Rome, then to the fortress-like rectangular +Norman, then to the lofty, refined, severe, upward-pointing Gothic of +Germany and England. Each church along the whole line, by its mere +external shape, will tell of the people and religion that built it +better than a host of words." + +"If that be so, it would seem like retrograding in architecture to +suggest the Indian wigwam here," said Jack. "What do you say, Margaret?" + +"I think that this is not a place where national aspirations in +monuments need be looked for. Its claims must always be on the side of +simple nature and the picturesque--a place for hard workers to +recuperate in, and, therefore, the poetry of all its early traditions +should in every way be protected and suggested." + +"Of course, I suppose, Miss Margaret, the Indian you wish to immortalize +is John Fenimore Cooper's Indian, and that you have no reference to +Batoche half-breeds. Perhaps after a while we may see the genius of this +place suggested further, but I think the Americans have had too much +trouble in exterminating 'Lo, the poor Indian' to wish to be reminded of +his former existence, and that the savagery of Queen Anne is sufficient +for them. 'Lo' has, for them, no more poetry than a professional tramp. +Out West, you know, they read it 'Loathe the poor Indian.'" + +"They don't loathe the poor Indian everywhere," said Rankin, as he +remembered an item about the dusky race. "You know our act forbidding +people to work on Sunday makes a provision for the unconverted heathen, +and says 'this act shall not apply to Indians.' Some time ago a man at +the Falls of Niagara was accustomed to run an elevator on Sunday to +carry tourists up and down the cliff to the Whirlpool Rapids. His +employés were prosecuted for carrying on their business on the Sabbath +day. When the following Sunday arrived, a quite civilized remnant of the +Tuscarora tribe were running the entire business at splendid profits, +and claimed, apparently with success, that the law could not touch +them." + +While this desultory talk was going on, Margaret was still watching the +little canoe bobbing about on the water. Geoffrey said to her: "Those +rugs and cushions in the canoe look very inviting, do they not?" + +Margaret nodded. + +"I know what you are thinking about," he whispered. "You want to go away +in the canoe, and dream over the waters and glide about from island to +island and imagine yourself an Indian princess." + +She nodded again brightly. + +"Well, if my dress-coat will not interfere with your imagining me a +'great brave,' you might get your gloves, fan, and shawl, and we can go +for a sail, and come in later on at the dance. If the coat spoils me you +can think of me as John Smith, and of yourself as Pocahontas." + +As Margaret nestled down into the cushions of the canoe, Geoffrey +stepped a little mast that carried a handkerchief of a sail, and, +getting in himself, gave a few vigorous strokes with the paddle, which +sent the craft flying from under the lee of the island. As the sail +filled and they skimmed away, he called out to Mrs. Dusenall that they +would go and see the people at the hotels, and would meet them at the +dance about nine o'clock. From the course taken by the butterfly of a +boat, which was in any direction except toward the hotels, this +explanatory statement appeared to be a mere transparency. + +Nina's spirits sank to low ebb when she saw these two going off +together. + +They sailed on for some distance in open water, and then, as the sail +proved unsatisfactory, Margaret took it down, and they commenced a +sinuous course among small islands. The dusk of the evening had still +some of the light of day in it, but the moon was already up and +endeavoring to assert her power. Everybody had given up wearing hats, +which had become unnecessary in such weather. As they glided about, +Geoffrey sometimes faced the current with long, silent strokes that gave +no idea of exertion foreign to the quiet charm of the scene, and at +other times the paddle dragged lazily through the water as he sat back +and allowed the canoe to drift along on the current close to the rocky +islands. They floated past breezy nooks where the ferns and mosses +filled the interstices between rocks and tree roots, where trees had +grown up misshapenly between the rocks, under wild creeping vines that +drooped from the overhanging boughs and swept the flowing water. Hardly +a word had been spoken since they left the yacht. For Margaret, there +was enough in the surroundings to keep her silent. She had yielded +herself to the full enjoyment of the balmy air and faint evening glows, +changing landscape, and sound of gurgling water. Her own appearance as +seen from the other end of the canoe did not tend to spoil the view. Her +happy face and graceful lines, and the full neck that tapered out of the +open-throated evening dress did not seem out of harmony with anything. +Reclining on one elbow against a cushioned thwart, she leaned forward +and altered the course of the light bark by giving a passing rock a +little push with her fan. + +They were now passing a sort of natural harbor on the shore of one of +the islands. It had been formed by the displacement of a huge block of +granite from the side of the rock wall, and the roots and trunks of +trees had roofed it in. + +Geoffrey pointed it out for inspection, and they landed lower down so +that they could walk back to a spot like that to which Shelley's +Rosalind and Helen came. + + To a stone seat beside a stream, + O'er which the columned wood did frame + A rootless temple, like a fane + Where, ere new creeds could faith obtain, + Man's early race once knelt beneath + The overhanging Deity. + +Here they rested, while Margaret, lost in the charm of the surroundings, +exclaimed: + +"Could anything be more delightful than this?" + +Geoffrey had always been conscious of something in Margaret's presence +which, seemingly without demand, exacted finer thought and led him to +some unknown region which other women did not suggest. When with her he +divined that it was by some such influence that men are separately +civilized, and that, with her, his own civilization was possible. Every +short-lived, ill-considered hope for the future seemed now so entangled +with her identity that her existence had become in some way necessary to +him. He had come to know this by discovering how unfeigned was the +earnestness with which he angled for her good opinion, and he was rather +puzzled to note his care lest "a word too much or a look too long" might +spoil his chances of arriving at some higher, happier life that her +presence assisted him vaguely to imagine. Nevertheless, so great was his +doubt as to his own character that all this seemed to him as if he must +be merely masquerading in sheep's clothing to gain her consideration, +and that it must in some way soon come to an end from his own sheer +inability to live up to it. All he knew was that this living up to an +ideal self was a civilizing process, and if he did not count upon its +permanency it certainly, he thought, did him no harm while it lasted. +"After all, was it not possible to continue in the upper air?" + +While his thoughts were running in this channel, such a long pause +elapsed, that Margaret had forgotten what he was answering to when he +said decisively: "Yes. It is pleasant." + +She looked around at him because his voice sounded as if he had been +weighing other things than the scenery in his head. + +"Oh, it is more than pleasant," she said. "It is something never to +forget." Margaret looked away over earth, water, and sky, as if to point +them out to interpret her enthusiasm. Her range of view apparently did +not include Geoffrey. Perhaps he was to understand from this that he, +personally, had little or nothing to do with her pleasure. But a glimpse +of one idea suggested more serious thought, and the next moment she was +wondering how much he had to do with her present thorough content. + +Geoffrey, who was watching her thoughts by noticing the half smile and +half blush that came to her face, felt his heart give a little bound. He +imagined he divined the presence of the thought that puzzled her, but he +answered in the off-hand way in which one deals with generalities. + + +"I believe, Miss Margaret, this whole trip provides you with great +happiness." + +"I believe it does," said Margaret. To conceal a sense of consciousness +she uprooted a rush growing at the edge of the rock seat. + +"Well, that is a great thing, to know when you are happy. Happiness is a +difficult thing to get at." + +"Do you find it so hard to be happy?" + +"I think I do," said Geoffrey. "That is, to be as much so as I would +like." + +"You must be rather difficult to please." + +"No doubt it is a mistake not to be happy all the time," replied +Geoffrey. "There is such a thing, however, as chasing happiness about +the world too long. She shakes her wings and does not return, and leaves +us nothing but not very exalting memories of times when we seem, as far +as we can recollect, to have been only momentarily happy." + +"For me, I think that I could never forget a great happiness, that it +would light up my life and make it bearable no matter what the after +conditions might be," said Margaret thoughtfully. + +"Just so," answered Geoffrey lightly. "There's the rub. How's a fellow +to cultivate a great happiness when he never can catch up to it. I don't +know of any path in which I have not sought for the jade, but I can look +back upon a life largely devoted to this chase and honestly say that +beyond a few gleams of poor triumph I never think of my existence except +as a period during which I have been forced to kill time." + +"That is because you are not spiritually minded," said Margaret, +smiling. + +"I suppose you mean consistently spiritually minded," said Geoffrey. "No +doubt some who live for an exalted hereafter may sometimes know what +actual joy is, but this can only approach continuity where one has great +imaginative ambition and weak primitive leanings. For most people the +chances of happiness in spirituality are not good. Happily, the savage +mind can not grasp the intended meaning of either the promised rewards +or punishments continually, if at all; and this inability saves them +from going mad. Of course the more men improve themselves the more they +may rejoice, both for themselves and their posterity, but mere varnished +savages like myself have a poor chance to gain happiness in consistent +spirituality. It is foolish to suppose that we are free agents. A high +morality and its own happiness are an heirloom--a desirable thing--which +our forefathers have constructed for us." + +"I have sometimes thought," said Margaret, "that if happiness depends +upon one's goodness it is not necessarily that goodness which we are +taught to recognize as such. Goodness seems to be relative and quite +changeable among different people. Some of the best people under the Old +Testament would not shine as saints under the New Testament, yet the +older people were doubtless happy enough in their beliefs. Desirable +observances necessary to a Mohammedan's goodness are not made requisite +in any European faith, and yet our people are not unhappy on this +account. Nobody can doubt that pagan priests were, and are, completely +happy when weltering in the blood of their fellow-creatures, and, if it +be true that conscience is divinely implanted in all men, that under +divine guidance it is an infallible judge between good and evil, that +one may be happy when his conscience approves his actions, and that +therefore happiness comes from God, how is it that the pagan priest +while at such work is able to think himself holy and to rejoice in it +with clearest conscience? It would seem, from this, that there must be +different goodnesses diametrically opposed to each other which are +equally-pleasing to Him and equally productive of happiness to +individuals." + +Geoffrey smiled at her, as they talked on in their usual random way, for +it seemed that she was capable of piecing her knowledge together in the +same sequence (or disorder) that he did himself. One is well-disposed +toward a mind whose processes are similar to one's own. He smiled, too, +at her attempts to reconcile facts with the idea of beneficence toward +individuals on the part Of the powers behind nature. For his part, he +had abandoned that attempt. + +"I have a rule," he said, "which seems to me to explain a good deal, +namely, if a person can become persuaded that he is rendered better or +more spiritual by following out his natural desires, he is one of the +happiest of men. The pagan priest you mentioned was gratifying his +natural desires, his love of power and love of cruelty--which in +conjunction with his beliefs made him feel more godly. Mohammed built +his vast religion on the very corner-stone of this rule. Priests are +taught from the beginning to guard and increase the power of the Church. +This is their first great trust, and it becomes a passion. Their natural +love of power is utilized for this purpose. For this object, history +tells us that no human tie is too sacred to be torn asunder and trampled +on. Natural love of dominion in a man can be trained into such perfect +accord with the desired dominion of a priesthood that he may feel not +only happy but spiritually improved in carrying out anything his Church +requires him to do--no matter what that may be." + +Geoffrey-stopped, as he noticed that Margaret shuddered. "You are +feeling cold," he said. + +"No, I was only thinking of some of the priests' faces. They terrify me +so. I don't want to interrupt you, but what do you think makes them look +like that?" + +Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders. + +"I don't know," he answered. "Perhaps interpreting the supernatural has +with some of them a bad effect upon the countenance. All one can say is +that many of them bear in their faces what in other classes of men I +consider to be unmistakable signs that their greatest happiness consists +in something which must be concealed from the public." Hampstead spoke +with the tired smile of one who on an unpleasant subject thinks more +than he will say. + +"Let us not speak of them. They make me think of Violet Keith, and all +that sort of thing. Go back to what you were saying. It seems to me that +the most refined and educated followers of different faiths do not gain +happiness in spirituality in the way you suggest. Your rule does not +seem to apply to them." + +"I think it does," answered Geoffrey, with some of that abruptness which +in a man's argument with a woman seems to accept her as a worthy +antagonist from the fact that politeness is a trifle forgotten. "You +refer to men whose mental temperament is stronger in controlling their +daily life than any other influence--men with high heads, who seem made +of moral powers--ideality, conscientiousness, and all the rest of them. +They have got the heirloom I spoke of. They are gentle from their +family modification. These few, indeed, can, I imagine, be happy in +religion, for this reason. There has been in their families for many +generations a production of mental activity, which exists more easily in +company with a high morality than with satisfactions which would only +detract from it. With such men it may be said that their earlier nature +has partly changed into what the rule applies to equally well. With +ordinary social pressure and their own temperaments they would still, +even without religion, be what they are; because any other mode of life +does not sufficiently attract them. Their ancestors went through what we +are enduring now." + +"But," said Margaret--and she continued to offer some objections, +chiefly to lead Geoffrey to talk on. However incomplete his reasoning +might be, his strong voice was becoming music to her. She did not wish +it to stop. Both her heart and her mind seemed impelled toward both him +and his way of thinking by the echo of the resonant tones which she +heard within herself. Being a woman, she found this pleasant. "But," she +said, "people who are most imperfect surely may have great happiness in +their faith?" + +"At times. Yes," replied he. "But their happiness is temporary, and +necessarily alternates with an equal amount of misery. The loss of a +hope capable of giving joy must certainly bring despair in the same +proportion, inversely, as the hope was precious. All ordinary men with +any education alternate more or less between the enjoyment of the +energetic mental life and the duller following of earlier instincts, and +when, in the mental life, they allow themselves to delight in immaterial +hopes and visions, there is unhappiness when the brain refuses to +conjure up the vision, and most complete misery after there has occurred +that transition to their older natures which must at times supervene, +unless they possess the great moral heirloom, or perhaps a refining +bodily infirmity to assist them. Ah! this struggle after happiness has +been a long one. Solomon, and all who seek it in the way he did, find +their mistake. Pleasure without ideality is a paltry thing and leads to +disgust. Religion-makers have hovered about the idea contained in my +rule to make their creeds acceptable. In this idea Mohammed pleased +many. Happiness in spirituality can only be continuous for men when they +come to have faces like some passionless but tender-hearted women, and +still retain the wish to imagine themselves as something like gods." + +Geoffrey paused. + +"Go on," said Margaret, turning her eyes slowly from looking at the +running water without seeing it. She said very quietly: "Go on; I like +to hear you talk." The spell of his presence was upon her. There was the +soft look in her eyes of a woman who is beginning to find it pleasant to +be in some way compelled, and for a moment her tones, looks, and words +seemed to be all a part of a musical chord to interpret her response to +his influence. Geoffrey looked away. The time for trusting himself to +look into the eyes that seemed very sweet in their new softness had not +arrived. For the first time he felt certain that he had affected her +favorably. Almost involuntarily he took a couple of steps to the water's +edge and back again. + +"What is there more to say?" said he, smiling. "We neither hope very +much nor fear very much nowadays. Men who have no scientific discovery +in view or who can not sufficiently idealize their lives gradually cease +expecting to be very happy. To men like myself religions are a more or +less developed form of delusion, bringing most people joy and despair +alternately and leading others to insanity. We know that religions +commenced in fear and in their later stages have been the result of a +seeking for happiness and consolation. To us the idea of immortality is +but a development of the inherent conceit we notice in the apes. We do +not allow ourselves the pleasing fantasy that because brain power +multiplies itself and evolves quickly we are to become as gods in the +future. If we do not hope much neither do we despair. Still, there is a +capacity for joy within us which sometimes seems to be cramped by the +level and unexciting mediocrity of existence. We do not readily forget +the beautiful hallucinations of our youth; and for most of us there +will, I imagine, as long as the pulses beat, be an occasional and too +frequent yearning for a joy able to lift us out of our humdrum selves." + +Margaret felt a sort of sorrow for Geoffrey. Although he spoke lightly, +something in his last words struck a minor chord in her heart. "Your +words seem too sad," she said after a pause. + +"I do not remember speaking sadly," said he. + +"No; but to believe all this seems sad when we consider the joyful +prospects of others. You seem to put my vague ideas into coherent shape. +The things you have said seem to be correct, and yet" (here she looked +up brightly) "somehow they don't seem to exactly apply to me. I never +had strong hopes nor visions about immortality. They never seemed +necessary for my happiness. Small things please me. I am nearly always +fairly happy. Small things seem worth seeking and small pleasures worth +cultivating." + +"Because you have not lived your life. Do you imagine that you will +always be content with small pleasures?" asked Geoffrey quickly as he +watched her thoughtful face. + +Margaret suddenly felt constraint. After the many and long interviews +she had had with Geoffrey she had always come away feeling as if she had +learned something. What it was that she had learned might have been hard +for her to say. His conversation seemed to her to have a certain width +and scope about it, and to her he seemed to grasp generalities and +present them in his own condensed form; but she had been unconsciously +learning more than was contained in his conversation. His words +generally appealed in some way to her intellect; but tones of voice go +for a good deal. Perhaps in making love the chief use of words is first +to attract the attention of the other person. Perhaps they do not amount +to much and could be dispensed with entirely, for we see that a dozen +suitors may unsuccessfully plead their cause with a young woman in +similar words until some one appears with tones of voice to which she +vibrates. Perhaps it matters little what he says if he only continues to +speak--to make her vibrate. Certainly Cupid studied music before he ever +studied etymology. Hampstead had never said a word to her about love, +but the resonant tones, his concentration, and the magnetism of his +presence, were doing their work without any usual formulas. + +The necessity of answering his question now brought the idea to her with +a rush that Geoffrey had taught her perhaps too much--that he had taught +her things different from what she thought she was learning--that the +simplicity of her life would never be quite the same again. She became +conscious of a movement in her pulses before unknown to her that made +her heart beat like a prisoned bird against its cage, that made her +whole being seem to strain forward toward an unknown joy which left all +the world behind it. In the whirl of feeling came the impulse to conceal +her face lest he should detect her thoughts, and she bent her head to +arrange her lace shawl, as if preparatory to going away. She looked off +over the water, so that she could answer more freely. Her answer came +haltingly. + +"Something tells me," she said, "that the small pleasures I have known +will not always be enough for me." Then faster: "But, of course, all +young people feel like this now and then. I think our conversation has +excited me a little." + +She arose, and walked a step or two, trying to quell the tumult within +her. + +"We must be going. It is late," she said in a way that showed her +self-command. + +Geoffrey arose also, to go away, and they walked to the higher ground. +Suddenly Margaret felt that for some reason she wished to remember the +appearance of this place for all her life, and she turned to view it +again. The moon was silvering the tracery of vines and foliage and the +surface of the twisting water, and giving dark-olive tones to the +shadowed underbrush close by. The large hotels could be seen through a +gap in the islands with their many lights twinkling in the distance; a +lighthouse, not far off, sent a red gleam twirling and twisting across +the current toward them, and a whip-poor-will was giving forth its +notes, while the waltz music from the far-away island floated dreamily +on the soft evening breeze. Geoffrey said nothing. He, too, was under +the influence of the scene. For once he was afraid to speak to a +woman--afraid to venture what he had to say--to win or lose all. He +thought it better to wait, and stood beside her almost trembling. But +Margaret had had no experience in dealing with the new feelings that +warred for mastery within her, and she showed one of her thoughts, as if +in soliloquy. She was too innocent. The vague pressures were too great +to allow her to be silent, and the words came forth with hasty fervor. + +"No, no! You must be wrong when you say there is nothing in the world +worth living for?" + +"No, not so," interrupted Geoffrey. "I did not say that. I said that +life, for many of us, was mediocre, because ideals were scarce and +imaginations did not find scope. But there is a better life--I know +there is--the better life of sympathy--of care--of joy--of love." + +As she listened, each deep note that Geoffrey separately brought forth +filled her with an overwhelming gladness. When he spoke slowly of +sympathy, care, joy, and love, the words were freighted with the musical +notes of a strong man's passion, and they seemed to bring a new meaning +to her, one deeper than they had ever borne before. + + Earth and heaven seemed one, + Life a glad trembling on the outer edge + Of unknown rapture. + +What a transparent confession the love of a great nature may be suddenly +betrayed into! The tears welled up into Margaret's eyes, and, partly to +check the speech that moved her too strongly, and partly to steady +herself, and chiefly because she did not know what she was doing, she +laid her hand upon his arm. + +He trembled as he tried to continue calmly with what he had been saying. +He did not move his arm or take her hand, but her touch was like +electricity. + +"I know there is such a life--a perfect life--and that there might be +such a life for me, a life that more than exhausts my imagination to +conceive of. You were wrong in saying that I said--that is, I only +said--oh, I can't remember what I said--I only know that I worship you, +Margaret--that you are my heaven, my hereafter--the only good I +know--with power to make or mar, to raise me from myself and to gild the +whole world for me--" + +Margaret put up her hand to stay the torrent of his utterance. She had +to. For, now that he gave rein to his wish, the forceful words seemed to +overwhelm her and seize and carry off her very soul. He took her hand +between both of his, and, still fearful lest she might give some reason +for sending him away, he pleaded for himself in low tones that seemed to +bring her heart upon her lips, and when he said: "Could you care for me +enough to let me love you always, Margaret?" she looked half away and +over the landscape to control her voice. Her tall, full figure rose, +like an Easter lily, from the folds of the lace shawl which had fallen +from her shoulders. Her eyes, dewy with overmuch gladness and wide with +new emotions, turned to Geoffrey's as she said, half aloud--as if +wondering within herself: + +"It must be so, I suppose." + +When she looked at him thus, Geoffrey was beyond speech. He drew her +nearer to him, touching her reverently. He did not know himself in the +fullness Of the moment. To find himself incoherent was new to him. She +was so peerless--such a vision of loveliness in the moonlight! The +thought that he now had a future before him--that soon she would be with +him for always--that soon they would be the comfort, the sympathy, the +cheer, and the joy of one another! It was all unspeakable. + +Margaret placed both her hands upon his shoulder as he drew her nearer, +and, as she laid her cheek upon her wrists, she said again, as if still +wondering within herself: + +"It must be so, I suppose. I did not know that I loved you, Geoffrey. +Oh, why are you so masterful?" + + * * * * * + +A little while after this they approached the island, where the ball was +at its height, and it seemed to Margaret that all this illumination of +Chinese lanterns, ascending in curving lines to the tree tops--that all +the music, dancing, and gayety were part of the festival going on within +her. As Geoffrey strode into the ball-room with Margaret on his arm he +carried his head high. A man who appeared well in any garb, in evening +dress he looked superb. Some who saw him that night never forgot how he +seemed to typify the majesty of manhood, and how other people seemed +dwarfed to insignificance when Margaret and he entered. If only a +modified elasticity appeared in her step, the wonder was she did not +skip down the room on her toes. They went toward Mrs. Dusenall, who came +forward and took Margaret by the elbows and gave them a little shake. + +"You naughty girl, how late you are! Dear child, how beautiful you look! +Where--?" + +Some imp of roguery got into Margaret. She bent forward and whispered to +her motherly friend. + +"Dear mother," she whispered, "we landed on an island, and Geoffrey +kissed me." + +"Heavens!" cried Mrs. Dusenall, not knowing what to think. "Why--but of +course it's all right. Of course he did, my dear--he could not do +anything else--and so will I. And so you are engaged?" + +At this Margaret tried to look grave and to shock Mrs. Dusenall again. + +"I don't know. I don't think we got as far as saying anything about +that." Then, turning to Geoffrey, with simplicity, "Are we engaged?" + +"Girl! are my words but as wind that you should mock me with their +emptiness? Come and let us dance, for it is advocated by the preacher." +And they danced. + +When Nina had seen Mrs. Dusenall kiss Margaret on her late arrival, she +knew its meaning at once, and her heart sickened. + +Pretty playthings seemed in some way rather degrading to Geoffrey that +night, and Nina was able to speak to him only for a moment, just before +all were going away. She then pretended to know nothing about the +engagement, and said, with cat-like sweetness: + +"I thought you did not care for Margaret's dancing much? I see she must +have improved, as you have been with her all the evening." + +Geoffrey answered gravely; "I believe you are right; there is a +difference. Yes, I did not think of it before, but, now you speak of it, +there does seem to have been an improvement in her dancing." + +"Ah!" said Nina. + +As Geoffrey paddled the canoe back to the yacht that night, or rather +morning, and the Yankee band had finished a complimentary God save the +Queen, and after the last cheer had been exchanged, Margaret said to him +in the darkness, just before they parted: + +"If there were no more happiness to follow, Geoffrey, to-night would +last me all my life!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + How like a younker, or a prodigal, + The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, + Hugged and embraced by the wanton wind. + How like the prodigal doth she return, + With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails. + Lean, rent, and beggared by the wanton wind. + + _Merchant of Venice._ + + + +Next morning the deck of the Ideal was all activity. + +A strong northeasterly wind had sprung up, so that by a rare chance they +were able to sail up the current instead of employing a tug. Only the +paid hands and one or two others were on deck as they struggled up the +stream till near Clayton. Here the channels opened out, the current +seemed to ease up, and they got the wind continuously as she boiled up +to Kingston. The steward went ashore at the city, and there was a delay +while he was getting in more ice for the refrigerator, and poultry, and +other supplies. Then they went off again, flying before the wind, past +the wharves of Kingston toward Snake Island lying hull down and showing +nothing but its tree-tops. + +Breakfast was very irregular that day--terribly so, the steward thought. +He was preparing breakfast at any and all times up to twelve o'clock, +and after that it was called luncheon. No troublesome bell awoke the +tired sleepers, no colored man came to take away their beds as on the +sleeping-cars. The dancers of the previous night tumbled up, more or +less thirsty, just when the spirit moved them, and, as all had a fair +quantum of sleep in this way, there were no bad tempers on board, +except--well, the steward knew enough to look pleasant. + +It was a fine start they made. But it did not last long. During the +night the heavy water-laden atmosphere began to break up into low clouds +that went flying across the face of the moon, producing weird effects in +alternate light and darkness. They were soon close-hauled on a wind from +the southward, and before the port of Charlotte was reached they had a +long tussle with a stiff breeze from the west--topmast housed, two reefs +down, and the lee-scuppers busy. + +At dawn, when they went into Charlotte, it was blowing a gale. Not a +Cape Horn gale, perhaps, but a good enough gale, and the water was +lively around the pier-heads. Several vessels could be seen up the lake, +running down to the harbor for shelter, and wallowing in the sea. So +they ran the yacht far up into the harbor between the piers, and made +fast as far away from the lake as they could get, to avoid being fouled +by incoming vessels, and to escape the heavy swell that found its way in +from outside. An hour after the sailing vessels had made the port the +mail-line steamer Eleusinian came yawing in, with some of her windows in +bad shape, and glad to get in out of the sea. + +Next morning it was blowing harder than ever. Everything outside the +cabins was disagreeable. The water they floated in seemed to be +principally mud, and on land the mud seemed principally water. Some of +the adventurous waded through the mire to see the works for smelting +iron in the neighborhood. But the only thing resembling fun outside the +boat was trying to walk on the piers. Two figures, to which yellow +oilskin suits lent their usual grace, would support a third figure, clad +in a long water-proof, resembling a sausage. These three would make a +dash through the wind and seize a tall post or a spile for mooring +vessels, and here they would pause, hold on, and recover their lost +breath. Then, slanting into the wind, they would make a sort of tack, +partly to windward, till they reached the next spile, and so on, while +occasionally they would be deluged with the top of a wave. The fun of +this consisted in the endeavor to avoid being blown into the water. +Certainly the sausage could not have gone alone. After several hours in +the cabin the element of change in this exercise made it quite a +pastime. It cooled the blood and took away the fidgets, and, on +returning, made the cabins seem a pleasant shelter instead of a prison. + +So far there had been no chance to leave the harbor for the purpose of +reaching Toronto. The wind was dead ahead from that quarter. Young +Dusenall was watching the weather continually, very anxious to get away +to be in time for the yacht race there on the 7th and 8th. He was over +at the steamboat hobnobbing with the captain of the Eleusinian, who was +also anxious to get on with his vessel. What with whisky and water, +nautical magic, and one thing or another between the two of them they +got the wind to go down suddenly about five o'clock that evening. +Charley came back in high good-humor. The captain had offered to tow the +Ideal behind the steamer to Toronto, and nothing but a long, rolling +sea, with no wind to speak of, could be noticed outside. + +Jack did not like going to sea hitched up, Mazeppa-like, to a steamer, +and he had misgivings as to the weather. The leaden-colored clouds, +banked up in the west, were moving slowly down the lake like herded +elephants. They did not yet look pacific, and he feared that they would +make another stampede before the night was over. He declared it was only +looking for another place to blow from. Charley answered that the race +came off on the day after to-morrow, and, as they had to get to Toronto +somehow, why not behind the steamer? As Jack was unable to do any more +than say what he thought, he suggested "that, if the boat must go out in +this sort of way during bad weather, that the women had better take the +train home." The trip in the yacht promised to be unpleasant, but when +Mrs. Dusenall considered the long, dusty, and hot journey around the +western end of the lake she decided to "stick to the ship." + +At seven o'clock in the evening they were flying out of port behind the +steamer at the end of a long hawser. A heavy dead swell was rolling +outside, and the way the Ideal got jerked from one wave to another boded +ill for the comfort of the passage. Charley hung on, however, thinking +that this was the worst of it and that the sea would go down. + +The night grew very dark, and two hours afterward the gale commenced +again, and blew harder than before from the same quarter. Every time +they plunged hard into a wave the decks would be swept from stem to +stern, while a blinding spray covered everything. If they had cast off +at this time they could have sailed back to Charlotte in safety, but +Charley was bound to see Toronto, and held on. + +Suddenly, in the wildness of the night, they heard a crack of breaking +timber, and the next moment the tall mast whipped back toward the stern +like a bending reed. A few anxious moments passed before those aft could +find out what had happened. In the darkness, and the further obscurity +caused by the flying water, the bowsprit had fouled the towline. The +bowstays had at once parted and, perhaps assisted by the recoil of the +mast, the bowsprit had snapped off, like a carrot, close to the stem. + +This large piece of timber was now in the water, acting like a +battering-ram against the starboard bow, with the stowed staysail, and +all the head gear, attached to it. There was no use trying to clear away +the wreck by endeavoring to chop through all the wire rigging, chains, +forestays, bowsprit shrouds, bobstays, and running gear, all adrift in a +mass that would have taken a long time to cut away or disentangle, even +in daylight and calm water. Besides this, one could not see his hand +held before his face, except by lantern-light, and such was the +unnatural pitching of the yacht that it was almost impossible to stand +without holding on to something. Charley, who was steering, asked of one +of the English hands, who was carefully crawling aft to take the wheel, +"How's everything forward?" To Charley's mind the reply seemed to +epitomize things as the man touched his hat and answered respectfully, +"Gone to 'ell, sir." He spat on the watery deck, as he said this, while +a blast of wind and half a ton of water from the bows swept away so +effectually both the remark and the tobacco juice that Mr. Lemons could +not help absurdly thinking of the tears of Sterne's recording angel. The +sailor was very much disgusted at the condition of things, and both he +and his remark were so free from any appearance of timidity that the +Hon. M. T. Head felt like giving him five dollars. While on shore, the +honorable gentleman was accustomed to emphasize his language, but, in +the present crisis, no wild horses could have dragged from him a +questionable word. + +Geoffrey's long arms and strength came in well that night. At the first +crack of the timber he slid out of his oil-skins for work, and his was +one of those cool heads that alone are of use at such a time. On a +sailing vessel the first effect of a bad accident in the night-time is +to paralyze thought. The danger and the damage are at first unknown. The +blackness of the night, the sounds of things smashing, the insecurity of +foothold, the screaming of the wind, and the tumbling of the waters, all +tend to kill that energy and concentration of thought which, to be +useful, must rise above these enervating influences. + +Jack had had more experience than Geoffrey, and thus knew better what to +do. But Geoffrey, for his part, was "all there." When he was hanging +down over the side, and climbing about to get the floating, banging mass +of wreckage attached to the throat-halyards, the tops of the waves that +struck him were unable to wash him away, and when he had succeeded in +his efforts, the wreckage was hoisted bodily inboard. + +The fellows at the wheel were momentarily expecting the mast to snap and +fall backward on their heads, as there was now no forestay on it. The +worst fault of the sloop-rig here became apparent. Unlike cutters, +sloops have no forestay leading from the masthead down to the stem, but +one leading only to the outer end of the bowsprit, and when the bowsprit +carries away, as it frequently does, the mast then has nothing but its +own strength to save it from snapping in a sudden recoil. + +What made the plunging of the mast worse was that the lower-mast +backstays had both carried away at the deck, as also had the topmast +backstays, after pulling the head off the housed topmast. All this heavy +wire rigging, with its blocks, immediately became lost to sight. It was +streaming out aft on the gale from the masthead, together with every +other line that had a chance to get adrift. If a halyard got loose from +its belaying pin that night it was not seen again. It said good-by to +the deck and went to join the flying mass overhead, that afterward by +degrees wound itself round and round the topping-lifts and +peak-halyards, effectually preventing the hoisting of the mainsail. The +long and heavy main-boom, which had long since kicked its supporting +crutch overboard, was now lowered down to rest on the cabin-top, so as +to take the weight off the mast; and while the end of it dragged in the +boiling caldron behind the counter, the middle part of it rose and fell +with every pitch, in spite of endeavors to lash it down, until it seemed +that the cabin-top would certainly give way. Had the top caved in, the +chances of swamping were good. + +Their power to sail by means of the canvas was now virtually gone. +Nothing was left for them but to follow the huge "smoke-grinding" mass +that yawed and pitched in front of them. One or two men were kept at the +stern of the steamer during this part of the night, to report any +signals of distress and to aid the yacht's steering by showing bright +lights. Near to these bright lights the figure of the captain could be +seen from time to time through the night, anxiously watching the lights +on the yacht, which told him that she still survived. Sometimes he was +apparently calling out to those on the yacht, but of course no sound +could be heard. + +The ladies were in their cabins all this time, sorry enough that they +had not taken the railway home. + +When the mast was stayed forward, by setting up the staysail-halyards, +etc., at the stem, there was nothing to do on deck but steer and keep +watch, and as nearly everything had been carried away except the whale +boat, Geoffrey went below for dry clothes and, feeling tired with his +hard work, took a nap in one of the bunks in the after-cabin. As the +sailors say, he "turned in all standing"--that is, with his clothes on. + +The other men remained on deck. Most of them were drenched to the skin +and were becoming gradually colder in the driving spray and heavy +swashes of solid wave that swept the decks with clock-like regularity. +They thought it better to remain where they could at least swim for a +while if the yacht went down, and they preferred exposure to the idea of +being drowned like rats in the cabin. + +After some time Geoffrey awoke, feeling that a soft warm hand was being +passed around his chin. He knew it was Margaret before he got his eyes +open. He peered at her for a moment without raising his head. She was +sitting on the seat outside, looking very despairing. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she said, "I think we are going to the bottom." + +Geoffrey listened, with his eyes shut, and heard both pumps clanging +outside. Margaret thought he was going off to sleep again. She was very +frightened, and the fear seemed to draw her toward Geoffrey all the more +for protection. She put her hand half around his neck and urged him to +wake up. + +"Oh, how can you go on sleeping at such a time? Do wake up, dear +Geoffrey. I tell you the yacht is sinking. We are all going to the +bottom. Do get up!" + +Geoffrey was perfectly wide awake, but this was even pleasanter than +being waked by music, and her hand on his chin seemed like a caress. +With his eyes shut, he reproached her sleepily: "No, no, don't make me +get up. I like it. I like going to the bottom." + +Margaret smiled through her fears. "But, Geoffrey, do look here! The +water has risen up over the cabin floor." + +He got up then. Certainly, things did seem a little threatening. A +couple of corks were dancing about in the water upon the carpet quite +merrily. This meant a good deal. He heard that peculiar sound of rushing +water inside the boat which can be easily recognized when once heard. +Above the howling of wind and swash of waves, both pumps could be heard +working for all they were worth. The vessel was pitching terribly, +mercilessly dragged as she was from one wave to another, without having +time to ride them. + +Geoffrey thought the time for bailing with the pails might be deferred +for a while. Without Margaret's knowledge he stuck a pen-knife into the +woodwork near the floor to define high-water mark, and thus detect any +increase in the leakage over the pumps. Then he devoted some time toward +endeavoring to calm Margaret's fears, chiefly by exhibiting a masterly +inaction in regard to the leak and in searching about for a lost pipe. +By the time he had found it and was enjoying a quiet smoke, reclining on +the cushions to make the motion seem easier, her fears began to weaken. +She did not at all object to the smoke of pipes, and Geoffrey's comfort +became contagious. Although the clanging of the pumps outside recalled +stories of shipwreck, she was, on the other hand, more influenced by the +easy-going indifference that he assumed. Twenty minutes passed in this +way, and then she felt sure that the danger was not so great as she had +thought. Geoffrey in the mean time was covertly watching his pen-knife, +that marked the rise or fall of the water in the boat. At the end of +half an hour he could see, from where he lay, that half the blade of the +knife was covered with water. So he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +and said he would go and see the boys on deck, and that Margaret had +better go and comfort the others in the ladies' cabins, and tell them it +was all right. + +When Margaret had staggered away, Geoffrey's manner was not that of one +satisfied with his surroundings. He ripped up the carpet and the planks +underneath to get at the well, and then skipped up the companion-way in +the liveliest manner. When on deck, he made out Jack at the wheel. + +"How's the well?" Jack cried, in the wind. "Did you sound it?" + +Geoffrey had to roar to make himself heard above the gale and noise of +waters. + +"Get your buckets!" he said; and Jack passed his order forward by a +messenger, who crawled along by the main-boom carefully, lest he should +go overboard in the pitching. + +"Why, the pumps were gaining on the leak a while ago!" Jack said to +Geoffrey. "Did you examine the well?" + +"There is no well left that I could see. It's all a lake on the cabin +floor. The leak gained on the pumps an inch in half an hour! I waited +and watched to make sure, and to quiet the women." + +"Then it is only a question of time," said Jack. "The buckets and pumps +won't keep her afloat long. She is working the caulking out of her +seams, and that will get worse every moment." + +There were no loiterers on board after that. They all "turned to" and +worked like machines. Even the steward and cook were on deck to take +their trick at the pumps. Five men in soaking trousers and shirts worked +five buckets in the cabin, heaving the water out of the companion-way. +Of these five, some dropped out from time to time exhausted, but the +others relieved them, and so kept the five buckets going as fast as they +could be worked. Some fell deadly sick with the heat, hard work, and +terrible pitching and driving motion of the boat, but nobody said a +word. If a man fell sick, he had something else to think of than his +comfort, and he staggered around as well as he could. From the +companion-way to the well, and from the well to the companion-way, for +two hours more they kept up the incessant toil. At first some had +attempted to be pleasant by saying it was easy to get water enough for +the whisky, and by making other light remarks. But now it was changed. +They said nothing on the exhausting and dreary round, but worked with +their teeth clinched--while the sweat poured off them as if they, too, +had started every seam and were leaking out their very lives. + +Still the pitiless great mass of a steamer in front of the yacht plunged +and yawed and dragged them without mercy through the black waters, where +a huge surge could now be occasionally discerned sweeping its foaming +crest past the little yacht, which was gradually succumbing to the wild +forces about it. + +Margaret was back again in the cabin now. She had wedged herself in, +with her back against the bunks, and one foot up against the table as a +prop to keep her in position. In one hand she held a bottle of brandy +and in the other a glass. And when a man fell out sick and exhausted she +attended to him. There was no water asked for. They took the brandy +"neat." She had succeeded in quieting the other women, and as they could +not hear the bailing in the after-cabin they were in happy ignorance of +the worst. Whatever fears she had had when the knowledge of danger first +came to her, she showed no sign of them now--but only a compassion for +the exhausted workers that heartened them up and did them good. + +A third hour had nearly expired since they began to use the buckets, and +Margaret for a long time had been watching the water, in which the +bailers worked, gradually creeping up over their feet as they spent +themselves on a dreary round, to which the toil of Sisyphus was +satisfactory. The water was rising steadily in spite of their best +efforts to keep the boat afloat. Margaret had quietly made up her mind +that they would never see the land again. There did not seem to be any +chance left, and she was going, as men say, to "die game." Her courage +and cheering words inspired the others to endless exertions. She was +like a big sister to them all. At times she was hilarious and almost +boisterous, and when she waved the bottle in the air and declared that +there was no Scott Act on board, her conduct can not be defended. +Maurice Rankin tried to say he wished they could get a Scott Act on the +water, but the remark seemed to lack intrinsic energy, and he failed +from exhaustion to utter it. + +Another half-hour passed, and while the men trudged through the +ever-deepening water Margaret experienced new thoughts whenever she +gazed at Geoffrey, who had worked almost incessantly. She looked at the +knotted cords on his arms and on his forehead, at the long tenacious jaw +set as she had seen it in the hurdle race, and she knew from the +swelling nostril and glittering eye that the idea of defeat in this +battle with the waters was one which he spurned from him. His clothes +were dripping with water. The neck-button of his shirt had carried away, +his trousers were rolled up at the bottom, and his face perspired freely +with the extraordinary strain, and yet in spite of his appearance she +felt as if she had never cared for him so much as when she now saw him. +On through the night she sat there doing her woman's part beside those +who fought with the water for their lives. She saw the treacherous enemy +gaining on them in spite of all their efforts, and in her heart felt +fully convinced that she could not have more than two hours to live. +The hot steam from men working frantically filled the cabin, the weaker +ones grew ill before her, and she looked after them without blenching. +Hers was no place for a toy woman. She was there to help all those about +to die; and to do this rightly, to force back her own nausea, and face +anxiety and death with a smile. + +As for Geoffrey, life seemed sweet to him that night. For him, it was +Margaret or--nothing. To him, this facing of death did just one thing. +It raised the tiger in him. He had what Shakespeare and prize-fighters +call "gall," that indomitable courage which women worship hereditarily, +although better kinds of courage may exist. + +Another long half-hour passed, and then Maurice fell over his bucket, +keel-up. He had fainted from exhaustion, and was dosed by Margaret in +the usual way, and after this he was set on his pins and sent on deck +for the lighter work at the pumps. After that, the paid hands, having in +some way purloined too much whisky, mutinied, and said they would be +blanketty-blanketted if they would sling another bucket. + +The others went on as steadily as before, while the crew went forward to +wait sulkily for the end. + +Jack and Charley then consulted as to what was best to be done. To hold +on in this way meant going to the bottom, without a shadow of doubt. +They had tried to signal to the steamer, to get her to slow up and take +all hands on board. But the watchers at the stern of the steamer had +been taken off to work at the steamer's pumps; for, as was afterward +found, she also was leaking badly and in a dangerous condition. + +Ought they to cut the towline, throw out the inside ballast, and cut +away the mast to ease the straining at the seams? The wooden hull, minus +the inside ballast, might float in spite of the lead on the keel, which +was not very heavy, and in this way they might drift about until picked +up the next day. But the ballast was covered with water. They could not +get it out in time to save her. Yet the seas seemed somewhat lighter +than they had been. Would not the boat leak less while proceeding in an +ordinary way, instead of being dragged from wave to wave? No doubt it +would, but was it safe to let the steamer leave them? Ought they to cut +the towline, get up a bit of a sail, and endeavor to make the north +shore of the lake? + +While duly weighing these things, Jack was making a rough calculation in +his head, as he took a look at the clock. Then he walked forward, took a +halyard in his hands, and embracing the plunging mast with his legs, he +swarmed up about twenty feet from the deck. Then, after a long look, he +suddenly slid down again, and running aft he called to the others, while +he pointed over the bows. + + +"Toronto Light, ahoy!" + +"Holy sailor!" cried Charley in delight. "Are you sure of it?" + +"Betcherlife!" said Jack. "Can't fool me on Toronto Light. Go and see +for yourself." + +Charley climbed up and took a look. Then he went down into the +forecastle and told the men they would get no pay for the trip if they +did not help to bail the boat. + +Seeing that not only life but good pay awaited them, they turned to +again and helped to keep the ship afloat. + +In a few minutes more Jack called to Margaret to come on deck. When she +had ascended, she sat on the dripping cabin-top and watched a changing +scene, impossible to forget. Soon after she appeared, there came a +flicker in the air, as short as the pulling of a trigger, and all at +once she perceived that she began dimly to see the waves and the +pitching boat. It was like a revelation, like an experience of Dante's +Virgil, to see at last some of that hell of waters in which they had +struggled so long for existence. + +As the first beginning of weird light, coming apparently from nowhere, +began to spread over the weary waste of heaving, tumbling, merciless +waters and to dilute the ink of the night, as if with only a memory of +day, a momentary chill went through Margaret, as she began to realize a +small part of what they had come through. But as the ragged sky in the +east paled faintly, rather than warmed, with an attempt at cheerfulness, +like the tired smile of a dying man, it sufficed, although so deficient +in warmth, to cheer her heart. The calm certainty of an almost immediate +death that had settled like a pall upon her was dispelled by rays of +hope that seemed to be identical with the invading rays of light. "Hope +comes from the east," she thought, as a ray from that quarter made the +atmosphere take another jump toward day, and as she fell into a tired +reverie she remembered, with a heart forced toward thanksgiving, those +other early glad tidings from the East. Worn out, she yielded to early +emotions, and thanked God for her deliverance. She arose and went +carefully along the deck, holding to the wet boom, until she reached the +mast, where she stopped and gazed at the black mass of the great steamer +still plunging and yawing and swinging through the waters, with its +lights looking yellow in the pale glimmer of dawn. After viewing the +disorder on decks she could form an idea of the work the men had had +during the darkness of the night. + +But, oh, what a broken-nosed nightmare of a yacht it was, in the dreary +morning light, with all the dripping black-looking heap of wreckage +piled over the bows, the mast pitching back toward the stern with a +tangled mass of everything imaginable wound in a huge plait down the +lifts. In this draggle-tailed thing, with a boom lying on deck and +hanging over the counter and its canvas trailing in the water, Margaret +could not recognize the peerless swan that a short time ago poised +itself upon its pinions and swept so majestically out of Toronto Bay. + +The water, at every mile traversed, now grew calmer as the gale came +partly off the land. Soon the pitching ended altogether. The opened +seams ceased to smile so invitingly to the death that lurks under every +boat's keel. The pumps and buckets had begun to gain upon the water in +the cabin, and by the time they had swept round the lighthouse and +reached the wharf the flooring had been replaced, while the pumps were +still clanging at intervals. + +When they made fast to the dock a drawn and haggard group of men--a +drooping, speechless, and even ragged group of men--allowed themselves +to sleep. It did not matter where or how they slept. They just dropped +anywhere; and for five hours Nature had all she could do to restore +these men to a semblance of themselves. + + [Note.--If Captain Estes, of the Mail Line Steamer Abyssinian, + should ever read this chapter, he will know a part of what took + place at the other end of the hawser on the night of September + 5, 1872.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors, + Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, + Pyrrha? For whom bindest thou + In wreaths thy golden hair, + Plain in its neatness? Oh, how oft shall he + On faith, and changed gods, complain, + To whom thou untried seemest fair? + + HORACE, _Lib. I, Ode 5._ + + +A fine spring afternoon. A dark-eyed, well-dressed young lady with an +attractive figure descends from a street car near the Don Bridge. She +crosses the bridge leisurely and proceeds eastward along the Kingston +Road toward Scarborough. Whatever her destination may be, the time at +which she arrives is evidently of no consequence. She does "belong" down +Kingston Roadway. The street car dropped her there, and one may come a +long way for ten cents on street cars. From the uninterested way in +which she views the semi-rural surroundings one can see that she is +carelessly unfamiliar with the region. + +A fine horse, with his glossy coat and harness shining in the sun, comes +along behind her at a rate that would not be justified in a crowded +thoroughfare. Behind the horse a stylish dog-cart bowls along with its +plate-glass lamps also shining in the sun. Between this spot and the +city of Kingston there is no man on the road handsomer than he who +drives the dog-cart. The lady looks pleased as she hears the trap coming +along; a flush rises to her cheeks and makes her eyes still brighter. +When the horse trots over the sod and stops beside the sidewalk her +surprise is so small that she does not even scream. On the contrary, she +proceeds, without speaking, to climb into the vehicle with an expression +on her face in which alarm has no place. + +In some analogy with that mysterious law which rules that an elephant +shall not climb a tree, symmetrical people in fashionable dresses, whose +lines tend somewhat toward convexity, do not climb into a high dog-cart +with that ease which may compensate others for being long and lanky. A +middle-aged elder of the Established Kirk stands on his doorstep +directly opposite and looks pious. He says this is a meeting not of +chance but of design, and reproof is shown upon his face. The lady wears +Parisian boots, and the general expression of the middle-aged elder is +severe except where the eyes suggest weakness unlooked for in a face of +such high moral pitch. Once in, the young lady settles herself +comfortably and wraps about her dress the embroidered dust-linen as if +she were well accustomed to the situation. They drive off, and the +middle-aged elder shakes his head after them and says with renewed +personal conviction that the world is not what it ought to be. + +The road is soft and smooth, and the horse saws his head up and down as +he steps out at a pace that makes him feel pleasantly disposed toward +country roads and inclined to travel faster than a gentlemanly, +civilized, by-law-regulated horse should desire. The young lady lays +aside her parasol, which is remarkable--a gay toy--and takes up a black +silk umbrella which is not remarkable but serviceable. The good-looking +man pulls out of his pocket a large brown veil rolled up in paper, and +she of the Parisian boots ties it quickly around a little skull-cap sort +of bonnet of black beads and lace. The veil is thrown around in such a +way that the folds of it can be pulled down over her face in an instant. +Here, also, the lady shows a deftness in assuming this head-gear that +argues prior practice, and when this is done she lays her hand on the +handsome man's arm and looks up at him radiantly, while the silk +umbrella shuts out a couple of farmer's wives. + +"Doesn't it make me look hideous?" she says, referring to the veil. + +"Yes, my dear, worse than ever," says the handsome man. His face is a +mixture of careless good-nature and quiet devil-may-care recklessness. +Perhaps there are women who never make men look spiritual. It is to be +hoped that the umbrella hides his disregard for appearances on the +public street and that the farmer's wives in the neighborhood are not +too observant. + +"For goodness' sake, Geoffrey, _do_ behave better on the highway! What +will those women think?" + +"Their curiosity will gnaw them cruelly, I fear. They are looking after +us yet. I can see them." + +"Well, it is not fair to me to go on like that; besides I am terrified +all the time lest the people may find out who it is that wears the brown +veil about the country. I have heard four or five girls speaking about +it. It's the talk of the town." + +"No fear about that, Nina. I don't think your name was ever mentioned in +connection with the veil, but, in case it might be, I drove out Helen +Broadwood and Janet Carruthers lately, and, in view of the dust flying, +I persuaded them to wear the brown veil. We drove all over the city and +down King Street several times. So now the brown veil is divided between +the two of them. It was not much trouble to devote a little time to this +object, and besides, you know, the old people give excellent dinners." + +"That was nice of you to put it off on those girls and to take so much +trouble for me, but it can't last, Geoffrey, dear. We are sure to be +recognized some day. Helen and Janet will both say they were not on the +Indian road near the Humber the day we met the Joyces's wagonette, and +those girls are so stupid that people will believe them; and that bad +quarter of an hour when Millicent Hart rode behind us purposely to find +out who I was. That was a mean thing of her to do, but I paid her off. I +met her at Judge Lovell's the other night. It was a terrible party, but +I enjoyed it. I knew she expected to bring things to a climax with Mr. +Grover; she's _folle_ about that man. I monopolized him the whole +evening--in fact he came within an ace of proposing. Gracious, how that +girl hates me now!" + +"I would not try paying her off too much, or she will think you have a +strong reason for doing so," said Geoffrey. "After all, her curiosity +did her no good. You managed the umbrella to a charm." + +"The best thing you could do would be to have a linen duster for me to +wear--such as the American women travel in; then, as the veil covered my +head, I could discard the umbrella, and they would not recognize my +clothes." + +In this way they rattled down to Scarborough, and then Geoffrey turned +off the highway through a gate and drove across a lot of wild land +covered with brushwood until he struck a sort of road through the forest +which had been chopped out for the purpose of hauling cordwood in the +winter. He followed this slowly, for it was rough wheeling. Then he +stopped, tied the horse, and Nina and he sauntered off through the woods +until they reached the edge of the high cliffs overlooking the lake. +This spot escaped even picnic parties, for it was almost inaccessible +except by the newly cut and unknown road. Solitude reigned where the +finest view in the neighborhood of Toronto could be had. They could look +along the narrow cliffs eastward as far as Raby Head. At their +feet--perhaps a hundred and fifty feet down--the blue-green waves lapped +the shore in the afternoon breeze, and on the horizon, across the thirty +or forty miles of fresh water, the south shore of the lake could be +dimly seen in a summer haze. + +The winter had come and gone since we saw our friends last, and the +early spring was delicious in the warmth that hurried all nature into a +promise of maturity. Not much of importance had happened to any of them +since we last saw them. Jack was as devoted as ever, and Nina was not. +She tried to do what she could in the way of being pleasant to Jack, and +she went on with the affair partly because she had not sufficient +hardness of heart to break it off, and chiefly because Geoffrey told her +not to do so. He preferred that she should remain, in a nondescript way, +engaged to Jack. + +Hampstead generally dined with the Mackintoshes on Sunday, and called in +the evening once or twice during the week. He also took Margaret for +drives in the afternoon--generally about the town. When this happened a +boy in buttons sat behind them and held the horse when they descended to +make calls together on Margaret's friends. This was pleasant for both of +them, and a beginning of the quiet domestic life which, after marriage, +Geoffrey intended to confine himself to, and he won good opinions among +Margaret's friends from the cheerful, pleasant, domesticated manner he +had with him when they dropped in together, in an off-hand, "engaged" +sort of way to make informal calls. And so far as Margaret could know he +seemed in every way entitled to the favorable opinions she created. All +his better, kinder nature was present at these times, and no one could +make himself more agreeable when he was, as he said of himself, +"building up a moral monument more lasting than brass." + +But Geoffrey had his "days off," and then he was different. He smiled as +he thought that in cultivating a high moral tone it was well not to +overdo the thing at first; that two days out of the week would suffice +to keep him socially in the traces. He thought his "off" days frequently +made him prize Margaret all the more when he could turn with some relief +toward the one who embodied all that his imagination could picture in +the way of excellence. He despised himself and was complacent with +himself alternately, with a regularity in his inconsistencies which was +the only way (he would say, smiling) that he could call himself +consistent. If necessary, he would have admitted that he was bad; but to +himself he was fond of saying that he never tried to conceal from +himself when he was doing wrong; and, among men, he despised the many +"Bulstrodes" of existence who succeed in deceiving themselves by +falsities. He said that this openness with self seemed to have something +partly redeeming about it; perhaps only by comparison--that it possibly +ranked among the uncatalogued virtues, marked with a large note of +interrogation. He thought there were few brave enough to be quite honest +with themselves, and that there was always a chance for a man who +remained so; that the hopeless ones were chiefly those who, with or +without vice, have become liars to themselves; who, by mingling +uncontrolled weakness and professed religion, have lost the power to +properly adjust themselves. + +This day of the drive to Scarborough was one of his "off" days. He found +a piquancy in these trips with him, because so many talked about her +beauty; and, as the majority of men do not have very high ideals +concerning feminine beauty, Nina was well adapted for extensive +conquest. No doubt she was very attractive, quite dazzling sometimes. +She was partly of the French type, perfect in its way, but not the +highest type; she was lady-like in her appearance, yet with the +slightest _soupçon_ of the nurse-girl. It amused him to hear men +discussing, even squabbling about her, especially after he had come from +a trip with the brown veil. If men had been more sober in the way they +regarded her, if her costumes had been less bewitching, he soon would +have become tired. But these incentives made him pleased with his +position, and he was wont to quote the illustrious Emerson in saying +that "greatly as he rejoiced in the victories of religion and morality, +it was not without satisfaction that he woke up in the morning and found +that the world, the flesh, and the devil still held their own, and died +hard." In other words, it pleased him that Nina existed to give +life--for the present--a little of that fillip which his nature seemed +to demand. + +"What is a wise man? Well, sir, as times go, 'tis a man who knows +himself to be a fool, and hides the fact from his neighbor." + +This was the only text upon which Geoffrey founded any claim to wisdom. + +As they left the cliff and walked slowly back through the woods Nina was +leaning on his arm, and the happiness of her expression showed how +completely she could forget the duties which both abandoned in order to +meet in this way. But when they arrived at the dog-cart a change came +over her. The brown veil had to be tied on again. At many other times +she had done this placidly, as part of the masquerade. But to-day she +was not inclined to reason carefully. To-day the veil was a badge of +secrecy, a reminder of underhand dealings, a token that she must ever go +on being sly and double-faced with the public, that she must renounce +the idea of ever caring for Geoffrey in any open and acknowledged way. +To be sure, she had accepted this situation in its entirety when she +continued to yield to her own wishes by being so much with an engaged +man. But to be reasonable always, is uncommon. She resisted an +inclination to tear the veil to shreds. Something told her that +exhibitions of temper would not be very well received by her companion. +No matter how she treated Jack, was she not honest with Geoffrey? Did +she not risk her good name for him? And why should she have to mask her +face and hide it from the public? She--an heiress, who would inherit +such wealth--whose beauty made her a queen, to whom men were like +slaves! + +The veil very nearly became altered in its condition as she thought of +these things, but she put it on, and smothered her wrath until they got +out upon the highway. Then she said, after a long silence: "Would it not +be as well to let Margaret wear this brown veil a few times, Geoffrey? +She has a right to drive about with you, and if people thought it was +only she, their curiosity might cease." + +A farm-house cur came barking after the dog-cart just then, and +Geoffrey's anger expended itself partly on the dog, instead of being +embodied in a reply. + +The whip descended so viciously through the air that a more careful +person might have seen that the suggestion had not improved his temper. + +Except this, he gave no answer. She pressed the subject, although she +knew he was angry. "Don't you think, Geoffrey, that that would be a good +thing to do? It would quite remove curiosity, and would, in any case, be +only fair to me." + +Now, if there was one thing Hampstead could not and would not endure, it +was to have a woman he amused himself with attempt to put herself on a +par with the one he reverenced. Margaret was about all that remained of +his conscience. She embodied all the good he knew. Every resolve and +hope of his future depended upon her. He could not as yet, he thought, +find it possible always to live as she would like; but in a calm way, so +controlled as to seem almost dispassionate, he worshiped her, as it +were, in the abstract. + +His ideas concerning her were so rarefied that, in any other person, he +might have called them fanatical. He was bad, but he felt that he would +rather hang himself than allow so much as a breath to dim the fair +mirror of Margaret's name. At the very mention of her as wearing this +brown veil he grew pale with anger, and the barking cur got the benefit +of it, and at Nina's insistence his face and eyes grew like steel. + +"Heavens above! Can't you let her name alone? Is it not enough for you +to raise the devil in me, without scheming to give her trouble? Do you +think I will allow her to step in and be blamed for what it was your +whim to go in for--risks and all?" + +Nina was ready now to let the proposition drop, but she could not +refrain from adding: "She would not be blamed for very much if she were +blamed for all that has happened between us." + +There was truth in what she said, but Geoffrey had looked upon these +meetings as anything but innocent. Argument on the point was +insufferable, and it only made him lash out worse, as he interrupted +her. + +"Good God, Nina! you must be mad! Don't you see? Don't you understand?" + +Nina waited a second while she thought over what he meant, and her blood +seemed to boil as she considered different things. + +"Yes, I do understand. You need say no more," cried she, with her eyes +blazing. "You want me to realize that I am so much beneath her--that she +is so far above me--that, although I have done nothing much out of the +way, the imputation of her doing the same thing is a kind of death to +you. You go out of your way to try and hurt me--" + +"No, no, Nina," said Geoffrey, controlling himself, "I do not want to +hurt your feelings. If we must continue speaking on this unpleasant +subject, I will explain." + +"That will do, Geoffrey Hampstead," she exclaimed in a rage; "I don't +want to hear your explanation. I hate you and despise you! I have been a +fool myself, but you have been a greater one. I could have made a prince +of you. I was fool enough to do this, and now," here Nina tore the veil +off her head, and threw it on the road, "and now," she continued, as she +faced him with flashing eyes, "you will always remain nothing but a +miserable bank-clerk. Who are you that you should presume to insult me? +and who is she that she should be held over my head? I am as good in +every way as she is, and, if all that's said is true, I am a good deal +better." + +Geoffrey listened silently to all she said, and to her blind imputation +against Margaret. Gazing in front of him with a look that boded ill, he +reduced the horse's pace to a walk, so that he need not watch his +driving, and turned to her, speaking slowly, his face cruel and his eyes +small and glittering. + +"Listen! You have consciously played the devil with me ever since I knew +you. You have known from the first how you held me; you played your part +to perfection, and I liked it. It amused me. It made better things seem +sweeter after I left you. It is not easy to be very good all at once, +and you partly supplied me with the opposite. I don't blame you for it, +because I liked it, and I confess to encouraging you, but the fact +is--you sought me. Hush! Don't deny it! As women seek, you sought me. We +tacitly agreed to be untrue to every tie in order to meet continually, +and in a mild sort of way try to make life interesting. Did either of us +ever try by word or deed to improve the other? Certainly not. Nor did we +ever intend to do so. We taught each other nothing but scheming and +treachery. And you thought that you would make the devil so pleasing +that I could not do without him. This is the plain truth--in spite of +your sneer. Recollect, I don't mind what you say about me, but you have +undertaken to insult and lay schemes for somebody else, and that I'll +not forgive. For _that_, I say what I do, and I make you see your +position, when you, who have been a mass of treachery ever since you +were born, dare to compare yourself with--no matter who. I won't even +mention her name here. That's how I look upon this affair, if you insist +upon plain speech. Now we understand things." + +It was a cruel, brutal tirade. Truth seems very brutal sometimes. He +began slowly, but as he went on, his tongue grew faster, until it was +like a mitrailleuse. Nina was bewildered. She had angered him +intentionally; but she had not known that on one subject he was a +fanatic, and thus liable to all the madness that fanaticism implies. She +said nothing, and Hampstead, with scarcely a pause, added, in a more +ordinary tone: "It will be unpleasant for us to drive any further +together. You are accustomed to driving. I'll walk." + +He handed the reins to Nina and swung himself out without stopping the +horse. She took the reins in a half-dazed way and asked vaguely: + +"What will I do with the horse when I get to the town?" + +"Turn him adrift," said Geoffrey, over his shoulder, as he proceeded up +a cross-road, feeling that he never wished to see either her or the trap +again. + +Nina stopped the horse to try to think. She could not think. His biting +words had driven all thought out of her. She only knew he was going away +from her forever. She looked after him, and saw him a hundred yards off +lighting a cigar with a fusee as he walked along. She called to him and +he turned. The country side was quiet, and he could hear her say, "Come +here!" He went back, and found her weeping. All she could say was "Get +in." Of course he got in, and they drove off up the cross-road so as to +meet no person until she calmed herself. After a while she sobbed out: + +"Oh, you are cruel, Geoffrey. I may be a mass of treachery, but not to +you--not to you, Geoffrey. Having to put on the veil angered me. I have +been wicked. We have both been wicked. But you are so much worse than I +am. You know you are!" + +As she said this it sounded partly true and partly whimsical, so she +tried to smile again. He could not endeavor to resist tears when he knew +that he had been unnecessarily harsh, and he was glad of the opportunity +to smile also and to smooth things over. + +As a tacit confession that he was sorry for his violence, he took the +hand that lay beside him into his, and so they drove along toward the +city, each extending to the other a good deal of that fellow-feeling +which arises from community in guilt. Both felt that in tearing off the +mask for a while they had revealed to each other things which, being +confessed, left them with hardly a secret on either side, and if this +brought them more together, by making them more open with each other, +both felt that they now met upon a lower platform. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + + Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which + he hath made crooked?--_Ecclesiastes_ vii, 13. + + +A few days after the disturbance in the dog-cart Geoffrey and Maurice +Rankin were dining, on a Sunday, with the Mackintoshes. After dinner a +walk was proposed, and Margaret went out with them, very spick-and-span +and charming in an old black silk "made over," and with a bright bunch +of common geraniums at her belt. She had invited the young lawyer partly +because he had seemed so distrustful of Geoffrey, and she wished to +bring the two more together, so that Maurice might see that he had +misjudged him. In the course of their walk Geoffrey asked, for want of +something better to say: + +"How goes the law, Rankin? Things stirring?" + +"Might be worse," replied Maurice. "By the way, Margaret, I forgot to +tell you Mr. Bean actually brought in a client the other day." + +"Somebody he had been drinking with, I suppose," said Margaret, who had +heard of Mr. Bean. + +"Right you are. They supported each other into the office, and before +Bean sank into his chair I was introduced by him as his 'jun'or +par'ner.'" + +"Could not Mr. Bean do the same every day? Supply the office by bringing +up his friends when prepared to be lavish with money?" + +"I'm afraid not. Bean would be always tipsy himself before the victim +was ready. Still, your idea is worth consideration. Of course nobody +would want law from Bean unless he were pretty far gone, and in this +case the poor old chap knew no more about what was wanted than the +inquirer." + +"Had the client any money?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Money? He was reeking with it. What he wanted, he said, was a quiet +lawyer. I told him that the quietness of our business was its strong +point, only equaled, in fact, by the unpleasant grave. Then it appeared +that he had come on a trip from the States with a carpet-bag full of +money which he said he had borrowed, and he wished, in effect, to know +whether the United States could take him back again, _vi et armis_. I +told him 'No,' and knocked ten dollars out of him before you could say +'knife.'" + +"You might have made it fifty while you were about it," said Geoffrey. + +"Well, you see, the man was not entirely sober, and, after all, ten +dollars a word is fair average pay. I never charge more than that." + +"You mean that the unfortunate was too sober to be likely to pay any +more," said Margaret. + +Maurice shrugged his shoulders in deprecation of this idea. + +Said Geoffrey: "I often meet Mr. Bean on the street. He is a very idle +man; I know by the way he carries his pipe in his mouth." + +"What has that to do with it?" + +"Everything. He smokes with his pipe in the center of his mouth." + +"Well?" + +"Well, no one does that unless very old or very idle. Men get the habit +from smoking all day while sitting down or lounging. No one can walk +hurriedly with his pipe in that position; it would jar his front teeth +out. I have noticed that an active man invariably holds his pipe in the +side of his mouth, where he can grasp it firmly." + +"Hampstead, you should have been a detective." + +"Such is genius," said Margaret. "Geoffrey has any quantity of +unprofitable genius." + +"That reminds me that I once heard my grandfather telling my father the +same thing, but it was not very correct about my father." + +"Indeed! By the way, Geoffrey, if it is not an impertinent question for +your future wife to ask, who _was_ your grandfather?" + +This ignorance on the part of an engaged girl made Maurice cackle. + +"Who _is_ he, you mean. He is still alive, I think, and as old as the +hills." + +"Dear me! How very strange that you never told me of his existence +before!" + +"His existence is not a very interesting one to me--in fact, quite the +reverse; besides I don't think we have ever lacked a more interesting +topic, have we Margaret?" + +"I imagine not," quoth Rankin dryly. Margaret stopped; she thought there +might be something "queer" about this grandfather that Geoffrey might +not care to speak about before a third person. She merely said, +therefore, intending to drop the matter gently: + +"How very old the senior Mr. Hampstead must be?" + +"Hampstead is only the family name. The old boy is Lord Warcote. I am a +sort of a Radical you know, Margaret, and the truth is I had a quarrel +with my family. Only for this, I might have gone into the matter +before." + +"Never mind going into anything unpleasant. You told my father, of +course, that you were a son of Mr. Manson Hampstead, one of the old +families in Shropshire. And so you are. We will let it rest at that. +Family differences must always be disagreeable subjects. Let us talk +about something else." + +"Now we are on the subject, I might as well tell you all about it. +First, I will secure Rankin's secrecy. Behold five cents! Mr. Rankin, I +retain you with this sum as my solicitor to advise when called upon +concerning the facts I am about to relate. You are bound now by your +professional creed not to divulge, are you not?" + +"Drive on," said Maurice, "I'm an oyster." + +"There is not a great deal to tell," said Geoffrey. "The unpleasant part +of it has always made me keep the story entirely to myself. When I came +to this continent I was in such a rage with everything and everybody +that I abandoned the chance of letters of introduction. Nobody here +knows who I am. I have worked my own way to the exalted position in +which you find me. A good while ago my father was in the English +diplomatic service, and he still retains, I believe, a responsible post +under the Government. Like a good many others, though, he was, although +clever, not always quite clever enough, and in one episode of his life, +in which I am interested, he failed to have things his own way. For ten +years he was in different parts of Russia, where his duties called him. +He had acquired such a profound knowledge of Russian and other languages +that these advantages, together with his other gifts, served to keep him +longer in a sort of exile for the simple reason that there were few, if +any, in the service who could carry out what was required as well as he +could himself. From his official duties and his pleasant manner he +became well known in Russian society, and he counted among his intimate +friends several of the nobility who possessed influence in the country. +After a long series of duties he and some young Russians, to whom +passports were almost unnecessary, used to make long trips through the +country in the mild seasons to shoot and fish. In this way some of the +young nobles rid themselves of _ennui_, and reverted by an easy +transition to the condition of their immediate ancestors. They had their +servants with them, and lived a life of conviviality and luxury even in +the wildest regions which they visited. When they entered a small town +on these journeyings they did pretty much what they liked, and nobody +dared to complain at the capital. If a small official provoked or +delayed them they horsewhipped him. In fact, what they delighted in was +going back to savagery and taking their luxuries with them, dashing over +the vast country on fleet horses, making a pandemonium whenever and +wherever they liked; in short, in giving full swing to their Tartar and +Kalmuck blood. On one occasion my father was feeling wearied to death +with red tape, but nobody was inclined at the time for another +expedition. He therefore obtained leave to go with a military detachment +to Semipalatinsk, from which town some prisoners had to be brought back +to St. Petersburg. There was little trouble in obtaining his permit, +especially as he had been partly over the road before. So he went with +his horses and servant as far as the railway would take him, and then +joined a band of fifty wild-looking Cossacks and set out. When within a +hundred and fifty versts from Semipalatinsk they encountered a warlike +band of about twenty-five well mounted Tartars returning from a +marauding expedition. They had several horses laden with booty, also +some female prisoners. It was the old story of one tribe of savages +pillaging another. The Cossacks were out in the wilderness. Although +supposed to be under discipline, they were one and all freebooters to +the backbone. Their captain, under pretense of seeing right done, +allowed an attack to be made by the Cossacks. They drove off the other +robbers, ransacked the booty, took what they wanted, and under color of +giving protection, took the women also, hoping to dispose of them +quietly as slaves at some town. These women were then mounted on several +of the pack-horses, and the Cossacks rode off on their journey, leaving +everything else on the plain for the other robbers to retake. + +"My father had kept aloof from the disturbance. It was none of his +business. He sat on his horse and quietly laughed at the whole +transaction. He had become very Russian in a good many ways, and he +certainly knew what Cossacks were, and that any protest from him would +only be useless. It was simply a case of the biter bit. He joined the +party as they galloped on to make up for lost time. + +"As for the women, it was now nothing to them that their captors had +changed. Early in the morning their village had been pillaged and their +defenders slain. It was all one to them, now. Slavery awaited them +wherever they went. So they sat their horses with their usual ease, +veiled their faces, and resigned themselves to their fate. But as the +afternoon wore on, the wily captain began to think that my father would +certainly see through the marauding escapade of his, and that it would +be unpleasant to hear about it again from the authorities, and so he +cast about him for the easiest way to deceive or propitiate him. That +evening, as my father was sitting in his _kibitka_, the curtain was +raised and the captain smilingly led in one of the captive slaves--a +woman of extraordinary beauty. And who do you think she was?" + +Margaret turned pale. She grasped Geoffrey's arm, as her quick +intelligence divined what was coming. + +"No, no," she said. "You are not going to tell me that?" + +"Yes," said Geoffrey with a pinched expression on his face. "That is +just what I am going to tell you. That poor slave--that ignorant and +beautiful savage was my mother." + +Margaret was thunderstruck. She did not comprehend how things stood, but +with a ready solicitude for him in a time of pain, she passed her hand +through his arm and drew herself closer to him, as they walked along. + +As for Maurice, he ground his teeth as he witnessed Margaret's loving +solicitude. It was a relief to him to rasp out his dislike for Geoffrey +under his breath. "I always knew he was a wolf," he muttered to himself. + +"You will see now," continued Geoffrey, "why I preferred not to be known +in this country. To be one of a family with a title in it did not +compensate me for being a thorough savage on my mother's side. + +"But I will continue my story. The beauty of the woman attracted my +father. He spoke to her kindly in her own language and made her partake +of his dinner with him. He thought that in any case he could save her +from being sold into slavery by the Cossacks. + +"These wild half-brothers of mine took it as a matter of course that my +father would be pleased with his acquisition, but they suggested _vodki_ +and got it--so that my mother was in reality purchased from them for a +few bottles of whisky. + +"They went on toward Semipalatinsk and got the prisoners. My father +intended to leave the woman at that town, but she wished to see the +White Czar and his great city, of which she had heard, and she begged so +hard to be taken back with him that he began to think he might as well +do so. + +"The fact was that a whim seized him to see her dressed as a European, +and as they waited at Semipalatinsk for ten days before returning, he +had time to have garments made which were as near to the European styles +as he could suggest. It was evidently the clothes that decided the +matter. In her coarse native habiliments she was simply a savage to a +fastidious man, but when she was arrayed in a familiar looking dress +assisted by the soft silken fabrics of the East, he was bewitched. She +told him, on the journey back, how her father had always counted upon +having enough to live on for the rest of his life when she was sold to +the traders who purchased slaves for the harems at Constantinople. + +"My father took her to St. Petersburg with him, where they lived for +three years together. Such a thing as marrying her never entered his +head. He simply lived like his friends. I never found out how much she +was received in society--no doubt she had all the society she +wanted--but I did hear from an old friend of my father, who spoke of her +with much respect, that her beauty created the greatest sensation in St. +Petersburg, and that when she went to the theatre the spectators were +all like astronomers at a transit of Venus. She made good use of her +time, however, and at the end of three years she could speak and write +English a little. + +"At the end of three years from the time he met her, my father was +called back to England. He left her in his house in St. Petersburg with +all the money necessary, and came home. I think he intended to go back +to her when he got ready. But she settled that question by coming to +England herself. She could not bear the separation after three months of +waiting. Imagine the scene when she arrived! Lord and Lady Warcote were +having a dinner party, when in came my mother, as lovely as a dream, and +throwing her arms round my father she forgot her English and addressed +him fondly in the Tartar dialect. + +"My father, for a moment, was paralyzed; but, in spite of the enervating +effect of this exotic's sudden appearance, he could not help feeling +proud of her when he saw how magnificent she was in her new Paris +costume, and it occurred to him that her wonderful beauty would carry +things off with a high hand for a while, until he could perhaps get her +back to Russia. She, however, after the moment in which she greeted him, +stood up to her full height, and glancing rapidly around the table at +all the speechless guests, recognized my grandfather from a photograph +she had seen. Lord Warcote was sitting--starchy and speechless--at the +end of the table. + +"'Ah! zo! Oo are ze little faäzer!' And before he could say a word the +handsomest woman in England had kissed him, and had taken his hand and +patted it." + +"Another brisk look around, and she recognized Lady Warcote in the same +way. She floated round the table to greet 'dear mutter.' But here she +saw she was making a mistake--that everything was not all right. Lady +Warcote was not so susceptible to female beauty as she might have been. +She arose from her chair, her face scarlet with anger, and motioned my +mother away. + +"'Manson,' she said, addressing my father, 'is this woman your wife?'" + +"My father had now recovered from his shock, and was laughing til the +tears ran down his face. My mother, seeing his merriment, took courage +again and said gayly: + +"'Yes, yes! He have buy me--for one--two--tree bottle _vodki_.' She +counted the numbers on the tips of her fingers, her shapely hands +flashing with jewels. Then her laughter chimed merrily in with my +father's guffaw. She ran back to him, took his head in both her hands +and said, imitating a long-drawn tone of childish earnestness: + +"'It was cheap--che-ap. I was wort' more dan _vodki_.' + +"Lord Warcote had lived a fast life in his earlier days. After Nature +had allowed him a rare fling for sixty years she was beginning to +withdraw her powers, and my grandfather had become as religious as he +had been fast. The effect of my mother's presence upon him was to make +him suddenly young again, and although he soon assumed his new Puritan +gravity he could not keep his eyes off her. On a jury he would have +acquitted her of anything, and when she turned around imperiously and +told a servant to bring a chair, 'Good Lord!' he said, 'she's a Russian +princess!' and he jumped up like an old courtier to get the chair +himself. The more he heard of her story the more interested he became, +and when he had heard it all, nothing would suffice but an immediate +marriage. My father protested on several grounds, but his protests made +no difference to the old man. His will, he said, would be law until he +died, and even after he died, and, what with my mother's beauty, which +made him take what he understood to be a strong religious interest in +her behalf, and one thing and another, he got quite fanatical on the +point. He forgot himself several times, and swore he would cut father +off with nothing if he refused. + +"The end of it was that they were married at once, and afterward I was +born. My poor mother had no intention of giving father trouble when she +came to England, neither did she wish in the slightest degree for a +formal marriage, the usefulness of which she did not understand. She +simply felt that she could not do without him. And I don't think he ever +regretted the step he was driven to. She had some failings, but she was +as true and loving to him as a woman could be, besides being, for a +short time, considered a miracle of beauty in London. + +"I can only remember her dimly as going out riding with father. They say +her horsemanship was the most perfect thing ever seen in the hunting +field. It was the means of her death at last. The trouble was that she +did not know what fear was while on horseback. She thought a horse ought +to do anything. Father has told me that when they were out together a +freak would seize her suddenly, and away she would go across country for +miles--riding furiously, like her forefathers, waving her whip high in +the air for him to follow, and taking everything on the full fly. If her +horse could not get over anything he had to go through it. At last, one +day, an oak fence stopped her horse forever, and she was carried home +dead. I was three years old then." + +Geoffrey paused. + +The others remained silent. His strong magnetic voice, rendered more +powerful by the vehement way he interpreted the last part of the story +in his actions, impressed them. They were walking in the Queen's Park at +this time, and it did not matter that he was more than usually graphic. +When he spoke of the wild riding of the Tartars, he sprang forward full +of a bodily eloquence. For an instant, while poised upon his toes, his +cane waving high aloft, his head and shoulders thrown back in an ecstasy +of abandon, and his left hand outstretched as if holding the reins, he +seemed to electrify them, and to give them the whole scene as it +appeared in his own mind. Rankin shuddered. Involuntarily he gasped out: + +"Hampstead! For God's sake, don't do that!" + +"Why not?" said Geoffrey, as he resumed his place beside them, while the +wild flash died out of his eyes. + +"Because no man could do it like that unless--because, in fact, you do +it too infernally well." + +Rankin felt that Margaret must be suffering. It seemed to him that. +Geoffrey had really become a Tartar marauder for a moment. Perhaps he +had. + +"Don't mind my saying this," Maurice added, with apology. "Really, I +could not help it." + +Geoffrey laughed. Margaret was grave. Rankin strayed on a few steps in +advance, and Geoffrey, taking advantage of it, whispered quickly. "What +are you thinking of, Margaret?" + +"I was thinking I saw a wild man," said Margaret truthfully. Then, to be +more pleasant, she added, "And I thought that if Tartar marauders were +all like you, Geoffrey, I would rather prefer them as a class." + +Maurice, who was unconsciously _de trop_ at this moment, turned and +said: + +"You have got me 'worked up' over your story, and now I demand to know +more. Do not say that 'the continuation of this story will be published +in the New York Ledger of the current year.' Go ahead." + +"Anything more I have to tell," said Geoffrey, "only relates to myself." + +"Never mind. For once you are interesting. Drive on." + +"Well, where was I? Oh, yes! Well, my father married again six months +after my mother's death. He married a woman who had been a flame of his +in early youth, and who had developed a fine temper in her virgin +solitude. They had six children. I was packed off to school early, and +was kept there almost continually. After that I was sent away traveling +with a tutor, a sanctimonious fellow who urged me into all the devilment +the Continent could provide, so that he might really enjoy himself. Then +I came home and got rid of him. It was at this time that I first heard +from my father about my mother and my birth. The story did me no good. I +got morbid over it. Previously I had thought myself of the best blood in +England. We were entitled as of right to royal quarterings, and the new +intelligence struck all the peacock pride out of me. I felt like a burst +balloon. The only thing I cared about was to go to Russia and see the +place my mother came from. I got letters from my father to some of his +old friends at St. Petersburg, and with their influence found my way to +the very village my mother came from. Some of the villagers remembered +quite well the raid when my mother was carried off and how her +enterprising father had been killed. What made me wonder was where my +mother got her aristocratic beauty. Among the undiluted, pug-nosed, +bestial Tartars such beauty was impossible. I found, however, that my +mother's mother had also been a captive. No one knew where she came +from. Most likely from Circassia or Persia. The villagers at the time of +the raid were the remnants of a large predatory tribe that formerly used +to sally forth on long excursions covering many hundreds of miles. At +that time--the time of their strength--they lived almost entirely by +robbery, and their name was dreaded everywhere within a radius of five +hundred miles. I have always hoped that my mother's mother was of some +better race than the Tartar. There is no doubt, however, that my +mother's father was a full-blooded Tartar, though he may have had +straighter features than the generality of them. I found there a younger +brother of my mother. He was a wallowing, drunken, thieving pig, this +uncle of mine, but under the bloated look he had acquired from excesses, +one could trace straight and possibly handsome features. As the son +would most likely resemble his father, I can only infer that the father +was not so bad-looking as he might have been, and so, with one thing and +another, I came to understand the possibility of my mother's beauty. + +"It may have been morbid of me. I should have left the matter alone, for +I believed in 'race' so much that my discoveries ground me into dust. +Nothing satisfied me, however, unless I went to the bottom of it. I +watched this uncle of mine for two or three weeks, and made a friend of +him, merely to see if I could trace in him any likeness to myself. I +made him drunk. I made him sober. I made him run and walk and ride. +Sometimes I thought I traced the likeness clearly, and then again I +changed my mind. I tried him in other ways, leaving in my quarters small +desirable objects partly concealed. They always disappeared. He stole +them with the regularity of clockwork. I can laugh over these matters +now, speaking of them for the first time in twelve years. At that time I +groaned over it, and still persevered in trying to find out what could +do me no good. I am so like my father that I could find no resemblance +in me to the Tartar uncle. But at last I got a 'sickener.' While talking +to him I noticed that he made his gestures pointing the two first +fingers; instead of all or only one finger. I watched his dirty hands +while he mumbled on, half drunk, and then I saw that for a pastime, as a +Western Yankee might whittle or pick his teeth, this man threw the third +and fourth fingers of his left hand out of joint and in again. He said +his father and also, he had heard, his grandfather could do this with +ease. + +"An hour afterward, I think I must have been a good ten miles +off--flying back to civilized Russia, my servants after me, thinking I +was mad. Perhaps I was a little queer in the head at the time." + +"What made you go off in that way?" asked Maurice, who did not see the +connection. + +Geoffrey made no verbal reply, but he held out his left hand with the +two last fingers out of joint. Then he showed how easily he could put +them "in" and "out." + +"None of my father's family can do this, but my mother could. Both my +mother and the pig of an uncle held out these two fingers in their +gestures, and curled the others up so, and I do the same. I can laugh +now, but it killed me at the time. + +"I traveled all over the world before I came back to England. My +half-brothers were then pretty well grown up and were fully acquainted +with everything concerning my birth and my mother's history. My +step-mother hated me because I was the eldest son, and she poisoned her +children's minds against me. She sought out my old tutor, who, when paid +well, told her a lot of vile and untrue stories about me. With these she +tried to poison my father's mind also in regard to me. I was moody, +morbid, and restless. They looked at me as if I was some other kind of +creature, the son of a savage, and it galled me, for all my subsequent +travelings had never removed the sting of my birth. Some deplore +illegitimacy. Rubbish! Wrong selection, not want of a ceremony, is the +real sin that is visited unto the children. + +"After my return home I could have died with more complacency than I +felt in living. Even my father seemed at last to be turned against me by +my step-mother. One day while we were at dinner my step-mother, who +possessed a fiend's temper, had a hot discussion with me about something +which I have forgotten. Words were not well chosen on either side, and +she flew into a tantrum. I remember saying at last: 'Madame, it would +take two or three keepers to keep you in order.' Everybody was against +me, of course, and when her own eldest son half arose and addressed me, +his remarks met with applause. What he said to me, in quiet scorn, was: + +"'Our mother's temper may not be good, sir, but we don't find it +necessary to send a keeper with her to keep her from stealing.' + +"I have since found out, in a roundabout way, that my beautiful mother +preferred to steal a thing out of a shop rather than pay for it. My +father had always looked at this weakness of hers as a most humorous +thing. Anything she did charmed him. Sometimes she would show him what +she had stolen, and it would be returned or paid for. However, at the +time that this was said to me at the table I did not know of these +facts. I arose, amid the derisive laughter that followed the 'good hit,' +and demanded of my father how he dared to allow my mother's name to be +insulted. I secretly felt at the time that the slur upon her honesty +might be well founded, but the possible truth of it made the insult all +the worse to me. + +"This was the last straw. I felt myself growing wild. Father did not +look at me. He merely went on with his dinner, laughing quietly at the +old joke and at my discomfiture. He said: 'I can not see any insult, +when what Harry says is perfectly true--and a devilish good joke it +was.' + +"I did not appreciate that joke. I was almost crazy at the time. My +father's laughter seemed the cruelest thing I had ever heard. I 'turned +to,' as Jack Cresswell would say, and cursed them all, individually and +collectively, and then took my hat and left the house, which I have +never seen since and never intend to see again." + +"And what about the tutor that told the stories about you?" asked +Rankin. + +"Aha, Maurice," continued Geoffrey, brightening up from painful +memories, "you have a noble mind for sequences. What about the tutor? +Just so, what about him?" and Geoffrey slapped Rankin on the back +heartily, as a pleasanter memory presented itself gratefully. + +"I wish you would not strike me like that. I am thinking of going to +church to-night, unless disabled. What about your beastly tutor? For +goodness' sake, do drive on!" + +"Oh, well, I can't tell you much about that, not just now. Of course, +the first thing I did was to pay him a call at his lodgings in London. +Your great mind saw that this was natural. That call was a relief. I +came out when it was finished and told somebody to look after him, and +then took passage for New York in a vessel that sailed from London on +the same day." + +Margaret and Rankin smiled at the grim way in which he spoke about the +visit to the tutor. + +"On arriving in New York I got a small position in a Wall Street +broker's office, and learned the business. From that I went, with the +assistance of their recommendation, into a bank. While in this bank I +fell in with some young fellows from Montreal, and afterward stayed with +them in Montreal during holidays. They wanted me to come to that city, +and I liked the English way of the Canadians, so I came. On entering the +Victoria Bank I got good recommendations from the one I had left. From +Montreal I was moved to the head office, and here I am." + +There was much to render Margaret thoughtful in this story that Geoffrey +told. She was pleased to find that he belonged to the English nobility, +because it seemed to assist her opinion when, with the confidence of +love, she had placed him in a nobility such as she hoped could exist +among mankind. Otherwise, the fact that there was a title in his family +meant very little to her. Her own father's family would have declined +any title in England involving change of name. What did affect her as a +thinking woman, and one given to the study of natural history, was the +awful gap on the other side of the house. Following so closely upon the +assurance that he was well born, it was a cruel wrench. His interests +were hers now, and it seemed as if they suffered jointly--she, through +him. She felt that all this bound them more together, and she did her +best to appear unconscious and gay. + +He looked at her when he had finished, and, behind their smiles, each +saw that the other was trying to make the best of things--that there was +something now between them to be feared, which might rise up in the +future and give them pain. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Those aggressive impulses inherited from the pre-social + state--those tendencies to seek self-satisfaction regardless of + injury to other beings, which are essential to a predatory + life, constitute an anti-social force, tending ever to cause + conflict and eventual separation of citizens.--Herbert Spencer, + _Synthetic Philosophy._ + + +Nina Lindon had by no means given up the pulse-stirring and secret +drives with Geoffrey. The only thing she had given up was saying to +herself that in the future she would not go any more. The result of this +frequent yielding to inclination was that she was miserable enough when +away from him and not particularly contented when with him. Between her +and Margaret Mackintosh a coolness had arisen. Margaret was an +unsuspicious person, but her affections had developed her womanhood, and +in some mysterious way she had divined that Nina cared to be with +Geoffrey more than she would confess. There was no jealousy on +Margaret's side. She simply dropped Nina, and perhaps would have found +it hard to say on what grounds. In such matters women take their +impressions from such small occurrences that their dislikes often seem +more like instinct even to themselves. + +As for Nina, she had liked Margaret only with her better self, and now +she had become conscious of a growing feeling of constraint when in her +presence. The increasing frigidity with which the taller beauty received +her seemed to afford ground for private dislike. She was unconfessedly +trying to bring herself to hate Margaret, and was on the lookout for a +reasonable cause to do so. To undermine a detested person treacherously +would be far more comfortable than undermining a friend. The difficulty +lay in being unable to hate sufficiently for the hate to become a +support. + +Later on in June a ball was given at Government House. The usual rabble +was present. Margaret did not go, as her father happened to be ill at +the time. Nina was there in full force. Geoffrey appeared late in the +evening with several others who had been dining with him at the club. As +the host he had been observing the hospitalities, and it took several +dances to bring his guests down to the comfortable assurance that they +really had their sea-legs on. They looked all right and perhaps felt +better than they looked; but during the first waltz or two there seemed +to be unexpected irregularities in the floor that had to be treated with +care. + +After a few dances, which Geoffrey found kept for him as usual, Nina and +he disappeared--also as usual. Nina was not among the dissolving views +who do nothing but dissolve. She was fond of her dancing as yet, and, as +a rule, only disappeared once in the course of the evening. This sounds +virtuous, but there is perhaps more safety in a plurality of +disappearances. + +The next day she telegraphed to some friends in Montreal, from whom she +had a standing invitation, that she was coming to see them. They wired +back that they would be charmed to see her. Then she telegraphed again: +"Had arranged to stop at Brockville on my return from you, but have just +heard that they go away in ten days. Would it be all the same if I went +to you about Monday week?" + +The answer came from Montreal: "That will suit us very well--though we +are disappointed. Mind you come." Then Nina wrote and posted to her +Montreal girl friend a note, in which she said: "If any letters should +come for me just keep them until I arrive. I will go to Brockville now." + +Jack Cresswell saw her off by the evening train, bought her ticket to +Montreal, and secured her compartment in the sleeper. Her two large +valises were carried into the compartment. She said she preferred to +have her wearing apparel with her and not bother about baggage-checks. + +When everything was settled in the compartment she said in a worried +nervous way to Jack: "And I suppose you will be wanting me to write to +you?" + +"When you get a chance, Nina. It is not easy, sometimes, to get away, at +a friend's house, to write letters. Don't write till you feel like doing +so and get a good chance." + +This was his kind, self-controlled way of taking her vexatious remarks. +But to-day it seemed as if kindness was what she least wished to receive +from him. + + +"If I waited till I wished to write to you I don't think I would ever +write again." + +"You don't quite mean that, Nina. You are worried and anxious to-night. +It makes you unkind and fretful." + +"Well, perhaps so," said Nina. "I think I danced too much last night. +And this stupid affair of ours worries me. I want a change, and I am +going to have it. No. I shall not write for at least ten days--perhaps +two weeks, and you had better think over the advisability of getting +somebody else to wear down to a shadow with a long engagement." + +The bell was ringing for departure. Jack tried to make the best of it, +and to excuse her inconsiderate remarks. "Remember," she repeated, "I +shall not write for at least ten days, and you had better not write for +a week or so either. I want a complete change." + +This was so very decisive that Jack could hardly repress a sigh as he +rose and said: "Well, good-by, old lady; I hope you will have a pleasant +visit." + +As he lightly kissed her cheek she stood before him as inanimate as +marble. All at once it seemed dreadful to let him believe in her so +thoroughly. A feeling of kindness toward him came over her--a moment of +remorse--remorse for everything. The train was moving off now. She +suddenly put her arms round his neck and burst into tears. Then she +pushed him away. "Run quickly now and get off. Go at once--" + +"But Nina, darling what _is_ the matter?" + +"Never mind--run, or you'll be killed getting off. I'm only worried. +Good-by!" And she pushed him through the door. + +Nina continued her passage to Montreal as far as Prescott, where she +left the train with her luggage, and crossed the St. Lawrence to +Ogdensburg. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn.... + + +When Jack, with the agility of a railroad employé, landed on his feet +all right, he stood watching the disappearing train, annoyed, +disappointed, and mystified. He usually found moderate speech sufficient +for daily use, and as he walked back slowly toward his club, all he said +was: "Well, if all women are like Nina, I don't think I altogether +understand them!" + +He felt lonely already, and for diversion bethought himself of turning +and going down to the Ideal to inspect the preparations for the race to +be sailed on the following day. There he met Charley Dusenall, and as +the yacht gently rose and fell on the slight swell coming in from the +lake, these two sat watching some of the racing spars floating alongside +and rolling about in the wavelets of the evening breeze, soaking +themselves tough for the coming contest. + +"What's the matter with you?" said Charley, noticing how grumpy and +silent Jack was. "The old story, I suppose. Has Her Majesty gone back on +you again?" + +Jack grunted assent. + +"Only _pro tem._, though?" asked Charley. + +"Oh yes, only _pro tem._, of course, but still--" + +"I know. Deuced unpleasant. But, after all, what does it matter about a +woman or two when you have got a boat under you that can cut the +eye-teeth out of an equinoctial and make your soul dance the Highland +fling. Bah, chuck the whole thing up. Finish your grog and we'll have +another. Vive le joy, as we say in Paris." + +Jack's face grew less long. "That's all very well, but--" + +"Rubbish! you want to hug your melancholy to yourself. Rats! whistle it +down the wind. D'you think I don't know? Look at me! D'you think I +haven't been through the whole gamut--from Alpha to Omaha--with all the +hemidemisemiquavers thrown in? Lord, I have quavered whole nights. And I +say that le jew ne vaut pas the candle." + +"You are quite Frenchy to-night," said Jack, brightening. + +"I always get more or less Parisian after eight o'clock at night. Dull +as a country squire in the morning, though. Woke up awfully English, and +moral to-day. By the way, you had better sleep on board to-night, so as +to be ready in good time to-morrow. And don't be spoiling your nerves +with the blues. I want you to tool her through to-morrow, and get over +your megrims first. Remember this, that-- + + Womankind more joy discovers + Making fools than keeping lovers." + +"Perhaps you are right," smiled Jack, getting up as if to shake himself +clear of his gloom. "And yet-- + + To be wroth with one we love + Doth work like madness in the brain." + +"There isn't much the matter with you," said Charley, as he saw Jack +swing over the water and make a gymnastic tour round a backstay. And +when the second gun was fired the next morning, and the Ideal was +preening her feathers as she swept through a fleet of boats, there was +nothing very sad about Jack. When the huge club topsail, sitting flat as +a board, caused her to careen gently as she zipped through the +preliminary canter, and when in the race she drew out to windward, +eating up into the wind every chance slant, Charley was watching how +Jack's finger-tips gently felt the wheel, and how his eager eye took in +everything, from the luff of the topsail to the ripples on the water or +the furthest cloud, and he whispered in his ear: "What about Her Majesty +just now, old man?" + +Jack was too intent on getting up into a favoring breath of air to +answer; but he tossed his head to signify that he was all right, and +fell to marveling that he had not thought of Nina for a full hour. + +In spite of the yachting, however, it was difficult to keep from being +lonely at other times, especially at the chambers, because Geoffrey was +out of town, taking his summer vacation, and Jack was forced to fly from +the desolation in the city and pass most of his nights on the Ideal. +This, with the afternoon sailing and a daily bulletin sent to Nina, +addressed to Montreal, served to help him to pass away the time until +the return of Geoffrey, who was greeted, as it were, with open arms. +Their bachelor quarters were very homelike and comfortable. The +sitting-room and library, which they shared together, always seemed a +little lonely when either of them was absent. + +Hampstead was pleased to get back to his luxurious arm-chair and +magazines. Jack's unsuspicious and welcoming face gave the place all the +restfulness of home after a period of more or less watchfulness against +detection. They stretched out their legs from the arm-chairs in which +they sat, and smoked and really enjoyed themselves in the old way among +their newspapers and books. After having settled in New York, when he +first came to America, Geoffrey had employed an old friend, on whose +secrecy he could rely, to call at his father's house in Shropshire and +procure for him all his old relics and curiosities. These the friend had +sent out to him. Every one of them recalled some more or less +interesting memory, and as they hung drying in the dust that Mrs. Priest +seldom attempted to remove they were like a tabular index of Geoffrey's +wanderings, on which he could cast his eyes at night and unconsciously +drop back into the past. There were whips, Tartar bridles, Arab pipes +and muskets, and old-fashioned firearms. No less than six cricket bats +proclaimed their nationality, as an offset against the stranger +trophies. There were foils and masks, boxing-gloves, fishing-rods, +snow-shoes, old swords, and any quantity of what Mrs. Priest called +"rotten old truck, only fit for a second-'and shop." Besides all this, +there were hanging shelves, covered with cups and other prizes that +Geoffrey and Jack had won in athletic contests. Even the ceiling was +made to do duty in exhibiting some lances and a central trophy composed +of Zulu assegais and Malay arrows and such things. These, with the large +bookcases of books, and, of course, Mrs. Priest, constituted their +Penates. + +Here Geoffrey ensconced himself for several evenings after his return, +immersed in his books until long after Jack had knocked out his last +pipe and turned in. His manner of taking his holidays had been an +episode which was forgotten now if anything arose to divert him, +something for him to smile at, but powerless to distract his attention +from a good article in the Nineteenth Century. + +But he did not visit Margaret for three or four days after his return. +When he saw her again, all his better nature came to the fore. He +delighted again in the quiet worship he felt for her now that he could +see more clearly the beauties of temperate life. "Now," he said, as he +stretched himself in his arm-chair one night, after having visited +Margaret earlier in the evening, "now, I will soon get married. With +Margaret, goodness will not only be practicable, but, I can imagine, +even enjoyable." Then, after a while, his mind recurred to his holidays, +which seemed to have been a long time ago. He yawned over the subject, +and thought it was time to go to bed. "Heigh-ho! I have exhausted the +devil and all his works now. He has got nothing more to offer me that I +care to accept. Now I have done with risks and worries. If I can only +get my money affairs straightened out I'll get married in September. +Federal stock is bound to rise, with the new changes in the bank, and +then I'll be all right. I'll just let Lewis have my horse and trap. +He'll give me more than I paid for them. The seven hundred will wipe out +a few things, and then if I can turn myself round again, I'll get +married at once." + +For several days after this he saw Margaret; and the more he saw of her +the more he really longed for the life that seemed best. He was tired of +plot and counterplot. As one whose intellect was generally a discerning +one, when not clouded by exciting vagaries, he had had, all his life, +the idea of enjoying goodness for itself--at some time or other. And +entering Margaret's presence seemed like going to a pure spring fountain +from which he came away refreshed. She had the quick brain that could +skim off the best of his thought and whip it up and present it in a +changed and perhaps more pleasing form. Even the look of her hands, the +way she held up cut flowers, and delighted in their faintest odors (to +him quite imperceptible) showed how much keener and more refined her +sensibilities were than his own and made him marvel to find that in some +respects she lived in a world wherein it was a physical impossibility +for him to enter. As the days wore on in which he daily saw her, he +found himself making little sacrifices for her sake, and even practicing +a trifle of self-denial. He did things that he knew would please her, +and afterward he felt all the healthy glow and ability for virtue which +are the essences that gracious deeds distill. "Doing these things makes +me better," he said. "This moral happiness is a thing to be worked up. I +can not cultivate goodness in the abstract. I must have something +tangible--something to understand; and if good deeds pay me back in this +sort of way I may yet become, partly through my deeds, what she would +wish me to be." + +Full of all this, while ruminating late one night, he took it into his +head to put it into verse, and he rather liked the simple lines. + +TO MARGARET. + +I. + + My Love! I would Love's true disciple be, + That, 'neath the king of teachers' gracious art, + Refined sense and thought might be to me + The stepping-stones to lead me to thy heart; + That thine own realm of peace I too might share. + Where Nature's smallest things show much design + To teach kind thoughts for all that breathe; and where, + As music's laws compel by rule divine, + Naught but obeying good gives joy and rest; + Where thou can'st note the immaterial scent + Of thought and thing, which we gross men at best + Can hardly know, with senses often lent + To heavy joys that leave us but to long + For that unknown which makes thyself a song. + + + +II. + + From gracious deeds exhale the perfumes rare + Of active rest, glad care, and hopeful trust + The soul snuffs these, well pleased, and seems to share, + For once, a joy in concord with the dust. + Thus simple deeds, through Love, make known th' unknown-- + That immaterial most substantial gain + Which makes of earth a heaven all its own. + And claims from spirit-land no sweeter reign. + So, while I learn in thine own atmosphere + To live, guard thou with patience all my ways, + For chance compels when weakness rules, and fear + Of self brings blackest night unto my days; + E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn, + And darkness breaks before the blushing morn. + +He wondered that the word "soul" had as yet no synonym to express what +he meant without, as he said, "borrowing the language of superstition." +For this he claimed poetical license. He was amused at the similarity of +his verse to some kind of religious prayer or praise. "Perhaps," he +said, "all loves, when sufficiently refined, have only one +language--whether the aspirations be addressed to Chemosh or Dagon or +Mary or Jahveh, or to the woman who embodies all one knows of good. But +perhaps, more likely, the song that perfect love sings in the heart has +no possible language, but is part of 'the choir invisible whose music is +the gladness of the world,' and to which we have all been trying to put +words, in religions and poems. + +"In twenty thousand years from now," he said, smiling, "archæologists +will be fighting over a discussion as to whether, in these early days, +any superstition still existed. Just before they come to blows over the +matter my sonnets will be found, produced, and deciphered, and there +will be rejoicing on one side to have it proved that at a certain time +Anno Domini (an era supposed to refer to one Abraham or Buddha) man +still claimed that a local god existed called 'Margaret,' who was +evidently worshiped with fervor. + +"But certainly," he added, as he read the sonnet for the third time, +"their mistake will not be such a palpable one as that about the Song of +Solomon." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Never but once to meet on earth again! + She heard me as I fled--her eager tone + Sank on my heart, and almost wove a chain + Around my will to link it with her own, + So that my stern resolve was almost gone. + "I can not reach thee! whither dost thou fly? + My steps are faint. Come back, thou dearest one! + Return, ah me! return!"--The wind passed by + On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly. + + SHELLEY, _The Revolt of Islam._ + + +After a prolonged visit in Montreal, Nina had been back in Toronto for a +short time, during which she had seen no one except Jack, whose two +visits she had rendered so unpleasant that he felt inclined to do +anything from _hara-kari_ to marrying somebody else. + +At this time Geoffrey received a note one morning, addressed in Nina's +handwriting. He turned pale as he tore it open: + + "DEAR MR. HAMPSTEAD: I wish to see you for a moment this + afternoon. If not too much trouble, would you call here at five + o'clock? + + "Yours sincerely, + + "MOSSBANK, _Tuesday._ + + "NINA LINDON." + +There was nothing very exciting on the face of this line, nothing to +create wrath. Yet Geoffrey tore it into shreds as if it had struck him a +blow and was dangerous. + +When he was shown into the drawing-room at Mossbank that afternoon, he +was stepping forward with courteous demeanor and a faint "company smile" +on his face, ready to look placidly and innocently upon any people who +might be calling at the time. He passed noiselessly over the thick +carpets toward the place where Nina was sitting, seeing quickly that +there was nobody else in the room, but aware that the servant was +probably at the door. + +"How-de-do, Miss Lindon?" he said aloud, for the benefit of the +inquisitive. "So you have come back to Toronto at last?" + +"Yes," said Nina, also with an engaging smile. "And how have you been +since I saw you last?" There was a charming inflection in her "company +voice" as she said these words. Then, raising her tone a little, she +said "Howard." + +The servant outside the door took several steps in a circle on the +tesselated pavement of the hall to intimate that he approached from afar +and then appeared. + +"Shut the door, please, Howard," said Nina softly. The man obliterated +himself. + +As soon as they were alone the heavenly sweetness of the caller and the +called upon vanished. Geoffrey's face became grave and his eyes +penetrating. He went toward her and took her hand in an effort to be +kind, while he looked at her searchingly with a pale face. Nina looked +weary and anxious. Neither of them spoke for a while. As Geoffrey +regarded her, she turned to him beseechingly with both anxiety and +affection in her expression. What he interpreted from the unhappiness of +her visage was more than sufficient to disturb his equanimity. He got up +and walked silently and quickly twice backward and forward. During this +moment his mind apparently made itself up on some point finally, for, as +he sat down as abruptly as he had risen, the tension of his face gave +place to something more like nonchalance and kindness. + +"You have something to tell me?" he said, in tones that endeavored to be +kind. + +Nina's face--sad, sorrowful, and tearful--bent itself low that she might +hide it from his sight. "Yes," she managed to say at last, almost +inaudibly. + +Geoffrey endeavored to assist her. "Don't say any more," said he. "Bad +news, I suppose?" + +"The very worst," cried Nina, starting up, her eyes dilating wildly and +despairingly with a sudden accession of fear. + +"Hush, hush!" said Geoffrey, laying his hand soothingly and kindly on +her arm. "You must not give way like that. You must control yourself. We +have both of us too much at stake to tell our story to every one who +likes to listen. Come and let us sit down and talk things over +sensibly." + +She gave him a quick look, half reproach, as if to say, "It is easy for +_you_ to be calm." But she sat down beside him, holding his coat-sleeve +with both hands--hardly knowing what she did. + +Hampstead leaned back, crossed his long legs in front of him, and +counted the eyelet holes in his boot. Then he took her hand, in order to +appear kind and to deal with the matter in an off-hand way. + +"As Thackeray says, Nina, 'truly, friend, life is strewn with +orange-peel.' Now and then we get a bad tumble; but we always get up +again. And I don't think that we ought to allow ourselves to be counted +among those weak creatures who most complain of the strength of a +temptation that takes at least a year to work up. After all, there is no +denying Rochefoucauld's wisdom when he said: 'C'est une espèce de +bonheur de connaitre jusques à quel point on doit être malheureux.' I +have been in a good many worries one way or another, and I always got +out of them. We will get out of this one all right, so cheer up and take +heart." + +"I don't see how," said Nina, turning her head away and feeling a sudden +hope. What was he going to say? Then she recollected that she had +lavished a small income on a dress especially for this interview. +Perhaps if he had an idea worth the hearing the dress might help it out. +She arose, as if absently, and walked to the side window and rested her +elbows against the sash in front of her. The attitude was graceful. As +she turned half over her shoulder to look back at him she could hardly +have appeared to better advantage. Her dress was really magnificent, and +it fitted a form that was ideal. In spite of his late resolutions, +Geoffrey was affected by the cunningly devised snare. A quick thought +came through his head, which he banished about as quickly as it came. + +"Well, of course, there is only one thing to be done," said he +decisively, in a tone which told her that so far she had failed. + +"What is that, dear Geoffrey? Do tell me, for I am very, very +miserable. And say it kindly, Geoffrey. Don't be too hard with me now." + +As she said this she swept toward him. She sank down beside him and +kissed him, and looked up into his face. Again the thought came to him. +Here were riches. Here was a woman whose beauty was talked about in +every city in Canada, who could be his pride, who cared for him +despairingly. If he wished, this mansion and wealth could be his. The +delicate perfumes about her seemed to steal into his brain and affect +his thought. + +An hour ago his resolves for himself had appeared so unchangeable that +they seemed of themselves to prop him up. And now he found himself +trying, with a brain that refused to assist him, to prop up his +resolutions, trying to remember what their best merits had been. One +glimmer of an idea was left in him--a purpose to preserve his fealty to +Margaret, and he thought that, if he could only get away for a moment to +think quietly, he might remember what the best points of his resolutions +had been. The perfumes, the beauty, the wealth, the liking he felt for +her, the duty he owed to her, and perhaps her concentration upon what +she desired--all conspired against him. But, with this part of an idea +left to him, he succeeded in being able slightly to turn his head away. + +When she asked him again what was to be done there was an unreal +decisiveness in his voice as he said: + +"Of course, the only thing to be done is for you to immediately marry +Jack." + +She sprang from him as if he had stabbed her. She was furious with +disappointment. + +"I will never marry Jack! What a dishonorable thing to propose!" + +The idea of dishonor to Jack seemed, for the first time, quite an +argument. When the ethics of a matter can be utilized they suddenly seem +cogent. + +"Very well," said Geoffrey, shrugging his shoulders and rising as if to +go away. "My idea was 'any port in a storm'--a poor idea, perhaps, and +certainly, as you say, entirely dishonorable, but still feasible. Of +course, if you have made up your mind not to marry him, we may as well +consider the interview as ended. I'm afraid I have nothing more to +suggest." + +He did not intend to go away, but he held out his hand as if about to +say good-by. She stood half turned away trying to think. The idea of his +leaving her to her trouble dazed her. She was terrified to realize that +she would be without help. + +"Oh, how cruel you are!" + +She almost groaned as she spoke. She was in despair. She put her hands +to her head hopelessly, her eyes dilated with trouble. + +"Don't go yet, Geoffrey." Then she tried to nerve herself for what she +had to say. After a pause: "Geoffrey, I can say things to you now, that +I could never have said before. I must speak to you fully before you go. +I must leave no stone unturned. There is no one to help me, so I must +look after myself in what must be said. I went away with you, Geoffrey, +because I loved you." She bit her lips to stay her tears and stopped to +regain a desperate fortitude. "I cared for you so much that being with +you seemed right--nay more, sacred. Oh, it drags me to the dust to speak +in this way! But I must. Does not my ruin give me a right to speak? The +question of a girl's reticence must be put away. I am forced to do the +best I can for myself. And now I say, will you stand by me?" Her head +drooped and her hands hung down by her side with shame at the position +she forced herself to take when she added: "Will you do me justice, +Geoffrey? Will you marry me?" + +Hampstead was about to speak, but she knew at once that she had +asked too much, and she continued more quickly and more despairingly: +"Nay, I won't ask so much. I only ask you to take me away. I am +distracted. I don't know what to do. I will do anything. I will be +your slave. You need not marry me--only take me away and hide +me--somewhere--anywhere--for God's sake, Geoffrey, from my shame--from +my disgrace." + +She was on her knees before him as she said these last words. If our +pleasure-loving acquaintance could have changed places with a +galley-slave at that moment he would have done so gladly. + +The first thing he did was to endeavor to quiet the wildness of her +despair. To be surprised by any person with her on her knees before him +in an agony of tears would be a circumstance difficult to explain away. + +As soon as he began to talk, it seemed to him a most dastardly thing to +sacrifice Margaret's life now to conceal his own wrong-doing. In the +light of this idea, Nina's wealth and beauty suddenly became tawdry. +Margaret's nobility and happiness suddenly seemed worth dying for. They +must not be wrecked in a moment of weakness. As if dispassionately, he +laid before Nina the history of their acquaintance, and also his 'other +obligations.' Really, it placed him in a very awkward, not to say +absurd, position. He wished to do what was right, but did not see his +way at all clear. The only way was to efface himself entirely, and +consider only what was due to others. Before the world he was engaged to +Margaret, and had been so all along. She had his word that he would +marry her. If it were only "his word" that had to be broken, that might +be done. But was the happiness of Margaret's life to be cast aside? +Which, of the two, was the more innocent--which, of the two, had the +better right or duty to bear the brunt of the disaster? + +The way he effaced his own personality in this discourse was almost +picturesque. Justice blindfold, with impartial scales in her hand, was +nothing to him. + +Nina said no word from beginning to end. All she heard in the discourse +was something to show her more and more that what she wished must be +given up. It was something to know that at least she had tried every +means in her power to move him--feeling that she had a helpless woman's +right to do so. And as the deep, kindly tones went on they calmed her +and gradually compelled her tacitly and wearily to accept his +suggestion, while his ingenuity showed her the sinuous path that lay +before her. + +At the same time, in spite of all his arguments and her own resolutions, +she could not clearly see why she should be the one to suffer instead of +Margaret. Margaret had so much more strength of character to assist her. +The ability to bear up under sorrow and trouble was a virtue she was +ready to acknowledge to be weaker in herself than in others. The +confession of this weakness, through self-pity, seemed half a virtue, +even though only made to insist upon compensations. + + * * * * * + +The next day, Jack called by appointment. + +"I thought I would just send for you, Jack," said Nina, looking half +angry and half smiling. "I felt as if I wanted to give trouble to +somebody, and I thought you were the most available person." + +"Go ahead, then, old lady. I can stand it. There is nothing a fellow may +not become accustomed to." + +Jack seated himself in one of Nina's new easy-chairs which yielded to +his weight so luxuriously that he thought he would like to get one like +it. He felt the softness of the long arms of the chair, and then, +regaining his feet, turned it round. + +"That's a nice chair, Nina. How much did it put the old man back?" + +Nina looked at him inquiringly. + +"Cost--you know. How much did it spoil the old man?" + +"How do I know? He bought it in New York with a lot of things. Do you +suppose I keep an inventory of prices to assist me in conversation?" + +"I wish you did. I'd like to get one. But I don't know. When we get +married you can hand it out the back gate to me, you know, and then +we'll be one chair ahead--and a good one, too." + +"I do wish you would leave off referring to getting married," said Nina. +And then, "By the way, that is what I wanted to speak to you about--" + +Jack smiled. "Be careful," he said. "Don't set me a bad example by +referring to the subject yourself." + +"Well, I will, for a change. I have been making up my mind +to end this way of dragging on existence. This sort of +neither-one-thing-nor-the-other has got to end. It wearies me. I am not +half as strong as I was. I went away to pick up, and now I am no +better." + +"And how do you propose to end it?" Jack was surprised at the decision +in her voice. + +"I propose to break it off all together," said she firmly. + +"Of course," said Jack, "there is no other alternative for you but +marriage." + +Nina was startled at first by these words. But he had only spoken them +casually. + +"Certainly. A break off or marriage are the only alternatives. Going on +like this is what I will not stand any longer." + +Jack was shaking in his shoes for fear this was the last of him. He +controlled his anxiety, though, and shutting his eyes, he leaned back, +supinely, as if he knew that what he said did not matter much. She would +do as she liked--no question about that! + +"I have, I think, at some previous time," said he, from the recesses of +the chair where he was calmly judicial with his eyes shut, "advocated +the desirability of marriage. I think I have mentioned the subject +before. Of course, this is only an opinion, and not entitled, perhaps, +to a great deal of weight." + +Nina for the first time in her life was annoyed that Jack was not +sufficiently ardent. The unfortunate young man had had cold water thrown +over him too many times. He was getting wise. To-day he was keeping out +of range. Nina had been decidedly eccentric lately and might give him +his _congé_ at any moment. She was evidently in a queer mood still, and, +to-day, Jack would give her no chance to gird at him. + +This well-trained care on his part bid fair to make things awkward. She +saw that it had become necessary to draw him out, and with this object +in view she asked carelessly, as if she had been absent-minded and had +not heard him: + +"What did you say then, Jack?" + +"I was merely hinting, delicately, as an outsider might, that, of the +two important alternatives, marriage seems to offer you a greater scope +for breaking up the _ennui_ of a single life that a mere change from one +form of single life to another." + +Jack did not see the bait she was holding out. He would not rise to it. +Really, it was maddening to have to lead _Jack_ on. He had been "trained +down too fine." + +"Well, for my part," she said laughingly, with her cheek laid against +the soft plush of the sofa, "I don't seem to care now which of the +alternatives is adopted." + +Jack remained quiet when he heard this. Then he said coolly: "If I were +not a wise man, that speech of yours would unduly excite me. But you +said you wanted some one to annoy, and I won't give you a chance. If I +took the advantage of the possibilities in your words we would certainly +have a row. No, old lady, you are setting a trap for me, in order that +you may scold afterward. You like having a row with me, but you can't +have one to-day. 'Burnt child'--you know." + +What could be more provoking than this. Nina, in spite of her troubles, +saw the absurdity of her position, and laughed into the plush. But her +patience was at an end. She sat upright again and said vehemently: + +"Jack Cresswell, you are a born fool!" + +He looked up himself, then, from the chair. There was an expression in +Nina's face that he had not seen for a long time--a consenting and kind +look in her eyes. He got up, slowly, without any haste, still doubtful +of the situation; and as he came toward her his breath grew shorter. "I +believe I am a fool, but I could not believe what I wished. Is it true, +Nina, that you will take me at last?" + +"Listen! Come and sit down, boy, and behave yourself." + +Jack obeyed mechanically. + +She turned around to face him, while she commanded his obedience and +gave her directions with finger upraised, as if she were teaching a dog +to sit up. + +"To-morrow you will call upon my father at his office and ask his +consent to our immediate marriage." + +"Tell me to do something hard, Nina. I feel rather cooped up, just now. +I could spring over that chandelier. I don't mind tackling the old +man--that's nothing. Haven't you got some lions' dens that want looking +after?" + +"You'll feel tired enough when you come out of father's den, I'll +warrant." + +"I dare say. What if he refuses?" + +"Jack," said Nina, "I am an heiress. I dictate to every man but my +father. I have always had my own way, and always mean to have it. So, +beware! But I don't care, now, whether he refuses or not. I have come to +the conclusion that it was this long engagement that worried me, and I +am going to end it in short order. I am getting as thin as a scarecrow. +My bones are coming through my dress." Nina felt the top of one superbly +rounded arm and declared she could feel her collar-bone coming through +in that improbable place. "No, I don't care whether he refuses or not. I +am going to marry you, Jack, before the end of the week." + +Next day Jack found himself not quite so brave as he thought he would be +on entering Mr. Joseph Lindon's office. He was ushered into a rather +shabby little room, which the millionaire thought was quite good enough +for him. He took a pride in its shabbiness. Joseph Lindon, he said, did +not have to impress people with brass and Brussels. There was more solid +monetary credit in his threadbare carpet than in all the plate glass and +gilt of any other establishment in the city. + +Cresswell paused on the threshold as he entered, and then, feeling glad +that nobody else was in the room, advanced toward Mr. Lindon. Lindon saw +him out of the corner of his eye as he came in, and a saturnine smile +relaxed his face while he completed a sentence in a letter which he was +writing. + +"Good morning, Jack," he said briskly. "Come at last, have you?" + +This was rather disconcerting, but Jack replied: "Yes, and you evidently +know why." He said this cheerfully and with considerable spirit, but Mr. +Lindon's next remark was a little chilling. + +"Just so. I was afraid you would come some day. Let us cut it short, my +boy. I have a board meeting in ten minutes." + +"Well, you know all I've got to say. Now, what do you say?" + +This was a happy abruptness on Jack's part, and Lindon rather liked him +for it. It seemed business like. It seemed as if Jack thought too highly +of Mr. Lindon's sagacity to indulge in any persuasion or argument. He +lay back in his chair with an amused look. + +"Why dammit, boy, she's not in love with you." + +Jack shrugged his shoulders and smiled--as if that was point on which +modesty compelled him to be silent But his individuality asserted +itself. + +"Is that all the objection?" + +Evidently, abruptness and speaking to the point were preferred in this +office, and Jack was prepared to give the millionaire all the abruptness +he wanted. + +"No," said Lindon. "Of course, that is not all. But I know, as a matter +of fact, that my daughter does not care a pin about you. Don't think I +have been making money all my life. I can tell when a woman is in love +as well as any man. I have watched Nina myself when you were with her, +and I tell you she does not care half enough for you to marry you." + +"She says she does," said Jack, determined not to be browbeaten by this +man's force. + +"I don't believe a word of it, if she does say so. I was afraid, at one +time, that she was going to make a goose of herself with you, and I +waltzed her off to the Continent. But after she came back I thoroughly +satisfied myself that she was in no danger, or else, my boy, you would +not have had the run of my house as you have had. Under the +circumstances, Jack, I was always glad to see you, since we came back +last, and hope to see you always, just the same. Quite apart, however, +from anything she may say or consent to, I have other plans for my +daughter. I have no son to carry on the name, but my daughter's marriage +will be a grand one. With her beauty and my money, she will make the +biggest match of the day. I did not start with much of a family myself, +but I can control family. When Nina marries, sir, she marries blood; +nothing less than a dook, sir,--nothing less than a dook will satisfy +me. And I'll have a dook, sir; mark my words!" + +When his ambition was aroused, Mr. Lindon sometimes reverted to the more +marked vulgarity of forty years ago. + +Jack arose. The interview was ended as far as he was concerned. + +Lindon felt kindly toward him. He was one of the few young men who were +not overawed by his money and obsequious on account of his wine. + +"Well, good-by," he said. "Don't let this make any interruption in your +visits to Mossbank. You'll always find a good glass of wine ready for +you with Joseph Lindon. I rather like you, Jack, and if you ever want +any backing, just let me know. But, my boy"--here Lindon regarded him as +kindly as his keen, business-loving face would allow, and he laid his +hand on his arm--"my lad, you must be careful. Remember what an old man +says--you're too honest to get along all through life without getting +put upon. You must try to see into things a little more. Just try and be +a little more suspicious. If you don't, somebody will 'go for you,' sure +as a gun." + +Jack saw that this was intended kindly, and he took it quietly, +wondering if Joseph Lindon, while looking so uncommonly sober, could +have been indulging in a morning glass of wine. He went out, and Mr. +Lindon watched his free, manly bearing as he passed to the front door. + +"If I had a son like that," he said warmly, "Nina could marry whom she +liked. That boy would be family enough for me. He would have enough of +the gentleman about him both for himself and his old father. Lord, if I +had a son like that I'd make a prince of him! I'd just give him blank +checks signed with my name. Darned if I wouldn't!" + +To give a son unfilled signed checks seemed to be a culmination of +parental foolishness which would show his fondness more than anything +else he could do. Perhaps he was right. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Life is so complicated a game that the devices of skill are + liable to be defeated at every turn by air-blown chances + incalculable as the descent of thistledown.--GEORGE ELIOT'S + _Romola_. + + +During Jack's visit to her father's office, Nina passed the time in +desultory shopping until she met him on King Street. + +"I need not ask what your success was," said she, smiling, as she joined +him. "Your face shows that clearly enough." + +"Nothing less than a dook," groaned Jack, good-humoredly. "He seems to +think they can be had at auction sales in England." + +"I am glad he refused," said Nina, "because his consent would delay my +whims. We have done our duty in asking him, and now I am going to marry +you to-morrow, Jack."' + +"To-morrow?" + +"Yes, I am afraid, dear Jack, that if I allowed the marriage to be put +off till next week or longer you might change your mind." She gave Jack +a look that disturbed thought. Affection toward him on her part was +something so new that this, together with her startling announcement, +made it difficult for him accurately to distinguish his head from his +heels. + +"But I can not leave the bank at a moment's notice." + +"No; but you can get your holidays a week sooner. You were going to take +them in a week." + +"Had we not better wait, then, for the week to expire?" + +"Fiddlesticks! Don't you see that I want to give you a chance? What I am +_really_ afraid of is that I shall change my own mind. Father said only +yesterday he was thinking of taking me to England at once. If you don't +want to take your chances you can take your consequences instead." + +It did not seem anything new or strange to Jack that she should give a +little stamp of her foot imperiously, and in all the willfulness of a +spoiled child determine suddenly upon carrying out a whim in spite of +any objections. And Jack needed no great force of argument to push him +on in this matter. His head was throbbing with excitement. To think of +the bank was habitual to him; but the wildness of the new move commended +itself to his young blood. The holidays were a mere matter of +arrangement, for the most part, between the clerks, and he thought he +saw his way to arranging for a fortnight's absence. "I'll make it all +right," he said, thinking aloud. "I will arrange it with Sappy." + +Whether "Sappy" was the bank manager or a fellow-clerk did not at the +moment interest Nina. + +"Why, Nina, I didn't know you were a person to go in for anything half +so wild. It suits me. It will be the spree of my life! But how have you +arranged everything? or have you arranged anything?" + +"Oh, there is nothing very much to arrange. I know you can not leave the +bank finally without giving due notice. So we will just go off now and +get married, and when you come back, after a week or so, you can give +the usual notice and then we will go to California. If your brother +there wants you to go into the grape-farming he must know well enough +that you have better chances there than here in the bank, and if, after +all, the business there did not get on well, I dare say father will have +changed his mind by that time." + +"And how will you account for your absence from home?" + +"Nothing simpler," said she, with a sagacious toss of her head. "I am +just telegraphing to Sophronia B. Hopkins at Lockport, New York. You +remember Sophronia B., when she was with us? I have telegraphed that I +am coming to see her. She will answer to say 'Come along'; and then I +will put her off for a couple of weeks and tell her to keep any letters +forwarded for me from here until I come." + +Jack was astonished. "I thought your head was only valuable as an +ornament," said he, with affectionate rudeness. + +"I have never, with you, had occasion to use it before. To-morrow, at +half-past seven in the morning, you will take the train for Hamilton. I +will take the 9.30 and we will go through to Buffalo together, where we +will arrive about two o'clock, and then we can be married there and go +West. But we need not arrange anything more now. You will be at the +Campbells' to-night, and anything further can be spoken about there. Go +off now to the bank and get everything ready. And, by the way, +Jack"--here she held out her hand as if for good-by--while she asked, +with what seemed to Jack an almost unimaginable coquetry and beauty, +"you won't change your mind, dear Jack?" She gave him one glance from +under her sweeping eyelashes, and then she left him to grope his way to +the bank. + +She thought, as she walked along, "I think I have read somewhere that +'whom the gods wish to take they first drive mad,' or something like +that. It is just as well, as Geoffrey suggested, to keep Jack slightly +insane to-day. It will prevent him from thinking my proposal strange. +Poor Jack! To-day he would give me his right arm as a present. How +shabbily I have treated him, and how well he has always behaved!" + +About eleven on the following forenoon, Jack was waiting in the +dining-room of the Hamilton railway station, looking out through the +window to see Nina's train come in. He thought it better to escape +observation in this way. Nor did Nina indulge in looking out the window +of the Pullman. Everything had been fully arranged, and as the bridge +train moved out of the station, Jack left his obscure post of +observation and hastily passed through the crowd on the station and got +on board the "smoker" in front. When clear of Hamilton he made his way +back through the cars to the drawing-room car, where he found Nina, who +was beginning to look a little anxious for his arrival. + +The train took nearly two hours to trundle along to the bridge. For a +time they talked together, but Nina was feeling the reaction of the +excitement of getting away. She had had a good deal to do, and she did +not feel that going away with Jack would prevent her from enjoying a +fairly comfortable nap in the large swinging arm-chairs. She soon dozed +off, and Jack, who was pleased to see her rest, walked to the end of the +car and back again to calm his nerves. This sort of thing was new to +him. He had a novel with him, but he could not read it. His "only books +were woman's looks" to-day. Other people's adventures seemed poor to him +just now, in comparison with his own. + +While thus moving about restlessly he became a little interested in an +elderly gentleman, evidently a clergyman, who was sitting unobtrusively +behind a copy of the Detroit Church Herald. He passed this retiring +person several times, in loitering about, and then, seeing him with his +paper laid down beside him, stopped and said cheerfully: + +"Got the car all to ourselves to-day." + +"Yes," said the grave-looking person, with an American accent. "And +pleasant, too, on a warm day like this. It's worth the extra quarter to +get out from among the crying babies and orange-peel and come in here +and travel comfortably. Going far?" + +"Only as far as Buffalo," said Jack, taking a seat beside him, for want +of anything better to do. + +"That is where I reside." + +"Ah, indeed!" said Jack. "You make Buffalo the scene of your official +duties?" + +The other nodded. "I have been for a visit to Detroit, and now I am +going back to relieve my superior in the church, so that he may take a +holiday also. I think we clergy need a holiday as much as any other +people I ever saw. Do you know Buffalo at all?" + +"Never was there in my life," said Jack. + +"Humph! Well, it ain't a bad place, Buffalo, when you know the people +well. I have only been there five years, but I have found in our +congregation some real nice folks. Of course, mine is the Episcopal +Church, and I have generally found the Episcopalians, in my sojournings +in different places, to be the superior people of the locality." + +From the compliment to the Episcopalians it was evident that the +clergyman had no doubt Jack belonged to that aristocratically inclined +sect, and Jack smiled at his friend's shrewdness, forgetting the fact +that "Church of England--mild, acquiescent, and gentlemanly"--was +written all over him, and that the cut of his clothes, the shape of his +whisker, the turn of his head when listening, and even the solidity of +his utility-first boots made it almost impossible for any person to +suppose he belonged to any other denomination. + +"I have heard," Jack said, "that the Buffalo people, many of them, have +lots of money, and that they give freely to the churches. I suppose +money is an element in a congregation which gentlemen of your calling do +not object to?" + +It seemed to Jack that the long gray eyes of the minister smiled at this +point more because he thought he was expected to smile than from any +sense of mirth. He was a grave man, who, behind a dignified reserve, +seemed capable of taking in a great deal at a glance. + +"No one can deny the power of money," he said. "But, though there is a +good deal of it in St. James's Church, what with a paid choir, and the +church debt, and repairs, and the new organ, and the paying of my +superior in office, I can tell you there is not very much left for the +person who plays second fiddle, as one may say." + +"Ah!" said Jack sympathetically. + +"When a man has a wife and a growing family to support and bring up in a +large city, and prices away up, twelve hundred dollars a year don't go a +very great ways, young man, and if it were not for our perquisites some +of us would find it difficult to make both ends of the string meet +around the parcel we have got to carry." + +Jack was becoming slightly interested in this man and was wondering what +his previous history was. He wondered that his new acquaintance had not +made more money than he seemed to possess. There was something behind +his grave immobility of countenance that suggested ability of some sort, +he did not know what. His slightly varying expressions of countenance +did not always seem to appear spontaneously, but to be placed there by a +directing intelligence that first considered what expression would be +the right one. It seemed like a peculiar mannerism which might in +another man be the result of a slightly sluggish brain. + +They conversed with each other all the way to the bridge, and although +the dignified reserve of the clergyman never quite thawed out, Jack +began to rather like him and be interested in his large fund of +information about the United States and anecdotes of frontier life in +California, where as a youth he had had a varied experience. + +Their baggage was examined by the customs officer on the American side +of the bridge, and the clergyman noticed a monogram in silver on Nina's +shopping-bag, "N. L.," and the initials "J. C." on Jack's valises, and +came to the conclusion from Jack's studied attentions to Nina when she +awoke that, if the young couple were not married yet, it was quite time +they were; and no doubt it entered the clerical mind that there might be +a marriage fee for himself to come out of the little acquaintance. In +view of this he renewed the conversation himself after the car went on +by the New York Central toward Buffalo. Jack introduced the Rev. Matthew +Simpson to Nina, and he made the short run to Buffalo still shorter with +amusing stories of clerical life, ending up with one about his own +marriage, which was not the less interesting on account of its being a +runaway match and the fact that he had never regretted it. Jack felt +that behind this elderly man's dignity there was a heart that understood +the world and knew what young people were. So he told a short story on +his account, which did not seem to surprise the reverend gentleman a +great deal, and it was arranged that he should perform the ceremony for +them at the hotel. On arriving in Buffalo they left their luggage at the +station, intending to go on to Cleveland at four o'clock. On the way up +Main Street, Mr. Simpson pointed out St. James's Church--a large +edifice, partly covered with ivy--and also showed the parsonage where he +lived. He urged them to wait and be married in the church, but Nina +shunned the publicity of it and pleaded their want of time. + +Jack and Nina had some dinner at the Genesee House, while Mr. Simpson +got the marriage license ready. As luck would have it, Mr. Simpson +himself issued marriage licenses, which, as he explained, also assisted +him to eke out his small income; and as soon as they had had a hurried +lunch, they all retired to a private parlor and the marriage ceremony +was performed very quietly. + +Two waiters were called in as witnesses, and it was arranged that on +their return to Buffalo in a few days, they could call at the parsonage +and then sign the church register, for which there was now no time +before the four o'clock train left for Cleveland. The license was +produced, filled out, and signed in due form, and on the large red seal +were stamped the words, "Matthew Simpson, Issuer of Marriage Licenses." +The presence of the stamp showed that he was a duly authorized person, +and satisfied Jack that in employing a chance acquaintance he was not +making any mistake. + +They were glad when the ceremony was finished, and Jack was very +pleasant with Mr. Simpson. They all got into the cab again, and rattled +off toward the station. As they came near the parsonage of St. James's +Church, Mr. Simpson said he thought he would go as far as the suburbs +with them in their train to see how some people in the hospital were +getting on. He said he would get down, now, at the parsonage, because he +wished to take something with him to one of the patients, but that they +must not risk losing the train. + +"I will take another cab and meet you at the train. It is not a matter +of much moment if I fail to catch it; but, Mr. Cresswell, if you get a +bottle of wine into the car (perhaps you will have time to get it at the +station), I will be pleased to drink Mrs. Cresswell's health." + +"That's a capital idea," said Jack with spirit. "The wine will be +doubtful, perhaps, but that won't be my fault. And now," he added, as +the carriage stopped at the parsonage, "I want to leave with you your +fee, Mr. Simpson, and I hope you will not consider that it cancels our +indebtedness to you." Jack pulled out a roll of bills. + +"Never mind, my dear young man," said Mr. Simpson heartily, "any time +will do. I will catch you at the station, and, if I don't, you can leave +it with me when you return here to sign the register." + +Mr. Simpson got out, and Jack, finding he had only two five dollar +bills, the rest being all in fifties, was rather in a dilemma how to pay +Mr. Simpson twenty dollars for his fee. + +"Here;" he said hurriedly, handing out a fifty, "you get this changed, +if you have time, on your way down. You may possibly miss us at the +station, and I can not hear of your waiting until we return." + +"Very well," said Mr. Simpson, speaking as fast as his tongue would let +him, "I will have to take my chance, and, if I can not catch you, just +call in for the balance when you return. Don't lose a moment!" With a +wave of his hand and a direction to the driver, Mr. Simpson went +hurriedly up the parsonage steps, and the cab dashed off toward the +Michigan Southern depot. + +Jack had time to purchase the wine, which ought to have been good, +judging from the price. Unfortunately, Mr. Simpson was too late to join +them. The train went off without him, and Jack and Nina drank his jolly +good health in half the bottle, and afterward the Pullman conductor +struggled successfully with the rest. + +Altogether they were in high spirits, Jack especially, and Nina's +thankfulness for being safely married to one of the best of men made her +very amiable. + + * * * * * + +Mr. and Mrs. John Cresswell approached Buffalo again, from the West, at +the close of Jack's two weeks' holidays. They decided that it would be +better for Nina to go straight to Lockport on the train which connected +with the one on which they were traveling. There was nothing for Nina to +do in Buffalo but sign the register and get her marriage "lines" from +Mr. Simpson, and Jack could do this, they thought, without a delay on +her part to do so. To arrange about the register she had written her +name on a narrow slip of paper which Jack could paste in the book at the +parsonage. This they considered would suffice, and Nina went on to pay +her intended visit to Sophronia B. Hopkins. The run to Lockport occupied +only a short time, and then she went to her friend's house. + +In the mean time Jack, who was not like the husband in Punch in that +stage of the honeymoon when the presence of a friend "or even an enemy" +would be a grateful change of companionship, walked up Main Street +smoking a cigar and trying to make the best of his sudden bereavement. +He said after the first ten minutes that he was infernally lonely, but +still the flavor of the cigar was from fair to middling. And, after all, +tobacco and quiet contemplation _have_ a place in life which can not be +altogether neglected, and they come in well again after a while, no +matter what may have caused their temporary banishment. + +He strolled leisurely up to the parsonage and inquired for Mr. Simpson. +The maid-servant said he did not live there. Jack thought this was +strange. + +"I mean the clergyman who has charge of the church alongside." + +"Oh, yes, Mr. Toxham lives here. He is inside. Will you walk in?" + +Jack was ushered into a clergyman's library, where a thin man with a +worn face was sitting. Jack bowed, introduced himself, and said he had +come here to see Mr. Matthew Simpson, "one of the associate clergymen in +St. James's Church close by." + +"I do not think I know anybody by the name of Simpson," said the +clergyman. "My name is Toxham. I have no associate clergyman with me in +the neighboring church. My church is called St. Luke's, not St. James's. +I don't think there is any St. James's Church in Buffalo." Jack grasped +the back of the chair and unconsciously sat down to steady himself. A +horrible fear overwhelmed him. His face grew ashen in hue, and the +clergyman jumped up in a fright, thinking something was going to happen. + +"It's all right," said Jack weakly. "Sit down, please. You have given me +a shock, and I feel as I never felt before. There, I am better now." + +As he wiped away the cold perspiration that had started out in beads on +his forehead he related the facts as to his marriage to Mr. Toxham, who +was greatly shocked. + +An idea occurred to him, and on looking through the city directory, as a +sort of last chance, he found the name "Matthew Simpson, issuer of +marriage licenses." + +Jack started up, filled with wild and sudden hope. He got the address, +and dashed from the house before Mr. Toxham could give him a word of +advice. Arrived at the office of Matthew Simpson, he walked in and asked +for that gentleman. + +"I am Matthew Simpson," said the man he spoke to. + +Jack looked at him as if he had seven heads, feeling the same trembling +in the knees which he had felt when with Mr. Toxham. "Really," he +thought, "if this goes on I'll be a driveling idiot by nightfall." + +"Did you issue a marriage license on, let me see, two weeks ago +to-morrow--on the 23d?" + +"More than likely I did. Perhaps a good many on that day. You don't look +as if you wanted one yourself. Anything gone wrong? But you can have one +if you like. I do the biggest business in Buffalo. I sell more marriage +licenses than any two men between here and--" + +"Turn up your books," interrupted Jack savagely. He was beginning to +wish to kill somebody. + +"I always make a charge for a search," said the man cunningly, which was +not true. + +"Well, damn it, I can pay you. Look lively now, or the police will do it +for me in five minutes, and put you where your frauds will be of no use +to you." + +It was Mr. Simpson's turn to lose color now. He was one of the trustees +of a public institution in Buffalo, and people should be careful how +they talk too suddenly about police to trustees. The books were +produced, and Jack hurriedly looked over the list of the licenses sold +on the 23d of the last month, and was surprised to find that one had +been sold to himself. His age was entered and sworn to as fifty-five +years, and the license was to marry Nina Lindon, spinster, aged twenty +years. The addresses given were all Buffalo. + +"There has been a great fraud done here," said Jack vehemently. + +"All perfectly regular, my dear sir," said Mr. Simpson. "I remember the +circumstance well. Old party, called John Cresswell, came in, dressed +like a preacher, and wanted a license for himself. 'All right, my old +covey,' says I to myself; 'trust an old stager like you to pick up the +youngest and best.' So I perdooced the papers, which took about five +minutes to fill up. He took the oath, I sealed and stamped the license, +like this one here, and as soon as he got it he took out his purse and +there was nothing in it. His face fell about a quarter of a yard. 'My +goodness,' he says. 'I have come out without any money!' He then laid +down the license and rushed to the door, and then turned round and says, +quite distressed: 'I'll take a cab,' says he, 'and drive home and get +your money. They're all waiting at the church for the marriage to take +place, but, of course, you must be paid first.'" + +"Well, I hated to see an old gent put about so, and his speaking about +'taking a cab' and coming from 'home' in such a natural, put-about sort +of way kinder made me think he was solid, and, like a dum fool, I slings +him the license and tells him to call in after the ceremony. He thanked +me, with what I should call Christian gratitude in his face. Yes, sir, +it was Christian gratitude, there, every time. And--would you believe +it?--the old boozer never showed up since!" + +"Ha!" said Jack, who only heard the main facts of what Simpson was +saying. "Did you never see this old man before?" he added. + +"Well, that is a funny thing about it. It seemed to me I knew the face. +That was one thing that made me trust him. I could not swear to it, but +I have a great mind for faces, and I believe I have, at some time or +other, sold the old coon a license before." + +Jack thought this would account for the old man, while on the train, +giving the name Matthew Simpson, when he had the whole scheme quickly +arranged in his head. Still, it might be that he was in fact some +profligate, ruined clergyman, who played these confidence games to make +a livelihood. The license was issued in his and Nina's names, and, +although incorrect on its face and not paid for, might still, he +thought, be a legal license for him to claim a _bona-fide_ marriage +under. If the license was good enough, the next thing to do was to go +to the police office and find out what he could there. "The marriage +might be a good one still." + +He threw down the price of the license for Mr. Simpson, and asked him to +be good enough to keep the papers in his possession carefully, as they +might be required afterward. He left Mr. Simpson rather mystified as to +the interest he took in the matter, and then, having still two hours +before train-time, he repaired to the police headquarters. There he +related in effect what had taken place to Superintendent Fox. Two or +three quiet-looking men were lounging about, seeming to take but little +interest in Jack's story. Detectives are not easily disturbed by that +which excites the victim who tells his unfortunate experience. These +fellows were smoking cigars, and they occasionally exchanged a low +sentence with each other in which Jack thought he heard the word +"Faro-Joseph." What that meant he did not know; but he described the +gentleman of dignified aspect, whom he had known on the train as Rev. +Matthew Simpson, and then he heard one of them mutter "Faro-Joseph" +again, while they nodded significantly. + +One of the men, who had his boots on a desk in front of him, was +consulting his note-book. He then said: + +"On the 23d of last month Faro-Joseph got off the train at the Central +Depot at two o'clock. On the 26th he left on the Michigan Southern at 10 +P. M." + +It dawned upon Jack that his clerical friend was called "Faro-Joseph" in +police circles. + +"Why did you not warn me when you saw me in company with this man. He +got off the train with me at the the time you say. Surely I should have +had some word from you!" + +"Well, gent, I tell you why. I was just about to arrest another man, and +in the crowd I did not see that you were with him. Don't remember ever +seeing you before. I might pass you twenty times and never know I had +seen you. You're not the kind we reaches out for. Now, I dare say, +unless a woman is of a fine figure--tall, possibly, or the kind of +figure you admire--chances are you don't see her at all. That is, you +could not tell afterward whether you had seen her or not. Same thing +here. You're not the kind we hunt." + +Jack turned to the superintendent and asked him whether this man, +Faro-Joseph, was not really at one time a clergyman. The superintendent +smiled pityingly. + +"Why, he only started the sky-pilot game during the last ten years, and +only takes it up occasionally. Though I believe it's his best holt. As a +Gospel-sharp he'll beat anybody out of their socks. He's immense on that +lay. What I call just perfect. He's all on the confidence ticket now and +the pasteboards. Has quite given up the heavy business. Why, sir, you +would forgive him most anything if you could see him handle card-board. +We pulled him for a 'vag.' one night about four months ago; and, just to +find out how he did things, I played a little game with him after we let +him go on promise to quit. We put the stakes about as low as they could +be put--five-cent ante, and twenty-five cent limit--just for the +experiment. Now, sir, you would be surprised. He cheated me from the +word 'go,' and I don't know yet how it was done. If he dealt the cards +he would get an all-fired hand himself, and if I dealt him nothing he'd +bluff me right up the chimney. For poker he has no match, I believe. All +I know about that game is that I lost three dollars in thirty minutes." + +"Perhaps you have his record written down somewhere?" said Jack, feeling +sick at heart, and yet fascinated by the account of Faro-Joseph. + +"Perhaps we have," said the superintendent, smiling toward one of the +loungers near by. "Just come in this way." + +The superintendent opened a large case like a wardrobe, and began +flapping back a large number of thin flat wings that all worked on +separate hinges. These wings were covered with photographs of +criminals--a terrible collection of faces--and from one of them he took +a very fair likeness of our clerical friend in another dress. Pasted at +the back of the photograph was a folded paper containing a list in fine +writing of his known convictions and suspected offenses for a period of +over forty years. He had been burglar, counterfeiter, and forger, which +the superintendent called the 'heavy business' that he had given up. +Since those earlier days he had been train-gambler, confidence-man, and +sneak-thief. + +There was nothing to be done. Faro-Joseph never had been a clergyman. To +put the law in force was out of the question for several reasons. Jack +got away to catch his train for Toronto and to think and think what it +would be best to do about Nina, and where and how they could get married +properly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Spread no wings + For sunward flight, thou soul with unplumed vans! + Sweet is the lower air and safe, and known + The homely levels. + Dear is the love, I know, of wife and child; + Pleasant the friends and pastimes of your years. + Live--ye who must--such lives as live on these; + Make golden stairways of your weakness; rise + By daily sojourn with those fantasies + To lovelier verities. + + (_Buddha's Sermon--The Light of Asia._)--ARNOLD. + + +Jack made another mistake in coming on to Toronto after finding out the +disastrous failure of his supposed marriage. If he had gone to Lockport +and found Nina at her friend's house, perhaps some arrangement could +have been made for their marriage in Buffalo on the following day. Mr. +Toxham, the clergyman on whom Jack called at the parsonage, had tried to +get his ear for advice on this subject. But, as mentioned before, when +Jack read the address of Matthew Simpson he immediately bolted out, +without waiting to listen to the suggestions which the clergyman tried +to make. If this idea occurred to Jack, there were reasons why he did +not act upon it. He was due at the bank the next morning, and regularity +at the bank was a cast-iron creed with him--the result of continually +subordinating his own wishes to that which the institution expected of +him. The clerk who was doing his work there would be leaving for his own +holidays on the following day, and Jack felt the pressure his duty +brought upon him. Again, how would it be possible, after finding where +Nina was staying in Lockport, to call at the house and take her away +from her friends almost before she had fairly arrived? Geoffrey would +have got over this difficulty. But he had the inventive mind which goes +on inventing in the presence of shock and surprise. Jack was not like +him on land. He had this ability only on a yacht during a sudden call +for alert intelligence. His nerve had not been educated to steadiness by +escapades on land, nor had he had experience in any trouble that +required much insight into consequences. The discovery that the woman +for whom he existed was not his wife seemed to prostrate and confuse +thought. He felt the need of counsel, and was afraid to trust his own +decision. If he could only get home and tell Geoffrey the whole +difficulty, he felt that matters could be mended. + +He arrived in Toronto about ten o'clock at night feeling ill and faint, +having eaten nothing since a light breakfast thirteen hours before. He +dropped in at the club and took a sandwich and some spirits to make him +sleep. Then he went to his lodgings (Geoffrey was out somewhere), rolled +into bed, and slept the clock round till eight the next morning. + +As he gradually awoke, thoroughly refreshed, there was a time during +which, although he seemed to himself to be awake, he had forgotten about +his supposed marriage. He was single John Cresswell again, with nothing +on his mind except to be at the bank "on time." So his troubles +presented themselves gently; first as only a sort of dream that he had +once been married to the love of his life--to Nina. When he fully awoke +he began to realize everything; but not as he realized it the night +before. Then, the case seemed almost hopeless. Now, his invigorated self +promised success in some way. He was glad he had not met Geoffrey the +night before. The morning confidence in himself made Geoffrey seem +unnecessary. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he walked through the museum of a +sitting-room and into Hampstead's bedroom, where he fell upon that +sleeping gentleman and rudely shook him into consciousness. + +"Hello, Jack! Got back?" growled Geoffrey as he awoke. + +"Yes. You had better get up if you want to attend the bank to-day." + +"All right," said Geoffrey, sitting up. "What sort of a time did you +have? Old people well?" + +Jack was supposed to have been in Halifax, where his parents lived with +the other old English families there. + +"Yes, I had a pretty good time," said Jack. "The old people are fine!" +he added, freshly. "How are things in the bank?" + +Geoffrey then retired to his bath-room, and an intermittent conversation +about the bank and other matters went on for a few minutes during the +pauses created by cold water and splashing. + +It was a relief to Jack that neither at breakfast nor afterward did +Geoffrey ask any more questions about his fortnight's holiday. Hampstead +knew better. + +During the next six weeks Geoffrey was decidedly unsettled. "Federal" +went up as a matter of course, and he sold out with advantage. He +cleared five thousand dollars on this transaction, and had now a capital +of fifteen thousand dollars. He was rather lucky in his venture into the +stock market. His experience on Wall Street had given him a keen insight +into such matters, and he studied probabilities until his chances of +failure were reduced, keeping up a correspondence by telegraph and +letter with his old Wall Street employers who, in a friendly way, shared +with him some of their best knowledge. + +Immediately after he had sold out "Federal" an American railway magnate +died. This man almost owned an American railway which was operating and +leasing a Canadian railway. No sooner was the death known than the stock +of the Canadian Railway took a tumble. For a moment public confidence in +it seemed to be lost. Now Geoffrey had studied chances as to this line. +He knew that it was one of the few Canadian railways that under fair +management was able to pay a periodical dividend--a small one at times, +perhaps, but always something. It did not go on for years without paying +a cent like some of the others. He had waited for this millionaire to +die in order to buy the largely depreciated stock. When the opportunity +arrived he bought on margin a very large quantity of it at a low figure. +But the trouble was that the public did not agree with him and the few +cool heads who tried to keep quiet, hold on, and wait till things +reinstated themselves. An ordinary man's chances in the stock market do +not depend upon his own sagacity more than does guessing at next week's +weather. Fortunes are lost, like lives, not from the threatened danger +but from panic. Bad rumors about the railway were afloat and the stock +continued to go down. Geoffrey hastily sold out his other stocks for +what he could get, and stuffed everything available into the widening +gap through which forces seemed to be entering to overwhelm him. + +In the meantime while Nina was at Lockport, Jack had gone on quietly +with his work in the Victoria Bank. He had not given notice of his +intentions to leave that institution, because, after his return, he had +thought he would like to take more money than he had already saved to +California with him. His brother had written previously to say that he +ought to bring with him at least three thousand dollars, to put into the +business of grape-farming, and Jack thought if he could only hold on at +the bank, where he was fairly well paid, he might in a few months +complete the sum required. Already he had put away over twenty-five +hundred dollars, and it would not take long to save the balance. + +Nina came back from Lockport blaming herself for her former unreasoning +infatuation for Geoffrey. Hers was a nature that had of necessity to +lavish its affection on something or somebody. If she could have given +this affection, or part of it, to her own mother it would have been a +valuable outlet in these later years. The confidences that ought to have +existed between them would then have been the first links to be sundered +when she sought Hampstead's society. + +Unluckily Mrs. Lindon was not in every way perfect. While she had +continued to be "not weary in well doing," as she called it, her +daughter had been gradually commencing to consider how her duties and +social law might be evaded. While Mrs. Lindon visited the Haven and +listened to the stories of the women there which were always so +interesting to her, and while she expended her time in ways that her +gossip-loving nature sought, her daughter had been left the most +defenseless person imaginable. + +The fact to be remarked was, that the same impulses which had led Nina +into wrong-doing previously were now becoming her greatest power for +good. For those who claim to distinguish the promptings that come from +Satan from those that come from Heaven, there is in nature a good deal +of irony. Nature is wonderfully kind to the pagan, considering his +disadvantages. When self has been abandoned for an inspiring object +there is no reason to think that the self-surrendered devoted Buddhist, +or the self-offered victim to Moloch, experiences, any less than the +Salvation Army captain, that deep, heart-felt, soul-set, almost ecstatic +gladness--that sensation of consecration and confidence--that internal +song which the New Testament so beautifully puts words to. It is a great +thing for a woman to be allowed to lavish her affection in a way +permitted by society, for few have enough strength of character to hold +up their heads when society frowns. + +Nina was just such a woman as many whom her mother liked to converse +with at the Haven. They were poor and she was rich and well educated, +but she was neither better nor worse than the majority of them. +Nevertheless, from a social point of view, she was on the right track +now, apparently. From a social point of view, Mrs. John Cresswell with +society at her feet would not be at all the same person as Nina Lindon +disgraced. True, it would require subtlety and deception before she +could feel that she had re-established herself safely, but, as Hampstead +quoted, "some sorts of dirt serve to clarify," and to her it seemed the +only way feasible. She did not like painstaking subtlety any more than +other people. It gave her intense unrest. She looked gladly forward to +the time when she would leave Toronto with Jack for California, said she +longed with her whole heart for the necessity of deception to be over +and done with. She did not know--Jack had not told her--that their +supposed marriage was void, and she was following out the train of +thought that leads toward ultimate good. She was saddened and subdued, +wept bitter tears of contrition for her faults, and prayed with an +agonized mind for forgiveness and strength to carry her through what lay +before her. + +The change in her was due to improved conditions under which her nature +became able to advance by woman's ordinary channels toward woman's +possible perfection. A great after-life might be opening before her. +Some time, probably, her father's wealth would be hers. After long years +of chastening remembrances of trouble, after years of the outflow toward +good of a heart that refused to be checked in its love, and would be +able from personal experience to understand, and thus lift up lovingly, +wounded souls, and with many of the perfections of a ripened womanhood, +we can imagine Nina as admirable among women, a power for good, +controlling through the heart rather than the intellect, as generous as +the sun. + +But where will these beautiful possibilities be if her sin is found out? + +Since her return Jack had not told Nina the terrible news which awaited +her. The secret on his mind made him uneasy in her presence. When he had +called once or twice in the afternoon he was very silent and even +depressed, but she considered that he had a good deal to think about, +and it was also a relief to her not to be expected to appear brilliantly +happy. What he thought was that after he had earned the rest of the +money he required they could get married at the first American town they +came to on their way to California. He could not bring himself to tell +her the truth, which would make her wretched in the mean time, and he +did not see why the real marriage should not be deferred until it was +more convenient for him to leave Canada. When Nina had spoken about +going away, he had evaded the topic, and she did not wish to press the +point. He explained his long periods of absence during this time by +several excuses. His secret weighed so heavily upon him that he dreaded +lest in a weak moment he might tell her. It was significant of the +change in Nina toward him that, during the time he was there, nothing +would induce her to sacrifice the restful moments to anybody. She would +sit beside him, talking quietly and restfully, holding his hand in hers, +or with her head upon his shoulder. Once, when he was leaving, all the +hope she now felt welled up within her as she said good-by. All that was +good and kind seemed to her to be personified in Jack, and it smote him +when she put her arms round his neck and, with a quiet yearning toward +good in her face, said: + +"Good-by, Jack, dear husband!" + +Jack's great heart was rent with pity and affection as he saw through +the gathering mists that calm, wondrous yearning look in her face that +afterward haunted him. He did not understand fully from what depths of +black anguish that look came, straining toward the light. But he knew +that he was not her husband, and he could see that when she called him +by this name she was uttering a word which to her was hallowed. + +Another week now slipped by, and Geoffrey could not understand why Jack +had not gone to California. He called on Nina to ascertain how matters +stood. She received him standing in the middle of the room. To-day +Geoffrey closed the door behind him. It was the last time he ever +intended to be in this house, and so he did not care much what the +inquisitive door-opener might think. + +There was no mark of special recognition on either side. He walked +quickly toward her, seeing, at one quick glance, that he was not +regarded as a friend. + +"Why have you and Jack not gone yet to California?" he said, without +prelude. + +"I don't know," she answered coldly, still standing and eyeing him with +aversion, as he also stood before her. "Has not Jack given any notice of +his intention to leave the bank?" + +"I have not heard of any. You ought to know that better than I," said +Geoffrey. "By the way," he added, "you might as well sit down, Nina. +There is no use that I see in playing the tragedy queen." His voice +hardened her aversion to him. + +"No," she said, her voice deep and full with resentment. "If I am always +allowed to choose, I will never sit down in your presence again. You +have come here to look after your own interests, and I have got to +listen to you, to learn from your lips your devil's cunning. You are +forced to tell me the proper plans, and I am forced to listen and act +upon them. Now go on and say what you have to say." + +Hampstead nodded, and said simply: "Perhaps you are right. I don't know +that it is worth your while to take so much trouble, but I respect the +feeling which prompts it." + +Nina looked angry. + +"Don't think I say this unkindly. You, or rather your conditions, have +changed, and I merely wish to acknowledge the improvement. We will speak +very simply to each other to-day. Now, about California; it appears to +me that Jack does not intend to go there for a good while if allowed to +do as he likes. You must go at once. He very likely is wishing to make +more money before he leaves, but this won't do. He must go at once." + +"I think," said Nina, "that there need be no further reason for your +seeing me again after this interview. You have always, lately, been +Jack's confidant. Send him to me this evening, and I will tell him to +consult with you. After that, you can arrange with him everything +necessary about our departure. He will need advice, perhaps, in many +ways, and then he can (here Nina's lip curled) benefit by your wisdom." + +"I would not sneer too much at the wisdom if I were you. My devil's +cunning, as you are pleased to call it, has put you on the right track, +whatever its faults may be. It has stood us both in good stead this +time, and, if I did force you to marry Jack, you should not blame me for +that now, and I do not think you do." + +He turned to move toward the door. He did not consider that he had any +right to say good-by, or anything else beyond what was absolutely +necessary. But his reference to Jack, in a way that seemed to speak of +his worth, aroused Nina; and this, together with the thought that she +would never again see this man who had treated her whole existence as a +plaything, induced her to speak again to him. + +"Stop," she said. "I do indeed owe you something. You forced me to marry +Jack, out of your own selfishness, of course, but still I must thank you +for it. To my last hour I will thank you for that. Yes, I will even +thank you for more--for the careful way you have shown me my way from +out of my troubles. I think I am nearly done with anguish now. A little +more will come, no doubt, and after that, please God, whatever troubles +I endure will not be shameful. And now something tells me, Geoffrey, +that I shall never see you again. I can not let you go without saying +that I forgive you all. Some time, perhaps, you will be glad I said so. +You have been by turns cunning, selfish, wise, and loving to me. You +have also seemed--I don't know that you _were_, but you have +_seemed_--cruel to me; but I do not think, now that I look back upon +everything more calmly, that you have been unjust. No; a woman should +bear her part of the consequences of her own deeds. I am glad that +Margaret's happiness is still possible and that I did not drag anybody +down with me. The more I think of everything the less I blame you. You +will think I am getting wise to look at it in this way, but I never +could look at it like this until now." + +Nina was speaking in a way that surprised Geoffrey. Sorrow had altered +her; dangers and changes were encompassing her. Though all love for him +was dead, the man whom she had once worshiped stood before her for the +last time. He, who had caused her more happiness and distress than any +other person ever could again, stood in silence taking his leave of +her--forever. Urged by hope, besieged by doubts and dangers, driven by +necessities, her mind had acquired an abnormal activity, and she seemed +all at once to be able to realize what it was to part from him for all +eternity and to become conscious while she stood there of a power to +rise in intelligence above everything surrounding her--above all the +clogging conditions of our existence--and to judge calmly, even +pityingly, of both herself and Geoffrey and of all the agonies and joys +that now seemed to have been so small and unnecessary. As she spoke the +whole of her life seemed spread out before her. She recollected, or +seemed to recollect, all the events of her life, and she remained a +moment gazing before her in a way that made her look almost unreal. + +"I can see," she said slowly, in a calm, distinct voice, "everything +that has happened in my life; but all the rest is all a blank to me." + +Geoffrey noticed that, with her clearness of vision into the past, she +evidently expected also to see something of the future and was startled +and surprised at seeing nothing. She continued looking before her, as if +unconscious of his presence, until she turned to him shuddering. + +"Good-by, Geoffrey. I feel that something is going to happen in some +way, either to you or to me; I don't know how. I see things to-day +strangely, and there are other things I want to see and can not." + +She looked at him with a look such as he had never seen in any one. + +"You will never see me again, Geoffrey. I am certain of that. I pray +that God may be as good to you as I have been." + +Geoffrey grew pale. Something convinced him that she spoke the truth and +that he never would see her again. There was something in her appearance +and in her words that made him shudder. A rarefied beauty had spread +over her; she seemed to be merely an intelligence, speaking from the +purity of some other realm. It seemed as if it were no human prompting +that urged her to the utterance of forebodings, and that her last words +were as sweet as they were terrible. + +He tried to look at her kindly, to cheer her, but he saw that, for the +moment, the emotions of our ordinary life were totally apart from her +and that he had become nothing to her but a combination of +recollections. + +He raised her hand to his lips, took a long look at her, and went his +way, leaving her standing in the middle of the room calmly watching his +retreat. + +As Hampstead went back to the club he felt unstrung. He went in and +drank several glasses of brandy to brace himself. He had been drinking a +great deal during this excitement over his investments. At ordinary +times he did not care enough about liquor to try to make a pastime of +drinking. Now, there was a fever in his blood that seemed to demand a +still greater fever. He did not get drunk, because his individuality +seemed to assert itself over and above all he consumed. To-day, to add +to the depression he felt about his prospects (for ruin was staring him +in the face), the strange words of Nina--full of presentiment--her +uncanny, prophetess-like eyes, and the conviction that he had seen her +for the last time--all weighed upon him. Her last words to him haunted +him, and he drank heavily all the evening. + +He told Jack he had called to see Nina in the afternoon, and that she +had expressed a wish to see him in the evening. + +About eight o'clock Jack made his appearance at Mossbank. Mrs. Lindon +had dragged her unwilling husband off to a dinner somewhere, so that the +young people were not in anticipation of interruption. + +Nina had got over the strange phase into which she had passed while +saying good-by to Geoffrey during the afternoon, and was doing her best +to appear natural and pleasant. After some conversation, she inquired +whether he had given the bank notice of his intention to leave. When he +said he had not, she let him know that she must leave Toronto at once, +and the first thing he did was to ejaculate: "O my God, and we not +married!" + +Nina caught the words, and sprang toward him from the chair in which she +had been sitting. + +They were a pitiable pair; with faces like ashes, confronting each +other. + +"What did you say then, Jack? Tell me all--tell me quick, or you will +kill me!" + +"Yes, it's true," groaned Jack. "I found out when I went back to Buffalo +that Simpson was only a blackleg criminal and no clergyman. We are no +more married than we ever were." + +As Jack said this he had his head down; it was bowed with the misery he +felt. He dreaded to look at Nina. If he had looked, he would have seen +her lips grow almost blue and her eyes lose their sight. The next +moment, before he could catch her, she sank on the floor in shapeless, +inert confusion. + +Jack did not wish to call for help. He seized a large ornamental fan of +peacock's feathers and fanned her vigorously. + +She soon came to. But still lay for some time before she had strength to +rise. At last he assisted her to a sofa, where she reclined wearily +until able to go on with the conversation. + +"Jack," she said, after a while, "if I don't get away from here in three +days I will go mad. Think, now! I can not help you much in the +arrangements to get away. You must arrange everything yourself. Just let +me know when to go, and I will look after myself and will meet you +somewhere--anywhere you propose. But I can not--I don't feel able to +assist you more than that. Stop! an idea strikes me! You can not arrange +everything yourself. There are always things that are apt to be +forgotten. You must get somebody to help you think out things. When we +go away I feel that it will be forever--at least, I felt so this +afternoon. You will have to arrange everything, so that there need be no +correspondence with Toronto any more." + +"Yes," said Jack, "I think your advice is good. I have always relied on +Hampstead. If you did not mind my telling him the whole story, Nina, I +think his assistance would be invaluable." + +"There is nothing that I dread his knowing," said Nina, as she buried +her face in the cushions. "He is a man of the world, and will know I am +innocent about our intended marriage. I thoroughly believe in his +power, not only to help you to arrange everything, but also to take the +secret with him to his grave." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said Jack. "I have always thought dear +old Geoffrey, in spite of a good many things I would like to see +changed, to be the finest all-round man I ever knew." + +"Yes. Now go, Jack! I am too ill to talk a moment more. Simply tell me +when and how I am to go and I will go. As for arranging anything more, +my mind refuses to do it. Give me your arm to the foot of the stairs! +So. Good-night!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Mad, call I it; for to define true madness. + What is't, but to be nothing else but mad? + But let that go. + + _Hamlet._ + + +After leaving Nina, Jack went to the club, where he found Geoffrey +playing pool with half a dozen others, whose demeanor well indicated the +number of times the lamp had been rubbed for the genius with the tray to +appear. Geoffrey seemed to be in good-humor, but he gave Jack the idea +of playing against time. He strode around the table rapidly as he took +his shots, as if not caring whether he won or lost. The only effect the +liquor seemed to have upon him was to make him grow fierce. Every +movement of his long frame was made with a quick nervous energy, +inspiriting enough to watch, but giving an impression of complete +unrest. He was playing to stave off waking nightmares. Thoughts of his +probable ruin on the following day came to him from time to time--like a +vision of a death's head. The others with him noticed nothing different +in him, but Jack, who was quietly smoking on one of the high seats near +by, saw that he was in a more reckless mood than he had ever seen him +before. He could not help smiling as his friend strode around the table +in his shirt-sleeves, playing with a force that was almost ferocity and +a haste apparently reckless but deadly in the precision that sense of +power, skill, and alcohol gave him. After a while, in a pause, he spoke +to Geoffrey, who at once divined that more trouble of some kind awaited +him. + +When they arrived at their chambers, Jack told him briefly of the +journey with Nina for the purpose of getting married in Buffalo, and of +what Nina had just said. + +Geoffrey nodded; he was waiting for the something new that would affect +himself--the something he was not prepared for. + +"Is that all?" he asked sharply. + +"No. That is not all," answered Jack gloomily. + +"Go on, then." + +"I don't feel as if I could go on," said Jack, not noticing the rough +tone in which he was commanded to proceed. "But I suppose I must. The +fact is, Geoffrey, I found out afterward that I was not married at all +to her, and I never let her know until to-night." + +"Is she dead, then?" + +Geoffrey looked at him with his brow lowered, his eyes glittering. He +felt like striking Jack. + +"Gracious heavens, no! Why should she die?" cried Jack, startled from +his gloom. + +"It's enough to kill her," said Geoffrey. His contempt for Jack assisted +the rage he felt against him. He had been drinking steadily all day, and +now could hardly restrain the violent fury that seethed in him. "Go on, +you infernal ass! Dribble it out. Go on." + +"I see you feel for her, Geoffrey. I _am_ the biggest fool that ever was +allowed to live." + +Then, with his face averted, he told Geoffrey the whole story of the +mistake in Buffalo. His listener watched him, with lips muttering, while +sometimes his teeth seemed to be bared and gleaming. + +In this story, Geoffrey at first seemed to see a new danger to himself +and his future prospects. Then it occurred to him that the new +information did not much affect his own position. Two things seemed +certain. One was, that Joseph Lindon would spare no expense to find out +where Jack and Nina had gone and to be fully informed of everything that +happened. Secondly, that Nina could never be able to show any legal +marriage prior to the one now intended. This meant that Nina and Jack +could not return to Toronto. A vague idea went through Geoffrey's head +at this time. + +When Jack had finished his story Geoffrey was calm in appearance. But +his eyes were half closed, which gave him a cunning look. + +Then he talked with Jack, so as to impress upon his mind the fact that +it would be impossible for them ever to visit Canada again. + +"Yes," said Jack. "Unless you come out to visit us you will never see us +again. I could never make it right with the Toronto people. I will never +again be able to return to Toronto; that's clear." + +When he proposed to make arrangements as to the best ways and means of +leaving Toronto, Geoffrey said he must have time to think over +everything. It was late. It would be better to sleep, if possible, and +arrange things further to-morrow. They parted for the night, having +settled that Jack was to draw out his money at once. + +On the next morning Geoffrey ascertained that he was ruined. The stock +that he held in the Canadian railway had gone down beyond redemption as +far as he was concerned. He had mortgaged everything he possessed, +raised money on indorsed notes, raised it in every shape and way within +his means, but he had been unable to tide over the depression. A further +call had been made for margins, and he had not another cent to fill the +gap and all his stock passed to other hands. He drank steadily all day +and even carried a flask with him into the office, which he soon +emptied. Hampstead was not by any means the same man now that he was +three weeks previously. He looked sufficiently like his right self to +escape a betrayal, but the liquor and the thought of his losses raged +within him, and all the time an idea was insinuating itself into his +frenzied brain. He had gone so far as carefully to consider many schemes +to avert his ruin which he would not have countenanced before. His +weakened judgment now placed Jack before him as one who conspired +against his peace. He cunningly concealed it, but to him the mere sight +of Jack was like a red flag to a bull. Just when all his plans were +demolished, all his hopes gone, his entire ruin an accomplished fact, +this fool came in to add fuel to the fire that burned him. In this way +he regarded his old friend. + +While in this state and while at his work in the bank the next morning +he said to Jack, who occupied the next stall to him, that he had hit +upon the best way for him and Nina to depart. It would be better for +Jack to go away without giving any notice to the bank. The notice would +be of no use if he did so, because, if he must go away the next morning, +the notice would only raise inquiry. He told Jack to slip out and go +down to the docks and find if there would be any sailing vessels leaving +for American ports the next day. Jack could depart on a schooner; Nina +could make some excuse at home and follow him by steamer. + +Jack liked this proposal. He would have one more sail on old Ontario +before he left it forever. He skipped out of the side door, and soon +found a vessel at Yonge Street wharf that would finish taking in its +cargo of fire-bricks and start for Oswego at noon the following day. He +tried to arrange with the mate to go as a passenger, but the captain was +going to take his wife with him on this trip, so Jack, if he wanted to +go, would be obliged to sleep in the forecastle. He did not mind this +much, and engaged to go "before the mast." + +In the afternoon he told Nina about his intentions, and explained that +she could take the steamer to Oswego on the day after he left, so that +she would probably arrive there about the same time. He had drawn all +his money out of the bank and was now ready to go. Nina said she could +arrange about her own departure, and after they had made a few other +plans as to her course in case she got to Oswego first, Jack kissed her +and tried to cheer her from the depression in which she had sunk, and +then he departed. + +All that day Geoffrey grew more moody and further from his right self. +To drown the recollections of his ruin and his other worries, he went on +drinking steadily. The thought came to him again and again that his +marriage with Margaret was now almost impossible. He knew that, as a +married man, he could never live on his bank salary alone, and the +capital to speculate with was entirely gone. What made him still more +frenzied was the fact that he knew that this stock he had bought was +bound to re-establish itself in a very short time. But, for the moment, +every person else had gone mad. He alone was sane. Public lunacy about +this stock had robbed him of his fifteen thousand dollars. He drank +still harder when he thought this, and although he did not get drunk, +he got what can be described vaguely as "queer," and the next stage of +his queerness was that he became convinced that the public had in a +manner robbed him, and that society owed him something. When a man's +brain is in this state, he is in a dangerous condition. + +Jack wished heartily that they should dine together, as this was his +last evening in Toronto, but Geoffrey avoided doing so. He hated the +sight of Jack, but he carefully concealed the aversion which he felt. He +made an excuse and absented himself until nine or ten o'clock, and +during this time he wandered about the city and continued drinking. He +had not seen Margaret for over two weeks. Everything had been going +wrong with him. Besides his own losses, he would be heavily in debt to +the men who had "backed" his paper and who would have to pay for him. + +Jack found him in their chambers when he returned for his last night at +the old rooms, and there they sat and talked things over. Geoffrey tried +to brace himself up for the conversation with a bottle of brandy which +he had just uncorked, but it was quite impossible for him to pretend to +be as cheerful as he wished. + +Jack thought he was depressed, and said: + +"I am sorry to see you in such bad spirits to-night, Geoffrey." + +"Well, it's a bad business," said Hampstead, sententiously, looking +moodily at the floor. As this might mean anything, Jack thought that +Geoffrey was taking his departure to heart. He had every right to think +that Hampstead would miss him. + +It was now getting late, and Jack arose and laid his hand on Geoffrey's +shoulder: "Don't be cut up, old man," he said; "I have been a fool, but +I am glad that I know it and am able to make things as right as they can +be made. I know you feel for Nina and me, but you will get some other +fellow to room with you and--" + +During the conversation Hampstead had drunk a good deal of the brandy. +The kind words that Jack was speaking filled him with a fury which +lunatic cunning could scarcely conceal. The idea in his mind had been +settling itself into a resolve, and at this moment it did finally settle +itself. He shook Jack's hand off his shoulder as he arose, glared at him +for an instant, and then turned off to his bedroom. "Good night," he +said over his shoulder. "It's late. I'm off." Then he entered his +bedroom, shut the door, and bolted it. + +As he went, Jack looked at his retreating form with tears standing in +his eyes. + +"I never," he said, "saw Geoffrey show any emotion before. I never felt +quite sure whether he cared much about me until now. And now I know that +he does. I hate to see him so cut up about it; but it is comforting to +think, on going away, that he really liked me all this time." + +Jack was a clean-souled fellow. He was one of those who, no matter how +uproarious or slangy they are, always give the idea that they are +gentlemen. With this nature a certain softness of heart must go. He +stood watching the door through which Geoffrey had passed, and he +thought drearily that never again would they have such good times +together, and that most likely they would never meet again. He thought +of Geoffrey's winning ways, of his prowess, of his strength, his +stature, his handsome face, and his devil-may-care manner. He thought of +their companionship, the incidents, and even dangers they had had +together. He thought of the way Geoffrey had done his work that night on +the yacht when returning from Charlotte. He stood thinking of all these +things with an aching heart. As he turned away sadly, his heart full of +grief at parting, he burst out with "Darned if I don't love that man," +and he closed his door quickly, as if to shut out the world from +witnessing a weakness. + +On the inner side of Geoffrey's bedroom door there was something else +going on, which represented a very different train of thought. + +Geoffrey, after bolting his door, went to his dressing-case and took +from it a pair of scissors and a threaded needle. Then he took an old +waistcoat and cut the lining out of it. Then he took a second old +waistcoat and sewed the pieces of lining against the inside of it, and +also ran stitches down the middle of each piece after it was sewed on. +Thus he had a waistcoat with four long pockets on the inside--two on +each side of it, all open at the top. + +When this was done he rolled into bed, where Nature hastened to restore +herself. + +Before breakfast in the morning, Jack hailed a cab and took his two +valises to the Yacht Club beside the water's edge, and left them in his +locked cupboard there. He only intended to take this amount of luggage +with him. The rest of his things could come on when Geoffrey packed up +and forwarded his share of their joint museum and library. Geoffrey did +not turn up at breakfast. He breakfasted on a cup of strong coffee and +brandy at a restaurant, and went to the bank early. + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote, commonly called "Sappy" in +the bank, was a younger son of a long-drawn-out race. He had been sent +out to make his fortune in the colonies, and he had progressed so far +toward affluence that, in eight years of "beastly servitude, you know," +he had attained the proud position of discount clerk at the Victoria +Bank, and it did not seem probable that his abilities would be ever +recognized to any further extent. The great scope of his intelligence +was shown in the variety of wearing apparel he was able to choose, all +by himself, and he was the showman, the dude, the _incroyable_ of the +Victoria Bank. When he met a man for the first time he weighed him +according to the merits of the garments he wore. He met Geoffrey as he +came into the bank this morning. + +"My deah fellah," he said, "where did you get that dreadful waistcoat?" + +"None of your business, Sappy. You used to wear one yourself when they +were in fashion. I remember your rushing off to get one from the same +piece when you first saw this one." + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote had a weak child's voice, +which he cultivated because it separated him from the common herd--most +effectually. It made all ordinary people wish to kick him every time he +opened his mouth. He liked to be thought to have ideas about art, and he +talked sweetly about the furniture of "ma mothah" (my mother.) + +Geoffrey walked past this specimen with but little ceremony. The brandy +and coffee and another brandy without coffee had succeeded in putting +him into just the same state in which he had gone to bed on the previous +night. He could talk to any person and could do his work, but fumes of +alcohol and abandonment of recklessness had for a time driven out all +the morality he ever possessed; and where some ideas of justice had +generally reigned there flourished, in the fumes of the liquor which he +had drunk, noxious weedy outgrowths of a debased intelligence unchecked +by the self-respect of civilization. To-day, he was, to himself, the +victim of a public that had robbed him. Society owed him a debt. + +They all went to work in the usual way. About a quarter-past eleven +o'clock Jack put his head to Geoffrey's wicket and they whispered +together: + +Jack said, "Time for me to be off?" + +"Yes, just leave everything as if you were coming back. If you put away +anything, or close the ledger, they may ask where you are before you get +fairly off. By the way, how are you carrying your money?" + +"By Jove! I forgot that," said Jack, "or I might have made the package +smaller by exchanging for larger bills. It makes a terrible 'wollage' in +my pocket." + +Geoffrey stepped back a moment and picked two American bills for +one-thousand dollars each from a package of fifty of them lying beside +him. + +"Here," he said. "Take these two and pin them in the watch-pocket of +your waistcoat. Don't give me back your money here. Just run up to our +chambers and leave your two thousand under my bed-clothes. I don't want +any one to see you paying me the money here, or they will think I +connived at your going. I can get it during the afternoon and make my +cash all right." + +Jack did not quite see the necessity of this, but he had not time to +think it out, and even if he had, he would have done what Geoffrey told +him. + +"All right," he said, "thank you. That will make two 'one-thousands' and +seven 'one hundreds,' and the rest small, for immediate use." + +"Very well. Go into the passage, now, and wait at the side door. I will +come out and say good-by to you." + +Jack took his hat and sauntered out into the passage. + +In a minute Geoffrey, with his hands in his pockets, strolled to the +side door. + +"Good-by, Jack," he said hastily. "When your schooner sails past the +foot of Bay Street here, just get up on the counter and wave your +handkerchief so that I may see the last of you." + +"All right, dear old man. I'll not forget to take my last look at the +old Vic, and to do as you say. I must run now, and leave the two +thousand in your bed, and then get on board. Good-by. God bless you!" + +Geoffrey sauntered back to his stall and took a drain at a flask of +brandy to keep off the chill he felt for a moment, and to brace himself +up generally. + +Jack hurried off to the chambers, counted out the two thousand dollars +which he had wished to get rid of, and after taking a last look at the +old rooms, he hurried to the Yacht Club. Here he put the valises into +his own skiff after changing his good clothes for the old sailing +clothes already described. Then, under an old soft-felt hat with holes +in the top, he rowed down to the schooner, threw his valises on board, +and climbed over the side. He let his skiff go adrift. He had no further +use for it. There were some stone-hookers at the neighboring dock. He +called to the men on one of them and said, "There's a boat for you!" +Then he dropped down the forecastle ladder with his luggage. + +His arrival on board was none too early, for the covers were off the +sails and the tug was coming alongside to drag the vessel away from the +wharf, and start her on her way with the east wind blowing to take her +out of the bay. The tug was towing her toward the west channel as they +passed the different streets in front of the city. At Bay Street, Jack +left off helping to make canvas for a minute, and, running to the +counter, sprang up on the bulwarks and waved his handkerchief to +somebody who, he knew, was watching through the windows of the Victoria +Bank. + +There was nothing to detain the schooner now. The wind was from the +east, and consequently dead ahead for the trip, but it was a good fresh +working breeze, and Geoffrey, when he saw how things looked on the +schooner, knew that it had fairly started on its passage to Oswego. + +He glanced around him to make assurance doubly sure, and then he divided +the pile of forty-eight (formerly fifty) one-thousand-dollar bills into +four thin packages. These he slipped hurriedly into the four long +pockets which he had made in the waistcoat the previous night. He then +buttoned up the waistcoat, and from the even distribution of the bills +upon his person it was impossible to see any indication of their +presence. + +When this was done and he had surveyed himself carefully, he took +another pull at the flask on general principles and proceeded to take +further steps. He might as well have left the liquor alone, because his +nerve, once he commenced operations, was like iron. + +He banged about some drawers, as if he were looking for something, and +then called out: + +"Jack?" + +No answer. + +"Jack?" + +Still no answer. + +The ledger-keeper from A to M, who occupied the stall beyond Jack's, +then growled out: + +"What's the matter with you?" + +"Where's Jack?" + +"I don't know. He asked me to look after his ledger for a moment, and +then went out. He has been out for over an hour, and if the beggar +thinks I'm going to be skipping round to look up his confounded ledger +all day he's mistaken. I'll give him a piece of my mind when he comes +in." + +"A to M" went on growling and sputtering, like a leaky shower-bath. + +"That's all very well," said Geoffrey; "but you fellows are playing a +trick on me, and I don't scare worth a cent." + +Everybody could hear this conversation. Geoffrey then stepped on a stool +and leaned over the partition, smiling, and seized the hard-working +receiving-teller by the hair. + +"Come, you beggar, I tell you I don't scare. Just hand over the money. +Really, it's a very poor kind of a joke." + +"What's a poor kind of a joke? Seizing me by the hair?" + +Geoffrey looked at him smilingly, as if he did not believe him and still +thought there had been a plan to abstract the money and frighten him. + +"Well, I don't care much personally; but that packet of fifty thousand +is gone, and if any fellow is playing the fool he had better bring it +back." + +Several of the clerks now came round to his wicket. This sort of talk +sounds very unpleasant in a bank. + +"Where did you leave the bills?" they asked. + +"Right here," said Geoffrey, laying his hand on a little desk close +beside the wicket, opening into the box in which Jack had worked. + +"Well, you had better report the thing at once," said several, who were +looking on with long faces. + +"I shall, right straight," said Geoffrey energetically. His face bore an +admirable expression of consternation, checked by the _sang froid_ of an +innocent bank-clerk. He strode off into the manager's room. + +"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir. I thought it was a hoax at first, +but it looks very much as if fifty thousand dollars had been taken from +my box." + +"What, stolen!" + +"Looks like it--very. If you would kindly step this way, sir, I will +explain what I know about it." + +Geoffrey then showed the manager where the bills had been laid, and did +not profess to be able to tell anything more. + +"Mr. Northcote, ring up the chief of police, and tell me when he is +there," said the manager. "Where is Mr. Cresswell?" + +No answer. + +"Does anybody know where Mr. Cresswell is?" + +Ledger-keeper from A to M then said that Mr. Cresswell went out over an +hour ago, and had asked him to look after his ledger for five minutes. +Mr. Cresswell had not returned. + +The manager walked into Jack's box and looked around him. Everything was +lying about as if he had just stopped working, and this, to the +manager's mind, seemed to give the thing a black look. It seemed as if +Jack, if he had made off with the money, had left things in this way as +a blind. + +The telephone was ready now, and the manager requested the chief of +police to send a couple of his best detectives at once. Only one was +available at first. This man, Detective Dearborn, appeared in five +minutes, and was made acquainted with all the known circumstances. When +this was done, fully two hours had elapsed since Jack's departure, and +still he had not turned up. + +Detective Dearborn was a man with large, usually mild, brown eyes. There +was nothing in the upper part of his face to be remarked except general +immobility of countenance. The lower part of his face, however, was +suggestive. His lower jaw protruded beyond the upper. Whether this means +anything in the human being may be doubted, but one involuntarily got +the idea that if this man once "took hold," nothing short of red-hot +irons would burn him off. + +He took a careful, mild survey of the premises, listened to everything +that was said, remarked that the package could not have been taken from +the public passageway if left in the place indicated, looked over Jack's +abandoned stall, asked a few questions from the manager, and, like a +sensible man, came to the conclusion that Jack had taken the money. + +He walked into the manager's room and asked him several questions about +Jack's habits and his usual pursuits. Geoffrey was called in to assist +at this. Yes, he could take the detective to Jack's room. Jack had no +habits that cost much money. "Had he been speculating at all?" Geoffrey +thought not, although some time ago Mr. Cresswell had said that he was +"in a little spec.," and hoped to make something. Did not know what the +"spec." was. + +"May I ask," said Dearborn, "when you last spoke to Mr. Cresswell?" + +"We spoke to each other for a minute just before he went out. He asked +me if I was going to the Dusenalls' 'shine' to-night. I said I was. Then +he spoke about several young ladies of our acquaintance, and other +things which had no reference to this matter." + +"Was the lost money in the place you say at that time?" + +"Yes. I remember having my hand on the packet while I spoke to him." + +"May I ask if you at any time during the morning left your stall?" + +"Yes, I did, once. I went out as far as the side door for an instant +shortly after Mr. Cresswell went out." + +"What for?" + +"Well," said Geoffrey, smiling, "I was thinking of boating this +afternoon, and I wanted to see how the sky promised for the afternoon." + +The mild eyes looked at Geoffrey with uncomfortable mildness at this +answer. It might be all right, but Dearborn thought that this was the +first suspicious sound which he had heard. + +"My young gentleman, I'll keep my eye on you," he thought. "That reply +did not sound quite right, and you seem a trifle too unconcerned." + +Another detective arrived now, and he was detailed to inform the others +and to watch the railway stations and steamboats. Immediately afterward, +descriptions of Jack flew all over Canada to the many different points +of exit from the country. Had he tried to leave Canada by sail or +steamboat he would have been arrested to a certainty. Geoffrey laughed +in his sleeve as he thought of the way he had sent Jack off in a +schooner--a way that few people would dream of taking, and yet, perhaps, +the safest way of all, as schooners could not, in the ordinary course of +things, be watched by the detectives. But if the news got beyond police +circles that Jack had absconded with money, or if it should be +discovered in any way that he had gone on the schooner to Oswego--if +this were published--Joseph Lindon might become alarmed, and prevent his +daughter from going to Oswego also. Even the news of Jack's departure +for parts unknown might make him suspicious. With this in view he +immediately said to the manager and the detective: + +"I would like to make a suggestion, if there be no objection." + +"Certainly, Mr. Hampstead. We will be glad to listen to what you have to +say." + +"Of course, I can not think that Mr. Cresswell took the money," said +Geoffrey. "But I think if complete secrecy were ordered, both in the +bank and elsewhere, while every endeavor was being made at discovery, +the detectives would have a better chance of success, on whatever theory +they may work. Possibly the money may be recovered before many hours are +over, and in that case the bank might wish to hush the matter up +quietly. Prematurely advertising a thing like this often does harm; and +there can be no question about the interests of the bank in the matter." + +"I will act upon that suggestion at once," said the manager. "In the +mean time, you will go, please, with the detective and admit him to Mr. +Cresswell's rooms, and see what is to be seen there. I will give the +strictest orders that nothing of this is to be told outside by the +officials or police." + +Orders were delivered to all the detectives to give no items to +newspaper reporters, and the chance of Nina's getting away on the +following morning seemed secured. Geoffrey laughed to himself as he +thought he had crushed the last adder that could appear to strike him. + +He let Mr. Dearborn into Jack's room. Everything was in confusion. +Bureau drawers were lying open, and Jack's valises were gone. Dearborn +saw at a glance that Cresswell had fled, and he lost no time, but turned +on his heel immediately, thanked Hampstead, and rattled down-stairs. +Geoffrey first ascertained that he was really gone, and then went back, +took out the two thousand dollars that Jack had put under his +bed-clothes, and, hastily taking the forty-eight stolen bills from the +interior of his waistcoat, he stuffed the whole amount into an old +Wellington boot that was hanging on a nail in a closet. Out of Jack's +two thousand he put several bills in his pocket to pay for his evening's +amusements. He then returned to the bank. It will be seen that his +object in not taking this two thousand from Jack at the bank was that he +could not safely conceal such a large package on his person, and he +could not put it with his cash, because, in case his cash was examined, +it would be found to contain two thousand dollars too much, which would +cause inquiry. + +The manager while brooding over the event, and asking questions, soon +found out that the missing bills had been all in one deposit. The +receiving teller had taken them in the day before. The item was looked +into and it was noted that this was a deposit of the Montreal Telegraph +Company. On inquiry it was found to be a balance due from the Western +Union Telegraph Company in the States for exchanges. The Montreal +Telegraph Company had received the money from New York by express, and +to guard against loss the Western Union had taken the precaution to +write by mail to the company at Toronto giving the number of each bill +in full, and saying that all the bills were those of the United States +National Bank at New York. In two hours, therefore, Dearborn was +supplied with the numbers of all the bills. Geoffrey was startled at +this turn of events. But he thought it did not matter much. He could +slip over to the States in a few months and get rid of the whole of the +money in different places. + +While all this internal commotion was going on at the Victoria Bank, +Nina was paying a little visit to her father's office. She alighted from +an equipage every part of which, including coachman, footman, horses, +and liveries, had been imported from England. The coachman and footman +did not wear their hats on one side or cross their legs and talk affably +to each other as they seem to do in the American cities. Joseph Lindon +was, in effect, perfectly right when he said they were the "real +thing"--"first chop." + +Nina swept through the outer office, looking more charming than ever. +After she had passed in, one of the clerks, called Moses, indulged in +the vulgar pantomime peculiar to clerks of low degree. He placed both +hands on his heart, gasped, and rolled back against the wall to indicate +that he was irretrievably smashed by her appearance. + +Her father received her gladly. + +"Ah!" he said, "you have condescended to pay me a visit, my fine lady! +It's money you're after. I can see it in your eye. Now, how much, my +dear, will this little visit cost me, I wonder? Just name your figure, +my dear, and strike it rather high." Mr. Lindon was in a remarkably +good humor. + +"No, father, I did not come altogether for money. I came to know if I +could go over to Oswego for a week. Louisa Dallas, who stayed with us +last winter, wants me to go over." + +"Certainly, my dear, you can do anything you please--in reason. I +thought the Dallases lived in Rochester?" + +"So they did; but they have moved. Well, that is all right. Now, if you +have any money to throw away upon me I will try to do you credit with +it. Don't I always do you credit?" + +"Credit? You are the handsomest girl I ever saw. Do me credit? Why, of +course, and always will. Come and kiss me, my dear. I declare you would +charm the heart of a wheel-barrow. Now, how much would you like this +morning? Strike it high, girl. Understand, you can have all the money +you want. You will go to Oswego and see your friends and have a good +time. Perhaps they won't have much money to throw away, but don't let +that stand in the way. Trot out the whole of them and set up the entire +business yourself. Take them all down to Watkin's Glen, or some place +else. There's nothing to do in Oswego. You can't spend half the money I +can give you. Why, dash it, I cleared fifty thousand dollars before +lunch-time to-day, and now how much will you have of it?" + +"Well, there's a little bill at Murray's for odds and ends." + + +"How much?" + +"Oh, five or six hundred, perhaps." + +"Blow five or six hundred! Is that all the money you can spend? Of +course you are the best-dressed woman in town, but you must do better +than this. I tell you you have just got to sweep all these other women +away like flies before you. I'll clothe you in gold if you say the +word. Five or six hundred! Rubbish!" + +He struck a bell, and the impressionable Moses appeared. + +"How much will you have?" he said to Nina, smiling. He loved to try and +stagger her with his magnificence. + +"I suppose Murray ought to be paid and a few other bills lying about." +Nina thought this would be a good chance for Jack, and she said to +herself she would strike it high. + +"I suppose a thousand dollars would do," she said, rather timidly; +adding, "with Murray and all." + +"Damn Murray and all!" cried Mr. Lindon, in a burst of good nature. "You +sha'n't pay any of them.--Moses, write Miss Lindon a check for a couple +of thousand, and bring it here." + +While Moses wrote the check out, Lindon, with a display of affection he +rarely showed, drew Nina down upon his knee. + +"How did you make so much money to-day, father?" she asked. + +"Oh, you don't know anything about such matters. Yesterday I bought the +stock of a Canadian railway. At ten o'clock this morning it took a +sudden rise because I let people know I was buying. I got a lot of it +before I let them know, and then up she went, steadily, the whole +morning. At twelve o'clock I had made at least fifty thousand, and by +nightfall I may have made a hundred thousand. I don't know how it stands +just now, and I don't much care." + +This was the identical stock Hampstead had been unable to retain. If he +could have held on a few hours longer he would have made more honestly +on this day than he had stolen at the same hour. + +The check was signed and handed to Nina. She put it in her shopping-bag +and took her father's head between her hands and kissed his capable old +face with a warmth that surprised him a little. To her this was a final +good-by. + +"You're a good old daddy to me," she said, feeling her heart rise at the +thought of leaving him forever. She ran off then to the door to conceal +her feelings. + +"Just wait," he said, "till we go to England soon, and then I'll show +you what's what." + +She made an effort to seem bright, and cast back at him a glance like +bright sun through mists, as she said: + +"Of course--yes. We must not forget 'the dook.'" + +She cashed the check with satisfaction, knowing that it took Jack a long +time to save two thousand dollars. + +When she rolled down to the wharf the next day in the Lindon barouche, +the officials on the steamboat's deck were impressed with her +magnificence and beauty. + +For most men, nothing could be more sweetly beautiful than her +appearance, as she went carefully along the gangway to the old +Eleusinian, and there was quite a competition between the old captain +and the young second officer as to who should show her more civility. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not + athirst for information; but to be quite fair, we must admit + that superior reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. + Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily + brood over a full nest.--GEORGE ELIOT--(_Felix Holt_). + + +It did not take Detective Dearborn long to find out that Jack had +engaged a cab early in the morning and had then removed some luggage +from his rooms. This confirmed him in the idea that the crime had been a +carefully planned one. But his trouble lay in not being able to find the +driver of the cab. This man had driven off somewhere on a trip that took +him apparently out of town, and Dearborn began to wonder whether Jack +had been driven to some neighboring town, so as to proceed in a less +conspicuous way by some railway. + +Late at night, however, Jehu turned up at his own house very drunk. The +horses had brought him home without being driven. He had been down at +Leslieville all day, with some "sports," who were enjoying a +pigeon-shooting match at that place, and who had retained cabby at +regulation rates and all he could drink--a happy day for him. Dearborn +found he could tell him nothing about the occurrence of the morning of +the same day, or where he had gone with Jack's valises; so, perforce, he +had to let him sleep it off till morning. + +The first rational account the detective could get out of him was at ten +o'clock on the morning following. He then found out why the valises had +not been seen at the railway stations, or at any of the usual points of +departure. The caretaker of the yacht club could only tell him, when he +called, that Mr. Cresswell had been at the club somewhere about noon the +day before, and had gone away in his boating-clothes, rowing east round +the head of the wharf close by. + +"I must tell you," said Dearborn to the caretaker, "that Mr. Cresswell's +friends are alarmed at his absence and have sent me to look after him. +Would you know the boat he went in if you saw it?" + +"Oh, yes. I handle it frequently, in one way and and another. I painted +it for him last spring." + +"Well, if you don't mind making a dollar, I'd be glad if you would walk +along the docks and help me find it." + +"Come along," said the caretaker. "There is nothing to do here, at this +hour, but watch the club-house, and I certainly can't make an extra +dollar doing that. We'll call it two dollars if I find the boat, seeing +as how I'm dragged off from duty." + +"All right," said Dearborn, who had _carte blanche_ for expenses from +the bank. + +They walked off together at a good pace. + +"You say that none of the yachts left the harbor yesterday?" + +"No. There they are, over there, every one of them." + +"Well, what size was the skiff he went off in?" + +"An ordinary fourteen-foot shooting-skiff. One of old Rennardson's. You +mind old Rennardson? He built a handy boat, did the old man." + +"Could it cross the lake?" + +"Well it could, perhaps, on six days in the week, in summer. Perhaps on +the seventh the best handling in the world wouldn't save her. But they +are a fine little boat, for all that I've crossed the bay myself in them +when there was an all-fired sea runnin'." + +"Could it have crossed the lake yesterday?" + +"I don't think Mr. Cresswell would be such a fool as to try. Perhaps he +could have done it if anybody could. But risks for nothing ain't his +style. Not but what he'll run his chances when the time comes. You +should have seen him bring in that Ideal last fall, in the race I sailed +with him. The wind sprung up heavy in the afternoon. Lord! it was a +sight to see that boat come in to the winnin' buoy with the mast hanging +over her bows like a Greek fruiter. You see, he had the wind dead after +him, blowin' heavy, and he'd piled rags on to her, wings and all, till +she was in a blind fury and goin' through it like a harpooned whale. The +owner was a-standing by him a-watchin' for everythin' to carry out of +her. 'Jack,' says he, 'she can't do it. The backstays won't do the +work.' 'Slack them up, then, four inches, and let the mast do its own +part of the work,' says Mr. Cresswell. And he kept on easin' backstays +to give fair play all round, till the mast was hangin' forward like a +cornstalk; but I'm dummed if he'd lift a rag on her till she passed the +gun. Perhaps you don't care for that sort of thing. I follered the sea +myself formerly. Lord! it was immense, that little sail! And thirty +seconds ain't a great deal to win on. Nothin' but bull-head grit would +ha' done it." + +Mr. Dearborn was not much comforted by all this talk. Cresswell might +have crossed the lake in his skiff. Evidently he was a man who would do +it if he wished. They continued their search on every wharf and through +every boat-house, which occupied a good deal of time. + +Suddenly, near Yonge Street wharf, the caretaker said: "Give us your two +dollars, mister. There's the skiff on the deck of the stone-hooker." + +Inquiries soon showed that Jack had gone off on the schooner North Star +to Oswego, and then Mr. Dearborn began to look grave. The schooner had +got a long start. He was well acquainted with all different routes to +different places, and he finally decided to go on the Eleusinian by +water to Oswego. Possibly he might be able to come across the schooner +in the lake before she arrived at Oswego, and bribe the captain to land +him and his prisoner on Canadian soil, where his warrant would be good. +He had still half an hour to spare, so he dashed off in a cab to the +chief's office, and wired the Oswego police to arrest Jack, on the +arrival of the North Star, on the charge of bringing stolen money into +the States. + +Of course, Dearborn knew he could not extradite Jack from Oswego for his +offense, but he thought that after being locked up the money could be +scared out of him, when he found that he could get a long sentence in +the States on the above charge, which Dearborn knew could be proved if +the stolen bills were found in his possession. + +If Geoffrey had known what the able Mr. Dearborn had ferreted out, and +what his plans were, he would have felt more uneasy. + +As the afternoon wore on, it was interesting to watch two very +unconcerned people at the bow of the upper deck of the Eleusinian. The +steamer was making excellent time--plowing into the eye of the wind with +all the power that had so nearly dragged the life out of the poor Ideal +in the preceding summer. Nina was sitting in an arm-chair, cushioned +into comfort by the assiduous second officer, who found that his duties +much required his presence in that portion of the boat where Nina +happened, to be. She was sitting, looking through the spyglasses from +time to time at every sail that hove in sight, and seeming disinclined +to leave the deck. + +Mr. Dearborn was tempting providence by smoking a cigar close by. The +steamer went almost too fast to pitch much, but there was a decided rise +and fall at the bows. He noticed that the officer suggested to Nina that +by sitting further aft she would escape some of the motion, and that she +declined the change, saying she liked the breeze and was a good sailor. +Once they passed close to a vessel with three masts. Dearborn had +ascertained, before leaving, that the North Star had only two masts, so +he was not anxious. Nina, however, knew nothing about the rig of the +North Star, and she was up standing beside the bulwarks gazing intently +through the binoculars at the crew. She seemed disappointed when she +lowered the glasses, and Dearborn began to wonder whether this was "the +woman in the case." He afterward watched her as she attempted to read a +novel, and noticed that she continually stopped to scan the horizon. +Still, nearly every person does this, more or less, and his idea rather +waned again as he thought that this was quite too fine a person to +bother her head about a poor bank-clerk--such a man as he was hunting. +Mr. Dearborn, perhaps owing to the peculiar formation of his jaw, +generally lost all idea of the respectability of a man as soon as he got +on his trail. He might have the benefit of all doubts in his favor +until the warrant for his arrest was placed in Mr. Dearborn's hands. +After that, as a rule, the individual, whether acquitted or not at his +subsequent trial, took no high stand in Mr. Dearborn's mind. If +acquitted, it was only the result of lawyers' trickery; not on account +of innocence. Men who ought to know best say that if a prize-fighter +wishes to win he must actually hate his antagonist--must fight to really +kill him; and that only when he is entirely disabled is it time enough +to hope that he will not die. Mr. Dearborn, similarly, had that tenacity +of purpose that made every attempt at escape seem to double the +culprit's guilt, and in a hard capture this supplied him with that +"gall" which could meet and overcome the desperate courage of a man at +bay. + +Soon another schooner loomed up in the moist air of the east wind, and, +when the hull was visible, Mr. Dearborn approached Nina and said: + +"Would you oblige me, madame, by allowing me to look through your +glasses?" + +"Certainly," said Nina; "they belong to the ship--not to me." + +Dearborn took a long look at the approaching vessel. The North Star had +been described to him as having a peculiar cut-away bow, and the vessel +coming across their track had a perpendicular bow. + +Nina then looked through the glasses intently, and for a moment they +stood beside each other. + +"I wonder why all the vessels seem to be crossing our track, instead of +going in our direction," she said to quiet-looking Mr. Dearborn. + +"I don't know much about sailing, miss. But I know that vessels can't +sail straight into the wind. They seesaw backward and forward, first one +way and then the other. How they get up against the wind I could never +understand. They are like lawyers, I think. They see a point ahead of +them, and they just beat about the bush till they get there. Some of +these things are hard to take in." + +Nina smiled. + +"A good many of these vessels," added Mr. Dearborn, while he watched his +fair companion, "are going to Oswego." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Nina, unconsciously brightening. + +"And the wind is ahead for that trip," said Dearborn. + +"Is it?" + +Nina had been round Lake Ontario in a yacht, and she had had an English +boarding-school finish. She could have told the general course of the +Ganges or the Hoang-ho, but she had no idea in what direction she was +going on her own lake to Oswego. In English schools Canada is a land not +worth learning about, and where hardly any person would live +voluntarily. People go about chiefly on snow-shoes, and it is easy in +most places to kill enough game for dinner from your own doorstep. + +"Yes, it would take a sailing vessel a long time, I should think, to get +to Oswego." + +"How long do you suppose?" asked Nina. + +"I don't really know. It depends on the vessel. I suppose a smart yacht +could do it in a pretty short time. That Toronto yacht, the Ideal, I +suppose, could--" + +"Oh, you know the Ideal?" + +"No. She was pointed out to me once. They say she's a rare one to go, +and no mistake. That young fellow, Treadwell, that sails her--they say +he is one of the finest yachtsmen in Canada." + +"Oh," said Nina, laughing and blushing. It was funny to hear this quiet +stranger praising Jack. She felt proud of his small glory. + +"Yes," said Dearborn, rubbing his forehead, as if trying to recollect. +"That's his name--Treadwell. However, it does not matter." + +"Not at all," said Nina. She was somewhat more on her guard now against +strangers since her experience with the Rev. Matthew Simpson. But +evidently this man did not even know Jack's name, and did not want to +know it for any reason. + +Dearborn was hanging "off and on," as sailors say, thinking that if she +knew anything about this Cresswell she would perhaps give him a lead. +Not getting any lead, he muttered half aloud, by way of coming back to +the point: + +"Treadwell--Treadwell--no--that's not the name." Then aloud. "It's +provoking when one can not remember a name, madame." + +He then fell to muttering other similar sounding names, and Nina could +not refrain from smiling at his stupid, mild way of bothering himself +about what was clearly no use to him. + +"Ah! I have it! What a relief it is to succeed in a little thing like +that! Cresswell. That's the name!" + +The air of triumph on the mild-eyed man was amusing, and Nina laughed +softly to herself. + +He turned from gazing over the water and saw her laughing. Then he +smiled, too, as if he wished to join in, if there was anything to laugh +at. + +"You are amused, madame. Perhaps you know this gentleman quite well--and +are laughing at my stupidity?" + +"I ought to," said Nina, unable to resist the temptation to paralyze +this well-behaved person of the middle classes. "I am his wife." And she +laughed heartily at her little joke. + +If ever a man did get a surprise it was detective Dearborn. For a bare +instant, it threw him off his guard. He saw too much all at once. Here +was the woman who perhaps had all the $50,000 on her person. He tried to +show polite surprise and pleasure at the intelligence; but it was too +late. For an instant he had looked keen. Comparatively, Nina was +brighter nowadays. Danger and deception had sharpened her faculties. She +was thoughtless enough, certainly, to mention who she was; but she did +not see any reason why she should not. She might as well call herself +Mrs. Cresswell now as when she got to Oswego, where she would have to do +so. Mr. Dearborn had gone almost as far in self-betrayal. He longed for +a warrant to arrest her, and get the money from her, but he said in his +subdued, abstracted sort of way: + +"How strange that is! No wonder you laugh! However, I said nothing +against him--quite the contrary--and that is always a comfort when we +feel we have been putting our foot in it. I was wondering, Mrs. +Cresswell, who you were. It seemed to me I had seen you on the street in +Toronto." + +He spoke very politely. No one could take any exception to this tone. +Even when he made the following remark it did not seem very much more +than the ordinary growth of a chance conversation among travelers. He +added: + +"Let me see--a? Your maiden name was--a?" He raised his eyebrows with +would-be polite inquiry; but it did not work. He had looked keen for the +tenth part of a second, and now he might as well go in and rest himself +for the remainder of the night. + +Nina drooped her eyelids coldly. + +"I do not know that that is a matter of any consequence." + +She gave a little movement, as if she drew herself to herself, and she +leisurely returned the glasses to their case. + +Mr. Dearborn saw he had got his _congé_, and he wanted to kill himself. +He felt rather awkward, and could not think of the right thing to say. + +The writer of Happy Thoughts has not provided mankind with the best +reply to a snub that comes "straight from the shoulder." Even a +Chesterfield may be unequal to the occasion. + +"I hope you will not think me inquisitive?" he said lamely. + +"Not at all," said Nina quickly. She slightly inclined her head, without +looking at him, as she moved away to her chair--not wishing to appear +too abrupt. + +She sat there wondering who this man was, and thinking she had been +foolish to say anything about herself. The evening came on chill, windy, +and foggy, and she grew strangely lonely. She had got the idea that this +man was watching her. It made her very nervous and wretched. She longed +for some strong friend to be with her--some one on whom she could rely. + +Everything had conspired to depress her in the past few weeks. She had +now left her home and a kind father--never to return. She was out in the +world, with no one to look to but Jack. This would be a long night for +her, she thought. She was too nervous to go to sleep. She felt so tired +of all the unrest of her life. What would she not give to have all her +former chances back before her again! How she longed for the mental +peace she had known until lately. Oh, the fool she had been! the +wickedness of it all! How she had been forced from one thing to another +by the consequences of her fault! She was terribly wretched, poor girl, +as the evening wore on. She went to her cabin and undressed for bed. She +said her prayers kneeling on the damp carpet. She prayed for Jack's +safety and for her own, and for the man who assisted her to all her +misery. Still her despair and forlornness weighed upon her more and +more. The sense of being entirely alone, without any protection from a +nameless fear, which the idea of being watched all day by an unknown man +greatly increased; the terrible doubt about everything in the +future--all this culminated in an absolute terror. She lay in bed and +tried to pray again, and then an idea she acquired when a child came to +her, that prayers were unavailing unless said while kneeling on the hard +floor. In all her terror, the conviction of wickedness almost made her +faint, and to make things worse, she got those awful words into her +head, "the wages of sin is death," and she could not get them out. +Yielding to the idea that her prayers would be better if said kneeling, +she climbed out panic-stricken to the cold floor, which chilled her to +the bone, and terrified by the words ringing in her head she almost +shrieked aloud: + + +"O God, take those words away from me! O God, thou knowest I have +suffered! O God, I am terrified! I am alone. O God, protect me! Forgive +me all things, for I do repent." + +Here she felt that if she prayed any more she would be hysterical and +beyond her own control. She crept back into bed; but all she could think +of until she dropped to sleep, exhausted, was, "The wages of sin is +death--The wages of sin--is _Death_." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + BRUTUS: O that a man might know + The end of this day's business ere it come! + But it sufficeth that the day will end, + And then the end is known. + + _Julius Cæsar._ + + +When Jack got on board the North Star he found that, although he had +shipped as working passenger, the wily mate had taken him as one of the +crew, with the intention, doubtless, of pocketing the wages which +otherwise would have gone to the sailor who would have been employed. +Several of the sailors were rather intoxicated, and the rest were just +getting over a spree. They came down into the forecastle just before +leaving, and seeing Jack there, whom they did not know, were very +silent. One of them at last said: + +"Is every man here a Union man?" + +Jack knew he was not, and that, being ignorant of secret signs, he would +perhaps be found out. He answered, "I don't belong to the Union." + +The man who spoke first then, said sulkily: "That settles it; I'm going +ashore. The rules says that no member shall sail on a vessel if there is +any scab on board." + +Jack understood from this, after a moment's thought, that this +expression must refer to one who did not avail himself of the healthy +privileges of the Sailors' Union. + + +He explained that he was only going as a passenger, and was not under +pay. + +This seemed to make the matter satisfactory, and after the malcontent +quieted down they all got to work peacefully. It took them a long time +to get all the canvas set while the tug towed the vessel out of and +beyond the harbor. + +Jack found he was no match for these men in the toil of making heavy +canvas. He felt like a child among them. The halyards were so large and +coarse to the touch, and after being exposed to the weather, their fiber +was like fine wire and ate into his hands painfully, although the +latter were well enough seasoned for yachting work. His hands almost +refused to hold the ropes when they had got thoroughly scalded in the +work, and by the time all the canvas was set he was ready to drop on the +deck with exhaustion. + +He was on the mate's watch. This man saw that, although Jack was +physically inferior, his knowledge seemed all right. This puzzled the +sailors. He was dressed in clothes which had looked rough and plebeian +on the Ideal, but here he was far too well dressed. If there were tears +in his clothes and in his hat, there were no patches anywhere, and this +seemed to be, _prima facie_, a suspicious circumstance. He regretted +that his clothes were not down to the standard. After being reviled on +the yachts because they were so disreputable, he now felt that they were +so particularly aristocratic that he longed for the garments of a tramp. +He saw that if the sailors suspected that he was not one of themselves +by profession they would send him to Coventry for the rest of the trip. +This would be unpleasant, for as the men got sober they proved +good-humored fellows in their way, although full of cranks and queer +ideas. + +At eight bells, on the first night, Jack came on deck in a long ulster, +which, although used for duck-shooting and sailing for five years since +it last saw King Street, was still painfully whole. The vessel was lying +over pretty well and thrashing through the waves in creditable style. +The watch just going off duty had "put it up" with the mate that Jack +should be sent aloft to stow the fore-gafftopsail. + +They could not make Jack out. And when he went up the weather-rigging, +after slipping out of the ulster, every man on board except the captain +was covertly watching him--wondering how he would get through the task. +The topsail had been "clewed up" at the masthead--and was banging about +in the strong wind like a suspended Chinese lantern. + +Suppose a person were to tie together the four corners of a new +drawing-room carpet, and were then to hoist it in this shape to the top +of a tall pine tree bending in the wind to an angle of thirty degrees. +Let him now climb up, and with a single long line master the banging +mass by winding the line tightly around it from the top down to the +bottom, and afterward secure the long bundle to the side of the tree. If +this be done, by way of experiment, while the seeker after knowledge +holds himself on as best he can by his legs, and performs the operation +on a black night entirely by the sense of touch he will understand part +of what our lake sailors have to do. + +Jack, to say truly, had all he wanted. The sail was a new one. The +canvas and the bolt-ropes were so stiff as to almost defy his strength. +But he got it done and descended, tired enough. All hands were satisfied +that he knew a good deal, and yet they said they were sure he was "not +quite the clean wheat." The ulster had been very damaging. + +The evening of the second day saw them still working down the lake, and +having had some favorable slants of wind they had got well on their way. +As Jack's watch went below at midnight, a fog had settled over the sea, +and he was glad to get down out of the cold, and have a comfortable +smoke before turning into his old camping blankets for the rest of his +four hours off. + +By the light of a bad-smelling tin lamp nailed against the Samson-post, +and sitting on a locker beside one of the swinging anchor chains that +came down through the hawse pipe from the deck above into the fore-peak +under the man's feet, one of the sailors fell to telling one of his many +adventures on the lakes. There was no attempt at humor in this story. It +was a simple, artless tale of deadly peril, cold, exhaustion, and +privation on our inland sea. It was told with a terrible earnestness, +born of a realization of the awful anxiety that had stamped upon his +perfect memory every little detail that occurred. + +This was an experience when, in the month of December, the schooner he +was then sailing on had been sent on a last trip from Oswego to Toronto. +They had almost got around the Lighthouse Point at Toronto, after a +desperately cold passage, when a gale struck them, and, not being able +to carry enough canvas to weather the point, they were thus driven down +the lake again with the sails either blown from the bolt-ropes or split +to ribbons, with the exception of a bit of the foresail, with which they +ran before the wind. To go to South Bay would probably mean being frozen +in all winter, and perhaps the loss of the ship, so the captain headed +for Oswego, hoping the snow and sleet would clear off to enable them to +see the harbor when they got there. On the way down a huge sea came over +the stern, stove in the cabin, and smashed the compasses. + +"We hedn't kept no dead reckonin', an' we cudn't tell anyways how fast +we wus goin'. We just druv' on afore it for hours. Cudn't see more'n a +vessel's length anywheres for snow, and, as for ice, we wus makin' ice +on top of her like you'd think we wus a-loadin' ice from a elevator; we +wus just one of 'Greenland's icy mountings' gone adrift. Waal, the old +man guv it up at last, and acknowledged the corn right up and up. Says +he, 'Boys, she's a goner. We've druv' down below and past Oswego, and +that's the last of her.'" + +"This looked pretty bad--fur the old man to collapse all up like this; +fur all on yer knows as well as I do that to get down below Oswego in a +westerly gale in December means that naathin' is goin' to survive but +the insurance. There's no harbors, ner shelter, ner lifeboats, ner +naathin'. Yer anchors are no more use to yer off that shore than a +busted postage-stamp. Thet's the time, boys, fur to jine the Salvation +Army and trample down Satan under yer feet and run her fur the shore and +pray to God for a soft spot and lots of power fer to drive her well up +into a farm. + +"Waal, gents, the old man tuckered out, and went off to his cabin fur to +make it all solid with his 'eavenly parents, and two or three of us +chaps as hed been watchin' things pretty close come to the conclusion +thet we hedn't got below Oswego yet. So we all went in a body, as a kind +o' depitation from ourselves, and says us to the old man: 'Hev you guv +up the nevigation of this vessel? becus, ef yer hev, there's others here +as wud like to take a whack at playin' captain.' + +"'All right,' says the old man from his knees (fur he was down gettin' +the prayers ready-made out of a book), 'I've guv her up,' says he; 'do +you jibe your fores'l and head her fur the sutherd and look out for a +soft spot. Yer kin do what yer likes with her.' + +"So we jibes the fores'l then, just puttin' the wheel over and lettin' +the wind do the rest of it, fer there was six inches of ice on to the +sheets, and yer couldn't touch a line anywheres unless yer got in to it +with a axe. Waal, the old fores'l flickers across without carryin' away +naathin', and, just as we did this, another vessel heaves right across +the course we bed been a-driven' on. Our helm was over and the ship was +a-swingin' when we sighted her, or else we'd have cut her in two like a +bloomin' cowcumber. And then we seed our chance. That ere vessel was +goin' along, on the full kioodle, with every appearance of knowin' where +she was goin' to--which we didn't. 'Hooray!' says we, 'we ain't below +Oswego yet, and that vessel will show us the road. She's got the due +course from somewheres, and she's our only chance.' + +"And we follered her. You can bet your Sunday pants we was everlastin'ly +right on her track. She was all we hed, boys, 'tween us and th' etarnal +never-endin' psalm. Death seemed like a awful cold passage that time, +boys! We wus all frost-bit and froze up ginerally; and clothes weren't +no better'n paper onto us." + +"But she had a _leetle_ more fores'l onto her than we hed; and after a +while she begun to draw away from us. We hed naathin' left more to set +fer to catch up with her. We hollered to make her ease up, but she paid +no attention. Guess she didn't hear, or thought we hed our compasses all +right--which we hedn't. Waal, gents, it was a awful time. Our last +chance was disappearin' in the snow-storm, and there wus us left there, +'most froze to death, and not knowin' where to go. Yer cudn't see her, +thro' the snow, more'n two lengths ahead; and, when she got past that, +all yer cud see was the track of her keel in the water right under our +bows. Well, fellows, I got down furrud on the chains, and we 'stablished +a line o' signals from me along the rest of them to the man at the +wheel. If I once lost that tract in the water we wus done forever. +Sometimes I wus afeared I hed lost it, and then I got it again, and then +it seemed to grow weaker; and I thought a little pray to God would do no +harm. And I lifts up my hand--so--" + +The man had left his seat and was crouching on the floor as he told this +part of the story. The words rolled out with a terrific energy as he +glared down at the floor, stooping in the attitude in which he had +watched the track in the water. The tones of his voice had a wild terror +in them that thrilled Jack to the very core, and made him feel as if he +could not breathe. + +"And I lifts up me hand--so (and, gents, I wus lookin' at that streak in +the water. I want yer to understand I was a-lookin' at it). And I lifts +up me hand--so--and I says 'Holy Christ, don't let that vessel get off +no farderer--'" + +The story was never finished. + +A sound came to them that seemed to Jack to be only a continuation of +the horror of the story he had heard. A crash sounded through the ship +and they were all knocked off their seats into the fore-peak with a +sudden shock. They tumbled up on deck in a flash, and there they saw +that a great steamer had mounted partly on top of the schooner's +counter. The mainmast had gone over the side to leeward. + +The schooner had been about to cross the steamer's course when they +first saw her lights in the fog, and, partly mistaking her direction, +the sailing captain had put his ship about. This brought the stern of +the schooner, as she swung in stays, directly in line with the course of +the steamer. The steamer's helm was put hard over, and the engines were +reversed, but not until within fifty feet of the schooner. The stern of +the schooner swung around as she turned to go off on the other tack, so +that, although the stem or cutwater of the steamer got past, the counter +of the schooner was struck and forced through the steamer's starboard +bow under the false sides. When they struck, the schooner's stern was +depressed in the seaway and the steamer's bow was high in the air, so +that the latter received a deadly blow which tore a hole about six feet +high by ten long in her bow. Both boats went ahead together, chiefly +owing to the momentum of the huge steamer. And for a moment the +steamer's false sides rested on what was left of the schooner's counter +on the port side. + +A man leaning over from the upper deck of the steamer cried: + +"What schooner is that?" + +"Schooner North Star, of Toronto," was the reply. + +The man vaulted over the bulwarks and slid actively down the sloping +side of the steamer to the deck of the schooner and looked around him. +No sooner had he done so than the motion of the waves parted the two +boats. The steamer ceased to move ahead. The forward canvas of the +schooner had caught the wind and she was beginning to pay off on the +port tack, the mainmast, mainsail, and rigging dragging in the water. + +Jack, who was filled with helpless anxiety, then discovered that the +steamer was the Eleusinian. At the same moment he heard a shriek from +the bow of the steamer and there he saw Nina, her long hair driving +behind her, beckoning him to come to help her. The steamer, filling like +a broken bottle, had already taken one lurch preparatory to going down +and Jack yelled: + +"Jump, Nina! Jump into the water and I will save you!" + +But Nina, not knowing that the steamer was going down, had not the +courage to cast herself into the black heaving waves. + +Jack saw this hesitation, and yelled to her again to jump. He made fast +the end of a coil of light line, and then sprang to the bulwarks to jump +overboard so that when he swam to the bows of the steamer Nina could +jump into the water near him. + +He knew without looking that the schooner, with no after-canvas set, +could do nothing at present but fall off and drift away before the wind, +as she was now doing, and as her one yawl boat had been smashed to dust +in the collision, the only chance for Nina was for him to have a line in +his hand whereby to regain the schooner as it drifted off. It was a wild +moment for Jack, but his nerve was equal to the occasion. While he +belayed the end of the light line to a ring on the bulwarks, he called +to his mates on the schooner to let go everything and douse their +forward canvas. + +It takes a long time even to read what had to be done. What Jack did was +done in a moment; but as he sprang to the bulwarks to vault over the +side, a strong pair of arms seized him from behind and held him like a +vice with his arms at his sides. + +"Let me go," he cried, as he struggled in the grasp of a stranger. + +"No, sir. You're wanted. I have had trouble enough to get you without +letting you drown yourself." + +Jack struggled wildly; but the more frantic he became the more he roused +the detective to ferocity. He heaved forward to throw Dearborn over his +head; but the two fell together, crashing their heads upon the deck, +where they writhed convulsively. + +The iron grip never relaxed. At last Jack, lifting Dearborn with him, +got on his feet and, seizing something on the bulwarks to hold himself +in position, he stopped his efforts to escape. "For God's sake," he +cried brokenly, "for Christ's sake, let me go! See, there she is! She is +going to be my wife!" + +In his excitement Dearborn forgot that the woman on the steamer might +have the stolen money with her. To him Jack's jumping overboard promised +certain death and the loss of a prisoner. + +As Jack tried to point to Nina, who was clasping the little flag-pole at +the bow of the steamer--a white figure in the surrounding gloom, waving +and apparently calling to him--he saw the steamer take a slow, sickening +lurch forward, and then a long lurch aft. The bows rose high in the air, +with that poor desolate figure clasping the flag-pole, and then the +Eleusinian slowly disappeared. + +For an instant the bows remained above the surface while the air escaped +from the interior, and the last that could be seen was the white figure +clinging desperately to the little mast as if forsaken by all. No power +had answered her agonies of prayer for deliverance. + + * * * * * + +After the strong man who had pinioned Jack saw the vessel go down, he +became aware that he was holding his culprit up rather than down. He +looked around at his face, and there saw a pair of staring eyes that +discerned nothing. He laid him on the deck then, and finally placed him +in the after-cabin on the floor. Jack did not regain consciousness. His +breathing returned only to allow a delirium to supervene. Dearborn and a +sailor had again to hold him, or he would have plunged over the +bulwarks, thinking the steamer had not yet sunk. + +The captain's wife, who had been sleeping in the extra berth off the +after-cabin, had been crushed between the timbers when the collision +took place, and under the frantic orders of the captain the rest of the +crew were trying to extricate the screaming woman. The mate had been +disabled in the falling of the mainmast, so that no attempts were made +to save those who were left swimming when the Eleusinian went down, and +the schooner, under her forward canvas, sailed off, dragging her +wreckage after her, slowly, of course, but faster than any one could +swim. Thus no one was saved from the steamer except the detective, who +had not thought of saving his own life when he had dropped to the deck +of the schooner, but only of seizing Jack. + +The mate was able, after a time, to give his directions while lying on +the deck. The wreckage was chopped away, and the vessel was brought +nearer the wind to raise the injured port quarter well above the waves +until canvas could be nailed over the gaping aperture. When this was +done they squared away before the wind, hoisted the center-board, and +made good time up the lake. They had a fair wind to Port Dalhousie--the +only place available for dockyards and refitting--where they arrived at +two o'clock in the day. + +After raving in delirium until they arrived at Port Dalhousie, Jack fell +off then into a sleep, and when the Empress of India was ready to leave +at four o'clock for Toronto, Dearborn woke him up and found that his +consciousness seemed to have partly returned. The detective was pleased +that the disabled vessel had sought a Canadian port, where his warrant +for Jack's arrest was good. However, the prisoner made no resistance, +and at nine o'clock he was duly locked up at Toronto, having remained in +a sort of stupor from which nothing could arouse him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + + + The time is out of joint;--O cursed spite. + That I was ever born to set it right. + + _Hamlet._ + + +As the afternoon wore on, on that day when the bank lost its $50,000, +Geoffrey Hampstead was back at his work as usual. He did not change his +waistcoat while at his rooms, because he thought this might be remarked. +He merely left the money there, and went back to his work as if nothing +had happened. The excitement among the clerks in the bank was feverish. +Geoffrey let them know what he and Dearborn had seen in Jack's room, and +that the confusion there clearly showed that he had gone off somewhere. +Most faces looked black at this, but there were several who, in spite of +the worst appearances, refused to believe in Jack's guilt. Geoffrey was +one of them. Geoffrey was quite broken down. Everybody felt sorry for +him. He had made a great friend of Jack, and every one could see that +the blow had almost prostrated him. + +Toward the end of the afternoon he said to a couple of his friends: "I +wish you fellows would dine with me to-night. I feel as if I had to have +somebody with me." + +These two did so. In the evening they picked up some more of the bank +men, and all repaired to Geoffrey's quarters. They saw he was drinking +heavily, and perhaps out of fellow-feeling for a man who had had a blow, +they also drank a good deal themselves, and lapsed into hilarity, +partly in order to draw Geoffrey out of his gloom. + +At one o'clock the night was still young so far as they were concerned, +and the liquor in the rooms had run short. Geoffrey did not wish to be +left alone. The noise and foolishness of his friends diverted his +thoughts from more unpleasant subjects. When the wine ran out, he said +they must have some more. They said it would be impossible to get it; +but Geoffrey said Patsey Priest could procure it, and he rang on Mrs. +Priest's bell until Patsey appeared, looking like a disheveled monkey. +He was received with an ovation. Geoffrey gave him the money, and sent +him to a neighboring large hotel to get a case of champagne. When he +returned, having accomplished his errand, the young gentlemen were +enthusiastic over him. He was made to stand on a table and take an +affidavit on an album that he had brought the right change back. Then +some jackass said a collection must be taken up for Patsey, and he +headed the list with a dollar. Of course, everybody else gave a dollar +also, because this was such a fine idea. Mr. St. George Le Mesurier +Hector Northcote was delighted with Patsey. "Mr. Priest," he said, "you +are a gentleman and a man of finish; but it grieves me to notice that +your garments, although compatible with genius, do not, of themselves, +suggest that luxury which genius should command. Wait here for a moment; +you must be clad in costly raiment." + +Mr. St. G. Le M. H. Northcote darted unsteadily, not to say lurched, +into Geoffrey's room, looking for that "very dreadful waistcoat" which +he had been pained to see Geoffrey wearing during the day. He found it +at once in a closet, and, wrapping it in among several trousers and +coats which he had selected at random, he came out again with the bundle +in his hand. + +"What are you doing there with my clothes?" asked Geoffrey, rising +good-humoredly, but inwardly nervous, and going toward the bedroom as +Northcote came out. + +"I am going to give them to a gentleman whose station in life is not +properly typified in his garb." + +Geoffrey did not see the waistcoat lying inside one of the coats in the +bundle, and so he thought it better to humor the idea than run any +chances. He had taken off this objectionable article before going to +dinner, intending to come back and burn it when he had more time. + +He took the bundle from Northcote and handed it to Patsey as he dragged +that individual to the door. "Here," he said. "Don't come down in rags +to my room again. Now, get out." + +Patsey disappeared hurriedly through the door. He had his own opinion of +these young men who were so ready to pay for the pleasure of knocking +him about, and if he had been required to classify mammalia he would not +have applied the old name of _homo sapiens_ to any species to which they +belonged. + +The next day, to kill time during the anxious hours, Geoffrey went out +yachting with Dusenall and several others. As the wind fell off, they +did not reach the moorings again until late in the evening, when they +dined at the club-house on the island, and slept on the Ideal instead of +going home. After an early breakfast the next morning they were rowed +across the bay, and Geoffrey reached the bank at the usual time. + +In this way, having been away from town all night, he knew nothing of +the news that had spread like wildfire through certain circles on the +previous night, that Jack Cresswell had been arrested and brought to +Toronto. The first person whom he met at the door of the bank was the +omnipresent Detective Dearborn, who smiled and asked him what he thought +of the news. + +"What news?" asked Geoffrey, his eyes growing small. + +"Why, this," he replied, handing Geoffrey one of the morning papers, +which he had not yet seen. Geoffrey read the following, printed in very +large type, on the first page: + + CLEVER CAPTURE! + + JACK CRESSWELL, THE VICTORIA BANK ROBBER ARRESTED! + THE STOLEN $50,000 SUPPOSED TO BE NOW RECOVERED! + EXCITING CHASE AND EXTRAORDINARY DETECTIVE WORK! + A BULL'S-EYE FOR DETECTIVE DEARBORN! + PRISONER CAPTURED DURING A COLLISION BETWEEN TWO VESSELS! + WRECK OF THE STEAMER ELEUSINIAN!! + ALL ON BOARD LOST!! + EXCEPT THE WILY DETECTIVE. + GREAT EXCITEMENT!! + FURTHER DISCLOSURES ABOUT THE BANK!!! + THE BLOATED ARISTOCRACY SHAKEN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS!!!! + +Detective Dearborn, on his arrival in Toronto, was so certain of +convicting his prisoner that he threw the hungry newspaper reporters +some choice and tempting _morceaux_. And, from the little that he gave +them, they built up such an interesting and imaginative article that one +was forced to think of the scientific society described by Bret Harte, +when Mr. Brown-- + + Reconstructed there. + From those same bones an animal that was extremely rare. + +Indeed, from the glowing colors in which the detective's chase was +painted, from the many allusions to Jack's high standing in society and +his terrible downfall, from a full description of Jack as being the +petted darling of all the unwise virgins of the upper ten, and from the +way that the name of Jack was familiarly bandied about, one necessarily +ended the article with a disbelief in any form of respectability, +especially in the upper classes, and with a profound conviction that +society generally was rotten to the core. The name "Jack" seemed now to +have a criminal sound about it, and reminded the reader of "Thimble-rig +Jack" and "Jack Sheppard," and other notorieties who have done much to +show that people called "Jack" should be regarded with suspicion. + +Mr. Dearborn watched Geoffrey's face as he glanced over the newspaper. +Dearborn had a sort of an idea from all he could learn, that Jack had +had a longer head than his own to back him up, and, for reasons which +need not be mentioned now, he suspected that there was more than one in +this business. + +However, Geoffrey knew that he was being watched, and his nerve was +still equal to the occasion. He turned white, as a matter of course--so +did everybody in the bank--and Dearborn got no points from his face. + +Geoffrey handed him back the paper, and said commiseratingly: "Poor +Jack, he has dished himself, sure enough, this time." + +Dearborn served him then with a subpoena to attend the hearing before +the police magistrate at an hour which was then striking, and Geoffrey +walked over to the police court with him. + +Standing-room in the court that day was difficult to get. In the morning +well-worn _habitués_ of that interesting place easily sold the width of +their bodies on the floor for fifty cents. + +Maurice Rankin had rushed off to see Jack in the morning. He knew +nothing about the evidence, but he felt that Jack was innocent. He found +his friend apparently in a sort of stupor, and was hardly recognized by +him. + +"You must have the best lawyer I can get to defend you, Jack," he said. + + +No answer. + +"Don't you intend to make any defense or have any assistance? I can get +you a splendid man in two minutes." + +Jack shook his head slowly, and said, with an evident effort: + +"No. I don't care." + +Rankin did not know what to make of him; but, finally, he said: + +"Well, if you won't have any person better, I will sit there, and if I +see my way to anything I'll perhaps say a word. You do not object to my +doing this, do you?" Jack's answer, or rather the motion of his head, +might have meant anything, but Rankin took it to mean assent. + +At half-past nine, Jack was led from the cell outside to the court-room +by two policemen who seemed partly to support him. + +A thrill ran through his old friends when they saw him. His face was +ghastly, and his jaw had dropped in an enervated way that gave him the +appearance of a man who had been fairly cornered and had "thrown up the +sponge" in despair. He had not been brushed or combed for two nights and +a day. He still wore his old, dirty sailing clothes. The sailor's +sheath-knife attached to his leather belt had been removed by the +police. His partial stupor was construed to be dogged sullenness, and it +assisted in giving every one a thoroughly bad impression as to his +innocence. + +After he was placed in the dock he sat down and absently picked at some +blisters on his hands, until the magistrate spoke to him, and then the +policemen ordered him to stand up. When he stood thus, partly raised +above the spectators, his eyes were lusterless and stolid and he looked +vacantly in the direction of the magistrate. + +"John Cresswell, it is charged against you that you did, on the 25th day +of August last, at the city of Toronto, in the county of York, +feloniously steal, take, and carry away fifty thousand dollars, the +property of the Victoria Bank of Canada," etc. + +Rankin saw that Jack did not comprehend what was going on. He got up, +and was going to say something when the magistrate continued: + +"Do you wish that the charge against you shall be tried by me or with a +jury at the next assizes, or by some other court of competent +jurisdiction?" + +No answer. + +The magistrate looked at Jack keenly. It struck him that the prisoner +had been imbibing and was not yet sober, and so he spoke louder, and in +a more explanatory and informal tone. + +"You may be tried, if you like, on some other day, before the county +judge without a jury, or you may wait till the coming assizes and be +tried with a jury, or, if you consent to it, you may be tried here, now, +before me. Which do you wish to do?" + +Still no answer. + +Rankin considered. He knew nothing of the evidence, and thought it +impossible for Jack to be guilty. He did not wish to relinquish any +chances his friend might have with a jury, and he felt that Jack himself +ought to answer if he could. He went to him and said simply, for it was +so difficult to make him understand: + +"Do you want to be tried now or afterward?" + +Jack nodded his head, while he seemed to be trying to collect himself. + +"You mean to be tried now?" + +Jack looked a little brighter here, and said weakly: + +"Certainly--why not?" + +Detective Dearborn, had not been idle since his return; and all the +witnesses that the prosecution required were present. + +His first witness was Geoffrey Hampstead. His evidence was looked upon +by the spectators as uninteresting, and merely for the sake of form. +Everybody knew what he had to say. He merely explained how the packet of +fifty bills belonging to the Victoria Bank had been put in a certain +place on the desk in his box at the bank, and that, he said, was all he +knew about it. + +At this point, Jack leaned over the bar and said; with a stupid pleasure +in his face: + +"Morry, there's old Geoffrey. I can see him. What's he talking about? +Say, if you get a chance, tell him I am awfully glad to see him again." + +Rankin now became convinced that there was something the matter with +Jack's head, and he resolved to speak to the court to obtain a +postponement of the case when the present witness had given his +evidence. + +It was also drawn from Geoffrey, by the county attorney, that the +prisoner alone had had access to the place where the money lay, that it +could not have been reached from the public hall-way, and that the +prisoner had gone out very soon after he had spoken to the witness--when +the money lay within his reach. + +The crown prosecutor said he would ask the witness nothing more at +present, but would require him again. + +Rankin then represented to the police magistrate that his client was too +ill to give him any instructions in the matter. The defendant was a +personal friend of his, and although willing to act for him, he was, as +yet, completely in the dark as to any of the facts, and in view of this +he deemed it only proper to request that the whole matter should be +postponed until he should be properly able to judge for himself. + +The magistrate then asked, with something of a twinkle in his eye. + +"What do you think is the matter with your client, Mr. Rankin?" + +"It is hard for me, not being a doctor, to say," answered Rankin, +looking back thoughtfully toward Jack. "I think, however, that he is +suffering from some affection of the brain." + +A horse-laugh was heard from some one among the "unwashed," and the +police strained their heads to see who made the noise. The old plea of +insanity seemed to be coming up once again, and one man in the crowd was +certainly amused. + +The magistrate said: "I do not think there is any reason why I should +not go on hearing the evidence, now. I will note your objection, Mr. +Rankin, and I perceive that you may be in a rather awkward position, +perhaps, if you are in total ignorance of the facts." + +Rankin was in a quandary. If he sat down and declined to cross-examine +the witnesses or act for the defendant in any way, Jack might be +convicted, and all chances for technical loopholes of escape might be +lost forever. There might, however, in this case, if the trial were +forced on, be a ground for some after proceedings on the claim that he +did not get fair play. On the other hand, cross-examination might +possibly break up the prosecution, if the evidence was weak or +unsatisfactory. He came to the conclusion that he would go on and +examine the witness and try to have it understood that he did so under +protest. + +After partly explaining to the magistrate what he wished to do, he asked +Geoffrey a few questions--not seeing his way at all clearly, but just +for the general purpose of fishing until he elicited something that he +might use. + +"You say that after the defendant spoke to you in the bank you heard him +go out through the side door. Where does that side door lead?" + +"It leads into an empty hall, and then you go out of an outer side door +into the street." + +"Is not this outer side door sometimes left open in hot weather?" + +"Yes, I think it was open all that day." + +"How are the partitions between the stalls or boxes of the different +clerks in the Victoria Bank constructed?" + +"They are made rather high (about five feet six high) and they are built +of wood--black walnut, I think." + +"Then, if the door of your box was closed you could not see who came in +or out of Mr. Cresswell's stall?" + +"Only through the wicket between our boxes." + +"How long after Mr. Cresswell went out did you notice that the money was +gone?" + +"I can't quite remember. I was going on with my work with my back to the +money. It might have been from an hour to an hour and a half. I went out +to the side door myself for an instant, to see what the weather was +going to be in the afternoon. It was some time after I came back that I +found that the money was gone." + +"Then, as far as you are able to tell, somebody might have come into Mr. +Cresswell's stall after he went out, and taken the money without your +knowing it?" + +"Certainly. There was perhaps an hour and a half in which this could +have been done." + +"This package of money, as it lay, could have been seen from the public +hall-way of the bank through your front wicket, could it not?" + +"Yes." + +"And it was perfectly possible for a person, after seeing the money in +this way, to go around and come in the side door, enter Mr. Cresswell's +box and take the money?" + +"Yes, I have heard of as daring robberies as that." + +"Or it would have been easy for any of the other bank officials to have +taken the money?" + +"If they had wished to do so--yes." + +"And it would have been possible for you, when you went to the side +door, to have handed the money to some one there ready to receive it?" + +"Oh, yes," said Geoffrey, laughing; "I might have had a confederate +outside. I could have given a confederate about two hundred thousand +dollars that morning, I think." + +"Thank you," said Rankin to Geoffrey, as he sat down. + +Geoffrey saw what Rankin wanted, and he assisted him as far as he could +to open up any other possibilities to account for the disappearance of +the money. + +The cabman who removed Jack's valises early in the morning was then +called. He identified Jack as the person who had engaged him. Had been +often engaged before by Mr. Cresswell. He also identified Jack's +valises, which were produced. + +Rankin did not cross-examine this man. His evidence was brought in to +show that Jack's absconding was a carefully planned one--partly put into +action before the stealing of the money--and not the result of any hasty +impulse. + +The caretaker of the yacht-club house was also called, for the same +object. He told what he knew, and was restrained with difficulty from +continually saying that he did not see anything suspicious about what he +saw. The caretaker was evidently partial to the prisoner. + +Detective Dearborn then took the stand, and as he proceeded in his story +the interest grew intense. But when he mentioned meeting a young lady on +the steamboat, and getting into a conversation with her, Rankin arose +and said he had no doubt there were few ladies who could resist his +friend Detective Dearborn, but that he did not see what she had to do +with the case. + +Then the county attorney jumped to his feet and contended that this +evidence was admissible to show that this woman was going to the same +place as the prisoner and had conspired with the prisoner to rob the +bank. + +Rankin replied that there was no charge against the prisoner for +conspiracy, that the woman was not mentioned in the charge, and unless +it were shown that she was in some way connected with the prisoner in +the larceny evidence as to her conversations could not be received if +not spoken in the prisoner's presence. + +Rankin had no idea who this woman was or what she had said. He only +choked off everything he could on general principles. + +The magistrate refused to receive as evidence the conversation between +her and the detective. So Rankin made his point, not knowing how +valuable it was to his client. + +Detective Dearborn was much chagrined at this. He thought that his +story, as an interesting narrative of detective life, was quite spoiled +by the omission, and he blurted out as a sort of "aside" to the +spectators: + +"Well, any way, she said she was Cresswell's wife." + +This remark created a sensation in court, as he anticipated. But the +magistrate rebuked him very sharply for it, saying: "I would have you +remember that the evidence of very zealous police officers is always +sufficiently open to suspicion. Showing more zeal than the law allows to +obtain a conviction does not improve your condition as a witness." + +Although merited, this was a sore snub for the able detective, and it +seemed quite to take the heart out of him; but he afterward recovered +himself as he fell to describing what had occurred in the collision and +how he had got on board the North Star--the sole survivor from the +Eleusinian. In speaking of the arrest he did not say that he had +prevented Jack from saving the life dearest on earth to him. He gave the +truth a very unpleasant turn against the prisoner by saying that Jack +struggled violently to escape from the arrest and tried to throw +himself overboard. This, of course, gave all the impression that he was +ready to seek death rather than be captured. It gave a desperate aspect +to his conduct, and accorded well with his sullen appearance in the +court-room. Dearborn suppressed the fact that Jack had been delirious +and raving for twelve hours afterward, as this might explain his present +condition and cause delay. He had lost no opportunity of circulating the +suggestion that he was shamming insanity. + +After he had briefly described his return to Toronto with his prisoner, +the crown attorney asked him: + +"Did you find any articles upon his person?" + +"Yes; I took this knife away from him." + +"Ah, indeed!" said the crown attorney, taking the knife and examining +it. "Quite a murderous-looking weapon." + +"Which will be found strapped to the back of every sailor that +breathes," interrupted Rankin indignantly. "I hope my learned friend +won't arrest his barber for using razors in his daily work." + +"And what else did you find upon him?" asked the attorney, returning to +the case for want of good retort. + +Detective Dearborn thought a sensation agreeable to himself would +certainly be made by his answer: + +"Well," he said, with the _sang froid_ with which detectives delight to +make their best points, "I found on him two of the stolen +one-thousand-dollar bills--" + +"Now, now, now!" cried Rankin, jumping to his feet in an instant. "You +can not possibly know that of your own knowledge. You are getting too +zealous again, Mr. Dearborn." + +"Don't alarm yourself, my acute friend," said the crown attorney, +conscious that all the evidence he required was coming on afterward. "We +will prove the identity of the recovered bills to your most complete +satisfaction." Then, turning to the witness, he said: "Go on." + + +Dearborn, who had made the little stir he expected went on to explain +what the other moneys were that he had found on Jack, and described how +he found the bills pinned securely inside a watch-pocket of a waistcoat +that he wore underneath his outer shirt. + +Rankin asked Dearborn only one question. There did not seem to be any +use in resisting the matter except on the one point which remained to be +proved. + +"You do not pretend to identify these bills yourself?" + +"No, sir, I don't. But we'll fix that all right for you," he said, +triumphantly, as he descended from the box. + +The clerk in the Montreal Telegraph Company's office who compared the +numbers of the bills with the list of numbers sent from New York, then +identified the two recovered bills beyond any doubt. He also swore that +he personally deposited the package of bills with the receiving teller +of the Victoria Bank. + +The receiving teller swore to having received such a package and having +handed it to Mr. Hampstead to be used in his department. + +Geoffrey Hampstead was recalled, and acknowledged receiving such a +package from the other clerk. But what surprised everybody was that he +took up the recovered bills and swore positively that the stolen bills +were of a light-brown color, and not dark-green, like the ones found on +the prisoner. + +Geoffrey had seen that the whole case depended on the identification of +these bills. If he could break the evidence of the other witnesses +sufficiently on this point, there might, he thought, be a chance of +having Jack liberated. + +A peculiar thing happened here, which startled the dense mass of people +looking on. + +The prisoner arose to his feet, and, taking hold of the railing to +steady himself, said in a rolling, hollow voice, while Geoffrey was +swearing that the stolen bills were of a light-brown color: + +"Geoffrey, old man, don't tell any lies on my account. The bills were +all dark-green." Then he sat down again wearily. + +If there was a man in the room who until now had still hoped that Jack +was innocent, his last clinging hope was dissipated by this speech. + +A deep silence prevailed for an instant, as the conviction of his guilt +sank into every heart. + +Some said it was just like Geoffrey to go up and try to swear his friend +off. They thought it was like him, inasmuch as it was a daring stroke +which was aimed at the root of the whole prosecution. Probably he lost +few friends among those who thought he had perjured himself for this +object. Those who did not think this, supposed he was mistaken in his +recollection as to the color of the bills. A small special edition of a +vulgar newspaper, issued an hour afterward, said: + +"In this case of Regina _vs._ Cresswell, if Hampstead had been able to +shake the identification of these bills no doubt Regina would have 'got +left.'" + +When Jack had returned to consciousness, at Port Dalhousie, it was only +partially. He looked at the detective dreamily when informed that he had +to go to Toronto. He felt desperately ill and weak, and thought of one +thing only--Nina's death. Even that he only realized faintly. Mentally +and bodily he was like a water-logged wreck that could be towed about +from place to place but was capable in itself of doing little more than +barely floating. When Rankin had spoken to him, before the trial, about +getting a lawyer, he was merely conscious of a slight annoyance that +disturbed the one weak current of his thought. When the magistrate had +addressed him in the court-room, the change from the dark cell to the +light room and the crowd of faces had nearly banished again the few rays +of intelligence which he possessed. He did not know what the magistrate +was saying. Vaguely conscious that there was some charge against him, he +was paralyzed by a death-like weakness which prevented his caring in the +slightest degree what happened. When Rankin spoke incisively to him, the +voice was familiar, and he was able to make an answer, and in the course +of the trial gleams of intelligence came to him. The vibrations of +Geoffrey's well-known voice aroused him with a half-thrill of pleasure, +and during the re-examination he had partly comprehended that there was +some charge against him about these bills, and he came to the conclusion +that as Geoffrey must have known the true color of the bills, he was +only telling an untruth for the purpose of getting him off. This was as +far as his intelligence climbed, and when he sat down again the exertion +proved too much for him, and his mind wandered. + +Of course, after this terribly damaging remark, there was nothing left +for Rankin to cling to. Clearly, Jack knew all about the bills, and had +given up all hope of acquittal. The two other clerks were called to +contradict Geoffrey as to the color of the bills, and with that the case +for the prosecution closed. + +Rankin said he was as yet unprepared with any evidence for the defense. +Evidence of previous good character could certainly be obtained in any +quantity from any person who had ever known the prisoner, and, in any +case, he should be allowed time to produce this evidence. He easily +showed a number of reasons why a postponement for a week should be +granted. + +The magistrate shook his head, and then told John Cresswell to stand up. + +Jack was partly hoisted up by a policeman. He stood holding on to the +bar in front of him with his head down, perhaps the most guilty looking +individual that had been in that dock for a month. + +"John Cresswell, the evidence against you in this case leaves no shadow +of doubt in my mind that you are guilty of the offense charged. Your +counsel has requested a delay in order that your defense may be more +thoroughly gone into. I have watched your demeanor throughout the trial, +and, although a little doubtful at first, I have come to the conclusion +that you are shamming insanity. I saw you on several occasions look +perfectly intelligent, and your remarks show that you fully understand +the bearing of the case. I will therefore refuse to postpone the trial +further than three o'clock this afternoon. This will give your counsel +an opportunity to produce evidence of previous good character or any +other evidence that he may wish to bring forward. Forty-eight thousand +dollars of the stolen money are still missing, and, so far, I certainly +presume that you know where that large sum of money is secreted. Unless +the aspect of the case be changed by further evidence sentence will be +passed on you this afternoon, and I wish to tell you now that if, in the +mean time, you make restitution of the money, such action on your part +may materially affect the sentence I shall pass upon you." + +The magistrate was going on to say: "I will adjourn the court now until +three o'clock," when he perceived that Jack, who was still standing, was +speaking to him and looking at him vacantly. What Jack said while his +head swayed about drunkenly was this: + +"If you'll let me off this watch now I'll do double time to-morrow, +governor. I never was sea-sick before, but I must turn in for a while, +for I can't stand without holding on to something." + +Nobody knew what to make of this except Detective Dearborn, who had +possessed all along the clew to his distressing condition. But what did +the detective care for his condition? John Cresswell was black with +guilt. The fact of his being "cut up" because, a woman got drowned did +not change his guilt. He and that deuced fine woman were partners in +this business, and forty-eight thousand had gone to the bottom of the +lake in her pocket The detective could not forgive himself for not +allowing Jack to try and save the girl. The girl herself was no object, +but it would have fetched things out beautifully as a culmination of +detective work to bring her back also--along with the money. Forty-eight +and two would make fifty, and if the bank could not afford to give away +one in consideration of getting back the forty-nine--Bah! he knew his +mad thirst to hold his prey had made him a fool. + +Was it the formation of his jaw? They say a bull-dog is not the best +fighter, because he will not let go his first grip in order to take a +better one. + +The court-room was empty in five minutes after the adjournment, and a +couple of the "Vics" followed Jack down-stairs. Rankin went down also +and was going to get Jack some stimulant, but he found the bank fellows +ahead of him. One of them had got a pint of "fizz," another had procured +from the neighboring restaurant some oysters and a small flask of +brandy. + +These young men were beautiful in the matter of stand-up collars, their +linen was chaste, and extensive, and-their clothes ornamental, but they +could stick to a friend. The language of these young men, who showed +such a laxity in moral tone as to attempt to refresh an undoubted +criminal, was ordinarily almost too correct, but now they were profane. +Every one of them had been fond of Jack, and their sympathy was greater +than their self-control. For once they forgot to be respectable, and +were cursing to keep themselves from showing too much feeling--a phase +not uncommon. + +Rankin saw Jack take some brandy and that afterward he was able to peck +at the oysters. Then he walked off to No. 173 Tremaine Buildings to +think out what had best be done and to have a solitary piece of bread +and butter, and perhaps a cup of tea, if Mrs. Priest's stove happened to +have a fire in it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + So Justice, while she winks at crimes, + Stumbles on innocence sometimes. + + _Hudibras._ + + He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and + will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.--HENRY + WARD BEECHER. + + +About two o'clock on this day of the trial, when Geoffrey and all the +rest of the bank-clerks were hurrying through their work in order to get +out to attend the police court, Mr. Dearborn came in unexpectedly, and +talked to Hampstead for a while. He said that the prisoner Cresswell +was very ill, perhaps dying, and had begged him to go and bring Geoffrey +to see him--if only for a moment. + +"All right," said Hampstead, "I'll speak to the manager about going, and +will then drop over with you." + +He did so, and they walked to the police station together. They +descended into the basement, and Mr. Dearborn unlocked a cell which was +very dark inside. + +"You'll find him in there," said the detective. "I'll have to keep the +door locked, of course, while you are with him." + +Geoffrey entered, and the door was locked on the outside. He looked +around the cell, and then a fear struck him. He turned coolly to the +detective, who was still outside the bars, and said: "You have brought +me to the wrong cell. Cresswell is not in this one." + +"Well, the fact is," said Mr. Dearborn, "a warrant was just now placed +in my hands for your arrest, and, as they say you are particularly good +both at running and the manly art, I thought a little stratagem might +work the thing in nice, quiet shape." + +"Just so," said Hampstead, laughing. "Perhaps you are right. I don't +think you could catch me if I got started. Who issued the warrant, and +what is it about?" + +"Here is the warrant. You are entitled to see it. An information was +laid, and that's all I know about it. You'll be called up in court in a +few minutes, and I must leave you now--to look after some other +business." + +At three o'clock, when the court-room was packed almost to suffocation, +the magistrate mounted the bench, and Cresswell was brought up and +remanded until the next morning. The spectators were much disappointed +at not hearing the termination of the matter, but their interest revived +as they heard the magistrate say, "Bring in the other prisoner." + +A dead silence followed, broken only by the measured tread of men's feet +in the corridor outside. The double doors opened, and there appeared +Geoffrey Hampstead handcuffed and accompanied by four huge policemen. In +ten minutes, any person in the court could easily sell his standing-room +at a dollar and a half a stand, or upward. + +There was no hang-dog look about Geoffrey. His crest was high. It was +surprising to see how dignified a man could appear in handcuffs. +Suppressed indignation was so vividly stamped upon his face that all +gained the idea that the gentleman was suffering an outrage. As he +approached the dock, one of his guards laid his hand on his arm. +Hampstead stopped short and turned to the policeman as if he would eat +him: + +"Take your hand off my arm!" he rasped out. The man did so in a hurry, +and the spectators were impressed by the incident. + +A charge about the fifty thousand dollars was read out to Geoffrey, +similar to that in the Cresswell case. That he did, etc.--on, etc.--at, +etc.--feloniously, etc.--and all the rest of it. + +Now Hampstead did not see how, when he was apparently innocent, and +another man practically convicted, he could possibly be thought guilty +also. The case against Cresswell had been so complete that it was +impossible for any one to doubt his guilt. Hampstead knew also that if +he were tried once now and acquitted, he never could be tried again for +the same offense. He had been fond of talking to Rankin about criminal +law, and on some points was better posted than most men. He did not know +whether Jack would be well enough to give evidence to-day, if at all, +and if, for want of proof or otherwise, the case against him failed now, +he would be safe forever. Jack might recover soon, and then the case +would be worse if he told all he knew. He did not engage a lawyer, as +this might seem as if he were doubtful and needed assistance. He was, he +thought, quite as well able to see loopholes of escape as a lawyer would +be, so long as they did not depend on technicalities. Altogether he had +decided, after his arrest and after careful thought, to take his trial +at once. + +He elected to be tried before a police magistrate, said he was ready for +trial, and pleaded "not guilty." + +About this time the manager of the Victoria Bank, who was very much +astonished and hurt at the proceedings taken against Geoffrey, leaned +over and asked the county attorney if he had much evidence against Mr. +Hampstead. The poor manager was beginning almost to doubt his own +honesty. Every person seemed guilty in this matter. As for Jack and +Hampstead, he would have previously been quite ready to have sworn to +his belief in their honesty. + +"My dear sir," replied the county attorney, "I don't know anything about +it. Mr. Rankin came flying down in a cab, saw the prisoner Cresswell, +swore out a warrant, had Mr. Hampstead arrested, sent the detectives +flying about in all directions, and that's all I know about it. He is +running the entire show himself." + +"Indeed!" said the manager. "I shall never be surprised at anything +again, after to-day." + +Nobody knew but Rankin himself what was coming on. Several detectives +had had special work allotted to them, but this was all they knew, and +the small lawyer sat with apparent composure until it was time to call +his first witness. + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote was the first witness +called, and his fashionable outfit created some amusement among the +"unwashed." Rankin, with a certain malignity, made him give his name in +full, which, together with his affected utterance, interested those who +were capable of smiling. + +After some formal questions, Rankin unrolled a parcel, shook out a +waistcoat with a large pattern on it, and handed it to the witness. + +"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?" + +"Oh, yes. It belongs to Mr. Hampstead. At least it used to belong to +him." + +"When did you see it last?" + +"Up in his rooms a few evenings ago." + +"That was the night of the day the fifty thousand dollars was stolen +from the bank?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you do with it then?" + +"I took it out of his bedroom closet to give to a poor boy." + +"Why did you do that?" + +"I thought it was a kindness to Mr. Hampstead to take that very dreadful +waistcoat away from him. I took this and a number of other garments to +give to the boy." + +"You were quite generous that night! Did Mr. Hampstead object?" + +"Object? Oh, no! I should have said that he took them from me and gave +them to the boy himself." + +"Now, why were you so generous with Mr. Hampstead's clothes, and why +should he consent to give them to the boy?" + +This was getting painful for Sappy. His manager was standing, as he +said, plumb in front of him. + +"Well, if I must tell unpleasant things," said Sappy, "the boy was sent +out that evening to get us a little wine, and I thought giving him that +waistcoat would be a satisfaction to all parties." + +"You were perfectly right. You have given a great deal of satisfaction +to a great many people. So Mr. Hampstead was entertaining his friends +that night?" + +"Yes. We dined with him at the club that evening, and adjourned +afterward to his rooms to have a little music." + +"Ah! Just so. Seeing how pleasantly things had been going in the bank +that day, and that his particular friend Cresswell had decamped with +fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Hampstead was celebrating the occasion. Now, +I suppose that, taking in the cost of the dinners and the wine--or +rather, excuse me--the _music_, and all the rest of it, you got the +impression that Mr. Hampstead had a good deal of money that night?" + +"That's none of your business," said Sappy, firing up. "Mr. Hampstead +spends his money like a gentleman. I suppose he did spend a good deal +that night, and generally does." + +"Very good," said Rankin. + +He then went on to ask questions about Hampstead's salary and his +probable expenses, but perhaps this was to kill time, for he kept +looking toward the door, as if he expected somebody to come in. Finally +he let poor Sappy depart in peace, after making him show beyond any +doubt that Geoffrey wore this waistcoat at the time of the theft at the +bank--that the garment was old fashioned, and that it had seemed +peculiar that Hampstead, a man of some fashion, should be wearing it. + +Patsey Priest was now called, and he slunk in from an adjoining room, in +company with a policeman. He had a fixed impression in his mind that +Geoffrey was his prosecutor, and that he was going to be charged with +stealing liquors, cigars, tobacco, and clothes. He was prepared to prove +his innocence of all these crimes, but he trembled visibly. His mother +had put his oldest clothes upon him, as poverty, she thought, might +prove a good plea before the day was out. The difference between his +garments and those of the previous witness was striking. His skin, as +seen through the holes in his apparel, suggested how, by mere _laches_, +real estate could become personalty. + +"Where were you on Wednesday night last, about one or two o'clock in the +evening?" + +"I wus in Mr. 'Ampstead's rooms part of the time." + +"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?" + + +"Yes, I did, and he gev it to me, so help me on fourteen Bibles, as I +kin prove by five or six gents right in front of me over there, and its +altogether wrong ye are fur to try and fix it on to a poor boy as has +to get his livin' honest and support his mother, and her a widder--" + +"Stop, stop!" called Rankin. "Did you get this other waistcoat at the +same time?" + +"Yes, I did, an' a lot more besides, an' I tuk them all up and gev them +to me mother just the same as I gives her all me wages and the hull of +the clothes an' more besides give me fur goin' round to the Rah-seen +House fur to buy the drinks--" + +"That will do, that will do," interrupted Rankin. "You can go." + +"Faith, I knew ye'd hev to discharge me, fur I'm as innercent as y'are +yerself." + +Mrs. Priest was called. + +She came in with more assurance now, as she had become convinced, from +seeing Hampstead in the dock and guarded by the police, that the matter +in question did not refer to her consumption of coal, or her legal right +to perquisites. + +"Mrs. Priest, did you ever see that waistcoat before?" said Rankin. + +"See it before! Didn't you take it out of me own hands not two hours +ago? What are ye after, man?" + +Rankin explained, that the magistrate wished to know all about it. + +"Well, I'll tell his lordship the hull story: Ye see, yer 'anor, the boy +gets the clothes from Mr. Geoffrey and brings them up to me last +Wednesday night begone and says they was give to him, an' the next day I +wus lookin' through them, and I thought I'd sell this weskit becas the +patthern is a thrifle large for a child, an' I puts me 'and into these +'ere pockets on the inside an' I pulls out a paper--" + +"Stop! Is this the paper you found?" + +"Yes, that's it; 'an I thought it might be of some use, as it hed +figures on it and writin'. An' I says to Mr. Renkin, when he come into +my room to-day fur to get a cup--" + +"Never mind what I came in for," said Rankin, coloring. + +"An' I says to Mr. Rankin, sez I, 'Is this paper any use, do you think, +to Mr. 'Ampstead.' An' he looks at it awful hard and sez, 'Where did yer +get it? An' then I ups and told him (for I wus quite innercent, and so +wus the boy) that I had got it out of the weskit--out of these 'ere +inside pockets. An' then I shows him that other weskit an' how the +lining of one weskit had been cut out and sewn onter the other--as +anybody can see as compares the two--an' I never saw any weskit with +four long pockets on the inside before, an' I wondered what they wus +fur. + +"An' I hedn't got the words out of me mouth before Mr. Renkin turned as +white as the drippin' snow and says, 'My God!' an' he grabs the two +weskits widout me leave or license, an' also the paper, an' I thought +he'd break his neck down the stairs in the dark. An' that's all I know +about it until the cops brought me and the child here in the hack, after +we put on our best clothes fur to be decent to answer to the charge +before yer lordship; an' if that's all yer lordship wants ter know, I'd +like to axe yer lordship if there'll be anythin' comin' to me fur comin' +down here widout resistin' the cops?" + +As Rankin finished with Mrs. Priest, the police magistrate reminded the +prisoner that he had the right to cross-examine the witness. + +Hampstead smiled, and said he had no doubt all she said was true. + +Rankin then read the marks on the piece of paper. It was a longish slip +of paper, about three inches wide, and had been cut off from a large +sheet of office letter-paper. There had been printing at the top of this +sheet when it was entire. On the piece cut off still remained the +printed words "Western Union." On the opposite side of the paper, which +seemed to have been used as a wrapper and fastened with a pin, were the +figures, in blue pencil, "$50,000," and, below, a direction or +memorandum: "For Mont. Teleg. Co'y. Toronto." These words had had a pen +passed through them. + +The excitement caused by this evidence was increased when Hampstead +arose and requested to be allowed to withdraw his consent to be tried +before the magistrate. + +"I see," he said, smiling, "that my friend Mr. Rankin has been led +astray by some facts which can be thoroughly well explained. But I must +have time and opportunity to get such evidence as I require." + +The magistrate rather sternly replied that he had consented to his trial +to-day, and said he was ready for trial, and that the request for a +change would be refused. The trial must go on. + +The Montreal Telegraph clerk was then called, and identified the wrapper +as the one that had been around the stolen fifty thousand dollars. He +had run his pen through the written words before depositing the money in +the Victoria Bank. He again identified by their numbers the two +one-thousand dollar bills found on Jack, and he was then told to stand +down until again required. + +The receiving teller of the bank could not swear positively to the +wrapper. He remembered that there had been a paper around the bills with +blue writing on it, which he thought he had not removed when counting +the bills. + +Rankin then requested the police to bring in John Cresswell. + +Want of proper nourishment had had much to do with Jack's mental +weakness. Besides the exhaustion which he had suffered from, he had not, +until his friends looked after him, eaten or drunk anything for over +forty hours. He had neglected the food brought him by the police. + +As the constable half supported him to the box, he was still a pitiable +object, in spite of the champagne the fellows had made him swallow. As +his bodily strength had come back under stimulant, his intellect had +returned also with proportional strength, which of course was not great. +His ideas as to what was going on were of the vaguest kind. He looked +surprised to see Geoffrey in custody, but smiled across the room to him +and nodded. + +After he was sworn, Rankin asked him: + +"You went away last Wednesday on a schooner called the North Star?" + +"Yes." + +"Did any person tell you to go in this way, instead of by steamer or +railway?" + +"I think it was Geoffrey's suggestion at first. I had to go away on +private business. I think we arranged the manner of my going together." + +"Did any person tell you to take your valises to the yacht club early on +Wednesday morning?" + +"I think it was Hampstead's idea originally, and I thought it was a good +one." + +"You wished to go away secretly?" + +"Well, we discussed that point. I was going by rail, but Hampstead +thought the schooner was best." + +"You evidently did everything he told you?" + +"Certainly, I did," said Jack, as he smiled across to Geoffrey. +"Hampstead has the best head for management I know of." + +"Quite so. No doubt about that! Now, since the accident to the boats in +the lake some bills were found upon you. Are those your bills?" +(producing them). + +"Yes, they look like my bills. The seven one-hundred dollars I got +myself, and the two for one thousand each I got--" Jack stopped here and +looked troubled. He looked across at Geoffrey and remained silent. It +came to him for the first time that Hampstead was being charged with +something that had gone wrong in the bank about this money. + +The magistrate said sharply "I wish to know where you got that money. +You will be good enough to answer without delay." + +Jack looked worried. "My money was all in smallish bills, and either +Geoffrey or I (I forget which) suggested that I had better take these +two American one-thousand-dollar bills, as they would be smaller in my +pocket. He slipped these two out of a package of bills which I imagine +were all of the same denomination." + +Rankin evidently was wishing to spin out the time, for he glanced at the +side door whenever it was opened. + +He went on asking questions and showing that Geoffrey had been at the +bottom of everything, and in the mean time three men appeared in the +room, and one of them handed Rankin a parcel. + +"During your trial this morning I think I heard you say that the bills +you saw on Hampstead's desk were all dark-green colored?" + +"I think they were all the same color as these two. He ran his finger +over them as he drew these two out." + +"I have some money here," said Rankin. "Does this package look anything +like the one you then saw?" + +"I could not swear to it. It looks like it." + +Even the magistrate was excited now. The news had flown through the +business part of the city that Geoffrey Hampstead had been arrested and +was on trial for stealing the fifty thousand dollars. The news stirred +men as if the post-office had been blown up with dynamite. The +court-room was jammed. When word had been passed outside that things +looked bad for Hampstead, as much as five dollars was paid by a broker +for standing room in the court. It had also become known that Maurice +Rankin had caused the arrest to be made himself, and that nobody but he +knew what could be proved. People thought at first that the bank +authorities were forcing the prosecution, and wondered that they had not +employed an older man. The fact that this young sprig, professionally +unknown, had assumed the entire responsibility himself, gave a greater +interest to the proceedings. + +The magistrate leaned over his desk and asked quietly: + +"What money is that you have there, Mr. Rankin?" + +Maurice's naturally incisive voice sounded like a bell in the death-like +stillness of the court-room. + +"These," he said, "are what I will prove to be the forty-eight +thousand-dollar bills stolen from the bank." + +The pent-up excitement could be restrained no longer. A sound, half +cheer and half yell, filled the room. + +Rankin had not been idle after he left Mrs. Priest that day. He first +went in a cab to Jack, and simply asked him if Geoffrey had worn the +large-patterned waistcoat on the day he went away. Jack remembered +hearing Sappy talking about his wearing it. Rankin then drove to the +Montreal Telegraph clerk, who identified the wrapper. Then he had the +warrant issued for Hampstead's arrest, and also subpoenas, which were +handed to different policemen for service, with instructions to bring +the witnesses with them if possible. The Priests, mother and son, he +secured by having a constable bring them in a cab. He then requested the +magistrate to hear the case at once. + +He supposed, rightly enough, that Hampstead, on becoming aware that the +numbers of the stolen bills were all known would be afraid to pass any +of them, and would still have the money somewhere in his possession. So +he had three detectives sent with a search warrant to break in +Geoffrey's door and search for it. He thought it was by no means certain +that they would find the money, and he was anxious on this point, but he +knew that, even if he failed to secure a conviction against Hampstead, +he had at least sufficient evidence to render Jack's conviction +doubtful. In the case against Hampstead, Jack's evidence would be heard +in full, and Rankin felt satisfied that in some way it would explain +away the terribly damaging case that had been made out against him in +the morning. + +The sudden shout in the court had been so full of sympathy for Jack and +admiration for Rankin's cleverness that for the first time in his +magisterial existence "His Worship" forgot to check it, and the call to +order by the police was of the weakest kind. All the bank-clerks of the +city were jammed into that room, and for a moment Jack's friends were +wild. + +A few more questions were put to Jack, but only to improve his position +before the public as to the charge against himself. + +"Are you aware that you have been made a victim of in a matter where the +Victoria Bank was robbed of fifty thousand dollars?" + +"No," said Jack, looking dazed. "I am not." + +"Are you aware that you were tried this morning for stealing that +money?" + +"I seemed at times to know that something was wrong. Once I knew I was +charged with stealing something or other, but I did not know or care. I +must have been unconscious after the collision in the lake. The first +thing I knew of, they said we were at Port Dalhousie. We must have +sailed there with nothing drawing but the forward canvas, and that must +have taken a good while." + +Jack was now allowed to stand down, but he was not removed from the +court-room. + +To clear up Jack's record thoroughly, Rankin called Detective Dearborn +and, before the magistrate stopped the examination as being irrelevant, +he succeeded in showing that Jack had been delirious for twelve hours +after his arrest. The fact that Dearborn had not mentioned these +circumstances placed him in a rather bad light with the audience, while +it showed once again what a common habit it is with the police to +suppress and even distort facts in order to secure a conviction. + +The telegraph clerk identified the recovered forty-eight bills, and the +receiving teller, gave the same evidence as in the Cresswell case, and +then the detective who found the money in Hampstead's room was called. + +As soon as he heard his first words, Geoffrey knew what was coming and +rose to his feet and addressed the magistrate: + +"I suppose, Your Worship, that it is not too late to withdraw my plea of +not guilty and at this late hour plead guilty. This will be my only +opportunity to cast a full light on this case, and, if I may be +permitted, I will do so." + +The magistrate nodded. Geoffrey continued: + +"Of course, it is perfectly clear that Cresswell is quite innocent. For +private reasons, in a matter that was entirely honorable to himself, +Cresswell wished to leave Canada. He was going through the States to +California, and did not intend to return, and would have resisted being +brought back to Canada. There was no law existing by which he could be +extradited. He could only be brought back by his own consent. From the +way I sent him on the schooner, his arrest before arriving in the United +States was in the highest degree improbable. If he had afterward been +arrested in the States I could have at once arranged to be sent by the +bank to persuade him to return. I had it all planned that he never +should return. He would have done as I told him. Even if he insisted on +coming back I then would be safe in the States. Of course, I did not +know that identification could be made of the bills--which could not +have been foreseen--and my object in giving him two of them was that +suspicion would rest temporarily on him, which might be necessary to +give me time to escape. As it turned out, if Cresswell had insisted on +returning to Canada he would be returning to certain conviction--part of +the identified money being found on him. + +"So far I speak only of my intentions at the time of the theft. But I +hope no one will think I would allow my old friend Jack Cresswell to go +to jail under sentence for my misdeeds. To-night I intended to cross the +lake in a small boat and then telegraph to the bank where to find all +the money at my chambers. This, with a letter of explanation, would have +acquitted Jack. I had to save him--also myself, from imprisonment; but +there was another matter worth far more than the money to me which I +hoped to be able to eventually make right. If I had got away to-night +the bank would have had its money to-morrow. + +"On the day before the theft I had lost all my twelve years' earnings +and profits in speculation. If I had been able to hold my stocks until +the evening of the theft I would have made over seventy-five thousand +dollars. For weeks during the excitement preceding my loss I had been +drinking a great deal, and when the chance came to recoup myself from +the bank I seemed to take the money almost as a matter of right." + +As Geoffrey continued he was looking up out of the window, evidently +oblivious of the crowd about him, thinking the thing out, as if +confessing to himself. + +"I know that without the liquor I never would have stolen, and that with +it I became--" + +His face grew bitter as he thought of his thieving Tartar uncle and his +mother who could not be prevented from stealing. But he pulled himself +together and continued: "It would have been open to me to call men from +this gathering to give evidence as to my previous character, and I have +no hesitation in leaving this point in your hands if it will do anything +to shorten my sentence. On this ground only am I entitled to ask for +your consideration, and you will be doing a kindness if you will pass +sentence at once." + +As Hampstead said these words he looked abstractedly around for the last +time upon the scores of former friends who now averted their faces. +There was no bravado in his appearance. He held himself erect, as he +always did, and his face was impenetrable. His eyes claimed acquaintance +with none who met his glance. Some smiled faintly, impressed as they +were with his bearing, but he seemed to look into them and past them, as +if saying to himself: "There's Brown, and there's Jones, and there's +Robinson, I wonder when I will ever see them again?" + +There were men in that throng who knew, when Hampstead spoke of the +effects of the liquor on him, exactly what was meant, who knew from +personal experience that, if there is any devilish tendency in a man or +any hereditary predisposition to any kind of wrong-doing, alcohol will +bring it out, and these men could not refrain from some sympathy with +him who had partly explained his fall, and somehow there were none who +thought after Geoffrey's statement that he would have sacrificed Jack to +imprisonment under sentence. + +The magistrate addressed him: + +"Geoffrey Hampstead, I do not think there has been anything against your +character since you came to Toronto. That an intelligence such as yours +should have been prostituted to the uses to which you have put it is one +of the most melancholy things that ever came to my knowledge. I can not +think you belong to the criminal classes, and I would be glad to be out +of this matter altogether, because I feel how unable one may be to deal +for the best with a case like yours. It may be that if you were +liberated you would never risk your ruin again. I do not think you +would; but, in that case, this court might as well be closed and the +police disbanded. I am compelled to make your case exemplary, and I +sentence you to six years in the Kingston Penitentiary." + +A dead silence followed, and then his former friends and acquaintances +began to go away. They went away quietly, not looking at each other. +There was something in the proceedings of the day that silenced them. +They had lost faith in one honest man and had found it again; and +another, on whom some nobility was stamped, they had seen condemned as a +convict. As they took their last look at the man whom they had often +envied and admired, they wished to escape observation. So many of them +were thinking how, at such a time in their lives, if things had not +luckily turned out as they did, they, too, might have fallen under some +kind of temptation, and they knew the sympathy that comes from secret +consciousness of what their own possibilities in guilt might have been. + +Geoffrey received his sentence looking out of the window toward the blue +sky and the swallows that flew past. Every word that the magistrate had +said had in it the tone of a friend, which made it harder to bear. While +he heard it all vividly, he strained to keep his attention on the flying +swallows in order that he might not break down. Outside of that window, +and just in that direction, Margaret, the wife that never would be, was +waiting for him. The man's face was like ashes. Oh, the relief to have +dashed himself upon the floor when he thought of Margaret! + +Yet he held out. He felt it would be better for him to be dead; but he +met his fate bravely, and now sought relief in another way. He caught +Rankin's eye, and motioned to him to come near. + +With a face that was afraid to relax its tension, he said, with an +effort at something like his ordinary speech: + +"Rankin, you forsook me sadly to-day, did you not? But I can still count +on you to do me a good turn--if only in return for to-day." + +"Go on, Geoffrey. Yes, I have disliked you from the first. But now I +don't. You make people like you, no matter what you do. You take it like +a man. What do you want?" + +Rankin could not command his countenance as Geoffrey could. Now that he +had accomplished the work of convicting him, it seemed terrible that one +who, with all his faults, appeared so manly a man, and so brave, should +be on his way to six years' darkness. + +Geoffrey pulled him closer and whispered in his ear: "Go to Margaret--at +once--before she can read anything! Take a cab. Tell her all. Break it +to her. You can put it gently. Go to her now--let her know, fairly, +before you come away, that all my chances are gone--that she is +released--that I am nothing--now--but a dead man." + +His head went down as the words were finished with a wild effort, and +his great frame shook convulsively for a moment. The thought of Margaret +killed him. + +During the day, before his arrest, he had seen that he would have to +return at least part of the money to corroborate his story and to save +Jack. And he could not abscond with the balance, because that would mean +the loss of Margaret. By returning the money and saving himself from +imprisonment, he had hoped that eventually she would forgive him. And +now-- + +Maurice could not stand it. He said, hurriedly: "All right. I'll see you +to-morrow." And then he dashed off, out a side door, and into a cab. And +on the way to Margaret he wept like a child behind the carriage curtains +for the fate of the man whom he had convicted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Yea, it becomes a man + To cherish memory, where he had delight, + For kindness is the natural birth of kindness. + Whose soul records not the great debt of joy, + Is stamped forever an ignoble man. + + SOPHOCLES (_Ajax_). + + +As Rankin broke the news to Margaret--by degrees and very quietly--she +showed but little sign of feeling. Her face whitened and she moved +stiffly to the open window, where she could sit in the draught. As she +made Rankin tell her the whole story she simply grew stony, while she +sat with bloodless hands clinched together, as if she thus clutched at +her soul to save it from the madness of a terrible grief. + +Suddenly she interrupted him. + +"Dismiss your cab," she said. "I will walk back with you part of the +way." + +When she turned toward him, the strained face was so white and the eyes +so wide and expressionless that he became afraid. + +"Perhaps you would rather be alone," said he, doubtful about letting her +go into the street. + +She seemed to divine what was in his mind, for she made him feel more at +ease by a gentler tone: + +"Alone? No, no! Anything but that! The walk will do me good." + +The cab was dismissed while she put on her hat, and as they walked +through the quiet streets toward the heart of the city, he went on with +all the particulars, which she seemed determined to hear. Several times +they met people who knew her and knew of her engagement to Hampstead, +and they were surprised to see her walking with--of all men--Maurice +Rankin. But she saw no one, gazing before her with the look which means +madness if the mind be not diverted. Suddenly, as they had to cross one +of the main arteries of the city, a sound fell upon Margaret's ear that +made her stop and grasp Rankin by the arm. Then the cry came again--from +a boy running toward them along the street: + +"Special edition of the Evening News! All about Geoffrey Hampstead, the +bank robber!" + +For a moment her grasp came near tearing a piece out of Rankin's arm. +But this was only when the blow struck her. She stopped the boy and +bought a paper. She gave him half a dollar and walked on. + +"This will do to give them at home," she said simply. "I could not tell +them myself." + +But the blow was too much for her. To hear the name of the man she +worshiped yelled through the streets as a bank robber's was more than +she felt able to bear. She must get home now. Another experience of this +kind, and something would happen. + +"Good-by!" she said, as she stopped abruptly at the corner of a street. +Not a vestige of a tear had been seen in her eyes. "I will go home now. +You have been very kind. I forgive you for--" + +She turned quickly, and Rankin stood and watched her as she passed +rapidly away. + + * * * * * + +No. 173 Tremaine Buildings had become slightly better furnished since +the opening of this story. Between the time when he made the cruise in +the Ideal and the events recorded in the preceding chapters, Rankin had +contributed somewhat to his comforts in an inexpensive way. In order to +buy his coal, which he did now with much satisfaction, he had still to +practice the strictest economy. But he took some pleasure in his +solitary existence. From time to time he bought different kinds of +preserves sold in pressed-glass goblets and jugs of various sizes. After +the jam was consumed the prize in glassware would be washed by Mrs. +Priest and added to his collection, and there was a keen sense of humor +in him when he added each terrible utensil to his stock. "A poor +thing--but mine own!" he would quote, as he bowed to an imaginary +audience and pointed with apologetic pride to a hideous pressed-glass +butter-bolt. + +In buying packages of dusty, doctored, and detestable tea he acquired +therewith a collection of gift-spoons of different sizes, and also +knives, forks, and plates, which, if not tending to develop a taste for +high art, were useful. At a certain "seven-cent store" he procured, for +the prevailing price, articles in tinware, the utility of which was out +of all proportion to the cost. + +Thus, when he sat down of an evening and surveyed a packing-box filled +with several sacks of coal, all paid for; when he viewed the collection +of glassware, the "family plate," and the very desirable cutlery; when +he gazed with pride upon his seven-cent treasures and his curtains of +chintz at ten cents a mile; when he considered that all these were his +very own, his sense of having possessions made him less communistic and +more conservative. Primitively, a Conservative was a being who owned +something, just as Darwin's chimpanzee in the "Zoo," who discovered how +to break nuts with a stone and hid the stone, was a Tory; the other +monkeys who stole it were necessarily Reformers. + +About ten o'clock on the evening of the trial Rankin was sitting among +his possessions sipping some "gift-spoon" tea. Around him were three +evening papers and two special editions. The "startling developments" +and "unexpected changes" which had "transpired" at the Victoria Bank had +made the special editions sell off like cheap peaches, and Rankin was +enjoying the weakness--pardonable in youth and not unknown to +maturity--of reading each paper's account of himself and the trial. They +spoke of his "acuteness" and "foresight," and commented on his being +the sole means of recovering the forty-eight thousand dollars. One paper +must have jumped at a conclusion when it called him "a well-known and +promising young lawyer--one of the rising men at the bar." + +"The tide has turned," he said. "Twenty cents a day is not going to +cover my total expenses after this. I feel it in my bones that the money +will come pouring in now." He was mechanically filling a pipe when a rap +at the door recalled him from his dream. A tall Scotchman, whom Rankin +recognized as the messenger of the Victoria Bank, handed him a letter +and then felt around for the stairs in the darkness, and descended +backward, on his hands and knees, for fear of accidents. + +A pleasing letter from the manager of the Victoria Bank inclosed one of +the recovered thousand-dollar bills. + +Rankin sat down. "I shall never," he said, with an air of resolve, +"steal any more coal! And now I'll have a cigar, three for a quarter, +and blow the expense!" + +Two weeks afterward there came to him a copy of a resolution passed by +the bank directors, together with a notification that they had arranged +with the bank solicitors, Messrs. Godlie, Lobbyer, Dertewercke, and +Toylor, to have him taken in as a junior partner. + + * * * * * + +Immediately after Geoffrey was sentenced, Jack Cresswell was, of course, +discharged. A dozen hands were being held out to congratulate him, when +Detective Dearborn drew him through a side door into an empty room, +where they had a short talk about keeping the name of Nina Lindon from +the public, and then they departed together for Tremaine Buildings in a +cab, while the two valises in front looked, like their owner, none the +better for their vicissitudes. Dearborn felt that little could be said +to mend the trouble he had caused Jack, but he did all he could, and +there was certainly nothing hard-hearted in the care with which the +redoubtable detective assisted his former victim to bed. Mrs. Priest was +summoned, also a doctor. Jack was found to be worse than he thought, and +Patsey was ordered to remain within call in the next room, where he +consumed cigars at twelve dollars the hundred throughout the night. + +The next day Mrs. Mackintosh and Margaret came down in a cab to Jack's +lonely quarters, and insisted upon his being moved to their house during +his illness. While unable to go home to his parents at Halifax he was +loath to give trouble to his friends, and made excuses, until he saw +that Margaret really wished him to come, and divined that his coming +might be a relief to her. + +It was so. In the weeks that followed, whatever these two suffered in +the darkness and solitude of the nights, during the day-time they were +brave. The heart of each knew its own bitterness. In a short time Jack +found the comfort of speech in telling Margaret many things. Unavoidably +Geoffrey's name came up, for he was entangled in both their lives. +Little by little Jack's story came out, as he lay back weakly on his +couch, until, warmed by Margaret's sympathy, he told her all about Nina +and himself--so far as he knew the story--and in the presence of his +manifold troubles, and at the thought of his suffering when he +witnessed, as a captive, Nina's death, Margaret felt that she was in the +presence of one who had known even greater grief than her own. This was +good for her. After a while she was able to speak to Jack about +Geoffrey, and this brought them more and more together. + +When he got well, his breach of duty in going away without notice was +overlooked, and he was taken back to his old post. There he worked on +as the years rolled by. Country managerships were offered to him, and +declined. He had nothing to make money for, and the only thing he really +enjoyed was Margaret's society, in which he would talk about Nina and +Geoffrey without restraint. For many years he remained ignorant that his +marriage with Nina was, after all, for New York State a valid one, since +marriage by simple contract, without religious ceremony, is sufficient +in that State. He never dreamed Geoffrey had been indirectly the cause +of his life's ruin, and always spoke of him as a man almost without +blame. However unreasonable, there are, among all the faulty emotions, +few more beautiful than a man's affection for a man. When it exists, it +is the least exacting attachment of his life. + +Margaret listened to his superlatives about Geoffrey. She listened; but +as the years passed on she grew wiser. When walking in the open fields, +or perhaps beside the wide lake, an image would come to her in gladsome +colors, in matchless beauty--a Greek god with floating hair and full of +resolve and victory, and in her dreams she would see and talk with him, +and would find him grave and thoughtful and tender, and all that a man +could be. Then would come the rending of the heart. This was a thief who +had decoyed his friend, and, good or bad, was lost to her. + +And thus time passed on. For two or three years she went nowhere. She +tried going into society, after Geoffrey's sentence, thinking to obtain +relief in change of thought, but the experiment was a failure. She found +that she had not the elasticity of temperament which can doff care and +don gayety as society demands. So she gave up the attempt for years, and +then went again only at her mother's solicitation. She said she had her +patients at the hospital, her studies with her father, her many books to +read, her long walks with Jack and Maurice Rankin, and what more did she +want? + +She did not hear of Geoffrey. The six years of his imprisonment had +dragged themselves into the past, and she supposed he was free again, if +he had not died in the penitentiary. But nothing was heard of him, and +thus the time rolled on, while Margaret's mother secretly wept to see +her daughter's early bloom departing, while no hope of any happy married +life seemed possible to her. + +Grave, pleasant, studious, thoughtful, as the years rolled by, she went +on with her hospital work. From the depths of the grief into which she +was plunged, she could discern some truths that might have remained +unknown if her life had continued sunny--just as at noonday from the +bottom of a deep pit or well the stars above us can be seen. To her the +bitterness of her life was medicinal. Speaking chemically, it was like +the acid of the unripe apple acting upon the starch in it to make a +sugar--thus to perfect a sweet maturity. She was one of the richly +endowed women in whom sensitiveness and strength combine peculiarly for +either superlative joy or sorrow, and hers was a grief which, for her, +nothing but tending the bed of sickness seemed to mitigate. Many a +bruised heart was healed, gladdened, and bewitched by the angel smile on +the sweet firm, full lips which could quiver with compassion. There are +some smiles, given for others, when grief has made thought for self +unbearable, which nothing but a descent into hell and glorious rising +again could produce. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + This is peace! + To conquer love of self and lust of life, + To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, + To still the inward strife; + For glory, to be lord of self;... + ... For countless wealth, + To lay up lasting treasure + Of perfect service rendered, duties done + In charity, soft speech, and stainless days; + + These riches shall not fade away in life + Nor any death dispraise. + + (_Buddha's Sermon.--The Light of Asia._) ARNOLD. + + +Geoffrey Hampstead had come out of the penitentiary with his former +hopes for life shattered. Margaret was lost to him. He came out without +a tie on earth--a living man from whom all previous reasons for +existence seemed to have been removed. For six years he had worked in +the penitentiary with all the energy that was in him, in order to keep +his thoughts from driving him mad. At one time all had been before him. +And now--Oh, the silent grinding of the teeth during the first two years +of it! After that he grew quieter and became able to regard his life +calmly. He learned how to suffer. To a large extent he ceased now to +think about himself. In the lowest depths of mental misery self died. +Then, for the first time in his life, he was able to realize the extent +of his wrongs to others. What now broke him down gradually was not, as +at first, the bitterness of his own lost hopes, but the thought that the +life of Margaret was wrecked--and by him, that the lives of others had +been wrecked--and by him. This was what the penitentiary now consisted +of. This was the penitentiary which would last for always. + +When the period of his sentence had expired, he had gone to New York and +obtained work with his old employers on Wall Street. But his mind was +not in his occupation. With his energy, it was impossible to live with +no definite end in view. Why plod along on microscopic savings, like a +mere machine to be fed and to work? When mental anguish, for him the +worst whip of retribution, had made thought for self so unbearable that +at last it died, there arose in him, untarnished by selfishness, the +nobility which had always been occultly stamped upon him, and which in +prison enabled him to protect himself, as it were, against madness, and +to refuse to be unable to suffer--a nobility able to realize the +perfection of a life lived for others, which none can realize until +first thought for self has been in some way killed. Rightly or wrongly, +he had become convinced in years of anguished thought that with a +continually aching heart may coexist an internal gladness that arises +from the gift of self to others and makes the suffering not only +bearable but even desirable--that this was altogether a mental +phenomenon, such as memory, but one on which religions had been built, +and that it was capable of making a heaven of earth and leading one, +with the ecstasy of self-gift, even to crucifixion. + +He determined to go to Paris to study medicine. For this, money was +required, and he conceived a plan for making a small fortune suddenly. +If he failed, what then? The world would lose a helper. His employers, +on being approached, saw that if proper contracts were made they were +sure to get their money back, and supplied him with all he required for +expenses. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Rankin, of the firm of Godlie, Dertewercke, Toylor, and Rankin, had, +for more than six years, shared with Jack Cresswell the old rooms +"_vice_ Hampstead, on active service." All Geoffrey's old relics had +been left untouched. He had sent word to have them sold, and Rankin, to +satisfy him, had let him think they were sold and that the money they +brought had been applied as directed. The money had been applied as +directed; but it had come out of Rankin's little bank account, and so, +until the time came when they could be handed over to Hampstead, the old +trophies remained where they were after being insured for a sum which, +for "old truck and rubbage only fit for a second-'and shop," seemed, to +Mrs. Priest, suspiciously large. + +Rankin had received from a client the disposal of several passes on a +special train that was to take some railway officials and their families +to Niagara Falls to see the great swimmer, John Jackson, together with +his dog, endeavor to swim the Whirlpool Rapids. Half the world was +excited over this event, which had been advertised everywhere. While +dining with Jack at the Mackintoshes on the Sunday previous to the +event, Rankin proposed that Margaret should accompany Jack and him to +see the trial made. + +Margaret hesitated, but Rankin said: "Oh, you know, as far as the fellow +himself is concerned, it will be hard to say how he is as he goes past. +You'll just see a head in the water for a moment, and then it will have +vanished down the river." + +"I don't suppose there will be much to see if the water takes him past +at the rate of nineteen miles an hour," said Margaret. + +"Just so. There won't be much to see. But we can have a pleasant day at +the falls and give the abused hack-men a chance. The 'special' will have +a number of ladies on board, and, if you like champagne, now's your +chance. What is a special train without champagne?" + +"Well, what do you say, mother?" asked Margaret. + +Mrs. Mackintosh, to give her daughter an acceptable change and to get +her out of her fixed ways, would have sent her to almost anything from +balloon ascension to a church lottery. + +"Do as you wish, my dear. I think I would like you to go. I do not see +how it would be possible for a spectator to know whether the man was +suffering or not in those waters, and, as for his sacrificing his life, +why that is his own lookout. If he lives I suppose he will get well +paid, will he not, Mr. Rankin?" + +"They expect he will make about twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. +Arrangements have been made not only with the railways, but also with +the hotels for his commission on all profits, which will be paid to him +if he lives, or, if not, to his family. I don't know that it should be +necessarily looked upon as a suicidal speculation. I have examined the +water a good many times, and am by no means certain that his safe +passage is impossible, if he can keep on the surface and not get dragged +under where the water seems to shoot downward. If he gets through, or +even if he tries it and fails, he will prove himself as brave a man as +ever lived." + +"I think I will go," said Margaret, brightening up with her old love for +daring. "It is not like going to a bullfight, and the excitement will be +intense." + +So they went off on the special, and when they arrived at the rapids, +after descending the precipice in the hydraulic lift, they went along +the path to the platform where the photographs are taken. This place was +filled with seats, numbered and reserved, and Rankin's party were seated +in the front row. No less than a hundred thousand people were watching +the forces of the river at this time. They were noticing how the +precipices gradually converged as they approached the rapids, and how +apparent was the downward slope of the water as it rushed through the +narrowed gorge. They were noticing how the descending current struck +projections of fallen rock at the sides, causing back-waves to wash from +each bank diagonally across the main volume of the river, and make a +continual combat of waters in the middle of the stream. Here, the deep, +irresistible flow of the main current charges into the midst of the +battle raging between the lateral surges, and carries them off bodily, +while they continue to fight and tear at each other as far as one can +see down the river. It is a bewildering spectacle of immeasurable +forces, giving the idea of thousands of white horses driven madly into a +narrowing gorge, where, in the crush, hundreds are forced upward and +ride along on the backs of the others, plunging and flinging their white +crests high in the air and gnashing at each other as they go. + +The worst spot of all is directly in front of the platform, where +Rankin's party was sitting. They waited until the time at which Jackson +was advertised to begin his swim, and then they grew impatient. Jack was +standing on a wooden parapet near at hand waiting until the swimmer +should appear around the bend far up the river, for they could not see +him take to the water from the place where they were. + +All at once, before the rest of the people near him could see anything, +Jack called out: "There he is!" as he descried, with his sailor's eyes, +two black specks on the water far away, up above the bridges. + +Jackson and his dog had jumped out of a boat in the middle of the river, +in the calm part half a mile up, and, as they swam down with the current +under the bridges, the dense mass of people there admired the easy grace +with which he swam, and remarked the whiteness of his skin. His dog, a +huge creature, half Great Dane and half Newfoundland, swam in front of +him, directed by his voice. Both of them could be seen to raise +themselves once or twice, so that they could get a better view of the +wild water in front of them. The dog recognized the danger, and for a +moment turned toward the shore and barked; but his master raised his +hand and directed him onward. Another moment, now, and the fight for +life began, for reaching the shore was as impossible as flying to the +moon. + +The first back-wash that came to them was a small one, and they both +passed through it, each receiving the water in the face. The next wash +followed almost immediately, and they tried to swim over it, but it +turned both man and dog over on their sides and spread them out at full +length on the surface of the main current. The people on the suspension +bridge could see that both received a terrible blow. They both seemed to +dive under the next wave, and then the water became so turbulent and the +speed of their passage so great that it was impossible to give a minute +description of what happened. + +Rankin's party and the multitude of spectators now watched what they +could see in breathless silence. At times, as the swimmers approached, +our party could see them hoisted in the air on the top of a wave, or +ridge or upheaval of water. Most of the time they were lost to sight in +the gulleys or, valleys, or else they were beneath the surface. It does +not take long to go a few hundred yards at nineteen miles an hour, and +in what scarcely seemed more than an instant the man, with the dog still +in front of him, had come near them. What Jack noticed was that as the +man here shook the water out of his eyes and raised himself, shoulders +out, by "treading water," his skin was almost scarlet. This, alone told +a tale of what he had gone through since the people on the bridges had +remarked the whiteness of his skin. + +He was now almost opposite them, and his face, set desperately, turned, +during an instant in a quieter spot, toward the platform. Margaret gave +a piercing shriek, and fell back into Rankin's arms. At the next +half-moment a huge boiling mountain, foaming up against the current in +which the swimmer's body floated, struck him a terrible blow, and threw +the dog back on top of him. Both were engulfed. After a while the dog's +head appeared again, but Geoffrey Hampstead was overwhelmed in the +Bedlam of waters, whose foaming, raging madness battered out his life. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Geoffrey Hampstead, by Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 34611-8.txt or 34611-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34611/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +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. 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text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Geoffrey Hampstead, by Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +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: Geoffrey Hampstead + A Novel + +Author: Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD</h1> + +<h3><i>A NOVEL</i></h3> + +<h2>BY THOMAS STINSON JARVIS</h2> + +<h3>NEW YORK<br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +1890</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1890,<br /> +BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Consider the work of God: for who can make<br /></span> +<span class="i0">that straight, which he hath made crooked?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Ecclesiastes vii, 13.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">I do not think<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So fair an outward, and such stuff within,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Endows a man but he.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Cymbeline.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>The Victoria Bank, Toronto, is on the corner of Bay and Front Streets, +where it overlooks a part of the harbor large enough to gladden the eyes +of the bank-clerks who are aquatic in their habits and have time to look +out of the windows. Young gentlemen in tattered and ink-stained coats, +but irreproachable in the matter of trousers and linen, had been known +to gaze longingly and wearily down toward that strip of shining water +when hard fate in the shape of bank duty apparently remained indifferent +to the fact that an interesting race was being rowed or sailed. This, +sometimes, was rather a bad thing for the race; for the Victoria Bank +had, immured within its cut stone and plate glass, some good specimens +of muscular gentility; and in contests of different kinds, the V. B. had +a way (discomforting to other banks) of producing winners. The amount of +muscle some of them could apply to a main-sheet was creditable, while, +as to rowing, there were few who did not cultivate a back and thigh +action which, if not productive of so much speed as Hanlan's, was +certainly, to the uninitiated, quite as pleasant to look upon; so that, +in sports generally, there was a decided call for the Vics.; not only +among men on account of their skill, but also in the ranks of a gentler +community whose interest in a contest seemed to be more personal than +sporting. The Vics. had adopted as their own a particular color, of +which they would wear at least a small spot on any "big day"; and, when +they were contesting, this color would be prevalent in gatherings of +those interested personally. And who would inquire the reasons for this +favoritism? "Reasons! explanations!—why are men so curious? Is it not +enough that those most competent to decide have decided? What will you? +Go to!" Indeed, the sex is very divine. It is a large part of their +divinity to be obscure.</p> + +<p>Perhaps these young men danced with the ease and self-satisfaction of +dervishes. Perhaps their prowess was unconsciously admired by those who +formerly required defenders. But the most compelling reason, on this +important point, was that "ours" of the Victoria Bank had established +themselves socially as "quite the right sort" and "good form"—and thus +desirable to the Toronto maiden, and, if not so much so to her more +match-making mother, the fact that they were considered <i>chic</i> provided +a feminine argument in their favor which had, as usual, the advantage of +being, from its vagueness, difficult to answer; so that the more +mercantile mother grew to consider that a "detrimental" who was <i>chic</i> +was not, after all, as bad as a "det." without leaven.</p> + +<p>It has been said that bank-clerks are all the same; but, while admitting +that, in regard to their faultless trousers and immaculate linen, there +does exist a pleasing general resemblance, rather military, it must be +insisted that there are different sorts of them; that they are complete +in their way, and need not be idealized. The old barbaric love for +wonderful story-telling is still the harvest-ground of those who live +by the propagation of ideas, but must we always demand the unreal?</p> + +<p>There was nothing unreal about Jack Cresswell. As he stood poring over +columns of figures in a great book, one glance at him was sufficient to +dispel all hope of mystery. He was inclosed in the usual box or +stall—quite large enough for him to stand up in, which was all he +required (sitting ruins trousers)—and his office coat was all a +bank-clerk could desire. The right armpit had "carried away," and the +left arm was merely attached to the body by a few ligaments—reminding +one of railway accidents. The right side of the front and the left arm +had been used for years as a pen-wiper. A metallic clasp for a patent +pencil was clinched through the left breast. The holes for the pockets +might be traced with care even at this epoch, but they had become so +merged in surrounding tears as to almost lose identity with the original +design.</p> + +<p>The bank doors had been closed for some time, after three o'clock, on +this particular day in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred +and blank, and Jack Cresswell had been puzzling his brains over figures +with but poor success. Whether his head was dull, or whether it was +occupied by other things, it is hard to say—probably both; so, on +hearing Geoffrey Hampstead, the paying-teller, getting ready to go away, +he leaned over the partition and said, in an aggrieved tone:</p> + +<p>"Look here, Geoffrey, I'm three cents out in my balance."</p> + +<p>A strong, well-toned voice answered carelessly, "That is becoming a +pretty old story with you, Jack. You're always out. However, make +yourself comfortable, dear boy, as you will doubtless be at it a good +while." Then, as he put on his hat and sauntered away, Geoffrey added a +little more comfort. "If you really intend to bring it out right, you +had better arrange to guard the bank to-night. You can do both at once, +you know, and get your pay as well, while you work on comfortably till +morning."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll get these three cents right for +me, I'll stand the dinners."</p> + +<p>"Much obliged. Mr. Hampstead has the pleasure of regretting. Prior +engagement. Has asked Mr. Maurice Rankin to dine with him at the club. +But perhaps, even without your handsome reward, we might get these +figures straightened out for you." Then, taking off his coat, "You had +better take a bite with us if we can finish this in time."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey came up to the books and "took hold," while Jack, now in +re-established good humor, amused himself by keeping up a running fire +of comments. "Aha! me noble lord condescends to dine the poor legal +scribe. I wonder, now, what led you to ask Maurice Rankin to dine with +you. You can't make anything out of Morry. He hasn't got a cent in the +world, unless he got that police-court case. Not a red shekel has he, +and me noble lord asks him to dinner—which is the humor of it! Now, I +would like to know what you want with Rankin. You know you never do +anything without some motive. You see I know you pretty well. Gad! I +do."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey was working away under this harangue, with one ear open, like a +telegraph operator, for Jack's remarks. He said: "Can not a fellow do a +decent thing once in a way without hearing from you?"</p> + +<p>"Not you," cried Jack, "not you. I'll never believe you ever did a +decent thing in your life without some underground motive."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey smiled over the books, where he was adding three columns of +figures at once, lost the addition, and had to begin at the bottom +again; and Jack, who thought that never man breathed like Geoffrey, +looked a little fondly and very admiringly at the way his friend's back +towered up from the waist to the massive shoulders—and smiled too.</p> + +<p>Jack's smile was expansive and contagious. It lighted up the whole +man—some said the whole room—but never more brightly than when with +Hampstead. Geoffrey had a fascination for him, and his admiration had +reached such a climax after nearly two years' intercourse that he now +thought there was but little within the reach of man that Geoffrey could +not accomplish if he wished. It was not merely that he was good looking +and had an easy way with him and was in a general way a favorite—not +merely that he seemed to make more of Jack than of others. Hampstead had +a power of some kind about him that harnessed others besides Jack to his +chariot-wheels; and, much as Cresswell liked to exhibit Geoffrey's seamy +side to him when he thought he discovered flaws, he nevertheless had +admitted to an outsider that the reason he liked Hampstead was that he +was "such an altogether solid man—solid in his sports, solid in his +work, solid in his virtues, and, as to the other way—well, enough +said." But the chief reason lay in the great mental and bodily vigor +that nearly always emanated from Geoffrey, casting its spell, more or +less effectively, for good or evil. With most people it was impossible +to ignore his presence; and his figure was prepossessing from the +extraordinary power, grace, and capacity for speed which his every +movement interpreted.</p> + +<p>It was his face that bothered observant loungers in the clubs. For +statuary, a sculptor could utilize it to represent the face of an angel +or a devil with equal facility—but no second-class devil or angel. Its +permanent expression was that which a man exhibits when exercising his +will-power. The tenacious long jaw had a squareness underneath it that +seemed to be in keeping with the length of the upper lip. The high, long +nose made its usual suggestions, two furrows between the thick eyebrows +could ordinarily be seen, and the protuberant bumps over the eyes gave +additional strength. The eyes were light blue or steel gray, according +to the lights or the humor he was in. An intellectual forehead, beveled +off under the low-growing hair, might suggest that the higher moral +aspirations would not so frequently call for the assistance of the +determination depicted in the face as would the other qualities shown in +the width and weight of head behind the ears.</p> + +<p>But Jack did not believe what he said in his tirades, and his good-will +makes him lax in condemnation of things which in others he would have +denounced. What Geoffrey said or did, so far as Jack knew, met, at his +hands, with an easy indifference if culpable, and a kindling admiration +if apparently virtuous. The two had lived together for a long time, and +no one knew better than Geoffrey how trustworthy Jack was. Consequently, +he sometimes entered into little confidences concerning his experiences, +which he glossed over with a certain amount of excuse, so that the moral +laxity in them did not fully appear; and what with the intensity of his +speech, his word painting, and enthusiastic face, a greater stoic than +poor Jack might have caught the fire, and perhaps condoned the offense.</p> + +<p>Jack thought he knew Hampstead pretty well.</p> + +<p>On the other side, Hampstead, though keen at discerning character, +confessed to himself that Jack was the only person he could say he knew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his +statutes, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries.—<i>Hamlet.</i></p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>As Jack expected, it did not take long for his friend Hampstead to show +where the mistake about the three cents lay; and then they sallied forth +for a little stroll on King Street before dinner.</p> + +<p>They lived in adjoining chambers in the Tremaine Buildings on King +Street. The rooms had been intended for law offices, and were reached by +a broad flight of stairs leading up from the street below. Here they +were within five minutes' walk of their bank or the club at which they +generally took their meals. Hampstead had first taken these rooms +because they were in a manner so isolated in the throng of the city and +afforded an uncontrolled liberty of ingress and egress to young men +whose hours for retiring to rest were governed by no hard and fast +rules.</p> + +<p>A widow named Priest lived somewhere about the top of the building, with +her son, who was known to the young gentlemen as Patsey. Mrs. Priest +made the beds, did the washing, attended to the fires, and was generally +useful. She also cleaned offices, even to the uttermost parts of the +great building, and altogether made a good thing of it; for besides the +remunerations derived in these ways she had her perquisites. For +instance, in the ten years of her careful guardianship of chambers and +offices in the building, she had never bought any coal or wood. She +possessed duplicate keys for each room in her charge, and thus having a +large number of places to pillage she levied on them all, according to +the amount of fuel she could safely carry away from each place without +its being missed. Young men who occupied chambers there never had to +give away or sell old clothes, because they were never found to be in +the way. She asked for them when she wanted to cut them down for Patsey, +because it would not do to have the owners recognize the cloth on him. +The clothes which she annexed as perquisites she sold.</p> + +<p>Patsey was accustomed occasionally to go through the wardrobes of the +gentlemen with his mother, while she made the beds in the morning, and +he then chose the garments that most appealed to his artistic taste. +This interesting heir to Mrs. Priest's personal estate also had his +perquisites "unbeknownst to ma." He consumed a surprising amount of +tobacco for one so young, and might frequently be seen parading King +Street on a summer evening enjoying a cigar altogether beyond his years +and income. His clothes bore the pattern of the fashion in vogue three +or four years back; and, despite some changes brought about by the +scissors of Mrs. Priest, the material, which had been the best Toronto +could provide, still retained much of the glory that had captivated King +Street not so very long ago. Having finally declared war against +education in all its recognized branches, he generally took himself off +early in the day, and lounged about the docks, or derived an +indifferently good revenue from the sale of ferry-boat tickets to the +island; and in various other ways did Patsey provide himself with the +luxuries and enjoyments of a regular topsawyer.</p> + +<p>In the immediate neighborhood of Mrs. Priest, at an altitude in the +building which has never been exactly ascertained, dwelt Mr. Maurice +Rankin, barrister-at-law and solicitor of the Supreme Court. He resided +in Chambers, No. 173 Tremaine Buildings, King Street, West, Toronto, and +certainly all this looked very legal and satisfactory on the +professional card which he had had printed. But the interior appearance +of the chambers was not calculated to inspire confidence in the +profession of the law as a kind nurse for aspiring merit; and as for +the approach to No. 173, it was so intricate and dark in its last few +flights of stairs, that none but a practiced foot could venture up or +down without a light, even in the day-time. The room occupied by Mr. +Rankin could never have been intended to be used as an office, or +perhaps anything else, and consequently the numbers of the rooms in the +buildings had not been carried up to the extraordinary elevation in +which No. 173 might now be found. Still, it seemed peculiar not to have +the number of one's chambers on one's card, if chambers should be +mentioned thereon, so he found that the rooms numbered below ended at +172, and then conscientiously marked "No. 173" on his own door with a +piece of white chalk. He also carefully printed his name, "Mr. Maurice +Rankin," on the cross-panel and added the letters "Q.C."—just to see +how the whole thing looked and assist ambition; but he hurriedly rubbed +The Q.C. out on hearing Mrs. Priest approach for one of her interminable +conversations from which there was seldom any escape. When Rankin first +came to Tremaine Buildings he lived in one of the lower rooms, now +occupied by Jack Cresswell, and not without some style and +comfort—taking his meals at the club, as our friends now did. His +father, who had been a well-known broker,—a widower—kept his horses, +and brought up his son in luxury. He then failed, after Maurice had +entered the Toronto University, and, unable to endure the break-up of +the results of his life's hard work, he died, leaving Maurice a few +hundred dollars that came to him out of the life-insurance.</p> + +<p>It was with a view to economy that our legal friend came to live in the +Tremaine Buildings after leaving the university and articling himself as +a clerk in one of the leading law firms in the city, where he got paid +nothing. The more his little capital dwindled, the harder he worked. +Soon the first set of chambers were relinquished for a higher, cheaper +room, and the meals were taken per contract, by the week, at a cheap +hotel. Then he had to get some clothes, which further reduced the little +fund. So he took "a day's march nearer home," as he called it, and +removed his effects <i>au quatrième étage</i>, and from that <i>au +cinquième</i>—and so on and up. Regular meals at hotels now belonged to +the past. A second-hand coal-oil stove was purchased, together with a +few cheap plates and articles of cutlery; and here Rankin retired, when +hungry, with a bit of steak rolled up in rather unpleasant brown paper; +and after producing part of a loaf and a slab of butter on a plate, he +cooked a trifle of steak about the size of a flat-iron, and caroused. +This he called the feast of independence and the reward of merit.</p> + +<p>Among his possessions could be found a wooden bed and bedding—clean, +but not springy—also a small deal table, and an old bureau with both +hind-legs gone. But the bureau stood up bravely when propped against the +wall. These were souvenirs of a transaction with a second-hand dealer. +In winter he set up an old coal-stove which had been abandoned in an +empty room in the building, and this proved of vast service, inasmuch as +the beef-steak and tea could be heated in the stove, thereby saving the +price of coal-oil. It will occur to the eagle-eyed reader that the price +of coal would more than exceed the price of coal-oil. On this point +Rankin did not converse. Although he started out with as high principles +of honor as the son of a stock-broker is expected to have, it must be +confessed that he did not at this time buy his coal. Therefore there was +a palpable economy in the use of the derelict stove—to say nothing of +its necessary warmth. No mention of coal was ever made between Rankin +and Mrs. Priest; but as Maurice rose in the world, intellectually and +residentially, Mrs. Priest saw that his monetary condition was depressed +in an inverse ratio, and being in many ways a well-intentioned woman, +she commenced bringing a pail of coal to his room every morning, which +generally served to keep the fire alight for twenty-four hours in +moderate weather. Maurice at first salved his conscience with the idea +that she was returning the coal she had "borrowed" from him during his +more palmy days. After the first winter, however, when he had suffered a +good deal from cold, his conscience became more elastic and communistic; +and ten o'clock P.M. generally saw him performing a solitary and gloomy +journey to unknown regions with a coal-scuttle in one hand and a wooden +pail in the other. Jack Cresswell had come across this coal-scuttle one +night in a distant corridor. He filled it with somebody else's coal and +came up with it to Rankin's room—his face beaming with enjoyment—and, +entering on tip-toe, whispered mysteriously the word "pickings." Then, +after walking around the room in the stealthy manner of the stage +villain who inspects the premises before "removing" the infant heir, he +dumped the scuttle on the floor and gasped, breathlessly, "A gift!"</p> + +<p>Rankin put aside Byles on Bills and arose with dignity: "What say you, +henchman? Pickings? A gift? Ay, truly, a goodly pickings! Filched, +perchance, from the pursy coal-bins of monopoly?"</p> + +<p>"Even so," was the reply, given with bated breath; and with his finger +to his lips, to imply that he was on a criminal adventure, Jack again +inspected the premises with much stealth and agility, and disappeared as +mysteriously as he had come. If Jack or Geoffrey ever saw anything lying +about the premises they thought would be of use to Rankin, there was a +nocturnal steal, and up it went to Rankin's room. This was sport.</p> + +<p>In this way Rankin lived. With one idea set before him, he grappled with +the leather-covered books that came by ones and twos into his room, +until, when the great struggle came at his final examinations, he was +surprised to find he had come out so well, and quite charmed when he +returned from Osgoode Hall to his dreary room, a solicitor of the +Supreme Court and a barrister-at-law, with a light heart, and not a +single solitary cent in the wide world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Frien'ship maks us a' mair happy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Frien'ship gies us a' delight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Frien'ship consecrates the drappie,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Frien'ship brings us here to-night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Robert Burns.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>At the opening of this story, about six months had elapsed since Rankin +had been licensed to prey upon the public, and as yet he had not +despoiled it to any great extent. If he had kept body and soul together, +it was done in ways that are not enticing to young gentlemen who dream +of attacking the law single-handed.</p> + +<p>An old lawyer named Bean had an office in the lower part of Tremaine +Buildings, and Maurice arranged with him to occupy one of the ancient +desks in his office, and, in consideration of answering all questions as +to the whereabouts of Mr. Bean, the privilege of office-room was given +to him rent-free. As Mr. Bean had no clients, and as Rankin never knew +where he was, this duty was a light one. He also had from Mr. Bean the +privilege of putting his name up on the door, and, of course, as +frequently and as alluringly along the passage and on the stairs as he +might think desirable. But it was set out very clearly in the agreement, +which Rankin carefully drew up and Bean pretended to revise, that Mr. +Rankin should not in any way interfere with the clients of Mr. Bean, and +that Mr. Bean should not in any way interfere with the clients of the +aforesaid Rankin.</p> + +<p>Bean had a little money, which he seemed to spend exclusively in the +consumption of mixed drinks; and whatever else he did during the day, +besides expending his income in this way, certainly engrossed his +attention to a very large extent. When he looked into the office daily, +or, say, bi-weekly, it was only for a few moments—except when he fell +asleep in his chair.</p> + +<p>It was after he had been five or six months with Mr. Bean that Geoffrey +Hampstead had asked Rankin to dinner. He locked up the office about five +o'clock, having closed the dampers in the stove (Bean supplied the +coal—a great relief) and putting the key in his pocket, he ascended to +No. 173 for a while, and then he came down to Hampstead's chambers, +where he found our two bank friends taking a glass of sherry and bitters +to give their appetites a tone, which was a very unnecessary proceeding.</p> + +<p>"Hello, old man! How are you?" cried Hampstead in a hearty voice, +handing him a wine glass.</p> + +<p>"Ah! How am I? Just so!" quoth Rankin, helping himself. "How should a +man be, who is on the high road to fortune?"</p> + +<p>"He ought to be pretty chirpy, I should think," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Chirpy! That's the word. 'Chirpy' describes me. So does 'fit.' The +money is rolling in, gentlemen. Business is on the full upward boom, and +I feel particularly 'fit' to-day—also chirpy."</p> + +<p>"Got a partnership?" inquired Geoffrey, with interest.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean a partnership with Mr. Bean, and I answer +emphatically 'No.' I refer to <i>my own</i> business, sir, and I have no +intention of taking Mr. Bean into partnership. Bean is dying for a +partnership with me. Sha'n't take Bean in. A client of mine came in +to-day—"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! you haven't got a client, have you?" cried Geoffrey, +starting from his chair.</p> + +<p>"Don't interrupt me," said Mr. Rankin. "As I was saying," he added with +composure, "a client of mine—"</p> + +<p>"No, no, Morry! This is too much. If you want us to believe you, give us +some particulars about this client—just as an evidence of good faith, +you know."</p> + +<p>"The client you are so inquisitive about," said Rankin, with dignity, +"is a lady who has been, in a sense, prematurely widowed—"</p> + +<p>"It's Mrs. Priest," said Jack, turning to Geoffrey. "He has been +defending her for stealing coal, sure as you're born!"</p> + +<p>"The lady came to me," said Maurice, taking no notice of the +interruption, "about a month ago, apparently with a view to taking +proceedings for alimony—at least her statement suggested this—"</p> + +<p>"By Jove, this is getting interesting!" said Jack.</p> + +<p>"But on questioning the unfortunate woman as to her means, I found that +her funds were in a painfully low condition—in fact, at a disgustingly +low ebb, viewed from a professional standpoint. And I also found that +her husband had offered her four dollars a week, to be paid weekly, on +condition that he should never see her and that somebody else should +collect the money. The husband was evidently a bold, bad man to have +given rise to the outbursts of jealously which it pained me to listen +to, and the poor lady, forgetful of my presence, and with all the +ability of an ancient prophet, denounced two or three women both jointly +and severally. She then roused herself, and asked what I would charge to +collect her four dollars per week. This seemed to decide the alimony +suit in the negative, and from the fact that she was, not to put too +fine a point upon it, three parts drunk at the time, I thought it better +to say what I would do. So now I collect four dollars a week from her +husband and pay it over to her every Saturday, for which I deduct, each +time, the sum of twenty-five cents. There is a good deal of money to be +made in the practice of the law."</p> + +<p>"What about the husband?" asked Jack, laughing.</p> + +<p>"I believe that I was invited to-day to dine—at least I came with that +intention. Instead of talking any more, I would be better satisfied if +somebody produced so much as the photograph of a chicken—and after that +I will further to you unfold my tale."</p> + +<p>Mr. Rankin slapped a waistcoat that appeared to be unduly slack about +the lower buttons.</p> + +<p>They then repaired to the club, where, having but a small appetite +himself, and the representatives of bank distinguishing themselves more +than he could as trenchermen, Rankin kept the ball rolling by relating +his experiences as a barrister, which seemed to amuse his two friends. +These experiences, leading to police-court items and police-court +savages, brought up the question of "What is a savage?"—which +introduced the Fuegians, the wild natives of Queensland, the Mayalans, +and others, with whom Hampstead compared the lowest-class Irish. He had +profited by much travel and reading, and anthropology was a subject on +which he could be rather brilliant. To show how our civilization is a +mere veneer, he drew a comparison between savage and civilized fashions, +and brought out facts culled from many different peoples—not omitting +Schweinfurth's Monbuttoo women—as to the primitive nature of the +dress-improver. Then, somehow, the conversation got back to the police +court, and the question, "What is a criminal?" and they agreed that if +the harm done to others was one criterion of guilt, it seemed a pity +that some things—woman's gossip, for instance—went so frequently +unpunished.</p> + +<p>"And I think," broke in Cresswell, after the subject had been well +thrashed, "that you two fellows are talking a good deal of what you know +very little about. After all your chatter, I think the point is right +here (and I put it in the old-fashioned way). If one does wrong he +violates his own appreciation of right, and his guilt can only be +measured by the way he tramples on his conscience, and as conscience +varies in almost every person, I think we had better give up wading into +abstractions and come down to the concrete—to the solid enjoyment of a +pipe." And Jack pushed back his chair.</p> + +<p>"Then, according to you, Jack, a fellow with no conscience would in +human judgment have no guilt," laughed Hampstead.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe there exists a sane man in the world without a +conscience," replied Jack, with his own optimism.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I agree with you," said Rankin. "I feel sure there are +men who, if they ever had a conscience, have trained it into such +elasticity that they may be said to have none. Do you not think so, +Hampstead?"</p> + +<p>"Really, I hardly know. I haven't thought much upon the subject, but I +think we ought, if we do possess any conscience ourselves, to give Jack +a chance to light his pipe."</p> + +<p>They soon sauntered back to the Tremaine Buildings, where Jack sat down +at the piano and played to them. While Jack played on, Geoffrey seemed +interested in police-court items, but Rankin preferred listening to +Beethoven and Mozart to "talking shop." After they had sung some +sea-songs together and chatted over a glass of "something short," Rankin +said good-night and mounted to No. 173 on the invisible stairs with as +much activity as if daylight were assisting him.</p> + +<p>Having lit his lamp, he soliloquized, as he attended to some faults in +his complexion before a small looking-glass, "So I have got another +client, I perceive. That dinner to-day was a fee—nothing else in the +world. I don't know now that I altogether like my new client. He +evidently didn't get what he wanted. Perhaps Jack was in the way. Now, I +wonder what the beggar <i>does</i> want. Chances are I'll have another dinner +soon. Happy thought! make him keep on dining me <i>ad infinitum</i>! +Ornamental dinner! Pleasant change!"</p> + +<p>Maurice undressed and walked up and down the room. "Perhaps I am all +wrong, though," said he. "I can't help liking him in many ways, and he's +chock-full of interesting information. How odd that he didn't know +anything about a fellow having no conscience. Hadn't thought over that +idea. Very likely! Gad! I could imagine him just such a one, now that I +have got suspicious. He has a bad eye when he doesn't look after it. It +doesn't always smile along with his mouth. I may be wrong, but I believe +there's something there that's not the clean wheat," and Maurice +ascended to the woolsack and disappeared for the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>How can I tell the feelings in a young lady's mind; the thoughts in +a young gentleman's bosom? As Professor Owen takes a fragment of +bone and builds a forgotten monster out of it, so the novelist puts +this and that together: from the foot-prints finds the foot; from +the foot, the brute who trod on it; ... traces this slimy reptile +through the mud; ... prods down this butterfly with a pin. +—<span class="smcap">Thackeray</span> (<i>The Newcomes</i>).</p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Hampstead did not get to sleep, after Rankin had retired, as early as he +expected. Jack Cresswell followed him into his bedroom and sat down, lit +another pipe, and then walked about, and seemed preoccupied, as he had +all the evening. Geoffrey did not speak to him at first, as this was an +unusual proceeding between the two, but, having got into bed and made +himself comfortable by bullying the pillows into the proper shape and +position, addressed his friend:</p> + +<p>"Now, old man, unburden your mind. I know you want to tell me something, +but do not be surprised if you find me asleep before you get your second +wind. If you care for me, cut it short."</p> + +<p>"Got a letter to-day," said Jack, "from her."</p> + +<p>"Well, Jack, as you seem, with some eccentricity, to have only one +"her," of course I am interested. Your feelings in that quarter never +fail in their attraction. Pour into my devoted ear for the next five +minutes (not longer) a synopsis of your woes or joys. What is it you +want to-night? Congratulation or balm for wounds?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't wish to keep you awake," said Jack testily, rising, as if +to depart.</p> + +<p>"Go on, sir. Go on, sir. Your story interests me."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey assumed an attitude of attention. Jack smiled and sat down +again. He had no intention of going away. He had thought over his letter +all day, till at last a confidential friend seemed almost necessary.</p> + +<p>"My letter comes from London. They've' returned from the Continent, and, +as they are now most likely on the sea, she'll be at home in about a +week." And Jack seemed in a high state of satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Well, well! I never saw a real goddess in my life," said Geoffrey. "And +there is no doubt about Miss Lindon being one, because I have listened +to you for two years, and now I know that she is what I have long wished +to see."</p> + +<p>"It will give me the greatest pleasure to have you know her. I have +looked forward tremendously to that. Next to meeting her myself comes +the idea of we three being jolly good friends, and going around together +on little jamborees to concerts and that sort of thing. I haven't a +doubt but what we three will 'get on' amazingly."</p> + +<p>"Playing gooseberry with success requires a clever person," said +Geoffrey. "I don't think I'm quite equal to the call for the tact and +loss of individuality which the position demands. However, dear boy, I +am quite aware that to introduce me to the lady of your heart as your +particular friend is the greatest compliment one fellow can pay +another—all things considered. Don't you think so? Oh, yes, I dare say +we will be a trio quite out of the common. But, if she is as pretty as +you say she is, I'll have to look at her, you know. Can't help looking +at a handsome woman, even if she were hedged in with as many +prohibitions as the royal family. You'll have to get accustomed to +<i>that</i>, of course."</p> + +<p>"But that's the very reason why I want you to know her," said Jack, in +his whole-souled way. "I really often feel as if her beauty and +brightness and her power of pleasing many should not be altogether +monopolized by any one man. It would redouble my satisfaction if I +thought you admired her also." Jack stopped for a moment as he +considered that her power of "pleasing many" had been rather larger at +times than he had cared about. "It seems to me that she has enough of +these attractions for me, and some to spare for others."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey smiled as he wondered if the girl herself thought she had +enough to spare for others besides Jack.</p> + +<p>"Young man, your sentiments do you credit! It must make things much more +satisfactory to an engaged girl to understand that she is expected not +to neglect the outside world whenever she is able 'to tear herself +away,' as it were."</p> + +<p>"I see you grinning to yourself under the bed-clothes," said Jack, who +rather winced at this. "I don't know that I ever asked her to distribute +herself more than she did. On the contrary, if you must have the +unvarnished truth, quite the reverse." Jack reddened as he ventilated +some of the truths which are generally suppressed. "The fact is, it was +rather the other way. I frequently have acted like a donkey when I +didn't get her undivided attention. You know girls often get accused of +flirting, and when one hears their own explanation, nothing seems +clearer, you know, than that there was no occasion for the row at all."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey thought he did know, but said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Two years, though, make changes, and having seen nothing of her for +such a long time, I feel as if one glimpse of her would repay me for all +the waiting. I should never have thought of our differences again if you +had not raked them up."</p> + +<p>"Which I am sorry to have done," said Geoffrey. "No doubt, two years do +sometimes make a difference. I am sure you treat the <i>affaire</i> +sublimely, and, if she is equally generous in her thoughts of you, it +will be a unique thing to gaze upon both of you at once."</p> + +<p>Jack took Geoffrey's remarks in good part, for he had got accustomed to +the cynical way the latter treated most things. It was <i>his way</i>, he +thought, and Geoffrey was "such an all-round good fellow, and all that +sort of thing, you know," that it was to be expected that he should have +"ways." Besides this, Jack had seen from time to time that, though very +ready to recognize sterling merit, Geoffrey had ability in detecting +humbug, and that he considered the optimist had too many chances against +him to make him valuable as a prophet. Thus, when he spoke in this way +of Nina Lindon, Jack supposed that his friend had his doubts, and, much +as he loved her, he stopped, like many another, and asked himself +whether she had such a generosity and nobility in her character as he +had supposed. This, he felt, was rather beneath him in one way, and +rather beyond him in another. When he looked for admirable traits, he +remembered several instances of good-natured impulse, and while the +graceful manner in which she had done these things rose before him, he +grew enthusiastic. Then he sought to call up for inspection the +qualities he took exception to. That she had seemed inconsiderate of his +feelings at times seemed true. There was, he thought, a frivolity about +her. He thought life had for him some few well-defined realities, and +that she had never seemed to quite grasp the true inwardness of his best +moments. But all was explained by her youth and the adulation paid to +her. And then the memory of her soft dark eyes and flute-like voice, the +various allurements of her vivacious manner and graceful figure, +produced an enthusiasm quite overwhelming. So he laughed at the defeat +of his impartiality, looked over at Geoffrey, who was peacefully snoring +by this time, and went away to his own room. But deep down in his heart +lay the shadow of a doubt which, with his instinctive courtesy, he never +approached even in an examination supposed to be a searching one. The +inspection of it seemed a sacrilege, and he put it from him. +Nevertheless, there had been times when Jack felt doubtful as to whether +Nina could be relied upon for absolute truth.</p> + +<p>Joseph Lindon, the father of Nina, came from—no person seemed to know +where. He, or his family, might have come from the north of Ireland or +south of Scotland, or middle of England, or anywhere else, as far as any +one could judge by his face; and, as likely as not, his lineage was a +mixture of Scotch, Irish, English, or Dutch, which implanted in his +physiognomy that conglomeration of nationalities which now defies +classification, but seems to be evolving a type to be known as +distinctively Canadian. His accent was not Irish, Scotch, English, nor +Yankee. It was a collection of all four, which appeared separately at +odd times, and it was, in this way, Canadian.</p> + +<p>His family records had not been kept, or Joseph would certainly have +produced them, if creditable. He had the appearance of a self-made man. +If want of a good education somewhat interfered with the completeness of +his social success, it certainly had not retarded him in business +circles. If he had swept out the store of his first employers, those +employers were now in their graves, and of those who knew his beginnings +in Toronto there were none with the temerity to remind him of them. Mr. +Lindon was not a man to be "sat upon." He had a bold front, a hard, +incisive voice, and a temper that, since he began to feel his monetary +oats, brooked no opposition. He might have been taken for a farmer, +except for the keenness of his eye and the fact that his clothes were +city made. These two differences, however, are of a comprehensive kind.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lindon, early in life, had opened a small shop, and then enlarged +it. Having been successful, he sold out, and took to a kind of broker, +money-lending, and land business, and being one who devoted his whole +existence to the development of the main chance, with a deal of native +ability to assist him, the result was inevitable.</p> + +<p>His entertainments gave satisfaction to those who thought they knew what +a good glass of wine was. Mr. Lindon himself did <i>not</i>. Few do. When +exhausted he took a little whisky. When he entertained, he sipped the +wine that an impecunious gentleman was paid to purchase for him, +regardless of cost. So, although there were those who turned up their +noses at Joseph Lindon while they swallowed him, there did not seem to +be any reluctance in going through the same motions with his wine.</p> + +<p>The fact that he was able to, and did entertain to a large extent was of +itself sufficient in certain quarters to provoke a smile suggesting that +<i>the</i> society in that city did not entertain. Some members had been +among the exclusives for a comparatively short time, and the early +occupation of their parents was still painfully within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. A good many based their right on the fact that they +came "straight from England"—without further recommendation; while +others pawed the air like the heraldic lion because they had, or used to +have, a second cousin with a title in England.</p> + +<p>But these good people were partly correct when they hinted that some old +families did not entertain much. Either there had been some scalawag in +the family who had wasted its substance, or else the respected family +had had a faculty for mortgaging and indorsing notes for friends in +those good old times which happily are not likely to return.</p> + +<p>The consequence was that there was a good deal of satisfaction on both +sides. Joseph Lindon could pat his breeches pocket, figuratively, and, +not without reason, consider he had the best of it. Many a huge mortgage +at ruinous interest made by the first families, who never lived within +their means, had found its way to Lindon's office, and many an acre, +subsequently worth thousands of dollars, had been acquired by him in +satisfaction of the note he held against the family scalawag. During all +the times that these people had been "keeping up the name," as they +called it, Lindon had been salting down the hard cash, and if some of +his transactions were of the "shady" sort, he had, in dealing with some +of the patrician families, some pretty shady customers to look after.</p> + +<p>But these transactions were in the old times, when Lindon was rolling up +his scores of thousands. All he had to do now was to attend the board +meetings of companies of which he was president, and to arrange his +large financial ventures in cold blood over his chop at the club with +those who waited for his consent with eager ears. If there were few +transactions in business circles that he was not conversant with, there +were still fewer affairs in his own domestic circle that he knew +anything about. It was his wife that had brought him into his social +position, such as it was; that is, his wife's wishes and his money.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lindon had been a pretty woman in her day, which, of course, had +lost its first freshness, and she was approaching that period when the +retrospect of a well-spent life is expected to be gratifying. Her +married life with Mr. Lindon had not been the gradual conquest of that +complete union which makes later years a climax and old age the harvest +of sweet memories in common, as marriage has been defined for us. On the +contrary, their married life had been a gradual acquisition of that +disunion which law and public opinion prevent from becoming complete. +The two had now established the semblance of a union—the system in +which the various pretenses of deep regard become so well defined by +long years of mutual make-believe, as to often encourage the married to +hope that it will be publicly supposed to be the glad culmination of +their courtship dreams.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lindon said of herself that she had been of a Lower Canadian +family, with some French name, prior to her marriage, and her story +seemed to suggest, in the absence of further particulars, that Mr. +Lindon had married her more for her family than her good looks. The +"looks" were pretty nearly gone, but the "family" was still within the +reach of a sufficiently fertile imagination, and so often had the +suggestion been made that of late years the idea had assumed a +definiteness in her mind which materially assisted her in holding her +own in the society in which she now floated. A natural untidiness in the +way she put on her expensive garments, which in a poorer woman would +have been called slatternly, and the dark, French prettiness which she +still showed traces of (and which was rather of the nurse-girl type) +combined to suggest that in reality she was the offspring of Irish and +French emigrants, "and steerage at that"—some of the first families +said—"decidedly steerage."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lindon was supremely her own mistress. This was not, perhaps, an +ultimate benefit to her, but, as she had nothing on earth to trouble +about, long years of idleness and indulgence in every whim had led her +to conjure up a grievance, which she nursed in her bosom, and on account +of it she excused herself for all shortcomings. This was that she was +left so much without the society of Mr. Lindon. Often, in the pauses +between the excitements she created for herself, tears of self-pity +would arise at the thought of her abandoned condition. The truth was +that she did not care anymore for Lindon than he did for her; but from +the fact that she really did desire to have a husband who would see +better the advantages of shining in society, the poor lady contrived to +convince herself that he had been greatly wanting in his duties to her +as a husband, that the affection was all on her side, and that that +affection was from year to year quietly repulsed. Their domestic bearing +toward each other was now that of a quiet neutrality. They always +addressed each other in public as "my dear," and, if either of them had +died, no doubt the bereaved one would have mourned in the usual way, on +the principle of "Nil de mortuis nisi <i>bunkum</i>."</p> + +<p>It had not occurred to Mrs. Lindon that, if more time had been spent +with her daughter in fulfilling a mother's duties toward a young girl, +there would have been less need for extraneous assistance to aid her in +her passage through the world. Nina was fond of her mother, and it was +strange that the two did not see more of each other. Nina could be a +credit to her in any social gathering, and this made it all the more +strange. But Mrs. Lindon was forever gadding about to different +institutions, Bible-readings, and other little excitements of her own +(for which Nina had no marked liking), and she seemed rather more easy +in her mind when Nina was not with her. Perhaps Mr. Lindon was not +solely at fault concerning the coolness pervading the domestic +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>The charitable institutions had been the salvation of Mrs. Lindon—that +is, in a mundane sense. When Joseph Lindon, with characteristic method, +came home one day and said, "My dear, I have bought the Ramsay mansion, +and now I am going to spend my money," Mrs. Lindon enjoyed a pleasure +exceeding anything she had known. That was a happy day for her! The +dream of her life was to be consummated! She immediately left the small +church which she had attended for years and changed her creed slightly +to take a good pew in a certain fashionable church. After this it was +merely a question of time and money, both of which were available to any +extent. She showed great interest in charities. She contributed humbly +but lavishly. The ladies of good position who go around with +subscription-books smiled in their hearts at seeing the old game going +on. They smiled and bled her profusely. They discussed Mrs. Lindon among +themselves—with care, of course, because they did not wish to appear to +have known her before. But as time wore on they thought she could be +bled to a much greater extent if she were induced to become "a worker in +the flock," which the good lady was quite willing to do. On being +approached by some of the leading spirits, she went first to a weekly +Bible-class, which she had previously been afraid to attend because the +audience was so select, and after this she showed such an interest in +various charities that she was soon placed upon committees. By ladies +with heads for real management on their shoulders she was led to +believe that they really could not do without her mental assistance, so +that at first when she was gravely consulted on a financial question and +asked for her advice she generally eased the tension on her mind by +writing a substantial check. This led her to believe that she had +something of the financier about her, and she even told her husband that +she was beginning to quite understand all about money matters, at which +Joseph smiled an ineffable smile.</p> + +<p>She could have been used more advantageously if she had been kept out of +the desired circle for a couple of years longer, because she was ready +to pay any price for her admission. The good ladies made a slight +mistake in being too hasty to control the bottomless purse, because, +after she had got fairly installed, the purse was worked in several +other ways, and the ecclesiastical drain on it became reduced to an +ordinary amount. She gave a fair sum to each of the charities and +accepted the attentions of those whom the odor of money attracted, +without troubling herself in the slightest degree about the periodical +financial difficulties of the institutions.</p> + +<p>Yet she never altogether relaxed her efforts in "working for the Lord," +as she called it, in such good company. She acquired a taste for it that +never left her. She would take a couple of the "poor but honest" ladies +of good family with her, in her sumptuous barouche, to the "Incurables" +and other places. After a capital luncheon at her house they would visit +the "Home," and sometimes kiss the poor women there; and if the +strengthening sympathy and religious value of Mrs. Lindon's kiss did not +bind them to a life of virtue ever afterward they must indeed have been +lost—in every sense of the word.</p> + +<p>Nina was not born for some time after Mr. and Mrs. Lindon had been +married. Her mother had kept her, when a child, very much in the dark as +to their antecedents, and, as the social position of the family had +been well established by Mrs. Lindon when Nina was very young, the girl +always had grown up with the idea that she was a lady; and in spite of a +few wants in her father and some doubts as to her mother's origin, she +came out into society with a fixed idea that she was "quite good enough +for the colonies," as she laughingly told her friends.</p> + +<p>No pains or expense had been spared in her education. She had first gone +to the best Toronto school, and had "finished" at a boarding-school in +England. Jack Cresswell knew her when she was at school, where she +shared his heart with several others. When she emerged from the +educational chrysalis and floated for the first time down a society +ball-room Jack was after the butterfly hat-in-hand, as it were, and +never as yet had he given up the chase. Mr. Lindon knew nothing of +domestic affairs, but he had found Jack so frequently at his house that +he had begun to see that his ambitious plans for his daughter were +perhaps in danger of being frustrated, and so, having at that time to +send a man to England to float the shares of some company on the London +market, he decided to go himself, and one day, when Jack was dining +there, he rather paralyzed all, especially Jack, by instructing his wife +and daughter to be ready in a week for the journey.</p> + +<p>The parting on Jack's part would have been tender if Nina had not been +in such exasperatingly high spirits—hilarity he found it quite +impossible to participate in or appreciate. He made her excuses to +himself, like the decent soul he was, although he really suffered a good +deal. He was an ardent youth, and for the week prior to departure he +received very little of the sympathy he hungered for, but he tried to +speak cheerfully as he held her hand in saying good-by.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, you won't forget your promise, old lady, will you?" he said, +while he tried to photograph her in his mind as she stood bewitchingly +before him.</p> + +<p>"What! and throw over the French count that proposed to me in London?" +she said archly. Jack muttered something under his breath that sounded +like hostility toward the French count.</p> + +<p>She heard him, however, and said: "Certainly. So we will. It will kill +him, but you will rejoice. And I will come back and marry Jack. There! +isn't it nice of me to say that? Now, kiss me and say good-by!"</p> + +<p>She withdrew, and held the porch door so that only her face appeared, +which Jack lightly touched with his lips, and then he went away +speechless. As he went he heard her singing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And I'll come back to my own true love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ten thousand miles away."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This sentiment, from one of his yachting songs, smoothed the ragged edge +of his feelings. He loved in an old-fashioned way, and in his ideas as +to carrying out the due formalities of a lover's leave-taking he was +conservative even to red-tapeism, and disappointment, tenderness, anger, +and hopelessness surged through his brain as they only can in that of a +young man.</p> + +<p>There was further tragedy in that Jack, unable to sleep at night and +despondent in the morning, must needs go down to the boat to see her +"just once more" before she left. The gangways had been hauled in and +the paddle-wheels were beginning to move. Nina was standing inside the +lower-deck bulwarks and leaned across the water to shake hands, but the +distance was too great She was in aggressively high spirits, and said to +him, as he moved along the end of the wharf, keeping pace with the boat:</p> + +<p>"Don't you remember what your pet authoress says?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Jack, hoping that she would say something nice to him.</p> + +<p>"She says that a first farewell may have pathos in it, but to come back +for a second lends an opening to comedy."</p> + +<p>Her rippling laugh smote Jack cruelly. Then she tried to soften this by +smiling and waving her hand to him as the boat swept away. Jack raised +his hat stiffly in return, and wandered back to the bank with a head +that felt as if it would split.</p> + +<p>And this was their parting two years ago.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fair goes the dancing when the sitar's tuned;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tune us the sitar neither low nor high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we will dance away the hearts of men.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The string o'erstretched breaks, and music flies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The string o'erslack is dumb, and music dies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tune us the sitar neither low nor high.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4"><i>Nautch girls' song.—The Light of Asia.</i> <span class="smcap">Arnold.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Lindon did not remain long with his family on the trip which Mrs. +Lindon thought was only to last a month or two. On arriving in England, +he transacted his business in a short time, and then proposed a run on +the Continent. By degrees he took the family on to Rome, where they made +friends at the hotel and seemed contented to remain for a while. He then +pretended to have received a cablegram, and came home by the quickest +route, having got them fairly installed in a foreign country without +letting them suspect any coercion in the matter. Afterward he wrote to +say he wished Nina to see something of England and Scotland, and, the +proposal being agreeable to Mrs. Lindon, they accepted invitations from +people they had met to pay visits in different places, so that, together +with an art course in Paris and a musical course at Leipsic, they +wandered about until nearly two years had elapsed, when they suddenly +suspected that Mr. Lindon preferred that they should be away, upon which +they returned at once.</p> + +<p>Whether Nina came back "in love" with Jack was a question as to which he +made many endeavors to satisfy himself. The ability to live up to the +verb "to love" in all its moods and tenses is so varied, and the outward +results of the inward grace are often so ephemeral that it would be +hazardous to say what particular person is sufficiently unselfish to +experience more than a gleam of a phase that calls for all the most +beautiful possibilities. It is not merely a jingle of words to say that +one who is not minded to be single should be single-minded.</p> + +<p>Let us pass over the difficult point and take the young lady's statement +for what it was worth. She said, of herself, that she <i>was</i> in love with +Jack. He had extracted this from her with much insistence, while she +aggravatingly asserted at the same time, that she only made the +admission "for a quiet life," leaving Jack far from any certainty of +possession that could lead to either indifference or comfort.</p> + +<p>Two or three proposals of marriage which she had while away had +evidently not captured her, even if they had turned her head a little. +She had seen no person she liked better than Jack or else she would not, +perhaps, have come back in the way she did. The proposals, however, if +they ever had been made, served to turn Jack's daily existence into +alternations of hot and cold shower-baths. One day she would talk about +a Russian she had met in Paris. Then she solemnly gave the history of +her walks and talks with a naval officer in Rome, till Jack's brow was +damp with a cold exudation. But when it came to the delightful +appearance of Colonel Vere, and the devotion he showed when he took her +hand and asked her to share his estates, Jack said, with his teeth +clinched, that he had had enough of the whole business—and departed. He +then spent two days of very complete misery, barometer at 28°, until she +met him and laid her hand on his arm and said she was sorry; would he +stop being a cross boy? that she had only been teasing him, and all the +rest of it; while she looked out of her soft dark eyes in a way that +left no doubt in Jack's mind that he had behaved like a brute.</p> + +<p>In this way the first week of her return had been consumed, and as yet +he had not felt that he could afford to divide her society with anybody. +What with the rich Russian, the naval officer, and Colonel Vere—what +with getting into agonies and getting out of them—it took him pretty +nearly all his time to try to straighten matters out. So Geoffrey's +introduction had not been mentioned further by him, except to Nina, who +was becoming curious to see Jack's particular friend and Admirable +Crichton. The opportunity for this meeting seemed about to offer itself +in the shape of an entertainment where all those who remained in Toronto +during the summer would collect—one of those warm gatherings where the +oft-tried case of <i>pleasure vs. perspiration</i> results so frequently in +an undoubted verdict for the defendant.</p> + +<p>The Dusenalls were among those wise enough to know that in summer they +could be cooler in Toronto, at their own residence, with every comfort +about them, than they could possibly be while stewing in an American +hotel or broiling on the sands of an American seaport. They objected to +spending large sums yearly in beautifying their grounds, merely to leave +the shady walks, cool arbors, and tinkling fountains for the enjoyment +of the gardeners' wives and children. In the thickness of their mansion +walls there was a power to resist the sun which no thin wooden hotel can +possess; therefore, in spite of a fashion which is somewhat dying out, +they remained in Toronto during the hot months, and amused themselves a +good deal on young Dusenall's yacht.</p> + +<p>Their residence was well adapted for such a party as they were now +giving, and the guests were made to understand that in the afternoon +there would be a sort of garden-party, with lawn-tennis chiefly in view, +and at dark a substantial high tea—to wind up with dancing as long as +human nature could stand the strain; and if any had got too old or too +corpulent or too dignified to play tennis, they could hardly get too +much so to look on; or, if this lacked interest, they could walk about +the lawns and gardens and converse, or, if possible, make love; or +listen to a good military band while enjoying a harmless cigarette; and +if they liked none of these things they could never have been known by +the people of whom this account is given, and thus, perhaps, might as +well never have been born.</p> + +<p>The men, of course, played in their flannels, which a few of them +afterward changed in Charley Dusenall's rooms when there was a +suspension of hostilities for toilets. Most of them went home to dinner +and appeared later on for the dancing. People came in afternoon-dress +and remained for tea and through the evening in that attire, or else +they dropped in at the usual time in evening-dress. It did not matter. +It was all a sort of "go-as-you-please." Some girls danced in their +light tennis dresses, and others had their maids come with ball dresses. +Of course the majority came late—especially the chaperons, the heavy +fathers, starchy bank-managers, and such learned counsel as scorned not +to view the giddy whirl nor to sample the cellars of the Dusenalls.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lindon arrived with her daughter late in the evening, when +everything was whirling. Jack had his name down for a couple of dances, +and a few more were bestowed upon eager aspirants, and then she had no +more to give away—so sorry!—card quite filled! She told dancing fibs +in a charming manner that seemed to take away half the pang of +disappointment. This was a field-day, and the discarded ones could +receive more notice on some other, smaller occasion.</p> + +<p>To see Jack and Nina dancing together was to see two people completely +satisfied with themselves. As a dancer, Jack "fancied himself." He had +an eye for calculating distances and he had the courage of his opinions +when he proposed to dance through a small space. As for Nina, she was +the incarnation of a waltz. Her small feet seemed as quick as the pat of +a cat's paw. In watching her the idea of exertion never seemed to +present itself. There is a pleasure in the rhythmic pulsations of the +feet and in yielding to the sensuous strains of the music (which alone +seems to be the propelling power) that is more distinctly animal than a +good many of our other pleasures; and Nina was born to dance.</p> + +<p>At the end of Jack's first dance with her, Geoffrey came idling through +the conservatory, and entered the ball-room close beside the place where +Mrs. Lindon was seated with several other mothers. As the last bars of +the waltz were expiring, Jack brought up at what he called "the +moorings" with all the easy swing and grace of a dancer who loves his +dance. The act of stopping seemed to divide the unity in trinity +existing between his partner, himself and the music, and it was +therefore to be regretted, and not to be done harshly, but lingeringly, +if it <i>must</i> be done, while Nina, as he released her, came forward +toward her mother with her sleeveless arms still partly hanging in the +air, and with a pretty little trip and slide on the floor, as if she +could not get the "time" out of her feet. Her head was slightly thrown +back, the eyelids were drooped, and the lips were parted with a smile of +recognition for Mrs. Lindon, while her attitude showed the curves of her +small waist to advantage; so that the first glimpse of Nina that +Geoffrey received was not an unpleasant one. She seemed to be moving +naturally and carelessly. She was only endeavoring to make the other +mothers envious, when they compared her with their own daughters. Such +wiles were part of her nature. When feeling particularly vigorous, +almost every attitude of some people is a challenge—males with their +bravery, females with their graces—and, whatever changes the future may +develop in the predilections of woman, there may for a long time be some +left to acknowledge that for them a likable man is one who is able to +assert, in a refined way, sufficient primitive force to make submission +seem like conquest rather than choice.</p> + +<p>Jack at once introduced Geoffrey—his face beaming while he did so. He +was so proud of Nina. He was so proud of Geoffrey. Nina was blushing at +having Hampstead witness her little by-play with her mother at the +conclusion of the dance—but not displeased withal. Jack thought he had +never seen her look so beautiful. And Geoffrey was such a strapper. Jack +surveyed them both with unbounded satisfaction. He slapped Hampstead on +the arm, and tightened the sleeve of his coat over his biceps, patting +the hard limb, and saying warmly: "Here's where the secret lies, Nina! +This is what takes the prizes."</p> + +<p>"So you are Jonathan's David, are you?" said Nina, smiling, as they +talked together.</p> + +<p>"Well, he patronizes me a good deal," said Geoffrey. "But don't you +think he looks as if he wished to find his next partner? Suppose we give +him a chance to do so; let us go off and discuss his moral character."</p> + +<p>He went away with Nina on his arm, leaving Jack quite radiant to see +them both so friendly.</p> + +<p>When they arrived in the long conservatory adjoining, Geoffrey held out +his hand for her card. He did not ask for it, except perhaps by a look. +Having possessed himself of it, he found five successive dances +vacant—evidently kept for some one, and he was bold enough suddenly to +conclude they had been kept for him. He looked at the card amused, and +as he scratched a long mark across all five, he drawled, "May I have the +pleasure of—some dances?" And then he mused aloud as he examined the +card, "Don't seem to be more than five. Humph! Too bad! But perhaps we +can manage a few more, Miss Lindon?"</p> + +<p>Nina was accustomed to distribute her favors with a reluctant hand and +with a condescension peculiarly her own, and to hear suppliant voices +around her. She would be capricious, and loved her power. Even Jack did +not count upon continued sunshine, and took what he could get with some +thanksgivings. She was a presumptive heiress, and had not escaped the +inflation of the purse-proud. But, on the other hand, since her return +she had heard a good deal about the various perfections of his friend, +and how well he did everything; and from what her girl friends said, she +had gleaned that Geoffrey was more in demand than would be confessed. He +was not very desirable financially, perhaps, but hugely so because he +was sought after. This much would have been sufficient to have made her +amused rather than annoyed at his cool way of assuming that she would +devote herself to him for an unlimited time, but there was something +more about Geoffrey than mere fashion to account for his popularity, and +that was the peculiar influence of his presence upon those with whom he +conversed.</p> + +<p>Thus Nina, if she came to the Dusenalls with the intention of having a +flirtation with Geoffrey, which the condition of her card and her +acquiescence to his demands confessed, had hit upon a person who was far +more than her match, for Hampstead's acquaintanceships were not much +governed by rule. As long as a girl diverted him and wished to amuse +herself he had no particular creed as to consequences, but merely made +it understood—verbally, at least—that there was nothing lasting about +the matter, and that it was merely for "the temporary mutual benefit and +improvement of both parties." This was a remnant of a code of +justification by which he endeavored to patch up his self-respect; but +nobody knew better than he that such phrases mean nothing to women who +are falling in love and intend to continue in love.</p> + +<p>Underneath the careless tones with which he spoke to Nina there was an +earnestness and concentration that influenced her. As he gravely handed +back her card and caught and held her glance with an intensity in his +gray eyes and will-power in his face, she felt, for the first time with +any man, that she was not completely at her ease. When obeying the +warning impulses that formerly fulfilled the offices of thought women do +not often make a mistake. By these intuitions, sufficient at first for +self-protection, she knew there was willfulness and mastery in him, and +that if she would be true to Jack she should return to him. If change of +masters be hurtful to women, this was the time for her to remember about +the woman who hesitates. Geoffrey said, "Let us go in and have a dance, +Miss Lindon," and she rose with a nervous smile and glanced across to +the place where her mother was sitting. But Mrs. Lindon had never been a +tower of strength to her, or she might have gone to her. She had a +distinct feeling that this new acquaintance was more powerful in some +way than she had anticipated, and that everything was not all right with +Jack's interests, and she was at one of those moments when a woman's +ability to decide is so peculiarly the essence of her character, +circumstances, and teaching as fairly to indicate her general moral +level. Goethe tells us "to first understand"; but if we can not know the +extent of Geoffrey's influence, or how far her unknown French lineage +assisted temptation, we would better leave judgment alone. Geoffrey said +something in her ear about the music being delicious. She listened for a +moment and longed for a dance with him. Rubbish! only a dance, after +all! And the next moment she was circling through the ball-room with his +arm around her.</p> + +<p>The band that played at the Dusenalls' was one that could be listened to +with pleasure. It was composed of bottle-nosed Germans who worked at +trades during the day and who played together generally for their own +amusement. In all they played they brought out the soul of the movement. +It was to one of the dreamiest of waltzes that Nina danced with +Geoffrey—one of those pieces where from softer cadences the air swells +into rapturous triumph, or sinks into despair, and wooes the dancer into +the most unintellectual and pleasant frame of mind—if the weather be +not too warm.</p> + +<p>A cool night breeze was passing through the room, bringing with it the +fragrance of the dewey flowers outside, and carrying off the odor of +those nauseating tube-roses (which people <i>will</i> wear), and replacing it +with a perfume more acceptable to gods and men—especially men.</p> + +<p>If Jack "fancied himself" as a dancer, Geoffrey had a better right to do +so. His stature aided him also, and men with retreating chins were +rather inclined to give him the road. He had a set look about the lower +part of his face which in crowds was an advantage to him. It suggested +some <i>vis major</i>—perhaps a locomotive, which no one cares to encounter.</p> + +<p>In two minutes after they had embarked on this hazardous voyage Nina had +but one idea, or rather she was conscious of a pervading sense of +pleasure, that ran away with her calmer self. No thought of anything +definite was with her, only a vague consciousness of turning and +floating, of being admired, of being impelled by music and by Geoffrey. +As the dance went on it seemed like some master power that led through +the mazes delightfully and resistlessly.</p> + +<p>When the music ended, for they had never stopped, she sighed with +sorrow. It had been too short. She had yielded herself so completely to +its fascination that she seemed like one awakening from a dream. And +then her conscience smote her when she thought of Jack, and how in some +way she had enjoyed herself too much, and did not seem to be quite the +same girl that she had been half an hour before; but these thoughts left +her as they walked about and spoke a few words together. While circling +the long room she noticed Geoffrey bowing to a tall young lady whose +long white silk train swept behind her majestically. There was a respect +and gravity in his bow which Nina, with her quick observation, noticed.</p> + +<p>"Who is that you are bowing to?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"That is Miss Margaret Mackintosh."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think she is perfectly lovely," said Nina, as she looked back +admiringly.</p> + +<p>"So do I," said Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>Nina turned about now with curiosity, in order to meet her again. Miss +Mackintosh came down the room once more with a partner who was one of +the very young persons who now are the dancing men in Toronto—called +the "infants" by a lady (still unwon) who remembers when there were +marriageable men to be found dancing at parties. This detrimental with +Miss Mackintosh was having an enjoyable time of it. What with the beauty +of his partner, her stately figure, gracious manner, and the rapidity +with which she talked to him, the little man did not quite know where he +was, and he could do little else than turn occasionally and murmur +complete acquiescence in what she was saying, while he sometimes glanced +at her active face for a moment. In doing this, though, he would lose +the thread of her discourse, in consequence of his unfeigned admiration, +and, as he was straining every nerve to follow her quick ideas, this was +a risky thing to do. Once or twice, seeing him turn toward her so +attentively, she turned also and said, "Don't you think so?" and then +the little man would endeavor to mentally pull himself together, and +with some appearance of deep thought would again acquiesce with unction. +Certainly he thought he did think so—every time.</p> + +<p>The close scrutiny of Hampstead and Nina did not seem to affect her as +she passed them with her face unlifted and earnest. She did not seem to +have any side eyes open to see who were regarding her. When the handsome +dress that had made such a cavern in her allowance money was trodden on, +she gathered it up with an active movement—not seeming to notice the +unpleasantness, nor for a moment abating the earnestness of her +conversation. Her idea seemed to be to prevent the dress from +interrupting her rather than to save it. One could see that, once on, +the dress was perhaps not thought of again, that it was not the main +part of her pleasure, but was lost in her endeavor to make herself +agreeable, and in this way to enjoy herself.</p> + +<p>"I am sure she must have a very kind heart," said Nina, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>"Because she takes so much trouble over such a poor specimen of a man."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, as Douglas Jerrold said, she belongs to the Royal Humane +Society," added Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>As Nina could not remember being acquainted with any Mr. Jerrold, the +remark lost some of its weight. The true inwardness of the old wit that +comes down to us in books is our knowledge of the reputation of the +joker.</p> + +<p>"And does she dance well?" asked Nina.</p> + +<p>"No," said Geoffrey, as he still looked after Miss Mackintosh with grave +and thoughtful eyes. "I don't think she has in her enough of what +Gœthe calls the 'dæmonic element' of our nature to dance well."</p> + +<p>"Not very complimentary, to those who can dance well," said Nina, archly +pointing to herself.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at his partner. "Some +people prefer the dæmonic element," said he. But he turned again from +the rose to the tall, white lily, who was once more approaching them, +with something of a melancholy idea in his mind that men like him ought +to confine themselves entirely to the rose, and not aspire above their +moral level. Margaret Mackintosh was the one person he revered. She was +the symbol to him of all that was good and pure. He had almost forgotten +what these words meant, but the presence of Margaret always +re-interpreted the lost language.</p> + +<p>"And do you admire her very much?" Nina inquired.</p> + +<p>"I admire her more than any person I ever saw."</p> + +<p>Sooner or later, it would have gone hard with Geoffrey for making this +speech, if he had been any one else. But it occurred to Nina that he did +not care whether she took offense or not. He was leaning against the +wall, apparently oblivious, for the moment, to any of her ideas, charms, +or graces, but looking, withal, exceedingly handsome, and a thought came +to her which should not come to an engaged young lady. She made up her +mind that she would make him care for her a great deal and then would +snub him and marry Jack.</p> + +<p>The music commenced again.</p> + +<p>"Come now," said Nina, gayly, "and try a little more of the dæmonic +element."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey turned to her quickly, and his face flushed as, to quote +Shakespeare's sonnet, "his bad angel fired his good one out." He saw in +her face her intention to subjugate him, and knew that he had +accidentally paved the way for this new foolish notion of hers by his +candid admiration of Miss Mackintosh.</p> + +<p>"Have you any of it to spare?" said he, as his arm encircled her for the +dance.</p> + +<p>No verbal answer was given, but they floated away among the dancers. +Here she forgot her slight feelings of resentment and retained only the +desire to attract him, without further wish to punish him afterward. A +few turns around the room, and she was in as much of a whirl as she had +been before. They danced throughout the music—almost without ceasing; +and when it ended she unconsciously leaned, upon his arm, as they +strolled off together, almost as if she were tired. The thought of how +she was acting came to her, only it came now as an intruder. A usurper +reigned with sovereign sway, and Right was quickly ousted on his +approach. A little while ago, and the power to decide, for Jack or +against him, was more evenly balanced; but now, how different! She was +wandering on with no other impulse than the indefinite wish to please +Geoffrey. If she had been a man, sophisms and excuses might have +occurred to her. But it was not her habit to analyze self much, and even +sophisms require <i>some</i> thought.</p> + +<p>They passed through the conservatory and out to the broad walk of +pressed gravel, where several couples were promenading. Here they walked +up and down once or twice in the cool breeze that seemed delicious after +the invisible dust of the ball-room. Nina was saying nothing, but +leaning on his arm, and it seemed to her that his low, deep tones +vibrated through her—as a sympathetic note sometimes makes glass +ring—as if in echo.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey was pondering where all the pride and self-assertion had gone +to in this girl who now seemed so trustful and docile. Even her answers +seemed mechanical and vague, as if she were in some way bewildered.</p> + +<p>Jack, in the mean time, was elbowing his way through a crowd, trying to +get one of his partners something to eat. He was the only person likely +to notice her absence, and this he did not do, and, as Geoffrey was down +for five dances, he knew no others would be looking for her. So he +walked on past the end of the terrace, and, descending some steps, +proceeded farther till they came to more steps leading down into a path +dark with overhanging trees. Nina hesitated, and said she was always +afraid to go among dark trees, but Geoffrey said, "Oh, I'll take care of +you." Then she thought it was pleasant to have an athlete for a +protector, and she glanced at his strong face and frame with confidence. +She no longer went with him as she had danced, with her mind in a whirl, +but peacefully and calmly, with no other thought than to be with him. He +took her hand as they descended the stairs, and, though she shrank a +little from a proceeding new to her, it seemed natural enough, and gave +her a sense of protection in the dark paths. It did not occur to her +that she could have done without it. She did not notice their silence. +Geoffrey, too, thought it pleasant enough in the balmy air without +conversation. He was interested by her beauty and her sudden partiality +for him.</p> + +<p>At length he stopped in one of the distant paths as they came to a seat +between the trunks of two large trees. Here they sat down at opposite +sides of the seat, and Geoffrey leaned back against the tree beside him. +The leaves on the overhanging boughs quivered in the light of the moon, +and the delicate perfume in the air spoke of flower-beds near by. He +thought it extremely pleasant here, and he laid his head back against +the tree beside him to listen to the tinkling of the fountain and to +enjoy the scent-laden night air. An idea was still with him that this +was the girl Jack was engaged to, and he thought it would be as well to +keep that idea before him. He said to himself that he liked Jack, and +thought he was very considerate, under the circumstances, for his friend +when he took out a little silver case and suggested that he would like a +cigarette.</p> + +<p>Nina did not answer him. She was in some phase of thought in which +cigarettes had no place, and only looked toward him slowly, as if she +had merely heard the sound of his voice and not the words. He selected +from the case one of those innocuous tubes of rice-paper and +prairie-grass, and, as he did so, the absent look on her face seemed +peculiar. With a fuse in one hand and the cigarette in the other, he +paused before striking a light, and they looked at each other for a +moment as he thought of stories he had read of one person's influence +over another. Like many, he had a general curiosity about strange phases +of mankind, and it occurred to him that Nina would make an interesting +subject for experiment. Presently he said, in resonant tones, deep and +musical:</p> + +<p>"Do you like to be here, Nina?"</p> + +<p>She did not seem to notice that he called her by this familiar name, but +she stood up and remained silently gazing at the moon through a break in +the foliage. Her beauty was sublimated by the white light, and, as +Geoffrey took a step towards her, he forgot about his cigarette, and, +taking both her hands in his, he repeated his question two or three +times before she answered. Then she turned impetuously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, why do you make me do everything that is wrong? I should not be +here. I should never have spoken to you. I was afraid of you from the +first moment I saw you."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey led her by one hand back to the seat.</p> + +<p>"Now answer me. Do you like to be here—with me, Nina?"</p> + +<p>She looked at the moon and at the ground and all about, but remained +mute and apparently pondering.</p> + +<p>He had forgotten Jack now as well as the cigarette, and was rapidly +losing the remembrance that this was to be merely a scientific +experiment.</p> + +<p>"Your silence makes me all the more impatient. I will know now. Do you +like to be here, Nina?"</p> + +<p>A new earnestness in his tone thrilled her and made her tremble. She +turned with a sudden impulse, as if something had made her reckless:</p> + +<p>"You are forcing me to answer you," she said vehemently, as she looked +at him with a constrained, though affectionate expression in her eyes. +"But I will tell you if I die for it. Oh, I am so wicked to say so, but +I must. You make me. Oh, now let us go into the house."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey's generous intention to act rightly by Jack departed from him, +and for a moment he drew her toward him, saying that she must not care +too much for being there, "because, you know," he said, "this is only a +little flirtation, and is quite too good to last."</p> + +<p>She seemed not to be listening to him, but to be thinking; and after a +moment she said, in long drawn out, sorrowful accents:</p> + +<p>"Oh—poor—Jack!"</p> + +<p>Something in the slow, melancholy way she said this, and the thought of +the poor place that Jack certainly held at the present time in her +affections, struck Geoffrey as irresistibly amusing, and he laughed +aloud in an unsympathetic way, which presented him to her in a new +light, and she sprang from him at once. Her emotion turned to anger as +she thought that the laugh had been derisive, and her blood boiled to +think he could bring her here to laugh at her after he had succeeded in +winning her so completely.</p> + +<p>"Come into the house at once," she cried. "I can't go in alone even if I +knew the way."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey rose and begged her pardon, assuring her that nothing but the +peculiarity of her remark had caused his laugh.</p> + +<p>"I will not stay here another instant. If you don't come at once I'll +find my way alone." And she stamped her foot upon the ground.</p> + +<p>Hampstead did not like to be stamped at, and his face altered. As long +as she had been facile and pleasing, a sense of duty toward her and Jack +had made him considerate. It had seemed to him while sitting there that +this girl was his; and the sense of possession had made him kind, but +now that she seemed to vex him unnecessarily it appeared to him like a +denial of his influence. The idea of the experiment suddenly returned, +together with a sense of power and a desire to compel submission which +displaced his wish to be considerate. He sat down on the seat again +facing her and said:</p> + +<p>"I want you to come here." He motioned to the seat beside him.</p> + +<p>"I won't go near you. I hate you! I'll run in by myself."</p> + +<p>"You can not run away—because I wish you to come here."</p> + +<p>Hampstead said this in a measured way, and his brow seemed to knot into +cords as he concentrated his will-power. His face bore an unpleasant +expression. A quarter of a minute passed and she stood trembling and +fascinated; and before another half-minute had elapsed she came very +slowly forward, and approached him with the expression of her face +changed into one of enervation. Her eyes were dilated, and her hands +hung loosely at her sides. Hampstead saw, with some consternation, that +she had become like something else, that she looked very like a +mad-woman. A shock went through him as he looked at her—not knowing how +the matter might terminate. He saw that she was mesmerized—an automaton +moved by his will only. The combined flirtation and experiment had gone +further than he had intended, and the result was startling—especially +as the possibility that she might not recover flashed through his mind. +The power he had been wielding (which receives much cheap ridicule from +very learned men who would fain deny what they can not explain) suddenly +seemed to him to be a devilish one, and he felt that he had done +something wrong. He had not intended it. An idea had seized him, and he +was merely concentrating a power which he unconsciously used almost +every hour of his life. He considered what ought to be done to bring her +back to a normal state. Not knowing anything better to do, he walked her +about quickly, speaking to her, a little sharply, so as to rouse her.</p> + +<p>Then, by telling her to wake up, and by asking her simple questions and +requiring an answer, he succeeded in bringing her back to something like +her usual condition. When she quite knew where she was, she thought she +must have fainted. All her anger was gone, and Geoffrey, to give the +devil his due, felt sorry for her. It had been an interesting +episode—something quite new to him in a scientific way—but uncanny. +She still looked to him as if for protection, and she would have wept +had he not warned her how she would appear in the ball-room. "Oh, Mr. +Hampstead, you have treated me cruelly," she said. Geoffrey felt that +this was true enough.</p> + +<p>"It was all my own fault, though. I do not blame you. You have taught me +a great deal to-night. I seem to know, somehow, your best and your +worst, and what a man can be."</p> + +<p>She leaned upon his arm, partly from weakness and partly because she +felt that, good or bad, he was master, and that she liked to lean upon +him. The movement touched Geoffrey with compassion. Having nothing to +offer in return, it distressed him to notice her affection, which he +knew would only bring her unhappiness. He tried, therefore, to say +something to remove the impressions that had come to her.</p> + +<p>"You speak of good and bad in me," he said quickly. "Now I think you are +so much in my confidence that I can trust you in what I am going to say. +Don't believe that there is any good in me. I tell you the truth now +because I am sorry that we have been so foolish to-night. There is no +good in me. It is all—the other thing."</p> + +<p>Nina shuddered—feeling as if he had spoken the truth but that it was +already too late for her to listen to it.</p> + +<p>He took her back into the house, smiling and pleasant to those about +him, as if nothing had occurred, and left her with Mrs. Lindon.</p> + +<p>But he did not go to find Margaret Mackintosh again. He went home +somewhat excited, and smoked four or five pipes of tobacco. At first he +was regretful, for he knew he had been doing harm. He said he was a +whimsical fool. But after a couple of "night-caps" he began to think how +picturesque she had looked in the moonlight, and he afterward dropped +off into as dreamless and undisturbed a sleep as the most virtuous may +enjoy.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">For in her youth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is a prone and speechless dialect,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When she will play with reason and discourse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And well she can persuade.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Measure for Measure.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>If anybody had stated that Geoffrey Hampstead was a scoundrel, he would +have had grounds for his opinion. As he did not attempt to palliate his +own misdeeds, nobody will do so for him. He repudiated the idea of being +led into wrong-doing, or driven into it by outside circumstances. +Whatever he did, he liked to do thoroughly, and of his own accord. When +Nature lavishes her gifts, much ability for both good and evil is +usually part of the general endowment; and, although, perhaps, if we +knew more, all wrong-doing would receive pity, Geoffrey possessed a +knowledge of results that tends to withdraw compassion. But he had +overstepped the mark when he had told Nina there was no good in him. +Even his own statement reminded him how few things there are about which +a sweeping assertion can be made with truth. He grew impatient to find +that so many people do not hold opinions—that their opinions hold them; +and when the good equalities of a person under discussion met with no +consideration he invariably spoke of them. He had a good word to say for +most people, and no lack of courage to say it, and thus he gave +impression of being fair-minded, which made men like him. He had the +compassion for the faulty which seems to appear more frequently in those +whose lives have been by no means without reproach than among the +strictest followers of religions which claim charity as their own. He +thought he realized that consciousness of virtue does not breed so much +true compassion as consciousness of sin; and a young clergyman of his +acquaintance found that his arguments as to the utility of sin in the +world were very shocking and difficult to answer.</p> + +<p>Thus he alternated between good and evil, very much in the ordinary way, +with only these differences, that his good seemed more disinterested and +his evil more pronounced than with most people. The good which he did +was done without the bargaining hope of future compensation, and +therefore seemed more commendable. On the other hand, as he had almost +forgotten what the idea of hell was, he was not forced to brave those +consequences which, if some believe as they profess, must render their +deliberate wrong-doing almost heroic.</p> + +<p>What should a man be called who had in him these combinations? Too good +to be either a Quilp or a Jonas Chuzzlewit, and much too bad to resemble +any of the spotless heroes of fiction. It will settle the matter with +those who are intolerant of distinctions and who do not examine into +mixtures of good and evil outside their own range of life to have it +understood and agreed that he was a thoroughpaced scoundrel. This will +place us all on a comfortable footing.</p> + +<p>Some days after the Dusenalls' entertainment Geoffrey was strolling +along King Street when he caught sight of Margaret Mackintosh coming +along the street with quiet eyes observant. She walked with a long, +elastic step, which seemed to speak of the buoyancy of her heart.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey walked slower, so that he might enjoy the beauty of her +carriage, and the charm of her presence as she recognized him. It seemed +to him that no one else could convey so much in a bow as she could. With +the graceful inclination of the head came the pleasure of recognition +and a quick intelligence that lighted up her face. It was the bow of a +princess, as we imagine it; not, it will be remembered, as Canada has +experienced it. A nobility and graciousness in her face and figure made +men feel that she had a right to condescend to them. Innocence was not +the chief characteristic of her face. However attractive, innocence is a +poetic name for ignorance—the ignorance which has been canonized by the +Romish faith, and has thus produced all the insipid virgins and heroines +of the old masters and writers. She did not show that pliable, ductile, +often pretty ignorance, supposedly sanctified by the name of innocence, +which has been the priestly ideal of beauty for at least nineteen +hundred years—perhaps always.</p> + +<p>Hers was a good face, with a sweet, firm, generous mouth, possibly +passionate, and already marked by sympathetic suffering from such human +ills as she understood. She seemed to have nothing to hide, and she was +as free and open as the day, and as fresh as the dawn; and a large part +of the charm she had for all men lay in the fact that her self-respect +was so assured to her that she had forgotten all about it. She had none +of that primness which, is the outcome of an attempt to conceal the +fact, that knowledge of which one is ashamed is continually uppermost in +the mind.</p> + +<p>As soon as her eye rested on Geoffrey, it lighted up with that marvelous +quickness which is the attribute of rapidly-thinking people. In a flash +her mind apparently possessed itself of all she had ever known of him. +Five or six little things to say came tumbling over each other to her +lips, as she held out her long gloved hand in greeting. Even Hampstead +felt that her quick approach, earnest manner, and the way she looked +straight at him almost disconcerted him; but he had thought to wait till +she spoke to him to see what she would say. And she thought he would +speak first, so a little pause occurred for an instant that would have +been slightly awkward had they not both been young and very good-looking +and much interested in each other.</p> + +<p>"And how are you?" said she heartily, as they shook hands. The pause +might have continued as far as either of them cared. They were +self-possessed persons—these two.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am pretty well, thank you," said Geoffrey, without hastening to +continue the conversation.</p> + +<p>"And particularly well you look. Never saw you look better," said +Margaret.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey made a deep bow, extending the palms of his hands toward her +and downward in reverent Oriental pantomime, as one who should say: +"Your slave is humbly glad to please, and dusts your path with his +miserable body."</p> + +<p>"And what brought you into town to-day?" said he, as he turned and +walked with her. "Not the giddy delight of walking on King Street, I +hope?"</p> + +<p>"That was my only idea, I will confess. Home was dull, and I was tired +of reading. Mother was busy and father was away somewhere; so I came out +for a walk. Yes, King Street was my only hope. No, by the way—I had an +excuse. I have been looking for a house-maid. None to be had though."</p> + +<p>"Don't find one," said Geoffrey. "Just come out every day to look for +one. I know several fellows who would hunt house-maids with you forever +if they got the chance."</p> + +<p>"Ah! they never dare to say that to me. They might get snapped up. Yet +it is hard to only receive compliments by deputy, like this. Do they +intend that, after all, I shall die an old maid? And your banks friends +are such excellent <i>partis</i>! are they not?"</p> + +<p>"They are," said Geoffrey. "At least, they would be if they had a house +to put a wife into—to say nothing of the maid."</p> + +<p>"Talking of house-maids," said Margaret, "I just met Mrs. +whats-her-name—you know, the little American with the German name; and +she had just discharged one of her maids. She said to me, 'You know I +have just one breakfast—ice-cold water and a hot roll; sometimes a +pickle. Sarah said I'd kill myself, and in spite of everything I could +say she <i>would</i> load the table with tea or coffee and stuff I don't +want. 'Last I got mad and I walked in with her wages up to date. I said, +'Sarah I guess we had better part. You don't fill the bill.' I told her +I would try and get Sarah myself, as I didn't object to her ideas in the +matter of breakfasts. I have been looking for her and wanting some nice +person to help me to find her. What are you doing this afternoon? Won't +you come and help me to find Sarah?" This, with a little pretense of +<i>implorando</i>.</p> + +<p>"If you think I 'fill the bill' as 'a nice person' nothing would give me +greater pleasure. Sarah will be found. No, I have nothing in particular +on hand to-day. I was going to the gymnasium to have a fellow pummel me +with the gloves. I am certain I have received more headaches and +nose-bleedings in learning how to defend myself with my hands than one +would receive in being attacked a dozen times in earnest."</p> + +<p>"Well, now would be a good time to stop taking further lessons," said +Margaret. "Why do you give yourself so much trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for the exercise, I suppose, or the prestige of being a boxer. +Keeps one's person sacred, in a manner; and among young men serves to +give more weight to the expression of one's opinions. I think it is a +mistake, though, as far as I am concerned. Nature made me speedy on my +feet, and when the time comes I'll use her gift instead of the +artificial one."</p> + +<p>"I have heard it said that it is much wiser for a gentleman to run from +a street fight than to stay in it—that the fact of his not using his +feet as a means of attack in a fight always places him at a +disadvantage. Could you not learn the manly art of kicking, as well?"</p> + +<p>"What a murderous notion!" exclaimed Geoffrey. "I don't think that +branch of self-defense is taught in the schools. It reminds one of a +duel with axes. For my part, I think that hunting Sarah is much more +improving. That is, if one did not have blood-thirsty ideas put into his +head on the way."</p> + +<p>And Margaret looked so gentle and pacific.</p> + +<p>"I always think a very interesting subject like this should be thought +out carefully," said she, smiling.</p> + +<p>If she could not talk well on all subjects, she was a boon to those who +could only talk on <i>one</i>—to those who resemble a ship with only one +sail to keep them going—slow to travel on, but capable of teaching +something, and not to be despised.</p> + +<p>With her tall figure, classic face, and blonde hair, Margaret Mackintosh +was a vision; but when she came, with large-pupiled eyes, in quest of +knowledge, even grave and reverend seigniors were apt to forget the +information she asked for. University-degree young men, the most +superior of living creatures, soon understood that she sought for what +they had learned, and not for themselves; and this demeanor on her part, +while it tended to disturb the nice balance in which the weight of their +mental talents was accurately poised against that of their physical +fascinations, went to make friends and not lovers.</p> + +<p>There was one person, however, to whose appearance she was not +indifferent; who always suggested to her the Apollo Belvedere, and gave +her an increased interest in the Homer of arts, whereas the vigorous +life, heroic resolve, and shapely perfection of the ancient hero meet +with but little response in women who exist with difficulty. She was +perhaps entitled, by a sort of natural right, to expect that a masculine +appearance should approach that grade of excellence of which she was +herself an example.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," she continued, as they proceeded up Yonge Street, "just +before I met you I passed such a horrible young man, with long arms +reaching almost to his knees and a little face. He made me quite +uncomfortable. It's all very well to believe in our evolution as an +abstract idea; but an experience like this brings the conviction home to +one's mind altogether too vividly. It was quite a relief to meet you. +You always look so—in fact, so different from that sort of person, +don't you know?"</p> + +<p>She nearly said he looked so like her Apollo, but did not.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey smiled. "There are times when the idea seems against common +sense," said he, with a short glance at her.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you intend that for me. But you are almost repeating father's +remark. You know he is a confirmed follower of the theory. A few days +ago he said that the only thing he had against you was that you upset +his studies. He says you ought to hire out to the special-creationists +to be used as their clinching argument. So you see what it is to be an +Ap—"</p> + +<p>She stopped.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you were going to say something severe, then," said Geoffrey. "Just +as well, though, to snub me sometimes. I don't mind it if nobody knows +of it. But, about your father? Do you assist him in his studies?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I assist him much. He does the hardest part of the +work, and then has to explain it all to me. But I read to him a good +deal when his eyes trouble him. After procuring a new book on the +subject he never rests till he has exhausted it. We often worry through +it together, taking turns at the reading. We have just finished +Haeckel's last. We are wild about Haeckel."</p> + +<p>"Yes, there is something very spiritual and orthodox about him," said +Geoffrey. "And now that you must have got about as far as you can at +present, how does the theory affect you?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, except to make me long to know more. If one could live to +be two hundred years old, would it not be delightful?" said Margaret, +looking far away up the street in front of her.</p> + +<p>"But as to your religion?" asked Geoffrey. "Do you find that it makes +any difference?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think I was ever a very religious person," she replied, +mistaking the word religious for 'churchy.' "I never was christened, nor +confirmed, nor taught my catechism, nor anything of that sort. Nobody +ever promised that I should renounce the devil and all his works, and +so—and so I suppose I never have."</p> + +<p>She looked at Geoffrey with the round eyes of guilelessness, slightly +mirthful, as if, while deprecating this wretched state, she could still +enjoy life.</p> + +<p>Her companion could scarcely look away from her. There was such a +combination of knowledge and purity and all-round goodness in her face +that it fascinated him and induced him to say gravely:</p> + +<p>"Indeed, one might have almost supposed that you had enjoyed these +benefits from your earliest youth."</p> + +<p>"No," she answered, "I have been neglected in church matters. Who knows? +Perhaps, if I had been different, father and I would never have been +such companions. I never remember his going to church, although he pays +his pew-rent for mother and me to go. He is afraid people would call him +an atheist, you know, and no man cares about being despised or looked +upon as peculiar in that way. He says that as long as he pays his +pew-rent the good people will let him alone. As for mother, I hardly +know what her belief is now. She is mildly contemptuous of evolution; +chiefly, I think, because she does not know, or care anything about it. +She says the creed she was brought up in is quite enough for her, and if +she can keep the dust <i>out</i> of the house and contentment <i>in</i> it she +will do more than most people and fullfil the whole duty of woman. I +don't think she likes to be cross-questioned about her particular +tenets, which really seem to be sufficient for her, except when she is +worried over a new phase of the old family lawsuit, and then she +oscillates between pugnacity and resignation. So you see I was left +pretty much to myself as to assuming any belief that I might care +about."</p> + +<p>"And what belief did you come to care about?" he asked, feeling +interested.</p> + +<p>"Well, father seems to think that the most dignified attitude of our +ignorance is a respectful silence; but, as you have asked which belief I +<i>care about</i>, I can answer frankly that I like best going to church and +saying my prayers. It is so much more pleasant and comfortable to try to +think our prayers are heard, for, as mother says, reason and logic are +poor outlets for emotion when the lawsuit goes wrong. With our +information as it is, our conclusions seem to depend on whether we have +or have not in us the spirit of research. They tell me in the churches +that, being unregenerate, my heart is desperately wicked, and, as I have +nothing but a little bad temper now and then to reproach myself with, I +do not agree with them. On the contrary, I always feel that my life +rather tends to lead me toward believing—or, at any rate, does not make +me prejudiced. I like to believe that God watches over and cares for us. +There being no proof or disproof of the matter, I would find it as +difficult, by way of reasoning, to altogether disbelieve as to +altogether believe."</p> + +<p>"Then you make evolution a part of your religion?" asked Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>Margaret had been brought up in an advanced latter-day school. All the +unrecognized passion within her had gone out in quest of knowledge, +which her father had taught her to regard as a source of quiet +happiness, or at least as comforting to the soul during the maturer +years as an intricate knowledge of crochet and quilt work. When she took +to her bosom the so-called dry-as-dust facts of science she clothed them +in a sort of spirituality. Even slipper-working for a married curate has +been known to stir the pulses, and, though she knew that when the +objects of our enthusiasm seem to glow it is unsafe to say whether the +glow is not merely the reflection of our own fervor, she regarded the +lately dug-up facts of science somewhat as if they were mines of +long-hidden coal, capable of use and possessed of intrinsic warmth. Her +face brightened with all the enthusiasm of a devotee as she answered +Geoffrey's question.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, yes. The new knowledge seems like the backbone of my religion. +I often sit in church and think what a blessed privilege it is to be +permitted to know even as little as we do about God's plan of creation."</p> + +<p>She joined her hands before her quickly as she walked along, forgetful +of all but the idea that enchained her. Her face showed the devotion +seen in some old pictures of early saints, but it was too capable and +animated to be the production of any of the old masters.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is grand to know even a little!" she exclaimed; "to think that +this is God's plan, and that bit by bit we are allowed to unravel it! Is +it not true that we acquire knowledge as we are able to receive it? Did +not the ruder people receive the simple laws which Moses learned in +Egypt? and did not Christianity expand those laws by teaching the +religion of sympathy? These are historical facts. Why, then, should we +not regard evolution as an advanced gospel, the gospel of the knowledge +of God's works, to bind us more closely to him from our admiration of +the excellence of his handiwork—as a father might show his growing son +how his business is carried on, and how beautiful things are made? Of +course, one may reply that all the discoveries do not show that there is +a God. Perhaps they don't; but I try to think they do. I never have been +able to find that verbal creeds do much toward making us what we are. +The gloomy distort Christ's life to prove the necessity for sorrow; the +joyous do just the opposite. The naturally cruel practice their cruelty +in the name of religion. Though all start with perhaps the same words on +their lips, each individual in reality makes his religion for himself +according to his nature. Look at the difference between Guiteau and +Florence Nightingale. They both had the same creeds."</p> + +<p>Hampstead was silent.</p> + +<p>"I know that my religion might not suffice for others, because it has no +terrors, but to me it is compelling. When I turn it all over more +minutely, the beauty of the thoughts seems to carry me away. Let those +whose brittle creeds are broken grope about in their gloom, if they +will. To me it is glorious first to try to understand things, and then +to praise God for his marvelous works."</p> + +<p>Margaret grew more intense in her utterance as her subject grew upon +her. They had turned off on a quiet street some time before, so there +was nothing to interrupt her. As her earnestness gave weight to her +voice, the words came out more fervently and more melodiously. Both her +hands were raised, in an unconscious gesture, while the words welled +forth with a depth and force impossible to describe.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey walked on in silence.</p> + +<p>He thought of the passage, "I came not to call the righteous, but +sinners to repentance," and he wondered whether Christ would have +thought that such as Margaret stood in need of any further faith. The +shrine of Understanding was the only one she worshiped at, arguing, as +she did, that from a proper understanding and true wisdom followed all +the goodness of the Christ-life. He became conscious of a vague regret +within him that he had, as he thought, passed those impressionable +periods when a man's beliefs may be molded again. There was a distinct +longing to participate in the assurance and joy which any kind of fixed +faith is capable of producing. The Byronic temperament was not absent +from him. He was keenly susceptible to anything—either moral or +immoral—which called upon his ideality; and these ideas of Margaret's, +although he had thought of them before, seemed new to him.</p> + +<p>"It seems strange," he said musingly, "to hear of some of the most +learned men of the day erecting an altar similar to that which Paul +found at Athens 'to the unknown God,' and to find them impelled to +worship something which they speak of as unknown and unknowable."</p> + +<p>"And yet," she answered, "it is the work of some of these very men, and +their predecessors, that gives the light and life to the religion which +I, for one, find productive of comfort and enthusiasm. One can +understand the practicability of a heaven where a gradual acquisition of +the fullness of knowledge could be a joyful and everlasting occupation; +and I think a religion to fit us for such a heaven should, like the +Buddhist's, strive to increase our knowledge instead of endeavoring to +stifle it. What is there definitely held out as reward by religions to +make men improve? As far as I can see, there is nothing definite +promised, except in Buddhism perhaps, which men with active minds would +care to accept. But knowledge! knowledge! This is what may bring an +eternity of active happiness. Here is a vista as delightful as it is +boundless. Surely in this century, we have less cause to call God +altogether 'unknown' than had the men of Athens. In the light of +omniscience the difference may be slight indeed, but to us it is great. +I do hope," she added, "that what I have said does not offend any of +your own religious convictions."</p> + +<p>"I have none," said Geoffrey simply; "and it is very good of you to tell +me so much about yourself. I have been wanting something of the kind. +You know Bulwer says, 'No moral can be more impressive than that which +shows how a man may become entangled in his own sophisms.' He says it is +better than a volume of homilies; and it is difficult sometimes, after a +course of reading mixed up with one's own vagaries, to judge as to one's +self or others from a sufficiently stable standpoint. You always seem to +give me an intuitive knowledge of what good really is, and to tell me +where I am in any moral fog."</p> + +<p>They walked on together for some little distance further when Margaret +stopped and began to look up and down the street.</p> + +<p>"Why, where are we?" she said. "What street is this?"</p> + +<p>"I can not help you with the name of the street. I supposed we were +approaching the domicile of Sarah. We are now in St. John's Ward, I +think, and unless Sarah happens to be a colored person you are not +likely to find her in this neighborhood."</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Margaret, as she descended from considering the possible +occupations of the heavenly host to those usual in St. John's Ward, "I +have not an idea where we are. We must have come a long distance out of +our way. It is your fault for doing all the talking."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary, Miss Margaret, I have been unable to get a word in +edgewise."</p> + +<p>The search for Sarah was abandoned, and they wended their way toward +Margaret's home, the conversation passing to other subjects and to Nina +Lindon, whom they discussed in connection with the ball at the +Dusenalls'.</p> + +<p>"They certainly seem very devoted, do they not?" said Margaret, +referring to Jack Cresswell also.</p> + +<p>"Yes, their attachment for each other is quite idyllic," said Geoffrey, +lapsing into his cynical speech, "which is as it should be. I did not +see them much together, as I left early."</p> + +<p>"I noticed your absence, at least I remembered afterward not having seen +you late in the evening, but, as you take such an interest in your +friend, you should have stayed longer, if only to see the very happy +expression on his face. You know she is spoken of as being the <i>belle</i>, +and certainly he ought to be proud of her, as the attention she +attracted was so very marked. I thought her appearance was charming. +They seemed to make an exception to the rule among lovers that one loves +and the other submits to be loved."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say this," said Geoffrey, as he silently +reflected as to the cause of Nina's return to do her duty in a way that +would tend to ease her conscience. "Jack is worthy of the best of girls. +Have you ever called upon the Lindons?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet. But Mr. Cresswell spoke to me about Miss Lindon and said +he would like me to know her. So I said we would call. I am afraid, +however, that mother will complain at the length of her visiting list +being increased. She will have to be coaxed into this call to please +me."</p> + +<p>"Jack cherishes an idea that Miss Lindon, he, and I will become a trio +of good friends," said Geoffrey. "Now, if anything could be done to make +it a quartette, if you would consent to make a fourth, Miss Margaret, I +am certain the new arrangement would be more satisfactory to all +parties, especially so to me considered as one of the trio. A +gooseberry's part is fraught with difficulties."</p> + +<p>"The more the merrier, no doubt, in this case. Numbers will release you +from your responsibilities. I have myself two or three friends that +would make excellent additions to the quartette. There's Mr. Le Fevre, +of your bank, and also Mr.—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, well!" said Geoffrey, interrupting. "Let us consider. I don't think +that it was contemplated to make a universal brotherhood of this +arrangement. If there are to be any more elected I should propose that +the male candidates should be balloted for by the male electors only, +and that additional lady members should be disposed of by their own sex +only. Let me see. In the event of a tie in voting, the matter might be +left to a general meeting to be convened for consultation and ice-cream, +and, if the candidate be thrown out by a majority, the proposer should +be obliged to pay the expenses incurred by the conclave."</p> + +<p>"That seems a feasible method," said Margaret. "Although I tell you, if +we girls do not have the right men, there will be trouble. And now we +ought to name the new society. What do you say to calling it 'An +Association for the Propagation of Friendly Feeling among Themselves'?"</p> + +<p>"Limited," added Geoffrey, thinking that the membership ought to be +restricted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, limited, by all means," cried Margaret. "I should rather think so. +Limited in finances, brains, and everything else. And then the rules! +Politics and religion excluded, of course, as in any other club?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't mind those so much as discussions of millinery and +dress-making. These should be vetoed at any general meeting."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me. These are subjects that come under the head of art, and +ought to be permissible to any extent; but I do make strong objection to +the use of yachting terms and sporting language generally."</p> + +<p>"Possibly you are right," said Geoffrey. "But Jack—poor Jack! he must +refer to starboard bulkheads and that sort of thing from time to time. +However, we will agree to each other's objections, but we must certainly +place an embargo upon saying ill-natured things about our neighbors—"</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, man! Do you expect us to be dumb?" cried Margaret. "Very +well. It shall be so. We will call it the 'Dumb Improvement Company for +Learned Pantomime.'"</p> + +<p>And thus they rattled on in their fanciful talk merrily +enough—interrupting each other and laughing over their own absurdities, +and sharpening their wits on each other, as only good friends can, until +Margaret's home was reached.</p> + +<p>To Geoffrey it seemed to emphasize Margaret's youth and companionability +when, in following his changing moods, she could so readily make the +transition from the sublime to the ridiculous.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Rosalind.</span> Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown more than +your enemies.—<i>As You Like It.</i></p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>In the few weeks following the entertainment of the Dusenalls, Hampstead +had not seen Nina. He felt he had been doing harm. The memory of that +which had occurred and a twinge or two at his unfaithfulness to his +friend Jack had made him avoid seeing her. But afterward, as fancy for +seeing her again came to him more persistently, he gradually reverted +to the old method of self-persuasion, that if she preferred Jack she +might have him. He said he did not intend to show "any just cause or +impediment" when Jack's marriage bans were published, and what the girl +might now take it into her head to do was no subject of anxiety to him.</p> + +<p>She, in the mean time, had lost no time in improving her acquaintance +with Margaret after the calls had been exchanged. Margaret was not +peculiar in finding within her an argument in favor of one who evidently +sought her out, and the small amount of effusion on Nina's part was not +without some of its desired effect. Nina wished to be her particular +friend. She had perceived that a difference existed between them—a +something that Geoffrey seemed to admire; and she had the vague impulse +to form herself upon her.</p> + +<p>Huxley explained table-turning by a simple experiment. He placed cards +underneath the hands of the people forming the charmed circle round the +table, and when they all "willed" that the table should move in a +particular direction the cards and hands moved in that direction, while +the table resisted the spirits and remained firm on its feet. In a +similar way, Nina's impulse to know Margaret and frame herself upon her +were all a process of unconscious self-deception which resembled the +illusions of unrecognized muscular movements. She had no fixed ideas +regarding Hampstead. Her actions were simply the result of his presence +in her thoughts. She moved toward him, distantly and vaguely, but +surely—somewhat as the card of a ship-compass, when it is spinning, +seems to have no fixed destination, though its ultimate direction is +certain.</p> + +<p>She found it easy to bring the Dusenall girls to regard Margaret as +somebody worth cultivating. The family tree of the Dusenall's commenced +with the grandfather of the Misses Dusenall, who had got rich "out +West." On inquiry they found that Margaret's family tree dwarfed that of +any purely Canadian family into a mere shrub by comparison; and on +knowing her better they found her brightness and vivacity a great +addition to little dinners and lunches where conversational powers are +at a premium.</p> + +<p>With plenty of money, no work, an army of servants, a large house and +grounds, a stable full of horses, and a good yacht, three or four young +people can with the assistance of their friends support life fairly +well. Lawn-tennis was their chief resource. Nina, being rather of the +Dudu type, was not wiry enough to play well, and Margaret had not +learned. She was strong and could run well, but this was not of much use +to her. When the ball came toward her through the air she seemed to +become more or less paralyzed. Between nervous anxiety to hit the ball +and inability to judge its distance, she usually ended in doing nothing, +and felt as if incurring contempt when involuntarily turning her back +upon it. If she did manage to make a hit, the ball generally had to be +found in the flower-beds far away on either side of the courts. In +cricketing parlance, she played to "cover point" or "square leg" with +much impartiality.</p> + +<p>So these two generally looked on and made up for their want of skill in +dignity and in conversation among themselves and with the men too +languid to play. The wonder was that the marriageable young women liked +Margaret so well. With her long, symmetrical dress rustling over the +lawn and her lace-covered parasol occasionally hiding her dainty bonnet +and well-poised head, Margaret might have been regarded as an enemy and +labeled "dangerous," but the girls trusted her with their particular +young men, with a sort of knowledge that she did not want any of them, +even if the men themselves should prove volatile and recreant. After +all, what young girls chiefly seek "when all the world is young, lad, +and all the trees are green," is to have a good time and not be +interrupted in their whims. So Margaret, who was launching out into a +gayer life than she had led before, got on well enough, and the wonder +as to what girls who did nothing found to talk about was wearing off. If +she was not much improved in circles where general advantages seemed to +promise originality, it was no bad recreation sometimes to study the +exact minimum of intelligence that general advantages produced, and the +drives in the carriages and Nina's village-cart were agreeable. She was +partial to "hen-parties." Nina had one of these exclusive feasts where +perhaps the success of many a persistent climber of the social ladder +has been annihilated. It was a luncheon party. Of course the Dusenall +girls were there, and a number of others. Mrs. Lindon did not appear. +Nina was asked where she was, but she said she did not know. As she +never did seem to know, this was not considered peculiar.</p> + +<p>On this day Margaret was evidently the particular guest, and she was +made much of by several girls whom she had not met before. It was worth +their while, for she was Nina's friend and Nina had such delicious +things—such a "perfect love" of a boudoir, all dadoes, and that sort of +thing, with high-art furniture for ornament and low-art furniture in +high-art colors for comfort, articles picked up in her traveling, +miniature bronzes of well-known statues, a carved tower of Pisa of +course, coral from Naples, mosaics from Florence, fancy glassware from +Venice—in fact a tourist could trace her whole journey on examining the +articles on exhibition. A French cook supplied the table with delectable +morsels which it were an insult to speak of as food. Altogether her home +was a pleasant resort for her acquaintances, and there were those +present who thought it not unwise to pay attention to any person whom +Nina made much of.</p> + +<p>There were some who could have been lackadaisical and admiring nothing, +if the tone of the feast had been different, but Margaret was for +admiring everything and enjoying everything, and having a generally +noisy time and lots of fun. She was a wild thing when she got off in +this way, as she said, "on a little bend," and carried the others off +with her.</p> + +<p>What concerns us was the talk about the bank games. Some difference of +opinion arose as to whether or not these were enjoyable. Not having been +satisfied with attention from the right quarter at previous bank games, +several showed aversion to them. Nina was looking forward with interest +to the coming events, and Margaret, when she heard that Geoffrey and +Jack and other friends were to compete in the contests, was keen to be a +spectator. Emily Dusenall remarked that Geoffrey Hampstead was said to +be a splendid runner, and that these games were the first he had taken +any part in at Toronto, as he had been away during last year's. It was +arranged that Nina and Margaret should go with the Dusenalls to the +games after some discussion as to whose carriage should be used. Nina +asserted that their carriage was brand new from England and entitled to +consideration, but the Dusenalls insisted that theirs was brand new, +too, and, more than that, the men had just been put into a new livery. +It was left to Margaret, who decided that she could not possibly go in +any carriage unless the men were in livery absolutely faultless.</p> + +<p>Some days after this the carriage with the men of spotless livery rolled +vice-regally and softly into the great lacrosse grounds where the Bank +Athletic Sports were taking place. The large English carriage horses +pranced gently and discreetly as they heard the patter of their feet on +the springy turf, and they champed their shining bits and shook their +chains and threw flakes of foam about their harness as if they also, if +permitted, would willingly join in the sports. There was Margaret, +sitting erect, her eyes luminous with excitement. Inwardly she was +shrinking from the gaze of the spectators who were on every side, and as +usual she talked "against time," which was her outlet for nervousness in +public places. Mrs. Mackintosh had made her get a new dress for the +occasion, which fitted her to perfection, and Nina declared she looked +just like the Princess of Wales bowing from the carriage in the Row. The +two Dusenalls were sitting in the front seat. Nina sat beside Margaret. +Nina was looking particularly well. So beautiful they both were! And +such different types! Surely, if one did not disable a critical +stranger, the other would finish him.</p> + +<p>The whole turn-out gave one a general impression of laces, French +gloves, essence of flowers, flower bonnets, lace-smothered parasols, and +beautiful women. There was also an air of wealth about it, which tended +to keep away the more reticent of Margaret's admirers. She knew men of +whose existence Society was not aware—men who were beginning—who lived +as they best could, and, as yet, were better provided with brains than +dress-coats. Moreover, the Dusenalls had a way of lolling back in their +carriage which they took to be an attitude capable of interpreting that +they were "to the manor born." There was a supercilious expression about +them, totally different from their appearance at Nina's luncheon, and +they had brought to perfection the art of seeing no person but the right +person. Consequently, it required more than a usual amount of confidence +in one's social position to approach their majesties. The wrong man +would get snubbed to a dead certainty.</p> + +<p>After passing the long grand stand the carriage drew up in an +advantageous spot where they could see the termination of the mile +walking match. The volunteer band had brokenly ceased to play God save +the Queen on discovering that theirs was <i>not</i> the vice-regal carriage, +and, in the field, Jack Cresswell was coming round the ring, with +several others apparently abreast of him, heeling and toeing it in fine +style. As they watched the contest, sympathy with Jack soon became +aroused. Margaret heard somebody say that this was the home-stretch. +Several young bank-clerks were standing about within earshot, and she +listened to what they were saying as if all they said was oracular.</p> + +<p>"Gad! Jack's forging ahead," said one.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but Brownlee of Molson's is after him. Bet you the cigars Brownlee +wins!"</p> + +<p>This was too much for Margaret. She stood up in the carriage and, +without knowing it, slightly waved her parasol at Jack, not because he +would see her encouragement, but on general principles, because she felt +like doing so, regardless of what the finer feelings of the Dusenalls +might be. The walkers crossed the winning line, and it was difficult to +see who won. Margaret sat down again, her face lighted with excitement, +and said all in a breath:</p> + +<p>"Was not that splendid? How they did get over the ground! What a pace +they went at! Poor Jack, how tired he must be! I do hope he won, Nina," +and she laid her hand on Nina's tight-sleeved soft arm with emphasis.</p> + +<p>The Dusenalls did not think there was much interest in a stupid +walking-match, and they thought standing up and waving one's parasol +rather bad form, so they were not enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>Nina said softly: "Indeed, if you take so much interest in Jack I'll get +jealous."</p> + +<p>While she said this her face began to color, and Margaret's reply was +interrupted by Geoffrey Hampstead's voice which announced welcome news. +He gave them all a sort of collective half-bow and shook hands with Nina +in a careless, friendly way.</p> + +<p>"I come with glad tidings—as a sort of harbinger of spring, or Noah's +dove with an olive-branch—or something of the kind."</p> + +<p>"Is your cigar the olive-branch? To represent the dove you should have +it in your mouth," said Nina. "Stop, I will give you an olive-branch, so +that you may look your part better."</p> + +<p>She wished Geoffrey to know that she felt no anger for what had occurred +at the ball. Geoffrey saw the idea, and answered it understandingly as +she held out a sprig of mignonette.</p> + +<p>"I suppose this token of peace can only be carried in my mouth," said +Geoffrey, throwing away his cigar.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Nina, and her gloved fingers trembled slightly as she +put the olive-branch between his lips, saying "There! now you look +wonderfully like a dove."</p> + +<p>Margaret was smiling at this small trifling, but her anxiety about the +walking-match was quite unabated. She said: "I do not see why you call +yourself a harbinger of spring or anything else unless you have +something to tell us. What is your good news? Has Mr. Cresswell won the +prize?"</p> + +<p>"By about two inches," said Geoffrey. "I thought I might create an +indirect interest in myself, with Miss Lindon at least, by coming to +tell you of it." He wore a grave smile as he said this, which made Nina +blush.</p> + +<p>"And so you did create an indirect interest in yourself," said Margaret. +"Now you can interest us on your own account. What are you going to +compete for to-day?"</p> + +<p>Hampstead was clad in cricketing flannels—his coat buttoned up to the +neck.</p> + +<p>"I entered for a good many things," said he, "in order that I might go +in for what I fancied when the time came. They are contesting now for +the high-pole jump. Perhaps we had better watch them, as they have +already begun to compete. I am anxious to see how they do it."</p> + +<p>High leaping with the pole is worth watching if it be well done. +Margaret's interest increased with every trial of the men who were +competing, and she almost suffered when a "poler" did his best and +failed. One man incased in "tights" was doing well, and also a small +young fellow who had thrown off his coat, apparently in an impromptu +way, and was jumping in a pair of black trousers, which looked peculiar +and placed him at a disadvantage from their looseness. The others soon +dropped out of the contest, being unable to clear the long lath that was +always being put higher. These two had now to fight it out together. +They had both cleared the same height, and the next elevation of the +lath had caused them both to fail. Margaret was on her feet again in the +carriage, her face glowing as she watched every movement of the +"polers." Her sympathies were entirely with the funny little man in +black trousers. The other at length cleared the lath, amid applause. But +the little hero in black still held on and made his attempts gracefully.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Margaret, gazing straight before her, "I would give anything +in the world to see that circus-man beaten!"</p> + +<p>"How much would you give, Miss Mackintosh?" said Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>Margaret did not hear him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I want my little flying black angel to win. Is it impossible for +anybody to beat the enemy?" Then, turning excitedly to the girls, she +said hurriedly, "I could just love anybody who could beat the enemy."</p> + +<p>"Does 'anybody' include me?" asked Geoffrey, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," cried Margaret, catching at the idea. "Can you really defeat +him? Yes, indeed, I will devote myself forever to anybody who can beat +him. Have you a pole? Borrow one. Hurry away now, while you have a +chance." In her eagerness her words seemed to chase each other.</p> + +<p>"Well—will you all love me?" inquired Geoffrey, with an aggravating +delay.</p> + +<p>There was a shrill chorus of "Until death us do part" from the girls, +and Geoffrey skipped over a couple of benches and ran over to the +"polers," where he claimed the right to compete, as he had been entered +previously in due time for this contest. Strong objection was +immediately raised by the man in tights. The judges, after some +discussion, allowed Geoffrey to take part amid much protestation from +the members of the circus-man's bank.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey took his pole from Jack Cresswell, who had competed on it +without success. It was a stout pole of some South American wood, and +very long. He threw off his coat, displaying a magnificent body in a +jersey of azure silk. After walking up to look at the lath he grasped +his pole and, making a long run, struck it into the ground and mounted +into the air. He had not risen very high when he saw that he had +miscalculated the distance; so he slid down his pole to the earth. +Derisive coughs were heard from different parts of the field, and +"Tights" looked at Geoffrey maliciously and laughed.</p> + +<p>At the next rush that Geoffrey made, he sailed up into the air on his +pole like a great bird, and as he became almost poised in mid-air, he +went hand over hand up the stout pole. Then, by a trick that can not be +easily described, his legs and body launched out horizontally over the +lath, and throwing away his pole he dropped lightly on his feet without +disturbing anything.</p> + +<p>"Tights" was furious, and he said something hot to Geoffrey, who, +however, did not reply.</p> + +<p>A difficulty arose here because there were no more holes in the uprights +to place the pegs in to hold up the lath. Geoffrey was now even with the +enemy, but not ahead of him. So he asked the judges to place the lath +across the top of the uprights. This raised the lath a good fifteen +inches, and nobody supposed that it could be cleared.</p> + +<p>There was something stormy about Hampstead when a man provoked him, and +"Tights" had been very unpleasant. He pointed to the almost absurd +elevation of the lath; his tones were short and exasperating as he +addressed his very savage rival:</p> + +<p>"Now, my man, there's your chance to exhibit your form."</p> + +<p>"Tights" refused to make any useless trial, but relieved the tension of +his feelings by forcing a bet of fifty dollars on Geoffrey that he could +not clear it himself.</p> + +<p>The excitement was now considerable. Geoffrey took the offered bet, +pleased to be able to punish his antagonist further. But really the +whole thing was like child's-play to him. It seemed as if he could clear +anything his pole would reach. His hand-over-hand climbing was like +lightning, and he went over the lath, cricket trousers and all, with +quite as much ease as when it was in the lower position, and this amid a +wild burst of applause.</p> + +<p>He then grabbed his coat and made for the dressing-room, to prepare for +the hurdle race, for which the bell was ringing.</p> + +<p>When he ran out into the field again, after about a moment, he was clad +in tights of azure silk with long trunks of azure satin, and his feet +wore running shoes that fitted like a glove. No wonder girls raved about +him. So did the men. He was a grand picture, as beautiful as a god in +his celestial colors.</p> + +<p>But there was work for him to do in the hurdle race. The best amateur +runners in Canada were to be with him in this race, and there is a field +for choice among Canadian bank athletes. They were to start from a +distant part of the grounds, run around the great oval, and finish close +to our carriage, where eager faces were hopeful for his success. +Geoffrey made a bad start—not having recovered after being once called +back. The first hurdle saw him over last, but between the jumps his +speed soon put him in the ruck. There is no race like the hurdle race +for excitement. At the fourth hurdle some one in front struck the bar, +which flew up just as Geoffrey rose to it. His legs hit it in the air +and he was launched forward, turned around, and sent head downward to +the ground. The thought that he might be killed went through many minds. +But those who thought so did not know that he could gallop over these +hurdles like a horse, lighting on his hands. No doubt it was a great +wrench for him, but he lit on his hands and was off again like the wind.</p> + +<p>The fall had lost him his chance, he thought, but he went on with +desperation and pain, his head thrown back and his face set to win. It +was a long race, and five more hurdles had yet to be passed. The first +of these was knocked down so that in merely running through he gained +time by not having to jump, and he rapidly closed on those before him. +His speed between jumps was marvelous. His hair blew back in blonde +confusion, and he might well have been taken to represent some god of +whirlwinds, or an azure archangel on some flying mission. He hardly +seemed to touch the earth, and Margaret, who delighted in seeing men +manly and strong and fleet, felt her heart go out to him in a burst of +enthusiasm that became almost oppressive as the last hurdle was +approached.</p> + +<p>There were now only two men ahead of him, and Geoffrey was so set on +winning that it seemed with him to be more a matter of mind than body. A +yell suddenly arose from all sides. One of the two first men struck the +last hurdle and went down, and Geoffrey, shooting far into the air in a +tremendous leap to clear the flying timber, passed the other man in the +last arrow-like rush, and dashed in an undoubted winner.</p> + +<p>The enthusiasm for him was now unmingled. The sensation of horror that +many had felt on seeing him fall head downward during the race had given +way to a keen admiration for his plucky attempt to catch up with such +hopeless odds against him. There were old business men present whose +hearts had not moved so briskly since the last financial panic as when +the handicapped hero in azure leaped the last hurdle into glory. There +were men looking on whose figures would never be redeemed who, at the +moment, felt convinced that with a little training they could once more +run a good race—men whose livers were in a sad state and who certainly +forgot the holy inspiration before rising that night from their late +dinners. Surely if these old stagers could be thus moved, feminine +hearts might be excused. It was not necessary to know Geoffrey +personally to feel the contagious thrill that ran through the multitude +at the vision of his prowess. The impulse and the verdict of the large +crowd were so unanimous that no one could resist them.</p> + +<p>As for Margaret, she was, alas, <i>standing on the seat</i> by the time he +raced past the carriage—a fair, earnest vision, lost in the excitement +of the moment. With her gloved hands tightly closed and her arms braced +as if for running, she appeared from her attitude as if she, too, would +join in the race where her interest lay. The true woman in her was wild +for her friend to win. Geoffrey's appearance appealed to all her sense +of the beautiful. Knowledge of art led her to admire him—art of the +ancient and vigorous type. All the plaudits that moved the multitude +were caught up and echoed even more loudly within her. It was a +dangerous moment for a virgin heart. As Geoffrey managed to land himself +a winner against such desperate odds, she saw in his face, even before +he had won, a half supercilious look of triumph and mastery that she had +never seen there before. In a brief moment she caught a glimpse of the +indomitable will that with him knew no obstacles—a will shown in a face +of the ancient type, with gleaming eyes and dilated nostrils, heroic, +god-like, possibly cruel, but instinct with victory and resolve.</p> + +<p>To her the triumph was undiluted. At the close of the race her lungs had +refused to work until he passed the winning line, and then her breath +came in a gasp, as she became conscious that her eyes were filled with +tears of sympathy.</p> + +<p>With Nina it was different. That she was intensely interested is true. +Everybody was. But, instead of that whirl of sympathetic admiration +which Margaret felt, the strongest feeling she had was a desire that +Geoffrey would come to her first, would lay, as it were, his honors at +her feet—a wish suggesting the complacency with which the tigress +receives the victor after viewing with interest the combat.</p> + +<p>When Geoffrey rejoined them half an hour afterward he was endeavoring to +conceal an unmistakable lameness resulting from striking the hurdle in +the race. He had had his leg bathed, which he afterward found had been +bleeding freely during the run, and had got into his flannels again. In +the mean time a small circle of admirers had grouped themselves about +the Dusenalls' carriage.</p> + +<p>Jack had been in to see them for a moment with a hymn of praise for +Geoffrey on his lips, but Nina made him uncomfortable by treating him +distantly, and, although Margaret beamed on him, he departed soon after +Geoffrey's arrival, making an excuse of his committee-man's duties.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey noticed that, on his reappearing among them, Margaret did not +address him, but left congratulations to Nina and the Dusenalls. In the +interval after the race she had suddenly begun to consider how great her +interest in Geoffrey was. She had known him for over a year. During that +time he had ever appeared at his best before her. It was so natural to +be civilized and gentle in her presence. And Margaret was not devoid of +romance, in spite of her prosaic studies. Her ideality was not checked +by them, but rather diverted into less ordinary channels, and she was as +likely as anybody else to be captivated by somebody who, besides other +qualities, could form a subject for her imaginative powers. +Nevertheless, in spite of this sometimes dangerous and always charming +ideality, she had acquired the habit of introspection which Mr. +Mackintosh had endeavored to cultivate in her. He told her that when she +fell in love she "would certainly know it." And it was the remembrance +of this sage remark that now caused her to be silent and thoughtful. She +was wondering whether she was going to fall in love with Geoffrey, and +what it would be like if she did do so, and if she could know any more +interest in him if it so turned out that she eventually became engaged +to him. Then she looked at Geoffrey, intending to be impartial and +judicial, and thought that his looks were not unpleasing, and that his +banter with Miss Dusenall was not at all slow to listen to. She was +pleased that he did not address her first. She felt that she might have +been in some way embarrassed. Sometimes he glanced at her, as if +carelessly, and yet she seemed to know that all his remarks were to +amuse her, and that he watched her without looking at her. She had never +thought of his doing this before.</p> + +<p>Bad Margaret! Full of guilt!</p> + +<p>Geoffrey was endeavoring to make the plainest Miss Dusenall fix the day +for their wedding, declaring that it was she who had promised to marry +him if he won at jumping with the pole, and that she alone had nerved +him for the struggle, and he went on arranging the matter with a +volubility and assurance which she would have resented in anybody else. +She had affected to belittle Geoffrey somewhat, not having been much +troubled with his attentions, and she was conscious now that this banter +on his part was detracting from her dignity. But what was she to do? The +man was the hero of the hour, and cared but little for her dignity and +mincing ways. She would have snubbed him, only that he carried all the +company on his side, and a would-be snub, when one's audience does not +appreciate it, returns upon one's self with boomerang violence. After +all, it was something to monopolize the most admired man in six thousand +people, even if he did make game of her and treat her, like a child.</p> + +<p>As for Nina, she answered feebly the desultory remarks of several young +men who hung about the carriage, and she listened, while she looked at +the contests, to one sound only—to the sound of Geoffrey's voice. From +time to time she put in a word to the other girls which showed that she +heard everything he said. This sort of thing proved unsatisfactory to +the young men who sought to engage her attention. They soon moved off, +and then she gave herself up to the luxury of hearing Geoffrey speak. It +might have been, she thought, that all his gayety was merely to attract +Margaret, but none the less was his voice music to her. Poor Nina! She +would not look at him, for fear of betraying herself. She lay back in +the carriage and vainly tried to think of her duty to Jack. Then she +thought herself overtempted, not remembering the words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The devil tempts us not—'tis we tempt him,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beckoning his skill with opportunity.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This meeting, which to her was all bitter-sweet, to Geoffrey was +piquant. To make an impression on the woman he really respected by +addressing another he cared nothing about was somewhat amusing to him, +but to know that every word he said was being drunk in by a third woman +who was as attractive as love itself and who was engaged to be married +to another man added a flavor to the entertainment which, if not +altogether new, seemed, in the present case, to be mildly pungent.</p> + +<p>After this Nina deceived herself less.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Come o'er the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Maiden with me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mine through sunshine, storm, and snows.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Seasons may roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But the true soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Burns the same wherever it goes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Is not the sea<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made for the free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Land for courts and chains alone?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here we are slaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But on the waves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love and liberty's all our own.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Moore's</span> <i>Melodies.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Maurice Rankin was enjoying his summer vacation. Although the courts +were closed he still could be seen carrying his blue bag through the +street on his way to and from the police court and other places. It is +true that, for ordinary professional use, the bag might have been +abandoned, but how was he to know when a sprat might catch a whale?—to +say nothing of the bag's being so convenient for the secret and +non-committal transportation of those various and delectable viands that +found their way to his aerial abode at No. 173 Tremaine Buildings. He +was now provided by the law printers with pamphlet copies of the +decisions in different courts, and a few of these might always be found +in his bag. They served to fill out to the proper dimensions this badge +of a rank entitling him to the affix of esquire, and they had been well +oiled by parcels of butter or chops which, on warm days, tried to +lubricate this dry brain food as if for greater rapidity in the bolting +of it.</p> + +<p>In this way he was passing his summer vacation. Many a time he thought +of his father's wealth before his failure and death. Where had those +thousands melted away to? Oh, for just one of the thousands to set him +on his feet! This perpetual grind, this endless seeking for work, with +no more hope in it than to be able to get even with his butcher's bill +at the end of the month! To see every person else go away for an outing +somewhere while he remained behind began to make him dispirited. The +buoyancy of his nature, which at first could take all his trials as a +joke, was beginning to wear off. After yielding himself to their +peculiar piquancy for six months, these jokes seemed to have lost their +first freshness, and he longed to get away somewhere for a little +change. The return, then, he thought, would be with renewed spirit.</p> + +<p>While thinking over these matters his step homeward was tired and slow. +He was by no means robust, and his narrow face had grown more hatchety +than ever in the last few hot days. Hope deferred was beginning to tell +upon him, but a surprise awaited him.</p> + +<p>Jack Cresswell and Charley Dusenall were walking at this time on the +other side of the street. They sighted Rankin going along gloomily, +with his nose on the ground, well dressed and neat as usual, but +weighted down, apparently with business, really with loneliness, law +reports, and lamb-chops.</p> + +<p>They both pointed to him at once. Jack said, "The very man!" and Charlie +said, nodding assent, "Just as good as the next." Jack clapped Charley +on the back—"By Jove, I hope he will come! Do him all the good in the +world."</p> + +<p>Charley was one of those happy-go-lucky, loose-living young men who have +companions as long as their money lasts, and who seem made of some +transmutable material which, when all things are favorable, shows some +suggestion of solidity, but, when acted upon by the acid of poverty, +degenerates into something like that parasitic substance remarkable for +its receptibility of liquids, called a sponge. He liked Rankin, although +he thought him a queer fish, and he would laugh with the others when +Rankin's quiet satire was pointed at himself, not knowing but that there +might be a joke somewhere, and not wishing to be out of it.</p> + +<p>The two young men crossed the road and walked up to Rankin who was just +about to enter Tremaine Buildings. Charlie asked him to come on a +yachting cruise around Lake Ontario—to be ready in two days—that Jack +would tell him all about it, as he was in a hurry. He then made off, +without waiting for Maurice to reply.</p> + +<p>Jack explained to Rankin that the yacht was to take out a party, with +the young ladies under the chaperonage of Mrs. Dusenall, that the two +Misses Dusenall, and Nina and Margaret were going, that he and Geoffrey +Hampstead and two or three of the yacht-club men would lend a hand to +work the craft, and that Rankin would be required to take the helm +during the dead calms. As Rankin listened he brightened up and looked +along the street in meditation.</p> + +<p>"The business," he said thoughtfully, "will perish. Bean can't run my +business."</p> + +<p>His large mouth spread over his face as he yielded himself to the warmth +of the sunny vista before him. Already he felt himself dancing over the +waves. Suddenly, as they stood at the entrance to Tremaine Buildings, he +caught Jack by the arm and whispered—so that clients, thronging the +streets might not overhear:</p> + +<p>"The business," he whispered. "What about it?" He drew off at arm's +length and transfixed Jack with his eagle eye. Then, as if to typify his +sudden and reckless abandonment of all the great trusts reposed in him, +he slung the blue bag as far as he could up the stairs while he cried +that the business might "go to the devil."</p> + +<p>"Correct," said Jack. "It will be all safe with him. You know he is the +father of lawyers. But I say, old chap, I am awfully glad you are coming +with us. You see, the old lady has to get those girls married off +somehow, and several fellows will go with us who are especially picked +out for the business. Then, of course, the Dusenall girls want +'backing,' and they thought Nina and I could certainly give them a lead. +And Nina would not go without Margaret. I rather think, too, that +Geoffrey would not go without Margaret. Wheels within wheels, you see. +Have you not got a lady-love, Morry, to bring along? No? Well, I tell +you, old man, I expect to enjoy myself. I've been round that lake a good +many times, but never with Nina."</p> + +<p>Jack blushed as he admitted so much to his old friend, and after a pause +he went on, with a young man's facile change of thought, to talk about +the yacht.</p> + +<p>"And we will just make her dance, and don't you forget it."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear fellow, won't she object?"</p> + +<p>"Object? No—likes it. She is coming out in a brand-new suit. Wait till +you see her. She'll be a dandy."</p> + +<p>"I can quite believe that she will appear more beautiful than ever," +said Maurice, rather mystified.</p> + +<p>"She is as clean as a knife, clean as a knife. I tell you, Morry, her +shape just fills the eye. She—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I understand. You are speaking of the yacht. I thought when +you said you would make her dance that you referred to Miss Lindon. +Excuse my ignorance of yachting terms. I know absolutely nothing about +them."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, old man, you might easily make the mistake. Talking of +dancing now, I had a turn with her the other day and I will say this +much—that she can waltz and no mistake. You could steer her with one +finger."</p> + +<p>"And shall we rig this spinnaker boom on her?" asked Rankin, with +interest. "What is a spinnaker boom? I have always wanted to know."</p> + +<p>"Spinnaker on who? or what?" cried Jack, looking vexed. "Don't be an +ass, Rankin."</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow—a thousand pardons—I certainly presumed you still +spoke of the yacht. It is perfectly impossible to understand which you +refer to."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps it is," replied Jack; "I mix the two up in my speech just +as they are mixed up in my heart, and I love them both. So let us have a +glass of sherry to them in my room."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Rankin, smiling, with his head on one side, "that to +prevent further confusion we ought to drink a glass to each love +separately, in order to discriminate sufficiently between the different +interests."</p> + +<p>"Happy thought," said Jack. "And just like you robbers. Every interest +must be represented. Fees out of the estate, every time."</p> + +<p>After gulping down the first glass of sherry in the American fashion, +they sat sipping the second as the Scotch and English do. It struck +Rankin as peculiar that Mr. Lindon allowed Nina to go off on this +yachting cruise when he must know that Jack would be on board. He asked +him how he accounted for his luck in this respect.</p> + +<p>Jack said: "I can not explain it altogether to myself. The old boy sent +her off to Europe to get her away from me, and that little manœuvre +was not successful in making her forget me. I think that now he has +washed his hands of the matter, and lets her do entirely as she +pleases—except as to matrimony. They don't converse together on the +subject of your humble servant. He is fond of Nina in his own way—when +his ambition is not at stake. One thing I feel sure of, that we might +wait till crack of doom before his consent to our marriage would be +obtained. I never knew such a man for sticking to his own opinion."</p> + +<p>"But you could marry now and keep a house, in a small way," said Rankin.</p> + +<p>"Too small a way for Nina. She knows no more of economy than a babe. No; +I may have been unwise, from a practical view, to fall in love with her, +but the affair must go on now; we will get married some way or other. +Perhaps the old boy will die. At any rate, although I have no doubt she +would go in for 'love in a cottage,' I don't think it would be right of +me to subject her to the loss of her carriage, servants, entertainments, +and gay existence generally. Of course she would be brave over it, but +the effort would be very hard upon the dear little woman."</p> + +<p>When Jack thought of Nina his heart was apt to lose some of its +chronometer movement. He turned and began fumbling for his pipe.</p> + +<p>Maurice wished to pull him together, as it were, and said, as he grasped +the decanter and filled the wine glasses again:</p> + +<p>"Thank you; I don't mind if I do. Now I come to think of it, your first +proposed toast was the right one. For the next three weeks at least we +do not intend to separate the lady from the yacht. Why should we drink +them separately? Ho, ho! we will drink to them collectively!" He waved +his glass in the air. "Here's to The Lady and the Yacht considered as +one indivisible duo. May they be forever as entwined in our hearts as +they are incomprehensibly mixed up in our language!"</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear!" cried Jack, with renewed spirit. "Drink hearty!" And then +he energetically poured out another, and said "Tiger!"—after which they +lit cigars and went out, feeling happy and much refreshed, while Rankin +quite forgot the blue bag and the contents thereof yielding rich juices +to the law-reports in the usual way.</p> + +<p>About ten o'clock on the following Saturday morning valises were being +stowed away on board the yacht Ideal, and maidens fair and sailors free +were aglow with the excitement of departure. The yacht was swinging at +her anchor while the new cruising mainsail caused her to careen gently +as the wind alternately caught each side of the snowy canvas. A large +blue ensign at the peak was flapping in the breeze, impatient for the +start, while the main-sheet bound down and fettered the plunging and +restless sail. Lounging about the bows of the vessel were a number of +professional sailors with Ideal worked across the breasts of their stout +blue jerseys. The headsails were loosed and ready to go up, and the +patent windlass was cleared to wind up the anchor chain. Away aloft at +the topmast head the blue peter was promising more adventures and a new +enterprise, while grouped about the cockpit were our friends in varied +garb, some of whom nervously regarded the plunging mainsail which +refused to be quieted. Rankin was the last to come over the side, clad +in a dark-blue serge suit, provided at short notice by the +long-suffering Score. His leather portmanteau, lent by Jack, had +scarcely reached the deck before the blocks were hooked on and the gig +was hoisted in to the davits. Margaret, sitting on the bulwarks, with an +arm thrown round a backstay to steady her, was taking in all the +preparations with quiet ecstasy, her eyes following every movement aloft +and her lips softly parted with sense of invading pleasure.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall was down in the after-cabin making herself more busy than +useful. Instead of leaving everything to the steward, the good woman was +unpacking several baskets which had found their way aft by mistake. In a +very clean locker devoted solely to charts she stowed away five or six +pies, wedging them, thoughtfully, with a sweet melon to keep them quiet. +Then she found that the seats at the side could be raised, and here she +placed a number of articles where they stood a good chance of slipping +under the floor and never being seen again. Fortunately for the party, +her pride in her work led her to point out what she had done to the +steward, who, speechless with dismay, hastily removed everything eatable +from her reach.</p> + +<p>As the anchor left its weedy bed, the brass carronade split the air in +salute to the club and the blue ensign dipped also, while the headsail +clanked and rattled up the stay. There was nobody at the club house, but +the ladies thought that the ceremony of departure was effective.</p> + +<p>Jack was at the wheel as she paid off on the starboard tack toward the +eastern channel, and Geoffrey and others were slacking off the +main-sheet when Rankin heard himself called by Jack, who said hurriedly:</p> + + +<p>"Morry, will you let go that lee-backstay?"</p> + +<p>Maurice and Margaret left it immediately and stood aside. Jack forgot, +in the hurry of starting, that Rankin knew nothing of sailing, and +called louder to him again, pointing to the particular rope: "Let go +that lee-backstay."</p> + +<p>"Who's touching your lee-backstay?" cried Morry indignantly.</p> + +<p>The boom was now pressing strongly on the stay, while Jack, seeing his +mistake, leaned over and showed Rankin what to do. He at once cast off +the rope from the cleat, and, there being a great strain on it, the end +of it when loosed flew through his fingers so fast that it felt as if +red hot.</p> + +<p>"Holy Moses!" cried he, blowing on his fingers, "that rope must have +been lying on the stove." He examined the rope again, and remarked that +it was quite cool now. The pretended innocence of the little man was +deceiving. The Honorable Marcus Travers Head, one of the rich intended +victims of the Dusenalls, leaned over to Jack and asked who and what +Rankin was.</p> + +<p>"He's an original—that's what he is," said Jack, with some pride in his +friend, although Rankin's by-play was really very old.</p> + +<p>"What! ain't he soft?" inquired the Hon. M. T., with surprise.</p> + +<p>"About as soft as that brass cleat," said Jack shortly. "I say, old +Emptyhead, you just keep your eye open when he's around and you'll learn +something."</p> + +<p>There was a murmur of "Ba-a Jeuve!" and the honorable gentleman regarded +Rankin in a new light.</p> + +<p>The Ideal was a sloop of more than ordinary size, drawing about eight +feet of water without the small center-board, which she hardly required +for ordinary sailing. Her accommodations were excellent, and her +internal fittings were elegant, without being so wildly expensive as in +some of the American yachts. Her comparatively small draught of water +enabled her to enter the shallow ports on the lakes, and yet she was +modeled somewhat like a deep-draught boat, having some of her ballast +bolted to her keel, like the English yachts. Her cruising canvas was +bent on short spars, which relieved the crew in working her, but, even +with this reduction, her spread of canvas was very large, so that her +passage across the bay toward the lake was one of short duration.</p> + +<p>To Margaret and Maurice the spirited start which they made was one of +unalloyed delight. For two such fresh souls "delight" is quite the +proper word. They crossed over to the weather side and sat on the +bulwarks, where they could command a view of the whole boat. It was a +treat for all hands to see their bright faces watching the man aloft +cast loose the working gaff-topsail. When they heard his voice in the +sky calling out "Hoist away," Morry waved his hand with <i>abandon</i> and +called out also "Hoist away," as if he would hoist away and overboard +every care he knew of, and when the booming voice aloft cried "Sheet +home," it was as good as five dollars to see Margaret echo the word with +commanding gesture—only she called it "Sea foam," which made the +sailors turn their quids and snicker quietly among themselves. But when +the huge cream-colored jib-topsail went creaking musically up from the +bowsprit-end, filling and bellying and thundering away to leeward, and +growing larger and larger as it climbed to the topmast head, their +admiration knew no bounds. As the sail was trimmed down, they felt the +good ship get her "second wind," as it were, for the rush out of the +bay. It was as if sixteen galloping horses had been suddenly harnessed +to the boat, and Margaret fairly clapped her hands. Maurice called to +Jack approvingly:</p> + +<p>"You said you would make her dance."</p> + +<p>"She's going like a scalded pup," cried Jack poetically in reply, and he +held her down to it with the wheel, tenderly but firmly, as he thereby +felt the boat's pulse. When they came to the eastern channel Jack eased +her up so close to the end of the pier that Maurice involuntarily +retreated from the bulwarks for fear she would hit the corner. The +jib-topsail commenced to thunder as the yacht came nearer the wind, but +this was soon silenced, and half a dozen men on the main-sheet flattened +in the after-canvas as she passed between the crib-work at the sides of +the channel in a way that gave one a fair opportunity for judging her +speed.</p> + +<p>A moment more and the Ideal was surging along the lake swells, as if she +intended to arrive "on time" at any place they pointed her for. The +main-sheet was paid out as Jack bore away to take the compass course for +Cobourg. This put the yacht nearly dead before the wind, and the pace +seemed to moderate. Charlie Dusenall then came on deck, after settling +his dunnage below and getting into his sailing clothes. Charlie had been +"making a night of it" previous to starting, and felt this morning +indisposed to exert himself. Jack and he had cruised together in all +weathers, and they were both good enough sailors to dispense with +pig-headed sailing-masters. Jack had sailed everything, from a +birch-bark canoe to a schooner of two hundred tons, and had never lost +his liking for a good deal of hard work on board a boat. As for his +garb, an old flannel shirt and trousers that greased masts could not +spoil were all that either he or Charlie ever wore. These, with the +yachting shoes, broad Scotch bonnet, belt, and sheath-knife, were found +sufficient, without any finical white jackets and blue anchors, and, if +not so fresh as they might have been, these garments certainly looked +like business.</p> + +<p>Before young Dusenall put his head up the companion-way he knew exactly +where the boat was by noticing her motions while below. There was +something of the "old salt" in the way he understood how the yacht was +running without coming on deck to find out. Generally he could wake up +at night and tell you how the boat was sailing, and almost what canvas +she was carrying, without getting out of his berth. These things had +become a sort of second nature.</p> + +<p>He was yawning as he hauled on a stout chain and dragged up from his +trousers pocket a silver watch about the size of a mud-turtle. Then he +looked at the wake through the long following waves and glanced rapidly +over the western horizon while he counted with his finger upon the face +of the enormous timepiece. "We will have to do better than this," he +said, after making a calculation, "if we wish to dance at the Arlington +to-night."</p> + +<p>"They are just getting the spinnaker on deck," said Jack, nodding toward +the bows. "As you say, it won't do her any harm. This breeze will +flatten out at sundown, and walloping about in a dead calm all night is +no fun."</p> + +<p>"What a time they take to get a sail set!" said Charlie impatiently, as +he looked at the sailors for a few moments. "I have a good mind to ask +some of you fellows to go forward and show them how."</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind," said Jack, "We are not racing, and hurrying them only +makes them sulky."</p> + +<p>But Charlie's nerves were a little irritable to-day, and he swung +himself on deck and went forward. A long boom was lowered out over the +side and properly guyed; then a long line of sail, tied in stops, went +up and up to the topmast-head; the foot of it was hauled out to the end +of the boom; then there was a pull on a rope, and, as the wind broke +away the stops, hundreds of yards of sail spread out as if by magic to +the breeze, filling away forward like a huge three-cornered balloon, the +foot of which almost swept the surface of the water.</p> + +<p>"Look at that for a sail, Nina," said Jack. "Now you'll see her git +right up and git."</p> + +<p>When Jack was talking about yachts or sailing it was next to impossible +for him to speak in anything but a jargon of energetic slang and +metaphor picked up among the sailors, who, in their turn, picked up all +they could while ashore. He seemed to take a pleasure in throwing the +English grammar overboard. His heart warmed to sailors. He was fond of +their oddities and forcible unpolished similes; and when he sometimes +sought their society for a while, he was well received. When a man in +good clothes begins to talk sailing grammatically to lake-sailors they +seem to feel that he is not, as far as they can see, in any way up to +the mark. His want of accuracy in sailing vernacular attaches to his +whole character.</p> + +<p>If Jack intended to say that the spinnaker would make the Ideal go fast, +he was right. She was traveling down the lake almost as fast as she +would go in a race with the same breeze. A long thin line of fine white +bubbles extending back over the tops of several blue waves showed where +her keel had divided the water and rubbed it into white powder as she +passed. Jack had no time for continued conversation now. He had to watch +his compass and the sails, the wind, and the land. He did not wish the +wake behind the vessel to look like a snake-fence from bad steering, and +to get either of the sails aback, while under such a pressure, would be +a pretty kettle of fish. He was enjoying himself. Some good Samaritan +handed him a pipe filled and lighted, and with his leg slung comfortably +over the shaft of the wheel, his pipe going, Nina in front of him, and +all his friends around him, he felt that the moment could hardly be +improved.</p> + +<p>Some time after the buildings of Toronto had dwindled away to nothing, +and the thin spire of St. James's Cathedral had become a memory, the +steward announced that luncheon was ready. One of the hands relieved +Jack at the wheel, and all went below except Mrs. Dusenall, who was left +lying among cushions and pillows arranged comfortably on deck, where she +preferred to remain, as she was feeling the motion of the boat.</p> + +<p>Luncheon was a movable feast on the Ideal—as liable to be shifted about +as the hands of a wayward clock. The cabin was prettily decorated with +flowers, and the table, weighted so as to remain always horizontal, was +covered with snowy linen and delicate glass, while a small conceit full +of cut flowers faced each of the guests. The steward and stewardess +buzzed about with bottles and plates, and any appetite that could not +have been tempted must have been in a bad way. The absence of that +apology for a chaperon, who was trying to enjoy the breezes overhead, +gave the repast an informality which the primness of the Misses Dusenall +soon failed to check, although at first their precise intonations and +carefully copied English accent did something to restrain undue hilarity +on the part of those who did not know them well.</p> + +<p>The idea of being able to entertain in this style gave the Misses +Dusenall an inflation which at first showed itself in a conversation and +manner touchingly English. The average English maiden, though by nature +sufficiently insular in manner and speech, is taught to be more so. The +result is that among strangers she rarely seems quite certain of +herself, as if anxious lest she should wreck herself on a slip of the +tongue or the sounding of a false note. Her prudish manners and her +perfect knowledge of what not to say often suggest Swift's definition of +"a nice man." One trembles to think what effect the emancipation of +marriage will have upon some of these wildly innocent creatures. In +Canada, and especially in the United States, we are thankful to take +some things for granted, without the advertisement of a manner which +seems to say: "I am so awfully pure and carefully brought up, don't you +know."</p> + +<p>The Misses Dusenall on this occasion soon found themselves in a minority +(not the minority of Matthew Arnold), and before leaving the table they +adopted some of that more genial manner and speech which, if slightly +faulty, we are satisfied to consider as "good enough for the colonies."</p> + +<p>Maurice seemed to expand as the English fog gradually lifted. The aged +appearance that anxiety was giving him had disappeared. Amid the chatter +going on, in which it was difficult to get an innings, Jack Cresswell +seized a bottle of claret and called out that he proposed a toast.</p> + +<p>"What? toasts at such an informal luncheon as this, Jack?" exclaimed +Propriety, with the accent somewhat worn off.</p> + +<p>"What's the odds as long as you're happy and the 'rosy' is close at +hand?" said Jack. "Besides, this is a case of necessity—"</p> + +<p>"I propose that we have a series of toasts," interrupted Charlie; who +was beginning to feel himself again. "With all their necessary +subdivisions," added Rankin, in his incisive little voice, which could +always make itself heard.</p> + +<p>"There you are again, Rankin," cried Jack. "I proposed a toast with +Rankin two days ago, ladies, and, as I live by bread, he subdivided it +sixteen times."</p> + +<p>Dusenall was calling for a bottle of Seltzer water.</p> + +<p>"Never mind your soda," commanded Jack. "Soda can't do justice to this +toast. I propose this toast because I regard it as one of absolute +necessity—"</p> + +<p>"They all are," called Maurice.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I must protest against my learned friend's interrup—"</p> + +<p>"Go on, Jack. Don't protest. Propose. I am getting thirsty," cried +Hampstead's voice among a number of others.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen, am I to proceed or not? Have I the floor, or not?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what he said after those sixteen horns," said Rankin, +addressing the party confidentially. "Only, then he did not 'have the +floor,' the floor had him."</p> + +<p>His absurdity increased the hubbub, as Jack rapped on the table to +command attention.</p> + +<p>"The toast I am about to propose is one of absolute neces—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my!" groaned Rankin, "give me something in the mean time." He +grasped a bottle, as if in desperation. "All right, now. Go on, Jack. +Don't mind me."</p> + +<p>The orator went on, smiling:</p> + +<p>"It is, as I think I have said before, one of absolute—"</p> + +<p>Here the disturbance threatened to put an end to the proposed toast.</p> + +<p>"Take a new deal."</p> + +<p>"Got any more toasts like this?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I would like a smoke soon. Hurry up, Jack."</p> + +<p>"Well, ladies and gentlemen," said Jack, banging on the table to quell +the tumult; "I will skip over the objectionable words, and propose that +we drink to the health of one who has been unable to be with us to-day, +and who needs our assistance; who perhaps at this moment is suffering +untold troubles far from our midst. Ladies and gentlemen, have you +charged your glasses?"</p> + +<p>Answers of "Frequently."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Jack, as he stood with a bottle in one hand and a +glass in the other, "I ask you to drink with me to the health of 'The +Chaperon,' who is nigh unto death."</p> + +<p>All stood up, and were loudly echoing, "The Chaperon—nigh unto death!" +when a long hand came down the skylight overhead and a voice was heard +from on high, saying:</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind. How dare you, you bad boy? Just put something into +my hand and I'll drink my own health. I don't need your assistance at +all."</p> + +<p>Cheers broke out from the noisy gathering, and they all rushed on deck +to see Mrs. Dusenall drink her own health, which she bravely +accomplished.</p> + +<p>They were a riotous lot. All the boat wanted was a policeman to keep +them in something more like order, for a small joke received too much +credit with them, and they laughed too easily.</p> + +<p>Frenchman's Bay and Whitby were passed before they came up from lunch. +Oshawa could be seen far away on the shore, as the yacht buzzed along +with unabated speed. A speck on the horizon had risen up out of the sea +to be called Raby Head—the sand-bluff near Darlington. Small yellow and +green squares on the far-off brown uplands that rolled back from the +shores denoted that there were farms in that vicinity; dark-blue spots, +like feathery tufts, appeared here and there where the timber forests +had been left untouched, and among them small marks or lines of white +would occasionally appear where, on looking through the glasses, little +railway trains seemed to be toiling like ants across the landscape.</p> + +<p>There was no ceremony to be observed, nor could it be seen that anybody +endeavored to keep up conversations which required any effort. The men, +lounging about on the white decks, seemed to smoke incessantly while +they watched the water hissing along the sides of the vessel, or lay on +their backs and watched the masthead racing with the white clouds down +the lake, and the girls, disposed on cushions, tried to read novels and +failed. The sudden change to the fresh breezes of the lake, and the long +but spirited rise and fall of the vessel made them soon doze away, or +else remain in that peaceful state of mind which does not require books +or masculine society or music, or anything else except a continuation of +things just as they are. Granby and Newcastle were mentioned as the +yacht passed by, but most of the party were drowsy, and few even raised +their heads to see what little could be seen. Port Hope created but +feeble interest, though the Gull Light, perched on the rocks far out in +the lake, appeared romantic and picturesque. It seemed like true +yachting to be approaching a strange lighthouse sitting like a white +seabird on the dangerous-looking reefs, where the waves could be seen +dashing up white and frothy.</p> + +<p>Somewhere off Port Hope, about three or four miles away from the "Gull," +one of the sailors had quietly remarked to the man at the wheel:</p> + +<p>"We're a-goin' to run out of the wind."</p> + +<p>Margaret was interested in this, wondering how the man knew. Far away in +front and to the eastward could be seen a white haze that obliterated +the horizon, and, as the yacht bore down to the Gull Light, one could +see that beyond a certain defined line stretching across the lake the +bright sparkle and blueness of the waves ceased, and, beyond, was a +white heaving surface of water, without a ripple on it to mark one +distance from another. It seemed strange that the wind blowing so +freshly directly toward this calm portion of the lake should not ruffle +it. The yacht went straight on before the wind at the same pace till she +crossed the dividing line and passed with her own velocity into the dead +air on the other side. The sails, out like wings, seemed at once to fill +on the wrong side, as if the breeze had come ahead, and this stopped her +headway. She soon came to a standstill. Every person at once +awoke—feeling some of that numbness experienced in railway trains when, +after running forty miles an hour for some time, the brakes are suddenly +put on.</p> + +<p>For half an hour the yacht lay within pistol-shot of the dancing, +sparkling waves, where the breeze blew straight toward them, as far as +the mysterious dividing line, and then disappeared. The spinnaker was +taken in, and the yacht, regardless of the helm, "walloped" about in all +directions, as the swells, swashing against the bow, or pounding under +the counter, turned her around. This was unpleasant, and might last all +night, if "the calm beat back the wind," as the sailors say, so Charley +sent out the crew in the two boats, which were lowered from the davits, +to tow the yacht into Cobourg, now about three miles away. The +main-sheet was hauled flat aft to keep the main-boom quiet, and soon she +had steerage way on.</p> + +<p>To insure fine weather at home one must take out an umbrella and a +water-proof. On the water, for a dead calm, sending the boats out to tow +the yacht is as good as a patent medicine. Before very long the topsail +seemed to have an inclination to fill on one side more than on the +other, so one boat was ordered back and a club-gaff-topsail used in +races was sent aloft to catch the breath moving in the upper air. This +sail had huge spars on it that set a sail reaching a good twenty-five +feet above the topmast head, and about the same distance out from the +end of the gaff. It was no child's-play getting it up, and the sailors' +chorus as they took each haul at the halyards attracted some attention. +Perhaps no amateur can quite successfully give that break in the voice +peculiar to a professional sailor when hauling heavily on a rope. And +then the interjections:</p> + +<p>"O-ho! H'ister up."</p> + +<p>"Oh-ho! Up she goes."</p> + +<p>"O-ho! R-Raise the dead."</p> + +<p>"Now-then-all-together-and-carry-away-the-mast, O-ho!" etc.</p> + +<p>Some especial touches were put on to-day for the benefit of the ladies, +and when the man aloft wished those on deck to "sheet home" the big +topsail, the rascal looked down at Margaret and called "sea foam!" In +the forecastle she was called "Sea Foam" during the whole trip, not +because she wore a dress of cricketing flannel, but on account of her +former mistake in the words. To Rankin and some others who saw the +little joke, the idea seemed poetical and appropriate.</p> + +<p>Not more than a breath of wind moved aloft—none at all below—but it +proved sufficient to send the yacht along, and about half-past six in +the evening they slipped in to an anchor at Cobourg, fired a gun, and +had dinner.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, what pleasant visions haunt me<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As I gaze upon the sea!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All the old romantic legends,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All my dreams, come back to me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sails of silk and ropes of sendal,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Such as gleam in ancient lore;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the singing of the sailors,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the answer from the shore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Till my soul is full of longing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the secret of the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heart of the great ocean<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sends a thrilling pulse through me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Nothing tends to convince us of the element of chance in our lives more +than noticing the consequences of whims. We act and react upon each +other, after joining in a movement, till its origin is forgotten and +lost. A politician conceives a whim to dazzle a fighting people with a +war, and the circumstances of thousands are unexpectedly and +irretrievably altered. We map out our lives for ourselves, and propose +to adhere to the chart, but on considering the effects of chance, one's +life often seems like an island upheaved from the sea, on which the +soil, according to its character, fructifies or refuses the seeds that +birds and breezes accidentally bring.</p> + +<p>Our yachting cruise seemed to be like this. One evening when Nina was +dining at the Dusenalls', Charley had proposed the trip in an idle sort +of way. Nina fastened on the idea, and during little talks with Mrs. +Dusenall, induced her to see that it might be advantageous for her +daughters to make a reality of the vague proposal.</p> + +<p>In thus providing opportunity for sweet temptation, Nina was not +deceiving herself so much as formerly, and she knew that her feeling for +Geoffrey was deep and strong. But she would morally bind herself to the +rigging and sail on without trouble while she listened to the song as +well. Would not Jack be with her always to serve as a safeguard? Dear +Jack! So fond of Jack! Of course it would be all right. And then, to be +with Geoffrey all the time for two or three weeks! or, if not with him, +near enough to hear his voice! After all, she could not be any <i>more</i> in +love with him than she was then. Where was the harm?</p> + +<p>Margaret's presence on the yacht, if at times rather trying, would +certainly make an opening for excitement, and, on the whole, it would be +more comfortable to have both Geoffrey and Margaret on the yacht than to +leave them in Toronto together. This friendship between them—what did +it amount to? She had a desire to know all about it—as we painfully +pull the cot off a hurt finger, just to see how it looks.</p> + +<p>For Geoffrey the trip promised to be interesting, and, having in the +early days examined Cupid's armory with some curiosity, he tried to +persuade himself that the archer's shafts were for him neither very keen +nor very formidable. As Davidge used to say, "too much familiarity +breeds despisery," and up to this time of his life it had not seemed +possible for him to care for any one very devotedly—not even himself. +Yet Margaret Mackintosh, he thought, was the one woman who could be +permanently trusted with his precious future. No one less valuable could +be the making of him. He agreed with the Frenchman in saying that "of +all heavy bodies, the heaviest is the woman we have ceased to love," and +he hoped when married to be able to feel some of that respect and trust +which make things different from the ordinary French experience. But +when he thought of Margaret as his wife the thought was vague, and not +so full of purpose as some of his other schemes. The mental picture of +Margaret sitting near him by the fireside keeping up a bright chatter, +or else playing Beethoven to him, the music sounding at its best through +the puff-puff of a contemplative pipe, had not altogether dulled his +appreciation of those pleasures of the chase, as he called them, over +which he had wasted so much of his time. Moreover, he felt that it was +altogether a toss-up whether she would accept him or not, and that he +did not appeal to her quite in the same way that he did to other women. +This threw his hand out. If he wished her to marry him at any time, he +thought he would have to put his best foot foremost, and tread lightly +where the way seemed so precarious. He knew that she liked him very much +as she would a work of art. It was a good thing to have a tall figure +and clean-cut limbs, but it seemed almost pathetic to be ranked, as it +were, with old china, no matter how full of soul the willow-pattern +might be.</p> + +<p>Now that Nina had fairly commenced the yachting cruise, she could be +pleasant and jolly with Jack on board the boat, but when it came to +leaving the ball-room at the Arlington for a little promenade with him +on the verandas, the idea seemed slow and uninviting. After a dance, +Jack moved away with her, intending to saunter out through one of the +low windows.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it is pleasanter in here?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Well, I find it a little warm here, don't you? Besides the moon is +shining outside, and we can get a fine view of the lake from the end of +the walk."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Jack, have we not been enjoying a fine view of the lake +all day? You see I don't want every person to think that we can not be +content unless we are mooning off together in some dark corner. It does +not look well; now, does it?"</p> + +<p>Jack raised his eyebrows. "I did not think you were so very careful of +Mrs. Grundy. When did you turn over the new leaf? I suppose the idea did +not occur to you that being out with Geoffrey for two or three dances +might also excite comment."</p> + +<p>Nina had already surveyed the lake to some extent during the evening +under pleasing auspices, but she did not like being reminded of it, and +answered hotly:</p> + +<p>"How then, do you expect me to enjoy going to look at the lake again? I +have seen the lake three times already this evening, and no person has +made me feel that there was any great romance in the surroundings. +Surely you don't think that you would conjure up the romance, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Evidently I would not be able to do that for you," said Jack slowly, +while he thought how different her feelings were from his own. It galled +him to have it placed before him how stale he had become to her. He +conquered his rising anger, and said:</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that our engagement had become very prosaic to you."</p> + +<p>"Horribly so," said Nina. "It all seems just as if we were married. Not +quite so bad, though, because I suppose I would then have to be civil. +What a bore! Fancy having to be civil continually!"</p> + +<p>"I believe that a fair amount of civility is considered—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you need not tell me what our married life will be. I know all +about it. Mutual resignation and endearing nothings. Church on Sundays; +wash on Mondays. It will be respectable and meritorious and virtuous and +generally unbearable—"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, Nina! Why do you talk in this strain? Why do you go out of +your way to say unkind things? I know you do not mean a quarter of what +you say. If I thought you did I—"</p> + +<p>"Was I saying unkind things?" interrupted Nina. "I did not think of +their being unkind. It seems natural enough to look at things in this +way."</p> + +<p>She was endeavoring now to neutralize her hasty words by softer tones, +and she only made matters worse. It is difficult to climb clear of the +consciousness of our own necessities when it envelops us like a fog, +obscuring the path. In some way a good deal of what she said to Jack now +seemed tinged with the wrong color, and out of the effort to be pleasant +had begun to grow a distaste for his presence. Much as she still liked +him, she always tried during this cruise to get into the boat or into +the party where Jack was not.</p> + +<p>It had been his own proposal that she should see a good deal of +Hampstead, and so it never occurred to him to be jealous; and afterward +she became more crafty in blinding his eyes to the real cause of the +dissatisfaction she now expressed. While in Jack's presence her manner +toward Geoffrey was studiously off-hand and friendly. Whatever her +manner might be when they strolled off together, it was certain that an +understanding existed between the two to conceal from Jack whatever +interest they might have in one another. She was forced to think +continuously of Geoffrey so that every other train of thought sank into +insignificance, and was crowded out. A colder person, with temptation +infinitely less, would have done what was right and would have captured +the world's approbation. It would do harm to examine too closely the +natures of many saints of pious memory and to be obliged to paint out +their accustomed halo. If the convicted are ever more richly endowed +than the social arbiters, they are different and not understood, and +therefore judged. No sin is so great as that which we ourselves are not +tempted to commit. Ignorance either deifies or spits upon what can not +be understood. But, after all, we must have some standard, some social +tribunal; and social wrong, no matter how it is looked at, must be +prevented, no matter how well we understand that some are, as regards +social law, made crooked.</p> + +<p>But let us hasten more slowly.</p> + +<p>Sunday morning, strangely enough, followed the Saturday night which had +been spent at the Arlington. The daylight of Sunday followed about two +hours after the last man coaxed himself to his berth from the yacht's +deck and the tempting night. When all the others were fairly off in a +solid sleep, as if wound up for twenty-four hours, one individual +arrived at partial consciousness and wondered where he was. A sensation +of pleasure pervaded him. Something new and enjoyable lay before him, +but he could not make up his mind what it was. That he was not in 173 +Tremaine Buildings seemed certain. If not there, where was he? To fully +consider the matter he sat up in his berth and gave his head a thump on +a beam overhead, which conveyed some intelligence to him. Then, lying +back on the pillow, he laughed and rubbed his poll. "A lubber's +mistake," quoth he; and then, after a little, "I wonder what it's like +outside?" A lanky figure in a long white garment was presently to be +seen stumbling up the companion-way, and a head appeared above the deck +with hair disheveled looking like a sleepy bird of prey. All around it +was so still that nothing could be heard but some one snoring down +below. The yacht lay with her anchor-chain nowhere—a thread would have +held her in position. The boats behind were lying motionless with their +bows under the yacht's counter, drawn up there by the weight of their +own painters lying in the water. Maurice gazed about the little +wharf-surrounded harbor with curiosity and artistic pleasure. It could +only have been this and the feeling of gladness in him that made him +interested in the lumber-piles and railway-derricks about him, but it +was all so new and strange to him. "Gad! to be off like this, on a +yacht, and to live on board, you know!" said he, talking to himself, as +he hoisted himself up by his arms and sat on the top of the sliding +hatchway. He moved away soon after sitting down, because of about half +an inch of cold dew on the hatch. This awakened him completely. He +walked gingerly toward the stern and looked at the blaze of red and gold +in the eastern sky where the sun was making a triumphal entry. Then he +walked to the bow and watched the light gild the masts of the +lumber-schooners and the fog-bank over the lake, and the carcass of a +drowned dog floating close at hand. He saw bits of the shore beyond the +town and wanted to go there. He wanted to inspect the little squat +lighthouse that shone in its reflected glory better than it ever shone +at night. Yes, he must see all these things. It was all fairyland to +him. The gig was carefully pulled alongside when, happy thought! a smoke +would be just the thing. The weird figure dived down for pipe, matches, +and "'baccy," and soon came up smiling. "Never knew anything so quiet +as this," he said, as he filled the pipe. The snore below seemed to be +the only note typical of the scene—not very musical, perhaps, but +eloquent and artistically correct.</p> + +<p>He had not gone far in the gig when he came across the picturesque +drowned dog. Really it would be too bad to allow this to remain where it +was, even though gilded. The sun would get up higher, and then there +would be no poetry about it, but only plain dog. So he went back to the +deck and saw a boat-hook. That would do well enough to remove the +eyesore with, but how could he row and hold the boat-hook at the same +time? If he only had a bit of string, now, or a piece of rope! But these +articles are not to be found on a well-kept deck, and it would not be +right to wake up anybody. Happy thought! He took the pike-pole and rowed +rapidly toward the dog, and, as he passed it, dropped the oars and +grabbed the dog with the end of the pike-pole. His idea was that the +momentum of the boat would, by repeated efforts, remove the dog. But the +deceased was not to be coaxed in this way from the little harbor where +he had so peacefully floated for four weeks. So Maurice, after suffering +in the contest, went on board again. Still the snore below went on, and +still nobody got up to help him. He searched the deck for any part of +the rigging that would suit him, determined to cut away as much as he +wanted of whatever came first. Ah! the signal halyards! He soon had +about two hundred feet unrove, little recking of the man who had to +"shin up" to the topmast-head to reeve the line again. The dog must go. +That Margaret's eyes should not be insulted was so settled in his +chivalrous little head that—well, in fact, the dog would have to go, +and, if not by hook or by crook, he finally went lassoed a good two +hundred feet behind, Rankin rowing lustily.</p> + +<p>After this object had been committed to the deep, a seagull came and +lighted on a floating plank to consider the situation, and gave a cry +that could be heard a vast distance. Maurice rowed out about half a mile +into the lake, and then could be seen a lithe figure diving in over the +side of the boat and disporting itself, which uttered cries like a +peacock when it came to the surface, and interested the lethargic +seagulls.</p> + +<p>While he was doing this the fog bank slowly moved in from the lake and +enveloped him, so that he began to wonder where the shore was. He got +into the boat, without taking the trouble to don his garment, and rowed +toward the place where he thought the shore was. Half an hour's rowing +brought him back to some driftwood which he had noticed before, so he +gave up rowing in circles, put on the garment, settled himself in the +stern-sheets, and lit a pipe. The air was warm, and a gentle motion in +the lake rocked him comfortably, until a voice aroused him that might +have been a hundred yards or two miles off.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy!" came over the water.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy yourself," called Rankin.</p> + +<p>Jack had got up, and, having missed the gig, had come to the end of the +wharf in his basswood canoe, which the Ideal also carried in this +cruise.</p> + +<p>"By Jove," thought Jack, "I believe that's Morry out there in the fog; +he will never get back as long as he can not see the shore."</p> + +<p>"Ahoy there," he called again.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy yourself," came back in a tone of indifference.</p> + +<p>"Where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Never you mind."</p> + +<p>"Who is out there with you?"</p> + +<p>"The gulls," answered Maurice, as he smiled to himself.</p> + +<p>Jack did not quite hear him. "The Gull?" thought he. "Surely not! Why, +he must be at least three miles off."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean the Gull Light?" he called.</p> + +<p>"Ya-as. What's the matter with you, any way?"</p> + +<p>They were so far apart that their voices sounded to each other as if +they came through a telephone.</p> + +<p>At this time the fog had lifted from Maurice, and he lay basking in the +sun, perfectly content with everything, while Jack, still enveloped in +fog, was feeling quite anxious about him. He paddled quickly back to the +yacht and got a pocket compass, and with this in the bottom of the canoe +steered sou'-sou'west until he got out of the fog, and discovered the +gig floating high up at the bow and low down aft, puffing smoke and +drifting up the lake before an easterly breeze and looking, in the +distance, rather like a steam-barge.</p> + +<p>"Is that the costume you go cruising in?" asked Jack, as he drew near.</p> + +<p>"This is the latest fashion, Mother Hubbard gown, don't you know!" said +Maurice, as he viewed his spindle calves with satisfaction. "Look at +that for a leg," he cried, as he waved a pipe-stem in the air. "No +discount on that leg."</p> + +<p>"Nor anything else," growled Jack. "What do you mean by going off this +way with the ship's boats?"</p> + +<p>"Not piracy, is it?" asked Morry.</p> + +<p>"Don't know," said Jack, "but I am going to arrest you for being a +dissolute, naked vagrant, without visible means of support, and I shall +take you to the place whence you came and—"</p> + +<p>"Bet you half a dollar you don't. I'm on the high seas, so 'get out of +me nar-east coorse,' or by the holy poker I'll sink you."</p> + +<p>Jack came along to tie the gig's painter to his canoe and thus take it +into custody. Then a splashing match followed, during which Jack got +hold of the rope and began to paddle away. This was but a temporary +advantage. A wild figure leaped from the gig and lit on the gunwale of +the canoe, causing confusion in the enemy's fleet. Jack had just time to +grab his compass when he was shot out into the "drink," as if from a +catapult, and when he came to the surface he had to pick up his paddle, +while Morry swam back to the gig, proceeding to row about triumphantly, +having the enemy swamped and at his mercy. The overturned canoe would +barely float Jack, so Rankin made him beg for mercy and promise to make +him an eggnog when they reached the yacht. When on board again they +slept three hours before anybody thought of getting up.</p> + +<p>As eight o'clock was striking in the town, these two children thought it +was time for everybody to be up. They were spoiling for some kind of +devilment. Geoffrey and Charley and others were already awake, and had +slipped into shirt and trousers to go away for a morning swim in the +lake.</p> + +<p>Jack visited the sleepers with a yell. Mr. Lemons, another proposed +victim of the Dusenalls, still slept peacefully.</p> + +<p>"Now, then, do get up!" cried Jack, in a tone of reproach.</p> + +<p>"Wha's matter?"</p> + +<p>"Get up," yelled Jack.</p> + +<p>"Wha' for?"</p> + +<p>"To wash yourself, man."</p> + +<p>Suppressed laughter was heard from the ladies' cabins.</p> + +<p>"Gor any washstands on board?" still half asleep, but sliding into an +old pair of sailing trousers.</p> + +<p>"Washstands? Well, I never! Wouldn't a Turkish bath satisfy you? No, +sir! You'll dive off the end of the pier with the others."</p> + +<p>"Not much. Gimme bucket an' piece soap."</p> + +<p>"What! you won't wash yourself?" cried Jack, at the top of his voice. +"Oh, this is horrible! I say there, aft! you, fellows, come here! Lemons +says he won't wash himself."</p> + +<p>At this four or five men ran in and pulled him on deck, where Charley +stood with a towel in his hand. No one would give Lemons a chance to +explain. They said, "See here, skipper, Lemons won't wash himself."</p> + +<p>Charley's countenance assumed an expression of disgust. "Oh, the dirty +swab! Heave him overboard!"</p> + +<p>Lemons broke away then and tried to climb the rigging, but he was caught +and carried back, two men at each limb, who showered reproach upon him. +The victim was as helpless as a babe in their hands, and was conscious +that the ladies had heard everything.</p> + +<p>Charlie rapped on the admiralty skylight and asked for instructions. He +declared Lemons would not wash himself, and he asked what should be done +with him? In vain the victim cried that the whole thing was a plot. A +prompt answer came, with the sound of laughter, from the admiralty that +he was to go overboard. This was received with savage satisfaction, and, +after three swings backward and forward, Lemon's body was launched into +the air and disappeared under the water.</p> + +<p>But Lemons did not come up again. In two or three seconds it occurred to +some one to ask whether Lemons could swim. They had taken it for granted +that he could. The thought came over them that perhaps by this time he +was gone forever. Without waiting further, Geoffrey dived off the +wall-sided yacht to grope along the bottom, which was only twelve feet +from the surface. He entered the water like a knife, and from the +bubbles that rose to the surface it could be seen that a thorough search +was being made. Each one took slightly different directions, and went +over the side, one after another, like mud-turtles off a log. Between +them all, the chance of his remaining drowned upon the bottom was small. +Several came up for air, and dived again in another place and met each +other below. There was no gamboling now. They were horrified, and looked +upon it as a matter of life or death. They dived again and again, until +one man came up bleeding at the nose and sick with exhaustion. Geoffrey +swam to help him to reach the yacht, when an explosion of laughter was +heard on the deck, and there was Lemons, with the laugh entirely on his +side. As soon as he had got underneath the surface he had dived deep, +and by swimming under water had come up under the counter, where he +waited till all were in the water, and then he came on deck.</p> + +<p>Revenge was never more complete. Lemons was the hero of the hour. The +girls thought him splendid, and afterward the sight of eight pairs of +trousers and eight shirts drying on the main-boom seemed to do him good.</p> + +<p>Charlie said they ought not to make a laundry clothes-horse of the yacht +on Sunday, and proposed to leave Cobourg. Mrs. Dusenall made a slight +demur to leaving on Sunday. Jack explained that if it blew hard from the +south they could not get out at all without a steam-tug from Port Hope. +This seemed a bore—to be locked up, willy-nilly, in harbor—so the +yacht was warped to the head of the east pier, where, catching the +breeze, she cleared the west pier and headed out into the lake. Outside +they found the wind pretty well ahead and increasing, but, with sails +flattened in, the Ideal lay down to it, and clawed up to windward in a +way that did their hearts good.</p> + +<p>Some topsails were soon descried far away to windward, showing where two +other vessels were also beating down the lake. This gave them something +to try for, and when the topmast was housed and all made snug not a +great while elapsed before the hulls of the schooners became +occasionally visible. The sea was much higher and the motion greater +than on the previous day, but the breeze, being ahead, was more +refreshing, and nobody felt in danger of being ill after the first hour +out. They "came to" under the wooded rocks of Nicholas Island, put in a +couple of reefs, for comfort's sake, and "hove to" in calm water to take +lunch quietly.</p> + +<p>After lunch, as the yacht paid off on a tack to the southward to weather +the Scotch Bonnet Lighthouse, they found, on leaving the shelter of the +island, a sea rolling outside large enough to satisfy any of them. One +hardly realizes from looking at a small atlas what a nice little jump of +a sea Ontario can produce in these parts. The hour lost in mollycoddling +for lunch under the island made a difference in the work the yacht had +to do. The two schooners, having received another long start, were +making good weather of it well to windward of the light, and, when on +the tops of waves, their hulls could be seen launching ahead in fine +style through the white crests. The yacht's rigging, as she soared to +the top of the wave, supplied a musical instrument for the wind to play +barbaric tunes upon, which to Jack and some others were inspiring. As +she swept down the breezy side of a conquered wave, her rigging sounded +a savage challenge to the next bottle-green-and-white mountain to come +on and be cut down.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall went below and fell asleep in her berth, and some of the +others were lying about the after-cabin dozing over books. Nina and the +Dusenall girls lay on the sloping deck, propped against the +companion-hatch, where they could command the attention of several other +people who were sprawled about in the neighborhood of the wheel. +Margaret and Rankin persisted in climbing about the slanting decks, +changing their positions as new notions about the sailing of the vessel +came to them. They seemed so pleased with each other and with +everything—exchanging their private little jokes and relishing the odd +scraps culled from favorite authors that each brought out in the talk, +as old friends can. Maurice made love to her in the openest way—every +glance straight into her deep-sea eyes. Not possessing a muscle or a +figure, he wooed her with his wits and a certain virtuous boldness that +asserted his unmixed admiration and his quaint ideas with some force. +And she to him was partly motherly, chiefly sisterly, and partly +coquettish, like one who accepts the admiration of half a score before +her girlish fancies are gathered into the great egotism of the one who +shall reign thrice-crowned. Just look at Geoffrey now, as he nears this +schooner, steering the yacht as she comes up behind and to leeward of +the big vessel that majestically spurns the waves into half an acre of +foam. They tell him he can't weather her, that he'll have to bear away. +Now look at his muscular full neck and thick crisp curls. See his jaw +grow rigid and his eye flash as he calculates the weight of the wind and +the shape of the sea, the set of the sails, and the distances. +Obviously, a man to have his way. Objections do not affect him. See how +Margaret's eyes sweep quickly from the schooner back to Geoffrey, to +watch what he is doing. Why is it when they say he can't do it that it +never occurs to her that he won't? She looks at him open-eyed and +thoughtful, and thinks it is fine to carry the courage of one's opinions +to success, and she smiles as the yacht skillfully evades the main-boom +of the schooner and saws up on her windward side.</p> + +<p>The sunrise that Maurice saw early in the morning was too sweet to be +wholesome. As the day wore on, the barometer grew unsteady. A leaden +scud came flying overhead, and the fellows began to wonder whether they +would have to thrash around Long Point all night. A good many opinions +were passed on the weather, which certainly did not look promising. +Margaret suggested that it would be more comfortable to go into port, +but was just as well pleased to hear that they had either to go about +forty miles further for a shelter or else run back to Cobourg. Presque +Isle was not spoken of, since it was too shallow and intricate to enter +safely at night. Lemons suggested that they should go back and anchor +under Nicholas Island, where they had lunched.</p> + +<p>"Might as well look for needle in a hay-stack," said Charley. "It's +going to be as black as a pocket when daylight is gone. And if you did +get there it is no place to anchor on a night like this."</p> + +<p>Jack did not say anything. He knew that Charley would go on to South +Bay, and he looked forward to another night of it round Long Point. The +only person who cared much what was done was Mr. Lemons. Towards evening +he began to think about the next meal.</p> + +<p>"My dear skipper, how can you ever get a dinner cooked in such a sea as +this? The cook will never be able to prepare anything in such a +commotion," said he regretfully.</p> + +<p>"Won't he!" exclaimed Charley decisively. "Just wait and see. My men +understand that they have to cook if the vessel never gets up off her +beam ends."</p> + +<p>"What, you do not mean to say it will be all—" Mr. Lemons came and laid +his head on Charley's shoulder—"that it will be all just as it was +yesterday? Oh, say that it will. 'Stay me with flagons; comfort me with +apples.'"</p> + +<p>"Get up—off me, you fat lump," cried Charley, pushing him away +vehemently. "I say that we will do better to-day, or we'll put the cook +in irons. I hate a measly fellow who gives in just when you want him. I +have sacked four stewards and six cooks about this very thing, and it is +a sore subject with me."</p> + +<p>"De-lightful man," said Lemons, gazing rapturously at Charley.</p> + +<p>"Rankin will tell you," said Jack. "He drew the papers. The whole thing +is down in black and white."</p> + +<p>"True enough," said Maurice. "But I don't see how signing papers will +teach a man to cook on the side of a stove, when the ship is lying over +and pitching like this."</p> + +<p>"No more do I," said Lemons anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Why, man alive!" said Charley, "the whole stove works something like a +compass, don't-you-know. He has got it all swinging—slung in irons."</p> + +<p>"That is far better than having the cook in irons," suggested Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mr. Lemons, as he gazed at the sky, "that remark appeals to +me. The lady is correct."</p> + +<p>Then he arose and grasped Charley in a vice-like grip, for though fat he +was powerful. He pinned the skipper to the deck and sat upon him.</p> + +<p>"Say, dearest," he cooed into his ear, "at about what hour will this +heavenly-repast be ready?"</p> + +<p>"Pull him off—somebody!" groaned Charley. "I hate a man that has to be +thrown in the water to—" a thump on the back silenced him.</p> + +<p>"May I convey your commands to the Minister of the Interior," asked his +tormentor.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my ribs! Yes. Tell him to begin at it at once."</p> + +<p>"I don't mind if I do," said Mr. Lemons sagaciously; and he disappeared +down the companion-way to interview the cook.</p> + +<p>"Ain't he a brick?" said Charley, after Lemons had gone forward. "He's a +regular one-er, that chap! Give him his meals on time and he's the +gamest old sardine. By the way, let us have a sweepstake on the time we +drop anchor in South Bay."</p> + +<p>"We haven't any money in these togs," said Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll all have to owe it, then. We'll imagine there's a quarter +apiece in the pool."</p> + +<p>Margaret wanted to know what was to be done. It was explained that each +person had to write his name on a folded paper with the time he thought +anchor would be dropped in South Bay. The names were read out afterward. +They all, with two exceptions, ranged between one o'clock at night and +seven the next morning. The sea was running tremendously high and the +wind dead ahead. It was now seven o'clock in the evening and with some +thirty-five miles yet to beat to windward. What surprised them all was +that Jack had chosen ten o'clock and Charley half-past ten of the same +evening. They explained that they had based their ideas on the clouds.</p> + +<p>"If you look carefully," said Jack, "you'll see that close to this lower +scud coming from the east, there is a lighter cloud flying out the south +and west."</p> + +<p>"I wish, Jack, you had not come on this trip," said Charley. "I could +make lots of money if you were not on board."</p> + +<p>Sure enough, the yacht began to point up nearer and nearer to her +course, soon after they spoke. Presently she lay her course, with the +sheet lightly started, mounting over the head seas like a race-horse, +and roaring straight into the oncoming walls of water till it seemed as +if her bowsprit would be whipped out. The wind kept veering till at last +they had a quarterly breeze driving them forcibly into the seas that had +been rising all day. Ordinarily they would have shortened sail to ease +the boat, but now that dinner was ordered for half-past nine o'clock, +they drove her through it in order that they might dine in calm water.</p> + +<p>They raced past the revolving light on Long Point faster than they had +expected to pass it that night. The twenty-five miles run from here was +made in darkness and gloom. The boom was topped up to keep it out of the +water, and the peak of the reefed mainsail was dropped, as the +increasing gale threatened to bury the bows too much in the head seas. +Although early enough in the evening, everything around was, as Charley +had predicted, as black as a pocket. Now and then some rain drove over +them. Maurice and Margaret sat out together on deck, wrapped in heavy +coats, and watched what little they could see. The howling of the wind +and roaring of the black surges beneath them were new experiences. Close +to them was Jack, standing at the wheel, tooling her through. By the +binnacle-light his face, which was about all that could be seen, seemed +to be filled with a grave contentment that broke into a grim smile when +the boat surged into a wall of water that would have stopped a +bluff-bowed craft. Soon after dropping Long Point, he leaned over the +hatchway and called down to Charley, who was lying on his back on gay +cushions, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper. "Got the Duck +Light, skip."</p> + +<p>"All right, old boy. Wire in."</p> + +<p>Dusenall turned over his newspaper, but did not take the trouble to come +on deck to investigate.</p> + +<p>"Say!" he called.</p> + +<p>"Hello."</p> + +<p>"Won't she take the peak again? I've got a terrible twist on me for +dinner."</p> + +<p>"No. Bare poles is more what she wants just now," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"The deuce! Who's forrud?"</p> + +<p>"Billy and Joe."</p> + +<p>"All right. Must be damp for 'em up there."</p> + +<p>"Can't see. Guess it's blue water to the knees, most of the time."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't wonder. Do 'em good."</p> + +<p>After this jargon was finished, it did not take long to run down to the +False Duck Light. Here the double-reefed mainsail was "squatted" and the +fourth reef-pennant hauled down. The reefed staysail was taken in and +stowed; and under the peak of the mainsail they jibed over. Steering by +the compass, they then rounded to leeward of Timber Island and hauled +their wind into South Bay.</p> + +<p>To put the Ideal over so far with so little canvas showing, it must have +been blowing a gale. They sped up into the bay close hauled, and "came +to" in about four fathoms. Down went the big anchor through the hissing +ripples to that best of holding-grounds, and the vessel, drifting back +as if for another wild run, suddenly fetched up with a grind on her iron +cable. The mad thing knew that unyielding grip, and swung around +submissively.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Full souls are double mirrors, making still<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An endless vista of fair things before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Repeating things behind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">George Eliot's</span> <i>Poems.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>There is a want of primness in the manners and customs of my characters +which a reviewer might take exception to. To be sure he might with +effect criticise their making up a pool on Sunday. But the fact was that +nobody remembered it to be Sunday until Jack wanted to collect his +winnings after dinner. At this, Mrs. Dusenall held up her hands in high +disapproval. While out in the lake, in the worst part of the sea, she +had commenced to read her Bible, and had felt thankful to arrive in +shelter. Consequently she remembered the day.</p> + +<p>"Surely, Charley, you have not been gambling on Sunday?" said she +reprovingly.</p> + +<p>The girls looked guilty, with an expression of "Oh, haven't we been +bad?" on their faces.</p> + +<p>Rankin endeavored to relieve the situation by explaining in many words +that the whole thing was a mere matter of form, and no more than an +expression of opinion as to the time the boat would reach the harbor, +because no money was put up—in fact, as the arrangement was made on +Sunday, the whole thing was illegal, and no money ever would be put up, +etc.</p> + +<p>Jack kicked him under the table for arguing away his winnings, and +Margaret quoted at him:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">"His tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The better reason, to perplex and dash<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Maturest counsels."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Good," said Geoffrey. "Give him the rest of it, Miss Margaret. Rub it +in well."</p> + +<p>Margaret continued, and with mirthful eyes declaimed at Maurice:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"For his thoughts were low;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Timorous and slothful: and yet he pleas'd the ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with persuasive accent thus began."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This amused Margaret, because Maurice was such a decent little man. But +Geoffrey's enjoyment of it was different. Rankin felt that there was +growing in him an antagonism to Hampstead. He was afraid of him for her +sake—afraid she would learn to like him too much. At any other time +chaff would have found him invulnerable, but Geoffrey's amusement made +him redden.</p> + +<p>"You seem to be well acquainted with the characteristics of Belial, +Hampstead," he said. "Margaret, your memory is excellent. Could you +favor us with the lines just preceding what you first quoted?"</p> + +<p>Why should Margaret have blushed as she did so? She quoted:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"On th' other side up rose<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Belial, in act more graceful and humane;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For dignity compos'd and high exploit:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all was false and hollow; though his tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dropp'd manna," etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Thank you," said Maurice. "You see the lines are intended to describe a +person far different from me in appearance. Hampstead, you observe, had +studied the passage. A coincidence, is it not?"</p> + +<p>Soon they were all composing themselves for sleep. Margaret was +listening peacefully to the shrieking of the wind in the rigging as she +thought how every moment on board the yacht had been one of unclouded +enjoyment. An unconscious smile went over her face that would have been +pleasant to see. Then she thought of Geoffrey and smiled again. This +time she caught herself, and asked herself why? All day, since she had +watched Geoffrey steering the yacht beside the schooner in the lake, her +mind had been chanting two lines of poetry. When asked in the evening to +repeat the lines aloud she had blushed because it seemed like confessing +herself.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For dignity composed and high exploit.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In her mind Geoffrey had become identified with these two lines. But +what had friend Maurice meant by saddling the context on him in that +malevolent way? Could he really have thought that Belial's character +was also Geoffrey's? She put away this idea as untenable. She was one of +those born in homes where the struggle for existence has not for +generations taught the household to be suspicious; with the innate +nobility that tends, whether rightly or wrongly, to think the best of +others; she was one of those whom men turn to with relief after the +cunning and suspicion of the business world, each feeling the assistance +it is to meet some one who is ready to take him at the valuation he +would like to be able justly to put upon himself.</p> + +<p>When morning broke, there were eight or ten schooners to be seen on +different sides that had run in for shelter during the night. About six +o'clock Margaret crept out to satisfy her curiosity as to what kind of +place they were in. With only her head above the hatchway at the top of +the stairs leading up from the ladies' cabin she gazed about for some +time before she spied Maurice sitting on the counter with his back to +her, his feet dangling over the water while he watched the vessels.</p> + +<p>She crept toward him and gave a cry close to his ear, to startle him.</p> + +<p>"Don't make so much noise," said he, quite unstartled. "I don't like you +to call out like that in my ear." He added, perforce, as he looked at +her, "At least I don't like it when I can't see you."</p> + +<p>"Don't tell stories, Morry. You know you would like me to do it at any +time."</p> + +<p>"I would not, indeed," he asserted. "Come and sit down and keep quite +silent. Just when I was having such a happy, peaceful time you come and +spoil it all."</p> + +<p>Margaret sat down on the rail and turned herself about so that she could +sit in the same position beside him. His helping hand still held hers as +they sat together. He was almost afraid to turn toward her, for fear he +would look too tenderly. She might go away if he did. His <i>rôle</i> was to +bully her, and then she would never know how exquisite it was for him +to have her sit beside him.</p> + +<p>"There, now! Sit perfectly quiet and don't say another word. Just look +around and enjoy yourself in a reasonable manner. I'm not going to have +my morning disarranged and my valuable reveries disturbed."</p> + +<p>The wind had shifted to the northwest in the morning and had blown +itself out and down to a moderate breeze with a clearing sky, with +patches of blue and broken clouds overhead.</p> + +<p>"Now listen to the chorus of the sailors as they get up their anchor. +Does it not seem a sweet and fitting overture to the whole oratorio of +the voyage before them? I have been watching the vessels go out, one by +one, for over an hour. I must say there are some uncommonly rude men +among the sweet singers we are listening to, and—and—" He stopped and +forgot to go on.</p> + +<p>"And what?" cried Margaret peremptorily.</p> + +<p>Maurice had lost himself in the contemplation of some locks of sunny +hair, that were flying in the breeze from Margaret's forehead, and the +graceful curve of her full neck as she looked away at the ships.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. And that's Timber Island over there, covered with trees and +stamped out round like a breakfast bun, and that's the False Duck +Island, where we came in last night. The schooner sailing yonder is +going to take the channel between that white line of breakers and South +Bay Point running out there, and those huts you see nestling in the +trees far away on the main-land are fishermen's houses—"</p> + +<p>He was not looking at any of these things, but was following out two +trains of thought in his active head while he talked against time. What +really absorbed him was Margaret's ear, and a sort of invisible down on +the back part of her cheek. He was thinking to himself that if five +dollars would purchase a kiss on that spot he would be content to see a +notice in the Gazette: "Maurice Rankin, failed: liabilities, $5.00."</p> + +<p>Margaret was listening, gravely unconscious of being so much admired, +enjoying all he said, and feasting her eyes upon the distances, the +brilliant colors, and the fleeting shadows of the broken clouds upon the +water.</p> + +<p>"Why, what a nice old chappie you are!" she exclaimed, giving his hand a +pat and taking hers away. "How did you manage to find out all about the +surroundings?"</p> + +<p>"Been around boarding the different schooners lying at anchor. Examining +their papers, you know," said he grandly. "Went around in the canoe to +the first fellow—a coal vessel. A man appeared near the bow and looked +down at me as if I were a kind of fish swimming about. 'Heave-to, or +I'll sink you,' I said in the true old nautical style. He did not say a +word, but stooped down and did heave two, in fact three, pieces of coal +at me. I passed on, satisfied that his vessel needed no further +inspection. I was then attracted by the name of another schooner, on +whose stern was painted the legend 'Bark Swaller.'"</p> + +<p>"What a strange name," said Margaret, as Maurice spelled it out.</p> + +<p>"Well, it puzzled me a good deal, as I examined it closely, being in +doubt whether Barque Swallow was intended, or perhaps the name of some +German owner. At all events a sailor spied me paddling about under the +stern of the boat and regarded me with evident suspicion. I thought I +would deal more gently with this man than with the other fellow. 'Can +you tell me,' I asked, 'the name of that round island over there?' The +only answer I got was unsatisfactory. 'Sheer off,' said he, 'wid your +dirty dug-out.' This seemed rather rude, but I did not retaliate. I +thought I might go further and fare worse, so I endeavored to mollify +him. Perhaps, I thought, being up all night in hard weather had made +these sailors irritable.</p> + +<p>"'Can you drink whisky?' I said—" Margaret was looking at Maurice with +a soft expression of interest and mirth. He was talking on in order that +he might continue to bask in the beauty of the face that looked straight +at him. But the strain for a moment was too great. For an instant he +slacked up his check-rein, and while he narrated his story he continued +in the same tone with: "(Believe me, my dear Margaret, you are looking +perfectly heavenly this morning) and the effect on this poor toiler of +the sea was, I assure you, quite wonderful." Rankin's tongue went +straight on, as if the parenthesis were part of the narrative. Margaret +saw that it was useless to speak, and resigned herself to listen again. +"Quite wonderful," he continued. "The fellow motioned to me to come to +the bow of the vessel, and when I got there he came over the bulwarks +and dropped like a monkey from one steel rope to another till he stood +on the bobstay chains."</p> + +<p>"'Whist!' said he. 'Divil a word! Have you got it there?'</p> + +<p>"'There is some on the yacht,' I said, 'and I want to ask you some +questions about this place. What island is that over there?'</p> + +<p>"'Mother of Pathrick,' said he, 'an' did ye come down all the way in +your yacht and not know Timber Island when you'd see it?'</p> + +<p>"He looked at me as if I was some strange being.</p> + +<p>"'And where was ye last night, might I axe?'</p> + +<p>"'Where we axe now,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Faith, it was a big head that brought you into the nursery here +before last night came on! More be-token, I have'nt had a dhry rag on me +for tin hours, and divil a sail we've got widout a shplit in it the size +of a shteam-tug. Bring it in a sody-bottle, darlint, and the Lord'll +love ye if ye don't spoil it. Whisht, love! You drink my health in the +sody and don't lave any in the bottle.'</p> + +<p>"I came back and got him a soda-bottle of the genuine article, and while +he drank it the rapidity of his tongue was peculiar. 'So you have been +here before?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Whisht, darlint! till the captain won't hear you. Been here before? +Begorra, this place has been a mine of goold to me many a time. For +siventeen days at a slap I've laid here in Dicimber at four dollars a +day, with nothin' to do but play checkers and sphlit wood for the shtove +and pray for a gale o' wind down the lake till shpring-time.'</p> + +<p>"This eloquence continued until I thought he would certainly fall off +the bobstay.</p> + +<p>"'Tell me, now,' he said, after I had got all the information I wanted, +'have ye a berth for an old salty aboard that craft?'</p> + +<p>"I said we had not.</p> + +<p>"'Faith, perhaps you're right. I kin see by the stow on yer mainsail and +by the nate way yer heads'ls is drag-gen' in the wather that you're born +and bled up to the sea and don't require no assistance.'</p> + +<p>"With these sarcastic words he gave me his blessing, threw away the +bottle, and disappeared again over the bow."</p> + +<p>"I gather from your remarks that your friend was of Hibernian origin," +said Margaret. "Perhaps a good dynamiter spoiled. But we will speak of +him again. What I have been wanting for some time has been a trip in the +canoe to the beach over there. I want to walk over the sand bar and get +close to those great breakers rolling in on the shingle. Unhitch your +canoe-string and bring the canoe alongside."</p> + +<p>"Unhitch your canoe-string!" repeated Rankin contemptuously. "You must +speak more nautically or I won't understand you."</p> + +<p>"Well, what ought I to say?"</p> + +<p>"Dunno. 'Cast adrift your towline' sounds well."</p> + +<p>"It does, indeed," said Margaret, as Morry swung the light cockleshell +into position and she descended into it with care. "'Cast adrift your +towline' has a full, able-bodied seaman sort of sound; but it has not +the charm of mystery about it that some expressions have. Now 'athwart +your hawse' seems portentous in its meaning. I don't want to know what +it means. I would rather go on thinking of it as of the arm that handed +forth the sword Excalibur,' clothed in white samite—mystic, wonderful.' +Do you know I read all Clark Russell's sea stories, and drive through +all his sea-going technicalities with the greatest interest, although I +understand nothing about them. When he goes aloft on the main-boom and +brails up his foregaff-bobstay I go with him. Sometimes he describes how +small the deck below looks from the dizzy height when, poised upon the +capstan-bars, he furls the signal halyards that flap and fill away and +thunder in the gale; and then I see it all—"</p> + +<p>"So do I, so do I!" cried Morry, as he paddled dexterously to the shore. +"You've got Clark Russell to a T. He goes on like that by the hour +together. I read every word, and the beauty of it is I always think I +understand. Why do we like his stories so much, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"One reason is because his heroes are manly men and have brave hearts," +said Margaret confidently. "I think that is why they appeal to women; he +always arouses a sentiment of pity for the hero's misfortunes. Few women +can resist that." And Margaret, somewhat stirred, looked away over the +broad sea. Almost unconsciously there flashed before her the image of a +Greek god winning a foot-race under circumstances that aroused her +sympathy. Again she saw him steering a yacht, keen, strong, active, +determined, and calm amid excitement. A flush suffused her countenance, +and her eyes became soft and thoughtful as she gazed far away. Ah, these +rushes of blood to the head! How they kindle an unacknowledged idea into +activity! A moment and, like a flash, a latent, undeveloped instinct +becomes a living potent force to develop us. The admirer becomes a +lover, the plotter a criminal, and the religious man a fanatic.</p> + +<p>When the canoe pushed its way through the rushes and beached itself upon +the soft sand the two jumped out and crossed over to the lake side, +where the heavy ground swells of the last night's gale were still +mounting high upon the shingle. The bar leading toward them from False +Duck Island was a seething expanse of white breakers, and over the lake +to the south and west, as far as the eye could reach in the now rarefied +atmosphere a tumbling mass of bright-green waters could be seen, which +grew blue in color at the sharply cut horizon. Not far off the "Bark +Swaller" was buffeting her way to the southward, toward Oswego, and +around the wooded island with the lighthouse on it, the mail steamer, +twelve hours detained, was getting a first taste of the open water.</p> + +<p>It was a morning that made the two feel as if it were impossible to keep +still. The flat shingle, washed smooth by the high waves of the previous +night, was firm under foot as they walked and trotted along between the +wreckage and driftwood on one side and the highest wash of the hissing +water on the other. An occasional flight of small plover suggested the +wildness of the spot, and something of the spirit of these birds in +their curving and wheeling flight seemed to possess the two young +people—making them run and caper on the sands.</p> + +<p>"You ought to be able to run a pretty good race," said Maurice, +glancing at the shapely figure of his companion.</p> + +<p>"So I am," said Margaret, as she sprang up on a large piece of +driftwood. "I'll run you a race to that bush on the far point around the +little bay. Do you see it?"</p> + +<p>"I see it," said Maurice. "Are you ready? Go!"</p> + +<p>Margaret sprang down from the stump and was off like an arrow. Morry +thought it was only a sham and a pretense of hers, as he bounded off +beside her. He soon found his mistake, however, as his unaccustomed +muscles did their utmost to keep him abreast of the gliding figure in +the dark-blue skirt and jersey. They rounded the curve of the bay, +Maurice on the inside track. But this advantage did not give him a lead. +The distance to the winning point seemed fatal to his chances, but he +hung on, hoping his opponent would tire. Again he was mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Morry! Don't be beaten by a woman."</p> + +<p>Her voice, as she said this, seemed aggressively fresh, and the taunt +brought Rankin even with her again. He had no breath left to say +anything in reply as they came to a small indentation filled with water +where the shore curved in, making another little bay. Margaret ran +around it, but Maurice, as a last chance, splashed through it, +regardless of water up to his ankles. He gained about ten feet by this +subterfuge. A few gliding bounds, impossible to describe, and Margaret +was beside him again.</p> + +<p>"That was a shabby advantage to take," she said as she passed his +panting form. "Now I'll show you how fast I <i>can</i> run."</p> + +<p>She left him then as he labored on. She floated away from him like a +thistle-blossom on the breeze. He forgot his defeat in his admiration of +that fleeting figure which he would have believed to move in the air had +he not seen marks in the sand made by toes of small shoes. He could +hardly comprehend how she could run away from him in this way. Yet there +was no wings attached to the lithe form before him. No wings, but a bit +of silk ankle which seemed far preferable.</p> + +<p>Margaret stopped at the bush which was to be the winning post. Morry +then staggered in exhausted and threw himself sideways into the yielding +mass of the willow bush and fell out on the other side.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he said, as he rolled over on his back with his head resting in +his hands, "wasn't that beautiful?"</p> + +<p>"The race—yes, indeed, it was splendid."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't mean the race. That was horrible. I mean to see you run." +(Gasp.)</p> + +<p>Margaret's face was sparkling with excitement and color, while her bosom +rose and fell after her exertion.</p> + +<p>"I can run fast, can I not?" Her arms were hanging demurely at her side +again. She could run, but she never seemed to be at all masculine.</p> + +<p>"I never ran a race with a man before," she said, laughing.</p> + +<p>"And never will run another with this individual," said Rankin. "Nothing +goes so fast as a train you have missed, just as it leaves the station, +and yet I have caught it sometimes. You can go faster than anything I +ever saw." (A breath.) "It is a good thing to know when one is beaten. +You will always be an uncatchable distance before me." (A sigh.)</p> + +<p>"My shoes are full of sand," said Margaret ruefully, looking down at +them.</p> + +<p>"Mine are full of water," said Maurice. He did not seem to care. He was +quite content to lie there and gaze at her without reservation. And, +with his heightened color and excitement, he actually appeared rather +good looking.</p> + +<p>"I think the least you could do would be to offer to take the sand out +of my shoes," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"If I don't have to get up I could do it. I won't be able to get up for +about twenty minutes. But if you sit on that stump—so—I think I could +manage it."</p> + +<p>Resting on one elbow, he unlaced the shoes, knocked the sand out of +them, and spent a long time over the operation. Then he wondered at +their small size, and measured them, sole to sole, with his own boots +while he chattered on, as usual, about nothing. Hers were not by any +means microscopic shoes, but they seemed so to him, and he regarded them +with some of the curiosity of the miners of Blue Dog Gulch, Nevada, when +a woman's boot appeared among them after their two years' isolation from +the interesting sex. There was something in the way he handled them that +spoke of exile—something that stirred the compassion one might feel on +seeing the monks of Man Saba tend their canaries.</p> + +<p>The left shoe was put on with great care, and then he sat looking over +the lake for a while in silence before beginning with the second. It was +a long, well-chiseled foot, with high instep, and none of those knobs +which sometimes necessitate long dresses, and in men's boots take such a +beautiful polish. He pretended to brush some sand away, and then, +banding over, kissed the silk-covered instep, and received an admonitory +tap for his boldness.</p> + +<p>"Fie, Morry! to kiss an unprotected lady's foot," said Margaret archly, +as she took the shoe from him and put it on herself. "You have insulted +me."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Margaret, 'twas but the sign of my allegiance and fealty," said +he, looking up with what tried to be an off-hand manner. "It is the old +story," he said lightly; "the worship of the unattainable—the remnant, +perhaps, of our old nature worship. If you were not better acquainted +with the subject than I am, I could give you a discourse which would be, +I assure you, very instructive as to how we have always striven after +what we think to be good in the unattainable. We have been forbidden to +worship the sun or to appease the thunders and lightnings, and, one by +one, nearly all the objects of worship have been swept away, leaving a +world that now does not seem to know what to do with its acquired +instincts. One object is left, though, and I am inclined to think that +men are never more thoroughly admirable than when influenced by the +worship of the women who seem to them the best, that many thus come to +know the pricelessness of good and the despair of evil, with quite as +satisfactory practical results as any other creed could bring about."</p> + +<p>"What, then, becomes of the search for the unattainable after marriage?" +asked Margaret practically.</p> + +<p>"I imagine that the search would continue, that the greatest peace of +marriage is the consciousness of approaching good in being assisted to +live up to a woman's higher ideals. It seems as if the condition of +Milton's idyllic pair—'he for God only, she for God <i>in him</i>'—has but +little counterpart in real life, and that, in a thousand cases to one, +the morality of the wife is the main chance of the husband."</p> + +<p>"I understand, then, that we are to be worshiped as a means toward the +improvement of our husbands. I was hoping," said Margaret smiling, "that +you were going to prove us to be real goddesses, worthy of devotion for +ourselves—without more."</p> + +<p>"You are raising a well-worn question—as to what men worship when they +bow before a shrine. If you were the shrine, I should say generally the +shrine. At other times they worship that which the shrine suggests. What +I mean is, that it is a good thing for one to have a power with him +capable of improving all the good that is in him. For myself, the point +is somewhat wanting in interest, as I never expect to be able to put it +to a practical test."</p> + +<p>"Not get married, Maurice? Why will you never get married?"</p> + +<p>"I intended to have casually mentioned the reason a minute ago, only you +interrupted me just as I was coming to the interesting part."</p> + +<p>"Then tell me now, and I won't interrupt."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know I am like the small boys who want pie, and won't eat +anything if they don't get it," said he, striving to be prosaic. "I love +you far too well to make it possible for me to marry anybody else."</p> + +<p>In spite of the assistance that pulling his hair gave him, as his head +lay back in his hands, his voice shook and his form stiffened out along +the sand in a way that told of struggle. Margaret was surprised, but she +hardly yet understood the matter enough to feel pained. She had not been +led to expect that men would first express their love while lying on +their backs.</p> + +<p>"I thought I would tell you of it, as you would then know how +particularly well you could trust me—as your friend—a very faithful +one. You know, even in my present state, I would be full of hope, if +things were different, because the money is bound to come sooner or +later; but you, Margaret, I know, without your words, will never be +attainable—that the moon would be more easy for me to grasp."</p> + +<p>Margaret was not often at a loss for a word, but now she knew not what +to say. It did not seem as if anything could be said. She essayed to +speak; but he stopped her.</p> + +<p>"I know what you would say," he said. "They would be kind words in their +tone, full of sympathy, words that I love to hear—that I hear like +music in my ears when you are out of sight? You must, and I know you +will, forgive me for all these confessions," said he, smiling, "you +have made such a change come over my life. You have given me so much +happiness."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how," said Margaret, not knowing what to say.</p> + +<p>"No—you could hardly know why. If you knew what a different life I have +led from that of others you would understand better the real happiness +you have given me. My life of late years has been unlovely. I have not +had the soft influences of a home as it should be, but I have always +yearned for them."</p> + +<p>The pretense of being off-hand in his manner had left him. He talked +disjointedly, and with effort. "You can not know what it is to feel +continually the want of affection. You have never hungered for the +luxury of being in some way cared for. But these weaknesses of mine will +not bore you, because you are kind. It will make my case plainer when I +tell you that for years—as long as I can remember—there never has been +a night that a longing for the presence of my parents has not come over +me. Until I saw you. Now you have come to fill the gap. Now I think of +you, and listen to your voice, and look at your face, and care for you. +You fill more places in my heart than you know of. You are father and +mother and all beside to me, and I shall go back to my dreary life +gladder for this experience, this love for you which will remain with me +always. Still, it is dreadful to look into a future of loneliness! Oh, +Margaret, it is dreadful to be always alone—always alone."</p> + +<p>Margaret was watching the part of his face not covered with his cap as +his words were ground out haltingly, and she could see his lips twitch +as old memories mingled with his present emotions. As he proceeded she +saw from his simple words how deep-seated were his affections, and she +wondered at the way he had concealed his love for her. A great +compassion for him was welling up in her heart. As she listened to his +words, it came upon her what it might be to love deeply and then to +find that it only led to disappointment. She felt glad that she had +given him some happiness—glad when he said he could look forward more +cheerfully to going back to his hopeless existence. It was brave to +speak of it thus—asking nothing. But when he said it was dreadful to be +alone—always alone—his voice conveyed the idea of horror to her, and, +in a moment, without knowing exactly why, the tears were in her eyes, +and she was kneeling beside him on the sand asking what could be done, +and blaming herself for giving him trouble. Her touch upon his hand +thrilled him. He dared not remove his cap. He dared not look at her for +very fear of his happiness; but then he heard a half sob in her voice, +and that cured him. It would never do for her to be weeping. He had said +too much, he thought. He partly sat up, leaning upon his hand, and was +himself again. Margaret was looking at him (so beautiful with her dewy +eyes), with but one thought in her mind, which was how to be kind to +him, how to make up to him some of the care that his life had been shorn +of. It was all done in a moment. Margaret said tearfully, "Oh, what can +I do?" and Rankin's native quickness was present with him. He leaned +forward, inspired by a new thought, and said, "Kiss me," and Margaret, +knowing nothing but a great compassion for him, in which self was +entirely forgotten, said: "Indeed, I will, if you would care for that."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>YACHTING ONLY.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Some hearts might have yearned to have been on board during the fishing +in Hay Bay, and to have enjoyed those evenings when the yacht anchored +in the twilight calm, beside rocky shores, or near waving banks of sedge +and rushes, where the whip-poor-will and bull frog supplied all the +necessary music. I abandon all that occurred at pretty Picton and +Belleville, but I must not forget the little episode that happened one +evening near Indian Point as the yacht was on her way to Kingston. A +fresh breeze had been blowing during the afternoon, and the two reefs, +taken in for comfort's sake, still remained in the mainsail, as no one +after dinner felt equal to the exertion of shaking them out. The wind +had almost died away as they approached Indian Point, and not far off, +on the other side of this long, narrow arm of the sea called the Bay of +Quinte, lay MacDonald's Cove, a snug little place for anchorage in any +kind of weather. A heavy bank of clouds was rapidly rising over the +hills in the west, and hastening up the sky to extinguish the bright +moon that had been making a fairy landscape of the bay and its +surroundings, and the barometer was falling rapidly.</p> + +<p>This condition of affairs Jack reported to Charley, who was below with +several others having a little game in which the word "ante" seemed to +be used sometimes in a tone of reproach. Charles answered gayly, without +looking away from the game, that Jack had better get the yacht into the +Cove while there was wind to take her there, and Jack, who observed that +he was "seeing" and "raising" an antagonist for the fifth time on a pair +of fours, thought a man should not be disturbed at such a time, and went +on deck to shake out the reefs so as to drift into the Cove, if +possible, before the storm came on. But when in the middle of the bay +the wind gave out entirely. For half an hour the Ideal lay becalmed and +motionless. Oilskin suits and sou'westers were donned. Now fringes of +whitish scud, torn from the driving clouds, could be seen flying past +the bleared moon, and it seemed in the increasing darkness, while they +were waiting for the tumult, as if the shores around contracted, so as +to give the yacht no space for movement. Jack took the compass bearings +of the lighthouse, expecting soon to be in total darkness, and he had +both anchors prepared for instant use. The sails had been close-reefed, +but after being reefed they were lowered again so as to present nothing +but bare poles to the squall. The darkness came on and grew intense. +Between the rapidly increasing peals of thunder the squall could be +heard approaching, moaning over the hills in the west and down the bay +as if ravening for prey, while the lightning seemed to take a savage +delight in spearing the distant cliffs which, in the flashes, were +beautifully outlined in silhouette against an electric atmosphere. Still +the yacht lay motionless in the dead air difficult to breathe and +oppressive; and still Charley continued to "raise" and get "raised" in +the cheerfully lighted cabin, whence the laughter and the talk of the +game mingled strangely, in the ears of those on deck, with the sounds of +the coming tempest. Margaret, with her head out of the companion-way, +watched the scene with a nervousness that impending electrical storms +oppressed her with. Her quick eyes soon caught sight of something on the +water, not far off. A mystic line of white could be seen coming along +the surface. She asked what it was at a moment when the deadness and +blackness of the air seemed appalling, and the ear was filled with +strange swishing sounds. She never heard any answer. Another instant and +the yacht heeled over almost to the rail in that line of white water, +which the whips of the tornado had lashed into spume. Blinding sheets of +spray, picked up by the wind from the surface of water, flew over those +on deck, and instantly the lee scuppers were gushing with the rain and +spray which deluged the decks. Word was carried forward by a messenger +from the wheel to hoist a bit of headsail, and when this was +immediately done the yacht paid off before the squall, running easterly, +with all the furies after her. The darkness was so great that it was +impossible to see one's hand close to one's eyes. The thunderclaps near +at hand were rendered more terrific by the echoes from the hills, and +only while the lightning clothed the vessel in a spectral glare could +they see one another. Still the yacht sped on, while Jack jealously +watched the binnacle where the only guide was to be found. The Indian +Point light, though not far off, was completely blotted out by the rain, +which seemed to fall in solid masses, and even the lightning failed to +indicate the shores or otherwise reveal their position.</p> + +<p>A wild career, such as they were now pursuing, must end somewhere, and +in the narrow rock-bound locality they were flying through, the chance +of keeping to the proper channel entirely by compass and chart did not +by any means amount to a certainty. Nor was anchoring in the middle of +the highway to be thought of, especially as some trading vessels were +known to be in the vicinity. The chance of being cut down by them was +too great. Jack felt that an error now might cause the loss of the +yacht. After calculating a variation of the compass in these parts, he +decided to run before the gale for a while and keep in the channel if +possible—hoping for a lull in the downfall of rain, so that his +whereabouts could be discovered.</p> + +<p>A high chopping sea was driving the yacht on, while she scudded under +bare poles before the gale, and Jack had been for some little time +endeavoring to estimate their rate of speed when the deluge seemed to +abate partly and the glimmer of a light could be seen to the southward. +A sailor called out "There's Indian Point light." If it had been the +light he mentioned they would have had all they wanted. Jack feared +they had run past it, but, to make sure, he asked the sailors their +opinion. They all said they were certain it was Indian Point light. One +of them declared he had seen the lighthouse itself in one of the +flashes. So Jack had the peak of the mainsail partly hoisted and they +drew around to the southward, so as to anchor under the lee of the +lighthouse point. As the yacht came round sideways to the wind she lay +down to it and moved slowly and heavily through the short angry seas +that, hitting the side, threw spray all over her. Jack was feeling his +way carefully and slowly through the inky blackness of the night with +the lead-line going to show the depth of the water, when the lookout on +the bowsprit-end, after they had proceeded a considerable distance to +the south, suddenly cried "Breakers ahead!" and he tumbled inboard off +the bowsprit, as if he thought the boat about to strike at once. "Let +her go round, sir, for God's sake! We're right on the rocks."</p> + +<p>Jack, back at the wheel, had not been able to get a glimpse of the +foaming rocks in the lightning which the man on the bowsprit had seen. +He despaired of the boat's going about, but he tried it. The high +chopping sea stopped the yacht at once. He knew it was asking too much +of her to come about with so little way on, and the canvas all in a bag, +so, as there was evidently no room to wear the ship, he had the big +anchor dropped. His intention was to come about by means of his anchor +and get out on the other tack into the channel and anywhere away from +the rocks and the breakers that could be heard above the tempest roaring +close to them on the port side. While the chain was being paid out, the +close-reefed mainsail was hoisted up to do its work properly. The storm +staysail was also hoisted and sheeted home on the port side to back her +head off from the land. As this was being done, the sailors paid out the +anchor-chain rapidly. To do so more quickly they carelessly threw it +off the winch and let it smoke through the hawse-pipe at its own pace. +But suddenly there came a check to it, which, in the darkness, could not +be accounted for. A bight or a knot in the chain had come up and got +jammed somewhere, and now it refused to run out. The Ideal immediately +straightened out the cable, and, at the moment, all the king's horses +and all the king's men would have been powerless to clear it. Jack came +forward, and with a lantern discovered how things were. "Never mind," he +thought. "If she will lie here for a while no harm will be done." In the +mean time, while the men were getting a tackle rigged to haul up a bit +of the chain, so as to obtain control of it again, the rain ceased to +fall, while the lightning, by which alone the men could see to work, +served only to make the succeeding darkness more profound.</p> + +<p>The place they had sailed into was on the north shore of Amherst Island. +As Jack feared, the sailors had been wrong in thinking that the light +they saw was the one on Indian Point. It was a lantern on a schooner +which had gone ashore on the rocks close to where the Ideal now lay.</p> + +<p>The worst of their anxiety was, however, yet to come. During a vivid +flash, after the rain had partly cleared away, a reef of rocks was +discovered a short distance off, trending out from the shore directly +behind the yacht. Jack had been lying with his hand on the cable to feel +whether the anchor was holding or not. He soon found that the yacht was +"dragging." The sails were lowered at once, and the second anchor was +left go, in the hope that it might catch hold when the first one had +dragged back far enough to allow the second to work.</p> + +<p>With the rocks behind waiting for them, it was now a question of anchors +holding, or nothing—yacht or no yacht. Every moment as she pitched and +ducked and tossed against the driving seas and wind she dropped back +toward a black mass over which the waves broke savagely. The yacht was +literally locked up to the big anchor. They could neither haul up nor +pay out its cable, so that, until this was remedied by means of a tackle +(which takes some time in a jumping sea and darkness) sailing again was +impossible. Carefully they paid out chain enough for the second anchor +to do its work. Not till they were close to the rocks did they allow any +strain to come upon it. Then they took a turn on its chain and waited to +see how it would hold.</p> + +<p>Feeling the cable, when there is nothing to hope for but that the hook +will do its work, is a quiet though anxious occupation. Jack waited for +the sensations in the hand which will often tell whether the anchor is +holding or not, and then rose, and in the moonlight which now began to +break through the clouds his face looked anxious. "Flat rock," he +muttered, "with a layer of mud on it."</p> + +<p>By this time the men had got control of the big anchor's chain again and +had knocked the kink out of it. But there was no room now to slip cables +and sail off.</p> + +<p>The rocks were too close. The idea struck him of winding in the first +anchor a bit—in the hope that it might catch in a crack in the rock, or +on a bowlder, before it got even with the second one.</p> + +<p>This proved of no use, and the yacht was now approaching, stern-first, +the point or outward rock of the reef which stood up boldly in the +water. Only a few feet now separated this outside rock from the counter +of the yacht. In two minutes more the stem would be dashing itself into +matches.</p> + +<p>Jack's brain, you may be sure, was on the keen lookout for expedients. +He had the mainsail hoisted and the staysail flattened down to the port +side—so as to back her head off. He hoped by this possibly to grind +off the rocks by his sails after striking, and by then slipping his +cables to get out into deep water before the stern was completely stove +in. But while this was being done the thought came into his mind whether +the stern might not clear the outer rock without hitting it. The +changeable gusts of wind had been swinging the yacht sidewise—first a +little one way and then a little the other. At the time he looked back +at the yacht, they were just about near enough to strike when the wind +shifted her a little toward the north, and for a moment the stern +pointed clear of the outer rock. His first idea was that the wind was +shifting permanently. But suddenly it came to him that this might be his +only chance. He did not wait to command others, but flew to the anchor +chains and threw off the coils. The yacht shot astern like the recoil of +a cannon. He threw the chains clear of the windlass so that the vessel +could dart backward without any check. It seemed a mad thing to do—to +let both anchors go overboard—but it was a madness which when +successful is called genius. It was genius to conceive and carry out the +idea in an instant, and single handed, too, as if he were the only one +on the boat, genius to know quickly enough exactly how the vessel would +act. Half a dozen seconds sufficed to throw off the chains, and then he +got back to the wheel, steering her as she went backward grazing her +paint only against the rock, while the chains rushed out like a +whirlwind over the bows. The staysail sheets had already been flattened +down on the port side and the yacht's head paid off fast on the port +tack, while Jack rapidly slacked the main sheet well off, and as she +gathered way and plunged out into the open channel, an understanding of +the quick idea that had saved the vessel trickled through the brains of +the hired men. Instead of climbing to the rocks from a sinking yacht, as +they expected to be doing at this moment, here they were heading out +into deep water again—with the old packet good as new.</p> + +<p>Cresswell called to the mate to keep her "jogging around" till he spoke +to the owner about getting back the anchors, and then went below with +the other men of the party who had remained on deck throughout the +uncomfortable affair.</p> + +<p>The workers on deck, who looked like submarine divers, slipped out of +their oil-skins and descended from the deck to the gay cabin below. +Charley still continued to "raise" and get "raised" with a pertinacity +which defied the elements. His game had had the effect of making his +mother and the others think, in spite of their tremors, that the danger +lay chiefly in their own minds, and, under the circumstances, Charley +had no easy time of it. He had listened to every sound, and knew a good +deal more about the proximity of the rocks, and the trouble generally, +than any one would have supposed.</p> + +<p>He decided not to attempt to pick up the anchors that night, so they +beat back to MacDonald's Cove, where they entered, in the moonlight, and +made fast for the night to some trees beside a steep rocky shore.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Bassanio</span>:<br /></span> +<span class="i12">So may the outward shows be least themselves;<br /></span> +<span class="i12">The world is still deceived with ornament.<br /></span> +<span class="i12">In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Obscures the show of evil? In religion,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">What damméd error, but some sober brow<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Will bless it, and approve it with a text,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Salarino</span>:<br /></span> +<span class="i12">My wind, cooling my broth,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Would blow me to an ague when I thought<br /></span> +<span class="i12">What harm a wind too great might do at sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i12">... Should I go to church,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">And see the holy edifice of stone,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Merchant of Venice.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>When approaching from the west among picturesque islands and past wooded +points of land, our old city of Kingston affords the traveler a pleasant +scene. Above the blue and green expanse of her spacious harbor, the +penitentiary with its high wall and surrounding turrets suggests the +Canadian justice we are proud of; and, further up, rises the asylum, +suggestive only of Canadian lunacy, for which we do not claim +pre-eminence, while beyond, some little spires and domes, sparkling in +the sun, are seen over the tops of some English-looking stone +residences, where the grassy lawns stretch down to the line of waves +breaking on the rocky shore. Further off one sees the vessel-masts along +the ship-yards and docks; here and there some small Martello forts try +to look formidable; large vessels cross and recross the harbor, while +others lie at anchor drying their sails; and beyond all, on the hill at +the back, rises the garrison walls, where—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In spite of all temptation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dynamite and annexation,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Canada is content, for the present at least, to see the English flag +instead of our own.</p> + +<p>As our friends came on deck the next morning (Sunday) they were able to +enjoy this pleasant approach to Kingston. Mrs. Dusenall and others had +wished to attend church if possible in the limestone city, and an early +start had been made by the sailors long before the guests were awake. +The wind came lightly from the southward, which allowed them to pick up +the anchors without difficulty, and it took but a short time to sweep in +past the city and "come to" off the barrack's wharf, where a gun was +ceremoniously fired as the anchor was lowered from the catheads.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall piped all hands for divine service. They came out of the +ark two by two and filed up the streets in that order until the church +was reached. The boys came out in "heavy marching order"—Sunday coats, +and all that sort of thing—which made a vast change from the +picturesque and rather buccaneer-like appearance they presented on the +yacht.</p> + +<p>If a traveling circus had proceeded up the center aisle of the +attractively decorated edifice, no greater curiosity could have been +exhibited among the worshipers. Mrs. Dusenall had some of the imposing +mien of a drum-major as she led her gallant band to seats at the head of +the church, and Charley was justly proud of the fine appearance they +made. He had surveyed them all with pleasure while on the sidewalk +outside, and had paid the usher half a dollar to lead them all together +to front seats. Walk as lightly as they could, it was impossible in the +stillness of the church to prevent their entrance from sounding like +that of soldiery, and once the eyes of the worshipers rested on the +noble troop they became fixed there for some time. There was a ruddy, +bronzed look about the yachting men's faces which, innocent of limestone +dust tended to deny the almost aggressive respectability which good +tailoring and cruelty collars attempted to claim for them. In the hearts +of the fair Kingstonians who glanced toward them there arose visions of +lawn-tennis, boating, and buccaneer costumes suggested by that +remarkably able-bodied and healthy appearance which a fashionable walk, +bank trousers, and a gauzy umbrella may do much to modify but can not +obliterate. As for the male devotees, it was touching to mark their +interest in Margaret as she went up the aisle keeping step with the +shortened pace of the long-limbed Geoffrey. The clergyman was just +saying that the scriptures moved them in sundry places when all at once +he became a mere cipher to them. After their first thrill at the beauty +of her face, their eyes followed Margaret and that wonderful movement of +hers that made her, as with a well-ordered regiment, almost as dangerous +in the retreat as in the advance. But Nina came along close behind her, +and those who, though disabled, survived the first volley were +slaughtered to a man when the rich charms of her appearance won her a +triumph all her own. Jack, walking by her side, full of gravity but +happy, took in the situation with pride at her silent success. Then all +the others followed, and when they were installed in a body in the three +front pews, and after they had all bowed their heads and the gentlemen +had carefully perused the legend printed in their hats—"Lincoln Bennett +& Coy, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London. Manufactured expressly for +Jas. H. Rogers, Toronto and Winnipeg"—they got their books open and +admitted that they had done things they ought not to have done and that +there was no health in them.</p> + +<p>The interior of the church was a luxury to the eye in its mellow +coloring from stained-glass windows and carefully-arranged lights, and +in its banners, altar-cloths, embroidery, and church millinery +generally, it left little to be desired. The clergyman was a young +unmarried offspring of a high-church college who, with a lofty disregard +for general knowledge, had acquired a great deal of theology. He it was +who arranged that dim religious light about the altar and walled up a +neighboring window so that the burning of candles seemed to become +necessary. Never having been out of America, it was difficult to imagine +where he acquired the ultra-English pronunciation that had all those +flowing "ah" sounds which after a while make all words so pleasantly +alike in the high-pitched reading of prayers when, it may be inferred, +that word-meanings are perhaps of minor import. It seemed that he alone +was, from the holiness of his office, qualified to enter that mysterious +place at the head of the chancel where, with his back to the +congregation, at stated times he went through certain genuflexions and +other movements in which the general public did not participate further +than to admire the splendor of his back. The effect of the many +mysteries on some of the Kingston men was to keep them away from the +church. A few fathers of families and others came to please wives, +sweethearts, or clients, and in the cool, agreeable edifice enjoyed some +respectable slumber or watched the proceedings with mild curiosity or +had their ears filled either with good music or the agreeable sound of +the intoning.</p> + +<p>The effect of the little mysteries on the well-to-do women of the church +(for it was no place for a poor man's family) was varied. On the +large-eyed, nervous, impressionable, and imaginative virgins—those who +could always be found ready in the days of human sacrifices—the +clergyman's mysteries and the exercise of the power of the Church, as +exhibited in the continual working of his strong will upon them, had of +course the usual results in enfeebling their judgment and in rendering +them very subservient. In the case of some unimaginative matrons and +more level-headed girls these attractions did not unfit them for +every-day life more than continual theatre-going, and they took a pride +in and enjoyed a sense of quasi-ownership in the man whom it tickled +their fancy to clothe in gorgeous raiment. To these solid, +pleasure-loving, good-natured women, whose religion was inextricably +mixed up with romance, the mysteries, sideshows, and formalities of +their splendid <i>protégé</i> brought satisfaction; and in their social +gatherings they discussed the doings of their favorite much as a +syndicate of owners might, in the pride of ownership, discuss their +horse. It may be pleasing to be identified with the supernatural, but +one's self-respect must need all such compensations to allow one to +become a peg for admiring women to hang their embroidery on—to be +largely dependent upon their gratuities, subject to some of their +control, to put in, say, two fair days' work in seven, and spend the +rest in fiddle-faddle.</p> + +<p>"There is but one God. What directly concerns you, my friends, is that +Mohammed <i>is his Prophet</i>—to interpret the supernatural for you." It +would be interesting to find out if there ever existed a religion, +savage or civilized, whose public proclamation did not contain a +qualifying clause to retain the power in the priests.</p> + +<p>The sermon on this occasion was on the observance of the Sabbath. It +contained much church law and theology, and in quotations from different +saints who had lived at various periods during the dark ages, and whose +sayings did not seem to be chosen so much on account of their force as +for the weight given by the names of the saints themselves, which were +delivered <i>ore rotundo</i>. But it is doubtful whether the most erudite +quotation from obscure mediæval saints is capable of carrying much +conviction to the hearts of a Canadian audience, and Jack and Charley +had to be kicked into consciousness from an uneasy slumber.</p> + +<p>From the saints the priest descended to Chicago, a transition which +awoke several. And he sought to illustrate the depravity of that city by +commenting upon the large facilities there provided for +Sabbath-breaking. He spoke of the street-cars he had seen there running +on that day, and of the suburban trains that carried thousands of +working-women and girls out of the city. He did not say that the cars +were chiefly drawn by steam-power, nor that these poor, jaded, +hollow-eyed girls worked harder in one day than he did in three weeks; +nor did he speak of the weak women's hard struggle for existence in the +life-consuming factories; nor of the freshness of the lake breezes in +the spots where the trains dropped thousands of their overworked +passengers.</p> + +<p>Margaret Mackintosh had seen these dragged, dust-choked, narrow-chested, +smoke-dried girls, with all the bloom of youth gone from them, trying to +make their drawn faces smile as they go off together in their clean, +Sunday print dresses, too jaded for anything save rest and fresh air. +She knew that any man not devoid of the true essence of Christ might +almost weep in the fullness of his sympathy with them. But the young +priest convicted them of sacrilege, and did not say he was thankful for +being privileged to witness such a sight, or that Chicago existed to +shame the more priest-ridden cities of Canada.</p> + +<p>When this story was concluded, Mrs. Dusenall, and many of her kind; and +the unimpressionable girls looked acquiescence, because the words were +backed by the Church, but their hearts went out to the poor sinners in +Chicago. Only with those who took their mental bias from the priest did +his words find solid resting-place. Geoffrey sat with an inmovable face, +impossible to read. His subsequent remark to Margaret, when she had +delivered her opinions about the matter, was, however, characteristic. +He said simply, as if deprecating her vehemence:</p> + +<p>"The man must live, you know, and how is he to live if people go out of +town on Sunday." To Geoffrey a short time was sufficient to satisfy him +that the preacher ought to have lived in the days when mankind were +saturated with belief in miracle and looked for explanation of events +by miracle without dreaming of other explanation.</p> + +<p>During the next five minutes the sermon rather wandered from the +subject, but fastened upon it again in an anecdote of an occurrence said +to have taken place at an American seaport town, during the preacher's +visit there.</p> + +<p>Several young mechanics, instead of going to church one Sunday morning, +had engaged a yawl, and also the fishermen who owned it, to take them to +a village on the coast and back again. It appeared from the account that +for a day and a night the yawl had been blown away from the coast, and +then that the wind had changed, so as to drive it back again; and the +story of the voyage naturally found attentive listeners among our +yachting friends.</p> + +<p>"All through that first terrible day, and all through the long, black +night they were tossed about among the giant billows of a most +tempestuous ocean. And what, dear friends, must have been the agony and +remorse of those misguided young men when they thus realized the results +of their deliberate breaking of the holy day. As they clung to the frail +vessel, which reeled to and fro beneath them like a drunken man, and +which now alone remained to possibly save them from a watery grave—as +they perceived the billows breaking in upon that devoted ship, insomuch +that it was covered with waves, what must have been their sensations? +And when the wind suddenly changed its direction and blew them with +terrible force back again toward the rocky coast, we can imagine how +earnestly they made their resolutions never again to transgress in this +way. Once more, after a while, they saw the land again, and as they came +closer they could discern the spires of those holy edifices which they +had abandoned for the sake of forbidden pleasures and in which they were +doomed never to hear the teachings of the Church again. There lay the +harbor before them, as if in mockery of all their attempts to reach it; +and while raised on high in the air, on the summit of some white, +mountainous billow, they could obtain a Pisgah-like view of those homes +they were destined never again to enter."</p> + +<p>Jack was broad awake now and wondering why, with the wind dead after +them, the fishermen in charge of the boat could not make the harbor.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly there came a great noise, which no doubt sounded like a death +knell in the hearts of the terrified and exhausted young men. It was +soon discovered that the mainsail of the ship had been blown away by the +fury of the tempest."</p> + +<p>"Now what was their unhappy condition? How could they any longer strive +to reach the longed-for haven when the mainsail of the yawl was blown +away?"</p> + +<p>Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably at this point. He was saying to +himself: "Why not sneak in under a jib? Or even under bare poles? Or, if +the harbor was intricate, why not heave to under the mizzen and signal +for a tug?" Half a score of possibilities followed each other through +his brain, which in sailing matters worked quickly. He always inclined +from his early training to accept without question all that issued from +the pulpit; but this story bothered him. The instructor went on:</p> + +<p>"Clearly there was now no hope for the devoted vessel. Even the anchor +was gone; the anchor of Hope, dear friends, was gone. The strong +trustworthy anchor (in which mariners place so great confidence that it +has become the type or symbol of Hope) was gone—washed overboard by the +temptuous waves."</p> + +<p>Charley here received a kick under the seat from Jack whose face was now +filled with a blank incredulity, which showed that the influence of his +early training had departed from him.</p> + +<p>In one way or another, the preacher succeeded in irritating some of the +Ideal's crew. He went on to say that the yawl was dashed to pieces on +the rocks, and that only one man—a fisherman—survived; from which he +drew the usual moral.</p> + +<p>With three or four exceptions, our friends went out of church not as +good-humored as when they came in. Geoffrey alone seemed to have enjoyed +himself. His heart-felt cynicism pulled him through. He said aloud to +Mrs. Dusenall, when they were all together again, that he thought the +preacher's description of the perils of the deep was very beautiful. +(Dead silence from Jack and Charley). Mrs. Dusenall concurred with him, +and said it was wonderful how clergymen acquired so much general +knowledge.</p> + +<p>Presently Charley, thoughtfully: "Say, Jack, what was the matter with +that boat, any way?"</p> + +<p>"Blessed if I could find out," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Why! did you not hear? Her mainsail was gone," said Geoffrey gravely, +to draw Jack out.</p> + +<p>"Well, who the deuce cares for a mains'l?" answered Jack, rising testily +to the bait. "The man does not know what he is—well, of course, he is a +clergyman, but then, you know—my stars! not make a port in broad +daylight with the wind dead aft! Perfectly impossible to miss it! And, +then the anchor—a fisherman's anchor!—washed overboard!"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey persisted, more gravely, in a reproachful tone; "You don't mean +to say, Jack, that you doubt that what a clergyman says is true?"</p> + +<p>The Misses Dusenall also looked at him very seriously.</p> + +<p>Jack was a candid young man, and had his religious views fixed, as it +were, hereditarily. He looked at his boots, as if he would like to evade +the question; but, seeing no escape, he came out with his answer like +parting with his teeth.</p> + +<p>"When the parson," he said with stolid determination, "goes in for +mediæval saints, I don't interfere. He can forge ahead and I won't try +to split his wind. But when he talks sailing he must talk sense. No, +sir! I do <i>not</i> believe that story—and no Angel Gabriel would make me."</p> + +<p>There was a force behind his tones of conviction which amused some of +his hearers.</p> + +<p>"Jack Cresswell! You surprise me," said Geoffrey loftily.</p> + +<p>After lunch the ladies went up into the city to visit some friends, and +the men were lying about under the awning, chatting, smoking, and +sipping claret.</p> + +<p>"Well, there was one thing about that boat that caused the entire +disturbance," said Charley, sagaciously. "I've thought the whole thing +out; and I put down the trouble to the usual cause—and that is—whisky. +When the fishermen found there was liquor on board they 'steered for the +open sea,' and when they were all stark, staring, blind drunk they went +ashore."</p> + +<p>"I fancy you have solved the difficulty," said Mr. Lemons. "The preacher +did not, somehow, seem to get hold of me. My notion is that he should +come down to your level and help you up—like those Arab chaps that lug +and butt you up the Pyramids—not stand at the top and order you to +climb."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Geoffrey. "A speaker must in some way make his listeners +feel at home with him, just as a novel, to sell well, must contain some +one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin. The sympathies must +be excited. In books accepted by gentle folk the "one touch" of +attractive and primitive nature is refined, and in this shape it is +called poetry—in this shape it creates vague and pleasant wonderings, +especially in the minds of those whose fancies are capable of no higher +intellectual flight. When we see that people so universally seek +productions in which nature is only more or less disguised, we seem to +understand man better."</p> + +<p>"What are you trying to get at now?" asked Jack, with a smiling show of +impatience.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Hampstead, "take the work of the sprightliest modern novel +writers—say, for instance, Besant and Rice. Deduct the fun from their +books and the shadowy plot, and what remains? A girl—a fresh, young, +innocent girl—who, with her beautiful face and figure, charms the +heart. She does not do much, and (with William Black) she says even +less; but the people in the book are all in love with her, and the +reader becomes, in a second-hand and imaginative way, in love with her +also. She is quiet, lady-like, and delicious; her surroundings assist in +creating an interest in her; but in the dawn and development of love +within her lies the chief interest of most readers. The mind +concentrates itself without effort when lured by any of our earlier +instincts. What we want is a definition as to what degree of careful +mental exertion is worthy of being dignified by the name of "thought," +as distinguished from that sequence of ideas, without exertion, which is +sufficient in all animals for daily routine and the carrying out of +instinct."</p> + +<p>"There are some of your ideas, Hampstead, which do not seem to promise +improvement to anybody," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"And, for you, the worst thing about them is that they have a semblance +of truth," replied Hampstead.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes—yes," admitted Jack. "But I would not excuse you because +they happened to be true. The only way I excuse you is because, after +your scientific mud-groveling, you sometimes point higher than others. +Are we to understand, then, that you object to novel reading on moral +grounds?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be absurd. A novel may be all that it should be. I am stating +what I take to be facts, and I think it interesting to consider why we +enjoy what ladies call 'a good love-story.' You will notice that people +who adopt an over-ascetic and unnatural life and do not seek nature, +give up reading 'good love-stories.' Perhaps they vaguely realize that +the difference in the interest created by Black's insipid Yolande and +Byron's Don Juan is merely one of degree."</p> + +<p>"Now, will you be so good as to say candidly what gain you or any one +else ever received from thinking in such channels as these?" inquired +Jack, with impatience.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. It keeps me from transcendentalism—from being led off into +vanity—thoughts about my immortality—"</p> + +<p>"Surely," interrupted Jack, "the aspirations of one's soul are +sufficient to convince us that we will live again."</p> + +<p>"Jack, a man's soul is simply his power of imagining and desiring what +he hasn't got. Once a day, more or less, his soul imagines immortality. +The rest of the time it imagines his sweetheart. If a poet, his soul +combines the two. Or else it is the mighty dollar, or hunting, or +something else. Shall all his aspirations toward nature go for nothing? +His soul will conjure up his sweetheart nine thousand times for one +thought of his future state. Because he has acquired neither. If he had +acquired either, he would soon be quite as certain that there was +something still better in store for him. With our minds as active and +refined as they are, it would be quite impossible for men to do +otherwise than have their imaginings about souls and immortality. These +make no proof; the savage has none of them; and if they were proof, +whither do man's aspirations chiefly point? To earth or to heaven?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose your answer," said Jack, "is sufficient for yourself. +You study science, then, to persuade yourself that when you die you will +remain teetotally dead?"</p> + +<p>"Rather to make myself content with a truth which is different from and +not so pleasant as that which we are taught in early life."</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake," cried Mr. Lemons, yawning, "pass the claret."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Visam Britannos hospitibus feros.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Horace</span>, <i>Lib. 3, Carm. 4.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall liked the visit to Kingston. She was proud of the +appearance her guests and family made at the church, and she thought of +going home and writing a book as prodigal of pretty woodcuts and +fascinating price-lists as those published by other gilded ladies. True, +she had with her no young children wherewith to awake interest in +foreign places by detailing what occurred in the ship's nursery; and +thus she might have been driven to say something about the foreign +places themselves, which, in a book of travels, are perhaps of secondary +importance when a whole gilded family may be studied in their +interesting retirement.</p> + +<p>They kept a log on the Ideal, and each one had to take his or her turn +at keeping the account of the cruise posted up to date.</p> + +<p>Some events on board or near the Ideal did not come under Mrs. +Dusenall's notice and did not appear in the log-book. Nobody flirted +with Mrs. Dusenall to make her experience exciting, and her book, if +written, would have been one long panorama of landscape interlarded with +the mildest of items. But compress your world even to the size of a +yacht, and there will be still more going on, in the same eternal way, +than any one person can observe, especially if that person happens to be +a chaperon.</p> + +<p>The first evening among the islands was spent in different ways. Some +paddled about to explore or bathe. Flirtation of a mild type was +prevalent—interesting possibly to the parties concerned, and, as usual, +to themselves only. Toward dusk the gig was manned by the crew for the +transportation of Mrs. Dusenall and part of her suite across the river +through the islands to the hotels at Alexandria Bay on the American +shore. The hotel guests on the balconies and verandas were continuing to +enjoy or endure that eternal siesta which at these places seems to be +quite unbroken save at meal times, and the arrival of a number of very +presentable people in a handsome gig, rowed in the man-of-war style by +uniformed sailors and steered by a person with a gold-lace badge on his +cap, created a ripple of interest. Among those on the verandas engaged, +perhaps overtaxed, in the digestion of their dinners, not a few were +slightly interested by what they saw. In a group of a dozen or more a +gentleman behind a solitaire shirt-stud, worth a good year's salary for +a Victoria Bank clerk seemed to be speaking the thoughts of the party, +though his words came out chiefly as a form of soliloquy. He seemed to +be taking a sort of admiring inventory of the gig and its occupants as +it approached the landing wharf:</p> + +<p>"Small sailor boy—standing in the bow—with a spear in his hand."</p> + +<p>It was a boat-hook in the boy's hand, but it might have been a trident.</p> + +<p>"He's real cunnin'—that boy—in his masquerade suit. Four sailors—also +in masquerade costume. And they can make her hump up the river, +sure's-yer-born. Now I wonder who those fellows are—in buttons—with +gold badges on their hats. Wonder what those badges might imply! Part of +the masquerade, I guess. But stylish—very."</p> + +<p>Then, turning to a friend, he said:</p> + +<p>"Cha'ley, those people are yachting round here."</p> + +<p>At this discovery the exhausted-looking refugee from overwork in some +city addressed as "Cha'ley," whose face was lit up solely by a cigar, +answered slowly but decisively:</p> + +<p>"Looks like it—very."</p> + +<p>Then followed a quick mental calculation in the head of the gentleman +behind the solitaire, and, as the boat came alongside the landing, the +oars being handled with trained accuracy, he said:</p> + +<p>"I wonder how many of those paid men they have on board. I like it. I +like the whole thing. I shall do it myself next summer. And right up to +the handle. Cha'ley, bet you half a dollar that those are first-class +gentlemen and ladies down there, and we ought to go down and <i>re</i>ceive +them."</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly," said the other in grave, staccato tones, which seemed +to deny the exhaustion of his appearance by indicating some internal +strength. "James," he added in solemn self-reproach, "we should have +been down—on the landing—to assist the ladies from their canoe."</p> + +<p>As they left the veranda several ladies called after them:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cowper, we would be pleased to have you bring the ladies up."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cowper bowed with gravity, but did not say anything, as he was +preparing within him his form of self-introduction.</p> + +<p>In a few moments Mr. Cowper and Mr. Withers met our party as they slowly +meandered up the ascent toward the hotel. Mr. Cowper, hat in hand, gave +them collectively a bow, which, if somewhat foreign in its nature, was +not without dignity, and he addressed them with unmistakable +hospitality, while Mr. Withers, by a flank movement, attacked the left +wing of the party, where he conducted a little reception of his own.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cowper said, "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall bowed and smiled, and the others, wondering what was +coming, bowed also as they caught Mr. Cowper's encompassing eye. "We +regret," he said, looking toward Geoffrey, to whom he was more +especially attracted on account of his cap-badge and greater stature. +"We regret, captain, that we did not notice your arrival in time to be +on the landing to assist the ladies from your canoe."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey's smile only indicated his gratification and had no reference +to Mr. Cowper's new name for the yacht's gig.</p> + +<p>"We are only guests in the hotel ourselves, but if we had known of your +coming some of us certainly would have been down to <i>re</i>ceive you in the +proper manner."</p> + +<p>What "proper manner" of reception Mr. Cowper had in his head it is +difficult to say. His words showed Mrs. Dusenall, however, that he was +not the custom-house officer or the hotel-keeper, which relieved her of +some anxiety lest she should make a mistake. At a slight pause in his +flow of language she thanked him in her most reassuring accents, and +continued in those suave tones and with that perfect self-possession, +with which the English duchess, her head a little on one side and chin +upraised, has been supposed carelessly to assert her person, crown, and +dignity.</p> + +<p>"I assure you," she said, "that we are only knocking about, as it were, +quite informally, from place to place in the yacht."</p> + +<p>"Quite informally," echoed Geoffrey, who was enjoying Mrs. Dusenall.</p> + +<p>She added: "So, of course, we could not think of allowing you to give +yourselves any trouble on our account."</p> + +<p>In what pageantry Mrs. Dusenall proceeded when not traveling quite +informally Mr. Cowper did not give himself the trouble to consider. The +thought came to him that he might be entertaining an English duchess +unawares, but the succeeding consciousness that he could probably buy up +this duchess "and her whole masquerade" fortified him as with triple +brass.</p> + +<p>"Madam," he said, with that distinctness and intensity with which +Americans convey the impression that they mean what they say, "if we +have neglected you and your friends at first, we will be pleased if you +will allow us now to try to make your visit attractive."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall thought this was assuming a heavy responsibility.</p> + +<p>"If you will come up on the pe-az-a, there are a number of real nice +ladies who would be most pleased to meet you."</p> + +<p>Several of the party began to think that the cares of "knocking about +quite informally" were about to commence. But as there was no escape, +and all smiled pleasantly, and Mr. Cowper conversed as he and Mr. +Withers led them up to the "pe-az-a." He was gratified at the way they +responded to his endeavors; and perhaps he was not without a latent wish +to show his hotel friends how perfectly at home he was in "first-class +British society."</p> + +<p>"There is always something going on here," he said; "and if there is +nothing on just now we will get up something real pleasant—or my name's +not Cowper."</p> + +<p>This hint as to his identity was not thrown away, and as it seemed more +than likely that they were about to be entertained immediately by this +gentleman behind the solitaire headlight, it occurred to Geoffrey that +it would be as well for the party to know what his name was.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Cowper, let me introduce you to Mrs. Dusenall."</p> + +<p>This quickness on Geoffrey's part relieved Mr. Cowper from any +difficulty in mentioning his own name. Mrs. Dusenall then introduced him +in a general way to the remainder of the party. To Miss Dusenall it was +impossible for him to do more than bow, as she was chilling in her +demeanor. She had received, as has been hinted, that final distracting +finishing polish which an English school is expected to give, and she +sought to be so entirely English as not to know what cosmopolitan +courtesy was.</p> + +<p>Margaret's face, however, gave Mr. Cowper encouragement and pleasure, +and, as he shook hands warmly with her, something in her appearance gave +a new spur to his hospitable intentions. The energy of a new nation +seemed bottled up within him, as he said to Margaret:</p> + +<p>"If I can't get up something here to make you enjoy yourself, why—why +don't believe in me any more."</p> + +<p>His evident but respectful admiration could only elicit a laugh and a +blush. It was impossible to resist Mr. Cowper in his energetic intention +to be host, and, in spite of his dazzling headlight, the national +generosity and forgetfulness of self were so apparent in him that +Margaret "took to him" in a way that mystified the other girls, who +regarded the headlight only as a warning beacon placed there by +Providence to preserve young ladies with an English boarding-school +finish from undesirable associations.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cowper was what is called "self-made"—a word that in the States +conveys with it no implied slur—for the simple reason that there is not +the same necessity for it as in England. Speaking generally, an American +has a generous consideration for women and a largeness of character, or +rather an absence of smallness, not yet sufficiently recognized as +national characteristics. He is generally the same man after "making his +pile" as before—not always fully acquainted, perhaps, with social +veneer, but kind, keen, and generous to a fault. It would be an insult +to such a one to compare him with the "self-made" Englishman, whose rude +pretension of superiority to those poorer than himself, truckling +servility to rank and position, and ignorance of everything outside his +own business render him very unlovely.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Mr. Cowper, when he had been introduced to them all. "Now," +he said, "we're all solid. We will just step up-stairs, if you please." +He looked at them all pleasantly as he offered his arm to assist Mrs. +Dusenall's ascent. When they arrived on the veranda above, his idea was +that, in order to bring about the perfect concord he desired to see, +individual introductions were necessary. To Mrs. Dusenall he introduced +a large number of lean girls and stout women, ninety per cent of whom +said "pleased to meet you," and Mrs. Dusenall, appearing, with +surprising activity of countenance, to be freshly gratified at each +introduction, quite won their hearts.</p> + +<p>But when Mr. Cowper commenced to introduce them all over again to +Margaret, that young person, not being afraid of women, rebelled, and, +touching his arm to stay his impetuous career, said: "Oh, no, it will +take too long. Let me do it." Then she turned to the company. "As Mr. +Cowper says, my name is Mackintosh," and she ducked them a sort of +old-fashioned courtesy. The company bowed—some smiling and some solemn +at her audacity. "And very much at your service," she added, as she +dipped again to the solemn ones—capturing them also. Then she turned to +the others. "And this is Miss Dusenall," and so-and-so, and so-and-so, +until they were all made known.</p> + +<p>"And this is Morry," she said lastly, taking the little man by the +coat-sleeve. "Make your bow, Morry."</p> + +<p>Rankin remained gazing on the ground until she shook him by the sleeve. +Then he took a swift, scared glance at the assembly, and said, "I'm +shy," and hid his head behind tall Margaret's shoulder. This absurdity +amused the American girls, and five or six of them, forgetting their +stiffness, crowded around to encourage him. A beaming matron came up to +Margaret and took her kindly by the elbows.</p> + +<p>"I must kiss you, my dear. You did that so charmingly."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, it's very kind of you to say so," replied Margaret, as she +received an affectionate salute. "Long introductions are so tiresome, +are they not?"</p> + +<p>"They do take time, my dear," said the motherly person, as they sat down +together.</p> + +<p>"Yes, time and introductions should be taken by the forelock," smiled +Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Just what you did, my dear. I <i>do</i> wish I had a daughter like you. Oh +my!" And the little woman's face grew long for a moment at some sad +recollection. An interesting episode of family sorrow would have been +confided to Margaret if they had not been interrupted by the arrival of +four tall young men, in company with Mr. Withers. The grave, worn-out +face of Mr. Withers had just a flicker in it as his strong +ratchet-spring voice addressed itself to our party:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Dusenall and friends, permit me to introduce to you the 'Little +Frauds.'"</p> + +<p>The four tall young men bowed with the usual gravity, and then mixed +with the company. They wore untanned leather and canvas shoes, dark-blue +stockings, light-colored knickerbocker trousers, and leather belts. +Navy-blue flannel shirts, with white silk anchors on the broad collars, +completed their costume, with the exception of black neck-ties and stiff +white linen caps with horizontal leather peaks. Taken as a whole, their +costume was such a happy combination of a baseball player's and a +Pullman-car conductor's that the brain refused to believe in the +maritime occupation suggested by the white anchors.</p> + +<p>Mr. Withers explained who they were.</p> + +<p>"The Little Frauds," he said, "are a party of young men who live +together in a kind of small shanty on one of the neighboring islands. +Although the locality is picturesque, they do not live here during the +winter, but only migrate to these parts when—well, when I suppose no +other place will have them. They come here every year to enjoy the +solitude of a hermit-life. Here they withdraw themselves from their +fellow-man, and more especially their fellow-woman."</p> + +<p>The gentlemen referred to were taking no manner of notice of Mr. +Withers, and in their chatter with the girls were not living up to their +character.</p> + +<p>"The reason why they are called 'Little Frauds' has now almost ceased to +be handed down by the voice of tradition," continued Mr. Withers. "It is +not because they are intrinsically more deceptive than other men. No man +who had any deception in his nature would go round with a leg like this +without resorting to artifice to improve its shape."</p> + +<p>Mr. Withers here picked up a blue-covered pipe-stem which served one of +the Frauds with the means of locomotion.</p> + +<p>"That, ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Withers, slowly, in the tone of a +lecturer, and poising the limb in his hand, "is essentially the leg of a +hermit. If for no other reason than to hide that leg from the public, +its owner, ladies, should become a hermit."</p> + +<p>The leg here became instinct with life, and Mr. Withers suddenly stepped +back and gasped for breath. Then he explained further:</p> + +<p>"Seeing that the origin of the name is now almost lost in obscurity, the +Little Frauds themselves have lately taken advantage of this fact, +ladies, to palm off upon the public a spurious version of the story. +They say, in fact, that because they systematically withdrew themselves +into a life of celibacy and retirement, and being, as they claim, very +desirable as husbands, this name was given to them as being frauds upon +the matrimonial market."</p> + +<p>Somebody here called out: "Oh, dry up, Withers!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Withers took a glass of champagne from one of the waiters passing +with a tray and did quite the reverse. He took two gulps, threw the rest +over the railing, and continued:</p> + +<p>"One glance, ladies, at these people, who are really outcasts from +society, will satisfy you that their explanation of the term is as +palpably manufactured as the manuscripts of Mr. Shapira—"</p> + +<p>"Mister who?" inquired a profane voice.</p> + +<p>"Unaccustomed as they are to the usages of polite society, ladies, you +will excuse any utterances on their part that might seem intended to +interrupt my discourse. The real reason of this ridiculous name is as +follows—"</p> + +<p>Here, a remarkably good-looking Fraud stood up before Mr. Withers and +obliterated him. He spoke in a voice something like a corn-craik:</p> + +<p>"We commissioned Mr. Withers to speak to you, Mrs. Dusenall, and to your +party, on a topic of great interest to ourselves, but as the night is +likely to pass before Mr. Withers gets to the point, we will have to +dispense with his services."</p> + +<p>Mr. Withers had already retired behind his cigar again, with the air of +a man who had acquitted himself pretty well.</p> + +<p>The Frauds then begged leave to invite by word of mouth all our party to +a dance next evening on their island.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall accepted for all, as she rose to go, suggesting, at the +same time, that perhaps some of her new friends, if they did not think +it too late, would accompany them across the water in the moonlight to +examine their yacht.</p> + +<p>After some conversation, a number went with Mrs. Dusenall in the gig, +while Margaret and the rest of our party were ferried over by Frauds and +others in their long and comfortable row-boats.</p> + +<p>Some more champagne was broached on the yacht, but Mr. Withers said he +remembered once, early in life, drinking some of the old rye whisky of +Canada, and that since then he had always sought for annexation with +that delightful country.</p> + +<p>To the surprise of Mrs. Dusenall, both he and all the "Melican men" took +rye whisky, and ignored her champagne.</p> + +<p>The dismay of Mr. Cowper on hearing that the yacht would depart on the +morning after the Frauds' dance was unfeigned. He said it "broke him all +up."</p> + +<p>"Just when we were getting everything down solid for a little time +together," he said.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dusenall explained that the yacht was to take part in a race at +Toronto in a few days, and must be on hand to defend her previously won +laurels.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Dusenall," said Mr. Cowper thoughtfully, "I have myself, +over there in the bay, a small smoke-grinder that—"</p> + +<p>"A—what?" inquired Mrs. Dusenall.</p> + +<p>"A steamboat, madame—a small steam-yacht. Nothing like this, of +course." He waved his hand airily as if he considered himself in a +floating palace. "But very comfortable, I do assure you. Now, if you are +going away so soon, the only thing I can do is to get you all to visit +the different islands round here in my steam-barge. I call her the old +roadster, madame, because she can't do her mile in better than three +minutes."</p> + +<p>As this represented a speed of twenty miles an hour, Mrs. Dusenall said +it was fast enough for her. If he could have got a steamboat fast enough +to beat the best trotting record Mr. Cowper would have been content.</p> + +<p>It was settled that at eleven o'clock next day the steamer should call +and take the whole party off to visit the islands; and he suggested +that, as there would be "a sandwich or something" on the boat, Mrs. +Dusenall need not think about a return to the Ideal for luncheon.</p> + +<p>He then gravely addressed himself to the four Frauds and to Mr. Withers:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, before we leave this elegant vessel, I wish to remind you +that no real old Canadian rye whisky will pass our lips again until such +a chance as this once more presents itself. Gentlemen, as this is the +last drink we will have to-night, we will, with Mrs. Dusenall's +permission, make ready our glasses, and we will dedicate and consecrate +this toast to the success of the Ideal and her delightful crew. Mrs. +Dusenall—ladies and gentlemen of the Ideal—this toast is not only to +celebrate our new acquaintance, which we hope may have in the future +more chances to ripen into intimacy (and which on our part will never be +forgotten), but we drink it also for another reason—for another less +worthy reason—and I can not disguise from you the fact that, to speak +plainly, <i>we like the liquor</i>. Madame, the gentlemen of the Ideal have +consented to come back with me now, to smoke just one cigar on the hotel +before we all retire for the night. Citizens of the United States, +Frauds, and others, as this is the last drink we are to have to-night, +we will drink the toast in silence."</p> + +<p>The gravity of the Americans is a huge national sham, throwing into +relief their humor and sunshiny good-will, as in a picture a somber gray +background throws up the high lights.</p> + +<p>In half an hour more all the men were back at the hotel with Mr. +Cowper; but, instead of pursuing the tranquil occupation of smoking a +cigar, as he proposed, they were led in and confronted with a banquet in +which the extensive resources of the hotel had been taxed to the utmost +Mr. Cowper called it the "little something to eat," as he pressed them +to come from the verandas into the hotel. But really it was a +magnificent affair, and, as Mr. Lemons, who was eloquent on the subject, +said, it was calculated to appeal to a man's most delicate +sensibilities.</p> + +<p>We will not follow them any further on this evening. Mr. Cowper's idea +was to all have a good time together—banish stiffness, promote +intimacy, and to drive to the winds all cares. He certainly succeeded, +for at twelve o'clock there was not a "Mister" in the room for anybody. +At one o'clock it was "Jack, old man," and "Cowper, old chappie," all +round. At two o'clock the friendship on all sides was not only +hermetically sealed, but it promised to be eternal, and after that, it +was thought the night was a little dark for Charley Dusenall to return +with the others to the yacht, so he remained at the hotel till morning.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>:<br /></span> +<span class="i8">... Full many a lady<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have eyed with best regard; and many a time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have I liked several women; never any<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With so full a soul but some defect in her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And put it to the foil; but you, O you<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So perfect and so peerless, are created<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of every creature's best.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>The Tempest.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>The "old roadster" had a busy time of it the next morning preparing for +the visit to the islands. She was steaming up and down the river for a +long while before our friends knew it was time to get up. At eleven +o'clock she took on board the Canadians, and away they went—not at +"better" than twenty miles an hour, but pretty fast. Mr. Cowper's hint +that the Ideal was magnificent in its fittings had pleased the +Dusenalls. They thought he had been somewhat impressed by a swinging +chandelier over the cabin table. Mr. Cowper had examined this, found it +did not contain the last improvements, said it was splendid, and the +Dusenalls were pleased. But their pleasure was damped when they were led +into the main cabin of the "old roadster." The crimson silk-plush +cushions covering the divan around the apartment, into which they sank +somewhat heavily, did not at first afford them complete repose. The +window curtains and <i>portières</i> throughout the vessel were all of thick +corded silk or silk plush. The walls and ceilings in the cabins were +simply a museum of the rarest woods, and in the main cabin was a little +tiled fireplace with brass dogs and andirons, its graceful curtains +reined in with chains. The cabins alone had cost a fortune, and the +Dusenalls were for once completely taken aback. Mrs. Dusenall did not +get her head over on one side <i>a la duchesse</i> any more that day, and it +ended in her coming to the conclusion that Americans in their +hospitalities may frequently have no other motive than to give pleasure. +This could only be realized by Britons able to denationalize themselves +so far as to understand that there may be a life on earth which is not +alternate patronage and sponging. It is to be feared though that most of +them receive attentions from Americans only as that which should, in the +ordinary course of things, be forthcoming from a people blessed with a +proper power to appreciate those excellent qualities of head and heart +with which the visitor represents his incomparable nation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cowper did not do things by halves. As they sped about among the +many islands the strains of harps and violins came pleasantly from some +place about the boat where the musicians could not be seen. A number of +people from the hotels and islands were also among Mr. Cowper's guests, +and Mr. Withers, as a sort of aid-de-camp, assisted the host in bringing +everybody together and in seeing that the colored waiters with trays of +iced liquids did their duty. One room down below was reserved for the +inspection of "the boys," a room which had received a good deal of +personal attention and in which any drink known to the civilized world +could be procured. Mr. Withers confidentially invited our friends to +name anything liquid under the sun they fancied—from nectar to nitric +acid. For himself, he said that "that champagne and stuff" going round +on deck was not to his taste, and he had the deft-handed "barkeep" mix +one of his own cocktails. His own invention in this direction was +composed of eight or ten ingredients, and the Canadians were polite +enough to praise the mixture; but, afterward, when among themselves, +Jack's confession met with acquiescence when he said it seemed nothing +but hell-fire and bitters.</p> + +<p>The long, narrow craft threaded its tortuous way like a smooth-gliding +fish through the little channels between the islands, passing up small +natural harbors or coming alongside a precipitous rock. They several +times disembarked to see how much art had assisted nature on the +different islands, and viewed the fishponds, summer houses, awnings, and +hammocks, and the taste displayed in the picturesque dwellings. Mr. +Cowper's assurances that the owners of the islands would not object to +be caught in any kind of occupation or garment were corroborated by the +warm welcomes extended to them. Such is the freedom of the American +citizen, that a good many of the islanders who heard Mr. Cowper was +having a picnic "guessed they'd go along, too." It was evidently +expected that they would do just as they liked, without being invited; +in fact, Mr. Cowper loudly objected in several cases, declaring he had +no provisions for them. "Never mind, old man, we're not proud. We'll +whack up with your last crust, and bring a pocket-flask for ourselves."</p> + +<p>This seemed friendly.</p> + +<p>Of course the lunch, which was found to be spread under a large marquee +on a distant island, was really another banquet. The hotel retinue had +been up all night preparing for it. The waiters, glass, table-linen, +flowers, and everything else showed what money could do in the way of +transformation scenes. The only fault about it was that it was too +magnificent for a picnic. It can not be a picnic when there is no chance +of eating sand with your game-pie, no chance of carrying pails of water +half a mile, no difficulty in keeping stray cows, dogs, and your own +feet out of the table-cloth spread upon the ground. And when the trip in +the steamer had ended and most of our crew were having a little doze on +the Ideal during the latter part of the afternoon, the curiosity which +Mr. Cowper had awakened was still at its height.</p> + +<p>After dinner that evening, about eight o'clock, a pretty picture might +have been made of the Ideal, as she lay in the shadows, moored to a +well-wooded island where the rock banks seemed to dive perpendicularly +into blue fathomless depths. The party were taking their coffee in the +open air for greater coolness, and all had arrayed themselves for the +dance in the evening. The delicately shaded muslins and such thin +fabrics as the ladies wore blended pleasantly with the soft evening +after-glow that fell upon the rustling trees and running water. Seated +on the overhanging rocks beside the yacht, or perched up on the stowed +mainsail, they not only supplied soft color to the darkling evening +hues, but seemed to have a glow of their own, and reminded one of +Chinese lanterns lit before it is dark. This may have been only a fancy, +helped out by radiant faces and the slanting evening lights, but, even +if the simile fails, they were certainly prepared to shine as brightly +as they knew how at the ball later on.</p> + +<p>The little basswood canoe, with its comfortable rugs and cushions, lay +beside the yacht, bobbing about in the evening breeze, and Margaret sat +dreamily watching its wayward movements.</p> + +<p>"A penny for your thoughts?" asked somebody.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," answered Margaret, "that the canoe is the only craft +that ought to be allowed in these waters, and that the builders of +houses on these islands ought to realize that the only dwelling +artistically correct should be one that either copies or suggests the +wigwam. No one can come among these islands without wondering how long +the Indians lived here. All the Queen Anne architecture we have seen +to-day has seemed to me to be altogether misplaced."</p> + +<p>"What you suggest could hardly be expected here," said Geoffrey, +"because, putting aside the difficulty of building a commodious house +which would still resemble a wigwam, there remains the old difficulty of +getting people to see in imagination what is not before them—the old +difficulty that gave us the madonnas, saints, and heroes as Dutch, +Italian, or English, according to the nationality of the painter. Of all +the pictures of Christ scattered over Europe, none that I have seen +could have been like a person living much in the open air of the Holy +Land. They will paint Joseph as brown as the air there will make +anybody, because it does not matter about Joseph, but the Christs are +always ideal."</p> + +<p>"Still, I am sure something might be done to carry out my idea," said +Margaret, keeping to the subject. "Surely localities have the same right +to be illustrated according to their traditions that nations have to +expect that their heroes shall be painted so as to show their +nationality. No one would paint the Arab desert and leave out the squat +black tent, the horse, and all the other adjuncts of the Bedouin. Why, +then, build Queen Anne houses in a place where the mind refuses to think +of anything but the Indian?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Hampstead, "the case here is unique. It is difficult to +find a parallel. But the same idea would present itself if one attempted +to build an English Church in the Moorish style instead of the Gothic or +something similar. I fancy that the subscribers would feel that the +traditions of their race and native land were not being properly +represented, as you say, in their architecture—that they would resent +an Oriental luxury of outline suggesting only Mohammed's luxurious +religion, and that nothing would suit them but the high, severe, and +moral aspect of their own race, religion, and churches. By the way, did +you ever consider how the moral altitude of each religion throughout the +world is indelibly stamped in the very shape of each one's houses of +worship. Begin at the whimsical absurdities of the Chinese, and come +westward to the monstrosities of India, then to the voluptuous domes of +the Moor and the less voluptuous domes of Constantinople, then to the +still less Oriental domes of Rome, then to the fortress-like rectangular +Norman, then to the lofty, refined, severe, upward-pointing Gothic of +Germany and England. Each church along the whole line, by its mere +external shape, will tell of the people and religion that built it +better than a host of words."</p> + +<p>"If that be so, it would seem like retrograding in architecture to +suggest the Indian wigwam here," said Jack. "What do you say, Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"I think that this is not a place where national aspirations in +monuments need be looked for. Its claims must always be on the side of +simple nature and the picturesque—a place for hard workers to +recuperate in, and, therefore, the poetry of all its early traditions +should in every way be protected and suggested."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I suppose, Miss Margaret, the Indian you wish to immortalize +is John Fenimore Cooper's Indian, and that you have no reference to +Batoche half-breeds. Perhaps after a while we may see the genius of this +place suggested further, but I think the Americans have had too much +trouble in exterminating 'Lo, the poor Indian' to wish to be reminded of +his former existence, and that the savagery of Queen Anne is sufficient +for them. 'Lo' has, for them, no more poetry than a professional tramp. +Out West, you know, they read it 'Loathe the poor Indian.'"</p> + +<p>"They don't loathe the poor Indian everywhere," said Rankin, as he +remembered an item about the dusky race. "You know our act forbidding +people to work on Sunday makes a provision for the unconverted heathen, +and says 'this act shall not apply to Indians.' Some time ago a man at +the Falls of Niagara was accustomed to run an elevator on Sunday to +carry tourists up and down the cliff to the Whirlpool Rapids. His +employés were prosecuted for carrying on their business on the Sabbath +day. When the following Sunday arrived, a quite civilized remnant of the +Tuscarora tribe were running the entire business at splendid profits, +and claimed, apparently with success, that the law could not touch +them."</p> + +<p>While this desultory talk was going on, Margaret was still watching the +little canoe bobbing about on the water. Geoffrey said to her: "Those +rugs and cushions in the canoe look very inviting, do they not?"</p> + +<p>Margaret nodded.</p> + +<p>"I know what you are thinking about," he whispered. "You want to go away +in the canoe, and dream over the waters and glide about from island to +island and imagine yourself an Indian princess."</p> + +<p>She nodded again brightly.</p> + +<p>"Well, if my dress-coat will not interfere with your imagining me a +'great brave,' you might get your gloves, fan, and shawl, and we can go +for a sail, and come in later on at the dance. If the coat spoils me you +can think of me as John Smith, and of yourself as Pocahontas."</p> + +<p>As Margaret nestled down into the cushions of the canoe, Geoffrey +stepped a little mast that carried a handkerchief of a sail, and, +getting in himself, gave a few vigorous strokes with the paddle, which +sent the craft flying from under the lee of the island. As the sail +filled and they skimmed away, he called out to Mrs. Dusenall that they +would go and see the people at the hotels, and would meet them at the +dance about nine o'clock. From the course taken by the butterfly of a +boat, which was in any direction except toward the hotels, this +explanatory statement appeared to be a mere transparency.</p> + +<p>Nina's spirits sank to low ebb when she saw these two going off +together.</p> + +<p>They sailed on for some distance in open water, and then, as the sail +proved unsatisfactory, Margaret took it down, and they commenced a +sinuous course among small islands. The dusk of the evening had still +some of the light of day in it, but the moon was already up and +endeavoring to assert her power. Everybody had given up wearing hats, +which had become unnecessary in such weather. As they glided about, +Geoffrey sometimes faced the current with long, silent strokes that gave +no idea of exertion foreign to the quiet charm of the scene, and at +other times the paddle dragged lazily through the water as he sat back +and allowed the canoe to drift along on the current close to the rocky +islands. They floated past breezy nooks where the ferns and mosses +filled the interstices between rocks and tree roots, where trees had +grown up misshapenly between the rocks, under wild creeping vines that +drooped from the overhanging boughs and swept the flowing water. Hardly +a word had been spoken since they left the yacht. For Margaret, there +was enough in the surroundings to keep her silent. She had yielded +herself to the full enjoyment of the balmy air and faint evening glows, +changing landscape, and sound of gurgling water. Her own appearance as +seen from the other end of the canoe did not tend to spoil the view. Her +happy face and graceful lines, and the full neck that tapered out of the +open-throated evening dress did not seem out of harmony with anything. +Reclining on one elbow against a cushioned thwart, she leaned forward +and altered the course of the light bark by giving a passing rock a +little push with her fan.</p> + +<p>They were now passing a sort of natural harbor on the shore of one of +the islands. It had been formed by the displacement of a huge block of +granite from the side of the rock wall, and the roots and trunks of +trees had roofed it in.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey pointed it out for inspection, and they landed lower down so +that they could walk back to a spot like that to which Shelley's +Rosalind and Helen came.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To a stone seat beside a stream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er which the columned wood did frame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A rootless temple, like a fane<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where, ere new creeds could faith obtain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Man's early race once knelt beneath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The overhanging Deity.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here they rested, while Margaret, lost in the charm of the surroundings, +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Could anything be more delightful than this?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey had always been conscious of something in Margaret's presence +which, seemingly without demand, exacted finer thought and led him to +some unknown region which other women did not suggest. When with her he +divined that it was by some such influence that men are separately +civilized, and that, with her, his own civilization was possible. Every +short-lived, ill-considered hope for the future seemed now so entangled +with her identity that her existence had become in some way necessary to +him. He had come to know this by discovering how unfeigned was the +earnestness with which he angled for her good opinion, and he was rather +puzzled to note his care lest "a word too much or a look too long" might +spoil his chances of arriving at some higher, happier life that her +presence assisted him vaguely to imagine. Nevertheless, so great was his +doubt as to his own character that all this seemed to him as if he must +be merely masquerading in sheep's clothing to gain her consideration, +and that it must in some way soon come to an end from his own sheer +inability to live up to it. All he knew was that this living up to an +ideal self was a civilizing process, and if he did not count upon its +permanency it certainly, he thought, did him no harm while it lasted. +"After all, was it not possible to continue in the upper air?"</p> + +<p>While his thoughts were running in this channel, such a long pause +elapsed, that Margaret had forgotten what he was answering to when he +said decisively: "Yes. It is pleasant."</p> + +<p>She looked around at him because his voice sounded as if he had been +weighing other things than the scenery in his head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is more than pleasant," she said. "It is something never to +forget." Margaret looked away over earth, water, and sky, as if to point +them out to interpret her enthusiasm. Her range of view apparently did +not include Geoffrey. Perhaps he was to understand from this that he, +personally, had little or nothing to do with her pleasure. But a glimpse +of one idea suggested more serious thought, and the next moment she was +wondering how much he had to do with her present thorough content.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey, who was watching her thoughts by noticing the half smile and +half blush that came to her face, felt his heart give a little bound. He +imagined he divined the presence of the thought that puzzled her, but he +answered in the off-hand way in which one deals with generalities.</p> + +<p>"I believe, Miss Margaret, this whole trip provides you with great +happiness."</p> + +<p>"I believe it does," said Margaret. To conceal a sense of consciousness +she uprooted a rush growing at the edge of the rock seat.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is a great thing, to know when you are happy. Happiness is a +difficult thing to get at."</p> + +<p>"Do you find it so hard to be happy?"</p> + +<p>"I think I do," said Geoffrey. "That is, to be as much so as I would +like."</p> + +<p>"You must be rather difficult to please."</p> + +<p>"No doubt it is a mistake not to be happy all the time," replied +Geoffrey. "There is such a thing, however, as chasing happiness about +the world too long. She shakes her wings and does not return, and leaves +us nothing but not very exalting memories of times when we seem, as far +as we can recollect, to have been only momentarily happy."</p> + +<p>"For me, I think that I could never forget a great happiness, that it +would light up my life and make it bearable no matter what the after +conditions might be," said Margaret thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Just so," answered Geoffrey lightly. "There's the rub. How's a fellow +to cultivate a great happiness when he never can catch up to it. I don't +know of any path in which I have not sought for the jade, but I can look +back upon a life largely devoted to this chase and honestly say that +beyond a few gleams of poor triumph I never think of my existence except +as a period during which I have been forced to kill time."</p> + +<p>"That is because you are not spiritually minded," said Margaret, +smiling.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean consistently spiritually minded," said Geoffrey. "No +doubt some who live for an exalted hereafter may sometimes know what +actual joy is, but this can only approach continuity where one has great +imaginative ambition and weak primitive leanings. For most people the +chances of happiness in spirituality are not good. Happily, the savage +mind can not grasp the intended meaning of either the promised rewards +or punishments continually, if at all; and this inability saves them +from going mad. Of course the more men improve themselves the more they +may rejoice, both for themselves and their posterity, but mere varnished +savages like myself have a poor chance to gain happiness in consistent +spirituality. It is foolish to suppose that we are free agents. A high +morality and its own happiness are an heirloom—a desirable thing—which +our forefathers have constructed for us."</p> + +<p>"I have sometimes thought," said Margaret, "that if happiness depends +upon one's goodness it is not necessarily that goodness which we are +taught to recognize as such. Goodness seems to be relative and quite +changeable among different people. Some of the best people under the Old +Testament would not shine as saints under the New Testament, yet the +older people were doubtless happy enough in their beliefs. Desirable +observances necessary to a Mohammedan's goodness are not made requisite +in any European faith, and yet our people are not unhappy on this +account. Nobody can doubt that pagan priests were, and are, completely +happy when weltering in the blood of their fellow-creatures, and, if it +be true that conscience is divinely implanted in all men, that under +divine guidance it is an infallible judge between good and evil, that +one may be happy when his conscience approves his actions, and that +therefore happiness comes from God, how is it that the pagan priest +while at such work is able to think himself holy and to rejoice in it +with clearest conscience? It would seem, from this, that there must be +different goodnesses diametrically opposed to each other which are +equally-pleasing to Him and equally productive of happiness to +individuals."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey smiled at her, as they talked on in their usual random way, for +it seemed that she was capable of piecing her knowledge together in the +same sequence (or disorder) that he did himself. One is well-disposed +toward a mind whose processes are similar to one's own. He smiled, too, +at her attempts to reconcile facts with the idea of beneficence toward +individuals on the part Of the powers behind nature. For his part, he +had abandoned that attempt.</p> + +<p>"I have a rule," he said, "which seems to me to explain a good deal, +namely, if a person can become persuaded that he is rendered better or +more spiritual by following out his natural desires, he is one of the +happiest of men. The pagan priest you mentioned was gratifying his +natural desires, his love of power and love of cruelty—which in +conjunction with his beliefs made him feel more godly. Mohammed built +his vast religion on the very corner-stone of this rule. Priests are +taught from the beginning to guard and increase the power of the Church. +This is their first great trust, and it becomes a passion. Their natural +love of power is utilized for this purpose. For this object, history +tells us that no human tie is too sacred to be torn asunder and trampled +on. Natural love of dominion in a man can be trained into such perfect +accord with the desired dominion of a priesthood that he may feel not +only happy but spiritually improved in carrying out anything his Church +requires him to do—no matter what that may be."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey-stopped, as he noticed that Margaret shuddered. "You are +feeling cold," he said.</p> + +<p>"No, I was only thinking of some of the priests' faces. They terrify me +so. I don't want to interrupt you, but what do you think makes them look +like that?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he answered. "Perhaps interpreting the supernatural has +with some of them a bad effect upon the countenance. All one can say is +that many of them bear in their faces what in other classes of men I +consider to be unmistakable signs that their greatest happiness consists +in something which must be concealed from the public." Hampstead spoke +with the tired smile of one who on an unpleasant subject thinks more +than he will say.</p> + +<p>"Let us not speak of them. They make me think of Violet Keith, and all +that sort of thing. Go back to what you were saying. It seems to me that +the most refined and educated followers of different faiths do not gain +happiness in spirituality in the way you suggest. Your rule does not +seem to apply to them."</p> + +<p>"I think it does," answered Geoffrey, with some of that abruptness which +in a man's argument with a woman seems to accept her as a worthy +antagonist from the fact that politeness is a trifle forgotten. "You +refer to men whose mental temperament is stronger in controlling their +daily life than any other influence—men with high heads, who seem made +of moral powers—ideality, conscientiousness, and all the rest of them. +They have got the heirloom I spoke of. They are gentle from their +family modification. These few, indeed, can, I imagine, be happy in +religion, for this reason. There has been in their families for many +generations a production of mental activity, which exists more easily in +company with a high morality than with satisfactions which would only +detract from it. With such men it may be said that their earlier nature +has partly changed into what the rule applies to equally well. With +ordinary social pressure and their own temperaments they would still, +even without religion, be what they are; because any other mode of life +does not sufficiently attract them. Their ancestors went through what we +are enduring now."</p> + +<p>"But," said Margaret—and she continued to offer some objections, +chiefly to lead Geoffrey to talk on. However incomplete his reasoning +might be, his strong voice was becoming music to her. She did not wish +it to stop. Both her heart and her mind seemed impelled toward both him +and his way of thinking by the echo of the resonant tones which she +heard within herself. Being a woman, she found this pleasant. "But," she +said, "people who are most imperfect surely may have great happiness in +their faith?"</p> + +<p>"At times. Yes," replied he. "But their happiness is temporary, and +necessarily alternates with an equal amount of misery. The loss of a +hope capable of giving joy must certainly bring despair in the same +proportion, inversely, as the hope was precious. All ordinary men with +any education alternate more or less between the enjoyment of the +energetic mental life and the duller following of earlier instincts, and +when, in the mental life, they allow themselves to delight in immaterial +hopes and visions, there is unhappiness when the brain refuses to +conjure up the vision, and most complete misery after there has occurred +that transition to their older natures which must at times supervene, +unless they possess the great moral heirloom, or perhaps a refining +bodily infirmity to assist them. Ah! this struggle after happiness has +been a long one. Solomon, and all who seek it in the way he did, find +their mistake. Pleasure without ideality is a paltry thing and leads to +disgust. Religion-makers have hovered about the idea contained in my +rule to make their creeds acceptable. In this idea Mohammed pleased +many. Happiness in spirituality can only be continuous for men when they +come to have faces like some passionless but tender-hearted women, and +still retain the wish to imagine themselves as something like gods."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey paused.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Margaret, turning her eyes slowly from looking at the +running water without seeing it. She said very quietly: "Go on; I like +to hear you talk." The spell of his presence was upon her. There was the +soft look in her eyes of a woman who is beginning to find it pleasant to +be in some way compelled, and for a moment her tones, looks, and words +seemed to be all a part of a musical chord to interpret her response to +his influence. Geoffrey looked away. The time for trusting himself to +look into the eyes that seemed very sweet in their new softness had not +arrived. For the first time he felt certain that he had affected her +favorably. Almost involuntarily he took a couple of steps to the water's +edge and back again.</p> + +<p>"What is there more to say?" said he, smiling. "We neither hope very +much nor fear very much nowadays. Men who have no scientific discovery +in view or who can not sufficiently idealize their lives gradually cease +expecting to be very happy. To men like myself religions are a more or +less developed form of delusion, bringing most people joy and despair +alternately and leading others to insanity. We know that religions +commenced in fear and in their later stages have been the result of a +seeking for happiness and consolation. To us the idea of immortality is +but a development of the inherent conceit we notice in the apes. We do +not allow ourselves the pleasing fantasy that because brain power +multiplies itself and evolves quickly we are to become as gods in the +future. If we do not hope much neither do we despair. Still, there is a +capacity for joy within us which sometimes seems to be cramped by the +level and unexciting mediocrity of existence. We do not readily forget +the beautiful hallucinations of our youth; and for most of us there +will, I imagine, as long as the pulses beat, be an occasional and too +frequent yearning for a joy able to lift us out of our humdrum selves."</p> + +<p>Margaret felt a sort of sorrow for Geoffrey. Although he spoke lightly, +something in his last words struck a minor chord in her heart. "Your +words seem too sad," she said after a pause.</p> + +<p>"I do not remember speaking sadly," said he.</p> + +<p>"No; but to believe all this seems sad when we consider the joyful +prospects of others. You seem to put my vague ideas into coherent shape. +The things you have said seem to be correct, and yet" (here she looked +up brightly) "somehow they don't seem to exactly apply to me. I never +had strong hopes nor visions about immortality. They never seemed +necessary for my happiness. Small things please me. I am nearly always +fairly happy. Small things seem worth seeking and small pleasures worth +cultivating."</p> + +<p>"Because you have not lived your life. Do you imagine that you will +always be content with small pleasures?" asked Geoffrey quickly as he +watched her thoughtful face.</p> + +<p>Margaret suddenly felt constraint. After the many and long interviews +she had had with Geoffrey she had always come away feeling as if she had +learned something. What it was that she had learned might have been hard +for her to say. His conversation seemed to her to have a certain width +and scope about it, and to her he seemed to grasp generalities and +present them in his own condensed form; but she had been unconsciously +learning more than was contained in his conversation. His words +generally appealed in some way to her intellect; but tones of voice go +for a good deal. Perhaps in making love the chief use of words is first +to attract the attention of the other person. Perhaps they do not amount +to much and could be dispensed with entirely, for we see that a dozen +suitors may unsuccessfully plead their cause with a young woman in +similar words until some one appears with tones of voice to which she +vibrates. Perhaps it matters little what he says if he only continues to +speak—to make her vibrate. Certainly Cupid studied music before he ever +studied etymology. Hampstead had never said a word to her about love, +but the resonant tones, his concentration, and the magnetism of his +presence, were doing their work without any usual formulas.</p> + +<p>The necessity of answering his question now brought the idea to her with +a rush that Geoffrey had taught her perhaps too much—that he had taught +her things different from what she thought she was learning—that the +simplicity of her life would never be quite the same again. She became +conscious of a movement in her pulses before unknown to her that made +her heart beat like a prisoned bird against its cage, that made her +whole being seem to strain forward toward an unknown joy which left all +the world behind it. In the whirl of feeling came the impulse to conceal +her face lest he should detect her thoughts, and she bent her head to +arrange her lace shawl, as if preparatory to going away. She looked off +over the water, so that she could answer more freely. Her answer came +haltingly.</p> + +<p>"Something tells me," she said, "that the small pleasures I have known +will not always be enough for me." Then faster: "But, of course, all +young people feel like this now and then. I think our conversation has +excited me a little."</p> + +<p>She arose, and walked a step or two, trying to quell the tumult within +her.</p> + +<p>"We must be going. It is late," she said in a way that showed her +self-command.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey arose also, to go away, and they walked to the higher ground. +Suddenly Margaret felt that for some reason she wished to remember the +appearance of this place for all her life, and she turned to view it +again. The moon was silvering the tracery of vines and foliage and the +surface of the twisting water, and giving dark-olive tones to the +shadowed underbrush close by. The large hotels could be seen through a +gap in the islands with their many lights twinkling in the distance; a +lighthouse, not far off, sent a red gleam twirling and twisting across +the current toward them, and a whip-poor-will was giving forth its +notes, while the waltz music from the far-away island floated dreamily +on the soft evening breeze. Geoffrey said nothing. He, too, was under +the influence of the scene. For once he was afraid to speak to a +woman—afraid to venture what he had to say—to win or lose all. He +thought it better to wait, and stood beside her almost trembling. But +Margaret had had no experience in dealing with the new feelings that +warred for mastery within her, and she showed one of her thoughts, as if +in soliloquy. She was too innocent. The vague pressures were too great +to allow her to be silent, and the words came forth with hasty fervor.</p> + +<p>"No, no! You must be wrong when you say there is nothing in the world +worth living for?"</p> + +<p>"No, not so," interrupted Geoffrey. "I did not say that. I said that +life, for many of us, was mediocre, because ideals were scarce and +imaginations did not find scope. But there is a better life—I know +there is—the better life of sympathy—of care—of joy—of love."</p> + +<p>As she listened, each deep note that Geoffrey separately brought forth +filled her with an overwhelming gladness. When he spoke slowly of +sympathy, care, joy, and love, the words were freighted with the musical +notes of a strong man's passion, and they seemed to bring a new meaning +to her, one deeper than they had ever borne before.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Earth and heaven seemed one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Life a glad trembling on the outer edge<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of unknown rapture.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>What a transparent confession the love of a great nature may be suddenly +betrayed into! The tears welled up into Margaret's eyes, and, partly to +check the speech that moved her too strongly, and partly to steady +herself, and chiefly because she did not know what she was doing, she +laid her hand upon his arm.</p> + +<p>He trembled as he tried to continue calmly with what he had been saying. +He did not move his arm or take her hand, but her touch was like +electricity.</p> + +<p>"I know there is such a life—a perfect life—and that there might be +such a life for me, a life that more than exhausts my imagination to +conceive of. You were wrong in saying that I said—that is, I only +said—oh, I can't remember what I said—I only know that I worship you, +Margaret—that you are my heaven, my hereafter—the only good I +know—with power to make or mar, to raise me from myself and to gild the +whole world for me—"</p> + +<p>Margaret put up her hand to stay the torrent of his utterance. She had +to. For, now that he gave rein to his wish, the forceful words seemed to +overwhelm her and seize and carry off her very soul. He took her hand +between both of his, and, still fearful lest she might give some reason +for sending him away, he pleaded for himself in low tones that seemed to +bring her heart upon her lips, and when he said: "Could you care for me +enough to let me love you always, Margaret?" she looked half away and +over the landscape to control her voice. Her tall, full figure rose, +like an Easter lily, from the folds of the lace shawl which had fallen +from her shoulders. Her eyes, dewy with overmuch gladness and wide with +new emotions, turned to Geoffrey's as she said, half aloud—as if +wondering within herself:</p> + +<p>"It must be so, I suppose."</p> + +<p>When she looked at him thus, Geoffrey was beyond speech. He drew her +nearer to him, touching her reverently. He did not know himself in the +fullness Of the moment. To find himself incoherent was new to him. She +was so peerless—such a vision of loveliness in the moonlight! The +thought that he now had a future before him—that soon she would be with +him for always—that soon they would be the comfort, the sympathy, the +cheer, and the joy of one another! It was all unspeakable.</p> + +<p>Margaret placed both her hands upon his shoulder as he drew her nearer, +and, as she laid her cheek upon her wrists, she said again, as if still +wondering within herself:</p> + +<p>"It must be so, I suppose. I did not know that I loved you, Geoffrey. +Oh, why are you so masterful?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A little while after this they approached the island, where the ball was +at its height, and it seemed to Margaret that all this illumination of +Chinese lanterns, ascending in curving lines to the tree tops—that all +the music, dancing, and gayety were part of the festival going on within +her. As Geoffrey strode into the ball-room with Margaret on his arm he +carried his head high. A man who appeared well in any garb, in evening +dress he looked superb. Some who saw him that night never forgot how he +seemed to typify the majesty of manhood, and how other people seemed +dwarfed to insignificance when Margaret and he entered. If only a +modified elasticity appeared in her step, the wonder was she did not +skip down the room on her toes. They went toward Mrs. Dusenall, who came +forward and took Margaret by the elbows and gave them a little shake.</p> + +<p>"You naughty girl, how late you are! Dear child, how beautiful you look! +Where—?"</p> + +<p>Some imp of roguery got into Margaret. She bent forward and whispered to +her motherly friend.</p> + +<p>"Dear mother," she whispered, "we landed on an island, and Geoffrey +kissed me."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" cried Mrs. Dusenall, not knowing what to think. "Why—but of +course it's all right. Of course he did, my dear—he could not do +anything else—and so will I. And so you are engaged?"</p> + +<p>At this Margaret tried to look grave and to shock Mrs. Dusenall again.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I don't think we got as far as saying anything about +that." Then, turning to Geoffrey, with simplicity, "Are we engaged?"</p> + +<p>"Girl! are my words but as wind that you should mock me with their +emptiness? Come and let us dance, for it is advocated by the preacher." +And they danced.</p> + +<p>When Nina had seen Mrs. Dusenall kiss Margaret on her late arrival, she +knew its meaning at once, and her heart sickened.</p> + +<p>Pretty playthings seemed in some way rather degrading to Geoffrey that +night, and Nina was able to speak to him only for a moment, just before +all were going away. She then pretended to know nothing about the +engagement, and said, with cat-like sweetness:</p> + +<p>"I thought you did not care for Margaret's dancing much? I see she must +have improved, as you have been with her all the evening."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey answered gravely; "I believe you are right; there is a +difference. Yes, I did not think of it before, but, now you speak of it, +there does seem to have been an improvement in her dancing."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Nina.</p> + +<p>As Geoffrey paddled the canoe back to the yacht that night, or rather +morning, and the Yankee band had finished a complimentary God save the +Queen, and after the last cheer had been exchanged, Margaret said to him +in the darkness, just before they parted:</p> + +<p>"If there were no more happiness to follow, Geoffrey, to-night would +last me all my life!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How like a younker, or a prodigal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hugged and embraced by the wanton wind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How like the prodigal doth she return,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lean, rent, and beggared by the wanton wind.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Merchant of Venice.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Next morning the deck of the Ideal was all activity.</p> + +<p>A strong northeasterly wind had sprung up, so that by a rare chance they +were able to sail up the current instead of employing a tug. Only the +paid hands and one or two others were on deck as they struggled up the +stream till near Clayton. Here the channels opened out, the current +seemed to ease up, and they got the wind continuously as she boiled up +to Kingston. The steward went ashore at the city, and there was a delay +while he was getting in more ice for the refrigerator, and poultry, and +other supplies. Then they went off again, flying before the wind, past +the wharves of Kingston toward Snake Island lying hull down and showing +nothing but its tree-tops.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was very irregular that day—terribly so, the steward thought. +He was preparing breakfast at any and all times up to twelve o'clock, +and after that it was called luncheon. No troublesome bell awoke the +tired sleepers, no colored man came to take away their beds as on the +sleeping-cars. The dancers of the previous night tumbled up, more or +less thirsty, just when the spirit moved them, and, as all had a fair +quantum of sleep in this way, there were no bad tempers on board, +except—well, the steward knew enough to look pleasant.</p> + +<p>It was a fine start they made. But it did not last long. During the +night the heavy water-laden atmosphere began to break up into low clouds +that went flying across the face of the moon, producing weird effects in +alternate light and darkness. They were soon close-hauled on a wind from +the southward, and before the port of Charlotte was reached they had a +long tussle with a stiff breeze from the west—topmast housed, two reefs +down, and the lee-scuppers busy.</p> + +<p>At dawn, when they went into Charlotte, it was blowing a gale. Not a +Cape Horn gale, perhaps, but a good enough gale, and the water was +lively around the pier-heads. Several vessels could be seen up the lake, +running down to the harbor for shelter, and wallowing in the sea. So +they ran the yacht far up into the harbor between the piers, and made +fast as far away from the lake as they could get, to avoid being fouled +by incoming vessels, and to escape the heavy swell that found its way in +from outside. An hour after the sailing vessels had made the port the +mail-line steamer Eleusinian came yawing in, with some of her windows in +bad shape, and glad to get in out of the sea.</p> + +<p>Next morning it was blowing harder than ever. Everything outside the +cabins was disagreeable. The water they floated in seemed to be +principally mud, and on land the mud seemed principally water. Some of +the adventurous waded through the mire to see the works for smelting +iron in the neighborhood. But the only thing resembling fun outside the +boat was trying to walk on the piers. Two figures, to which yellow +oilskin suits lent their usual grace, would support a third figure, clad +in a long water-proof, resembling a sausage. These three would make a +dash through the wind and seize a tall post or a spile for mooring +vessels, and here they would pause, hold on, and recover their lost +breath. Then, slanting into the wind, they would make a sort of tack, +partly to windward, till they reached the next spile, and so on, while +occasionally they would be deluged with the top of a wave. The fun of +this consisted in the endeavor to avoid being blown into the water. +Certainly the sausage could not have gone alone. After several hours in +the cabin the element of change in this exercise made it quite a +pastime. It cooled the blood and took away the fidgets, and, on +returning, made the cabins seem a pleasant shelter instead of a prison.</p> + +<p>So far there had been no chance to leave the harbor for the purpose of +reaching Toronto. The wind was dead ahead from that quarter. Young +Dusenall was watching the weather continually, very anxious to get away +to be in time for the yacht race there on the 7th and 8th. He was over +at the steamboat hobnobbing with the captain of the Eleusinian, who was +also anxious to get on with his vessel. What with whisky and water, +nautical magic, and one thing or another between the two of them they +got the wind to go down suddenly about five o'clock that evening. +Charley came back in high good-humor. The captain had offered to tow the +Ideal behind the steamer to Toronto, and nothing but a long, rolling +sea, with no wind to speak of, could be noticed outside.</p> + +<p>Jack did not like going to sea hitched up, Mazeppa-like, to a steamer, +and he had misgivings as to the weather. The leaden-colored clouds, +banked up in the west, were moving slowly down the lake like herded +elephants. They did not yet look pacific, and he feared that they would +make another stampede before the night was over. He declared it was only +looking for another place to blow from. Charley answered that the race +came off on the day after to-morrow, and, as they had to get to Toronto +somehow, why not behind the steamer? As Jack was unable to do any more +than say what he thought, he suggested "that, if the boat must go out in +this sort of way during bad weather, that the women had better take the +train home." The trip in the yacht promised to be unpleasant, but when +Mrs. Dusenall considered the long, dusty, and hot journey around the +western end of the lake she decided to "stick to the ship."</p> + +<p>At seven o'clock in the evening they were flying out of port behind the +steamer at the end of a long hawser. A heavy dead swell was rolling +outside, and the way the Ideal got jerked from one wave to another boded +ill for the comfort of the passage. Charley hung on, however, thinking +that this was the worst of it and that the sea would go down.</p> + +<p>The night grew very dark, and two hours afterward the gale commenced +again, and blew harder than before from the same quarter. Every time +they plunged hard into a wave the decks would be swept from stem to +stern, while a blinding spray covered everything. If they had cast off +at this time they could have sailed back to Charlotte in safety, but +Charley was bound to see Toronto, and held on.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, in the wildness of the night, they heard a crack of breaking +timber, and the next moment the tall mast whipped back toward the stern +like a bending reed. A few anxious moments passed before those aft could +find out what had happened. In the darkness, and the further obscurity +caused by the flying water, the bowsprit had fouled the towline. The +bowstays had at once parted and, perhaps assisted by the recoil of the +mast, the bowsprit had snapped off, like a carrot, close to the stem.</p> + +<p>This large piece of timber was now in the water, acting like a +battering-ram against the starboard bow, with the stowed staysail, and +all the head gear, attached to it. There was no use trying to clear away +the wreck by endeavoring to chop through all the wire rigging, chains, +forestays, bowsprit shrouds, bobstays, and running gear, all adrift in a +mass that would have taken a long time to cut away or disentangle, even +in daylight and calm water. Besides this, one could not see his hand +held before his face, except by lantern-light, and such was the +unnatural pitching of the yacht that it was almost impossible to stand +without holding on to something. Charley, who was steering, asked of one +of the English hands, who was carefully crawling aft to take the wheel, +"How's everything forward?" To Charley's mind the reply seemed to +epitomize things as the man touched his hat and answered respectfully, +"Gone to 'ell, sir." He spat on the watery deck, as he said this, while +a blast of wind and half a ton of water from the bows swept away so +effectually both the remark and the tobacco juice that Mr. Lemons could +not help absurdly thinking of the tears of Sterne's recording angel. The +sailor was very much disgusted at the condition of things, and both he +and his remark were so free from any appearance of timidity that the +Hon. M. T. Head felt like giving him five dollars. While on shore, the +honorable gentleman was accustomed to emphasize his language, but, in +the present crisis, no wild horses could have dragged from him a +questionable word.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey's long arms and strength came in well that night. At the first +crack of the timber he slid out of his oil-skins for work, and his was +one of those cool heads that alone are of use at such a time. On a +sailing vessel the first effect of a bad accident in the night-time is +to paralyze thought. The danger and the damage are at first unknown. The +blackness of the night, the sounds of things smashing, the insecurity of +foothold, the screaming of the wind, and the tumbling of the waters, all +tend to kill that energy and concentration of thought which, to be +useful, must rise above these enervating influences.</p> + +<p>Jack had had more experience than Geoffrey, and thus knew better what to +do. But Geoffrey, for his part, was "all there." When he was hanging +down over the side, and climbing about to get the floating, banging mass +of wreckage attached to the throat-halyards, the tops of the waves that +struck him were unable to wash him away, and when he had succeeded in +his efforts, the wreckage was hoisted bodily inboard.</p> + +<p>The fellows at the wheel were momentarily expecting the mast to snap and +fall backward on their heads, as there was now no forestay on it. The +worst fault of the sloop-rig here became apparent. Unlike cutters, +sloops have no forestay leading from the masthead down to the stem, but +one leading only to the outer end of the bowsprit, and when the bowsprit +carries away, as it frequently does, the mast then has nothing but its +own strength to save it from snapping in a sudden recoil.</p> + +<p>What made the plunging of the mast worse was that the lower-mast +backstays had both carried away at the deck, as also had the topmast +backstays, after pulling the head off the housed topmast. All this heavy +wire rigging, with its blocks, immediately became lost to sight. It was +streaming out aft on the gale from the masthead, together with every +other line that had a chance to get adrift. If a halyard got loose from +its belaying pin that night it was not seen again. It said good-by to +the deck and went to join the flying mass overhead, that afterward by +degrees wound itself round and round the topping-lifts and +peak-halyards, effectually preventing the hoisting of the mainsail. The +long and heavy main-boom, which had long since kicked its supporting +crutch overboard, was now lowered down to rest on the cabin-top, so as +to take the weight off the mast; and while the end of it dragged in the +boiling caldron behind the counter, the middle part of it rose and fell +with every pitch, in spite of endeavors to lash it down, until it seemed +that the cabin-top would certainly give way. Had the top caved in, the +chances of swamping were good.</p> + +<p>Their power to sail by means of the canvas was now virtually gone. +Nothing was left for them but to follow the huge "smoke-grinding" mass +that yawed and pitched in front of them. One or two men were kept at the +stern of the steamer during this part of the night, to report any +signals of distress and to aid the yacht's steering by showing bright +lights. Near to these bright lights the figure of the captain could be +seen from time to time through the night, anxiously watching the lights +on the yacht, which told him that she still survived. Sometimes he was +apparently calling out to those on the yacht, but of course no sound +could be heard.</p> + +<p>The ladies were in their cabins all this time, sorry enough that they +had not taken the railway home.</p> + +<p>When the mast was stayed forward, by setting up the staysail-halyards, +etc., at the stem, there was nothing to do on deck but steer and keep +watch, and as nearly everything had been carried away except the whale +boat, Geoffrey went below for dry clothes and, feeling tired with his +hard work, took a nap in one of the bunks in the after-cabin. As the +sailors say, he "turned in all standing"—that is, with his clothes on.</p> + +<p>The other men remained on deck. Most of them were drenched to the skin +and were becoming gradually colder in the driving spray and heavy +swashes of solid wave that swept the decks with clock-like regularity. +They thought it better to remain where they could at least swim for a +while if the yacht went down, and they preferred exposure to the idea of +being drowned like rats in the cabin.</p> + +<p>After some time Geoffrey awoke, feeling that a soft warm hand was being +passed around his chin. He knew it was Margaret before he got his eyes +open. He peered at her for a moment without raising his head. She was +sitting on the seat outside, looking very despairing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Geoffrey," she said, "I think we are going to the bottom."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey listened, with his eyes shut, and heard both pumps clanging +outside. Margaret thought he was going off to sleep again. She was very +frightened, and the fear seemed to draw her toward Geoffrey all the more +for protection. She put her hand half around his neck and urged him to +wake up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can you go on sleeping at such a time? Do wake up, dear +Geoffrey. I tell you the yacht is sinking. We are all going to the +bottom. Do get up!"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey was perfectly wide awake, but this was even pleasanter than +being waked by music, and her hand on his chin seemed like a caress. +With his eyes shut, he reproached her sleepily: "No, no, don't make me +get up. I like it. I like going to the bottom."</p> + +<p>Margaret smiled through her fears. "But, Geoffrey, do look here! The +water has risen up over the cabin floor."</p> + +<p>He got up then. Certainly, things did seem a little threatening. A +couple of corks were dancing about in the water upon the carpet quite +merrily. This meant a good deal. He heard that peculiar sound of rushing +water inside the boat which can be easily recognized when once heard. +Above the howling of wind and swash of waves, both pumps could be heard +working for all they were worth. The vessel was pitching terribly, +mercilessly dragged as she was from one wave to another, without having +time to ride them.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey thought the time for bailing with the pails might be deferred +for a while. Without Margaret's knowledge he stuck a pen-knife into the +woodwork near the floor to define high-water mark, and thus detect any +increase in the leakage over the pumps. Then he devoted some time toward +endeavoring to calm Margaret's fears, chiefly by exhibiting a masterly +inaction in regard to the leak and in searching about for a lost pipe. +By the time he had found it and was enjoying a quiet smoke, reclining on +the cushions to make the motion seem easier, her fears began to weaken. +She did not at all object to the smoke of pipes, and Geoffrey's comfort +became contagious. Although the clanging of the pumps outside recalled +stories of shipwreck, she was, on the other hand, more influenced by the +easy-going indifference that he assumed. Twenty minutes passed in this +way, and then she felt sure that the danger was not so great as she had +thought. Geoffrey in the mean time was covertly watching his pen-knife, +that marked the rise or fall of the water in the boat. At the end of +half an hour he could see, from where he lay, that half the blade of the +knife was covered with water. So he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +and said he would go and see the boys on deck, and that Margaret had +better go and comfort the others in the ladies' cabins, and tell them it +was all right.</p> + +<p>When Margaret had staggered away, Geoffrey's manner was not that of one +satisfied with his surroundings. He ripped up the carpet and the planks +underneath to get at the well, and then skipped up the companion-way in +the liveliest manner. When on deck, he made out Jack at the wheel.</p> + +<p>"How's the well?" Jack cried, in the wind. "Did you sound it?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey had to roar to make himself heard above the gale and noise of +waters.</p> + +<p>"Get your buckets!" he said; and Jack passed his order forward by a +messenger, who crawled along by the main-boom carefully, lest he should +go overboard in the pitching.</p> + +<p>"Why, the pumps were gaining on the leak a while ago!" Jack said to +Geoffrey. "Did you examine the well?"</p> + +<p>"There is no well left that I could see. It's all a lake on the cabin +floor. The leak gained on the pumps an inch in half an hour! I waited +and watched to make sure, and to quiet the women."</p> + +<p>"Then it is only a question of time," said Jack. "The buckets and pumps +won't keep her afloat long. She is working the caulking out of her +seams, and that will get worse every moment."</p> + +<p>There were no loiterers on board after that. They all "turned to" and +worked like machines. Even the steward and cook were on deck to take +their trick at the pumps. Five men in soaking trousers and shirts worked +five buckets in the cabin, heaving the water out of the companion-way. +Of these five, some dropped out from time to time exhausted, but the +others relieved them, and so kept the five buckets going as fast as they +could be worked. Some fell deadly sick with the heat, hard work, and +terrible pitching and driving motion of the boat, but nobody said a +word. If a man fell sick, he had something else to think of than his +comfort, and he staggered around as well as he could. From the +companion-way to the well, and from the well to the companion-way, for +two hours more they kept up the incessant toil. At first some had +attempted to be pleasant by saying it was easy to get water enough for +the whisky, and by making other light remarks. But now it was changed. +They said nothing on the exhausting and dreary round, but worked with +their teeth clinched—while the sweat poured off them as if they, too, +had started every seam and were leaking out their very lives.</p> + +<p>Still the pitiless great mass of a steamer in front of the yacht plunged +and yawed and dragged them without mercy through the black waters, where +a huge surge could now be occasionally discerned sweeping its foaming +crest past the little yacht, which was gradually succumbing to the wild +forces about it.</p> + +<p>Margaret was back again in the cabin now. She had wedged herself in, +with her back against the bunks, and one foot up against the table as a +prop to keep her in position. In one hand she held a bottle of brandy +and in the other a glass. And when a man fell out sick and exhausted she +attended to him. There was no water asked for. They took the brandy +"neat." She had succeeded in quieting the other women, and as they could +not hear the bailing in the after-cabin they were in happy ignorance of +the worst. Whatever fears she had had when the knowledge of danger first +came to her, she showed no sign of them now—but only a compassion for +the exhausted workers that heartened them up and did them good.</p> + +<p>A third hour had nearly expired since they began to use the buckets, and +Margaret for a long time had been watching the water, in which the +bailers worked, gradually creeping up over their feet as they spent +themselves on a dreary round, to which the toil of Sisyphus was +satisfactory. The water was rising steadily in spite of their best +efforts to keep the boat afloat. Margaret had quietly made up her mind +that they would never see the land again. There did not seem to be any +chance left, and she was going, as men say, to "die game." Her courage +and cheering words inspired the others to endless exertions. She was +like a big sister to them all. At times she was hilarious and almost +boisterous, and when she waved the bottle in the air and declared that +there was no Scott Act on board, her conduct can not be defended. +Maurice Rankin tried to say he wished they could get a Scott Act on the +water, but the remark seemed to lack intrinsic energy, and he failed +from exhaustion to utter it.</p> + +<p>Another half-hour passed, and while the men trudged through the +ever-deepening water Margaret experienced new thoughts whenever she +gazed at Geoffrey, who had worked almost incessantly. She looked at the +knotted cords on his arms and on his forehead, at the long tenacious jaw +set as she had seen it in the hurdle race, and she knew from the +swelling nostril and glittering eye that the idea of defeat in this +battle with the waters was one which he spurned from him. His clothes +were dripping with water. The neck-button of his shirt had carried away, +his trousers were rolled up at the bottom, and his face perspired freely +with the extraordinary strain, and yet in spite of his appearance she +felt as if she had never cared for him so much as when she now saw him. +On through the night she sat there doing her woman's part beside those +who fought with the water for their lives. She saw the treacherous enemy +gaining on them in spite of all their efforts, and in her heart felt +fully convinced that she could not have more than two hours to live. +The hot steam from men working frantically filled the cabin, the weaker +ones grew ill before her, and she looked after them without blenching. +Hers was no place for a toy woman. She was there to help all those about +to die; and to do this rightly, to force back her own nausea, and face +anxiety and death with a smile.</p> + +<p>As for Geoffrey, life seemed sweet to him that night. For him, it was +Margaret or—nothing. To him, this facing of death did just one thing. +It raised the tiger in him. He had what Shakespeare and prize-fighters +call "gall," that indomitable courage which women worship hereditarily, +although better kinds of courage may exist.</p> + +<p>Another long half-hour passed, and then Maurice fell over his bucket, +keel-up. He had fainted from exhaustion, and was dosed by Margaret in +the usual way, and after this he was set on his pins and sent on deck +for the lighter work at the pumps. After that, the paid hands, having in +some way purloined too much whisky, mutinied, and said they would be +blanketty-blanketted if they would sling another bucket.</p> + +<p>The others went on as steadily as before, while the crew went forward to +wait sulkily for the end.</p> + +<p>Jack and Charley then consulted as to what was best to be done. To hold +on in this way meant going to the bottom, without a shadow of doubt. +They had tried to signal to the steamer, to get her to slow up and take +all hands on board. But the watchers at the stern of the steamer had +been taken off to work at the steamer's pumps; for, as was afterward +found, she also was leaking badly and in a dangerous condition.</p> + +<p>Ought they to cut the towline, throw out the inside ballast, and cut +away the mast to ease the straining at the seams? The wooden hull, minus +the inside ballast, might float in spite of the lead on the keel, which +was not very heavy, and in this way they might drift about until picked +up the next day. But the ballast was covered with water. They could not +get it out in time to save her. Yet the seas seemed somewhat lighter +than they had been. Would not the boat leak less while proceeding in an +ordinary way, instead of being dragged from wave to wave? No doubt it +would, but was it safe to let the steamer leave them? Ought they to cut +the towline, get up a bit of a sail, and endeavor to make the north +shore of the lake?</p> + +<p>While duly weighing these things, Jack was making a rough calculation in +his head, as he took a look at the clock. Then he walked forward, took a +halyard in his hands, and embracing the plunging mast with his legs, he +swarmed up about twenty feet from the deck. Then, after a long look, he +suddenly slid down again, and running aft he called to the others, while +he pointed over the bows.</p> + +<p>"Toronto Light, ahoy!"</p> + +<p>"Holy sailor!" cried Charley in delight. "Are you sure of it?"</p> + +<p>"Betcherlife!" said Jack. "Can't fool me on Toronto Light. Go and see +for yourself."</p> + +<p>Charley climbed up and took a look. Then he went down into the +forecastle and told the men they would get no pay for the trip if they +did not help to bail the boat.</p> + +<p>Seeing that not only life but good pay awaited them, they turned to +again and helped to keep the ship afloat.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes more Jack called to Margaret to come on deck. When she +had ascended, she sat on the dripping cabin-top and watched a changing +scene, impossible to forget. Soon after she appeared, there came a +flicker in the air, as short as the pulling of a trigger, and all at +once she perceived that she began dimly to see the waves and the +pitching boat. It was like a revelation, like an experience of Dante's +Virgil, to see at last some of that hell of waters in which they had +struggled so long for existence.</p> + +<p>As the first beginning of weird light, coming apparently from nowhere, +began to spread over the weary waste of heaving, tumbling, merciless +waters and to dilute the ink of the night, as if with only a memory of +day, a momentary chill went through Margaret, as she began to realize a +small part of what they had come through. But as the ragged sky in the +east paled faintly, rather than warmed, with an attempt at cheerfulness, +like the tired smile of a dying man, it sufficed, although so deficient +in warmth, to cheer her heart. The calm certainty of an almost immediate +death that had settled like a pall upon her was dispelled by rays of +hope that seemed to be identical with the invading rays of light. "Hope +comes from the east," she thought, as a ray from that quarter made the +atmosphere take another jump toward day, and as she fell into a tired +reverie she remembered, with a heart forced toward thanksgiving, those +other early glad tidings from the East. Worn out, she yielded to early +emotions, and thanked God for her deliverance. She arose and went +carefully along the deck, holding to the wet boom, until she reached the +mast, where she stopped and gazed at the black mass of the great steamer +still plunging and yawing and swinging through the waters, with its +lights looking yellow in the pale glimmer of dawn. After viewing the +disorder on decks she could form an idea of the work the men had had +during the darkness of the night.</p> + +<p>But, oh, what a broken-nosed nightmare of a yacht it was, in the dreary +morning light, with all the dripping black-looking heap of wreckage +piled over the bows, the mast pitching back toward the stern with a +tangled mass of everything imaginable wound in a huge plait down the +lifts. In this draggle-tailed thing, with a boom lying on deck and +hanging over the counter and its canvas trailing in the water, Margaret +could not recognize the peerless swan that a short time ago poised +itself upon its pinions and swept so majestically out of Toronto Bay.</p> + +<p>The water, at every mile traversed, now grew calmer as the gale came +partly off the land. Soon the pitching ended altogether. The opened +seams ceased to smile so invitingly to the death that lurks under every +boat's keel. The pumps and buckets had begun to gain upon the water in +the cabin, and by the time they had swept round the lighthouse and +reached the wharf the flooring had been replaced, while the pumps were +still clanging at intervals.</p> + +<p>When they made fast to the dock a drawn and haggard group of men—a +drooping, speechless, and even ragged group of men—allowed themselves +to sleep. It did not matter where or how they slept. They just dropped +anywhere; and for five hours Nature had all she could do to restore +these men to a semblance of themselves.</p> + +<blockquote><p>[Note.—If Captain Estes, of the Mail Line Steamer Abyssinian, +should ever read this chapter, he will know a part of what took +place at the other end of the hawser on the night of September +5, 1872.]</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pyrrha? For whom bindest thou<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In wreaths thy golden hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plain in its neatness? Oh, how oft shall he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On faith, and changed gods, complain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom thou untried seemest fair?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Horace</span>, <i>Lib. I, Ode 5.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>A fine spring afternoon. A dark-eyed, well-dressed young lady with an +attractive figure descends from a street car near the Don Bridge. She +crosses the bridge leisurely and proceeds eastward along the Kingston +Road toward Scarborough. Whatever her destination may be, the time at +which she arrives is evidently of no consequence. She does "belong" down +Kingston Roadway. The street car dropped her there, and one may come a +long way for ten cents on street cars. From the uninterested way in +which she views the semi-rural surroundings one can see that she is +carelessly unfamiliar with the region.</p> + +<p>A fine horse, with his glossy coat and harness shining in the sun, comes +along behind her at a rate that would not be justified in a crowded +thoroughfare. Behind the horse a stylish dog-cart bowls along with its +plate-glass lamps also shining in the sun. Between this spot and the +city of Kingston there is no man on the road handsomer than he who +drives the dog-cart. The lady looks pleased as she hears the trap coming +along; a flush rises to her cheeks and makes her eyes still brighter. +When the horse trots over the sod and stops beside the sidewalk her +surprise is so small that she does not even scream. On the contrary, she +proceeds, without speaking, to climb into the vehicle with an expression +on her face in which alarm has no place.</p> + +<p>In some analogy with that mysterious law which rules that an elephant +shall not climb a tree, symmetrical people in fashionable dresses, whose +lines tend somewhat toward convexity, do not climb into a high dog-cart +with that ease which may compensate others for being long and lanky. A +middle-aged elder of the Established Kirk stands on his doorstep +directly opposite and looks pious. He says this is a meeting not of +chance but of design, and reproof is shown upon his face. The lady wears +Parisian boots, and the general expression of the middle-aged elder is +severe except where the eyes suggest weakness unlooked for in a face of +such high moral pitch. Once in, the young lady settles herself +comfortably and wraps about her dress the embroidered dust-linen as if +she were well accustomed to the situation. They drive off, and the +middle-aged elder shakes his head after them and says with renewed +personal conviction that the world is not what it ought to be.</p> + +<p>The road is soft and smooth, and the horse saws his head up and down as +he steps out at a pace that makes him feel pleasantly disposed toward +country roads and inclined to travel faster than a gentlemanly, +civilized, by-law-regulated horse should desire. The young lady lays +aside her parasol, which is remarkable—a gay toy—and takes up a black +silk umbrella which is not remarkable but serviceable. The good-looking +man pulls out of his pocket a large brown veil rolled up in paper, and +she of the Parisian boots ties it quickly around a little skull-cap sort +of bonnet of black beads and lace. The veil is thrown around in such a +way that the folds of it can be pulled down over her face in an instant. +Here, also, the lady shows a deftness in assuming this head-gear that +argues prior practice, and when this is done she lays her hand on the +handsome man's arm and looks up at him radiantly, while the silk +umbrella shuts out a couple of farmer's wives.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it make me look hideous?" she says, referring to the veil.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, worse than ever," says the handsome man. His face is a +mixture of careless good-nature and quiet devil-may-care recklessness. +Perhaps there are women who never make men look spiritual. It is to be +hoped that the umbrella hides his disregard for appearances on the +public street and that the farmer's wives in the neighborhood are not +too observant.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, Geoffrey, <i>do</i> behave better on the highway! What +will those women think?"</p> + +<p>"Their curiosity will gnaw them cruelly, I fear. They are looking after +us yet. I can see them."</p> + +<p>"Well, it is not fair to me to go on like that; besides I am terrified +all the time lest the people may find out who it is that wears the brown +veil about the country. I have heard four or five girls speaking about +it. It's the talk of the town."</p> + +<p>"No fear about that, Nina. I don't think your name was ever mentioned in +connection with the veil, but, in case it might be, I drove out Helen +Broadwood and Janet Carruthers lately, and, in view of the dust flying, +I persuaded them to wear the brown veil. We drove all over the city and +down King Street several times. So now the brown veil is divided between +the two of them. It was not much trouble to devote a little time to this +object, and besides, you know, the old people give excellent dinners."</p> + +<p>"That was nice of you to put it off on those girls and to take so much +trouble for me, but it can't last, Geoffrey, dear. We are sure to be +recognized some day. Helen and Janet will both say they were not on the +Indian road near the Humber the day we met the Joyces's wagonette, and +those girls are so stupid that people will believe them; and that bad +quarter of an hour when Millicent Hart rode behind us purposely to find +out who I was. That was a mean thing of her to do, but I paid her off. I +met her at Judge Lovell's the other night. It was a terrible party, but +I enjoyed it. I knew she expected to bring things to a climax with Mr. +Grover; she's <i>folle</i> about that man. I monopolized him the whole +evening—in fact he came within an ace of proposing. Gracious, how that +girl hates me now!"</p> + +<p>"I would not try paying her off too much, or she will think you have a +strong reason for doing so," said Geoffrey. "After all, her curiosity +did her no good. You managed the umbrella to a charm."</p> + +<p>"The best thing you could do would be to have a linen duster for me to +wear—such as the American women travel in; then, as the veil covered my +head, I could discard the umbrella, and they would not recognize my +clothes."</p> + +<p>In this way they rattled down to Scarborough, and then Geoffrey turned +off the highway through a gate and drove across a lot of wild land +covered with brushwood until he struck a sort of road through the forest +which had been chopped out for the purpose of hauling cordwood in the +winter. He followed this slowly, for it was rough wheeling. Then he +stopped, tied the horse, and Nina and he sauntered off through the woods +until they reached the edge of the high cliffs overlooking the lake. +This spot escaped even picnic parties, for it was almost inaccessible +except by the newly cut and unknown road. Solitude reigned where the +finest view in the neighborhood of Toronto could be had. They could look +along the narrow cliffs eastward as far as Raby Head. At their +feet—perhaps a hundred and fifty feet down—the blue-green waves lapped +the shore in the afternoon breeze, and on the horizon, across the thirty +or forty miles of fresh water, the south shore of the lake could be +dimly seen in a summer haze.</p> + +<p>The winter had come and gone since we saw our friends last, and the +early spring was delicious in the warmth that hurried all nature into a +promise of maturity. Not much of importance had happened to any of them +since we last saw them. Jack was as devoted as ever, and Nina was not. +She tried to do what she could in the way of being pleasant to Jack, and +she went on with the affair partly because she had not sufficient +hardness of heart to break it off, and chiefly because Geoffrey told her +not to do so. He preferred that she should remain, in a nondescript way, +engaged to Jack.</p> + +<p>Hampstead generally dined with the Mackintoshes on Sunday, and called in +the evening once or twice during the week. He also took Margaret for +drives in the afternoon—generally about the town. When this happened a +boy in buttons sat behind them and held the horse when they descended to +make calls together on Margaret's friends. This was pleasant for both of +them, and a beginning of the quiet domestic life which, after marriage, +Geoffrey intended to confine himself to, and he won good opinions among +Margaret's friends from the cheerful, pleasant, domesticated manner he +had with him when they dropped in together, in an off-hand, "engaged" +sort of way to make informal calls. And so far as Margaret could know he +seemed in every way entitled to the favorable opinions she created. All +his better, kinder nature was present at these times, and no one could +make himself more agreeable when he was, as he said of himself, +"building up a moral monument more lasting than brass."</p> + +<p>But Geoffrey had his "days off," and then he was different. He smiled as +he thought that in cultivating a high moral tone it was well not to +overdo the thing at first; that two days out of the week would suffice +to keep him socially in the traces. He thought his "off" days frequently +made him prize Margaret all the more when he could turn with some relief +toward the one who embodied all that his imagination could picture in +the way of excellence. He despised himself and was complacent with +himself alternately, with a regularity in his inconsistencies which was +the only way (he would say, smiling) that he could call himself +consistent. If necessary, he would have admitted that he was bad; but to +himself he was fond of saying that he never tried to conceal from +himself when he was doing wrong; and, among men, he despised the many +"Bulstrodes" of existence who succeed in deceiving themselves by +falsities. He said that this openness with self seemed to have something +partly redeeming about it; perhaps only by comparison—that it possibly +ranked among the uncatalogued virtues, marked with a large note of +interrogation. He thought there were few brave enough to be quite honest +with themselves, and that there was always a chance for a man who +remained so; that the hopeless ones were chiefly those who, with or +without vice, have become liars to themselves; who, by mingling +uncontrolled weakness and professed religion, have lost the power to +properly adjust themselves.</p> + +<p>This day of the drive to Scarborough was one of his "off" days. He found +a piquancy in these trips with him, because so many talked about her +beauty; and, as the majority of men do not have very high ideals +concerning feminine beauty, Nina was well adapted for extensive +conquest. No doubt she was very attractive, quite dazzling sometimes. +She was partly of the French type, perfect in its way, but not the +highest type; she was lady-like in her appearance, yet with the +slightest <i>soupçon</i> of the nurse-girl. It amused him to hear men +discussing, even squabbling about her, especially after he had come from +a trip with the brown veil. If men had been more sober in the way they +regarded her, if her costumes had been less bewitching, he soon would +have become tired. But these incentives made him pleased with his +position, and he was wont to quote the illustrious Emerson in saying +that "greatly as he rejoiced in the victories of religion and morality, +it was not without satisfaction that he woke up in the morning and found +that the world, the flesh, and the devil still held their own, and died +hard." In other words, it pleased him that Nina existed to give +life—for the present—a little of that fillip which his nature seemed +to demand.</p> + +<p>"What is a wise man? Well, sir, as times go, 'tis a man who knows +himself to be a fool, and hides the fact from his neighbor."</p> + +<p>This was the only text upon which Geoffrey founded any claim to wisdom.</p> + +<p>As they left the cliff and walked slowly back through the woods Nina was +leaning on his arm, and the happiness of her expression showed how +completely she could forget the duties which both abandoned in order to +meet in this way. But when they arrived at the dog-cart a change came +over her. The brown veil had to be tied on again. At many other times +she had done this placidly, as part of the masquerade. But to-day she +was not inclined to reason carefully. To-day the veil was a badge of +secrecy, a reminder of underhand dealings, a token that she must ever go +on being sly and double-faced with the public, that she must renounce +the idea of ever caring for Geoffrey in any open and acknowledged way. +To be sure, she had accepted this situation in its entirety when she +continued to yield to her own wishes by being so much with an engaged +man. But to be reasonable always, is uncommon. She resisted an +inclination to tear the veil to shreds. Something told her that +exhibitions of temper would not be very well received by her companion. +No matter how she treated Jack, was she not honest with Geoffrey? Did +she not risk her good name for him? And why should she have to mask her +face and hide it from the public? She—an heiress, who would inherit +such wealth—whose beauty made her a queen, to whom men were like +slaves!</p> + +<p>The veil very nearly became altered in its condition as she thought of +these things, but she put it on, and smothered her wrath until they got +out upon the highway. Then she said, after a long silence: "Would it not +be as well to let Margaret wear this brown veil a few times, Geoffrey? +She has a right to drive about with you, and if people thought it was +only she, their curiosity might cease."</p> + +<p>A farm-house cur came barking after the dog-cart just then, and +Geoffrey's anger expended itself partly on the dog, instead of being +embodied in a reply.</p> + +<p>The whip descended so viciously through the air that a more careful +person might have seen that the suggestion had not improved his temper.</p> + +<p>Except this, he gave no answer. She pressed the subject, although she +knew he was angry. "Don't you think, Geoffrey, that that would be a good +thing to do? It would quite remove curiosity, and would, in any case, be +only fair to me."</p> + +<p>Now, if there was one thing Hampstead could not and would not endure, it +was to have a woman he amused himself with attempt to put herself on a +par with the one he reverenced. Margaret was about all that remained of +his conscience. She embodied all the good he knew. Every resolve and +hope of his future depended upon her. He could not as yet, he thought, +find it possible always to live as she would like; but in a calm way, so +controlled as to seem almost dispassionate, he worshiped her, as it +were, in the abstract.</p> + +<p>His ideas concerning her were so rarefied that, in any other person, he +might have called them fanatical. He was bad, but he felt that he would +rather hang himself than allow so much as a breath to dim the fair +mirror of Margaret's name. At the very mention of her as wearing this +brown veil he grew pale with anger, and the barking cur got the benefit +of it, and at Nina's insistence his face and eyes grew like steel.</p> + +<p>"Heavens above! Can't you let her name alone? Is it not enough for you +to raise the devil in me, without scheming to give her trouble? Do you +think I will allow her to step in and be blamed for what it was your +whim to go in for—risks and all?"</p> + +<p>Nina was ready now to let the proposition drop, but she could not +refrain from adding: "She would not be blamed for very much if she were +blamed for all that has happened between us."</p> + +<p>There was truth in what she said, but Geoffrey had looked upon these +meetings as anything but innocent. Argument on the point was +insufferable, and it only made him lash out worse, as he interrupted +her.</p> + +<p>"Good God, Nina! you must be mad! Don't you see? Don't you understand?"</p> + +<p>Nina waited a second while she thought over what he meant, and her blood +seemed to boil as she considered different things.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do understand. You need say no more," cried she, with her eyes +blazing. "You want me to realize that I am so much beneath her—that she +is so far above me—that, although I have done nothing much out of the +way, the imputation of her doing the same thing is a kind of death to +you. You go out of your way to try and hurt me—"</p> + +<p>"No, no, Nina," said Geoffrey, controlling himself, "I do not want to +hurt your feelings. If we must continue speaking on this unpleasant +subject, I will explain."</p> + +<p>"That will do, Geoffrey Hampstead," she exclaimed in a rage; "I don't +want to hear your explanation. I hate you and despise you! I have been a +fool myself, but you have been a greater one. I could have made a prince +of you. I was fool enough to do this, and now," here Nina tore the veil +off her head, and threw it on the road, "and now," she continued, as she +faced him with flashing eyes, "you will always remain nothing but a +miserable bank-clerk. Who are you that you should presume to insult me? +and who is she that she should be held over my head? I am as good in +every way as she is, and, if all that's said is true, I am a good deal +better."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey listened silently to all she said, and to her blind imputation +against Margaret. Gazing in front of him with a look that boded ill, he +reduced the horse's pace to a walk, so that he need not watch his +driving, and turned to her, speaking slowly, his face cruel and his eyes +small and glittering.</p> + +<p>"Listen! You have consciously played the devil with me ever since I knew +you. You have known from the first how you held me; you played your part +to perfection, and I liked it. It amused me. It made better things seem +sweeter after I left you. It is not easy to be very good all at once, +and you partly supplied me with the opposite. I don't blame you for it, +because I liked it, and I confess to encouraging you, but the fact +is—you sought me. Hush! Don't deny it! As women seek, you sought me. We +tacitly agreed to be untrue to every tie in order to meet continually, +and in a mild sort of way try to make life interesting. Did either of us +ever try by word or deed to improve the other? Certainly not. Nor did we +ever intend to do so. We taught each other nothing but scheming and +treachery. And you thought that you would make the devil so pleasing +that I could not do without him. This is the plain truth—in spite of +your sneer. Recollect, I don't mind what you say about me, but you have +undertaken to insult and lay schemes for somebody else, and that I'll +not forgive. For <i>that</i>, I say what I do, and I make you see your +position, when you, who have been a mass of treachery ever since you +were born, dare to compare yourself with—no matter who. I won't even +mention her name here. That's how I look upon this affair, if you insist +upon plain speech. Now we understand things."</p> + +<p>It was a cruel, brutal tirade. Truth seems very brutal sometimes. He +began slowly, but as he went on, his tongue grew faster, until it was +like a mitrailleuse. Nina was bewildered. She had angered him +intentionally; but she had not known that on one subject he was a +fanatic, and thus liable to all the madness that fanaticism implies. She +said nothing, and Hampstead, with scarcely a pause, added, in a more +ordinary tone: "It will be unpleasant for us to drive any further +together. You are accustomed to driving. I'll walk."</p> + +<p>He handed the reins to Nina and swung himself out without stopping the +horse. She took the reins in a half-dazed way and asked vaguely:</p> + +<p>"What will I do with the horse when I get to the town?"</p> + +<p>"Turn him adrift," said Geoffrey, over his shoulder, as he proceeded up +a cross-road, feeling that he never wished to see either her or the trap +again.</p> + +<p>Nina stopped the horse to try to think. She could not think. His biting +words had driven all thought out of her. She only knew he was going away +from her forever. She looked after him, and saw him a hundred yards off +lighting a cigar with a fusee as he walked along. She called to him and +he turned. The country side was quiet, and he could hear her say, "Come +here!" He went back, and found her weeping. All she could say was "Get +in." Of course he got in, and they drove off up the cross-road so as to +meet no person until she calmed herself. After a while she sobbed out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are cruel, Geoffrey. I may be a mass of treachery, but not to +you—not to you, Geoffrey. Having to put on the veil angered me. I have +been wicked. We have both been wicked. But you are so much worse than I +am. You know you are!"</p> + +<p>As she said this it sounded partly true and partly whimsical, so she +tried to smile again. He could not endeavor to resist tears when he knew +that he had been unnecessarily harsh, and he was glad of the opportunity +to smile also and to smooth things over.</p> + +<p>As a tacit confession that he was sorry for his violence, he took the +hand that lay beside him into his, and so they drove along toward the +city, each extending to the other a good deal of that fellow-feeling +which arises from community in guilt. Both felt that in tearing off the +mask for a while they had revealed to each other things which, being +confessed, left them with hardly a secret on either side, and if this +brought them more together, by making them more open with each other, +both felt that they now met upon a lower platform.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which +he hath made crooked?—<i>Ecclesiastes</i> vii, 13.</p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>A few days after the disturbance in the dog-cart Geoffrey and Maurice +Rankin were dining, on a Sunday, with the Mackintoshes. After dinner a +walk was proposed, and Margaret went out with them, very spick-and-span +and charming in an old black silk "made over," and with a bright bunch +of common geraniums at her belt. She had invited the young lawyer partly +because he had seemed so distrustful of Geoffrey, and she wished to +bring the two more together, so that Maurice might see that he had +misjudged him. In the course of their walk Geoffrey asked, for want of +something better to say:</p> + +<p>"How goes the law, Rankin? Things stirring?"</p> + +<p>"Might be worse," replied Maurice. "By the way, Margaret, I forgot to +tell you Mr. Bean actually brought in a client the other day."</p> + +<p>"Somebody he had been drinking with, I suppose," said Margaret, who had +heard of Mr. Bean.</p> + +<p>"Right you are. They supported each other into the office, and before +Bean sank into his chair I was introduced by him as his 'jun'or +par'ner.'"</p> + +<p>"Could not Mr. Bean do the same every day? Supply the office by bringing +up his friends when prepared to be lavish with money?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not. Bean would be always tipsy himself before the victim +was ready. Still, your idea is worth consideration. Of course nobody +would want law from Bean unless he were pretty far gone, and in this +case the poor old chap knew no more about what was wanted than the +inquirer."</p> + +<p>"Had the client any money?" asked Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>"Money? He was reeking with it. What he wanted, he said, was a quiet +lawyer. I told him that the quietness of our business was its strong +point, only equaled, in fact, by the unpleasant grave. Then it appeared +that he had come on a trip from the States with a carpet-bag full of +money which he said he had borrowed, and he wished, in effect, to know +whether the United States could take him back again, <i>vi et armis</i>. I +told him 'No,' and knocked ten dollars out of him before you could say +'knife.'"</p> + +<p>"You might have made it fifty while you were about it," said Geoffrey.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, the man was not entirely sober, and, after all, ten +dollars a word is fair average pay. I never charge more than that."</p> + +<p>"You mean that the unfortunate was too sober to be likely to pay any +more," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>Maurice shrugged his shoulders in deprecation of this idea.</p> + +<p>Said Geoffrey: "I often meet Mr. Bean on the street. He is a very idle +man; I know by the way he carries his pipe in his mouth."</p> + +<p>"What has that to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Everything. He smokes with his pipe in the center of his mouth."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no one does that unless very old or very idle. Men get the habit +from smoking all day while sitting down or lounging. No one can walk +hurriedly with his pipe in that position; it would jar his front teeth +out. I have noticed that an active man invariably holds his pipe in the +side of his mouth, where he can grasp it firmly."</p> + +<p>"Hampstead, you should have been a detective."</p> + +<p>"Such is genius," said Margaret. "Geoffrey has any quantity of +unprofitable genius."</p> + +<p>"That reminds me that I once heard my grandfather telling my father the +same thing, but it was not very correct about my father."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! By the way, Geoffrey, if it is not an impertinent question for +your future wife to ask, who <i>was</i> your grandfather?"</p> + +<p>This ignorance on the part of an engaged girl made Maurice cackle.</p> + +<p>"Who <i>is</i> he, you mean. He is still alive, I think, and as old as the +hills."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! How very strange that you never told me of his existence +before!"</p> + +<p>"His existence is not a very interesting one to me—in fact, quite the +reverse; besides I don't think we have ever lacked a more interesting +topic, have we Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"I imagine not," quoth Rankin dryly. Margaret stopped; she thought there +might be something "queer" about this grandfather that Geoffrey might +not care to speak about before a third person. She merely said, +therefore, intending to drop the matter gently:</p> + +<p>"How very old the senior Mr. Hampstead must be?"</p> + +<p>"Hampstead is only the family name. The old boy is Lord Warcote. I am a +sort of a Radical you know, Margaret, and the truth is I had a quarrel +with my family. Only for this, I might have gone into the matter +before."</p> + +<p>"Never mind going into anything unpleasant. You told my father, of +course, that you were a son of Mr. Manson Hampstead, one of the old +families in Shropshire. And so you are. We will let it rest at that. +Family differences must always be disagreeable subjects. Let us talk +about something else."</p> + +<p>"Now we are on the subject, I might as well tell you all about it. +First, I will secure Rankin's secrecy. Behold five cents! Mr. Rankin, I +retain you with this sum as my solicitor to advise when called upon +concerning the facts I am about to relate. You are bound now by your +professional creed not to divulge, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Drive on," said Maurice, "I'm an oyster."</p> + +<p>"There is not a great deal to tell," said Geoffrey. "The unpleasant part +of it has always made me keep the story entirely to myself. When I came +to this continent I was in such a rage with everything and everybody +that I abandoned the chance of letters of introduction. Nobody here +knows who I am. I have worked my own way to the exalted position in +which you find me. A good while ago my father was in the English +diplomatic service, and he still retains, I believe, a responsible post +under the Government. Like a good many others, though, he was, although +clever, not always quite clever enough, and in one episode of his life, +in which I am interested, he failed to have things his own way. For ten +years he was in different parts of Russia, where his duties called him. +He had acquired such a profound knowledge of Russian and other languages +that these advantages, together with his other gifts, served to keep him +longer in a sort of exile for the simple reason that there were few, if +any, in the service who could carry out what was required as well as he +could himself. From his official duties and his pleasant manner he +became well known in Russian society, and he counted among his intimate +friends several of the nobility who possessed influence in the country. +After a long series of duties he and some young Russians, to whom +passports were almost unnecessary, used to make long trips through the +country in the mild seasons to shoot and fish. In this way some of the +young nobles rid themselves of <i>ennui</i>, and reverted by an easy +transition to the condition of their immediate ancestors. They had their +servants with them, and lived a life of conviviality and luxury even in +the wildest regions which they visited. When they entered a small town +on these journeyings they did pretty much what they liked, and nobody +dared to complain at the capital. If a small official provoked or +delayed them they horsewhipped him. In fact, what they delighted in was +going back to savagery and taking their luxuries with them, dashing over +the vast country on fleet horses, making a pandemonium whenever and +wherever they liked; in short, in giving full swing to their Tartar and +Kalmuck blood. On one occasion my father was feeling wearied to death +with red tape, but nobody was inclined at the time for another +expedition. He therefore obtained leave to go with a military detachment +to Semipalatinsk, from which town some prisoners had to be brought back +to St. Petersburg. There was little trouble in obtaining his permit, +especially as he had been partly over the road before. So he went with +his horses and servant as far as the railway would take him, and then +joined a band of fifty wild-looking Cossacks and set out. When within a +hundred and fifty versts from Semipalatinsk they encountered a warlike +band of about twenty-five well mounted Tartars returning from a +marauding expedition. They had several horses laden with booty, also +some female prisoners. It was the old story of one tribe of savages +pillaging another. The Cossacks were out in the wilderness. Although +supposed to be under discipline, they were one and all freebooters to +the backbone. Their captain, under pretense of seeing right done, +allowed an attack to be made by the Cossacks. They drove off the other +robbers, ransacked the booty, took what they wanted, and under color of +giving protection, took the women also, hoping to dispose of them +quietly as slaves at some town. These women were then mounted on several +of the pack-horses, and the Cossacks rode off on their journey, leaving +everything else on the plain for the other robbers to retake.</p> + +<p>"My father had kept aloof from the disturbance. It was none of his +business. He sat on his horse and quietly laughed at the whole +transaction. He had become very Russian in a good many ways, and he +certainly knew what Cossacks were, and that any protest from him would +only be useless. It was simply a case of the biter bit. He joined the +party as they galloped on to make up for lost time.</p> + +<p>"As for the women, it was now nothing to them that their captors had +changed. Early in the morning their village had been pillaged and their +defenders slain. It was all one to them, now. Slavery awaited them +wherever they went. So they sat their horses with their usual ease, +veiled their faces, and resigned themselves to their fate. But as the +afternoon wore on, the wily captain began to think that my father would +certainly see through the marauding escapade of his, and that it would +be unpleasant to hear about it again from the authorities, and so he +cast about him for the easiest way to deceive or propitiate him. That +evening, as my father was sitting in his <i>kibitka</i>, the curtain was +raised and the captain smilingly led in one of the captive slaves—a +woman of extraordinary beauty. And who do you think she was?"</p> + +<p>Margaret turned pale. She grasped Geoffrey's arm, as her quick +intelligence divined what was coming.</p> + +<p>"No, no," she said. "You are not going to tell me that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Geoffrey with a pinched expression on his face. "That is +just what I am going to tell you. That poor slave—that ignorant and +beautiful savage was my mother."</p> + +<p>Margaret was thunderstruck. She did not comprehend how things stood, but +with a ready solicitude for him in a time of pain, she passed her hand +through his arm and drew herself closer to him, as they walked along.</p> + +<p>As for Maurice, he ground his teeth as he witnessed Margaret's loving +solicitude. It was a relief to him to rasp out his dislike for Geoffrey +under his breath. "I always knew he was a wolf," he muttered to himself.</p> + +<p>"You will see now," continued Geoffrey, "why I preferred not to be known +in this country. To be one of a family with a title in it did not +compensate me for being a thorough savage on my mother's side.</p> + +<p>"But I will continue my story. The beauty of the woman attracted my +father. He spoke to her kindly in her own language and made her partake +of his dinner with him. He thought that in any case he could save her +from being sold into slavery by the Cossacks.</p> + +<p>"These wild half-brothers of mine took it as a matter of course that my +father would be pleased with his acquisition, but they suggested <i>vodki</i> +and got it—so that my mother was in reality purchased from them for a +few bottles of whisky.</p> + +<p>"They went on toward Semipalatinsk and got the prisoners. My father +intended to leave the woman at that town, but she wished to see the +White Czar and his great city, of which she had heard, and she begged so +hard to be taken back with him that he began to think he might as well +do so.</p> + +<p>"The fact was that a whim seized him to see her dressed as a European, +and as they waited at Semipalatinsk for ten days before returning, he +had time to have garments made which were as near to the European styles +as he could suggest. It was evidently the clothes that decided the +matter. In her coarse native habiliments she was simply a savage to a +fastidious man, but when she was arrayed in a familiar looking dress +assisted by the soft silken fabrics of the East, he was bewitched. She +told him, on the journey back, how her father had always counted upon +having enough to live on for the rest of his life when she was sold to +the traders who purchased slaves for the harems at Constantinople.</p> + +<p>"My father took her to St. Petersburg with him, where they lived for +three years together. Such a thing as marrying her never entered his +head. He simply lived like his friends. I never found out how much she +was received in society—no doubt she had all the society she +wanted—but I did hear from an old friend of my father, who spoke of her +with much respect, that her beauty created the greatest sensation in St. +Petersburg, and that when she went to the theatre the spectators were +all like astronomers at a transit of Venus. She made good use of her +time, however, and at the end of three years she could speak and write +English a little.</p> + +<p>"At the end of three years from the time he met her, my father was +called back to England. He left her in his house in St. Petersburg with +all the money necessary, and came home. I think he intended to go back +to her when he got ready. But she settled that question by coming to +England herself. She could not bear the separation after three months of +waiting. Imagine the scene when she arrived! Lord and Lady Warcote were +having a dinner party, when in came my mother, as lovely as a dream, and +throwing her arms round my father she forgot her English and addressed +him fondly in the Tartar dialect.</p> + +<p>"My father, for a moment, was paralyzed; but, in spite of the enervating +effect of this exotic's sudden appearance, he could not help feeling +proud of her when he saw how magnificent she was in her new Paris +costume, and it occurred to him that her wonderful beauty would carry +things off with a high hand for a while, until he could perhaps get her +back to Russia. She, however, after the moment in which she greeted him, +stood up to her full height, and glancing rapidly around the table at +all the speechless guests, recognized my grandfather from a photograph +she had seen. Lord Warcote was sitting—starchy and speechless—at the +end of the table.</p> + +<p>"'Ah! zo! Oo are ze little faäzer!' And before he could say a word the +handsomest woman in England had kissed him, and had taken his hand and +patted it."</p> + +<p>"Another brisk look around, and she recognized Lady Warcote in the same +way. She floated round the table to greet 'dear mutter.' But here she +saw she was making a mistake—that everything was not all right. Lady +Warcote was not so susceptible to female beauty as she might have been. +She arose from her chair, her face scarlet with anger, and motioned my +mother away.</p> + +<p>"'Manson,' she said, addressing my father, 'is this woman your wife?'"</p> + +<p>"My father had now recovered from his shock, and was laughing til the +tears ran down his face. My mother, seeing his merriment, took courage +again and said gayly:</p> + +<p>"'Yes, yes! He have buy me—for one—two—tree bottle <i>vodki</i>.' She +counted the numbers on the tips of her fingers, her shapely hands +flashing with jewels. Then her laughter chimed merrily in with my +father's guffaw. She ran back to him, took his head in both her hands +and said, imitating a long-drawn tone of childish earnestness:</p> + +<p>"'It was cheap—che-ap. I was wort' more dan <i>vodki</i>.'</p> + +<p>"Lord Warcote had lived a fast life in his earlier days. After Nature +had allowed him a rare fling for sixty years she was beginning to +withdraw her powers, and my grandfather had become as religious as he +had been fast. The effect of my mother's presence upon him was to make +him suddenly young again, and although he soon assumed his new Puritan +gravity he could not keep his eyes off her. On a jury he would have +acquitted her of anything, and when she turned around imperiously and +told a servant to bring a chair, 'Good Lord!' he said, 'she's a Russian +princess!' and he jumped up like an old courtier to get the chair +himself. The more he heard of her story the more interested he became, +and when he had heard it all, nothing would suffice but an immediate +marriage. My father protested on several grounds, but his protests made +no difference to the old man. His will, he said, would be law until he +died, and even after he died, and, what with my mother's beauty, which +made him take what he understood to be a strong religious interest in +her behalf, and one thing and another, he got quite fanatical on the +point. He forgot himself several times, and swore he would cut father +off with nothing if he refused.</p> + +<p>"The end of it was that they were married at once, and afterward I was +born. My poor mother had no intention of giving father trouble when she +came to England, neither did she wish in the slightest degree for a +formal marriage, the usefulness of which she did not understand. She +simply felt that she could not do without him. And I don't think he ever +regretted the step he was driven to. She had some failings, but she was +as true and loving to him as a woman could be, besides being, for a +short time, considered a miracle of beauty in London.</p> + +<p>"I can only remember her dimly as going out riding with father. They say +her horsemanship was the most perfect thing ever seen in the hunting +field. It was the means of her death at last. The trouble was that she +did not know what fear was while on horseback. She thought a horse ought +to do anything. Father has told me that when they were out together a +freak would seize her suddenly, and away she would go across country for +miles—riding furiously, like her forefathers, waving her whip high in +the air for him to follow, and taking everything on the full fly. If her +horse could not get over anything he had to go through it. At last, one +day, an oak fence stopped her horse forever, and she was carried home +dead. I was three years old then."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey paused.</p> + +<p>The others remained silent. His strong magnetic voice, rendered more +powerful by the vehement way he interpreted the last part of the story +in his actions, impressed them. They were walking in the Queen's Park at +this time, and it did not matter that he was more than usually graphic. +When he spoke of the wild riding of the Tartars, he sprang forward full +of a bodily eloquence. For an instant, while poised upon his toes, his +cane waving high aloft, his head and shoulders thrown back in an ecstasy +of abandon, and his left hand outstretched as if holding the reins, he +seemed to electrify them, and to give them the whole scene as it +appeared in his own mind. Rankin shuddered. Involuntarily he gasped out:</p> + +<p>"Hampstead! For God's sake, don't do that!"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" said Geoffrey, as he resumed his place beside them, while the +wild flash died out of his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Because no man could do it like that unless—because, in fact, you do +it too infernally well."</p> + +<p>Rankin felt that Margaret must be suffering. It seemed to him that. +Geoffrey had really become a Tartar marauder for a moment. Perhaps he +had.</p> + +<p>"Don't mind my saying this," Maurice added, with apology. "Really, I +could not help it."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey laughed. Margaret was grave. Rankin strayed on a few steps in +advance, and Geoffrey, taking advantage of it, whispered quickly. "What +are you thinking of, Margaret?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking I saw a wild man," said Margaret truthfully. Then, to be +more pleasant, she added, "And I thought that if Tartar marauders were +all like you, Geoffrey, I would rather prefer them as a class."</p> + +<p>Maurice, who was unconsciously <i>de trop</i> at this moment, turned and +said:</p> + +<p>"You have got me 'worked up' over your story, and now I demand to know +more. Do not say that 'the continuation of this story will be published +in the New York Ledger of the current year.' Go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Anything more I have to tell," said Geoffrey, "only relates to myself."</p> + +<p>"Never mind. For once you are interesting. Drive on."</p> + +<p>"Well, where was I? Oh, yes! Well, my father married again six months +after my mother's death. He married a woman who had been a flame of his +in early youth, and who had developed a fine temper in her virgin +solitude. They had six children. I was packed off to school early, and +was kept there almost continually. After that I was sent away traveling +with a tutor, a sanctimonious fellow who urged me into all the devilment +the Continent could provide, so that he might really enjoy himself. Then +I came home and got rid of him. It was at this time that I first heard +from my father about my mother and my birth. The story did me no good. I +got morbid over it. Previously I had thought myself of the best blood in +England. We were entitled as of right to royal quarterings, and the new +intelligence struck all the peacock pride out of me. I felt like a burst +balloon. The only thing I cared about was to go to Russia and see the +place my mother came from. I got letters from my father to some of his +old friends at St. Petersburg, and with their influence found my way to +the very village my mother came from. Some of the villagers remembered +quite well the raid when my mother was carried off and how her +enterprising father had been killed. What made me wonder was where my +mother got her aristocratic beauty. Among the undiluted, pug-nosed, +bestial Tartars such beauty was impossible. I found, however, that my +mother's mother had also been a captive. No one knew where she came +from. Most likely from Circassia or Persia. The villagers at the time of +the raid were the remnants of a large predatory tribe that formerly used +to sally forth on long excursions covering many hundreds of miles. At +that time—the time of their strength—they lived almost entirely by +robbery, and their name was dreaded everywhere within a radius of five +hundred miles. I have always hoped that my mother's mother was of some +better race than the Tartar. There is no doubt, however, that my +mother's father was a full-blooded Tartar, though he may have had +straighter features than the generality of them. I found there a younger +brother of my mother. He was a wallowing, drunken, thieving pig, this +uncle of mine, but under the bloated look he had acquired from excesses, +one could trace straight and possibly handsome features. As the son +would most likely resemble his father, I can only infer that the father +was not so bad-looking as he might have been, and so, with one thing and +another, I came to understand the possibility of my mother's beauty.</p> + +<p>"It may have been morbid of me. I should have left the matter alone, for +I believed in 'race' so much that my discoveries ground me into dust. +Nothing satisfied me, however, unless I went to the bottom of it. I +watched this uncle of mine for two or three weeks, and made a friend of +him, merely to see if I could trace in him any likeness to myself. I +made him drunk. I made him sober. I made him run and walk and ride. +Sometimes I thought I traced the likeness clearly, and then again I +changed my mind. I tried him in other ways, leaving in my quarters small +desirable objects partly concealed. They always disappeared. He stole +them with the regularity of clockwork. I can laugh over these matters +now, speaking of them for the first time in twelve years. At that time I +groaned over it, and still persevered in trying to find out what could +do me no good. I am so like my father that I could find no resemblance +in me to the Tartar uncle. But at last I got a 'sickener.' While talking +to him I noticed that he made his gestures pointing the two first +fingers; instead of all or only one finger. I watched his dirty hands +while he mumbled on, half drunk, and then I saw that for a pastime, as a +Western Yankee might whittle or pick his teeth, this man threw the third +and fourth fingers of his left hand out of joint and in again. He said +his father and also, he had heard, his grandfather could do this with +ease.</p> + +<p>"An hour afterward, I think I must have been a good ten miles +off—flying back to civilized Russia, my servants after me, thinking I +was mad. Perhaps I was a little queer in the head at the time."</p> + +<p>"What made you go off in that way?" asked Maurice, who did not see the +connection.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey made no verbal reply, but he held out his left hand with the +two last fingers out of joint. Then he showed how easily he could put +them "in" and "out."</p> + +<p>"None of my father's family can do this, but my mother could. Both my +mother and the pig of an uncle held out these two fingers in their +gestures, and curled the others up so, and I do the same. I can laugh +now, but it killed me at the time.</p> + +<p>"I traveled all over the world before I came back to England. My +half-brothers were then pretty well grown up and were fully acquainted +with everything concerning my birth and my mother's history. My +step-mother hated me because I was the eldest son, and she poisoned her +children's minds against me. She sought out my old tutor, who, when paid +well, told her a lot of vile and untrue stories about me. With these she +tried to poison my father's mind also in regard to me. I was moody, +morbid, and restless. They looked at me as if I was some other kind of +creature, the son of a savage, and it galled me, for all my subsequent +travelings had never removed the sting of my birth. Some deplore +illegitimacy. Rubbish! Wrong selection, not want of a ceremony, is the +real sin that is visited unto the children.</p> + +<p>"After my return home I could have died with more complacency than I +felt in living. Even my father seemed at last to be turned against me by +my step-mother. One day while we were at dinner my step-mother, who +possessed a fiend's temper, had a hot discussion with me about something +which I have forgotten. Words were not well chosen on either side, and +she flew into a tantrum. I remember saying at last: 'Madame, it would +take two or three keepers to keep you in order.' Everybody was against +me, of course, and when her own eldest son half arose and addressed me, +his remarks met with applause. What he said to me, in quiet scorn, was:</p> + +<p>"'Our mother's temper may not be good, sir, but we don't find it +necessary to send a keeper with her to keep her from stealing.'</p> + +<p>"I have since found out, in a roundabout way, that my beautiful mother +preferred to steal a thing out of a shop rather than pay for it. My +father had always looked at this weakness of hers as a most humorous +thing. Anything she did charmed him. Sometimes she would show him what +she had stolen, and it would be returned or paid for. However, at the +time that this was said to me at the table I did not know of these +facts. I arose, amid the derisive laughter that followed the 'good hit,' +and demanded of my father how he dared to allow my mother's name to be +insulted. I secretly felt at the time that the slur upon her honesty +might be well founded, but the possible truth of it made the insult all +the worse to me.</p> + +<p>"This was the last straw. I felt myself growing wild. Father did not +look at me. He merely went on with his dinner, laughing quietly at the +old joke and at my discomfiture. He said: 'I can not see any insult, +when what Harry says is perfectly true—and a devilish good joke it +was.'</p> + +<p>"I did not appreciate that joke. I was almost crazy at the time. My +father's laughter seemed the cruelest thing I had ever heard. I 'turned +to,' as Jack Cresswell would say, and cursed them all, individually and +collectively, and then took my hat and left the house, which I have +never seen since and never intend to see again."</p> + +<p>"And what about the tutor that told the stories about you?" asked +Rankin.</p> + +<p>"Aha, Maurice," continued Geoffrey, brightening up from painful +memories, "you have a noble mind for sequences. What about the tutor? +Just so, what about him?" and Geoffrey slapped Rankin on the back +heartily, as a pleasanter memory presented itself gratefully.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would not strike me like that. I am thinking of going to +church to-night, unless disabled. What about your beastly tutor? For +goodness' sake, do drive on!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I can't tell you much about that, not just now. Of course, +the first thing I did was to pay him a call at his lodgings in London. +Your great mind saw that this was natural. That call was a relief. I +came out when it was finished and told somebody to look after him, and +then took passage for New York in a vessel that sailed from London on +the same day."</p> + +<p>Margaret and Rankin smiled at the grim way in which he spoke about the +visit to the tutor.</p> + +<p>"On arriving in New York I got a small position in a Wall Street +broker's office, and learned the business. From that I went, with the +assistance of their recommendation, into a bank. While in this bank I +fell in with some young fellows from Montreal, and afterward stayed with +them in Montreal during holidays. They wanted me to come to that city, +and I liked the English way of the Canadians, so I came. On entering the +Victoria Bank I got good recommendations from the one I had left. From +Montreal I was moved to the head office, and here I am."</p> + +<p>There was much to render Margaret thoughtful in this story that Geoffrey +told. She was pleased to find that he belonged to the English nobility, +because it seemed to assist her opinion when, with the confidence of +love, she had placed him in a nobility such as she hoped could exist +among mankind. Otherwise, the fact that there was a title in his family +meant very little to her. Her own father's family would have declined +any title in England involving change of name. What did affect her as a +thinking woman, and one given to the study of natural history, was the +awful gap on the other side of the house. Following so closely upon the +assurance that he was well born, it was a cruel wrench. His interests +were hers now, and it seemed as if they suffered jointly—she, through +him. She felt that all this bound them more together, and she did her +best to appear unconscious and gay.</p> + +<p>He looked at her when he had finished, and, behind their smiles, each +saw that the other was trying to make the best of things—that there was +something now between them to be feared, which might rise up in the +future and give them pain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Those aggressive impulses inherited from the pre-social +state—those tendencies to seek self-satisfaction regardless of +injury to other beings, which are essential to a predatory +life, constitute an anti-social force, tending ever to cause +conflict and eventual separation of citizens.—<span class="smcap">Herbert Spencer</span>, +<i>Synthetic Philosophy.</i></p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Nina Lindon had by no means given up the pulse-stirring and secret +drives with Geoffrey. The only thing she had given up was saying to +herself that in the future she would not go any more. The result of this +frequent yielding to inclination was that she was miserable enough when +away from him and not particularly contented when with him. Between her +and Margaret Mackintosh a coolness had arisen. Margaret was an +unsuspicious person, but her affections had developed her womanhood, and +in some mysterious way she had divined that Nina cared to be with +Geoffrey more than she would confess. There was no jealousy on +Margaret's side. She simply dropped Nina, and perhaps would have found +it hard to say on what grounds. In such matters women take their +impressions from such small occurrences that their dislikes often seem +more like instinct even to themselves.</p> + +<p>As for Nina, she had liked Margaret only with her better self, and now +she had become conscious of a growing feeling of constraint when in her +presence. The increasing frigidity with which the taller beauty received +her seemed to afford ground for private dislike. She was unconfessedly +trying to bring herself to hate Margaret, and was on the lookout for a +reasonable cause to do so. To undermine a detested person treacherously +would be far more comfortable than undermining a friend. The difficulty +lay in being unable to hate sufficiently for the hate to become a +support.</p> + +<p>Later on in June a ball was given at Government House. The usual rabble +was present. Margaret did not go, as her father happened to be ill at +the time. Nina was there in full force. Geoffrey appeared late in the +evening with several others who had been dining with him at the club. As +the host he had been observing the hospitalities, and it took several +dances to bring his guests down to the comfortable assurance that they +really had their sea-legs on. They looked all right and perhaps felt +better than they looked; but during the first waltz or two there seemed +to be unexpected irregularities in the floor that had to be treated with +care.</p> + +<p>After a few dances, which Geoffrey found kept for him as usual, Nina and +he disappeared—also as usual. Nina was not among the dissolving views +who do nothing but dissolve. She was fond of her dancing as yet, and, as +a rule, only disappeared once in the course of the evening. This sounds +virtuous, but there is perhaps more safety in a plurality of +disappearances.</p> + +<p>The next day she telegraphed to some friends in Montreal, from whom she +had a standing invitation, that she was coming to see them. They wired +back that they would be charmed to see her. Then she telegraphed again: +"Had arranged to stop at Brockville on my return from you, but have just +heard that they go away in ten days. Would it be all the same if I went +to you about Monday week?"</p> + +<p>The answer came from Montreal: "That will suit us very well—though we +are disappointed. Mind you come." Then Nina wrote and posted to her +Montreal girl friend a note, in which she said: "If any letters should +come for me just keep them until I arrive. I will go to Brockville now."</p> + +<p>Jack Cresswell saw her off by the evening train, bought her ticket to +Montreal, and secured her compartment in the sleeper. Her two large +valises were carried into the compartment. She said she preferred to +have her wearing apparel with her and not bother about baggage-checks.</p> + +<p>When everything was settled in the compartment she said in a worried +nervous way to Jack: "And I suppose you will be wanting me to write to +you?"</p> + +<p>"When you get a chance, Nina. It is not easy, sometimes, to get away, at +a friend's house, to write letters. Don't write till you feel like doing +so and get a good chance."</p> + +<p>This was his kind, self-controlled way of taking her vexatious remarks. +But to-day it seemed as if kindness was what she least wished to receive +from him.</p> + +<p>"If I waited till I wished to write to you I don't think I would ever +write again."</p> + +<p>"You don't quite mean that, Nina. You are worried and anxious to-night. +It makes you unkind and fretful."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps so," said Nina. "I think I danced too much last night. +And this stupid affair of ours worries me. I want a change, and I am +going to have it. No. I shall not write for at least ten days—perhaps +two weeks, and you had better think over the advisability of getting +somebody else to wear down to a shadow with a long engagement."</p> + +<p>The bell was ringing for departure. Jack tried to make the best of it, +and to excuse her inconsiderate remarks. "Remember," she repeated, "I +shall not write for at least ten days, and you had better not write for +a week or so either. I want a complete change."</p> + +<p>This was so very decisive that Jack could hardly repress a sigh as he +rose and said: "Well, good-by, old lady; I hope you will have a pleasant +visit."</p> + +<p>As he lightly kissed her cheek she stood before him as inanimate as +marble. All at once it seemed dreadful to let him believe in her so +thoroughly. A feeling of kindness toward him came over her—a moment of +remorse—remorse for everything. The train was moving off now. She +suddenly put her arms round his neck and burst into tears. Then she +pushed him away. "Run quickly now and get off. Go at once—"</p> + +<p>"But Nina, darling what <i>is</i> the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind—run, or you'll be killed getting off. I'm only worried. +Good-by!" And she pushed him through the door.</p> + +<p>Nina continued her passage to Montreal as far as Prescott, where she +left the train with her luggage, and crossed the St. Lawrence to +Ogdensburg.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn....<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>When Jack, with the agility of a railroad employé, landed on his feet +all right, he stood watching the disappearing train, annoyed, +disappointed, and mystified. He usually found moderate speech sufficient +for daily use, and as he walked back slowly toward his club, all he said +was: "Well, if all women are like Nina, I don't think I altogether +understand them!"</p> + +<p>He felt lonely already, and for diversion bethought himself of turning +and going down to the Ideal to inspect the preparations for the race to +be sailed on the following day. There he met Charley Dusenall, and as +the yacht gently rose and fell on the slight swell coming in from the +lake, these two sat watching some of the racing spars floating alongside +and rolling about in the wavelets of the evening breeze, soaking +themselves tough for the coming contest.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?" said Charley, noticing how grumpy and +silent Jack was. "The old story, I suppose. Has Her Majesty gone back on +you again?"</p> + +<p>Jack grunted assent.</p> + +<p>"Only <i>pro tem.</i>, though?" asked Charley.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, only <i>pro tem.</i>, of course, but still—"</p> + +<p>"I know. Deuced unpleasant. But, after all, what does it matter about a +woman or two when you have got a boat under you that can cut the +eye-teeth out of an equinoctial and make your soul dance the Highland +fling. Bah, chuck the whole thing up. Finish your grog and we'll have +another. Vive le joy, as we say in Paris."</p> + +<p>Jack's face grew less long. "That's all very well, but—"</p> + +<p>"Rubbish! you want to hug your melancholy to yourself. Rats! whistle it +down the wind. D'you think I don't know? Look at me! D'you think I +haven't been through the whole gamut—from Alpha to Omaha—with all the +hemidemisemiquavers thrown in? Lord, I have quavered whole nights. And I +say that le jew ne vaut pas the candle."</p> + +<p>"You are quite Frenchy to-night," said Jack, brightening.</p> + +<p>"I always get more or less Parisian after eight o'clock at night. Dull +as a country squire in the morning, though. Woke up awfully English, and +moral to-day. By the way, you had better sleep on board to-night, so as +to be ready in good time to-morrow. And don't be spoiling your nerves +with the blues. I want you to tool her through to-morrow, and get over +your megrims first. Remember this, that—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Womankind more joy discovers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making fools than keeping lovers."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right," smiled Jack, getting up as if to shake himself +clear of his gloom. "And yet—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To be wroth with one we love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doth work like madness in the brain."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"There isn't much the matter with you," said Charley, as he saw Jack +swing over the water and make a gymnastic tour round a backstay. And +when the second gun was fired the next morning, and the Ideal was +preening her feathers as she swept through a fleet of boats, there was +nothing very sad about Jack. When the huge club topsail, sitting flat as +a board, caused her to careen gently as she zipped through the +preliminary canter, and when in the race she drew out to windward, +eating up into the wind every chance slant, Charley was watching how +Jack's finger-tips gently felt the wheel, and how his eager eye took in +everything, from the luff of the topsail to the ripples on the water or +the furthest cloud, and he whispered in his ear: "What about Her Majesty +just now, old man?"</p> + +<p>Jack was too intent on getting up into a favoring breath of air to +answer; but he tossed his head to signify that he was all right, and +fell to marveling that he had not thought of Nina for a full hour.</p> + +<p>In spite of the yachting, however, it was difficult to keep from being +lonely at other times, especially at the chambers, because Geoffrey was +out of town, taking his summer vacation, and Jack was forced to fly from +the desolation in the city and pass most of his nights on the Ideal. +This, with the afternoon sailing and a daily bulletin sent to Nina, +addressed to Montreal, served to help him to pass away the time until +the return of Geoffrey, who was greeted, as it were, with open arms. +Their bachelor quarters were very homelike and comfortable. The +sitting-room and library, which they shared together, always seemed a +little lonely when either of them was absent.</p> + +<p>Hampstead was pleased to get back to his luxurious arm-chair and +magazines. Jack's unsuspicious and welcoming face gave the place all the +restfulness of home after a period of more or less watchfulness against +detection. They stretched out their legs from the arm-chairs in which +they sat, and smoked and really enjoyed themselves in the old way among +their newspapers and books. After having settled in New York, when he +first came to America, Geoffrey had employed an old friend, on whose +secrecy he could rely, to call at his father's house in Shropshire and +procure for him all his old relics and curiosities. These the friend had +sent out to him. Every one of them recalled some more or less +interesting memory, and as they hung drying in the dust that Mrs. Priest +seldom attempted to remove they were like a tabular index of Geoffrey's +wanderings, on which he could cast his eyes at night and unconsciously +drop back into the past. There were whips, Tartar bridles, Arab pipes +and muskets, and old-fashioned firearms. No less than six cricket bats +proclaimed their nationality, as an offset against the stranger +trophies. There were foils and masks, boxing-gloves, fishing-rods, +snow-shoes, old swords, and any quantity of what Mrs. Priest called +"rotten old truck, only fit for a second-'and shop." Besides all this, +there were hanging shelves, covered with cups and other prizes that +Geoffrey and Jack had won in athletic contests. Even the ceiling was +made to do duty in exhibiting some lances and a central trophy composed +of Zulu assegais and Malay arrows and such things. These, with the large +bookcases of books, and, of course, Mrs. Priest, constituted their +Penates.</p> + +<p>Here Geoffrey ensconced himself for several evenings after his return, +immersed in his books until long after Jack had knocked out his last +pipe and turned in. His manner of taking his holidays had been an +episode which was forgotten now if anything arose to divert him, +something for him to smile at, but powerless to distract his attention +from a good article in the Nineteenth Century.</p> + +<p>But he did not visit Margaret for three or four days after his return. +When he saw her again, all his better nature came to the fore. He +delighted again in the quiet worship he felt for her now that he could +see more clearly the beauties of temperate life. "Now," he said, as he +stretched himself in his arm-chair one night, after having visited +Margaret earlier in the evening, "now, I will soon get married. With +Margaret, goodness will not only be practicable, but, I can imagine, +even enjoyable." Then, after a while, his mind recurred to his holidays, +which seemed to have been a long time ago. He yawned over the subject, +and thought it was time to go to bed. "Heigh-ho! I have exhausted the +devil and all his works now. He has got nothing more to offer me that I +care to accept. Now I have done with risks and worries. If I can only +get my money affairs straightened out I'll get married in September. +Federal stock is bound to rise, with the new changes in the bank, and +then I'll be all right. I'll just let Lewis have my horse and trap. +He'll give me more than I paid for them. The seven hundred will wipe out +a few things, and then if I can turn myself round again, I'll get +married at once."</p> + +<p>For several days after this he saw Margaret; and the more he saw of her +the more he really longed for the life that seemed best. He was tired of +plot and counterplot. As one whose intellect was generally a discerning +one, when not clouded by exciting vagaries, he had had, all his life, +the idea of enjoying goodness for itself—at some time or other. And +entering Margaret's presence seemed like going to a pure spring fountain +from which he came away refreshed. She had the quick brain that could +skim off the best of his thought and whip it up and present it in a +changed and perhaps more pleasing form. Even the look of her hands, the +way she held up cut flowers, and delighted in their faintest odors (to +him quite imperceptible) showed how much keener and more refined her +sensibilities were than his own and made him marvel to find that in some +respects she lived in a world wherein it was a physical impossibility +for him to enter. As the days wore on in which he daily saw her, he +found himself making little sacrifices for her sake, and even practicing +a trifle of self-denial. He did things that he knew would please her, +and afterward he felt all the healthy glow and ability for virtue which +are the essences that gracious deeds distill. "Doing these things makes +me better," he said. "This moral happiness is a thing to be worked up. I +can not cultivate goodness in the abstract. I must have something +tangible—something to understand; and if good deeds pay me back in this +sort of way I may yet become, partly through my deeds, what she would +wish me to be."</p> + +<p>Full of all this, while ruminating late one night, he took it into his +head to put it into verse, and he rather liked the simple lines.</p> + +<h3>TO MARGARET.</h3> + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">My Love! I would Love's true disciple be,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">That, 'neath the king of teachers' gracious art,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Refined sense and thought might be to me<br /></span> +<span class="i10">The stepping-stones to lead me to thy heart;<br /></span> +<span class="i8">That thine own realm of peace I too might share.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Where Nature's smallest things show much design<br /></span> +<span class="i8">To teach kind thoughts for all that breathe; and where,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">As music's laws compel by rule divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Naught but obeying good gives joy and rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Where thou can'st note the immaterial scent<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Of thought and thing, which we gross men at best<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Can hardly know, with senses often lent<br /></span> +<span class="i8">To heavy joys that leave us but to long<br /></span> +<span class="i10">For that unknown which makes thyself a song.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">From gracious deeds exhale the perfumes rare<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Of active rest, glad care, and hopeful trust<br /></span> +<span class="i8">The soul snuffs these, well pleased, and seems to share,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">For once, a joy in concord with the dust.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Thus simple deeds, through Love, make known th' unknown—<br /></span> +<span class="i10">That immaterial most substantial gain<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Which makes of earth a heaven all its own.<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And claims from spirit-land no sweeter reign.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">So, while I learn in thine own atmosphere<br /></span> +<span class="i10">To live, guard thou with patience all my ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">For chance compels when weakness rules, and fear<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Of self brings blackest night unto my days;<br /></span> +<span class="i8">E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And darkness breaks before the blushing morn.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He wondered that the word "soul" had as yet no synonym to express what +he meant without, as he said, "borrowing the language of superstition." +For this he claimed poetical license. He was amused at the similarity of +his verse to some kind of religious prayer or praise. "Perhaps," he +said, "all loves, when sufficiently refined, have only one +language—whether the aspirations be addressed to Chemosh or Dagon or +Mary or Jahveh, or to the woman who embodies all one knows of good. But +perhaps, more likely, the song that perfect love sings in the heart has +no possible language, but is part of 'the choir invisible whose music is +the gladness of the world,' and to which we have all been trying to put +words, in religions and poems.</p> + +<p>"In twenty thousand years from now," he said, smiling, "archæologists +will be fighting over a discussion as to whether, in these early days, +any superstition still existed. Just before they come to blows over the +matter my sonnets will be found, produced, and deciphered, and there +will be rejoicing on one side to have it proved that at a certain time +Anno Domini (an era supposed to refer to one Abraham or Buddha) man +still claimed that a local god existed called 'Margaret,' who was +evidently worshiped with fervor.</p> + +<p>"But certainly," he added, as he read the sonnet for the third time, +"their mistake will not be such a palpable one as that about the Song of +Solomon."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Never but once to meet on earth again!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She heard me as I fled—her eager tone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sank on my heart, and almost wove a chain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around my will to link it with her own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So that my stern resolve was almost gone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"I can not reach thee! whither dost thou fly?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My steps are faint. Come back, thou dearest one!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Return, ah me! return!"—The wind passed by<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Shelley</span>, <i>The Revolt of Islam.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>After a prolonged visit in Montreal, Nina had been back in Toronto for a +short time, during which she had seen no one except Jack, whose two +visits she had rendered so unpleasant that he felt inclined to do +anything from <i>hara-kari</i> to marrying somebody else.</p> + +<p>At this time Geoffrey received a note one morning, addressed in Nina's +handwriting. He turned pale as he tore it open:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Hampstead</span>: I wish to see you for a moment this +afternoon. If not too much trouble, would you call here at five +o'clock?</p> + +<p>"Yours sincerely,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Mossbank</span>, <i>Tuesday.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Nina Lindon.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>There was nothing very exciting on the face of this line, nothing to +create wrath. Yet Geoffrey tore it into shreds as if it had struck him a +blow and was dangerous.</p> + +<p>When he was shown into the drawing-room at Mossbank that afternoon, he +was stepping forward with courteous demeanor and a faint "company smile" +on his face, ready to look placidly and innocently upon any people who +might be calling at the time. He passed noiselessly over the thick +carpets toward the place where Nina was sitting, seeing quickly that +there was nobody else in the room, but aware that the servant was +probably at the door.</p> + +<p>"How-de-do, Miss Lindon?" he said aloud, for the benefit of the +inquisitive. "So you have come back to Toronto at last?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Nina, also with an engaging smile. "And how have you been +since I saw you last?" There was a charming inflection in her "company +voice" as she said these words. Then, raising her tone a little, she +said "Howard."</p> + +<p>The servant outside the door took several steps in a circle on the +tesselated pavement of the hall to intimate that he approached from afar +and then appeared.</p> + +<p>"Shut the door, please, Howard," said Nina softly. The man obliterated +himself.</p> + +<p>As soon as they were alone the heavenly sweetness of the caller and the +called upon vanished. Geoffrey's face became grave and his eyes +penetrating. He went toward her and took her hand in an effort to be +kind, while he looked at her searchingly with a pale face. Nina looked +weary and anxious. Neither of them spoke for a while. As Geoffrey +regarded her, she turned to him beseechingly with both anxiety and +affection in her expression. What he interpreted from the unhappiness of +her visage was more than sufficient to disturb his equanimity. He got up +and walked silently and quickly twice backward and forward. During this +moment his mind apparently made itself up on some point finally, for, as +he sat down as abruptly as he had risen, the tension of his face gave +place to something more like nonchalance and kindness.</p> + +<p>"You have something to tell me?" he said, in tones that endeavored to be +kind.</p> + +<p>Nina's face—sad, sorrowful, and tearful—bent itself low that she might +hide it from his sight. "Yes," she managed to say at last, almost +inaudibly.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey endeavored to assist her. "Don't say any more," said he. "Bad +news, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"The very worst," cried Nina, starting up, her eyes dilating wildly and +despairingly with a sudden accession of fear.</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush!" said Geoffrey, laying his hand soothingly and kindly on +her arm. "You must not give way like that. You must control yourself. We +have both of us too much at stake to tell our story to every one who +likes to listen. Come and let us sit down and talk things over +sensibly."</p> + +<p>She gave him a quick look, half reproach, as if to say, "It is easy for +<i>you</i> to be calm." But she sat down beside him, holding his coat-sleeve +with both hands—hardly knowing what she did.</p> + +<p>Hampstead leaned back, crossed his long legs in front of him, and +counted the eyelet holes in his boot. Then he took her hand, in order to +appear kind and to deal with the matter in an off-hand way.</p> + +<p>"As Thackeray says, Nina, 'truly, friend, life is strewn with +orange-peel.' Now and then we get a bad tumble; but we always get up +again. And I don't think that we ought to allow ourselves to be counted +among those weak creatures who most complain of the strength of a +temptation that takes at least a year to work up. After all, there is no +denying Rochefoucauld's wisdom when he said: 'C'est une espèce de +bonheur de connaitre jusques à quel point on doit être malheureux.' I +have been in a good many worries one way or another, and I always got +out of them. We will get out of this one all right, so cheer up and take +heart."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how," said Nina, turning her head away and feeling a sudden +hope. What was he going to say? Then she recollected that she had +lavished a small income on a dress especially for this interview. +Perhaps if he had an idea worth the hearing the dress might help it out. +She arose, as if absently, and walked to the side window and rested her +elbows against the sash in front of her. The attitude was graceful. As +she turned half over her shoulder to look back at him she could hardly +have appeared to better advantage. Her dress was really magnificent, and +it fitted a form that was ideal. In spite of his late resolutions, +Geoffrey was affected by the cunningly devised snare. A quick thought +came through his head, which he banished about as quickly as it came.</p> + +<p>"Well, of course, there is only one thing to be done," said he +decisively, in a tone which told her that so far she had failed.</p> + +<p>"What is that, dear Geoffrey? Do tell me, for I am very, very +miserable. And say it kindly, Geoffrey. Don't be too hard with me now."</p> + +<p>As she said this she swept toward him. She sank down beside him and +kissed him, and looked up into his face. Again the thought came to him. +Here were riches. Here was a woman whose beauty was talked about in +every city in Canada, who could be his pride, who cared for him +despairingly. If he wished, this mansion and wealth could be his. The +delicate perfumes about her seemed to steal into his brain and affect +his thought.</p> + +<p>An hour ago his resolves for himself had appeared so unchangeable that +they seemed of themselves to prop him up. And now he found himself +trying, with a brain that refused to assist him, to prop up his +resolutions, trying to remember what their best merits had been. One +glimmer of an idea was left in him—a purpose to preserve his fealty to +Margaret, and he thought that, if he could only get away for a moment to +think quietly, he might remember what the best points of his resolutions +had been. The perfumes, the beauty, the wealth, the liking he felt for +her, the duty he owed to her, and perhaps her concentration upon what +she desired—all conspired against him. But, with this part of an idea +left to him, he succeeded in being able slightly to turn his head away.</p> + +<p>When she asked him again what was to be done there was an unreal +decisiveness in his voice as he said:</p> + +<p>"Of course, the only thing to be done is for you to immediately marry +Jack."</p> + +<p>She sprang from him as if he had stabbed her. She was furious with +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"I will never marry Jack! What a dishonorable thing to propose!"</p> + +<p>The idea of dishonor to Jack seemed, for the first time, quite an +argument. When the ethics of a matter can be utilized they suddenly seem +cogent.</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Geoffrey, shrugging his shoulders and rising as if to +go away. "My idea was 'any port in a storm'—a poor idea, perhaps, and +certainly, as you say, entirely dishonorable, but still feasible. Of +course, if you have made up your mind not to marry him, we may as well +consider the interview as ended. I'm afraid I have nothing more to +suggest."</p> + +<p>He did not intend to go away, but he held out his hand as if about to +say good-by. She stood half turned away trying to think. The idea of his +leaving her to her trouble dazed her. She was terrified to realize that +she would be without help.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how cruel you are!"</p> + +<p>She almost groaned as she spoke. She was in despair. She put her hands +to her head hopelessly, her eyes dilated with trouble.</p> + +<p>"Don't go yet, Geoffrey." Then she tried to nerve herself for what she +had to say. After a pause: "Geoffrey, I can say things to you now, that +I could never have said before. I must speak to you fully before you go. +I must leave no stone unturned. There is no one to help me, so I must +look after myself in what must be said. I went away with you, Geoffrey, +because I loved you." She bit her lips to stay her tears and stopped to +regain a desperate fortitude. "I cared for you so much that being with +you seemed right—nay more, sacred. Oh, it drags me to the dust to speak +in this way! But I must. Does not my ruin give me a right to speak? The +question of a girl's reticence must be put away. I am forced to do the +best I can for myself. And now I say, will you stand by me?" Her head +drooped and her hands hung down by her side with shame at the position +she forced herself to take when she added: "Will you do me justice, +Geoffrey? Will you marry me?"</p> + +<p>Hampstead was about to speak, but she knew at once that she had +asked too much, and she continued more quickly and more despairingly: +"Nay, I won't ask so much. I only ask you to take me away. I am +distracted. I don't know what to do. I will do anything. I will be +your slave. You need not marry me—only take me away and hide +me—somewhere—anywhere—for God's sake, Geoffrey, from my shame—from +my disgrace."</p> + +<p>She was on her knees before him as she said these last words. If our +pleasure-loving acquaintance could have changed places with a +galley-slave at that moment he would have done so gladly.</p> + +<p>The first thing he did was to endeavor to quiet the wildness of her +despair. To be surprised by any person with her on her knees before him +in an agony of tears would be a circumstance difficult to explain away.</p> + +<p>As soon as he began to talk, it seemed to him a most dastardly thing to +sacrifice Margaret's life now to conceal his own wrong-doing. In the +light of this idea, Nina's wealth and beauty suddenly became tawdry. +Margaret's nobility and happiness suddenly seemed worth dying for. They +must not be wrecked in a moment of weakness. As if dispassionately, he +laid before Nina the history of their acquaintance, and also his 'other +obligations.' Really, it placed him in a very awkward, not to say +absurd, position. He wished to do what was right, but did not see his +way at all clear. The only way was to efface himself entirely, and +consider only what was due to others. Before the world he was engaged to +Margaret, and had been so all along. She had his word that he would +marry her. If it were only "his word" that had to be broken, that might +be done. But was the happiness of Margaret's life to be cast aside? +Which, of the two, was the more innocent—which, of the two, had the +better right or duty to bear the brunt of the disaster?</p> + +<p>The way he effaced his own personality in this discourse was almost +picturesque. Justice blindfold, with impartial scales in her hand, was +nothing to him.</p> + +<p>Nina said no word from beginning to end. All she heard in the discourse +was something to show her more and more that what she wished must be +given up. It was something to know that at least she had tried every +means in her power to move him—feeling that she had a helpless woman's +right to do so. And as the deep, kindly tones went on they calmed her +and gradually compelled her tacitly and wearily to accept his +suggestion, while his ingenuity showed her the sinuous path that lay +before her.</p> + +<p>At the same time, in spite of all his arguments and her own resolutions, +she could not clearly see why she should be the one to suffer instead of +Margaret. Margaret had so much more strength of character to assist her. +The ability to bear up under sorrow and trouble was a virtue she was +ready to acknowledge to be weaker in herself than in others. The +confession of this weakness, through self-pity, seemed half a virtue, +even though only made to insist upon compensations.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The next day, Jack called by appointment.</p> + +<p>"I thought I would just send for you, Jack," said Nina, looking half +angry and half smiling. "I felt as if I wanted to give trouble to +somebody, and I thought you were the most available person."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead, then, old lady. I can stand it. There is nothing a fellow may +not become accustomed to."</p> + +<p>Jack seated himself in one of Nina's new easy-chairs which yielded to +his weight so luxuriously that he thought he would like to get one like +it. He felt the softness of the long arms of the chair, and then, +regaining his feet, turned it round.</p> + +<p>"That's a nice chair, Nina. How much did it put the old man back?"</p> + +<p>Nina looked at him inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Cost—you know. How much did it spoil the old man?"</p> + +<p>"How do I know? He bought it in New York with a lot of things. Do you +suppose I keep an inventory of prices to assist me in conversation?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you did. I'd like to get one. But I don't know. When we get +married you can hand it out the back gate to me, you know, and then +we'll be one chair ahead—and a good one, too."</p> + +<p>"I do wish you would leave off referring to getting married," said Nina. +And then, "By the way, that is what I wanted to speak to you about—"</p> + +<p>Jack smiled. "Be careful," he said. "Don't set me a bad example by +referring to the subject yourself."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will, for a change. I have been making up my mind +to end this way of dragging on existence. This sort of +neither-one-thing-nor-the-other has got to end. It wearies me. I am not +half as strong as I was. I went away to pick up, and now I am no +better."</p> + +<p>"And how do you propose to end it?" Jack was surprised at the decision +in her voice.</p> + +<p>"I propose to break it off all together," said she firmly.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Jack, "there is no other alternative for you but +marriage."</p> + +<p>Nina was startled at first by these words. But he had only spoken them +casually.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. A break off or marriage are the only alternatives. Going on +like this is what I will not stand any longer."</p> + +<p>Jack was shaking in his shoes for fear this was the last of him. He +controlled his anxiety, though, and shutting his eyes, he leaned back, +supinely, as if he knew that what he said did not matter much. She would +do as she liked—no question about that!</p> + +<p>"I have, I think, at some previous time," said he, from the recesses of +the chair where he was calmly judicial with his eyes shut, "advocated +the desirability of marriage. I think I have mentioned the subject +before. Of course, this is only an opinion, and not entitled, perhaps, +to a great deal of weight."</p> + +<p>Nina for the first time in her life was annoyed that Jack was not +sufficiently ardent. The unfortunate young man had had cold water thrown +over him too many times. He was getting wise. To-day he was keeping out +of range. Nina had been decidedly eccentric lately and might give him +his <i>congé</i> at any moment. She was evidently in a queer mood still, and, +to-day, Jack would give her no chance to gird at him.</p> + +<p>This well-trained care on his part bid fair to make things awkward. She +saw that it had become necessary to draw him out, and with this object +in view she asked carelessly, as if she had been absent-minded and had +not heard him:</p> + +<p>"What did you say then, Jack?"</p> + +<p>"I was merely hinting, delicately, as an outsider might, that, of the +two important alternatives, marriage seems to offer you a greater scope +for breaking up the <i>ennui</i> of a single life that a mere change from one +form of single life to another."</p> + +<p>Jack did not see the bait she was holding out. He would not rise to it. +Really, it was maddening to have to lead <i>Jack</i> on. He had been "trained +down too fine."</p> + +<p>"Well, for my part," she said laughingly, with her cheek laid against +the soft plush of the sofa, "I don't seem to care now which of the +alternatives is adopted."</p> + +<p>Jack remained quiet when he heard this. Then he said coolly: "If I were +not a wise man, that speech of yours would unduly excite me. But you +said you wanted some one to annoy, and I won't give you a chance. If I +took the advantage of the possibilities in your words we would certainly +have a row. No, old lady, you are setting a trap for me, in order that +you may scold afterward. You like having a row with me, but you can't +have one to-day. 'Burnt child'—you know."</p> + +<p>What could be more provoking than this. Nina, in spite of her troubles, +saw the absurdity of her position, and laughed into the plush. But her +patience was at an end. She sat upright again and said vehemently:</p> + +<p>"Jack Cresswell, you are a born fool!"</p> + +<p>He looked up himself, then, from the chair. There was an expression in +Nina's face that he had not seen for a long time—a consenting and kind +look in her eyes. He got up, slowly, without any haste, still doubtful +of the situation; and as he came toward her his breath grew shorter. "I +believe I am a fool, but I could not believe what I wished. Is it true, +Nina, that you will take me at last?"</p> + +<p>"Listen! Come and sit down, boy, and behave yourself."</p> + +<p>Jack obeyed mechanically.</p> + +<p>She turned around to face him, while she commanded his obedience and +gave her directions with finger upraised, as if she were teaching a dog +to sit up.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow you will call upon my father at his office and ask his +consent to our immediate marriage."</p> + +<p>"Tell me to do something hard, Nina. I feel rather cooped up, just now. +I could spring over that chandelier. I don't mind tackling the old +man—that's nothing. Haven't you got some lions' dens that want looking +after?"</p> + +<p>"You'll feel tired enough when you come out of father's den, I'll +warrant."</p> + +<p>"I dare say. What if he refuses?"</p> + +<p>"Jack," said Nina, "I am an heiress. I dictate to every man but my +father. I have always had my own way, and always mean to have it. So, +beware! But I don't care, now, whether he refuses or not. I have come to +the conclusion that it was this long engagement that worried me, and I +am going to end it in short order. I am getting as thin as a scarecrow. +My bones are coming through my dress." Nina felt the top of one superbly +rounded arm and declared she could feel her collar-bone coming through +in that improbable place. "No, I don't care whether he refuses or not. I +am going to marry you, Jack, before the end of the week."</p> + +<p>Next day Jack found himself not quite so brave as he thought he would be +on entering Mr. Joseph Lindon's office. He was ushered into a rather +shabby little room, which the millionaire thought was quite good enough +for him. He took a pride in its shabbiness. Joseph Lindon, he said, did +not have to impress people with brass and Brussels. There was more solid +monetary credit in his threadbare carpet than in all the plate glass and +gilt of any other establishment in the city.</p> + +<p>Cresswell paused on the threshold as he entered, and then, feeling glad +that nobody else was in the room, advanced toward Mr. Lindon. Lindon saw +him out of the corner of his eye as he came in, and a saturnine smile +relaxed his face while he completed a sentence in a letter which he was +writing.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Jack," he said briskly. "Come at last, have you?"</p> + +<p>This was rather disconcerting, but Jack replied: "Yes, and you evidently +know why." He said this cheerfully and with considerable spirit, but Mr. +Lindon's next remark was a little chilling.</p> + +<p>"Just so. I was afraid you would come some day. Let us cut it short, my +boy. I have a board meeting in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know all I've got to say. Now, what do you say?"</p> + +<p>This was a happy abruptness on Jack's part, and Lindon rather liked him +for it. It seemed business like. It seemed as if Jack thought too highly +of Mr. Lindon's sagacity to indulge in any persuasion or argument. He +lay back in his chair with an amused look.</p> + +<p>"Why dammit, boy, she's not in love with you."</p> + +<p>Jack shrugged his shoulders and smiled—as if that was point on which +modesty compelled him to be silent But his individuality asserted +itself.</p> + +<p>"Is that all the objection?"</p> + +<p>Evidently, abruptness and speaking to the point were preferred in this +office, and Jack was prepared to give the millionaire all the abruptness +he wanted.</p> + +<p>"No," said Lindon. "Of course, that is not all. But I know, as a matter +of fact, that my daughter does not care a pin about you. Don't think I +have been making money all my life. I can tell when a woman is in love +as well as any man. I have watched Nina myself when you were with her, +and I tell you she does not care half enough for you to marry you."</p> + +<p>"She says she does," said Jack, determined not to be browbeaten by this +man's force.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of it, if she does say so. I was afraid, at one +time, that she was going to make a goose of herself with you, and I +waltzed her off to the Continent. But after she came back I thoroughly +satisfied myself that she was in no danger, or else, my boy, you would +not have had the run of my house as you have had. Under the +circumstances, Jack, I was always glad to see you, since we came back +last, and hope to see you always, just the same. Quite apart, however, +from anything she may say or consent to, I have other plans for my +daughter. I have no son to carry on the name, but my daughter's marriage +will be a grand one. With her beauty and my money, she will make the +biggest match of the day. I did not start with much of a family myself, +but I can control family. When Nina marries, sir, she marries blood; +nothing less than a dook, sir,—nothing less than a dook will satisfy +me. And I'll have a dook, sir; mark my words!"</p> + +<p>When his ambition was aroused, Mr. Lindon sometimes reverted to the more +marked vulgarity of forty years ago.</p> + +<p>Jack arose. The interview was ended as far as he was concerned.</p> + +<p>Lindon felt kindly toward him. He was one of the few young men who were +not overawed by his money and obsequious on account of his wine.</p> + +<p>"Well, good-by," he said. "Don't let this make any interruption in your +visits to Mossbank. You'll always find a good glass of wine ready for +you with Joseph Lindon. I rather like you, Jack, and if you ever want +any backing, just let me know. But, my boy"—here Lindon regarded him as +kindly as his keen, business-loving face would allow, and he laid his +hand on his arm—"my lad, you must be careful. Remember what an old man +says—you're too honest to get along all through life without getting +put upon. You must try to see into things a little more. Just try and be +a little more suspicious. If you don't, somebody will 'go for you,' sure +as a gun."</p> + +<p>Jack saw that this was intended kindly, and he took it quietly, +wondering if Joseph Lindon, while looking so uncommonly sober, could +have been indulging in a morning glass of wine. He went out, and Mr. +Lindon watched his free, manly bearing as he passed to the front door.</p> + +<p>"If I had a son like that," he said warmly, "Nina could marry whom she +liked. That boy would be family enough for me. He would have enough of +the gentleman about him both for himself and his old father. Lord, if I +had a son like that I'd make a prince of him! I'd just give him blank +checks signed with my name. Darned if I wouldn't!"</p> + +<p>To give a son unfilled signed checks seemed to be a culmination of +parental foolishness which would show his fondness more than anything +else he could do. Perhaps he was right.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Life is so complicated a game that the devices of skill are +liable to be defeated at every turn by air-blown chances +incalculable as the descent of thistledown.—<span class="smcap">George Eliot's</span> +<i>Romola</i>.</p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>During Jack's visit to her father's office, Nina passed the time in +desultory shopping until she met him on King Street.</p> + +<p>"I need not ask what your success was," said she, smiling, as she joined +him. "Your face shows that clearly enough."</p> + +<p>"Nothing less than a dook," groaned Jack, good-humoredly. "He seems to +think they can be had at auction sales in England."</p> + +<p>"I am glad he refused," said Nina, "because his consent would delay my +whims. We have done our duty in asking him, and now I am going to marry +you to-morrow, Jack."'</p> + +<p>"To-morrow?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am afraid, dear Jack, that if I allowed the marriage to be put +off till next week or longer you might change your mind." She gave Jack +a look that disturbed thought. Affection toward him on her part was +something so new that this, together with her startling announcement, +made it difficult for him accurately to distinguish his head from his +heels.</p> + +<p>"But I can not leave the bank at a moment's notice."</p> + +<p>"No; but you can get your holidays a week sooner. You were going to take +them in a week."</p> + +<p>"Had we not better wait, then, for the week to expire?"</p> + +<p>"Fiddlesticks! Don't you see that I want to give you a chance? What I am +<i>really</i> afraid of is that I shall change my own mind. Father said only +yesterday he was thinking of taking me to England at once. If you don't +want to take your chances you can take your consequences instead."</p> + +<p>It did not seem anything new or strange to Jack that she should give a +little stamp of her foot imperiously, and in all the willfulness of a +spoiled child determine suddenly upon carrying out a whim in spite of +any objections. And Jack needed no great force of argument to push him +on in this matter. His head was throbbing with excitement. To think of +the bank was habitual to him; but the wildness of the new move commended +itself to his young blood. The holidays were a mere matter of +arrangement, for the most part, between the clerks, and he thought he +saw his way to arranging for a fortnight's absence. "I'll make it all +right," he said, thinking aloud. "I will arrange it with Sappy."</p> + +<p>Whether "Sappy" was the bank manager or a fellow-clerk did not at the +moment interest Nina.</p> + +<p>"Why, Nina, I didn't know you were a person to go in for anything half +so wild. It suits me. It will be the spree of my life! But how have you +arranged everything? or have you arranged anything?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, there is nothing very much to arrange. I know you can not leave the +bank finally without giving due notice. So we will just go off now and +get married, and when you come back, after a week or so, you can give +the usual notice and then we will go to California. If your brother +there wants you to go into the grape-farming he must know well enough +that you have better chances there than here in the bank, and if, after +all, the business there did not get on well, I dare say father will have +changed his mind by that time."</p> + +<p>"And how will you account for your absence from home?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing simpler," said she, with a sagacious toss of her head. "I am +just telegraphing to Sophronia B. Hopkins at Lockport, New York. You +remember Sophronia B., when she was with us? I have telegraphed that I +am coming to see her. She will answer to say 'Come along'; and then I +will put her off for a couple of weeks and tell her to keep any letters +forwarded for me from here until I come."</p> + +<p>Jack was astonished. "I thought your head was only valuable as an +ornament," said he, with affectionate rudeness.</p> + +<p>"I have never, with you, had occasion to use it before. To-morrow, at +half-past seven in the morning, you will take the train for Hamilton. I +will take the 9.30 and we will go through to Buffalo together, where we +will arrive about two o'clock, and then we can be married there and go +West. But we need not arrange anything more now. You will be at the +Campbells' to-night, and anything further can be spoken about there. Go +off now to the bank and get everything ready. And, by the way, +Jack"—here she held out her hand as if for good-by—while she asked, +with what seemed to Jack an almost unimaginable coquetry and beauty, +"you won't change your mind, dear Jack?" She gave him one glance from +under her sweeping eyelashes, and then she left him to grope his way to +the bank.</p> + +<p>She thought, as she walked along, "I think I have read somewhere that +'whom the gods wish to take they first drive mad,' or something like +that. It is just as well, as Geoffrey suggested, to keep Jack slightly +insane to-day. It will prevent him from thinking my proposal strange. +Poor Jack! To-day he would give me his right arm as a present. How +shabbily I have treated him, and how well he has always behaved!"</p> + +<p>About eleven on the following forenoon, Jack was waiting in the +dining-room of the Hamilton railway station, looking out through the +window to see Nina's train come in. He thought it better to escape +observation in this way. Nor did Nina indulge in looking out the window +of the Pullman. Everything had been fully arranged, and as the bridge +train moved out of the station, Jack left his obscure post of +observation and hastily passed through the crowd on the station and got +on board the "smoker" in front. When clear of Hamilton he made his way +back through the cars to the drawing-room car, where he found Nina, who +was beginning to look a little anxious for his arrival.</p> + +<p>The train took nearly two hours to trundle along to the bridge. For a +time they talked together, but Nina was feeling the reaction of the +excitement of getting away. She had had a good deal to do, and she did +not feel that going away with Jack would prevent her from enjoying a +fairly comfortable nap in the large swinging arm-chairs. She soon dozed +off, and Jack, who was pleased to see her rest, walked to the end of the +car and back again to calm his nerves. This sort of thing was new to +him. He had a novel with him, but he could not read it. His "only books +were woman's looks" to-day. Other people's adventures seemed poor to him +just now, in comparison with his own.</p> + +<p>While thus moving about restlessly he became a little interested in an +elderly gentleman, evidently a clergyman, who was sitting unobtrusively +behind a copy of the Detroit Church Herald. He passed this retiring +person several times, in loitering about, and then, seeing him with his +paper laid down beside him, stopped and said cheerfully:</p> + +<p>"Got the car all to ourselves to-day."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the grave-looking person, with an American accent. "And +pleasant, too, on a warm day like this. It's worth the extra quarter to +get out from among the crying babies and orange-peel and come in here +and travel comfortably. Going far?"</p> + +<p>"Only as far as Buffalo," said Jack, taking a seat beside him, for want +of anything better to do.</p> + +<p>"That is where I reside."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed!" said Jack. "You make Buffalo the scene of your official +duties?"</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "I have been for a visit to Detroit, and now I am +going back to relieve my superior in the church, so that he may take a +holiday also. I think we clergy need a holiday as much as any other +people I ever saw. Do you know Buffalo at all?"</p> + +<p>"Never was there in my life," said Jack.</p> + +<p>"Humph! Well, it ain't a bad place, Buffalo, when you know the people +well. I have only been there five years, but I have found in our +congregation some real nice folks. Of course, mine is the Episcopal +Church, and I have generally found the Episcopalians, in my sojournings +in different places, to be the superior people of the locality."</p> + +<p>From the compliment to the Episcopalians it was evident that the +clergyman had no doubt Jack belonged to that aristocratically inclined +sect, and Jack smiled at his friend's shrewdness, forgetting the fact +that "Church of England—mild, acquiescent, and gentlemanly"—was +written all over him, and that the cut of his clothes, the shape of his +whisker, the turn of his head when listening, and even the solidity of +his utility-first boots made it almost impossible for any person to +suppose he belonged to any other denomination.</p> + +<p>"I have heard," Jack said, "that the Buffalo people, many of them, have +lots of money, and that they give freely to the churches. I suppose +money is an element in a congregation which gentlemen of your calling do +not object to?"</p> + +<p>It seemed to Jack that the long gray eyes of the minister smiled at this +point more because he thought he was expected to smile than from any +sense of mirth. He was a grave man, who, behind a dignified reserve, +seemed capable of taking in a great deal at a glance.</p> + +<p>"No one can deny the power of money," he said. "But, though there is a +good deal of it in St. James's Church, what with a paid choir, and the +church debt, and repairs, and the new organ, and the paying of my +superior in office, I can tell you there is not very much left for the +person who plays second fiddle, as one may say."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Jack sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"When a man has a wife and a growing family to support and bring up in a +large city, and prices away up, twelve hundred dollars a year don't go a +very great ways, young man, and if it were not for our perquisites some +of us would find it difficult to make both ends of the string meet +around the parcel we have got to carry."</p> + +<p>Jack was becoming slightly interested in this man and was wondering what +his previous history was. He wondered that his new acquaintance had not +made more money than he seemed to possess. There was something behind +his grave immobility of countenance that suggested ability of some sort, +he did not know what. His slightly varying expressions of countenance +did not always seem to appear spontaneously, but to be placed there by a +directing intelligence that first considered what expression would be +the right one. It seemed like a peculiar mannerism which might in +another man be the result of a slightly sluggish brain.</p> + +<p>They conversed with each other all the way to the bridge, and although +the dignified reserve of the clergyman never quite thawed out, Jack +began to rather like him and be interested in his large fund of +information about the United States and anecdotes of frontier life in +California, where as a youth he had had a varied experience.</p> + +<p>Their baggage was examined by the customs officer on the American side +of the bridge, and the clergyman noticed a monogram in silver on Nina's +shopping-bag, "N. L.," and the initials "J. C." on Jack's valises, and +came to the conclusion from Jack's studied attentions to Nina when she +awoke that, if the young couple were not married yet, it was quite time +they were; and no doubt it entered the clerical mind that there might be +a marriage fee for himself to come out of the little acquaintance. In +view of this he renewed the conversation himself after the car went on +by the New York Central toward Buffalo. Jack introduced the Rev. Matthew +Simpson to Nina, and he made the short run to Buffalo still shorter with +amusing stories of clerical life, ending up with one about his own +marriage, which was not the less interesting on account of its being a +runaway match and the fact that he had never regretted it. Jack felt +that behind this elderly man's dignity there was a heart that understood +the world and knew what young people were. So he told a short story on +his account, which did not seem to surprise the reverend gentleman a +great deal, and it was arranged that he should perform the ceremony for +them at the hotel. On arriving in Buffalo they left their luggage at the +station, intending to go on to Cleveland at four o'clock. On the way up +Main Street, Mr. Simpson pointed out St. James's Church—a large +edifice, partly covered with ivy—and also showed the parsonage where he +lived. He urged them to wait and be married in the church, but Nina +shunned the publicity of it and pleaded their want of time.</p> + +<p>Jack and Nina had some dinner at the Genesee House, while Mr. Simpson +got the marriage license ready. As luck would have it, Mr. Simpson +himself issued marriage licenses, which, as he explained, also assisted +him to eke out his small income; and as soon as they had had a hurried +lunch, they all retired to a private parlor and the marriage ceremony +was performed very quietly.</p> + +<p>Two waiters were called in as witnesses, and it was arranged that on +their return to Buffalo in a few days, they could call at the parsonage +and then sign the church register, for which there was now no time +before the four o'clock train left for Cleveland. The license was +produced, filled out, and signed in due form, and on the large red seal +were stamped the words, "Matthew Simpson, Issuer of Marriage Licenses." +The presence of the stamp showed that he was a duly authorized person, +and satisfied Jack that in employing a chance acquaintance he was not +making any mistake.</p> + +<p>They were glad when the ceremony was finished, and Jack was very +pleasant with Mr. Simpson. They all got into the cab again, and rattled +off toward the station. As they came near the parsonage of St. James's +Church, Mr. Simpson said he thought he would go as far as the suburbs +with them in their train to see how some people in the hospital were +getting on. He said he would get down, now, at the parsonage, because he +wished to take something with him to one of the patients, but that they +must not risk losing the train.</p> + +<p>"I will take another cab and meet you at the train. It is not a matter +of much moment if I fail to catch it; but, Mr. Cresswell, if you get a +bottle of wine into the car (perhaps you will have time to get it at the +station), I will be pleased to drink Mrs. Cresswell's health."</p> + +<p>"That's a capital idea," said Jack with spirit. "The wine will be +doubtful, perhaps, but that won't be my fault. And now," he added, as +the carriage stopped at the parsonage, "I want to leave with you your +fee, Mr. Simpson, and I hope you will not consider that it cancels our +indebtedness to you." Jack pulled out a roll of bills.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, my dear young man," said Mr. Simpson heartily, "any time +will do. I will catch you at the station, and, if I don't, you can leave +it with me when you return here to sign the register."</p> + +<p>Mr. Simpson got out, and Jack, finding he had only two five dollar +bills, the rest being all in fifties, was rather in a dilemma how to pay +Mr. Simpson twenty dollars for his fee.</p> + +<p>"Here;" he said hurriedly, handing out a fifty, "you get this changed, +if you have time, on your way down. You may possibly miss us at the +station, and I can not hear of your waiting until we return."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mr. Simpson, speaking as fast as his tongue would let +him, "I will have to take my chance, and, if I can not catch you, just +call in for the balance when you return. Don't lose a moment!" With a +wave of his hand and a direction to the driver, Mr. Simpson went +hurriedly up the parsonage steps, and the cab dashed off toward the +Michigan Southern depot.</p> + +<p>Jack had time to purchase the wine, which ought to have been good, +judging from the price. Unfortunately, Mr. Simpson was too late to join +them. The train went off without him, and Jack and Nina drank his jolly +good health in half the bottle, and afterward the Pullman conductor +struggled successfully with the rest.</p> + +<p>Altogether they were in high spirits, Jack especially, and Nina's +thankfulness for being safely married to one of the best of men made her +very amiable.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. John Cresswell approached Buffalo again, from the West, at +the close of Jack's two weeks' holidays. They decided that it would be +better for Nina to go straight to Lockport on the train which connected +with the one on which they were traveling. There was nothing for Nina to +do in Buffalo but sign the register and get her marriage "lines" from +Mr. Simpson, and Jack could do this, they thought, without a delay on +her part to do so. To arrange about the register she had written her +name on a narrow slip of paper which Jack could paste in the book at the +parsonage. This they considered would suffice, and Nina went on to pay +her intended visit to Sophronia B. Hopkins. The run to Lockport occupied +only a short time, and then she went to her friend's house.</p> + +<p>In the mean time Jack, who was not like the husband in Punch in that +stage of the honeymoon when the presence of a friend "or even an enemy" +would be a grateful change of companionship, walked up Main Street +smoking a cigar and trying to make the best of his sudden bereavement. +He said after the first ten minutes that he was infernally lonely, but +still the flavor of the cigar was from fair to middling. And, after all, +tobacco and quiet contemplation <i>have</i> a place in life which can not be +altogether neglected, and they come in well again after a while, no +matter what may have caused their temporary banishment.</p> + +<p>He strolled leisurely up to the parsonage and inquired for Mr. Simpson. +The maid-servant said he did not live there. Jack thought this was +strange.</p> + +<p>"I mean the clergyman who has charge of the church alongside."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, Mr. Toxham lives here. He is inside. Will you walk in?"</p> + +<p>Jack was ushered into a clergyman's library, where a thin man with a +worn face was sitting. Jack bowed, introduced himself, and said he had +come here to see Mr. Matthew Simpson, "one of the associate clergymen in +St. James's Church close by."</p> + +<p>"I do not think I know anybody by the name of Simpson," said the +clergyman. "My name is Toxham. I have no associate clergyman with me in +the neighboring church. My church is called St. Luke's, not St. James's. +I don't think there is any St. James's Church in Buffalo." Jack grasped +the back of the chair and unconsciously sat down to steady himself. A +horrible fear overwhelmed him. His face grew ashen in hue, and the +clergyman jumped up in a fright, thinking something was going to happen.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," said Jack weakly. "Sit down, please. You have given me +a shock, and I feel as I never felt before. There, I am better now."</p> + +<p>As he wiped away the cold perspiration that had started out in beads on +his forehead he related the facts as to his marriage to Mr. Toxham, who +was greatly shocked.</p> + +<p>An idea occurred to him, and on looking through the city directory, as a +sort of last chance, he found the name "Matthew Simpson, issuer of +marriage licenses."</p> + +<p>Jack started up, filled with wild and sudden hope. He got the address, +and dashed from the house before Mr. Toxham could give him a word of +advice. Arrived at the office of Matthew Simpson, he walked in and asked +for that gentleman.</p> + +<p>"I am Matthew Simpson," said the man he spoke to.</p> + +<p>Jack looked at him as if he had seven heads, feeling the same trembling +in the knees which he had felt when with Mr. Toxham. "Really," he +thought, "if this goes on I'll be a driveling idiot by nightfall."</p> + +<p>"Did you issue a marriage license on, let me see, two weeks ago +to-morrow—on the 23d?"</p> + +<p>"More than likely I did. Perhaps a good many on that day. You don't look +as if you wanted one yourself. Anything gone wrong? But you can have one +if you like. I do the biggest business in Buffalo. I sell more marriage +licenses than any two men between here and—"</p> + +<p>"Turn up your books," interrupted Jack savagely. He was beginning to +wish to kill somebody.</p> + +<p>"I always make a charge for a search," said the man cunningly, which was +not true.</p> + +<p>"Well, damn it, I can pay you. Look lively now, or the police will do it +for me in five minutes, and put you where your frauds will be of no use +to you."</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Simpson's turn to lose color now. He was one of the trustees +of a public institution in Buffalo, and people should be careful how +they talk too suddenly about police to trustees. The books were +produced, and Jack hurriedly looked over the list of the licenses sold +on the 23d of the last month, and was surprised to find that one had +been sold to himself. His age was entered and sworn to as fifty-five +years, and the license was to marry Nina Lindon, spinster, aged twenty +years. The addresses given were all Buffalo.</p> + +<p>"There has been a great fraud done here," said Jack vehemently.</p> + +<p>"All perfectly regular, my dear sir," said Mr. Simpson. "I remember the +circumstance well. Old party, called John Cresswell, came in, dressed +like a preacher, and wanted a license for himself. 'All right, my old +covey,' says I to myself; 'trust an old stager like you to pick up the +youngest and best.' So I perdooced the papers, which took about five +minutes to fill up. He took the oath, I sealed and stamped the license, +like this one here, and as soon as he got it he took out his purse and +there was nothing in it. His face fell about a quarter of a yard. 'My +goodness,' he says. 'I have come out without any money!' He then laid +down the license and rushed to the door, and then turned round and says, +quite distressed: 'I'll take a cab,' says he, 'and drive home and get +your money. They're all waiting at the church for the marriage to take +place, but, of course, you must be paid first.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, I hated to see an old gent put about so, and his speaking about +'taking a cab' and coming from 'home' in such a natural, put-about sort +of way kinder made me think he was solid, and, like a dum fool, I slings +him the license and tells him to call in after the ceremony. He thanked +me, with what I should call Christian gratitude in his face. Yes, sir, +it was Christian gratitude, there, every time. And—would you believe +it?—the old boozer never showed up since!"</p> + +<p>"Ha!" said Jack, who only heard the main facts of what Simpson was +saying. "Did you never see this old man before?" he added.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is a funny thing about it. It seemed to me I knew the face. +That was one thing that made me trust him. I could not swear to it, but +I have a great mind for faces, and I believe I have, at some time or +other, sold the old coon a license before."</p> + +<p>Jack thought this would account for the old man, while on the train, +giving the name Matthew Simpson, when he had the whole scheme quickly +arranged in his head. Still, it might be that he was in fact some +profligate, ruined clergyman, who played these confidence games to make +a livelihood. The license was issued in his and Nina's names, and, +although incorrect on its face and not paid for, might still, he +thought, be a legal license for him to claim a <i>bona-fide</i> marriage +under. If the license was good enough, the next thing to do was to go +to the police office and find out what he could there. "The marriage +might be a good one still."</p> + +<p>He threw down the price of the license for Mr. Simpson, and asked him to +be good enough to keep the papers in his possession carefully, as they +might be required afterward. He left Mr. Simpson rather mystified as to +the interest he took in the matter, and then, having still two hours +before train-time, he repaired to the police headquarters. There he +related in effect what had taken place to Superintendent Fox. Two or +three quiet-looking men were lounging about, seeming to take but little +interest in Jack's story. Detectives are not easily disturbed by that +which excites the victim who tells his unfortunate experience. These +fellows were smoking cigars, and they occasionally exchanged a low +sentence with each other in which Jack thought he heard the word +"Faro-Joseph." What that meant he did not know; but he described the +gentleman of dignified aspect, whom he had known on the train as Rev. +Matthew Simpson, and then he heard one of them mutter "Faro-Joseph" +again, while they nodded significantly.</p> + +<p>One of the men, who had his boots on a desk in front of him, was +consulting his note-book. He then said:</p> + +<p>"On the 23d of last month Faro-Joseph got off the train at the Central +Depot at two o'clock. On the 26th he left on the Michigan Southern at 10 +<span class="smcap">P. M.</span>"</p> + +<p>It dawned upon Jack that his clerical friend was called "Faro-Joseph" in +police circles.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not warn me when you saw me in company with this man. He +got off the train with me at the the time you say. Surely I should have +had some word from you!"</p> + +<p>"Well, gent, I tell you why. I was just about to arrest another man, and +in the crowd I did not see that you were with him. Don't remember ever +seeing you before. I might pass you twenty times and never know I had +seen you. You're not the kind we reaches out for. Now, I dare say, +unless a woman is of a fine figure—tall, possibly, or the kind of +figure you admire—chances are you don't see her at all. That is, you +could not tell afterward whether you had seen her or not. Same thing +here. You're not the kind we hunt."</p> + +<p>Jack turned to the superintendent and asked him whether this man, +Faro-Joseph, was not really at one time a clergyman. The superintendent +smiled pityingly.</p> + +<p>"Why, he only started the sky-pilot game during the last ten years, and +only takes it up occasionally. Though I believe it's his best holt. As a +Gospel-sharp he'll beat anybody out of their socks. He's immense on that +lay. What I call just perfect. He's all on the confidence ticket now and +the pasteboards. Has quite given up the heavy business. Why, sir, you +would forgive him most anything if you could see him handle card-board. +We pulled him for a 'vag.' one night about four months ago; and, just to +find out how he did things, I played a little game with him after we let +him go on promise to quit. We put the stakes about as low as they could +be put—five-cent ante, and twenty-five cent limit—just for the +experiment. Now, sir, you would be surprised. He cheated me from the +word 'go,' and I don't know yet how it was done. If he dealt the cards +he would get an all-fired hand himself, and if I dealt him nothing he'd +bluff me right up the chimney. For poker he has no match, I believe. All +I know about that game is that I lost three dollars in thirty minutes."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you have his record written down somewhere?" said Jack, feeling +sick at heart, and yet fascinated by the account of Faro-Joseph.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we have," said the superintendent, smiling toward one of the +loungers near by. "Just come in this way."</p> + +<p>The superintendent opened a large case like a wardrobe, and began +flapping back a large number of thin flat wings that all worked on +separate hinges. These wings were covered with photographs of +criminals—a terrible collection of faces—and from one of them he took +a very fair likeness of our clerical friend in another dress. Pasted at +the back of the photograph was a folded paper containing a list in fine +writing of his known convictions and suspected offenses for a period of +over forty years. He had been burglar, counterfeiter, and forger, which +the superintendent called the 'heavy business' that he had given up. +Since those earlier days he had been train-gambler, confidence-man, and +sneak-thief.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to be done. Faro-Joseph never had been a clergyman. To +put the law in force was out of the question for several reasons. Jack +got away to catch his train for Toronto and to think and think what it +would be best to do about Nina, and where and how they could get married +properly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">Spread no wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For sunward flight, thou soul with unplumed vans!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet is the lower air and safe, and known<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The homely levels.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dear is the love, I know, of wife and child;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pleasant the friends and pastimes of your years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live—ye who must—such lives as live on these;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make golden stairways of your weakness; rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By daily sojourn with those fantasies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lovelier verities.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(<i>Buddha's Sermon—The Light of Asia.</i>)—<span class="smcap">Arnold.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Jack made another mistake in coming on to Toronto after finding out the +disastrous failure of his supposed marriage. If he had gone to Lockport +and found Nina at her friend's house, perhaps some arrangement could +have been made for their marriage in Buffalo on the following day. Mr. +Toxham, the clergyman on whom Jack called at the parsonage, had tried to +get his ear for advice on this subject. But, as mentioned before, when +Jack read the address of Matthew Simpson he immediately bolted out, +without waiting to listen to the suggestions which the clergyman tried +to make. If this idea occurred to Jack, there were reasons why he did +not act upon it. He was due at the bank the next morning, and regularity +at the bank was a cast-iron creed with him—the result of continually +subordinating his own wishes to that which the institution expected of +him. The clerk who was doing his work there would be leaving for his own +holidays on the following day, and Jack felt the pressure his duty +brought upon him. Again, how would it be possible, after finding where +Nina was staying in Lockport, to call at the house and take her away +from her friends almost before she had fairly arrived? Geoffrey would +have got over this difficulty. But he had the inventive mind which goes +on inventing in the presence of shock and surprise. Jack was not like +him on land. He had this ability only on a yacht during a sudden call +for alert intelligence. His nerve had not been educated to steadiness by +escapades on land, nor had he had experience in any trouble that +required much insight into consequences. The discovery that the woman +for whom he existed was not his wife seemed to prostrate and confuse +thought. He felt the need of counsel, and was afraid to trust his own +decision. If he could only get home and tell Geoffrey the whole +difficulty, he felt that matters could be mended.</p> + +<p>He arrived in Toronto about ten o'clock at night feeling ill and faint, +having eaten nothing since a light breakfast thirteen hours before. He +dropped in at the club and took a sandwich and some spirits to make him +sleep. Then he went to his lodgings (Geoffrey was out somewhere), rolled +into bed, and slept the clock round till eight the next morning.</p> + +<p>As he gradually awoke, thoroughly refreshed, there was a time during +which, although he seemed to himself to be awake, he had forgotten about +his supposed marriage. He was single John Cresswell again, with nothing +on his mind except to be at the bank "on time." So his troubles +presented themselves gently; first as only a sort of dream that he had +once been married to the love of his life—to Nina. When he fully awoke +he began to realize everything; but not as he realized it the night +before. Then, the case seemed almost hopeless. Now, his invigorated self +promised success in some way. He was glad he had not met Geoffrey the +night before. The morning confidence in himself made Geoffrey seem +unnecessary. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he walked through the museum of a +sitting-room and into Hampstead's bedroom, where he fell upon that +sleeping gentleman and rudely shook him into consciousness.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Jack! Got back?" growled Geoffrey as he awoke.</p> + +<p>"Yes. You had better get up if you want to attend the bank to-day."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Geoffrey, sitting up. "What sort of a time did you +have? Old people well?"</p> + +<p>Jack was supposed to have been in Halifax, where his parents lived with +the other old English families there.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had a pretty good time," said Jack. "The old people are fine!" +he added, freshly. "How are things in the bank?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey then retired to his bath-room, and an intermittent conversation +about the bank and other matters went on for a few minutes during the +pauses created by cold water and splashing.</p> + +<p>It was a relief to Jack that neither at breakfast nor afterward did +Geoffrey ask any more questions about his fortnight's holiday. Hampstead +knew better.</p> + +<p>During the next six weeks Geoffrey was decidedly unsettled. "Federal" +went up as a matter of course, and he sold out with advantage. He +cleared five thousand dollars on this transaction, and had now a capital +of fifteen thousand dollars. He was rather lucky in his venture into the +stock market. His experience on Wall Street had given him a keen insight +into such matters, and he studied probabilities until his chances of +failure were reduced, keeping up a correspondence by telegraph and +letter with his old Wall Street employers who, in a friendly way, shared +with him some of their best knowledge.</p> + +<p>Immediately after he had sold out "Federal" an American railway magnate +died. This man almost owned an American railway which was operating and +leasing a Canadian railway. No sooner was the death known than the stock +of the Canadian Railway took a tumble. For a moment public confidence in +it seemed to be lost. Now Geoffrey had studied chances as to this line. +He knew that it was one of the few Canadian railways that under fair +management was able to pay a periodical dividend—a small one at times, +perhaps, but always something. It did not go on for years without paying +a cent like some of the others. He had waited for this millionaire to +die in order to buy the largely depreciated stock. When the opportunity +arrived he bought on margin a very large quantity of it at a low figure. +But the trouble was that the public did not agree with him and the few +cool heads who tried to keep quiet, hold on, and wait till things +reinstated themselves. An ordinary man's chances in the stock market do +not depend upon his own sagacity more than does guessing at next week's +weather. Fortunes are lost, like lives, not from the threatened danger +but from panic. Bad rumors about the railway were afloat and the stock +continued to go down. Geoffrey hastily sold out his other stocks for +what he could get, and stuffed everything available into the widening +gap through which forces seemed to be entering to overwhelm him.</p> + +<p>In the meantime while Nina was at Lockport, Jack had gone on quietly +with his work in the Victoria Bank. He had not given notice of his +intentions to leave that institution, because, after his return, he had +thought he would like to take more money than he had already saved to +California with him. His brother had written previously to say that he +ought to bring with him at least three thousand dollars, to put into the +business of grape-farming, and Jack thought if he could only hold on at +the bank, where he was fairly well paid, he might in a few months +complete the sum required. Already he had put away over twenty-five +hundred dollars, and it would not take long to save the balance.</p> + +<p>Nina came back from Lockport blaming herself for her former unreasoning +infatuation for Geoffrey. Hers was a nature that had of necessity to +lavish its affection on something or somebody. If she could have given +this affection, or part of it, to her own mother it would have been a +valuable outlet in these later years. The confidences that ought to have +existed between them would then have been the first links to be sundered +when she sought Hampstead's society.</p> + +<p>Unluckily Mrs. Lindon was not in every way perfect. While she had +continued to be "not weary in well doing," as she called it, her +daughter had been gradually commencing to consider how her duties and +social law might be evaded. While Mrs. Lindon visited the Haven and +listened to the stories of the women there which were always so +interesting to her, and while she expended her time in ways that her +gossip-loving nature sought, her daughter had been left the most +defenseless person imaginable.</p> + +<p>The fact to be remarked was, that the same impulses which had led Nina +into wrong-doing previously were now becoming her greatest power for +good. For those who claim to distinguish the promptings that come from +Satan from those that come from Heaven, there is in nature a good deal +of irony. Nature is wonderfully kind to the pagan, considering his +disadvantages. When self has been abandoned for an inspiring object +there is no reason to think that the self-surrendered devoted Buddhist, +or the self-offered victim to Moloch, experiences, any less than the +Salvation Army captain, that deep, heart-felt, soul-set, almost ecstatic +gladness—that sensation of consecration and confidence—that internal +song which the New Testament so beautifully puts words to. It is a great +thing for a woman to be allowed to lavish her affection in a way +permitted by society, for few have enough strength of character to hold +up their heads when society frowns.</p> + +<p>Nina was just such a woman as many whom her mother liked to converse +with at the Haven. They were poor and she was rich and well educated, +but she was neither better nor worse than the majority of them. +Nevertheless, from a social point of view, she was on the right track +now, apparently. From a social point of view, Mrs. John Cresswell with +society at her feet would not be at all the same person as Nina Lindon +disgraced. True, it would require subtlety and deception before she +could feel that she had re-established herself safely, but, as Hampstead +quoted, "some sorts of dirt serve to clarify," and to her it seemed the +only way feasible. She did not like painstaking subtlety any more than +other people. It gave her intense unrest. She looked gladly forward to +the time when she would leave Toronto with Jack for California, said she +longed with her whole heart for the necessity of deception to be over +and done with. She did not know—Jack had not told her—that their +supposed marriage was void, and she was following out the train of +thought that leads toward ultimate good. She was saddened and subdued, +wept bitter tears of contrition for her faults, and prayed with an +agonized mind for forgiveness and strength to carry her through what lay +before her.</p> + +<p>The change in her was due to improved conditions under which her nature +became able to advance by woman's ordinary channels toward woman's +possible perfection. A great after-life might be opening before her. +Some time, probably, her father's wealth would be hers. After long years +of chastening remembrances of trouble, after years of the outflow toward +good of a heart that refused to be checked in its love, and would be +able from personal experience to understand, and thus lift up lovingly, +wounded souls, and with many of the perfections of a ripened womanhood, +we can imagine Nina as admirable among women, a power for good, +controlling through the heart rather than the intellect, as generous as +the sun.</p> + +<p>But where will these beautiful possibilities be if her sin is found out?</p> + +<p>Since her return Jack had not told Nina the terrible news which awaited +her. The secret on his mind made him uneasy in her presence. When he had +called once or twice in the afternoon he was very silent and even +depressed, but she considered that he had a good deal to think about, +and it was also a relief to her not to be expected to appear brilliantly +happy. What he thought was that after he had earned the rest of the +money he required they could get married at the first American town they +came to on their way to California. He could not bring himself to tell +her the truth, which would make her wretched in the mean time, and he +did not see why the real marriage should not be deferred until it was +more convenient for him to leave Canada. When Nina had spoken about +going away, he had evaded the topic, and she did not wish to press the +point. He explained his long periods of absence during this time by +several excuses. His secret weighed so heavily upon him that he dreaded +lest in a weak moment he might tell her. It was significant of the +change in Nina toward him that, during the time he was there, nothing +would induce her to sacrifice the restful moments to anybody. She would +sit beside him, talking quietly and restfully, holding his hand in hers, +or with her head upon his shoulder. Once, when he was leaving, all the +hope she now felt welled up within her as she said good-by. All that was +good and kind seemed to her to be personified in Jack, and it smote him +when she put her arms round his neck and, with a quiet yearning toward +good in her face, said:</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Jack, dear husband!"</p> + +<p>Jack's great heart was rent with pity and affection as he saw through +the gathering mists that calm, wondrous yearning look in her face that +afterward haunted him. He did not understand fully from what depths of +black anguish that look came, straining toward the light. But he knew +that he was not her husband, and he could see that when she called him +by this name she was uttering a word which to her was hallowed.</p> + +<p>Another week now slipped by, and Geoffrey could not understand why Jack +had not gone to California. He called on Nina to ascertain how matters +stood. She received him standing in the middle of the room. To-day +Geoffrey closed the door behind him. It was the last time he ever +intended to be in this house, and so he did not care much what the +inquisitive door-opener might think.</p> + +<p>There was no mark of special recognition on either side. He walked +quickly toward her, seeing, at one quick glance, that he was not +regarded as a friend.</p> + +<p>"Why have you and Jack not gone yet to California?" he said, without +prelude.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she answered coldly, still standing and eyeing him with +aversion, as he also stood before her. "Has not Jack given any notice of +his intention to leave the bank?"</p> + +<p>"I have not heard of any. You ought to know that better than I," said +Geoffrey. "By the way," he added, "you might as well sit down, Nina. +There is no use that I see in playing the tragedy queen." His voice +hardened her aversion to him.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, her voice deep and full with resentment. "If I am always +allowed to choose, I will never sit down in your presence again. You +have come here to look after your own interests, and I have got to +listen to you, to learn from your lips your devil's cunning. You are +forced to tell me the proper plans, and I am forced to listen and act +upon them. Now go on and say what you have to say."</p> + +<p>Hampstead nodded, and said simply: "Perhaps you are right. I don't know +that it is worth your while to take so much trouble, but I respect the +feeling which prompts it."</p> + +<p>Nina looked angry.</p> + +<p>"Don't think I say this unkindly. You, or rather your conditions, have +changed, and I merely wish to acknowledge the improvement. We will speak +very simply to each other to-day. Now, about California; it appears to +me that Jack does not intend to go there for a good while if allowed to +do as he likes. You must go at once. He very likely is wishing to make +more money before he leaves, but this won't do. He must go at once."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Nina, "that there need be no further reason for your +seeing me again after this interview. You have always, lately, been +Jack's confidant. Send him to me this evening, and I will tell him to +consult with you. After that, you can arrange with him everything +necessary about our departure. He will need advice, perhaps, in many +ways, and then he can (here Nina's lip curled) benefit by your wisdom."</p> + +<p>"I would not sneer too much at the wisdom if I were you. My devil's +cunning, as you are pleased to call it, has put you on the right track, +whatever its faults may be. It has stood us both in good stead this +time, and, if I did force you to marry Jack, you should not blame me for +that now, and I do not think you do."</p> + +<p>He turned to move toward the door. He did not consider that he had any +right to say good-by, or anything else beyond what was absolutely +necessary. But his reference to Jack, in a way that seemed to speak of +his worth, aroused Nina; and this, together with the thought that she +would never again see this man who had treated her whole existence as a +plaything, induced her to speak again to him.</p> + +<p>"Stop," she said. "I do indeed owe you something. You forced me to marry +Jack, out of your own selfishness, of course, but still I must thank you +for it. To my last hour I will thank you for that. Yes, I will even +thank you for more—for the careful way you have shown me my way from +out of my troubles. I think I am nearly done with anguish now. A little +more will come, no doubt, and after that, please God, whatever troubles +I endure will not be shameful. And now something tells me, Geoffrey, +that I shall never see you again. I can not let you go without saying +that I forgive you all. Some time, perhaps, you will be glad I said so. +You have been by turns cunning, selfish, wise, and loving to me. You +have also seemed—I don't know that you <i>were</i>, but you have +<i>seemed</i>—cruel to me; but I do not think, now that I look back upon +everything more calmly, that you have been unjust. No; a woman should +bear her part of the consequences of her own deeds. I am glad that +Margaret's happiness is still possible and that I did not drag anybody +down with me. The more I think of everything the less I blame you. You +will think I am getting wise to look at it in this way, but I never +could look at it like this until now."</p> + +<p>Nina was speaking in a way that surprised Geoffrey. Sorrow had altered +her; dangers and changes were encompassing her. Though all love for him +was dead, the man whom she had once worshiped stood before her for the +last time. He, who had caused her more happiness and distress than any +other person ever could again, stood in silence taking his leave of +her—forever. Urged by hope, besieged by doubts and dangers, driven by +necessities, her mind had acquired an abnormal activity, and she seemed +all at once to be able to realize what it was to part from him for all +eternity and to become conscious while she stood there of a power to +rise in intelligence above everything surrounding her—above all the +clogging conditions of our existence—and to judge calmly, even +pityingly, of both herself and Geoffrey and of all the agonies and joys +that now seemed to have been so small and unnecessary. As she spoke the +whole of her life seemed spread out before her. She recollected, or +seemed to recollect, all the events of her life, and she remained a +moment gazing before her in a way that made her look almost unreal.</p> + +<p>"I can see," she said slowly, in a calm, distinct voice, "everything +that has happened in my life; but all the rest is all a blank to me."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey noticed that, with her clearness of vision into the past, she +evidently expected also to see something of the future and was startled +and surprised at seeing nothing. She continued looking before her, as if +unconscious of his presence, until she turned to him shuddering.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Geoffrey. I feel that something is going to happen in some +way, either to you or to me; I don't know how. I see things to-day +strangely, and there are other things I want to see and can not."</p> + +<p>She looked at him with a look such as he had never seen in any one.</p> + +<p>"You will never see me again, Geoffrey. I am certain of that. I pray +that God may be as good to you as I have been."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey grew pale. Something convinced him that she spoke the truth and +that he never would see her again. There was something in her appearance +and in her words that made him shudder. A rarefied beauty had spread +over her; she seemed to be merely an intelligence, speaking from the +purity of some other realm. It seemed as if it were no human prompting +that urged her to the utterance of forebodings, and that her last words +were as sweet as they were terrible.</p> + +<p>He tried to look at her kindly, to cheer her, but he saw that, for the +moment, the emotions of our ordinary life were totally apart from her +and that he had become nothing to her but a combination of +recollections.</p> + +<p>He raised her hand to his lips, took a long look at her, and went his +way, leaving her standing in the middle of the room calmly watching his +retreat.</p> + +<p>As Hampstead went back to the club he felt unstrung. He went in and +drank several glasses of brandy to brace himself. He had been drinking a +great deal during this excitement over his investments. At ordinary +times he did not care enough about liquor to try to make a pastime of +drinking. Now, there was a fever in his blood that seemed to demand a +still greater fever. He did not get drunk, because his individuality +seemed to assert itself over and above all he consumed. To-day, to add +to the depression he felt about his prospects (for ruin was staring him +in the face), the strange words of Nina—full of presentiment—her +uncanny, prophetess-like eyes, and the conviction that he had seen her +for the last time—all weighed upon him. Her last words to him haunted +him, and he drank heavily all the evening.</p> + +<p>He told Jack he had called to see Nina in the afternoon, and that she +had expressed a wish to see him in the evening.</p> + +<p>About eight o'clock Jack made his appearance at Mossbank. Mrs. Lindon +had dragged her unwilling husband off to a dinner somewhere, so that the +young people were not in anticipation of interruption.</p> + +<p>Nina had got over the strange phase into which she had passed while +saying good-by to Geoffrey during the afternoon, and was doing her best +to appear natural and pleasant. After some conversation, she inquired +whether he had given the bank notice of his intention to leave. When he +said he had not, she let him know that she must leave Toronto at once, +and the first thing he did was to ejaculate: "O my God, and we not +married!"</p> + +<p>Nina caught the words, and sprang toward him from the chair in which she +had been sitting.</p> + +<p>They were a pitiable pair; with faces like ashes, confronting each +other.</p> + +<p>"What did you say then, Jack? Tell me all—tell me quick, or you will +kill me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's true," groaned Jack. "I found out when I went back to Buffalo +that Simpson was only a blackleg criminal and no clergyman. We are no +more married than we ever were."</p> + +<p>As Jack said this he had his head down; it was bowed with the misery he +felt. He dreaded to look at Nina. If he had looked, he would have seen +her lips grow almost blue and her eyes lose their sight. The next +moment, before he could catch her, she sank on the floor in shapeless, +inert confusion.</p> + +<p>Jack did not wish to call for help. He seized a large ornamental fan of +peacock's feathers and fanned her vigorously.</p> + +<p>She soon came to. But still lay for some time before she had strength to +rise. At last he assisted her to a sofa, where she reclined wearily +until able to go on with the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Jack," she said, after a while, "if I don't get away from here in three +days I will go mad. Think, now! I can not help you much in the +arrangements to get away. You must arrange everything yourself. Just let +me know when to go, and I will look after myself and will meet you +somewhere—anywhere you propose. But I can not—I don't feel able to +assist you more than that. Stop! an idea strikes me! You can not arrange +everything yourself. There are always things that are apt to be +forgotten. You must get somebody to help you think out things. When we +go away I feel that it will be forever—at least, I felt so this +afternoon. You will have to arrange everything, so that there need be no +correspondence with Toronto any more."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jack, "I think your advice is good. I have always relied on +Hampstead. If you did not mind my telling him the whole story, Nina, I +think his assistance would be invaluable."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing that I dread his knowing," said Nina, as she buried +her face in the cushions. "He is a man of the world, and will know I am +innocent about our intended marriage. I thoroughly believe in his +power, not only to help you to arrange everything, but also to take the +secret with him to his grave."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear you say so," said Jack. "I have always thought dear +old Geoffrey, in spite of a good many things I would like to see +changed, to be the finest all-round man I ever knew."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Now go, Jack! I am too ill to talk a moment more. Simply tell me +when and how I am to go and I will go. As for arranging anything more, +my mind refuses to do it. Give me your arm to the foot of the stairs! +So. Good-night!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mad, call I it; for to define true madness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What is't, but to be nothing else but mad?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But let that go.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hamlet.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>After leaving Nina, Jack went to the club, where he found Geoffrey +playing pool with half a dozen others, whose demeanor well indicated the +number of times the lamp had been rubbed for the genius with the tray to +appear. Geoffrey seemed to be in good-humor, but he gave Jack the idea +of playing against time. He strode around the table rapidly as he took +his shots, as if not caring whether he won or lost. The only effect the +liquor seemed to have upon him was to make him grow fierce. Every +movement of his long frame was made with a quick nervous energy, +inspiriting enough to watch, but giving an impression of complete +unrest. He was playing to stave off waking nightmares. Thoughts of his +probable ruin on the following day came to him from time to time—like a +vision of a death's head. The others with him noticed nothing different +in him, but Jack, who was quietly smoking on one of the high seats near +by, saw that he was in a more reckless mood than he had ever seen him +before. He could not help smiling as his friend strode around the table +in his shirt-sleeves, playing with a force that was almost ferocity and +a haste apparently reckless but deadly in the precision that sense of +power, skill, and alcohol gave him. After a while, in a pause, he spoke +to Geoffrey, who at once divined that more trouble of some kind awaited +him.</p> + +<p>When they arrived at their chambers, Jack told him briefly of the +journey with Nina for the purpose of getting married in Buffalo, and of +what Nina had just said.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey nodded; he was waiting for the something new that would affect +himself—the something he was not prepared for.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" he asked sharply.</p> + +<p>"No. That is not all," answered Jack gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Go on, then."</p> + +<p>"I don't feel as if I could go on," said Jack, not noticing the rough +tone in which he was commanded to proceed. "But I suppose I must. The +fact is, Geoffrey, I found out afterward that I was not married at all +to her, and I never let her know until to-night."</p> + +<p>"Is she dead, then?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey looked at him with his brow lowered, his eyes glittering. He +felt like striking Jack.</p> + +<p>"Gracious heavens, no! Why should she die?" cried Jack, startled from +his gloom.</p> + +<p>"It's enough to kill her," said Geoffrey. His contempt for Jack assisted +the rage he felt against him. He had been drinking steadily all day, and +now could hardly restrain the violent fury that seethed in him. "Go on, +you infernal ass! Dribble it out. Go on."</p> + +<p>"I see you feel for her, Geoffrey. I <i>am</i> the biggest fool that ever was +allowed to live."</p> + +<p>Then, with his face averted, he told Geoffrey the whole story of the +mistake in Buffalo. His listener watched him, with lips muttering, while +sometimes his teeth seemed to be bared and gleaming.</p> + +<p>In this story, Geoffrey at first seemed to see a new danger to himself +and his future prospects. Then it occurred to him that the new +information did not much affect his own position. Two things seemed +certain. One was, that Joseph Lindon would spare no expense to find out +where Jack and Nina had gone and to be fully informed of everything that +happened. Secondly, that Nina could never be able to show any legal +marriage prior to the one now intended. This meant that Nina and Jack +could not return to Toronto. A vague idea went through Geoffrey's head +at this time.</p> + +<p>When Jack had finished his story Geoffrey was calm in appearance. But +his eyes were half closed, which gave him a cunning look.</p> + +<p>Then he talked with Jack, so as to impress upon his mind the fact that +it would be impossible for them ever to visit Canada again.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jack. "Unless you come out to visit us you will never see us +again. I could never make it right with the Toronto people. I will never +again be able to return to Toronto; that's clear."</p> + +<p>When he proposed to make arrangements as to the best ways and means of +leaving Toronto, Geoffrey said he must have time to think over +everything. It was late. It would be better to sleep, if possible, and +arrange things further to-morrow. They parted for the night, having +settled that Jack was to draw out his money at once.</p> + +<p>On the next morning Geoffrey ascertained that he was ruined. The stock +that he held in the Canadian railway had gone down beyond redemption as +far as he was concerned. He had mortgaged everything he possessed, +raised money on indorsed notes, raised it in every shape and way within +his means, but he had been unable to tide over the depression. A further +call had been made for margins, and he had not another cent to fill the +gap and all his stock passed to other hands. He drank steadily all day +and even carried a flask with him into the office, which he soon +emptied. Hampstead was not by any means the same man now that he was +three weeks previously. He looked sufficiently like his right self to +escape a betrayal, but the liquor and the thought of his losses raged +within him, and all the time an idea was insinuating itself into his +frenzied brain. He had gone so far as carefully to consider many schemes +to avert his ruin which he would not have countenanced before. His +weakened judgment now placed Jack before him as one who conspired +against his peace. He cunningly concealed it, but to him the mere sight +of Jack was like a red flag to a bull. Just when all his plans were +demolished, all his hopes gone, his entire ruin an accomplished fact, +this fool came in to add fuel to the fire that burned him. In this way +he regarded his old friend.</p> + +<p>While in this state and while at his work in the bank the next morning +he said to Jack, who occupied the next stall to him, that he had hit +upon the best way for him and Nina to depart. It would be better for +Jack to go away without giving any notice to the bank. The notice would +be of no use if he did so, because, if he must go away the next morning, +the notice would only raise inquiry. He told Jack to slip out and go +down to the docks and find if there would be any sailing vessels leaving +for American ports the next day. Jack could depart on a schooner; Nina +could make some excuse at home and follow him by steamer.</p> + +<p>Jack liked this proposal. He would have one more sail on old Ontario +before he left it forever. He skipped out of the side door, and soon +found a vessel at Yonge Street wharf that would finish taking in its +cargo of fire-bricks and start for Oswego at noon the following day. He +tried to arrange with the mate to go as a passenger, but the captain was +going to take his wife with him on this trip, so Jack, if he wanted to +go, would be obliged to sleep in the forecastle. He did not mind this +much, and engaged to go "before the mast."</p> + +<p>In the afternoon he told Nina about his intentions, and explained that +she could take the steamer to Oswego on the day after he left, so that +she would probably arrive there about the same time. He had drawn all +his money out of the bank and was now ready to go. Nina said she could +arrange about her own departure, and after they had made a few other +plans as to her course in case she got to Oswego first, Jack kissed her +and tried to cheer her from the depression in which she had sunk, and +then he departed.</p> + +<p>All that day Geoffrey grew more moody and further from his right self. +To drown the recollections of his ruin and his other worries, he went on +drinking steadily. The thought came to him again and again that his +marriage with Margaret was now almost impossible. He knew that, as a +married man, he could never live on his bank salary alone, and the +capital to speculate with was entirely gone. What made him still more +frenzied was the fact that he knew that this stock he had bought was +bound to re-establish itself in a very short time. But, for the moment, +every person else had gone mad. He alone was sane. Public lunacy about +this stock had robbed him of his fifteen thousand dollars. He drank +still harder when he thought this, and although he did not get drunk, +he got what can be described vaguely as "queer," and the next stage of +his queerness was that he became convinced that the public had in a +manner robbed him, and that society owed him something. When a man's +brain is in this state, he is in a dangerous condition.</p> + +<p>Jack wished heartily that they should dine together, as this was his +last evening in Toronto, but Geoffrey avoided doing so. He hated the +sight of Jack, but he carefully concealed the aversion which he felt. He +made an excuse and absented himself until nine or ten o'clock, and +during this time he wandered about the city and continued drinking. He +had not seen Margaret for over two weeks. Everything had been going +wrong with him. Besides his own losses, he would be heavily in debt to +the men who had "backed" his paper and who would have to pay for him.</p> + +<p>Jack found him in their chambers when he returned for his last night at +the old rooms, and there they sat and talked things over. Geoffrey tried +to brace himself up for the conversation with a bottle of brandy which +he had just uncorked, but it was quite impossible for him to pretend to +be as cheerful as he wished.</p> + +<p>Jack thought he was depressed, and said:</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to see you in such bad spirits to-night, Geoffrey."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a bad business," said Hampstead, sententiously, looking +moodily at the floor. As this might mean anything, Jack thought that +Geoffrey was taking his departure to heart. He had every right to think +that Hampstead would miss him.</p> + +<p>It was now getting late, and Jack arose and laid his hand on Geoffrey's +shoulder: "Don't be cut up, old man," he said; "I have been a fool, but +I am glad that I know it and am able to make things as right as they can +be made. I know you feel for Nina and me, but you will get some other +fellow to room with you and—"</p> + +<p>During the conversation Hampstead had drunk a good deal of the brandy. +The kind words that Jack was speaking filled him with a fury which +lunatic cunning could scarcely conceal. The idea in his mind had been +settling itself into a resolve, and at this moment it did finally settle +itself. He shook Jack's hand off his shoulder as he arose, glared at him +for an instant, and then turned off to his bedroom. "Good night," he +said over his shoulder. "It's late. I'm off." Then he entered his +bedroom, shut the door, and bolted it.</p> + +<p>As he went, Jack looked at his retreating form with tears standing in +his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I never," he said, "saw Geoffrey show any emotion before. I never felt +quite sure whether he cared much about me until now. And now I know that +he does. I hate to see him so cut up about it; but it is comforting to +think, on going away, that he really liked me all this time."</p> + +<p>Jack was a clean-souled fellow. He was one of those who, no matter how +uproarious or slangy they are, always give the idea that they are +gentlemen. With this nature a certain softness of heart must go. He +stood watching the door through which Geoffrey had passed, and he +thought drearily that never again would they have such good times +together, and that most likely they would never meet again. He thought +of Geoffrey's winning ways, of his prowess, of his strength, his +stature, his handsome face, and his devil-may-care manner. He thought of +their companionship, the incidents, and even dangers they had had +together. He thought of the way Geoffrey had done his work that night on +the yacht when returning from Charlotte. He stood thinking of all these +things with an aching heart. As he turned away sadly, his heart full of +grief at parting, he burst out with "Darned if I don't love that man," +and he closed his door quickly, as if to shut out the world from +witnessing a weakness.</p> + +<p>On the inner side of Geoffrey's bedroom door there was something else +going on, which represented a very different train of thought.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey, after bolting his door, went to his dressing-case and took +from it a pair of scissors and a threaded needle. Then he took an old +waistcoat and cut the lining out of it. Then he took a second old +waistcoat and sewed the pieces of lining against the inside of it, and +also ran stitches down the middle of each piece after it was sewed on. +Thus he had a waistcoat with four long pockets on the inside—two on +each side of it, all open at the top.</p> + +<p>When this was done he rolled into bed, where Nature hastened to restore +herself.</p> + +<p>Before breakfast in the morning, Jack hailed a cab and took his two +valises to the Yacht Club beside the water's edge, and left them in his +locked cupboard there. He only intended to take this amount of luggage +with him. The rest of his things could come on when Geoffrey packed up +and forwarded his share of their joint museum and library. Geoffrey did +not turn up at breakfast. He breakfasted on a cup of strong coffee and +brandy at a restaurant, and went to the bank early.</p> + +<p>Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote, commonly called "Sappy" in +the bank, was a younger son of a long-drawn-out race. He had been sent +out to make his fortune in the colonies, and he had progressed so far +toward affluence that, in eight years of "beastly servitude, you know," +he had attained the proud position of discount clerk at the Victoria +Bank, and it did not seem probable that his abilities would be ever +recognized to any further extent. The great scope of his intelligence +was shown in the variety of wearing apparel he was able to choose, all +by himself, and he was the showman, the dude, the <i>incroyable</i> of the +Victoria Bank. When he met a man for the first time he weighed him +according to the merits of the garments he wore. He met Geoffrey as he +came into the bank this morning.</p> + +<p>"My deah fellah," he said, "where did you get that dreadful waistcoat?"</p> + +<p>"None of your business, Sappy. You used to wear one yourself when they +were in fashion. I remember your rushing off to get one from the same +piece when you first saw this one."</p> + +<p>Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote had a weak child's voice, +which he cultivated because it separated him from the common herd—most +effectually. It made all ordinary people wish to kick him every time he +opened his mouth. He liked to be thought to have ideas about art, and he +talked sweetly about the furniture of "ma mothah" (my mother.)</p> + +<p>Geoffrey walked past this specimen with but little ceremony. The brandy +and coffee and another brandy without coffee had succeeded in putting +him into just the same state in which he had gone to bed on the previous +night. He could talk to any person and could do his work, but fumes of +alcohol and abandonment of recklessness had for a time driven out all +the morality he ever possessed; and where some ideas of justice had +generally reigned there flourished, in the fumes of the liquor which he +had drunk, noxious weedy outgrowths of a debased intelligence unchecked +by the self-respect of civilization. To-day, he was, to himself, the +victim of a public that had robbed him. Society owed him a debt.</p> + +<p>They all went to work in the usual way. About a quarter-past eleven +o'clock Jack put his head to Geoffrey's wicket and they whispered +together:</p> + +<p>Jack said, "Time for me to be off?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, just leave everything as if you were coming back. If you put away +anything, or close the ledger, they may ask where you are before you get +fairly off. By the way, how are you carrying your money?"</p> + +<p>"By Jove! I forgot that," said Jack, "or I might have made the package +smaller by exchanging for larger bills. It makes a terrible 'wollage' in +my pocket."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey stepped back a moment and picked two American bills for +one-thousand dollars each from a package of fifty of them lying beside +him.</p> + +<p>"Here," he said. "Take these two and pin them in the watch-pocket of +your waistcoat. Don't give me back your money here. Just run up to our +chambers and leave your two thousand under my bed-clothes. I don't want +any one to see you paying me the money here, or they will think I +connived at your going. I can get it during the afternoon and make my +cash all right."</p> + +<p>Jack did not quite see the necessity of this, but he had not time to +think it out, and even if he had, he would have done what Geoffrey told +him.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said, "thank you. That will make two 'one-thousands' and +seven 'one hundreds,' and the rest small, for immediate use."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Go into the passage, now, and wait at the side door. I will +come out and say good-by to you."</p> + +<p>Jack took his hat and sauntered out into the passage.</p> + +<p>In a minute Geoffrey, with his hands in his pockets, strolled to the +side door.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Jack," he said hastily. "When your schooner sails past the +foot of Bay Street here, just get up on the counter and wave your +handkerchief so that I may see the last of you."</p> + +<p>"All right, dear old man. I'll not forget to take my last look at the +old Vic, and to do as you say. I must run now, and leave the two +thousand in your bed, and then get on board. Good-by. God bless you!"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey sauntered back to his stall and took a drain at a flask of +brandy to keep off the chill he felt for a moment, and to brace himself +up generally.</p> + +<p>Jack hurried off to the chambers, counted out the two thousand dollars +which he had wished to get rid of, and after taking a last look at the +old rooms, he hurried to the Yacht Club. Here he put the valises into +his own skiff after changing his good clothes for the old sailing +clothes already described. Then, under an old soft-felt hat with holes +in the top, he rowed down to the schooner, threw his valises on board, +and climbed over the side. He let his skiff go adrift. He had no further +use for it. There were some stone-hookers at the neighboring dock. He +called to the men on one of them and said, "There's a boat for you!" +Then he dropped down the forecastle ladder with his luggage.</p> + +<p>His arrival on board was none too early, for the covers were off the +sails and the tug was coming alongside to drag the vessel away from the +wharf, and start her on her way with the east wind blowing to take her +out of the bay. The tug was towing her toward the west channel as they +passed the different streets in front of the city. At Bay Street, Jack +left off helping to make canvas for a minute, and, running to the +counter, sprang up on the bulwarks and waved his handkerchief to +somebody who, he knew, was watching through the windows of the Victoria +Bank.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to detain the schooner now. The wind was from the +east, and consequently dead ahead for the trip, but it was a good fresh +working breeze, and Geoffrey, when he saw how things looked on the +schooner, knew that it had fairly started on its passage to Oswego.</p> + +<p>He glanced around him to make assurance doubly sure, and then he divided +the pile of forty-eight (formerly fifty) one-thousand-dollar bills into +four thin packages. These he slipped hurriedly into the four long +pockets which he had made in the waistcoat the previous night. He then +buttoned up the waistcoat, and from the even distribution of the bills +upon his person it was impossible to see any indication of their +presence.</p> + +<p>When this was done and he had surveyed himself carefully, he took +another pull at the flask on general principles and proceeded to take +further steps. He might as well have left the liquor alone, because his +nerve, once he commenced operations, was like iron.</p> + +<p>He banged about some drawers, as if he were looking for something, and +then called out:</p> + +<p>"Jack?"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Jack?"</p> + +<p>Still no answer.</p> + +<p>The ledger-keeper from A to M, who occupied the stall beyond Jack's, +then growled out:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?"</p> + +<p>"Where's Jack?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. He asked me to look after his ledger for a moment, and +then went out. He has been out for over an hour, and if the beggar +thinks I'm going to be skipping round to look up his confounded ledger +all day he's mistaken. I'll give him a piece of my mind when he comes +in."</p> + +<p>"A to M" went on growling and sputtering, like a leaky shower-bath.</p> + +<p>"That's all very well," said Geoffrey; "but you fellows are playing a +trick on me, and I don't scare worth a cent."</p> + +<p>Everybody could hear this conversation. Geoffrey then stepped on a stool +and leaned over the partition, smiling, and seized the hard-working +receiving-teller by the hair.</p> + +<p>"Come, you beggar, I tell you I don't scare. Just hand over the money. +Really, it's a very poor kind of a joke."</p> + +<p>"What's a poor kind of a joke? Seizing me by the hair?"</p> + +<p>Geoffrey looked at him smilingly, as if he did not believe him and still +thought there had been a plan to abstract the money and frighten him.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care much personally; but that packet of fifty thousand +is gone, and if any fellow is playing the fool he had better bring it +back."</p> + +<p>Several of the clerks now came round to his wicket. This sort of talk +sounds very unpleasant in a bank.</p> + +<p>"Where did you leave the bills?" they asked.</p> + +<p>"Right here," said Geoffrey, laying his hand on a little desk close +beside the wicket, opening into the box in which Jack had worked.</p> + +<p>"Well, you had better report the thing at once," said several, who were +looking on with long faces.</p> + +<p>"I shall, right straight," said Geoffrey energetically. His face bore an +admirable expression of consternation, checked by the <i>sang froid</i> of an +innocent bank-clerk. He strode off into the manager's room.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir. I thought it was a hoax at first, +but it looks very much as if fifty thousand dollars had been taken from +my box."</p> + +<p>"What, stolen!"</p> + +<p>"Looks like it—very. If you would kindly step this way, sir, I will +explain what I know about it."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey then showed the manager where the bills had been laid, and did +not profess to be able to tell anything more.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Northcote, ring up the chief of police, and tell me when he is +there," said the manager. "Where is Mr. Cresswell?"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Does anybody know where Mr. Cresswell is?"</p> + +<p>Ledger-keeper from A to M then said that Mr. Cresswell went out over an +hour ago, and had asked him to look after his ledger for five minutes. +Mr. Cresswell had not returned.</p> + +<p>The manager walked into Jack's box and looked around him. Everything was +lying about as if he had just stopped working, and this, to the +manager's mind, seemed to give the thing a black look. It seemed as if +Jack, if he had made off with the money, had left things in this way as +a blind.</p> + +<p>The telephone was ready now, and the manager requested the chief of +police to send a couple of his best detectives at once. Only one was +available at first. This man, Detective Dearborn, appeared in five +minutes, and was made acquainted with all the known circumstances. When +this was done, fully two hours had elapsed since Jack's departure, and +still he had not turned up.</p> + +<p>Detective Dearborn was a man with large, usually mild, brown eyes. There +was nothing in the upper part of his face to be remarked except general +immobility of countenance. The lower part of his face, however, was +suggestive. His lower jaw protruded beyond the upper. Whether this means +anything in the human being may be doubted, but one involuntarily got +the idea that if this man once "took hold," nothing short of red-hot +irons would burn him off.</p> + +<p>He took a careful, mild survey of the premises, listened to everything +that was said, remarked that the package could not have been taken from +the public passageway if left in the place indicated, looked over Jack's +abandoned stall, asked a few questions from the manager, and, like a +sensible man, came to the conclusion that Jack had taken the money.</p> + +<p>He walked into the manager's room and asked him several questions about +Jack's habits and his usual pursuits. Geoffrey was called in to assist +at this. Yes, he could take the detective to Jack's room. Jack had no +habits that cost much money. "Had he been speculating at all?" Geoffrey +thought not, although some time ago Mr. Cresswell had said that he was +"in a little spec.," and hoped to make something. Did not know what the +"spec." was.</p> + +<p>"May I ask," said Dearborn, "when you last spoke to Mr. Cresswell?"</p> + +<p>"We spoke to each other for a minute just before he went out. He asked +me if I was going to the Dusenalls' 'shine' to-night. I said I was. Then +he spoke about several young ladies of our acquaintance, and other +things which had no reference to this matter."</p> + +<p>"Was the lost money in the place you say at that time?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I remember having my hand on the packet while I spoke to him."</p> + +<p>"May I ask if you at any time during the morning left your stall?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, once. I went out as far as the side door for an instant +shortly after Mr. Cresswell went out."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Geoffrey, smiling, "I was thinking of boating this +afternoon, and I wanted to see how the sky promised for the afternoon."</p> + +<p>The mild eyes looked at Geoffrey with uncomfortable mildness at this +answer. It might be all right, but Dearborn thought that this was the +first suspicious sound which he had heard.</p> + +<p>"My young gentleman, I'll keep my eye on you," he thought. "That reply +did not sound quite right, and you seem a trifle too unconcerned."</p> + +<p>Another detective arrived now, and he was detailed to inform the others +and to watch the railway stations and steamboats. Immediately afterward, +descriptions of Jack flew all over Canada to the many different points +of exit from the country. Had he tried to leave Canada by sail or +steamboat he would have been arrested to a certainty. Geoffrey laughed +in his sleeve as he thought of the way he had sent Jack off in a +schooner—a way that few people would dream of taking, and yet, perhaps, +the safest way of all, as schooners could not, in the ordinary course of +things, be watched by the detectives. But if the news got beyond police +circles that Jack had absconded with money, or if it should be +discovered in any way that he had gone on the schooner to Oswego—if +this were published—Joseph Lindon might become alarmed, and prevent his +daughter from going to Oswego also. Even the news of Jack's departure +for parts unknown might make him suspicious. With this in view he +immediately said to the manager and the detective:</p> + +<p>"I would like to make a suggestion, if there be no objection."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Mr. Hampstead. We will be glad to listen to what you have to +say."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I can not think that Mr. Cresswell took the money," said +Geoffrey. "But I think if complete secrecy were ordered, both in the +bank and elsewhere, while every endeavor was being made at discovery, +the detectives would have a better chance of success, on whatever theory +they may work. Possibly the money may be recovered before many hours are +over, and in that case the bank might wish to hush the matter up +quietly. Prematurely advertising a thing like this often does harm; and +there can be no question about the interests of the bank in the matter."</p> + +<p>"I will act upon that suggestion at once," said the manager. "In the +mean time, you will go, please, with the detective and admit him to Mr. +Cresswell's rooms, and see what is to be seen there. I will give the +strictest orders that nothing of this is to be told outside by the +officials or police."</p> + +<p>Orders were delivered to all the detectives to give no items to +newspaper reporters, and the chance of Nina's getting away on the +following morning seemed secured. Geoffrey laughed to himself as he +thought he had crushed the last adder that could appear to strike him.</p> + +<p>He let Mr. Dearborn into Jack's room. Everything was in confusion. +Bureau drawers were lying open, and Jack's valises were gone. Dearborn +saw at a glance that Cresswell had fled, and he lost no time, but turned +on his heel immediately, thanked Hampstead, and rattled down-stairs. +Geoffrey first ascertained that he was really gone, and then went back, +took out the two thousand dollars that Jack had put under his +bed-clothes, and, hastily taking the forty-eight stolen bills from the +interior of his waistcoat, he stuffed the whole amount into an old +Wellington boot that was hanging on a nail in a closet. Out of Jack's +two thousand he put several bills in his pocket to pay for his evening's +amusements. He then returned to the bank. It will be seen that his +object in not taking this two thousand from Jack at the bank was that he +could not safely conceal such a large package on his person, and he +could not put it with his cash, because, in case his cash was examined, +it would be found to contain two thousand dollars too much, which would +cause inquiry.</p> + +<p>The manager while brooding over the event, and asking questions, soon +found out that the missing bills had been all in one deposit. The +receiving teller had taken them in the day before. The item was looked +into and it was noted that this was a deposit of the Montreal Telegraph +Company. On inquiry it was found to be a balance due from the Western +Union Telegraph Company in the States for exchanges. The Montreal +Telegraph Company had received the money from New York by express, and +to guard against loss the Western Union had taken the precaution to +write by mail to the company at Toronto giving the number of each bill +in full, and saying that all the bills were those of the United States +National Bank at New York. In two hours, therefore, Dearborn was +supplied with the numbers of all the bills. Geoffrey was startled at +this turn of events. But he thought it did not matter much. He could +slip over to the States in a few months and get rid of the whole of the +money in different places.</p> + +<p>While all this internal commotion was going on at the Victoria Bank, +Nina was paying a little visit to her father's office. She alighted from +an equipage every part of which, including coachman, footman, horses, +and liveries, had been imported from England. The coachman and footman +did not wear their hats on one side or cross their legs and talk affably +to each other as they seem to do in the American cities. Joseph Lindon +was, in effect, perfectly right when he said they were the "real +thing"—"first chop."</p> + +<p>Nina swept through the outer office, looking more charming than ever. +After she had passed in, one of the clerks, called Moses, indulged in +the vulgar pantomime peculiar to clerks of low degree. He placed both +hands on his heart, gasped, and rolled back against the wall to indicate +that he was irretrievably smashed by her appearance.</p> + +<p>Her father received her gladly.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he said, "you have condescended to pay me a visit, my fine lady! +It's money you're after. I can see it in your eye. Now, how much, my +dear, will this little visit cost me, I wonder? Just name your figure, +my dear, and strike it rather high." Mr. Lindon was in a remarkably +good humor.</p> + +<p>"No, father, I did not come altogether for money. I came to know if I +could go over to Oswego for a week. Louisa Dallas, who stayed with us +last winter, wants me to go over."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, my dear, you can do anything you please—in reason. I +thought the Dallases lived in Rochester?"</p> + +<p>"So they did; but they have moved. Well, that is all right. Now, if you +have any money to throw away upon me I will try to do you credit with +it. Don't I always do you credit?"</p> + +<p>"Credit? You are the handsomest girl I ever saw. Do me credit? Why, of +course, and always will. Come and kiss me, my dear. I declare you would +charm the heart of a wheel-barrow. Now, how much would you like this +morning? Strike it high, girl. Understand, you can have all the money +you want. You will go to Oswego and see your friends and have a good +time. Perhaps they won't have much money to throw away, but don't let +that stand in the way. Trot out the whole of them and set up the entire +business yourself. Take them all down to Watkin's Glen, or some place +else. There's nothing to do in Oswego. You can't spend half the money I +can give you. Why, dash it, I cleared fifty thousand dollars before +lunch-time to-day, and now how much will you have of it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's a little bill at Murray's for odds and ends."</p> + +<p>"How much?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, five or six hundred, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Blow five or six hundred! Is that all the money you can spend? Of +course you are the best-dressed woman in town, but you must do better +than this. I tell you you have just got to sweep all these other women +away like flies before you. I'll clothe you in gold if you say the +word. Five or six hundred! Rubbish!"</p> + +<p>He struck a bell, and the impressionable Moses appeared.</p> + +<p>"How much will you have?" he said to Nina, smiling. He loved to try and +stagger her with his magnificence.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Murray ought to be paid and a few other bills lying about." +Nina thought this would be a good chance for Jack, and she said to +herself she would strike it high.</p> + +<p>"I suppose a thousand dollars would do," she said, rather timidly; +adding, "with Murray and all."</p> + +<p>"Damn Murray and all!" cried Mr. Lindon, in a burst of good nature. "You +sha'n't pay any of them.—Moses, write Miss Lindon a check for a couple +of thousand, and bring it here."</p> + +<p>While Moses wrote the check out, Lindon, with a display of affection he +rarely showed, drew Nina down upon his knee.</p> + +<p>"How did you make so much money to-day, father?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you don't know anything about such matters. Yesterday I bought the +stock of a Canadian railway. At ten o'clock this morning it took a +sudden rise because I let people know I was buying. I got a lot of it +before I let them know, and then up she went, steadily, the whole +morning. At twelve o'clock I had made at least fifty thousand, and by +nightfall I may have made a hundred thousand. I don't know how it stands +just now, and I don't much care."</p> + +<p>This was the identical stock Hampstead had been unable to retain. If he +could have held on a few hours longer he would have made more honestly +on this day than he had stolen at the same hour.</p> + +<p>The check was signed and handed to Nina. She put it in her shopping-bag +and took her father's head between her hands and kissed his capable old +face with a warmth that surprised him a little. To her this was a final +good-by.</p> + +<p>"You're a good old daddy to me," she said, feeling her heart rise at the +thought of leaving him forever. She ran off then to the door to conceal +her feelings.</p> + +<p>"Just wait," he said, "till we go to England soon, and then I'll show +you what's what."</p> + +<p>She made an effort to seem bright, and cast back at him a glance like +bright sun through mists, as she said:</p> + +<p>"Of course—yes. We must not forget 'the dook.'"</p> + +<p>She cashed the check with satisfaction, knowing that it took Jack a long +time to save two thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>When she rolled down to the wharf the next day in the Lindon barouche, +the officials on the steamboat's deck were impressed with her +magnificence and beauty.</p> + +<p>For most men, nothing could be more sweetly beautiful than her +appearance, as she went carefully along the gangway to the old +Eleusinian, and there was quite a competition between the old captain +and the young second officer as to who should show her more civility.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not +athirst for information; but to be quite fair, we must admit +that superior reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. +Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily +brood over a full nest.—<span class="smcap">George Eliot</span>—(<i>Felix Holt</i>).</p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>It did not take Detective Dearborn long to find out that Jack had +engaged a cab early in the morning and had then removed some luggage +from his rooms. This confirmed him in the idea that the crime had been a +carefully planned one. But his trouble lay in not being able to find the +driver of the cab. This man had driven off somewhere on a trip that took +him apparently out of town, and Dearborn began to wonder whether Jack +had been driven to some neighboring town, so as to proceed in a less +conspicuous way by some railway.</p> + +<p>Late at night, however, Jehu turned up at his own house very drunk. The +horses had brought him home without being driven. He had been down at +Leslieville all day, with some "sports," who were enjoying a +pigeon-shooting match at that place, and who had retained cabby at +regulation rates and all he could drink—a happy day for him. Dearborn +found he could tell him nothing about the occurrence of the morning of +the same day, or where he had gone with Jack's valises; so, perforce, he +had to let him sleep it off till morning.</p> + +<p>The first rational account the detective could get out of him was at ten +o'clock on the morning following. He then found out why the valises had +not been seen at the railway stations, or at any of the usual points of +departure. The caretaker of the yacht club could only tell him, when he +called, that Mr. Cresswell had been at the club somewhere about noon the +day before, and had gone away in his boating-clothes, rowing east round +the head of the wharf close by.</p> + +<p>"I must tell you," said Dearborn to the caretaker, "that Mr. Cresswell's +friends are alarmed at his absence and have sent me to look after him. +Would you know the boat he went in if you saw it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. I handle it frequently, in one way and and another. I painted +it for him last spring."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you don't mind making a dollar, I'd be glad if you would walk +along the docks and help me find it."</p> + +<p>"Come along," said the caretaker. "There is nothing to do here, at this +hour, but watch the club-house, and I certainly can't make an extra +dollar doing that. We'll call it two dollars if I find the boat, seeing +as how I'm dragged off from duty."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Dearborn, who had <i>carte blanche</i> for expenses from +the bank.</p> + +<p>They walked off together at a good pace.</p> + +<p>"You say that none of the yachts left the harbor yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"No. There they are, over there, every one of them."</p> + +<p>"Well, what size was the skiff he went off in?"</p> + +<p>"An ordinary fourteen-foot shooting-skiff. One of old Rennardson's. You +mind old Rennardson? He built a handy boat, did the old man."</p> + +<p>"Could it cross the lake?"</p> + +<p>"Well it could, perhaps, on six days in the week, in summer. Perhaps on +the seventh the best handling in the world wouldn't save her. But they +are a fine little boat, for all that I've crossed the bay myself in them +when there was an all-fired sea runnin'."</p> + +<p>"Could it have crossed the lake yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think Mr. Cresswell would be such a fool as to try. Perhaps he +could have done it if anybody could. But risks for nothing ain't his +style. Not but what he'll run his chances when the time comes. You +should have seen him bring in that Ideal last fall, in the race I sailed +with him. The wind sprung up heavy in the afternoon. Lord! it was a +sight to see that boat come in to the winnin' buoy with the mast hanging +over her bows like a Greek fruiter. You see, he had the wind dead after +him, blowin' heavy, and he'd piled rags on to her, wings and all, till +she was in a blind fury and goin' through it like a harpooned whale. The +owner was a-standing by him a-watchin' for everythin' to carry out of +her. 'Jack,' says he, 'she can't do it. The backstays won't do the +work.' 'Slack them up, then, four inches, and let the mast do its own +part of the work,' says Mr. Cresswell. And he kept on easin' backstays +to give fair play all round, till the mast was hangin' forward like a +cornstalk; but I'm dummed if he'd lift a rag on her till she passed the +gun. Perhaps you don't care for that sort of thing. I follered the sea +myself formerly. Lord! it was immense, that little sail! And thirty +seconds ain't a great deal to win on. Nothin' but bull-head grit would +ha' done it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dearborn was not much comforted by all this talk. Cresswell might +have crossed the lake in his skiff. Evidently he was a man who would do +it if he wished. They continued their search on every wharf and through +every boat-house, which occupied a good deal of time.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, near Yonge Street wharf, the caretaker said: "Give us your two +dollars, mister. There's the skiff on the deck of the stone-hooker."</p> + +<p>Inquiries soon showed that Jack had gone off on the schooner North Star +to Oswego, and then Mr. Dearborn began to look grave. The schooner had +got a long start. He was well acquainted with all different routes to +different places, and he finally decided to go on the Eleusinian by +water to Oswego. Possibly he might be able to come across the schooner +in the lake before she arrived at Oswego, and bribe the captain to land +him and his prisoner on Canadian soil, where his warrant would be good. +He had still half an hour to spare, so he dashed off in a cab to the +chief's office, and wired the Oswego police to arrest Jack, on the +arrival of the North Star, on the charge of bringing stolen money into +the States.</p> + +<p>Of course, Dearborn knew he could not extradite Jack from Oswego for his +offense, but he thought that after being locked up the money could be +scared out of him, when he found that he could get a long sentence in +the States on the above charge, which Dearborn knew could be proved if +the stolen bills were found in his possession.</p> + +<p>If Geoffrey had known what the able Mr. Dearborn had ferreted out, and +what his plans were, he would have felt more uneasy.</p> + +<p>As the afternoon wore on, it was interesting to watch two very +unconcerned people at the bow of the upper deck of the Eleusinian. The +steamer was making excellent time—plowing into the eye of the wind with +all the power that had so nearly dragged the life out of the poor Ideal +in the preceding summer. Nina was sitting in an arm-chair, cushioned +into comfort by the assiduous second officer, who found that his duties +much required his presence in that portion of the boat where Nina +happened, to be. She was sitting, looking through the spyglasses from +time to time at every sail that hove in sight, and seeming disinclined +to leave the deck.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dearborn was tempting providence by smoking a cigar close by. The +steamer went almost too fast to pitch much, but there was a decided rise +and fall at the bows. He noticed that the officer suggested to Nina that +by sitting further aft she would escape some of the motion, and that she +declined the change, saying she liked the breeze and was a good sailor. +Once they passed close to a vessel with three masts. Dearborn had +ascertained, before leaving, that the North Star had only two masts, so +he was not anxious. Nina, however, knew nothing about the rig of the +North Star, and she was up standing beside the bulwarks gazing intently +through the binoculars at the crew. She seemed disappointed when she +lowered the glasses, and Dearborn began to wonder whether this was "the +woman in the case." He afterward watched her as she attempted to read a +novel, and noticed that she continually stopped to scan the horizon. +Still, nearly every person does this, more or less, and his idea rather +waned again as he thought that this was quite too fine a person to +bother her head about a poor bank-clerk—such a man as he was hunting. +Mr. Dearborn, perhaps owing to the peculiar formation of his jaw, +generally lost all idea of the respectability of a man as soon as he got +on his trail. He might have the benefit of all doubts in his favor +until the warrant for his arrest was placed in Mr. Dearborn's hands. +After that, as a rule, the individual, whether acquitted or not at his +subsequent trial, took no high stand in Mr. Dearborn's mind. If +acquitted, it was only the result of lawyers' trickery; not on account +of innocence. Men who ought to know best say that if a prize-fighter +wishes to win he must actually hate his antagonist—must fight to really +kill him; and that only when he is entirely disabled is it time enough +to hope that he will not die. Mr. Dearborn, similarly, had that tenacity +of purpose that made every attempt at escape seem to double the +culprit's guilt, and in a hard capture this supplied him with that +"gall" which could meet and overcome the desperate courage of a man at +bay.</p> + +<p>Soon another schooner loomed up in the moist air of the east wind, and, +when the hull was visible, Mr. Dearborn approached Nina and said:</p> + +<p>"Would you oblige me, madame, by allowing me to look through your +glasses?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Nina; "they belong to the ship—not to me."</p> + +<p>Dearborn took a long look at the approaching vessel. The North Star had +been described to him as having a peculiar cut-away bow, and the vessel +coming across their track had a perpendicular bow.</p> + +<p>Nina then looked through the glasses intently, and for a moment they +stood beside each other.</p> + +<p>"I wonder why all the vessels seem to be crossing our track, instead of +going in our direction," she said to quiet-looking Mr. Dearborn.</p> + +<p>"I don't know much about sailing, miss. But I know that vessels can't +sail straight into the wind. They seesaw backward and forward, first one +way and then the other. How they get up against the wind I could never +understand. They are like lawyers, I think. They see a point ahead of +them, and they just beat about the bush till they get there. Some of +these things are hard to take in."</p> + +<p>Nina smiled.</p> + +<p>"A good many of these vessels," added Mr. Dearborn, while he watched his +fair companion, "are going to Oswego."</p> + +<p>"Oh, indeed!" said Nina, unconsciously brightening.</p> + +<p>"And the wind is ahead for that trip," said Dearborn.</p> + +<p>"Is it?"</p> + +<p>Nina had been round Lake Ontario in a yacht, and she had had an English +boarding-school finish. She could have told the general course of the +Ganges or the Hoang-ho, but she had no idea in what direction she was +going on her own lake to Oswego. In English schools Canada is a land not +worth learning about, and where hardly any person would live +voluntarily. People go about chiefly on snow-shoes, and it is easy in +most places to kill enough game for dinner from your own doorstep.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it would take a sailing vessel a long time, I should think, to get +to Oswego."</p> + +<p>"How long do you suppose?" asked Nina.</p> + +<p>"I don't really know. It depends on the vessel. I suppose a smart yacht +could do it in a pretty short time. That Toronto yacht, the Ideal, I +suppose, could—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know the Ideal?"</p> + +<p>"No. She was pointed out to me once. They say she's a rare one to go, +and no mistake. That young fellow, Treadwell, that sails her—they say +he is one of the finest yachtsmen in Canada."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Nina, laughing and blushing. It was funny to hear this quiet +stranger praising Jack. She felt proud of his small glory.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Dearborn, rubbing his forehead, as if trying to recollect. +"That's his name—Treadwell. However, it does not matter."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Nina. She was somewhat more on her guard now against +strangers since her experience with the Rev. Matthew Simpson. But +evidently this man did not even know Jack's name, and did not want to +know it for any reason.</p> + +<p>Dearborn was hanging "off and on," as sailors say, thinking that if she +knew anything about this Cresswell she would perhaps give him a lead. +Not getting any lead, he muttered half aloud, by way of coming back to +the point:</p> + +<p>"Treadwell—Treadwell—no—that's not the name." Then aloud. "It's +provoking when one can not remember a name, madame."</p> + +<p>He then fell to muttering other similar sounding names, and Nina could +not refrain from smiling at his stupid, mild way of bothering himself +about what was clearly no use to him.</p> + +<p>"Ah! I have it! What a relief it is to succeed in a little thing like +that! Cresswell. That's the name!"</p> + +<p>The air of triumph on the mild-eyed man was amusing, and Nina laughed +softly to herself.</p> + +<p>He turned from gazing over the water and saw her laughing. Then he +smiled, too, as if he wished to join in, if there was anything to laugh +at.</p> + +<p>"You are amused, madame. Perhaps you know this gentleman quite well—and +are laughing at my stupidity?"</p> + +<p>"I ought to," said Nina, unable to resist the temptation to paralyze +this well-behaved person of the middle classes. "I am his wife." And she +laughed heartily at her little joke.</p> + +<p>If ever a man did get a surprise it was detective Dearborn. For a bare +instant, it threw him off his guard. He saw too much all at once. Here +was the woman who perhaps had all the $50,000 on her person. He tried to +show polite surprise and pleasure at the intelligence; but it was too +late. For an instant he had looked keen. Comparatively, Nina was +brighter nowadays. Danger and deception had sharpened her faculties. She +was thoughtless enough, certainly, to mention who she was; but she did +not see any reason why she should not. She might as well call herself +Mrs. Cresswell now as when she got to Oswego, where she would have to do +so. Mr. Dearborn had gone almost as far in self-betrayal. He longed for +a warrant to arrest her, and get the money from her, but he said in his +subdued, abstracted sort of way:</p> + +<p>"How strange that is! No wonder you laugh! However, I said nothing +against him—quite the contrary—and that is always a comfort when we +feel we have been putting our foot in it. I was wondering, Mrs. +Cresswell, who you were. It seemed to me I had seen you on the street in +Toronto."</p> + +<p>He spoke very politely. No one could take any exception to this tone. +Even when he made the following remark it did not seem very much more +than the ordinary growth of a chance conversation among travelers. He +added:</p> + +<p>"Let me see—a? Your maiden name was—a?" He raised his eyebrows with +would-be polite inquiry; but it did not work. He had looked keen for the +tenth part of a second, and now he might as well go in and rest himself +for the remainder of the night.</p> + +<p>Nina drooped her eyelids coldly.</p> + +<p>"I do not know that that is a matter of any consequence."</p> + +<p>She gave a little movement, as if she drew herself to herself, and she +leisurely returned the glasses to their case.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dearborn saw he had got his <i>congé</i>, and he wanted to kill himself. +He felt rather awkward, and could not think of the right thing to say. +The writer of Happy Thoughts has not provided mankind with the best +reply to a snub that comes "straight from the shoulder." Even a +Chesterfield may be unequal to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will not think me inquisitive?" he said lamely.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Nina quickly. She slightly inclined her head, without +looking at him, as she moved away to her chair—not wishing to appear +too abrupt.</p> + +<p>She sat there wondering who this man was, and thinking she had been +foolish to say anything about herself. The evening came on chill, windy, +and foggy, and she grew strangely lonely. She had got the idea that this +man was watching her. It made her very nervous and wretched. She longed +for some strong friend to be with her—some one on whom she could rely. +Everything had conspired to depress her in the past few weeks. She had +now left her home and a kind father—never to return. She was out in the +world, with no one to look to but Jack. This would be a long night for +her, she thought. She was too nervous to go to sleep. She felt so tired +of all the unrest of her life. What would she not give to have all her +former chances back before her again! How she longed for the mental +peace she had known until lately. Oh, the fool she had been! the +wickedness of it all! How she had been forced from one thing to another +by the consequences of her fault! She was terribly wretched, poor girl, +as the evening wore on. She went to her cabin and undressed for bed. She +said her prayers kneeling on the damp carpet. She prayed for Jack's +safety and for her own, and for the man who assisted her to all her +misery. Still her despair and forlornness weighed upon her more and +more. The sense of being entirely alone, without any protection from a +nameless fear, which the idea of being watched all day by an unknown man +greatly increased; the terrible doubt about everything in the +future—all this culminated in an absolute terror. She lay in bed and +tried to pray again, and then an idea she acquired when a child came to +her, that prayers were unavailing unless said while kneeling on the hard +floor. In all her terror, the conviction of wickedness almost made her +faint, and to make things worse, she got those awful words into her +head, "the wages of sin is death," and she could not get them out. +Yielding to the idea that her prayers would be better if said kneeling, +she climbed out panic-stricken to the cold floor, which chilled her to +the bone, and terrified by the words ringing in her head she almost +shrieked aloud:</p> + +<p>"O God, take those words away from me! O God, thou knowest I have +suffered! O God, I am terrified! I am alone. O God, protect me! Forgive +me all things, for I do repent."</p> + +<p>Here she felt that if she prayed any more she would be hysterical and +beyond her own control. She crept back into bed; but all she could think +of until she dropped to sleep, exhausted, was, "The wages of sin is +death—The wages of sin—is <i>Death</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Brutus</span>:<br /></span> +<span class="i4">O that a man might know<br /></span> +<span class="i4">The end of this day's business ere it come!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But it sufficeth that the day will end,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And then the end is known.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Julius Cæsar.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>When Jack got on board the North Star he found that, although he had +shipped as working passenger, the wily mate had taken him as one of the +crew, with the intention, doubtless, of pocketing the wages which +otherwise would have gone to the sailor who would have been employed. +Several of the sailors were rather intoxicated, and the rest were just +getting over a spree. They came down into the forecastle just before +leaving, and seeing Jack there, whom they did not know, were very +silent. One of them at last said:</p> + +<p>"Is every man here a Union man?"</p> + +<p>Jack knew he was not, and that, being ignorant of secret signs, he would +perhaps be found out. He answered, "I don't belong to the Union."</p> + +<p>The man who spoke first then, said sulkily: "That settles it; I'm going +ashore. The rules says that no member shall sail on a vessel if there is +any scab on board."</p> + +<p>Jack understood from this, after a moment's thought, that this +expression must refer to one who did not avail himself of the healthy +privileges of the Sailors' Union.</p> + +<p>He explained that he was only going as a passenger, and was not under +pay.</p> + +<p>This seemed to make the matter satisfactory, and after the malcontent +quieted down they all got to work peacefully. It took them a long time +to get all the canvas set while the tug towed the vessel out of and +beyond the harbor.</p> + +<p>Jack found he was no match for these men in the toil of making heavy +canvas. He felt like a child among them. The halyards were so large and +coarse to the touch, and after being exposed to the weather, their fiber +was like fine wire and ate into his hands painfully, although the +latter were well enough seasoned for yachting work. His hands almost +refused to hold the ropes when they had got thoroughly scalded in the +work, and by the time all the canvas was set he was ready to drop on the +deck with exhaustion.</p> + +<p>He was on the mate's watch. This man saw that, although Jack was +physically inferior, his knowledge seemed all right. This puzzled the +sailors. He was dressed in clothes which had looked rough and plebeian +on the Ideal, but here he was far too well dressed. If there were tears +in his clothes and in his hat, there were no patches anywhere, and this +seemed to be, <i>prima facie</i>, a suspicious circumstance. He regretted +that his clothes were not down to the standard. After being reviled on +the yachts because they were so disreputable, he now felt that they were +so particularly aristocratic that he longed for the garments of a tramp. +He saw that if the sailors suspected that he was not one of themselves +by profession they would send him to Coventry for the rest of the trip. +This would be unpleasant, for as the men got sober they proved +good-humored fellows in their way, although full of cranks and queer +ideas.</p> + +<p>At eight bells, on the first night, Jack came on deck in a long ulster, +which, although used for duck-shooting and sailing for five years since +it last saw King Street, was still painfully whole. The vessel was lying +over pretty well and thrashing through the waves in creditable style. +The watch just going off duty had "put it up" with the mate that Jack +should be sent aloft to stow the fore-gafftopsail.</p> + +<p>They could not make Jack out. And when he went up the weather-rigging, +after slipping out of the ulster, every man on board except the captain +was covertly watching him—wondering how he would get through the task. +The topsail had been "clewed up" at the masthead—and was banging about +in the strong wind like a suspended Chinese lantern.</p> + +<p>Suppose a person were to tie together the four corners of a new +drawing-room carpet, and were then to hoist it in this shape to the top +of a tall pine tree bending in the wind to an angle of thirty degrees. +Let him now climb up, and with a single long line master the banging +mass by winding the line tightly around it from the top down to the +bottom, and afterward secure the long bundle to the side of the tree. If +this be done, by way of experiment, while the seeker after knowledge +holds himself on as best he can by his legs, and performs the operation +on a black night entirely by the sense of touch he will understand part +of what our lake sailors have to do.</p> + +<p>Jack, to say truly, had all he wanted. The sail was a new one. The +canvas and the bolt-ropes were so stiff as to almost defy his strength. +But he got it done and descended, tired enough. All hands were satisfied +that he knew a good deal, and yet they said they were sure he was "not +quite the clean wheat." The ulster had been very damaging.</p> + +<p>The evening of the second day saw them still working down the lake, and +having had some favorable slants of wind they had got well on their way. +As Jack's watch went below at midnight, a fog had settled over the sea, +and he was glad to get down out of the cold, and have a comfortable +smoke before turning into his old camping blankets for the rest of his +four hours off.</p> + +<p>By the light of a bad-smelling tin lamp nailed against the Samson-post, +and sitting on a locker beside one of the swinging anchor chains that +came down through the hawse pipe from the deck above into the fore-peak +under the man's feet, one of the sailors fell to telling one of his many +adventures on the lakes. There was no attempt at humor in this story. It +was a simple, artless tale of deadly peril, cold, exhaustion, and +privation on our inland sea. It was told with a terrible earnestness, +born of a realization of the awful anxiety that had stamped upon his +perfect memory every little detail that occurred.</p> + +<p>This was an experience when, in the month of December, the schooner he +was then sailing on had been sent on a last trip from Oswego to Toronto. +They had almost got around the Lighthouse Point at Toronto, after a +desperately cold passage, when a gale struck them, and, not being able +to carry enough canvas to weather the point, they were thus driven down +the lake again with the sails either blown from the bolt-ropes or split +to ribbons, with the exception of a bit of the foresail, with which they +ran before the wind. To go to South Bay would probably mean being frozen +in all winter, and perhaps the loss of the ship, so the captain headed +for Oswego, hoping the snow and sleet would clear off to enable them to +see the harbor when they got there. On the way down a huge sea came over +the stern, stove in the cabin, and smashed the compasses.</p> + +<p>"We hedn't kept no dead reckonin', an' we cudn't tell anyways how fast +we wus goin'. We just druv' on afore it for hours. Cudn't see more'n a +vessel's length anywheres for snow, and, as for ice, we wus makin' ice +on top of her like you'd think we wus a-loadin' ice from a elevator; we +wus just one of 'Greenland's icy mountings' gone adrift. Waal, the old +man guv it up at last, and acknowledged the corn right up and up. Says +he, 'Boys, she's a goner. We've druv' down below and past Oswego, and +that's the last of her.'"</p> + +<p>"This looked pretty bad—fur the old man to collapse all up like this; +fur all on yer knows as well as I do that to get down below Oswego in a +westerly gale in December means that naathin' is goin' to survive but +the insurance. There's no harbors, ner shelter, ner lifeboats, ner +naathin'. Yer anchors are no more use to yer off that shore than a +busted postage-stamp. Thet's the time, boys, fur to jine the Salvation +Army and trample down Satan under yer feet and run her fur the shore and +pray to God for a soft spot and lots of power fer to drive her well up +into a farm.</p> + +<p>"Waal, gents, the old man tuckered out, and went off to his cabin fur to +make it all solid with his 'eavenly parents, and two or three of us +chaps as hed been watchin' things pretty close come to the conclusion +thet we hedn't got below Oswego yet. So we all went in a body, as a kind +o' depitation from ourselves, and says us to the old man: 'Hev you guv +up the nevigation of this vessel? becus, ef yer hev, there's others here +as wud like to take a whack at playin' captain.'</p> + +<p>"'All right,' says the old man from his knees (fur he was down gettin' +the prayers ready-made out of a book), 'I've guv her up,' says he; 'do +you jibe your fores'l and head her fur the sutherd and look out for a +soft spot. Yer kin do what yer likes with her.'</p> + +<p>"So we jibes the fores'l then, just puttin' the wheel over and lettin' +the wind do the rest of it, fer there was six inches of ice on to the +sheets, and yer couldn't touch a line anywheres unless yer got in to it +with a axe. Waal, the old fores'l flickers across without carryin' away +naathin', and, just as we did this, another vessel heaves right across +the course we bed been a-driven' on. Our helm was over and the ship was +a-swingin' when we sighted her, or else we'd have cut her in two like a +bloomin' cowcumber. And then we seed our chance. That ere vessel was +goin' along, on the full kioodle, with every appearance of knowin' where +she was goin' to—which we didn't. 'Hooray!' says we, 'we ain't below +Oswego yet, and that vessel will show us the road. She's got the due +course from somewheres, and she's our only chance.'</p> + +<p>"And we follered her. You can bet your Sunday pants we was everlastin'ly +right on her track. She was all we hed, boys, 'tween us and th' etarnal +never-endin' psalm. Death seemed like a awful cold passage that time, +boys! We wus all frost-bit and froze up ginerally; and clothes weren't +no better'n paper onto us."</p> + +<p>"But she had a <i>leetle</i> more fores'l onto her than we hed; and after a +while she begun to draw away from us. We hed naathin' left more to set +fer to catch up with her. We hollered to make her ease up, but she paid +no attention. Guess she didn't hear, or thought we hed our compasses all +right—which we hedn't. Waal, gents, it was a awful time. Our last +chance was disappearin' in the snow-storm, and there wus us left there, +'most froze to death, and not knowin' where to go. Yer cudn't see her, +thro' the snow, more'n two lengths ahead; and, when she got past that, +all yer cud see was the track of her keel in the water right under our +bows. Well, fellows, I got down furrud on the chains, and we 'stablished +a line o' signals from me along the rest of them to the man at the +wheel. If I once lost that tract in the water we wus done forever. +Sometimes I wus afeared I hed lost it, and then I got it again, and then +it seemed to grow weaker; and I thought a little pray to God would do no +harm. And I lifts up my hand—so—"</p> + +<p>The man had left his seat and was crouching on the floor as he told this +part of the story. The words rolled out with a terrific energy as he +glared down at the floor, stooping in the attitude in which he had +watched the track in the water. The tones of his voice had a wild terror +in them that thrilled Jack to the very core, and made him feel as if he +could not breathe.</p> + +<p>"And I lifts up me hand—so (and, gents, I wus lookin' at that streak in +the water. I want yer to understand I was a-lookin' at it). And I lifts +up me hand—so—and I says 'Holy Christ, don't let that vessel get off +no farderer—'"</p> + +<p>The story was never finished.</p> + +<p>A sound came to them that seemed to Jack to be only a continuation of +the horror of the story he had heard. A crash sounded through the ship +and they were all knocked off their seats into the fore-peak with a +sudden shock. They tumbled up on deck in a flash, and there they saw +that a great steamer had mounted partly on top of the schooner's +counter. The mainmast had gone over the side to leeward.</p> + +<p>The schooner had been about to cross the steamer's course when they +first saw her lights in the fog, and, partly mistaking her direction, +the sailing captain had put his ship about. This brought the stern of +the schooner, as she swung in stays, directly in line with the course of +the steamer. The steamer's helm was put hard over, and the engines were +reversed, but not until within fifty feet of the schooner. The stern of +the schooner swung around as she turned to go off on the other tack, so +that, although the stem or cutwater of the steamer got past, the counter +of the schooner was struck and forced through the steamer's starboard +bow under the false sides. When they struck, the schooner's stern was +depressed in the seaway and the steamer's bow was high in the air, so +that the latter received a deadly blow which tore a hole about six feet +high by ten long in her bow. Both boats went ahead together, chiefly +owing to the momentum of the huge steamer. And for a moment the +steamer's false sides rested on what was left of the schooner's counter +on the port side.</p> + +<p>A man leaning over from the upper deck of the steamer cried:</p> + +<p>"What schooner is that?"</p> + +<p>"Schooner North Star, of Toronto," was the reply.</p> + +<p>The man vaulted over the bulwarks and slid actively down the sloping +side of the steamer to the deck of the schooner and looked around him. +No sooner had he done so than the motion of the waves parted the two +boats. The steamer ceased to move ahead. The forward canvas of the +schooner had caught the wind and she was beginning to pay off on the +port tack, the mainmast, mainsail, and rigging dragging in the water.</p> + +<p>Jack, who was filled with helpless anxiety, then discovered that the +steamer was the Eleusinian. At the same moment he heard a shriek from +the bow of the steamer and there he saw Nina, her long hair driving +behind her, beckoning him to come to help her. The steamer, filling like +a broken bottle, had already taken one lurch preparatory to going down +and Jack yelled:</p> + +<p>"Jump, Nina! Jump into the water and I will save you!"</p> + +<p>But Nina, not knowing that the steamer was going down, had not the +courage to cast herself into the black heaving waves.</p> + +<p>Jack saw this hesitation, and yelled to her again to jump. He made fast +the end of a coil of light line, and then sprang to the bulwarks to jump +overboard so that when he swam to the bows of the steamer Nina could +jump into the water near him.</p> + +<p>He knew without looking that the schooner, with no after-canvas set, +could do nothing at present but fall off and drift away before the wind, +as she was now doing, and as her one yawl boat had been smashed to dust +in the collision, the only chance for Nina was for him to have a line in +his hand whereby to regain the schooner as it drifted off. It was a wild +moment for Jack, but his nerve was equal to the occasion. While he +belayed the end of the light line to a ring on the bulwarks, he called +to his mates on the schooner to let go everything and douse their +forward canvas.</p> + +<p>It takes a long time even to read what had to be done. What Jack did was +done in a moment; but as he sprang to the bulwarks to vault over the +side, a strong pair of arms seized him from behind and held him like a +vice with his arms at his sides.</p> + +<p>"Let me go," he cried, as he struggled in the grasp of a stranger.</p> + +<p>"No, sir. You're wanted. I have had trouble enough to get you without +letting you drown yourself."</p> + +<p>Jack struggled wildly; but the more frantic he became the more he roused +the detective to ferocity. He heaved forward to throw Dearborn over his +head; but the two fell together, crashing their heads upon the deck, +where they writhed convulsively.</p> + +<p>The iron grip never relaxed. At last Jack, lifting Dearborn with him, +got on his feet and, seizing something on the bulwarks to hold himself +in position, he stopped his efforts to escape. "For God's sake," he +cried brokenly, "for Christ's sake, let me go! See, there she is! She is +going to be my wife!"</p> + +<p>In his excitement Dearborn forgot that the woman on the steamer might +have the stolen money with her. To him Jack's jumping overboard promised +certain death and the loss of a prisoner.</p> + +<p>As Jack tried to point to Nina, who was clasping the little flag-pole at +the bow of the steamer—a white figure in the surrounding gloom, waving +and apparently calling to him—he saw the steamer take a slow, sickening +lurch forward, and then a long lurch aft. The bows rose high in the air, +with that poor desolate figure clasping the flag-pole, and then the +Eleusinian slowly disappeared.</p> + +<p>For an instant the bows remained above the surface while the air escaped +from the interior, and the last that could be seen was the white figure +clinging desperately to the little mast as if forsaken by all. No power +had answered her agonies of prayer for deliverance.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>After the strong man who had pinioned Jack saw the vessel go down, he +became aware that he was holding his culprit up rather than down. He +looked around at his face, and there saw a pair of staring eyes that +discerned nothing. He laid him on the deck then, and finally placed him +in the after-cabin on the floor. Jack did not regain consciousness. His +breathing returned only to allow a delirium to supervene. Dearborn and a +sailor had again to hold him, or he would have plunged over the +bulwarks, thinking the steamer had not yet sunk.</p> + +<p>The captain's wife, who had been sleeping in the extra berth off the +after-cabin, had been crushed between the timbers when the collision +took place, and under the frantic orders of the captain the rest of the +crew were trying to extricate the screaming woman. The mate had been +disabled in the falling of the mainmast, so that no attempts were made +to save those who were left swimming when the Eleusinian went down, and +the schooner, under her forward canvas, sailed off, dragging her +wreckage after her, slowly, of course, but faster than any one could +swim. Thus no one was saved from the steamer except the detective, who +had not thought of saving his own life when he had dropped to the deck +of the schooner, but only of seizing Jack.</p> + +<p>The mate was able, after a time, to give his directions while lying on +the deck. The wreckage was chopped away, and the vessel was brought +nearer the wind to raise the injured port quarter well above the waves +until canvas could be nailed over the gaping aperture. When this was +done they squared away before the wind, hoisted the center-board, and +made good time up the lake. They had a fair wind to Port Dalhousie—the +only place available for dockyards and refitting—where they arrived at +two o'clock in the day.</p> + +<p>After raving in delirium until they arrived at Port Dalhousie, Jack fell +off then into a sleep, and when the Empress of India was ready to leave +at four o'clock for Toronto, Dearborn woke him up and found that his +consciousness seemed to have partly returned. The detective was pleased +that the disabled vessel had sought a Canadian port, where his warrant +for Jack's arrest was good. However, the prisoner made no resistance, +and at nine o'clock he was duly locked up at Toronto, having remained in +a sort of stupor from which nothing could arouse him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The time is out of joint;—O cursed spite.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I was ever born to set it right.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hamlet.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>As the afternoon wore on, on that day when the bank lost its $50,000, +Geoffrey Hampstead was back at his work as usual. He did not change his +waistcoat while at his rooms, because he thought this might be remarked. +He merely left the money there, and went back to his work as if nothing +had happened. The excitement among the clerks in the bank was feverish. +Geoffrey let them know what he and Dearborn had seen in Jack's room, and +that the confusion there clearly showed that he had gone off somewhere. +Most faces looked black at this, but there were several who, in spite of +the worst appearances, refused to believe in Jack's guilt. Geoffrey was +one of them. Geoffrey was quite broken down. Everybody felt sorry for +him. He had made a great friend of Jack, and every one could see that +the blow had almost prostrated him.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the afternoon he said to a couple of his friends: "I +wish you fellows would dine with me to-night. I feel as if I had to have +somebody with me."</p> + +<p>These two did so. In the evening they picked up some more of the bank +men, and all repaired to Geoffrey's quarters. They saw he was drinking +heavily, and perhaps out of fellow-feeling for a man who had had a blow, +they also drank a good deal themselves, and lapsed into hilarity, +partly in order to draw Geoffrey out of his gloom.</p> + +<p>At one o'clock the night was still young so far as they were concerned, +and the liquor in the rooms had run short. Geoffrey did not wish to be +left alone. The noise and foolishness of his friends diverted his +thoughts from more unpleasant subjects. When the wine ran out, he said +they must have some more. They said it would be impossible to get it; +but Geoffrey said Patsey Priest could procure it, and he rang on Mrs. +Priest's bell until Patsey appeared, looking like a disheveled monkey. +He was received with an ovation. Geoffrey gave him the money, and sent +him to a neighboring large hotel to get a case of champagne. When he +returned, having accomplished his errand, the young gentlemen were +enthusiastic over him. He was made to stand on a table and take an +affidavit on an album that he had brought the right change back. Then +some jackass said a collection must be taken up for Patsey, and he +headed the list with a dollar. Of course, everybody else gave a dollar +also, because this was such a fine idea. Mr. St. George Le Mesurier +Hector Northcote was delighted with Patsey. "Mr. Priest," he said, "you +are a gentleman and a man of finish; but it grieves me to notice that +your garments, although compatible with genius, do not, of themselves, +suggest that luxury which genius should command. Wait here for a moment; +you must be clad in costly raiment."</p> + +<p>Mr. St. G. Le M. H. Northcote darted unsteadily, not to say lurched, +into Geoffrey's room, looking for that "very dreadful waistcoat" which +he had been pained to see Geoffrey wearing during the day. He found it +at once in a closet, and, wrapping it in among several trousers and +coats which he had selected at random, he came out again with the bundle +in his hand.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing there with my clothes?" asked Geoffrey, rising +good-humoredly, but inwardly nervous, and going toward the bedroom as +Northcote came out.</p> + +<p>"I am going to give them to a gentleman whose station in life is not +properly typified in his garb."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey did not see the waistcoat lying inside one of the coats in the +bundle, and so he thought it better to humor the idea than run any +chances. He had taken off this objectionable article before going to +dinner, intending to come back and burn it when he had more time.</p> + +<p>He took the bundle from Northcote and handed it to Patsey as he dragged +that individual to the door. "Here," he said. "Don't come down in rags +to my room again. Now, get out."</p> + +<p>Patsey disappeared hurriedly through the door. He had his own opinion of +these young men who were so ready to pay for the pleasure of knocking +him about, and if he had been required to classify mammalia he would not +have applied the old name of <i>homo sapiens</i> to any species to which they +belonged.</p> + +<p>The next day, to kill time during the anxious hours, Geoffrey went out +yachting with Dusenall and several others. As the wind fell off, they +did not reach the moorings again until late in the evening, when they +dined at the club-house on the island, and slept on the Ideal instead of +going home. After an early breakfast the next morning they were rowed +across the bay, and Geoffrey reached the bank at the usual time.</p> + +<p>In this way, having been away from town all night, he knew nothing of +the news that had spread like wildfire through certain circles on the +previous night, that Jack Cresswell had been arrested and brought to +Toronto. The first person whom he met at the door of the bank was the +omnipresent Detective Dearborn, who smiled and asked him what he thought +of the news.</p> + +<p>"What news?" asked Geoffrey, his eyes growing small.</p> + +<p>"Why, this," he replied, handing Geoffrey one of the morning papers, +which he had not yet seen. Geoffrey read the following, printed in very +large type, on the first page:</p> + + +<h4>CLEVER CAPTURE!</h4> + +<h4>JACK CRESSWELL, THE VICTORIA BANK ROBBER ARRESTED!<br /> +THE STOLEN $50,000 SUPPOSED TO BE NOW RECOVERED!<br /> +EXCITING CHASE AND EXTRAORDINARY DETECTIVE WORK!<br /> +A BULL'S-EYE FOR DETECTIVE DEARBORN!<br /> +PRISONER CAPTURED DURING A COLLISION BETWEEN TWO VESSELS!<br /> +WRECK OF THE STEAMER ELEUSINIAN!!<br /> +ALL ON BOARD LOST!!<br /> +EXCEPT THE WILY DETECTIVE.<br /> +GREAT EXCITEMENT!!<br /> +FURTHER DISCLOSURES ABOUT THE BANK!!!<br /> +THE BLOATED ARISTOCRACY SHAKEN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS!!!!</h4> + + +<p>Detective Dearborn, on his arrival in Toronto, was so certain of +convicting his prisoner that he threw the hungry newspaper reporters +some choice and tempting <i>morceaux</i>. And, from the little that he gave +them, they built up such an interesting and imaginative article that one +was forced to think of the scientific society described by Bret Harte, +when Mr. Brown—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">Reconstructed there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From those same bones an animal that was extremely rare.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Indeed, from the glowing colors in which the detective's chase was +painted, from the many allusions to Jack's high standing in society and +his terrible downfall, from a full description of Jack as being the +petted darling of all the unwise virgins of the upper ten, and from the +way that the name of Jack was familiarly bandied about, one necessarily +ended the article with a disbelief in any form of respectability, +especially in the upper classes, and with a profound conviction that +society generally was rotten to the core. The name "Jack" seemed now to +have a criminal sound about it, and reminded the reader of "Thimble-rig +Jack" and "Jack Sheppard," and other notorieties who have done much to +show that people called "Jack" should be regarded with suspicion.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dearborn watched Geoffrey's face as he glanced over the newspaper. +Dearborn had a sort of an idea from all he could learn, that Jack had +had a longer head than his own to back him up, and, for reasons which +need not be mentioned now, he suspected that there was more than one in +this business.</p> + +<p>However, Geoffrey knew that he was being watched, and his nerve was +still equal to the occasion. He turned white, as a matter of course—so +did everybody in the bank—and Dearborn got no points from his face.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey handed him back the paper, and said commiseratingly: "Poor +Jack, he has dished himself, sure enough, this time."</p> + +<p>Dearborn served him then with a subpœna to attend the hearing before +the police magistrate at an hour which was then striking, and Geoffrey +walked over to the police court with him.</p> + +<p>Standing-room in the court that day was difficult to get. In the morning +well-worn <i>habitués</i> of that interesting place easily sold the width of +their bodies on the floor for fifty cents.</p> + +<p>Maurice Rankin had rushed off to see Jack in the morning. He knew +nothing about the evidence, but he felt that Jack was innocent. He found +his friend apparently in a sort of stupor, and was hardly recognized by +him.</p> + +<p>"You must have the best lawyer I can get to defend you, Jack," he said.</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Don't you intend to make any defense or have any assistance? I can get +you a splendid man in two minutes."</p> + +<p>Jack shook his head slowly, and said, with an evident effort:</p> + +<p>"No. I don't care."</p> + +<p>Rankin did not know what to make of him; but, finally, he said:</p> + +<p>"Well, if you won't have any person better, I will sit there, and if I +see my way to anything I'll perhaps say a word. You do not object to my +doing this, do you?" Jack's answer, or rather the motion of his head, +might have meant anything, but Rankin took it to mean assent.</p> + +<p>At half-past nine, Jack was led from the cell outside to the court-room +by two policemen who seemed partly to support him.</p> + +<p>A thrill ran through his old friends when they saw him. His face was +ghastly, and his jaw had dropped in an enervated way that gave him the +appearance of a man who had been fairly cornered and had "thrown up the +sponge" in despair. He had not been brushed or combed for two nights and +a day. He still wore his old, dirty sailing clothes. The sailor's +sheath-knife attached to his leather belt had been removed by the +police. His partial stupor was construed to be dogged sullenness, and it +assisted in giving every one a thoroughly bad impression as to his +innocence.</p> + +<p>After he was placed in the dock he sat down and absently picked at some +blisters on his hands, until the magistrate spoke to him, and then the +policemen ordered him to stand up. When he stood thus, partly raised +above the spectators, his eyes were lusterless and stolid and he looked +vacantly in the direction of the magistrate.</p> + +<p>"John Cresswell, it is charged against you that you did, on the 25th day +of August last, at the city of Toronto, in the county of York, +feloniously steal, take, and carry away fifty thousand dollars, the +property of the Victoria Bank of Canada," etc.</p> + +<p>Rankin saw that Jack did not comprehend what was going on. He got up, +and was going to say something when the magistrate continued:</p> + +<p>"Do you wish that the charge against you shall be tried by me or with a +jury at the next assizes, or by some other court of competent +jurisdiction?"</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>The magistrate looked at Jack keenly. It struck him that the prisoner +had been imbibing and was not yet sober, and so he spoke louder, and in +a more explanatory and informal tone.</p> + +<p>"You may be tried, if you like, on some other day, before the county +judge without a jury, or you may wait till the coming assizes and be +tried with a jury, or, if you consent to it, you may be tried here, now, +before me. Which do you wish to do?"</p> + +<p>Still no answer.</p> + +<p>Rankin considered. He knew nothing of the evidence, and thought it +impossible for Jack to be guilty. He did not wish to relinquish any +chances his friend might have with a jury, and he felt that Jack himself +ought to answer if he could. He went to him and said simply, for it was +so difficult to make him understand:</p> + +<p>"Do you want to be tried now or afterward?"</p> + +<p>Jack nodded his head, while he seemed to be trying to collect himself.</p> + +<p>"You mean to be tried now?"</p> + +<p>Jack looked a little brighter here, and said weakly:</p> + +<p>"Certainly—why not?"</p> + +<p>Detective Dearborn, had not been idle since his return; and all the +witnesses that the prosecution required were present.</p> + +<p>His first witness was Geoffrey Hampstead. His evidence was looked upon +by the spectators as uninteresting, and merely for the sake of form. +Everybody knew what he had to say. He merely explained how the packet of +fifty bills belonging to the Victoria Bank had been put in a certain +place on the desk in his box at the bank, and that, he said, was all he +knew about it.</p> + +<p>At this point, Jack leaned over the bar and said; with a stupid pleasure +in his face:</p> + +<p>"Morry, there's old Geoffrey. I can see him. What's he talking about? +Say, if you get a chance, tell him I am awfully glad to see him again."</p> + +<p>Rankin now became convinced that there was something the matter with +Jack's head, and he resolved to speak to the court to obtain a +postponement of the case when the present witness had given his +evidence.</p> + +<p>It was also drawn from Geoffrey, by the county attorney, that the +prisoner alone had had access to the place where the money lay, that it +could not have been reached from the public hall-way, and that the +prisoner had gone out very soon after he had spoken to the witness—when +the money lay within his reach.</p> + +<p>The crown prosecutor said he would ask the witness nothing more at +present, but would require him again.</p> + +<p>Rankin then represented to the police magistrate that his client was too +ill to give him any instructions in the matter. The defendant was a +personal friend of his, and although willing to act for him, he was, as +yet, completely in the dark as to any of the facts, and in view of this +he deemed it only proper to request that the whole matter should be +postponed until he should be properly able to judge for himself.</p> + +<p>The magistrate then asked, with something of a twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>"What do you think is the matter with your client, Mr. Rankin?"</p> + +<p>"It is hard for me, not being a doctor, to say," answered Rankin, +looking back thoughtfully toward Jack. "I think, however, that he is +suffering from some affection of the brain."</p> + +<p>A horse-laugh was heard from some one among the "unwashed," and the +police strained their heads to see who made the noise. The old plea of +insanity seemed to be coming up once again, and one man in the crowd was +certainly amused.</p> + +<p>The magistrate said: "I do not think there is any reason why I should +not go on hearing the evidence, now. I will note your objection, Mr. +Rankin, and I perceive that you may be in a rather awkward position, +perhaps, if you are in total ignorance of the facts."</p> + +<p>Rankin was in a quandary. If he sat down and declined to cross-examine +the witnesses or act for the defendant in any way, Jack might be +convicted, and all chances for technical loopholes of escape might be +lost forever. There might, however, in this case, if the trial were +forced on, be a ground for some after proceedings on the claim that he +did not get fair play. On the other hand, cross-examination might +possibly break up the prosecution, if the evidence was weak or +unsatisfactory. He came to the conclusion that he would go on and +examine the witness and try to have it understood that he did so under +protest.</p> + +<p>After partly explaining to the magistrate what he wished to do, he asked +Geoffrey a few questions—not seeing his way at all clearly, but just +for the general purpose of fishing until he elicited something that he +might use.</p> + +<p>"You say that after the defendant spoke to you in the bank you heard him +go out through the side door. Where does that side door lead?"</p> + +<p>"It leads into an empty hall, and then you go out of an outer side door +into the street."</p> + +<p>"Is not this outer side door sometimes left open in hot weather?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think it was open all that day."</p> + +<p>"How are the partitions between the stalls or boxes of the different +clerks in the Victoria Bank constructed?"</p> + +<p>"They are made rather high (about five feet six high) and they are built +of wood—black walnut, I think."</p> + +<p>"Then, if the door of your box was closed you could not see who came in +or out of Mr. Cresswell's stall?"</p> + +<p>"Only through the wicket between our boxes."</p> + +<p>"How long after Mr. Cresswell went out did you notice that the money was +gone?"</p> + +<p>"I can't quite remember. I was going on with my work with my back to the +money. It might have been from an hour to an hour and a half. I went out +to the side door myself for an instant, to see what the weather was +going to be in the afternoon. It was some time after I came back that I +found that the money was gone."</p> + +<p>"Then, as far as you are able to tell, somebody might have come into Mr. +Cresswell's stall after he went out, and taken the money without your +knowing it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. There was perhaps an hour and a half in which this could +have been done."</p> + +<p>"This package of money, as it lay, could have been seen from the public +hall-way of the bank through your front wicket, could it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And it was perfectly possible for a person, after seeing the money in +this way, to go around and come in the side door, enter Mr. Cresswell's +box and take the money?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have heard of as daring robberies as that."</p> + +<p>"Or it would have been easy for any of the other bank officials to have +taken the money?"</p> + +<p>"If they had wished to do so—yes."</p> + +<p>"And it would have been possible for you, when you went to the side +door, to have handed the money to some one there ready to receive it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Geoffrey, laughing; "I might have had a confederate +outside. I could have given a confederate about two hundred thousand +dollars that morning, I think."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Rankin to Geoffrey, as he sat down.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey saw what Rankin wanted, and he assisted him as far as he could +to open up any other possibilities to account for the disappearance of +the money.</p> + +<p>The cabman who removed Jack's valises early in the morning was then +called. He identified Jack as the person who had engaged him. Had been +often engaged before by Mr. Cresswell. He also identified Jack's +valises, which were produced.</p> + +<p>Rankin did not cross-examine this man. His evidence was brought in to +show that Jack's absconding was a carefully planned one—partly put into +action before the stealing of the money—and not the result of any hasty +impulse.</p> + +<p>The caretaker of the yacht-club house was also called, for the same +object. He told what he knew, and was restrained with difficulty from +continually saying that he did not see anything suspicious about what he +saw. The caretaker was evidently partial to the prisoner.</p> + +<p>Detective Dearborn then took the stand, and as he proceeded in his story +the interest grew intense. But when he mentioned meeting a young lady on +the steamboat, and getting into a conversation with her, Rankin arose +and said he had no doubt there were few ladies who could resist his +friend Detective Dearborn, but that he did not see what she had to do +with the case.</p> + +<p>Then the county attorney jumped to his feet and contended that this +evidence was admissible to show that this woman was going to the same +place as the prisoner and had conspired with the prisoner to rob the +bank.</p> + +<p>Rankin replied that there was no charge against the prisoner for +conspiracy, that the woman was not mentioned in the charge, and unless +it were shown that she was in some way connected with the prisoner in +the larceny evidence as to her conversations could not be received if +not spoken in the prisoner's presence.</p> + +<p>Rankin had no idea who this woman was or what she had said. He only +choked off everything he could on general principles.</p> + +<p>The magistrate refused to receive as evidence the conversation between +her and the detective. So Rankin made his point, not knowing how +valuable it was to his client.</p> + +<p>Detective Dearborn was much chagrined at this. He thought that his +story, as an interesting narrative of detective life, was quite spoiled +by the omission, and he blurted out as a sort of "aside" to the +spectators:</p> + +<p>"Well, any way, she said she was Cresswell's wife."</p> + +<p>This remark created a sensation in court, as he anticipated. But the +magistrate rebuked him very sharply for it, saying: "I would have you +remember that the evidence of very zealous police officers is always +sufficiently open to suspicion. Showing more zeal than the law allows to +obtain a conviction does not improve your condition as a witness."</p> + +<p>Although merited, this was a sore snub for the able detective, and it +seemed quite to take the heart out of him; but he afterward recovered +himself as he fell to describing what had occurred in the collision and +how he had got on board the North Star—the sole survivor from the +Eleusinian. In speaking of the arrest he did not say that he had +prevented Jack from saving the life dearest on earth to him. He gave the +truth a very unpleasant turn against the prisoner by saying that Jack +struggled violently to escape from the arrest and tried to throw +himself overboard. This, of course, gave all the impression that he was +ready to seek death rather than be captured. It gave a desperate aspect +to his conduct, and accorded well with his sullen appearance in the +court-room. Dearborn suppressed the fact that Jack had been delirious +and raving for twelve hours afterward, as this might explain his present +condition and cause delay. He had lost no opportunity of circulating the +suggestion that he was shamming insanity.</p> + +<p>After he had briefly described his return to Toronto with his prisoner, +the crown attorney asked him:</p> + +<p>"Did you find any articles upon his person?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I took this knife away from him."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed!" said the crown attorney, taking the knife and examining +it. "Quite a murderous-looking weapon."</p> + +<p>"Which will be found strapped to the back of every sailor that +breathes," interrupted Rankin indignantly. "I hope my learned friend +won't arrest his barber for using razors in his daily work."</p> + +<p>"And what else did you find upon him?" asked the attorney, returning to +the case for want of good retort.</p> + +<p>Detective Dearborn thought a sensation agreeable to himself would +certainly be made by his answer:</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, with the <i>sang froid</i> with which detectives delight to +make their best points, "I found on him two of the stolen +one-thousand-dollar bills—"</p> + +<p>"Now, now, now!" cried Rankin, jumping to his feet in an instant. "You +can not possibly know that of your own knowledge. You are getting too +zealous again, Mr. Dearborn."</p> + +<p>"Don't alarm yourself, my acute friend," said the crown attorney, +conscious that all the evidence he required was coming on afterward. "We +will prove the identity of the recovered bills to your most complete +satisfaction." Then, turning to the witness, he said: "Go on."</p> + +<p>Dearborn, who had made the little stir he expected went on to explain +what the other moneys were that he had found on Jack, and described how +he found the bills pinned securely inside a watch-pocket of a waistcoat +that he wore underneath his outer shirt.</p> + +<p>Rankin asked Dearborn only one question. There did not seem to be any +use in resisting the matter except on the one point which remained to be +proved.</p> + +<p>"You do not pretend to identify these bills yourself?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, I don't. But we'll fix that all right for you," he said, +triumphantly, as he descended from the box.</p> + +<p>The clerk in the Montreal Telegraph Company's office who compared the +numbers of the bills with the list of numbers sent from New York, then +identified the two recovered bills beyond any doubt. He also swore that +he personally deposited the package of bills with the receiving teller +of the Victoria Bank.</p> + +<p>The receiving teller swore to having received such a package and having +handed it to Mr. Hampstead to be used in his department.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey Hampstead was recalled, and acknowledged receiving such a +package from the other clerk. But what surprised everybody was that he +took up the recovered bills and swore positively that the stolen bills +were of a light-brown color, and not dark-green, like the ones found on +the prisoner.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey had seen that the whole case depended on the identification of +these bills. If he could break the evidence of the other witnesses +sufficiently on this point, there might, he thought, be a chance of +having Jack liberated.</p> + +<p>A peculiar thing happened here, which startled the dense mass of people +looking on.</p> + +<p>The prisoner arose to his feet, and, taking hold of the railing to +steady himself, said in a rolling, hollow voice, while Geoffrey was +swearing that the stolen bills were of a light-brown color:</p> + +<p>"Geoffrey, old man, don't tell any lies on my account. The bills were +all dark-green." Then he sat down again wearily.</p> + +<p>If there was a man in the room who until now had still hoped that Jack +was innocent, his last clinging hope was dissipated by this speech.</p> + +<p>A deep silence prevailed for an instant, as the conviction of his guilt +sank into every heart.</p> + +<p>Some said it was just like Geoffrey to go up and try to swear his friend +off. They thought it was like him, inasmuch as it was a daring stroke +which was aimed at the root of the whole prosecution. Probably he lost +few friends among those who thought he had perjured himself for this +object. Those who did not think this, supposed he was mistaken in his +recollection as to the color of the bills. A small special edition of a +vulgar newspaper, issued an hour afterward, said:</p> + +<p>"In this case of Regina <i>vs.</i> Cresswell, if Hampstead had been able to +shake the identification of these bills no doubt Regina would have 'got +left.'"</p> + +<p>When Jack had returned to consciousness, at Port Dalhousie, it was only +partially. He looked at the detective dreamily when informed that he had +to go to Toronto. He felt desperately ill and weak, and thought of one +thing only—Nina's death. Even that he only realized faintly. Mentally +and bodily he was like a water-logged wreck that could be towed about +from place to place but was capable in itself of doing little more than +barely floating. When Rankin had spoken to him, before the trial, about +getting a lawyer, he was merely conscious of a slight annoyance that +disturbed the one weak current of his thought. When the magistrate had +addressed him in the court-room, the change from the dark cell to the +light room and the crowd of faces had nearly banished again the few rays +of intelligence which he possessed. He did not know what the magistrate +was saying. Vaguely conscious that there was some charge against him, he +was paralyzed by a death-like weakness which prevented his caring in the +slightest degree what happened. When Rankin spoke incisively to him, the +voice was familiar, and he was able to make an answer, and in the course +of the trial gleams of intelligence came to him. The vibrations of +Geoffrey's well-known voice aroused him with a half-thrill of pleasure, +and during the re-examination he had partly comprehended that there was +some charge against him about these bills, and he came to the conclusion +that as Geoffrey must have known the true color of the bills, he was +only telling an untruth for the purpose of getting him off. This was as +far as his intelligence climbed, and when he sat down again the exertion +proved too much for him, and his mind wandered.</p> + +<p>Of course, after this terribly damaging remark, there was nothing left +for Rankin to cling to. Clearly, Jack knew all about the bills, and had +given up all hope of acquittal. The two other clerks were called to +contradict Geoffrey as to the color of the bills, and with that the case +for the prosecution closed.</p> + +<p>Rankin said he was as yet unprepared with any evidence for the defense. +Evidence of previous good character could certainly be obtained in any +quantity from any person who had ever known the prisoner, and, in any +case, he should be allowed time to produce this evidence. He easily +showed a number of reasons why a postponement for a week should be +granted.</p> + +<p>The magistrate shook his head, and then told John Cresswell to stand up.</p> + +<p>Jack was partly hoisted up by a policeman. He stood holding on to the +bar in front of him with his head down, perhaps the most guilty looking +individual that had been in that dock for a month.</p> + +<p>"John Cresswell, the evidence against you in this case leaves no shadow +of doubt in my mind that you are guilty of the offense charged. Your +counsel has requested a delay in order that your defense may be more +thoroughly gone into. I have watched your demeanor throughout the trial, +and, although a little doubtful at first, I have come to the conclusion +that you are shamming insanity. I saw you on several occasions look +perfectly intelligent, and your remarks show that you fully understand +the bearing of the case. I will therefore refuse to postpone the trial +further than three o'clock this afternoon. This will give your counsel +an opportunity to produce evidence of previous good character or any +other evidence that he may wish to bring forward. Forty-eight thousand +dollars of the stolen money are still missing, and, so far, I certainly +presume that you know where that large sum of money is secreted. Unless +the aspect of the case be changed by further evidence sentence will be +passed on you this afternoon, and I wish to tell you now that if, in the +mean time, you make restitution of the money, such action on your part +may materially affect the sentence I shall pass upon you."</p> + +<p>The magistrate was going on to say: "I will adjourn the court now until +three o'clock," when he perceived that Jack, who was still standing, was +speaking to him and looking at him vacantly. What Jack said while his +head swayed about drunkenly was this:</p> + +<p>"If you'll let me off this watch now I'll do double time to-morrow, +governor. I never was sea-sick before, but I must turn in for a while, +for I can't stand without holding on to something."</p> + +<p>Nobody knew what to make of this except Detective Dearborn, who had +possessed all along the clew to his distressing condition. But what did +the detective care for his condition? John Cresswell was black with +guilt. The fact of his being "cut up" because, a woman got drowned did +not change his guilt. He and that deuced fine woman were partners in +this business, and forty-eight thousand had gone to the bottom of the +lake in her pocket The detective could not forgive himself for not +allowing Jack to try and save the girl. The girl herself was no object, +but it would have fetched things out beautifully as a culmination of +detective work to bring her back also—along with the money. Forty-eight +and two would make fifty, and if the bank could not afford to give away +one in consideration of getting back the forty-nine—Bah! he knew his +mad thirst to hold his prey had made him a fool.</p> + +<p>Was it the formation of his jaw? They say a bull-dog is not the best +fighter, because he will not let go his first grip in order to take a +better one.</p> + +<p>The court-room was empty in five minutes after the adjournment, and a +couple of the "Vics" followed Jack down-stairs. Rankin went down also +and was going to get Jack some stimulant, but he found the bank fellows +ahead of him. One of them had got a pint of "fizz," another had procured +from the neighboring restaurant some oysters and a small flask of +brandy.</p> + +<p>These young men were beautiful in the matter of stand-up collars, their +linen was chaste, and extensive, and-their clothes ornamental, but they +could stick to a friend. The language of these young men, who showed +such a laxity in moral tone as to attempt to refresh an undoubted +criminal, was ordinarily almost too correct, but now they were profane. +Every one of them had been fond of Jack, and their sympathy was greater +than their self-control. For once they forgot to be respectable, and +were cursing to keep themselves from showing too much feeling—a phase +not uncommon.</p> + +<p>Rankin saw Jack take some brandy and that afterward he was able to peck +at the oysters. Then he walked off to No. 173 Tremaine Buildings to +think out what had best be done and to have a solitary piece of bread +and butter, and perhaps a cup of tea, if Mrs. Priest's stove happened to +have a fire in it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So Justice, while she winks at crimes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stumbles on innocence sometimes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Hudibras.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<blockquote><p>He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and +will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.—<span class="smcap">Henry +Ward Beecher.</span></p></blockquote> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>About two o'clock on this day of the trial, when Geoffrey and all the +rest of the bank-clerks were hurrying through their work in order to get +out to attend the police court, Mr. Dearborn came in unexpectedly, and +talked to Hampstead for a while. He said that the prisoner Cresswell +was very ill, perhaps dying, and had begged him to go and bring Geoffrey +to see him—if only for a moment.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hampstead, "I'll speak to the manager about going, and +will then drop over with you."</p> + +<p>He did so, and they walked to the police station together. They +descended into the basement, and Mr. Dearborn unlocked a cell which was +very dark inside.</p> + +<p>"You'll find him in there," said the detective. "I'll have to keep the +door locked, of course, while you are with him."</p> + +<p>Geoffrey entered, and the door was locked on the outside. He looked +around the cell, and then a fear struck him. He turned coolly to the +detective, who was still outside the bars, and said: "You have brought +me to the wrong cell. Cresswell is not in this one."</p> + +<p>"Well, the fact is," said Mr. Dearborn, "a warrant was just now placed +in my hands for your arrest, and, as they say you are particularly good +both at running and the manly art, I thought a little stratagem might +work the thing in nice, quiet shape."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Hampstead, laughing. "Perhaps you are right. I don't +think you could catch me if I got started. Who issued the warrant, and +what is it about?"</p> + +<p>"Here is the warrant. You are entitled to see it. An information was +laid, and that's all I know about it. You'll be called up in court in a +few minutes, and I must leave you now—to look after some other +business."</p> + +<p>At three o'clock, when the court-room was packed almost to suffocation, +the magistrate mounted the bench, and Cresswell was brought up and +remanded until the next morning. The spectators were much disappointed +at not hearing the termination of the matter, but their interest revived +as they heard the magistrate say, "Bring in the other prisoner."</p> + +<p>A dead silence followed, broken only by the measured tread of men's feet +in the corridor outside. The double doors opened, and there appeared +Geoffrey Hampstead handcuffed and accompanied by four huge policemen. In +ten minutes, any person in the court could easily sell his standing-room +at a dollar and a half a stand, or upward.</p> + +<p>There was no hang-dog look about Geoffrey. His crest was high. It was +surprising to see how dignified a man could appear in handcuffs. +Suppressed indignation was so vividly stamped upon his face that all +gained the idea that the gentleman was suffering an outrage. As he +approached the dock, one of his guards laid his hand on his arm. +Hampstead stopped short and turned to the policeman as if he would eat +him:</p> + +<p>"Take your hand off my arm!" he rasped out. The man did so in a hurry, +and the spectators were impressed by the incident.</p> + +<p>A charge about the fifty thousand dollars was read out to Geoffrey, +similar to that in the Cresswell case. That he did, etc.—on, etc.—at, +etc.—feloniously, etc.—and all the rest of it.</p> + +<p>Now Hampstead did not see how, when he was apparently innocent, and +another man practically convicted, he could possibly be thought guilty +also. The case against Cresswell had been so complete that it was +impossible for any one to doubt his guilt. Hampstead knew also that if +he were tried once now and acquitted, he never could be tried again for +the same offense. He had been fond of talking to Rankin about criminal +law, and on some points was better posted than most men. He did not know +whether Jack would be well enough to give evidence to-day, if at all, +and if, for want of proof or otherwise, the case against him failed now, +he would be safe forever. Jack might recover soon, and then the case +would be worse if he told all he knew. He did not engage a lawyer, as +this might seem as if he were doubtful and needed assistance. He was, he +thought, quite as well able to see loopholes of escape as a lawyer would +be, so long as they did not depend on technicalities. Altogether he had +decided, after his arrest and after careful thought, to take his trial +at once.</p> + +<p>He elected to be tried before a police magistrate, said he was ready for +trial, and pleaded "not guilty."</p> + +<p>About this time the manager of the Victoria Bank, who was very much +astonished and hurt at the proceedings taken against Geoffrey, leaned +over and asked the county attorney if he had much evidence against Mr. +Hampstead. The poor manager was beginning almost to doubt his own +honesty. Every person seemed guilty in this matter. As for Jack and +Hampstead, he would have previously been quite ready to have sworn to +his belief in their honesty.</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," replied the county attorney, "I don't know anything about +it. Mr. Rankin came flying down in a cab, saw the prisoner Cresswell, +swore out a warrant, had Mr. Hampstead arrested, sent the detectives +flying about in all directions, and that's all I know about it. He is +running the entire show himself."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said the manager. "I shall never be surprised at anything +again, after to-day."</p> + +<p>Nobody knew but Rankin himself what was coming on. Several detectives +had had special work allotted to them, but this was all they knew, and +the small lawyer sat with apparent composure until it was time to call +his first witness.</p> + +<p>Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote was the first witness +called, and his fashionable outfit created some amusement among the +"unwashed." Rankin, with a certain malignity, made him give his name in +full, which, together with his affected utterance, interested those who +were capable of smiling.</p> + +<p>After some formal questions, Rankin unrolled a parcel, shook out a +waistcoat with a large pattern on it, and handed it to the witness.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. It belongs to Mr. Hampstead. At least it used to belong to +him."</p> + +<p>"When did you see it last?"</p> + +<p>"Up in his rooms a few evenings ago."</p> + +<p>"That was the night of the day the fifty thousand dollars was stolen +from the bank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What did you do with it then?"</p> + +<p>"I took it out of his bedroom closet to give to a poor boy."</p> + +<p>"Why did you do that?"</p> + +<p>"I thought it was a kindness to Mr. Hampstead to take that very dreadful +waistcoat away from him. I took this and a number of other garments to +give to the boy."</p> + +<p>"You were quite generous that night! Did Mr. Hampstead object?"</p> + +<p>"Object? Oh, no! I should have said that he took them from me and gave +them to the boy himself."</p> + +<p>"Now, why were you so generous with Mr. Hampstead's clothes, and why +should he consent to give them to the boy?"</p> + +<p>This was getting painful for Sappy. His manager was standing, as he +said, plumb in front of him.</p> + +<p>"Well, if I must tell unpleasant things," said Sappy, "the boy was sent +out that evening to get us a little wine, and I thought giving him that +waistcoat would be a satisfaction to all parties."</p> + +<p>"You were perfectly right. You have given a great deal of satisfaction +to a great many people. So Mr. Hampstead was entertaining his friends +that night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. We dined with him at the club that evening, and adjourned +afterward to his rooms to have a little music."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Just so. Seeing how pleasantly things had been going in the bank +that day, and that his particular friend Cresswell had decamped with +fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Hampstead was celebrating the occasion. Now, +I suppose that, taking in the cost of the dinners and the wine—or +rather, excuse me—the <i>music</i>, and all the rest of it, you got the +impression that Mr. Hampstead had a good deal of money that night?"</p> + +<p>"That's none of your business," said Sappy, firing up. "Mr. Hampstead +spends his money like a gentleman. I suppose he did spend a good deal +that night, and generally does."</p> + +<p>"Very good," said Rankin.</p> + +<p>He then went on to ask questions about Hampstead's salary and his +probable expenses, but perhaps this was to kill time, for he kept +looking toward the door, as if he expected somebody to come in. Finally +he let poor Sappy depart in peace, after making him show beyond any +doubt that Geoffrey wore this waistcoat at the time of the theft at the +bank—that the garment was old fashioned, and that it had seemed +peculiar that Hampstead, a man of some fashion, should be wearing it.</p> + +<p>Patsey Priest was now called, and he slunk in from an adjoining room, in +company with a policeman. He had a fixed impression in his mind that +Geoffrey was his prosecutor, and that he was going to be charged with +stealing liquors, cigars, tobacco, and clothes. He was prepared to prove +his innocence of all these crimes, but he trembled visibly. His mother +had put his oldest clothes upon him, as poverty, she thought, might +prove a good plea before the day was out. The difference between his +garments and those of the previous witness was striking. His skin, as +seen through the holes in his apparel, suggested how, by mere <i>laches</i>, +real estate could become personalty.</p> + +<p>"Where were you on Wednesday night last, about one or two o'clock in the +evening?"</p> + +<p>"I wus in Mr. 'Ampstead's rooms part of the time."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, and he gev it to me, so help me on fourteen Bibles, as I +kin prove by five or six gents right in front of me over there, and its +altogether wrong ye are fur to try and fix it on to a poor boy as has +to get his livin' honest and support his mother, and her a widder—"</p> + +<p>"Stop, stop!" called Rankin. "Did you get this other waistcoat at the +same time?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, an' a lot more besides, an' I tuk them all up and gev them +to me mother just the same as I gives her all me wages and the hull of +the clothes an' more besides give me fur goin' round to the Rah-seen +House fur to buy the drinks—"</p> + +<p>"That will do, that will do," interrupted Rankin. "You can go."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I knew ye'd hev to discharge me, fur I'm as innercent as y'are +yerself."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Priest was called.</p> + +<p>She came in with more assurance now, as she had become convinced, from +seeing Hampstead in the dock and guarded by the police, that the matter +in question did not refer to her consumption of coal, or her legal right +to perquisites.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Priest, did you ever see that waistcoat before?" said Rankin.</p> + +<p>"See it before! Didn't you take it out of me own hands not two hours +ago? What are ye after, man?"</p> + +<p>Rankin explained, that the magistrate wished to know all about it.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell his lordship the hull story: Ye see, yer 'anor, the boy +gets the clothes from Mr. Geoffrey and brings them up to me last +Wednesday night begone and says they was give to him, an' the next day I +wus lookin' through them, and I thought I'd sell this weskit becas the +patthern is a thrifle large for a child, an' I puts me 'and into these +'ere pockets on the inside an' I pulls out a paper—"</p> + +<p>"Stop! Is this the paper you found?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's it; 'an I thought it might be of some use, as it hed +figures on it and writin'. An' I says to Mr. Renkin, when he come into +my room to-day fur to get a cup—"</p> + +<p>"Never mind what I came in for," said Rankin, coloring.</p> + +<p>"An' I says to Mr. Rankin, sez I, 'Is this paper any use, do you think, +to Mr. 'Ampstead.' An' he looks at it awful hard and sez, 'Where did yer +get it? An' then I ups and told him (for I wus quite innercent, and so +wus the boy) that I had got it out of the weskit—out of these 'ere +inside pockets. An' then I shows him that other weskit an' how the +lining of one weskit had been cut out and sewn onter the other—as +anybody can see as compares the two—an' I never saw any weskit with +four long pockets on the inside before, an' I wondered what they wus +fur.</p> + +<p>"An' I hedn't got the words out of me mouth before Mr. Renkin turned as +white as the drippin' snow and says, 'My God!' an' he grabs the two +weskits widout me leave or license, an' also the paper, an' I thought +he'd break his neck down the stairs in the dark. An' that's all I know +about it until the cops brought me and the child here in the hack, after +we put on our best clothes fur to be decent to answer to the charge +before yer lordship; an' if that's all yer lordship wants ter know, I'd +like to axe yer lordship if there'll be anythin' comin' to me fur comin' +down here widout resistin' the cops?"</p> + +<p>As Rankin finished with Mrs. Priest, the police magistrate reminded the +prisoner that he had the right to cross-examine the witness.</p> + +<p>Hampstead smiled, and said he had no doubt all she said was true.</p> + +<p>Rankin then read the marks on the piece of paper. It was a longish slip +of paper, about three inches wide, and had been cut off from a large +sheet of office letter-paper. There had been printing at the top of this +sheet when it was entire. On the piece cut off still remained the +printed words "Western Union." On the opposite side of the paper, which +seemed to have been used as a wrapper and fastened with a pin, were the +figures, in blue pencil, "$50,000," and, below, a direction or +memorandum: "For Mont. Teleg. Co'y. Toronto." These words had had a pen +passed through them.</p> + +<p>The excitement caused by this evidence was increased when Hampstead +arose and requested to be allowed to withdraw his consent to be tried +before the magistrate.</p> + +<p>"I see," he said, smiling, "that my friend Mr. Rankin has been led +astray by some facts which can be thoroughly well explained. But I must +have time and opportunity to get such evidence as I require."</p> + +<p>The magistrate rather sternly replied that he had consented to his trial +to-day, and said he was ready for trial, and that the request for a +change would be refused. The trial must go on.</p> + +<p>The Montreal Telegraph clerk was then called, and identified the wrapper +as the one that had been around the stolen fifty thousand dollars. He +had run his pen through the written words before depositing the money in +the Victoria Bank. He again identified by their numbers the two +one-thousand dollar bills found on Jack, and he was then told to stand +down until again required.</p> + +<p>The receiving teller of the bank could not swear positively to the +wrapper. He remembered that there had been a paper around the bills with +blue writing on it, which he thought he had not removed when counting +the bills.</p> + +<p>Rankin then requested the police to bring in John Cresswell.</p> + +<p>Want of proper nourishment had had much to do with Jack's mental +weakness. Besides the exhaustion which he had suffered from, he had not, +until his friends looked after him, eaten or drunk anything for over +forty hours. He had neglected the food brought him by the police.</p> + +<p>As the constable half supported him to the box, he was still a pitiable +object, in spite of the champagne the fellows had made him swallow. As +his bodily strength had come back under stimulant, his intellect had +returned also with proportional strength, which of course was not great. +His ideas as to what was going on were of the vaguest kind. He looked +surprised to see Geoffrey in custody, but smiled across the room to him +and nodded.</p> + +<p>After he was sworn, Rankin asked him:</p> + +<p>"You went away last Wednesday on a schooner called the North Star?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Did any person tell you to go in this way, instead of by steamer or +railway?"</p> + +<p>"I think it was Geoffrey's suggestion at first. I had to go away on +private business. I think we arranged the manner of my going together."</p> + +<p>"Did any person tell you to take your valises to the yacht club early on +Wednesday morning?"</p> + +<p>"I think it was Hampstead's idea originally, and I thought it was a good +one."</p> + +<p>"You wished to go away secretly?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we discussed that point. I was going by rail, but Hampstead +thought the schooner was best."</p> + +<p>"You evidently did everything he told you?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I did," said Jack, as he smiled across to Geoffrey. +"Hampstead has the best head for management I know of."</p> + +<p>"Quite so. No doubt about that! Now, since the accident to the boats in +the lake some bills were found upon you. Are those your bills?" +(producing them).</p> + +<p>"Yes, they look like my bills. The seven one-hundred dollars I got +myself, and the two for one thousand each I got—" Jack stopped here and +looked troubled. He looked across at Geoffrey and remained silent. It +came to him for the first time that Hampstead was being charged with +something that had gone wrong in the bank about this money.</p> + +<p>The magistrate said sharply "I wish to know where you got that money. +You will be good enough to answer without delay."</p> + +<p>Jack looked worried. "My money was all in smallish bills, and either +Geoffrey or I (I forget which) suggested that I had better take these +two American one-thousand-dollar bills, as they would be smaller in my +pocket. He slipped these two out of a package of bills which I imagine +were all of the same denomination."</p> + +<p>Rankin evidently was wishing to spin out the time, for he glanced at the +side door whenever it was opened.</p> + +<p>He went on asking questions and showing that Geoffrey had been at the +bottom of everything, and in the mean time three men appeared in the +room, and one of them handed Rankin a parcel.</p> + +<p>"During your trial this morning I think I heard you say that the bills +you saw on Hampstead's desk were all dark-green colored?"</p> + +<p>"I think they were all the same color as these two. He ran his finger +over them as he drew these two out."</p> + +<p>"I have some money here," said Rankin. "Does this package look anything +like the one you then saw?"</p> + +<p>"I could not swear to it. It looks like it."</p> + +<p>Even the magistrate was excited now. The news had flown through the +business part of the city that Geoffrey Hampstead had been arrested and +was on trial for stealing the fifty thousand dollars. The news stirred +men as if the post-office had been blown up with dynamite. The +court-room was jammed. When word had been passed outside that things +looked bad for Hampstead, as much as five dollars was paid by a broker +for standing room in the court. It had also become known that Maurice +Rankin had caused the arrest to be made himself, and that nobody but he +knew what could be proved. People thought at first that the bank +authorities were forcing the prosecution, and wondered that they had not +employed an older man. The fact that this young sprig, professionally +unknown, had assumed the entire responsibility himself, gave a greater +interest to the proceedings.</p> + +<p>The magistrate leaned over his desk and asked quietly:</p> + +<p>"What money is that you have there, Mr. Rankin?"</p> + +<p>Maurice's naturally incisive voice sounded like a bell in the death-like +stillness of the court-room.</p> + +<p>"These," he said, "are what I will prove to be the forty-eight +thousand-dollar bills stolen from the bank."</p> + +<p>The pent-up excitement could be restrained no longer. A sound, half +cheer and half yell, filled the room.</p> + +<p>Rankin had not been idle after he left Mrs. Priest that day. He first +went in a cab to Jack, and simply asked him if Geoffrey had worn the +large-patterned waistcoat on the day he went away. Jack remembered +hearing Sappy talking about his wearing it. Rankin then drove to the +Montreal Telegraph clerk, who identified the wrapper. Then he had the +warrant issued for Hampstead's arrest, and also subpœnas, which were +handed to different policemen for service, with instructions to bring +the witnesses with them if possible. The Priests, mother and son, he +secured by having a constable bring them in a cab. He then requested the +magistrate to hear the case at once.</p> + +<p>He supposed, rightly enough, that Hampstead, on becoming aware that the +numbers of the stolen bills were all known would be afraid to pass any +of them, and would still have the money somewhere in his possession. So +he had three detectives sent with a search warrant to break in +Geoffrey's door and search for it. He thought it was by no means certain +that they would find the money, and he was anxious on this point, but he +knew that, even if he failed to secure a conviction against Hampstead, +he had at least sufficient evidence to render Jack's conviction +doubtful. In the case against Hampstead, Jack's evidence would be heard +in full, and Rankin felt satisfied that in some way it would explain +away the terribly damaging case that had been made out against him in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The sudden shout in the court had been so full of sympathy for Jack and +admiration for Rankin's cleverness that for the first time in his +magisterial existence "His Worship" forgot to check it, and the call to +order by the police was of the weakest kind. All the bank-clerks of the +city were jammed into that room, and for a moment Jack's friends were +wild.</p> + +<p>A few more questions were put to Jack, but only to improve his position +before the public as to the charge against himself.</p> + +<p>"Are you aware that you have been made a victim of in a matter where the +Victoria Bank was robbed of fifty thousand dollars?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Jack, looking dazed. "I am not."</p> + +<p>"Are you aware that you were tried this morning for stealing that +money?"</p> + +<p>"I seemed at times to know that something was wrong. Once I knew I was +charged with stealing something or other, but I did not know or care. I +must have been unconscious after the collision in the lake. The first +thing I knew of, they said we were at Port Dalhousie. We must have +sailed there with nothing drawing but the forward canvas, and that must +have taken a good while."</p> + +<p>Jack was now allowed to stand down, but he was not removed from the +court-room.</p> + +<p>To clear up Jack's record thoroughly, Rankin called Detective Dearborn +and, before the magistrate stopped the examination as being irrelevant, +he succeeded in showing that Jack had been delirious for twelve hours +after his arrest. The fact that Dearborn had not mentioned these +circumstances placed him in a rather bad light with the audience, while +it showed once again what a common habit it is with the police to +suppress and even distort facts in order to secure a conviction.</p> + +<p>The telegraph clerk identified the recovered forty-eight bills, and the +receiving teller, gave the same evidence as in the Cresswell case, and +then the detective who found the money in Hampstead's room was called.</p> + +<p>As soon as he heard his first words, Geoffrey knew what was coming and +rose to his feet and addressed the magistrate:</p> + +<p>"I suppose, Your Worship, that it is not too late to withdraw my plea of +not guilty and at this late hour plead guilty. This will be my only +opportunity to cast a full light on this case, and, if I may be +permitted, I will do so."</p> + +<p>The magistrate nodded. Geoffrey continued:</p> + +<p>"Of course, it is perfectly clear that Cresswell is quite innocent. For +private reasons, in a matter that was entirely honorable to himself, +Cresswell wished to leave Canada. He was going through the States to +California, and did not intend to return, and would have resisted being +brought back to Canada. There was no law existing by which he could be +extradited. He could only be brought back by his own consent. From the +way I sent him on the schooner, his arrest before arriving in the United +States was in the highest degree improbable. If he had afterward been +arrested in the States I could have at once arranged to be sent by the +bank to persuade him to return. I had it all planned that he never +should return. He would have done as I told him. Even if he insisted on +coming back I then would be safe in the States. Of course, I did not +know that identification could be made of the bills—which could not +have been foreseen—and my object in giving him two of them was that +suspicion would rest temporarily on him, which might be necessary to +give me time to escape. As it turned out, if Cresswell had insisted on +returning to Canada he would be returning to certain conviction—part of +the identified money being found on him.</p> + +<p>"So far I speak only of my intentions at the time of the theft. But I +hope no one will think I would allow my old friend Jack Cresswell to go +to jail under sentence for my misdeeds. To-night I intended to cross the +lake in a small boat and then telegraph to the bank where to find all +the money at my chambers. This, with a letter of explanation, would have +acquitted Jack. I had to save him—also myself, from imprisonment; but +there was another matter worth far more than the money to me which I +hoped to be able to eventually make right. If I had got away to-night +the bank would have had its money to-morrow.</p> + +<p>"On the day before the theft I had lost all my twelve years' earnings +and profits in speculation. If I had been able to hold my stocks until +the evening of the theft I would have made over seventy-five thousand +dollars. For weeks during the excitement preceding my loss I had been +drinking a great deal, and when the chance came to recoup myself from +the bank I seemed to take the money almost as a matter of right."</p> + +<p>As Geoffrey continued he was looking up out of the window, evidently +oblivious of the crowd about him, thinking the thing out, as if +confessing to himself.</p> + +<p>"I know that without the liquor I never would have stolen, and that with +it I became—"</p> + +<p>His face grew bitter as he thought of his thieving Tartar uncle and his +mother who could not be prevented from stealing. But he pulled himself +together and continued: "It would have been open to me to call men from +this gathering to give evidence as to my previous character, and I have +no hesitation in leaving this point in your hands if it will do anything +to shorten my sentence. On this ground only am I entitled to ask for +your consideration, and you will be doing a kindness if you will pass +sentence at once."</p> + +<p>As Hampstead said these words he looked abstractedly around for the last +time upon the scores of former friends who now averted their faces. +There was no bravado in his appearance. He held himself erect, as he +always did, and his face was impenetrable. His eyes claimed acquaintance +with none who met his glance. Some smiled faintly, impressed as they +were with his bearing, but he seemed to look into them and past them, as +if saying to himself: "There's Brown, and there's Jones, and there's +Robinson, I wonder when I will ever see them again?"</p> + +<p>There were men in that throng who knew, when Hampstead spoke of the +effects of the liquor on him, exactly what was meant, who knew from +personal experience that, if there is any devilish tendency in a man or +any hereditary predisposition to any kind of wrong-doing, alcohol will +bring it out, and these men could not refrain from some sympathy with +him who had partly explained his fall, and somehow there were none who +thought after Geoffrey's statement that he would have sacrificed Jack to +imprisonment under sentence.</p> + +<p>The magistrate addressed him:</p> + +<p>"Geoffrey Hampstead, I do not think there has been anything against your +character since you came to Toronto. That an intelligence such as yours +should have been prostituted to the uses to which you have put it is one +of the most melancholy things that ever came to my knowledge. I can not +think you belong to the criminal classes, and I would be glad to be out +of this matter altogether, because I feel how unable one may be to deal +for the best with a case like yours. It may be that if you were +liberated you would never risk your ruin again. I do not think you +would; but, in that case, this court might as well be closed and the +police disbanded. I am compelled to make your case exemplary, and I +sentence you to six years in the Kingston Penitentiary."</p> + +<p>A dead silence followed, and then his former friends and acquaintances +began to go away. They went away quietly, not looking at each other. +There was something in the proceedings of the day that silenced them. +They had lost faith in one honest man and had found it again; and +another, on whom some nobility was stamped, they had seen condemned as a +convict. As they took their last look at the man whom they had often +envied and admired, they wished to escape observation. So many of them +were thinking how, at such a time in their lives, if things had not +luckily turned out as they did, they, too, might have fallen under some +kind of temptation, and they knew the sympathy that comes from secret +consciousness of what their own possibilities in guilt might have been.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey received his sentence looking out of the window toward the blue +sky and the swallows that flew past. Every word that the magistrate had +said had in it the tone of a friend, which made it harder to bear. While +he heard it all vividly, he strained to keep his attention on the flying +swallows in order that he might not break down. Outside of that window, +and just in that direction, Margaret, the wife that never would be, was +waiting for him. The man's face was like ashes. Oh, the relief to have +dashed himself upon the floor when he thought of Margaret!</p> + +<p>Yet he held out. He felt it would be better for him to be dead; but he +met his fate bravely, and now sought relief in another way. He caught +Rankin's eye, and motioned to him to come near.</p> + +<p>With a face that was afraid to relax its tension, he said, with an +effort at something like his ordinary speech:</p> + +<p>"Rankin, you forsook me sadly to-day, did you not? But I can still count +on you to do me a good turn—if only in return for to-day."</p> + +<p>"Go on, Geoffrey. Yes, I have disliked you from the first. But now I +don't. You make people like you, no matter what you do. You take it like +a man. What do you want?"</p> + +<p>Rankin could not command his countenance as Geoffrey could. Now that he +had accomplished the work of convicting him, it seemed terrible that one +who, with all his faults, appeared so manly a man, and so brave, should +be on his way to six years' darkness.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey pulled him closer and whispered in his ear: "Go to Margaret—at +once—before she can read anything! Take a cab. Tell her all. Break it +to her. You can put it gently. Go to her now—let her know, fairly, +before you come away, that all my chances are gone—that she is +released—that I am nothing—now—but a dead man."</p> + +<p>His head went down as the words were finished with a wild effort, and +his great frame shook convulsively for a moment. The thought of Margaret +killed him.</p> + +<p>During the day, before his arrest, he had seen that he would have to +return at least part of the money to corroborate his story and to save +Jack. And he could not abscond with the balance, because that would mean +the loss of Margaret. By returning the money and saving himself from +imprisonment, he had hoped that eventually she would forgive him. And +now—</p> + +<p>Maurice could not stand it. He said, hurriedly: "All right. I'll see you +to-morrow." And then he dashed off, out a side door, and into a cab. And +on the way to Margaret he wept like a child behind the carriage curtains +for the fate of the man whom he had convicted.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">Yea, it becomes a man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To cherish memory, where he had delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For kindness is the natural birth of kindness.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose soul records not the great debt of joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is stamped forever an ignoble man.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Sophocles</span> (<i>Ajax</i>).<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>As Rankin broke the news to Margaret—by degrees and very quietly—she +showed but little sign of feeling. Her face whitened and she moved +stiffly to the open window, where she could sit in the draught. As she +made Rankin tell her the whole story she simply grew stony, while she +sat with bloodless hands clinched together, as if she thus clutched at +her soul to save it from the madness of a terrible grief.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"Dismiss your cab," she said. "I will walk back with you part of the +way."</p> + +<p>When she turned toward him, the strained face was so white and the eyes +so wide and expressionless that he became afraid.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you would rather be alone," said he, doubtful about letting her +go into the street.</p> + +<p>She seemed to divine what was in his mind, for she made him feel more at +ease by a gentler tone:</p> + +<p>"Alone? No, no! Anything but that! The walk will do me good."</p> + +<p>The cab was dismissed while she put on her hat, and as they walked +through the quiet streets toward the heart of the city, he went on with +all the particulars, which she seemed determined to hear. Several times +they met people who knew her and knew of her engagement to Hampstead, +and they were surprised to see her walking with—of all men—Maurice +Rankin. But she saw no one, gazing before her with the look which means +madness if the mind be not diverted. Suddenly, as they had to cross one +of the main arteries of the city, a sound fell upon Margaret's ear that +made her stop and grasp Rankin by the arm. Then the cry came again—from +a boy running toward them along the street:</p> + +<p>"Special edition of the Evening News! All about Geoffrey Hampstead, the +bank robber!"</p> + +<p>For a moment her grasp came near tearing a piece out of Rankin's arm. +But this was only when the blow struck her. She stopped the boy and +bought a paper. She gave him half a dollar and walked on.</p> + +<p>"This will do to give them at home," she said simply. "I could not tell +them myself."</p> + +<p>But the blow was too much for her. To hear the name of the man she +worshiped yelled through the streets as a bank robber's was more than +she felt able to bear. She must get home now. Another experience of this +kind, and something would happen.</p> + +<p>"Good-by!" she said, as she stopped abruptly at the corner of a street. +Not a vestige of a tear had been seen in her eyes. "I will go home now. +You have been very kind. I forgive you for—"</p> + +<p>She turned quickly, and Rankin stood and watched her as she passed +rapidly away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>No. 173 Tremaine Buildings had become slightly better furnished since +the opening of this story. Between the time when he made the cruise in +the Ideal and the events recorded in the preceding chapters, Rankin had +contributed somewhat to his comforts in an inexpensive way. In order to +buy his coal, which he did now with much satisfaction, he had still to +practice the strictest economy. But he took some pleasure in his +solitary existence. From time to time he bought different kinds of +preserves sold in pressed-glass goblets and jugs of various sizes. After +the jam was consumed the prize in glassware would be washed by Mrs. +Priest and added to his collection, and there was a keen sense of humor +in him when he added each terrible utensil to his stock. "A poor +thing—but mine own!" he would quote, as he bowed to an imaginary +audience and pointed with apologetic pride to a hideous pressed-glass +butter-bolt.</p> + +<p>In buying packages of dusty, doctored, and detestable tea he acquired +therewith a collection of gift-spoons of different sizes, and also +knives, forks, and plates, which, if not tending to develop a taste for +high art, were useful. At a certain "seven-cent store" he procured, for +the prevailing price, articles in tinware, the utility of which was out +of all proportion to the cost.</p> + +<p>Thus, when he sat down of an evening and surveyed a packing-box filled +with several sacks of coal, all paid for; when he viewed the collection +of glassware, the "family plate," and the very desirable cutlery; when +he gazed with pride upon his seven-cent treasures and his curtains of +chintz at ten cents a mile; when he considered that all these were his +very own, his sense of having possessions made him less communistic and +more conservative. Primitively, a Conservative was a being who owned +something, just as Darwin's chimpanzee in the "Zoo," who discovered how +to break nuts with a stone and hid the stone, was a Tory; the other +monkeys who stole it were necessarily Reformers.</p> + +<p>About ten o'clock on the evening of the trial Rankin was sitting among +his possessions sipping some "gift-spoon" tea. Around him were three +evening papers and two special editions. The "startling developments" +and "unexpected changes" which had "transpired" at the Victoria Bank had +made the special editions sell off like cheap peaches, and Rankin was +enjoying the weakness—pardonable in youth and not unknown to +maturity—of reading each paper's account of himself and the trial. They +spoke of his "acuteness" and "foresight," and commented on his being +the sole means of recovering the forty-eight thousand dollars. One paper +must have jumped at a conclusion when it called him "a well-known and +promising young lawyer—one of the rising men at the bar."</p> + +<p>"The tide has turned," he said. "Twenty cents a day is not going to +cover my total expenses after this. I feel it in my bones that the money +will come pouring in now." He was mechanically filling a pipe when a rap +at the door recalled him from his dream. A tall Scotchman, whom Rankin +recognized as the messenger of the Victoria Bank, handed him a letter +and then felt around for the stairs in the darkness, and descended +backward, on his hands and knees, for fear of accidents.</p> + +<p>A pleasing letter from the manager of the Victoria Bank inclosed one of +the recovered thousand-dollar bills.</p> + +<p>Rankin sat down. "I shall never," he said, with an air of resolve, +"steal any more coal! And now I'll have a cigar, three for a quarter, +and blow the expense!"</p> + +<p>Two weeks afterward there came to him a copy of a resolution passed by +the bank directors, together with a notification that they had arranged +with the bank solicitors, Messrs. Godlie, Lobbyer, Dertewercke, and +Toylor, to have him taken in as a junior partner.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Immediately after Geoffrey was sentenced, Jack Cresswell was, of course, +discharged. A dozen hands were being held out to congratulate him, when +Detective Dearborn drew him through a side door into an empty room, +where they had a short talk about keeping the name of Nina Lindon from +the public, and then they departed together for Tremaine Buildings in a +cab, while the two valises in front looked, like their owner, none the +better for their vicissitudes. Dearborn felt that little could be said +to mend the trouble he had caused Jack, but he did all he could, and +there was certainly nothing hard-hearted in the care with which the +redoubtable detective assisted his former victim to bed. Mrs. Priest was +summoned, also a doctor. Jack was found to be worse than he thought, and +Patsey was ordered to remain within call in the next room, where he +consumed cigars at twelve dollars the hundred throughout the night.</p> + +<p>The next day Mrs. Mackintosh and Margaret came down in a cab to Jack's +lonely quarters, and insisted upon his being moved to their house during +his illness. While unable to go home to his parents at Halifax he was +loath to give trouble to his friends, and made excuses, until he saw +that Margaret really wished him to come, and divined that his coming +might be a relief to her.</p> + +<p>It was so. In the weeks that followed, whatever these two suffered in +the darkness and solitude of the nights, during the day-time they were +brave. The heart of each knew its own bitterness. In a short time Jack +found the comfort of speech in telling Margaret many things. Unavoidably +Geoffrey's name came up, for he was entangled in both their lives. +Little by little Jack's story came out, as he lay back weakly on his +couch, until, warmed by Margaret's sympathy, he told her all about Nina +and himself—so far as he knew the story—and in the presence of his +manifold troubles, and at the thought of his suffering when he +witnessed, as a captive, Nina's death, Margaret felt that she was in the +presence of one who had known even greater grief than her own. This was +good for her. After a while she was able to speak to Jack about +Geoffrey, and this brought them more and more together.</p> + +<p>When he got well, his breach of duty in going away without notice was +overlooked, and he was taken back to his old post. There he worked on +as the years rolled by. Country managerships were offered to him, and +declined. He had nothing to make money for, and the only thing he really +enjoyed was Margaret's society, in which he would talk about Nina and +Geoffrey without restraint. For many years he remained ignorant that his +marriage with Nina was, after all, for New York State a valid one, since +marriage by simple contract, without religious ceremony, is sufficient +in that State. He never dreamed Geoffrey had been indirectly the cause +of his life's ruin, and always spoke of him as a man almost without +blame. However unreasonable, there are, among all the faulty emotions, +few more beautiful than a man's affection for a man. When it exists, it +is the least exacting attachment of his life.</p> + +<p>Margaret listened to his superlatives about Geoffrey. She listened; but +as the years passed on she grew wiser. When walking in the open fields, +or perhaps beside the wide lake, an image would come to her in gladsome +colors, in matchless beauty—a Greek god with floating hair and full of +resolve and victory, and in her dreams she would see and talk with him, +and would find him grave and thoughtful and tender, and all that a man +could be. Then would come the rending of the heart. This was a thief who +had decoyed his friend, and, good or bad, was lost to her.</p> + +<p>And thus time passed on. For two or three years she went nowhere. She +tried going into society, after Geoffrey's sentence, thinking to obtain +relief in change of thought, but the experiment was a failure. She found +that she had not the elasticity of temperament which can doff care and +don gayety as society demands. So she gave up the attempt for years, and +then went again only at her mother's solicitation. She said she had her +patients at the hospital, her studies with her father, her many books to +read, her long walks with Jack and Maurice Rankin, and what more did she +want?</p> + +<p>She did not hear of Geoffrey. The six years of his imprisonment had +dragged themselves into the past, and she supposed he was free again, if +he had not died in the penitentiary. But nothing was heard of him, and +thus the time rolled on, while Margaret's mother secretly wept to see +her daughter's early bloom departing, while no hope of any happy married +life seemed possible to her.</p> + +<p>Grave, pleasant, studious, thoughtful, as the years rolled by, she went +on with her hospital work. From the depths of the grief into which she +was plunged, she could discern some truths that might have remained +unknown if her life had continued sunny—just as at noonday from the +bottom of a deep pit or well the stars above us can be seen. To her the +bitterness of her life was medicinal. Speaking chemically, it was like +the acid of the unripe apple acting upon the starch in it to make a +sugar—thus to perfect a sweet maturity. She was one of the richly +endowed women in whom sensitiveness and strength combine peculiarly for +either superlative joy or sorrow, and hers was a grief which, for her, +nothing but tending the bed of sickness seemed to mitigate. Many a +bruised heart was healed, gladdened, and bewitched by the angel smile on +the sweet firm, full lips which could quiver with compassion. There are +some smiles, given for others, when grief has made thought for self +unbearable, which nothing but a descent into hell and glorious rising +again could produce.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">This is peace!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To conquer love of self and lust of life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To still the inward strife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For glory, to be lord of self;...<br /></span> +<span class="i8">... For countless wealth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To lay up lasting treasure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of perfect service rendered, duties done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In charity, soft speech, and stainless days;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These riches shall not fade away in life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor any death dispraise.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(<i>Buddha's Sermon.—The Light of Asia.</i>) <span class="smcap">Arnold.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Geoffrey Hampstead had come out of the penitentiary with his former +hopes for life shattered. Margaret was lost to him. He came out without +a tie on earth—a living man from whom all previous reasons for +existence seemed to have been removed. For six years he had worked in +the penitentiary with all the energy that was in him, in order to keep +his thoughts from driving him mad. At one time all had been before him. +And now—Oh, the silent grinding of the teeth during the first two years +of it! After that he grew quieter and became able to regard his life +calmly. He learned how to suffer. To a large extent he ceased now to +think about himself. In the lowest depths of mental misery self died. +Then, for the first time in his life, he was able to realize the extent +of his wrongs to others. What now broke him down gradually was not, as +at first, the bitterness of his own lost hopes, but the thought that the +life of Margaret was wrecked—and by him, that the lives of others had +been wrecked—and by him. This was what the penitentiary now consisted +of. This was the penitentiary which would last for always.</p> + +<p>When the period of his sentence had expired, he had gone to New York and +obtained work with his old employers on Wall Street. But his mind was +not in his occupation. With his energy, it was impossible to live with +no definite end in view. Why plod along on microscopic savings, like a +mere machine to be fed and to work? When mental anguish, for him the +worst whip of retribution, had made thought for self so unbearable that +at last it died, there arose in him, untarnished by selfishness, the +nobility which had always been occultly stamped upon him, and which in +prison enabled him to protect himself, as it were, against madness, and +to refuse to be unable to suffer—a nobility able to realize the +perfection of a life lived for others, which none can realize until +first thought for self has been in some way killed. Rightly or wrongly, +he had become convinced in years of anguished thought that with a +continually aching heart may coexist an internal gladness that arises +from the gift of self to others and makes the suffering not only +bearable but even desirable—that this was altogether a mental +phenomenon, such as memory, but one on which religions had been built, +and that it was capable of making a heaven of earth and leading one, +with the ecstasy of self-gift, even to crucifixion.</p> + +<p>He determined to go to Paris to study medicine. For this, money was +required, and he conceived a plan for making a small fortune suddenly. +If he failed, what then? The world would lose a helper. His employers, +on being approached, saw that if proper contracts were made they were +sure to get their money back, and supplied him with all he required for +expenses.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Rankin, of the firm of Godlie, Dertewercke, Toylor, and Rankin, had, +for more than six years, shared with Jack Cresswell the old rooms +"<i>vice</i> Hampstead, on active service." All Geoffrey's old relics had +been left untouched. He had sent word to have them sold, and Rankin, to +satisfy him, had let him think they were sold and that the money they +brought had been applied as directed. The money had been applied as +directed; but it had come out of Rankin's little bank account, and so, +until the time came when they could be handed over to Hampstead, the old +trophies remained where they were after being insured for a sum which, +for "old truck and rubbage only fit for a second-'and shop," seemed, to +Mrs. Priest, suspiciously large.</p> + +<p>Rankin had received from a client the disposal of several passes on a +special train that was to take some railway officials and their families +to Niagara Falls to see the great swimmer, John Jackson, together with +his dog, endeavor to swim the Whirlpool Rapids. Half the world was +excited over this event, which had been advertised everywhere. While +dining with Jack at the Mackintoshes on the Sunday previous to the +event, Rankin proposed that Margaret should accompany Jack and him to +see the trial made.</p> + +<p>Margaret hesitated, but Rankin said: "Oh, you know, as far as the fellow +himself is concerned, it will be hard to say how he is as he goes past. +You'll just see a head in the water for a moment, and then it will have +vanished down the river."</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose there will be much to see if the water takes him past +at the rate of nineteen miles an hour," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Just so. There won't be much to see. But we can have a pleasant day at +the falls and give the abused hack-men a chance. The 'special' will have +a number of ladies on board, and, if you like champagne, now's your +chance. What is a special train without champagne?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you say, mother?" asked Margaret.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Mackintosh, to give her daughter an acceptable change and to get +her out of her fixed ways, would have sent her to almost anything from +balloon ascension to a church lottery.</p> + +<p>"Do as you wish, my dear. I think I would like you to go. I do not see +how it would be possible for a spectator to know whether the man was +suffering or not in those waters, and, as for his sacrificing his life, +why that is his own lookout. If he lives I suppose he will get well +paid, will he not, Mr. Rankin?"</p> + +<p>"They expect he will make about twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. +Arrangements have been made not only with the railways, but also with +the hotels for his commission on all profits, which will be paid to him +if he lives, or, if not, to his family. I don't know that it should be +necessarily looked upon as a suicidal speculation. I have examined the +water a good many times, and am by no means certain that his safe +passage is impossible, if he can keep on the surface and not get dragged +under where the water seems to shoot downward. If he gets through, or +even if he tries it and fails, he will prove himself as brave a man as +ever lived."</p> + +<p>"I think I will go," said Margaret, brightening up with her old love for +daring. "It is not like going to a bullfight, and the excitement will be +intense."</p> + +<p>So they went off on the special, and when they arrived at the rapids, +after descending the precipice in the hydraulic lift, they went along +the path to the platform where the photographs are taken. This place was +filled with seats, numbered and reserved, and Rankin's party were seated +in the front row. No less than a hundred thousand people were watching +the forces of the river at this time. They were noticing how the +precipices gradually converged as they approached the rapids, and how +apparent was the downward slope of the water as it rushed through the +narrowed gorge. They were noticing how the descending current struck +projections of fallen rock at the sides, causing back-waves to wash from +each bank diagonally across the main volume of the river, and make a +continual combat of waters in the middle of the stream. Here, the deep, +irresistible flow of the main current charges into the midst of the +battle raging between the lateral surges, and carries them off bodily, +while they continue to fight and tear at each other as far as one can +see down the river. It is a bewildering spectacle of immeasurable +forces, giving the idea of thousands of white horses driven madly into a +narrowing gorge, where, in the crush, hundreds are forced upward and +ride along on the backs of the others, plunging and flinging their white +crests high in the air and gnashing at each other as they go.</p> + +<p>The worst spot of all is directly in front of the platform, where +Rankin's party was sitting. They waited until the time at which Jackson +was advertised to begin his swim, and then they grew impatient. Jack was +standing on a wooden parapet near at hand waiting until the swimmer +should appear around the bend far up the river, for they could not see +him take to the water from the place where they were.</p> + +<p>All at once, before the rest of the people near him could see anything, +Jack called out: "There he is!" as he descried, with his sailor's eyes, +two black specks on the water far away, up above the bridges.</p> + +<p>Jackson and his dog had jumped out of a boat in the middle of the river, +in the calm part half a mile up, and, as they swam down with the current +under the bridges, the dense mass of people there admired the easy grace +with which he swam, and remarked the whiteness of his skin. His dog, a +huge creature, half Great Dane and half Newfoundland, swam in front of +him, directed by his voice. Both of them could be seen to raise +themselves once or twice, so that they could get a better view of the +wild water in front of them. The dog recognized the danger, and for a +moment turned toward the shore and barked; but his master raised his +hand and directed him onward. Another moment, now, and the fight for +life began, for reaching the shore was as impossible as flying to the +moon.</p> + +<p>The first back-wash that came to them was a small one, and they both +passed through it, each receiving the water in the face. The next wash +followed almost immediately, and they tried to swim over it, but it +turned both man and dog over on their sides and spread them out at full +length on the surface of the main current. The people on the suspension +bridge could see that both received a terrible blow. They both seemed to +dive under the next wave, and then the water became so turbulent and the +speed of their passage so great that it was impossible to give a minute +description of what happened.</p> + +<p>Rankin's party and the multitude of spectators now watched what they +could see in breathless silence. At times, as the swimmers approached, +our party could see them hoisted in the air on the top of a wave, or +ridge or upheaval of water. Most of the time they were lost to sight in +the gulleys or, valleys, or else they were beneath the surface. It does +not take long to go a few hundred yards at nineteen miles an hour, and +in what scarcely seemed more than an instant the man, with the dog still +in front of him, had come near them. What Jack noticed was that as the +man here shook the water out of his eyes and raised himself, shoulders +out, by "treading water," his skin was almost scarlet. This, alone told +a tale of what he had gone through since the people on the bridges had +remarked the whiteness of his skin.</p> + +<p>He was now almost opposite them, and his face, set desperately, turned, +during an instant in a quieter spot, toward the platform. Margaret gave +a piercing shriek, and fell back into Rankin's arms. At the next +half-moment a huge boiling mountain, foaming up against the current in +which the swimmer's body floated, struck him a terrible blow, and threw +the dog back on top of him. Both were engulfed. After a while the dog's +head appeared again, but Geoffrey Hampstead was overwhelmed in the +Bedlam of waters, whose foaming, raging madness battered out his life.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Geoffrey Hampstead, by Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 34611-h.htm or 34611-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34611/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +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. 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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: Geoffrey Hampstead + A Novel + +Author: Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34611] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + + + + + GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD + + _A NOVEL_ + + BY THOMAS STINSON JARVIS + + + Consider the work of God: for who can make + that straight, which he hath made crooked? + + _Ecclesiastes vii, 13._ + + + NEW YORK + D. APPLETON AND COMPANY + + 1890 + + COPYRIGHT, 1890, + BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. + + + + +GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + I do not think + So fair an outward, and such stuff within, + Endows a man but he. + + _Cymbeline._ + + +The Victoria Bank, Toronto, is on the corner of Bay and Front Streets, +where it overlooks a part of the harbor large enough to gladden the eyes +of the bank-clerks who are aquatic in their habits and have time to look +out of the windows. Young gentlemen in tattered and ink-stained coats, +but irreproachable in the matter of trousers and linen, had been known +to gaze longingly and wearily down toward that strip of shining water +when hard fate in the shape of bank duty apparently remained indifferent +to the fact that an interesting race was being rowed or sailed. This, +sometimes, was rather a bad thing for the race; for the Victoria Bank +had, immured within its cut stone and plate glass, some good specimens +of muscular gentility; and in contests of different kinds, the V. B. had +a way (discomforting to other banks) of producing winners. The amount of +muscle some of them could apply to a main-sheet was creditable, while, +as to rowing, there were few who did not cultivate a back and thigh +action which, if not productive of so much speed as Hanlan's, was +certainly, to the uninitiated, quite as pleasant to look upon; so that, +in sports generally, there was a decided call for the Vics.; not only +among men on account of their skill, but also in the ranks of a gentler +community whose interest in a contest seemed to be more personal than +sporting. The Vics. had adopted as their own a particular color, of +which they would wear at least a small spot on any "big day"; and, when +they were contesting, this color would be prevalent in gatherings of +those interested personally. And who would inquire the reasons for this +favoritism? "Reasons! explanations!--why are men so curious? Is it not +enough that those most competent to decide have decided? What will you? +Go to!" Indeed, the sex is very divine. It is a large part of their +divinity to be obscure. + +Perhaps these young men danced with the ease and self-satisfaction of +dervishes. Perhaps their prowess was unconsciously admired by those who +formerly required defenders. But the most compelling reason, on this +important point, was that "ours" of the Victoria Bank had established +themselves socially as "quite the right sort" and "good form"--and thus +desirable to the Toronto maiden, and, if not so much so to her more +match-making mother, the fact that they were considered _chic_ provided +a feminine argument in their favor which had, as usual, the advantage of +being, from its vagueness, difficult to answer; so that the more +mercantile mother grew to consider that a "detrimental" who was _chic_ +was not, after all, as bad as a "det." without leaven. + +It has been said that bank-clerks are all the same; but, while admitting +that, in regard to their faultless trousers and immaculate linen, there +does exist a pleasing general resemblance, rather military, it must be +insisted that there are different sorts of them; that they are complete +in their way, and need not be idealized. The old barbaric love for +wonderful story-telling is still the harvest-ground of those who live +by the propagation of ideas, but must we always demand the unreal? + +There was nothing unreal about Jack Cresswell. As he stood poring over +columns of figures in a great book, one glance at him was sufficient to +dispel all hope of mystery. He was inclosed in the usual box or +stall--quite large enough for him to stand up in, which was all he +required (sitting ruins trousers)--and his office coat was all a +bank-clerk could desire. The right armpit had "carried away," and the +left arm was merely attached to the body by a few ligaments--reminding +one of railway accidents. The right side of the front and the left arm +had been used for years as a pen-wiper. A metallic clasp for a patent +pencil was clinched through the left breast. The holes for the pockets +might be traced with care even at this epoch, but they had become so +merged in surrounding tears as to almost lose identity with the original +design. + +The bank doors had been closed for some time, after three o'clock, on +this particular day in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred +and blank, and Jack Cresswell had been puzzling his brains over figures +with but poor success. Whether his head was dull, or whether it was +occupied by other things, it is hard to say--probably both; so, on +hearing Geoffrey Hampstead, the paying-teller, getting ready to go away, +he leaned over the partition and said, in an aggrieved tone: + +"Look here, Geoffrey, I'm three cents out in my balance." + +A strong, well-toned voice answered carelessly, "That is becoming a +pretty old story with you, Jack. You're always out. However, make +yourself comfortable, dear boy, as you will doubtless be at it a good +while." Then, as he put on his hat and sauntered away, Geoffrey added a +little more comfort. "If you really intend to bring it out right, you +had better arrange to guard the bank to-night. You can do both at once, +you know, and get your pay as well, while you work on comfortably till +morning." + +"I'll tell you what I'll do. If you'll get these three cents right for +me, I'll stand the dinners." + +"Much obliged. Mr. Hampstead has the pleasure of regretting. Prior +engagement. Has asked Mr. Maurice Rankin to dine with him at the club. +But perhaps, even without your handsome reward, we might get these +figures straightened out for you." Then, taking off his coat, "You had +better take a bite with us if we can finish this in time." + +Geoffrey came up to the books and "took hold," while Jack, now in +re-established good humor, amused himself by keeping up a running fire +of comments. "Aha! me noble lord condescends to dine the poor legal +scribe. I wonder, now, what led you to ask Maurice Rankin to dine with +you. You can't make anything out of Morry. He hasn't got a cent in the +world, unless he got that police-court case. Not a red shekel has he, +and me noble lord asks him to dinner--which is the humor of it! Now, I +would like to know what you want with Rankin. You know you never do +anything without some motive. You see I know you pretty well. Gad! I +do." + +Geoffrey was working away under this harangue, with one ear open, like a +telegraph operator, for Jack's remarks. He said: "Can not a fellow do a +decent thing once in a way without hearing from you?" + +"Not you," cried Jack, "not you. I'll never believe you ever did a +decent thing in your life without some underground motive." + +Geoffrey smiled over the books, where he was adding three columns of +figures at once, lost the addition, and had to begin at the bottom +again; and Jack, who thought that never man breathed like Geoffrey, +looked a little fondly and very admiringly at the way his friend's back +towered up from the waist to the massive shoulders--and smiled too. + +Jack's smile was expansive and contagious. It lighted up the whole +man--some said the whole room--but never more brightly than when with +Hampstead. Geoffrey had a fascination for him, and his admiration had +reached such a climax after nearly two years' intercourse that he now +thought there was but little within the reach of man that Geoffrey could +not accomplish if he wished. It was not merely that he was good looking +and had an easy way with him and was in a general way a favorite--not +merely that he seemed to make more of Jack than of others. Hampstead had +a power of some kind about him that harnessed others besides Jack to his +chariot-wheels; and, much as Cresswell liked to exhibit Geoffrey's seamy +side to him when he thought he discovered flaws, he nevertheless had +admitted to an outsider that the reason he liked Hampstead was that he +was "such an altogether solid man--solid in his sports, solid in his +work, solid in his virtues, and, as to the other way--well, enough +said." But the chief reason lay in the great mental and bodily vigor +that nearly always emanated from Geoffrey, casting its spell, more or +less effectively, for good or evil. With most people it was impossible +to ignore his presence; and his figure was prepossessing from the +extraordinary power, grace, and capacity for speed which his every +movement interpreted. + +It was his face that bothered observant loungers in the clubs. For +statuary, a sculptor could utilize it to represent the face of an angel +or a devil with equal facility--but no second-class devil or angel. Its +permanent expression was that which a man exhibits when exercising his +will-power. The tenacious long jaw had a squareness underneath it that +seemed to be in keeping with the length of the upper lip. The high, long +nose made its usual suggestions, two furrows between the thick eyebrows +could ordinarily be seen, and the protuberant bumps over the eyes gave +additional strength. The eyes were light blue or steel gray, according +to the lights or the humor he was in. An intellectual forehead, beveled +off under the low-growing hair, might suggest that the higher moral +aspirations would not so frequently call for the assistance of the +determination depicted in the face as would the other qualities shown in +the width and weight of head behind the ears. + +But Jack did not believe what he said in his tirades, and his good-will +makes him lax in condemnation of things which in others he would have +denounced. What Geoffrey said or did, so far as Jack knew, met, at his +hands, with an easy indifference if culpable, and a kindling admiration +if apparently virtuous. The two had lived together for a long time, and +no one knew better than Geoffrey how trustworthy Jack was. Consequently, +he sometimes entered into little confidences concerning his experiences, +which he glossed over with a certain amount of excuse, so that the moral +laxity in them did not fully appear; and what with the intensity of his +speech, his word painting, and enthusiastic face, a greater stoic than +poor Jack might have caught the fire, and perhaps condoned the offense. + +Jack thought he knew Hampstead pretty well. + +On the other side, Hampstead, though keen at discerning character, +confessed to himself that Jack was the only person he could say he knew. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his + statutes, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries.--_Hamlet._ + + +As Jack expected, it did not take long for his friend Hampstead to show +where the mistake about the three cents lay; and then they sallied forth +for a little stroll on King Street before dinner. + +They lived in adjoining chambers in the Tremaine Buildings on King +Street. The rooms had been intended for law offices, and were reached by +a broad flight of stairs leading up from the street below. Here they +were within five minutes' walk of their bank or the club at which they +generally took their meals. Hampstead had first taken these rooms +because they were in a manner so isolated in the throng of the city and +afforded an uncontrolled liberty of ingress and egress to young men +whose hours for retiring to rest were governed by no hard and fast +rules. + +A widow named Priest lived somewhere about the top of the building, with +her son, who was known to the young gentlemen as Patsey. Mrs. Priest +made the beds, did the washing, attended to the fires, and was generally +useful. She also cleaned offices, even to the uttermost parts of the +great building, and altogether made a good thing of it; for besides the +remunerations derived in these ways she had her perquisites. For +instance, in the ten years of her careful guardianship of chambers and +offices in the building, she had never bought any coal or wood. She +possessed duplicate keys for each room in her charge, and thus having a +large number of places to pillage she levied on them all, according to +the amount of fuel she could safely carry away from each place without +its being missed. Young men who occupied chambers there never had to +give away or sell old clothes, because they were never found to be in +the way. She asked for them when she wanted to cut them down for Patsey, +because it would not do to have the owners recognize the cloth on him. +The clothes which she annexed as perquisites she sold. + +Patsey was accustomed occasionally to go through the wardrobes of the +gentlemen with his mother, while she made the beds in the morning, and +he then chose the garments that most appealed to his artistic taste. +This interesting heir to Mrs. Priest's personal estate also had his +perquisites "unbeknownst to ma." He consumed a surprising amount of +tobacco for one so young, and might frequently be seen parading King +Street on a summer evening enjoying a cigar altogether beyond his years +and income. His clothes bore the pattern of the fashion in vogue three +or four years back; and, despite some changes brought about by the +scissors of Mrs. Priest, the material, which had been the best Toronto +could provide, still retained much of the glory that had captivated King +Street not so very long ago. Having finally declared war against +education in all its recognized branches, he generally took himself off +early in the day, and lounged about the docks, or derived an +indifferently good revenue from the sale of ferry-boat tickets to the +island; and in various other ways did Patsey provide himself with the +luxuries and enjoyments of a regular topsawyer. + +In the immediate neighborhood of Mrs. Priest, at an altitude in the +building which has never been exactly ascertained, dwelt Mr. Maurice +Rankin, barrister-at-law and solicitor of the Supreme Court. He resided +in Chambers, No. 173 Tremaine Buildings, King Street, West, Toronto, and +certainly all this looked very legal and satisfactory on the +professional card which he had had printed. But the interior appearance +of the chambers was not calculated to inspire confidence in the +profession of the law as a kind nurse for aspiring merit; and as for +the approach to No. 173, it was so intricate and dark in its last few +flights of stairs, that none but a practiced foot could venture up or +down without a light, even in the day-time. The room occupied by Mr. +Rankin could never have been intended to be used as an office, or +perhaps anything else, and consequently the numbers of the rooms in the +buildings had not been carried up to the extraordinary elevation in +which No. 173 might now be found. Still, it seemed peculiar not to have +the number of one's chambers on one's card, if chambers should be +mentioned thereon, so he found that the rooms numbered below ended at +172, and then conscientiously marked "No. 173" on his own door with a +piece of white chalk. He also carefully printed his name, "Mr. Maurice +Rankin," on the cross-panel and added the letters "Q.C."--just to see +how the whole thing looked and assist ambition; but he hurriedly rubbed +The Q.C. out on hearing Mrs. Priest approach for one of her interminable +conversations from which there was seldom any escape. When Rankin first +came to Tremaine Buildings he lived in one of the lower rooms, now +occupied by Jack Cresswell, and not without some style and +comfort--taking his meals at the club, as our friends now did. His +father, who had been a well-known broker,--a widower--kept his horses, +and brought up his son in luxury. He then failed, after Maurice had +entered the Toronto University, and, unable to endure the break-up of +the results of his life's hard work, he died, leaving Maurice a few +hundred dollars that came to him out of the life-insurance. + +It was with a view to economy that our legal friend came to live in the +Tremaine Buildings after leaving the university and articling himself as +a clerk in one of the leading law firms in the city, where he got paid +nothing. The more his little capital dwindled, the harder he worked. +Soon the first set of chambers were relinquished for a higher, cheaper +room, and the meals were taken per contract, by the week, at a cheap +hotel. Then he had to get some clothes, which further reduced the little +fund. So he took "a day's march nearer home," as he called it, and +removed his effects _au quatrieme etage_, and from that _au +cinquieme_--and so on and up. Regular meals at hotels now belonged to +the past. A second-hand coal-oil stove was purchased, together with a +few cheap plates and articles of cutlery; and here Rankin retired, when +hungry, with a bit of steak rolled up in rather unpleasant brown paper; +and after producing part of a loaf and a slab of butter on a plate, he +cooked a trifle of steak about the size of a flat-iron, and caroused. +This he called the feast of independence and the reward of merit. + +Among his possessions could be found a wooden bed and bedding--clean, +but not springy--also a small deal table, and an old bureau with both +hind-legs gone. But the bureau stood up bravely when propped against the +wall. These were souvenirs of a transaction with a second-hand dealer. +In winter he set up an old coal-stove which had been abandoned in an +empty room in the building, and this proved of vast service, inasmuch as +the beef-steak and tea could be heated in the stove, thereby saving the +price of coal-oil. It will occur to the eagle-eyed reader that the price +of coal would more than exceed the price of coal-oil. On this point +Rankin did not converse. Although he started out with as high principles +of honor as the son of a stock-broker is expected to have, it must be +confessed that he did not at this time buy his coal. Therefore there was +a palpable economy in the use of the derelict stove--to say nothing of +its necessary warmth. No mention of coal was ever made between Rankin +and Mrs. Priest; but as Maurice rose in the world, intellectually and +residentially, Mrs. Priest saw that his monetary condition was depressed +in an inverse ratio, and being in many ways a well-intentioned woman, +she commenced bringing a pail of coal to his room every morning, which +generally served to keep the fire alight for twenty-four hours in +moderate weather. Maurice at first salved his conscience with the idea +that she was returning the coal she had "borrowed" from him during his +more palmy days. After the first winter, however, when he had suffered a +good deal from cold, his conscience became more elastic and communistic; +and ten o'clock P.M. generally saw him performing a solitary and gloomy +journey to unknown regions with a coal-scuttle in one hand and a wooden +pail in the other. Jack Cresswell had come across this coal-scuttle one +night in a distant corridor. He filled it with somebody else's coal and +came up with it to Rankin's room--his face beaming with enjoyment--and, +entering on tip-toe, whispered mysteriously the word "pickings." Then, +after walking around the room in the stealthy manner of the stage +villain who inspects the premises before "removing" the infant heir, he +dumped the scuttle on the floor and gasped, breathlessly, "A gift!" + +Rankin put aside Byles on Bills and arose with dignity: "What say you, +henchman? Pickings? A gift? Ay, truly, a goodly pickings! Filched, +perchance, from the pursy coal-bins of monopoly?" + +"Even so," was the reply, given with bated breath; and with his finger +to his lips, to imply that he was on a criminal adventure, Jack again +inspected the premises with much stealth and agility, and disappeared as +mysteriously as he had come. If Jack or Geoffrey ever saw anything lying +about the premises they thought would be of use to Rankin, there was a +nocturnal steal, and up it went to Rankin's room. This was sport. + +In this way Rankin lived. With one idea set before him, he grappled with +the leather-covered books that came by ones and twos into his room, +until, when the great struggle came at his final examinations, he was +surprised to find he had come out so well, and quite charmed when he +returned from Osgoode Hall to his dreary room, a solicitor of the +Supreme Court and a barrister-at-law, with a light heart, and not a +single solitary cent in the wide world. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Frien'ship maks us a' mair happy, + Frien'ship gies us a' delight; + Frien'ship consecrates the drappie, + Frien'ship brings us here to-night. + + ROBERT BURNS. + + +At the opening of this story, about six months had elapsed since Rankin +had been licensed to prey upon the public, and as yet he had not +despoiled it to any great extent. If he had kept body and soul together, +it was done in ways that are not enticing to young gentlemen who dream +of attacking the law single-handed. + +An old lawyer named Bean had an office in the lower part of Tremaine +Buildings, and Maurice arranged with him to occupy one of the ancient +desks in his office, and, in consideration of answering all questions as +to the whereabouts of Mr. Bean, the privilege of office-room was given +to him rent-free. As Mr. Bean had no clients, and as Rankin never knew +where he was, this duty was a light one. He also had from Mr. Bean the +privilege of putting his name up on the door, and, of course, as +frequently and as alluringly along the passage and on the stairs as he +might think desirable. But it was set out very clearly in the agreement, +which Rankin carefully drew up and Bean pretended to revise, that Mr. +Rankin should not in any way interfere with the clients of Mr. Bean, and +that Mr. Bean should not in any way interfere with the clients of the +aforesaid Rankin. + +Bean had a little money, which he seemed to spend exclusively in the +consumption of mixed drinks; and whatever else he did during the day, +besides expending his income in this way, certainly engrossed his +attention to a very large extent. When he looked into the office daily, +or, say, bi-weekly, it was only for a few moments--except when he fell +asleep in his chair. + +It was after he had been five or six months with Mr. Bean that Geoffrey +Hampstead had asked Rankin to dinner. He locked up the office about five +o'clock, having closed the dampers in the stove (Bean supplied the +coal--a great relief) and putting the key in his pocket, he ascended to +No. 173 for a while, and then he came down to Hampstead's chambers, +where he found our two bank friends taking a glass of sherry and bitters +to give their appetites a tone, which was a very unnecessary proceeding. + +"Hello, old man! How are you?" cried Hampstead in a hearty voice, +handing him a wine glass. + +"Ah! How am I? Just so!" quoth Rankin, helping himself. "How should a +man be, who is on the high road to fortune?" + +"He ought to be pretty chirpy, I should think," said Jack. + +"Chirpy! That's the word. 'Chirpy' describes me. So does 'fit.' The +money is rolling in, gentlemen. Business is on the full upward boom, and +I feel particularly 'fit' to-day--also chirpy." + +"Got a partnership?" inquired Geoffrey, with interest. + +"I suppose you mean a partnership with Mr. Bean, and I answer +emphatically 'No.' I refer to _my own_ business, sir, and I have no +intention of taking Mr. Bean into partnership. Bean is dying for a +partnership with me. Sha'n't take Bean in. A client of mine came in +to-day--" + +"Great Scott! you haven't got a client, have you?" cried Geoffrey, +starting from his chair. + +"Don't interrupt me," said Mr. Rankin. "As I was saying," he added with +composure, "a client of mine--" + +"No, no, Morry! This is too much. If you want us to believe you, give us +some particulars about this client--just as an evidence of good faith, +you know." + +"The client you are so inquisitive about," said Rankin, with dignity, +"is a lady who has been, in a sense, prematurely widowed--" + +"It's Mrs. Priest," said Jack, turning to Geoffrey. "He has been +defending her for stealing coal, sure as you're born!" + +"The lady came to me," said Maurice, taking no notice of the +interruption, "about a month ago, apparently with a view to taking +proceedings for alimony--at least her statement suggested this--" + +"By Jove, this is getting interesting!" said Jack. + +"But on questioning the unfortunate woman as to her means, I found that +her funds were in a painfully low condition--in fact, at a disgustingly +low ebb, viewed from a professional standpoint. And I also found that +her husband had offered her four dollars a week, to be paid weekly, on +condition that he should never see her and that somebody else should +collect the money. The husband was evidently a bold, bad man to have +given rise to the outbursts of jealously which it pained me to listen +to, and the poor lady, forgetful of my presence, and with all the +ability of an ancient prophet, denounced two or three women both jointly +and severally. She then roused herself, and asked what I would charge to +collect her four dollars per week. This seemed to decide the alimony +suit in the negative, and from the fact that she was, not to put too +fine a point upon it, three parts drunk at the time, I thought it better +to say what I would do. So now I collect four dollars a week from her +husband and pay it over to her every Saturday, for which I deduct, each +time, the sum of twenty-five cents. There is a good deal of money to be +made in the practice of the law." + +"What about the husband?" asked Jack, laughing. + +"I believe that I was invited to-day to dine--at least I came with that +intention. Instead of talking any more, I would be better satisfied if +somebody produced so much as the photograph of a chicken--and after that +I will further to you unfold my tale." + +Mr. Rankin slapped a waistcoat that appeared to be unduly slack about +the lower buttons. + +They then repaired to the club, where, having but a small appetite +himself, and the representatives of bank distinguishing themselves more +than he could as trenchermen, Rankin kept the ball rolling by relating +his experiences as a barrister, which seemed to amuse his two friends. +These experiences, leading to police-court items and police-court +savages, brought up the question of "What is a savage?"--which +introduced the Fuegians, the wild natives of Queensland, the Mayalans, +and others, with whom Hampstead compared the lowest-class Irish. He had +profited by much travel and reading, and anthropology was a subject on +which he could be rather brilliant. To show how our civilization is a +mere veneer, he drew a comparison between savage and civilized fashions, +and brought out facts culled from many different peoples--not omitting +Schweinfurth's Monbuttoo women--as to the primitive nature of the +dress-improver. Then, somehow, the conversation got back to the police +court, and the question, "What is a criminal?" and they agreed that if +the harm done to others was one criterion of guilt, it seemed a pity +that some things--woman's gossip, for instance--went so frequently +unpunished. + +"And I think," broke in Cresswell, after the subject had been well +thrashed, "that you two fellows are talking a good deal of what you know +very little about. After all your chatter, I think the point is right +here (and I put it in the old-fashioned way). If one does wrong he +violates his own appreciation of right, and his guilt can only be +measured by the way he tramples on his conscience, and as conscience +varies in almost every person, I think we had better give up wading into +abstractions and come down to the concrete--to the solid enjoyment of a +pipe." And Jack pushed back his chair. + +"Then, according to you, Jack, a fellow with no conscience would in +human judgment have no guilt," laughed Hampstead. + +"I don't believe there exists a sane man in the world without a +conscience," replied Jack, with his own optimism. + +"I don't think I agree with you," said Rankin. "I feel sure there are +men who, if they ever had a conscience, have trained it into such +elasticity that they may be said to have none. Do you not think so, +Hampstead?" + +"Really, I hardly know. I haven't thought much upon the subject, but I +think we ought, if we do possess any conscience ourselves, to give Jack +a chance to light his pipe." + +They soon sauntered back to the Tremaine Buildings, where Jack sat down +at the piano and played to them. While Jack played on, Geoffrey seemed +interested in police-court items, but Rankin preferred listening to +Beethoven and Mozart to "talking shop." After they had sung some +sea-songs together and chatted over a glass of "something short," Rankin +said good-night and mounted to No. 173 on the invisible stairs with as +much activity as if daylight were assisting him. + +Having lit his lamp, he soliloquized, as he attended to some faults in +his complexion before a small looking-glass, "So I have got another +client, I perceive. That dinner to-day was a fee--nothing else in the +world. I don't know now that I altogether like my new client. He +evidently didn't get what he wanted. Perhaps Jack was in the way. Now, I +wonder what the beggar _does_ want. Chances are I'll have another dinner +soon. Happy thought! make him keep on dining me _ad infinitum_! +Ornamental dinner! Pleasant change!" + +Maurice undressed and walked up and down the room. "Perhaps I am all +wrong, though," said he. "I can't help liking him in many ways, and he's +chock-full of interesting information. How odd that he didn't know +anything about a fellow having no conscience. Hadn't thought over that +idea. Very likely! Gad! I could imagine him just such a one, now that I +have got suspicious. He has a bad eye when he doesn't look after it. It +doesn't always smile along with his mouth. I may be wrong, but I believe +there's something there that's not the clean wheat," and Maurice +ascended to the woolsack and disappeared for the night. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + How can I tell the feelings in a young lady's mind; the thoughts in + a young gentleman's bosom? As Professor Owen takes a fragment of + bone and builds a forgotten monster out of it, so the novelist puts + this and that together: from the foot-prints finds the foot; from + the foot, the brute who trod on it; ... traces this slimy reptile + through the mud; ... prods down this butterfly with a pin. + --THACKERAY (_The Newcomes_). + + +Hampstead did not get to sleep, after Rankin had retired, as early as he +expected. Jack Cresswell followed him into his bedroom and sat down, lit +another pipe, and then walked about, and seemed preoccupied, as he had +all the evening. Geoffrey did not speak to him at first, as this was an +unusual proceeding between the two, but, having got into bed and made +himself comfortable by bullying the pillows into the proper shape and +position, addressed his friend: + +"Now, old man, unburden your mind. I know you want to tell me something, +but do not be surprised if you find me asleep before you get your second +wind. If you care for me, cut it short." + +"Got a letter to-day," said Jack, "from her." + +"Well, Jack, as you seem, with some eccentricity, to have only one +"her," of course I am interested. Your feelings in that quarter never +fail in their attraction. Pour into my devoted ear for the next five +minutes (not longer) a synopsis of your woes or joys. What is it you +want to-night? Congratulation or balm for wounds?" + +"Oh, I don't wish to keep you awake," said Jack testily, rising, as if +to depart. + +"Go on, sir. Go on, sir. Your story interests me." + +Geoffrey assumed an attitude of attention. Jack smiled and sat down +again. He had no intention of going away. He had thought over his letter +all day, till at last a confidential friend seemed almost necessary. + +"My letter comes from London. They've' returned from the Continent, and, +as they are now most likely on the sea, she'll be at home in about a +week." And Jack seemed in a high state of satisfaction. + +"Well, well! I never saw a real goddess in my life," said Geoffrey. "And +there is no doubt about Miss Lindon being one, because I have listened +to you for two years, and now I know that she is what I have long wished +to see." + +"It will give me the greatest pleasure to have you know her. I have +looked forward tremendously to that. Next to meeting her myself comes +the idea of we three being jolly good friends, and going around together +on little jamborees to concerts and that sort of thing. I haven't a +doubt but what we three will 'get on' amazingly." + +"Playing gooseberry with success requires a clever person," said +Geoffrey. "I don't think I'm quite equal to the call for the tact and +loss of individuality which the position demands. However, dear boy, I +am quite aware that to introduce me to the lady of your heart as your +particular friend is the greatest compliment one fellow can pay +another--all things considered. Don't you think so? Oh, yes, I dare say +we will be a trio quite out of the common. But, if she is as pretty as +you say she is, I'll have to look at her, you know. Can't help looking +at a handsome woman, even if she were hedged in with as many +prohibitions as the royal family. You'll have to get accustomed to +_that_, of course." + +"But that's the very reason why I want you to know her," said Jack, in +his whole-souled way. "I really often feel as if her beauty and +brightness and her power of pleasing many should not be altogether +monopolized by any one man. It would redouble my satisfaction if I +thought you admired her also." Jack stopped for a moment as he +considered that her power of "pleasing many" had been rather larger at +times than he had cared about. "It seems to me that she has enough of +these attractions for me, and some to spare for others." + +Geoffrey smiled as he wondered if the girl herself thought she had +enough to spare for others besides Jack. + +"Young man, your sentiments do you credit! It must make things much more +satisfactory to an engaged girl to understand that she is expected not +to neglect the outside world whenever she is able 'to tear herself +away,' as it were." + +"I see you grinning to yourself under the bed-clothes," said Jack, who +rather winced at this. "I don't know that I ever asked her to distribute +herself more than she did. On the contrary, if you must have the +unvarnished truth, quite the reverse." Jack reddened as he ventilated +some of the truths which are generally suppressed. "The fact is, it was +rather the other way. I frequently have acted like a donkey when I +didn't get her undivided attention. You know girls often get accused of +flirting, and when one hears their own explanation, nothing seems +clearer, you know, than that there was no occasion for the row at all." + +Geoffrey thought he did know, but said nothing. + +"Two years, though, make changes, and having seen nothing of her for +such a long time, I feel as if one glimpse of her would repay me for all +the waiting. I should never have thought of our differences again if you +had not raked them up." + +"Which I am sorry to have done," said Geoffrey. "No doubt, two years do +sometimes make a difference. I am sure you treat the _affaire_ +sublimely, and, if she is equally generous in her thoughts of you, it +will be a unique thing to gaze upon both of you at once." + +Jack took Geoffrey's remarks in good part, for he had got accustomed to +the cynical way the latter treated most things. It was _his way_, he +thought, and Geoffrey was "such an all-round good fellow, and all that +sort of thing, you know," that it was to be expected that he should have +"ways." Besides this, Jack had seen from time to time that, though very +ready to recognize sterling merit, Geoffrey had ability in detecting +humbug, and that he considered the optimist had too many chances against +him to make him valuable as a prophet. Thus, when he spoke in this way +of Nina Lindon, Jack supposed that his friend had his doubts, and, much +as he loved her, he stopped, like many another, and asked himself +whether she had such a generosity and nobility in her character as he +had supposed. This, he felt, was rather beneath him in one way, and +rather beyond him in another. When he looked for admirable traits, he +remembered several instances of good-natured impulse, and while the +graceful manner in which she had done these things rose before him, he +grew enthusiastic. Then he sought to call up for inspection the +qualities he took exception to. That she had seemed inconsiderate of his +feelings at times seemed true. There was, he thought, a frivolity about +her. He thought life had for him some few well-defined realities, and +that she had never seemed to quite grasp the true inwardness of his best +moments. But all was explained by her youth and the adulation paid to +her. And then the memory of her soft dark eyes and flute-like voice, the +various allurements of her vivacious manner and graceful figure, +produced an enthusiasm quite overwhelming. So he laughed at the defeat +of his impartiality, looked over at Geoffrey, who was peacefully snoring +by this time, and went away to his own room. But deep down in his heart +lay the shadow of a doubt which, with his instinctive courtesy, he never +approached even in an examination supposed to be a searching one. The +inspection of it seemed a sacrilege, and he put it from him. +Nevertheless, there had been times when Jack felt doubtful as to whether +Nina could be relied upon for absolute truth. + +Joseph Lindon, the father of Nina, came from--no person seemed to know +where. He, or his family, might have come from the north of Ireland or +south of Scotland, or middle of England, or anywhere else, as far as any +one could judge by his face; and, as likely as not, his lineage was a +mixture of Scotch, Irish, English, or Dutch, which implanted in his +physiognomy that conglomeration of nationalities which now defies +classification, but seems to be evolving a type to be known as +distinctively Canadian. His accent was not Irish, Scotch, English, nor +Yankee. It was a collection of all four, which appeared separately at +odd times, and it was, in this way, Canadian. + +His family records had not been kept, or Joseph would certainly have +produced them, if creditable. He had the appearance of a self-made man. +If want of a good education somewhat interfered with the completeness of +his social success, it certainly had not retarded him in business +circles. If he had swept out the store of his first employers, those +employers were now in their graves, and of those who knew his beginnings +in Toronto there were none with the temerity to remind him of them. Mr. +Lindon was not a man to be "sat upon." He had a bold front, a hard, +incisive voice, and a temper that, since he began to feel his monetary +oats, brooked no opposition. He might have been taken for a farmer, +except for the keenness of his eye and the fact that his clothes were +city made. These two differences, however, are of a comprehensive kind. + +Mr. Lindon, early in life, had opened a small shop, and then enlarged +it. Having been successful, he sold out, and took to a kind of broker, +money-lending, and land business, and being one who devoted his whole +existence to the development of the main chance, with a deal of native +ability to assist him, the result was inevitable. + +His entertainments gave satisfaction to those who thought they knew what +a good glass of wine was. Mr. Lindon himself did _not_. Few do. When +exhausted he took a little whisky. When he entertained, he sipped the +wine that an impecunious gentleman was paid to purchase for him, +regardless of cost. So, although there were those who turned up their +noses at Joseph Lindon while they swallowed him, there did not seem to +be any reluctance in going through the same motions with his wine. + +The fact that he was able to, and did entertain to a large extent was of +itself sufficient in certain quarters to provoke a smile suggesting that +_the_ society in that city did not entertain. Some members had been +among the exclusives for a comparatively short time, and the early +occupation of their parents was still painfully within the memory of the +oldest inhabitant. A good many based their right on the fact that they +came "straight from England"--without further recommendation; while +others pawed the air like the heraldic lion because they had, or used to +have, a second cousin with a title in England. + +But these good people were partly correct when they hinted that some old +families did not entertain much. Either there had been some scalawag in +the family who had wasted its substance, or else the respected family +had had a faculty for mortgaging and indorsing notes for friends in +those good old times which happily are not likely to return. + +The consequence was that there was a good deal of satisfaction on both +sides. Joseph Lindon could pat his breeches pocket, figuratively, and, +not without reason, consider he had the best of it. Many a huge mortgage +at ruinous interest made by the first families, who never lived within +their means, had found its way to Lindon's office, and many an acre, +subsequently worth thousands of dollars, had been acquired by him in +satisfaction of the note he held against the family scalawag. During all +the times that these people had been "keeping up the name," as they +called it, Lindon had been salting down the hard cash, and if some of +his transactions were of the "shady" sort, he had, in dealing with some +of the patrician families, some pretty shady customers to look after. + +But these transactions were in the old times, when Lindon was rolling up +his scores of thousands. All he had to do now was to attend the board +meetings of companies of which he was president, and to arrange his +large financial ventures in cold blood over his chop at the club with +those who waited for his consent with eager ears. If there were few +transactions in business circles that he was not conversant with, there +were still fewer affairs in his own domestic circle that he knew +anything about. It was his wife that had brought him into his social +position, such as it was; that is, his wife's wishes and his money. + +Mrs. Lindon had been a pretty woman in her day, which, of course, had +lost its first freshness, and she was approaching that period when the +retrospect of a well-spent life is expected to be gratifying. Her +married life with Mr. Lindon had not been the gradual conquest of that +complete union which makes later years a climax and old age the harvest +of sweet memories in common, as marriage has been defined for us. On the +contrary, their married life had been a gradual acquisition of that +disunion which law and public opinion prevent from becoming complete. +The two had now established the semblance of a union--the system in +which the various pretenses of deep regard become so well defined by +long years of mutual make-believe, as to often encourage the married to +hope that it will be publicly supposed to be the glad culmination of +their courtship dreams. + +Mrs. Lindon said of herself that she had been of a Lower Canadian +family, with some French name, prior to her marriage, and her story +seemed to suggest, in the absence of further particulars, that Mr. +Lindon had married her more for her family than her good looks. The +"looks" were pretty nearly gone, but the "family" was still within the +reach of a sufficiently fertile imagination, and so often had the +suggestion been made that of late years the idea had assumed a +definiteness in her mind which materially assisted her in holding her +own in the society in which she now floated. A natural untidiness in the +way she put on her expensive garments, which in a poorer woman would +have been called slatternly, and the dark, French prettiness which she +still showed traces of (and which was rather of the nurse-girl type) +combined to suggest that in reality she was the offspring of Irish and +French emigrants, "and steerage at that"--some of the first families +said--"decidedly steerage." + +Mrs. Lindon was supremely her own mistress. This was not, perhaps, an +ultimate benefit to her, but, as she had nothing on earth to trouble +about, long years of idleness and indulgence in every whim had led her +to conjure up a grievance, which she nursed in her bosom, and on account +of it she excused herself for all shortcomings. This was that she was +left so much without the society of Mr. Lindon. Often, in the pauses +between the excitements she created for herself, tears of self-pity +would arise at the thought of her abandoned condition. The truth was +that she did not care anymore for Lindon than he did for her; but from +the fact that she really did desire to have a husband who would see +better the advantages of shining in society, the poor lady contrived to +convince herself that he had been greatly wanting in his duties to her +as a husband, that the affection was all on her side, and that that +affection was from year to year quietly repulsed. Their domestic bearing +toward each other was now that of a quiet neutrality. They always +addressed each other in public as "my dear," and, if either of them had +died, no doubt the bereaved one would have mourned in the usual way, on +the principle of "Nil de mortuis nisi _bunkum_." + +It had not occurred to Mrs. Lindon that, if more time had been spent +with her daughter in fulfilling a mother's duties toward a young girl, +there would have been less need for extraneous assistance to aid her in +her passage through the world. Nina was fond of her mother, and it was +strange that the two did not see more of each other. Nina could be a +credit to her in any social gathering, and this made it all the more +strange. But Mrs. Lindon was forever gadding about to different +institutions, Bible-readings, and other little excitements of her own +(for which Nina had no marked liking), and she seemed rather more easy +in her mind when Nina was not with her. Perhaps Mr. Lindon was not +solely at fault concerning the coolness pervading the domestic +atmosphere. + +The charitable institutions had been the salvation of Mrs. Lindon--that +is, in a mundane sense. When Joseph Lindon, with characteristic method, +came home one day and said, "My dear, I have bought the Ramsay mansion, +and now I am going to spend my money," Mrs. Lindon enjoyed a pleasure +exceeding anything she had known. That was a happy day for her! The +dream of her life was to be consummated! She immediately left the small +church which she had attended for years and changed her creed slightly +to take a good pew in a certain fashionable church. After this it was +merely a question of time and money, both of which were available to any +extent. She showed great interest in charities. She contributed humbly +but lavishly. The ladies of good position who go around with +subscription-books smiled in their hearts at seeing the old game going +on. They smiled and bled her profusely. They discussed Mrs. Lindon among +themselves--with care, of course, because they did not wish to appear to +have known her before. But as time wore on they thought she could be +bled to a much greater extent if she were induced to become "a worker in +the flock," which the good lady was quite willing to do. On being +approached by some of the leading spirits, she went first to a weekly +Bible-class, which she had previously been afraid to attend because the +audience was so select, and after this she showed such an interest in +various charities that she was soon placed upon committees. By ladies +with heads for real management on their shoulders she was led to +believe that they really could not do without her mental assistance, so +that at first when she was gravely consulted on a financial question and +asked for her advice she generally eased the tension on her mind by +writing a substantial check. This led her to believe that she had +something of the financier about her, and she even told her husband that +she was beginning to quite understand all about money matters, at which +Joseph smiled an ineffable smile. + +She could have been used more advantageously if she had been kept out of +the desired circle for a couple of years longer, because she was ready +to pay any price for her admission. The good ladies made a slight +mistake in being too hasty to control the bottomless purse, because, +after she had got fairly installed, the purse was worked in several +other ways, and the ecclesiastical drain on it became reduced to an +ordinary amount. She gave a fair sum to each of the charities and +accepted the attentions of those whom the odor of money attracted, +without troubling herself in the slightest degree about the periodical +financial difficulties of the institutions. + +Yet she never altogether relaxed her efforts in "working for the Lord," +as she called it, in such good company. She acquired a taste for it that +never left her. She would take a couple of the "poor but honest" ladies +of good family with her, in her sumptuous barouche, to the "Incurables" +and other places. After a capital luncheon at her house they would visit +the "Home," and sometimes kiss the poor women there; and if the +strengthening sympathy and religious value of Mrs. Lindon's kiss did not +bind them to a life of virtue ever afterward they must indeed have been +lost--in every sense of the word. + +Nina was not born for some time after Mr. and Mrs. Lindon had been +married. Her mother had kept her, when a child, very much in the dark as +to their antecedents, and, as the social position of the family had +been well established by Mrs. Lindon when Nina was very young, the girl +always had grown up with the idea that she was a lady; and in spite of a +few wants in her father and some doubts as to her mother's origin, she +came out into society with a fixed idea that she was "quite good enough +for the colonies," as she laughingly told her friends. + +No pains or expense had been spared in her education. She had first gone +to the best Toronto school, and had "finished" at a boarding-school in +England. Jack Cresswell knew her when she was at school, where she +shared his heart with several others. When she emerged from the +educational chrysalis and floated for the first time down a society +ball-room Jack was after the butterfly hat-in-hand, as it were, and +never as yet had he given up the chase. Mr. Lindon knew nothing of +domestic affairs, but he had found Jack so frequently at his house that +he had begun to see that his ambitious plans for his daughter were +perhaps in danger of being frustrated, and so, having at that time to +send a man to England to float the shares of some company on the London +market, he decided to go himself, and one day, when Jack was dining +there, he rather paralyzed all, especially Jack, by instructing his wife +and daughter to be ready in a week for the journey. + +The parting on Jack's part would have been tender if Nina had not been +in such exasperatingly high spirits--hilarity he found it quite +impossible to participate in or appreciate. He made her excuses to +himself, like the decent soul he was, although he really suffered a good +deal. He was an ardent youth, and for the week prior to departure he +received very little of the sympathy he hungered for, but he tried to +speak cheerfully as he held her hand in saying good-by. + +"Well, now, you won't forget your promise, old lady, will you?" he said, +while he tried to photograph her in his mind as she stood bewitchingly +before him. + +"What! and throw over the French count that proposed to me in London?" +she said archly. Jack muttered something under his breath that sounded +like hostility toward the French count. + +She heard him, however, and said: "Certainly. So we will. It will kill +him, but you will rejoice. And I will come back and marry Jack. There! +isn't it nice of me to say that? Now, kiss me and say good-by!" + +She withdrew, and held the porch door so that only her face appeared, +which Jack lightly touched with his lips, and then he went away +speechless. As he went he heard her singing: + + "And I'll come back to my own true love, + Ten thousand miles away." + +This sentiment, from one of his yachting songs, smoothed the ragged edge +of his feelings. He loved in an old-fashioned way, and in his ideas as +to carrying out the due formalities of a lover's leave-taking he was +conservative even to red-tapeism, and disappointment, tenderness, anger, +and hopelessness surged through his brain as they only can in that of a +young man. + +There was further tragedy in that Jack, unable to sleep at night and +despondent in the morning, must needs go down to the boat to see her +"just once more" before she left. The gangways had been hauled in and +the paddle-wheels were beginning to move. Nina was standing inside the +lower-deck bulwarks and leaned across the water to shake hands, but the +distance was too great She was in aggressively high spirits, and said to +him, as he moved along the end of the wharf, keeping pace with the boat: + +"Don't you remember what your pet authoress says?" + +"No," said Jack, hoping that she would say something nice to him. + +"She says that a first farewell may have pathos in it, but to come back +for a second lends an opening to comedy." + +Her rippling laugh smote Jack cruelly. Then she tried to soften this by +smiling and waving her hand to him as the boat swept away. Jack raised +his hat stiffly in return, and wandered back to the bank with a head +that felt as if it would split. + +And this was their parting two years ago. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Fair goes the dancing when the sitar's tuned; + Tune us the sitar neither low nor high, + And we will dance away the hearts of men. + + The string o'erstretched breaks, and music flies; + The string o'erslack is dumb, and music dies; + Tune us the sitar neither low nor high. + + _Nautch girls' song.--The Light of Asia._ ARNOLD. + + +Mr. Lindon did not remain long with his family on the trip which Mrs. +Lindon thought was only to last a month or two. On arriving in England, +he transacted his business in a short time, and then proposed a run on +the Continent. By degrees he took the family on to Rome, where they made +friends at the hotel and seemed contented to remain for a while. He then +pretended to have received a cablegram, and came home by the quickest +route, having got them fairly installed in a foreign country without +letting them suspect any coercion in the matter. Afterward he wrote to +say he wished Nina to see something of England and Scotland, and, the +proposal being agreeable to Mrs. Lindon, they accepted invitations from +people they had met to pay visits in different places, so that, together +with an art course in Paris and a musical course at Leipsic, they +wandered about until nearly two years had elapsed, when they suddenly +suspected that Mr. Lindon preferred that they should be away, upon which +they returned at once. + +Whether Nina came back "in love" with Jack was a question as to which he +made many endeavors to satisfy himself. The ability to live up to the +verb "to love" in all its moods and tenses is so varied, and the outward +results of the inward grace are often so ephemeral that it would be +hazardous to say what particular person is sufficiently unselfish to +experience more than a gleam of a phase that calls for all the most +beautiful possibilities. It is not merely a jingle of words to say that +one who is not minded to be single should be single-minded. + +Let us pass over the difficult point and take the young lady's statement +for what it was worth. She said, of herself, that she _was_ in love with +Jack. He had extracted this from her with much insistence, while she +aggravatingly asserted at the same time, that she only made the +admission "for a quiet life," leaving Jack far from any certainty of +possession that could lead to either indifference or comfort. + +Two or three proposals of marriage which she had while away had +evidently not captured her, even if they had turned her head a little. +She had seen no person she liked better than Jack or else she would not, +perhaps, have come back in the way she did. The proposals, however, if +they ever had been made, served to turn Jack's daily existence into +alternations of hot and cold shower-baths. One day she would talk about +a Russian she had met in Paris. Then she solemnly gave the history of +her walks and talks with a naval officer in Rome, till Jack's brow was +damp with a cold exudation. But when it came to the delightful +appearance of Colonel Vere, and the devotion he showed when he took her +hand and asked her to share his estates, Jack said, with his teeth +clinched, that he had had enough of the whole business--and departed. He +then spent two days of very complete misery, barometer at 28 deg., until she +met him and laid her hand on his arm and said she was sorry; would he +stop being a cross boy? that she had only been teasing him, and all the +rest of it; while she looked out of her soft dark eyes in a way that +left no doubt in Jack's mind that he had behaved like a brute. + +In this way the first week of her return had been consumed, and as yet +he had not felt that he could afford to divide her society with anybody. +What with the rich Russian, the naval officer, and Colonel Vere--what +with getting into agonies and getting out of them--it took him pretty +nearly all his time to try to straighten matters out. So Geoffrey's +introduction had not been mentioned further by him, except to Nina, who +was becoming curious to see Jack's particular friend and Admirable +Crichton. The opportunity for this meeting seemed about to offer itself +in the shape of an entertainment where all those who remained in Toronto +during the summer would collect--one of those warm gatherings where the +oft-tried case of _pleasure vs. perspiration_ results so frequently in +an undoubted verdict for the defendant. + +The Dusenalls were among those wise enough to know that in summer they +could be cooler in Toronto, at their own residence, with every comfort +about them, than they could possibly be while stewing in an American +hotel or broiling on the sands of an American seaport. They objected to +spending large sums yearly in beautifying their grounds, merely to leave +the shady walks, cool arbors, and tinkling fountains for the enjoyment +of the gardeners' wives and children. In the thickness of their mansion +walls there was a power to resist the sun which no thin wooden hotel can +possess; therefore, in spite of a fashion which is somewhat dying out, +they remained in Toronto during the hot months, and amused themselves a +good deal on young Dusenall's yacht. + +Their residence was well adapted for such a party as they were now +giving, and the guests were made to understand that in the afternoon +there would be a sort of garden-party, with lawn-tennis chiefly in view, +and at dark a substantial high tea--to wind up with dancing as long as +human nature could stand the strain; and if any had got too old or too +corpulent or too dignified to play tennis, they could hardly get too +much so to look on; or, if this lacked interest, they could walk about +the lawns and gardens and converse, or, if possible, make love; or +listen to a good military band while enjoying a harmless cigarette; and +if they liked none of these things they could never have been known by +the people of whom this account is given, and thus, perhaps, might as +well never have been born. + +The men, of course, played in their flannels, which a few of them +afterward changed in Charley Dusenall's rooms when there was a +suspension of hostilities for toilets. Most of them went home to dinner +and appeared later on for the dancing. People came in afternoon-dress +and remained for tea and through the evening in that attire, or else +they dropped in at the usual time in evening-dress. It did not matter. +It was all a sort of "go-as-you-please." Some girls danced in their +light tennis dresses, and others had their maids come with ball dresses. +Of course the majority came late--especially the chaperons, the heavy +fathers, starchy bank-managers, and such learned counsel as scorned not +to view the giddy whirl nor to sample the cellars of the Dusenalls. + +Mrs. Lindon arrived with her daughter late in the evening, when +everything was whirling. Jack had his name down for a couple of dances, +and a few more were bestowed upon eager aspirants, and then she had no +more to give away--so sorry!--card quite filled! She told dancing fibs +in a charming manner that seemed to take away half the pang of +disappointment. This was a field-day, and the discarded ones could +receive more notice on some other, smaller occasion. + +To see Jack and Nina dancing together was to see two people completely +satisfied with themselves. As a dancer, Jack "fancied himself." He had +an eye for calculating distances and he had the courage of his opinions +when he proposed to dance through a small space. As for Nina, she was +the incarnation of a waltz. Her small feet seemed as quick as the pat of +a cat's paw. In watching her the idea of exertion never seemed to +present itself. There is a pleasure in the rhythmic pulsations of the +feet and in yielding to the sensuous strains of the music (which alone +seems to be the propelling power) that is more distinctly animal than a +good many of our other pleasures; and Nina was born to dance. + +At the end of Jack's first dance with her, Geoffrey came idling through +the conservatory, and entered the ball-room close beside the place where +Mrs. Lindon was seated with several other mothers. As the last bars of +the waltz were expiring, Jack brought up at what he called "the +moorings" with all the easy swing and grace of a dancer who loves his +dance. The act of stopping seemed to divide the unity in trinity +existing between his partner, himself and the music, and it was +therefore to be regretted, and not to be done harshly, but lingeringly, +if it _must_ be done, while Nina, as he released her, came forward +toward her mother with her sleeveless arms still partly hanging in the +air, and with a pretty little trip and slide on the floor, as if she +could not get the "time" out of her feet. Her head was slightly thrown +back, the eyelids were drooped, and the lips were parted with a smile of +recognition for Mrs. Lindon, while her attitude showed the curves of her +small waist to advantage; so that the first glimpse of Nina that +Geoffrey received was not an unpleasant one. She seemed to be moving +naturally and carelessly. She was only endeavoring to make the other +mothers envious, when they compared her with their own daughters. Such +wiles were part of her nature. When feeling particularly vigorous, +almost every attitude of some people is a challenge--males with their +bravery, females with their graces--and, whatever changes the future may +develop in the predilections of woman, there may for a long time be some +left to acknowledge that for them a likable man is one who is able to +assert, in a refined way, sufficient primitive force to make submission +seem like conquest rather than choice. + +Jack at once introduced Geoffrey--his face beaming while he did so. He +was so proud of Nina. He was so proud of Geoffrey. Nina was blushing at +having Hampstead witness her little by-play with her mother at the +conclusion of the dance--but not displeased withal. Jack thought he had +never seen her look so beautiful. And Geoffrey was such a strapper. Jack +surveyed them both with unbounded satisfaction. He slapped Hampstead on +the arm, and tightened the sleeve of his coat over his biceps, patting +the hard limb, and saying warmly: "Here's where the secret lies, Nina! +This is what takes the prizes." + +"So you are Jonathan's David, are you?" said Nina, smiling, as they +talked together. + +"Well, he patronizes me a good deal," said Geoffrey. "But don't you +think he looks as if he wished to find his next partner? Suppose we give +him a chance to do so; let us go off and discuss his moral character." + +He went away with Nina on his arm, leaving Jack quite radiant to see +them both so friendly. + +When they arrived in the long conservatory adjoining, Geoffrey held out +his hand for her card. He did not ask for it, except perhaps by a look. +Having possessed himself of it, he found five successive dances +vacant--evidently kept for some one, and he was bold enough suddenly to +conclude they had been kept for him. He looked at the card amused, and +as he scratched a long mark across all five, he drawled, "May I have the +pleasure of--some dances?" And then he mused aloud as he examined the +card, "Don't seem to be more than five. Humph! Too bad! But perhaps we +can manage a few more, Miss Lindon?" + +Nina was accustomed to distribute her favors with a reluctant hand and +with a condescension peculiarly her own, and to hear suppliant voices +around her. She would be capricious, and loved her power. Even Jack did +not count upon continued sunshine, and took what he could get with some +thanksgivings. She was a presumptive heiress, and had not escaped the +inflation of the purse-proud. But, on the other hand, since her return +she had heard a good deal about the various perfections of his friend, +and how well he did everything; and from what her girl friends said, she +had gleaned that Geoffrey was more in demand than would be confessed. He +was not very desirable financially, perhaps, but hugely so because he +was sought after. This much would have been sufficient to have made her +amused rather than annoyed at his cool way of assuming that she would +devote herself to him for an unlimited time, but there was something +more about Geoffrey than mere fashion to account for his popularity, and +that was the peculiar influence of his presence upon those with whom he +conversed. + +Thus Nina, if she came to the Dusenalls with the intention of having a +flirtation with Geoffrey, which the condition of her card and her +acquiescence to his demands confessed, had hit upon a person who was far +more than her match, for Hampstead's acquaintanceships were not much +governed by rule. As long as a girl diverted him and wished to amuse +herself he had no particular creed as to consequences, but merely made +it understood--verbally, at least--that there was nothing lasting about +the matter, and that it was merely for "the temporary mutual benefit and +improvement of both parties." This was a remnant of a code of +justification by which he endeavored to patch up his self-respect; but +nobody knew better than he that such phrases mean nothing to women who +are falling in love and intend to continue in love. + +Underneath the careless tones with which he spoke to Nina there was an +earnestness and concentration that influenced her. As he gravely handed +back her card and caught and held her glance with an intensity in his +gray eyes and will-power in his face, she felt, for the first time with +any man, that she was not completely at her ease. When obeying the +warning impulses that formerly fulfilled the offices of thought women do +not often make a mistake. By these intuitions, sufficient at first for +self-protection, she knew there was willfulness and mastery in him, and +that if she would be true to Jack she should return to him. If change of +masters be hurtful to women, this was the time for her to remember about +the woman who hesitates. Geoffrey said, "Let us go in and have a dance, +Miss Lindon," and she rose with a nervous smile and glanced across to +the place where her mother was sitting. But Mrs. Lindon had never been a +tower of strength to her, or she might have gone to her. She had a +distinct feeling that this new acquaintance was more powerful in some +way than she had anticipated, and that everything was not all right with +Jack's interests, and she was at one of those moments when a woman's +ability to decide is so peculiarly the essence of her character, +circumstances, and teaching as fairly to indicate her general moral +level. Goethe tells us "to first understand"; but if we can not know the +extent of Geoffrey's influence, or how far her unknown French lineage +assisted temptation, we would better leave judgment alone. Geoffrey said +something in her ear about the music being delicious. She listened for a +moment and longed for a dance with him. Rubbish! only a dance, after +all! And the next moment she was circling through the ball-room with his +arm around her. + +The band that played at the Dusenalls' was one that could be listened to +with pleasure. It was composed of bottle-nosed Germans who worked at +trades during the day and who played together generally for their own +amusement. In all they played they brought out the soul of the movement. +It was to one of the dreamiest of waltzes that Nina danced with +Geoffrey--one of those pieces where from softer cadences the air swells +into rapturous triumph, or sinks into despair, and wooes the dancer into +the most unintellectual and pleasant frame of mind--if the weather be +not too warm. + +A cool night breeze was passing through the room, bringing with it the +fragrance of the dewey flowers outside, and carrying off the odor of +those nauseating tube-roses (which people _will_ wear), and replacing it +with a perfume more acceptable to gods and men--especially men. + +If Jack "fancied himself" as a dancer, Geoffrey had a better right to do +so. His stature aided him also, and men with retreating chins were +rather inclined to give him the road. He had a set look about the lower +part of his face which in crowds was an advantage to him. It suggested +some _vis major_--perhaps a locomotive, which no one cares to encounter. + +In two minutes after they had embarked on this hazardous voyage Nina had +but one idea, or rather she was conscious of a pervading sense of +pleasure, that ran away with her calmer self. No thought of anything +definite was with her, only a vague consciousness of turning and +floating, of being admired, of being impelled by music and by Geoffrey. +As the dance went on it seemed like some master power that led through +the mazes delightfully and resistlessly. + +When the music ended, for they had never stopped, she sighed with +sorrow. It had been too short. She had yielded herself so completely to +its fascination that she seemed like one awakening from a dream. And +then her conscience smote her when she thought of Jack, and how in some +way she had enjoyed herself too much, and did not seem to be quite the +same girl that she had been half an hour before; but these thoughts left +her as they walked about and spoke a few words together. While circling +the long room she noticed Geoffrey bowing to a tall young lady whose +long white silk train swept behind her majestically. There was a respect +and gravity in his bow which Nina, with her quick observation, noticed. + +"Who is that you are bowing to?" she asked. + +"That is Miss Margaret Mackintosh." + +"Oh, I think she is perfectly lovely," said Nina, as she looked back +admiringly. + +"So do I," said Geoffrey. + +Nina turned about now with curiosity, in order to meet her again. Miss +Mackintosh came down the room once more with a partner who was one of +the very young persons who now are the dancing men in Toronto--called +the "infants" by a lady (still unwon) who remembers when there were +marriageable men to be found dancing at parties. This detrimental with +Miss Mackintosh was having an enjoyable time of it. What with the beauty +of his partner, her stately figure, gracious manner, and the rapidity +with which she talked to him, the little man did not quite know where he +was, and he could do little else than turn occasionally and murmur +complete acquiescence in what she was saying, while he sometimes glanced +at her active face for a moment. In doing this, though, he would lose +the thread of her discourse, in consequence of his unfeigned admiration, +and, as he was straining every nerve to follow her quick ideas, this was +a risky thing to do. Once or twice, seeing him turn toward her so +attentively, she turned also and said, "Don't you think so?" and then +the little man would endeavor to mentally pull himself together, and +with some appearance of deep thought would again acquiesce with unction. +Certainly he thought he did think so--every time. + +The close scrutiny of Hampstead and Nina did not seem to affect her as +she passed them with her face unlifted and earnest. She did not seem to +have any side eyes open to see who were regarding her. When the handsome +dress that had made such a cavern in her allowance money was trodden on, +she gathered it up with an active movement--not seeming to notice the +unpleasantness, nor for a moment abating the earnestness of her +conversation. Her idea seemed to be to prevent the dress from +interrupting her rather than to save it. One could see that, once on, +the dress was perhaps not thought of again, that it was not the main +part of her pleasure, but was lost in her endeavor to make herself +agreeable, and in this way to enjoy herself. + +"I am sure she must have a very kind heart," said Nina, smiling. + +"Why?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Because she takes so much trouble over such a poor specimen of a man." + +"Perhaps, as Douglas Jerrold said, she belongs to the Royal Humane +Society," added Geoffrey. + +As Nina could not remember being acquainted with any Mr. Jerrold, the +remark lost some of its weight. The true inwardness of the old wit that +comes down to us in books is our knowledge of the reputation of the +joker. + +"And does she dance well?" asked Nina. + +"No," said Geoffrey, as he still looked after Miss Mackintosh with grave +and thoughtful eyes. "I don't think she has in her enough of what +Goethe calls the 'daemonic element' of our nature to dance well." + +"Not very complimentary, to those who can dance well," said Nina, archly +pointing to herself. + +Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders, as he looked at his partner. "Some +people prefer the daemonic element," said he. But he turned again from +the rose to the tall, white lily, who was once more approaching them, +with something of a melancholy idea in his mind that men like him ought +to confine themselves entirely to the rose, and not aspire above their +moral level. Margaret Mackintosh was the one person he revered. She was +the symbol to him of all that was good and pure. He had almost forgotten +what these words meant, but the presence of Margaret always +re-interpreted the lost language. + +"And do you admire her very much?" Nina inquired. + +"I admire her more than any person I ever saw." + +Sooner or later, it would have gone hard with Geoffrey for making this +speech, if he had been any one else. But it occurred to Nina that he did +not care whether she took offense or not. He was leaning against the +wall, apparently oblivious, for the moment, to any of her ideas, charms, +or graces, but looking, withal, exceedingly handsome, and a thought came +to her which should not come to an engaged young lady. She made up her +mind that she would make him care for her a great deal and then would +snub him and marry Jack. + +The music commenced again. + +"Come now," said Nina, gayly, "and try a little more of the daemonic +element." + +Geoffrey turned to her quickly, and his face flushed as, to quote +Shakespeare's sonnet, "his bad angel fired his good one out." He saw in +her face her intention to subjugate him, and knew that he had +accidentally paved the way for this new foolish notion of hers by his +candid admiration of Miss Mackintosh. + +"Have you any of it to spare?" said he, as his arm encircled her for the +dance. + +No verbal answer was given, but they floated away among the dancers. +Here she forgot her slight feelings of resentment and retained only the +desire to attract him, without further wish to punish him afterward. A +few turns around the room, and she was in as much of a whirl as she had +been before. They danced throughout the music--almost without ceasing; +and when it ended she unconsciously leaned, upon his arm, as they +strolled off together, almost as if she were tired. The thought of how +she was acting came to her, only it came now as an intruder. A usurper +reigned with sovereign sway, and Right was quickly ousted on his +approach. A little while ago, and the power to decide, for Jack or +against him, was more evenly balanced; but now, how different! She was +wandering on with no other impulse than the indefinite wish to please +Geoffrey. If she had been a man, sophisms and excuses might have +occurred to her. But it was not her habit to analyze self much, and even +sophisms require _some_ thought. + +They passed through the conservatory and out to the broad walk of +pressed gravel, where several couples were promenading. Here they walked +up and down once or twice in the cool breeze that seemed delicious after +the invisible dust of the ball-room. Nina was saying nothing, but +leaning on his arm, and it seemed to her that his low, deep tones +vibrated through her--as a sympathetic note sometimes makes glass +ring--as if in echo. + +Geoffrey was pondering where all the pride and self-assertion had gone +to in this girl who now seemed so trustful and docile. Even her answers +seemed mechanical and vague, as if she were in some way bewildered. + +Jack, in the mean time, was elbowing his way through a crowd, trying to +get one of his partners something to eat. He was the only person likely +to notice her absence, and this he did not do, and, as Geoffrey was down +for five dances, he knew no others would be looking for her. So he +walked on past the end of the terrace, and, descending some steps, +proceeded farther till they came to more steps leading down into a path +dark with overhanging trees. Nina hesitated, and said she was always +afraid to go among dark trees, but Geoffrey said, "Oh, I'll take care of +you." Then she thought it was pleasant to have an athlete for a +protector, and she glanced at his strong face and frame with confidence. +She no longer went with him as she had danced, with her mind in a whirl, +but peacefully and calmly, with no other thought than to be with him. He +took her hand as they descended the stairs, and, though she shrank a +little from a proceeding new to her, it seemed natural enough, and gave +her a sense of protection in the dark paths. It did not occur to her +that she could have done without it. She did not notice their silence. +Geoffrey, too, thought it pleasant enough in the balmy air without +conversation. He was interested by her beauty and her sudden partiality +for him. + +At length he stopped in one of the distant paths as they came to a seat +between the trunks of two large trees. Here they sat down at opposite +sides of the seat, and Geoffrey leaned back against the tree beside him. +The leaves on the overhanging boughs quivered in the light of the moon, +and the delicate perfume in the air spoke of flower-beds near by. He +thought it extremely pleasant here, and he laid his head back against +the tree beside him to listen to the tinkling of the fountain and to +enjoy the scent-laden night air. An idea was still with him that this +was the girl Jack was engaged to, and he thought it would be as well to +keep that idea before him. He said to himself that he liked Jack, and +thought he was very considerate, under the circumstances, for his friend +when he took out a little silver case and suggested that he would like a +cigarette. + +Nina did not answer him. She was in some phase of thought in which +cigarettes had no place, and only looked toward him slowly, as if she +had merely heard the sound of his voice and not the words. He selected +from the case one of those innocuous tubes of rice-paper and +prairie-grass, and, as he did so, the absent look on her face seemed +peculiar. With a fuse in one hand and the cigarette in the other, he +paused before striking a light, and they looked at each other for a +moment as he thought of stories he had read of one person's influence +over another. Like many, he had a general curiosity about strange phases +of mankind, and it occurred to him that Nina would make an interesting +subject for experiment. Presently he said, in resonant tones, deep and +musical: + +"Do you like to be here, Nina?" + +She did not seem to notice that he called her by this familiar name, but +she stood up and remained silently gazing at the moon through a break in +the foliage. Her beauty was sublimated by the white light, and, as +Geoffrey took a step towards her, he forgot about his cigarette, and, +taking both her hands in his, he repeated his question two or three +times before she answered. Then she turned impetuously. + +"Oh, why do you make me do everything that is wrong? I should not be +here. I should never have spoken to you. I was afraid of you from the +first moment I saw you." + +Geoffrey led her by one hand back to the seat. + +"Now answer me. Do you like to be here--with me, Nina?" + +She looked at the moon and at the ground and all about, but remained +mute and apparently pondering. + +He had forgotten Jack now as well as the cigarette, and was rapidly +losing the remembrance that this was to be merely a scientific +experiment. + +"Your silence makes me all the more impatient. I will know now. Do you +like to be here, Nina?" + +A new earnestness in his tone thrilled her and made her tremble. She +turned with a sudden impulse, as if something had made her reckless: + +"You are forcing me to answer you," she said vehemently, as she looked +at him with a constrained, though affectionate expression in her eyes. +"But I will tell you if I die for it. Oh, I am so wicked to say so, but +I must. You make me. Oh, now let us go into the house." + +Geoffrey's generous intention to act rightly by Jack departed from him, +and for a moment he drew her toward him, saying that she must not care +too much for being there, "because, you know," he said, "this is only a +little flirtation, and is quite too good to last." + +She seemed not to be listening to him, but to be thinking; and after a +moment she said, in long drawn out, sorrowful accents: + +"Oh--poor--Jack!" + +Something in the slow, melancholy way she said this, and the thought of +the poor place that Jack certainly held at the present time in her +affections, struck Geoffrey as irresistibly amusing, and he laughed +aloud in an unsympathetic way, which presented him to her in a new +light, and she sprang from him at once. Her emotion turned to anger as +she thought that the laugh had been derisive, and her blood boiled to +think he could bring her here to laugh at her after he had succeeded in +winning her so completely. + +"Come into the house at once," she cried. "I can't go in alone even if I +knew the way." + +Geoffrey rose and begged her pardon, assuring her that nothing but the +peculiarity of her remark had caused his laugh. + +"I will not stay here another instant. If you don't come at once I'll +find my way alone." And she stamped her foot upon the ground. + +Hampstead did not like to be stamped at, and his face altered. As long +as she had been facile and pleasing, a sense of duty toward her and Jack +had made him considerate. It had seemed to him while sitting there that +this girl was his; and the sense of possession had made him kind, but +now that she seemed to vex him unnecessarily it appeared to him like a +denial of his influence. The idea of the experiment suddenly returned, +together with a sense of power and a desire to compel submission which +displaced his wish to be considerate. He sat down on the seat again +facing her and said: + +"I want you to come here." He motioned to the seat beside him. + +"I won't go near you. I hate you! I'll run in by myself." + +"You can not run away--because I wish you to come here." + +Hampstead said this in a measured way, and his brow seemed to knot into +cords as he concentrated his will-power. His face bore an unpleasant +expression. A quarter of a minute passed and she stood trembling and +fascinated; and before another half-minute had elapsed she came very +slowly forward, and approached him with the expression of her face +changed into one of enervation. Her eyes were dilated, and her hands +hung loosely at her sides. Hampstead saw, with some consternation, that +she had become like something else, that she looked very like a +mad-woman. A shock went through him as he looked at her--not knowing how +the matter might terminate. He saw that she was mesmerized--an automaton +moved by his will only. The combined flirtation and experiment had gone +further than he had intended, and the result was startling--especially +as the possibility that she might not recover flashed through his mind. +The power he had been wielding (which receives much cheap ridicule from +very learned men who would fain deny what they can not explain) suddenly +seemed to him to be a devilish one, and he felt that he had done +something wrong. He had not intended it. An idea had seized him, and he +was merely concentrating a power which he unconsciously used almost +every hour of his life. He considered what ought to be done to bring her +back to a normal state. Not knowing anything better to do, he walked her +about quickly, speaking to her, a little sharply, so as to rouse her. + +Then, by telling her to wake up, and by asking her simple questions and +requiring an answer, he succeeded in bringing her back to something like +her usual condition. When she quite knew where she was, she thought she +must have fainted. All her anger was gone, and Geoffrey, to give the +devil his due, felt sorry for her. It had been an interesting +episode--something quite new to him in a scientific way--but uncanny. +She still looked to him as if for protection, and she would have wept +had he not warned her how she would appear in the ball-room. "Oh, Mr. +Hampstead, you have treated me cruelly," she said. Geoffrey felt that +this was true enough. + +"It was all my own fault, though. I do not blame you. You have taught me +a great deal to-night. I seem to know, somehow, your best and your +worst, and what a man can be." + +She leaned upon his arm, partly from weakness and partly because she +felt that, good or bad, he was master, and that she liked to lean upon +him. The movement touched Geoffrey with compassion. Having nothing to +offer in return, it distressed him to notice her affection, which he +knew would only bring her unhappiness. He tried, therefore, to say +something to remove the impressions that had come to her. + +"You speak of good and bad in me," he said quickly. "Now I think you are +so much in my confidence that I can trust you in what I am going to say. +Don't believe that there is any good in me. I tell you the truth now +because I am sorry that we have been so foolish to-night. There is no +good in me. It is all--the other thing." + + +Nina shuddered--feeling as if he had spoken the truth but that it was +already too late for her to listen to it. + +He took her back into the house, smiling and pleasant to those about +him, as if nothing had occurred, and left her with Mrs. Lindon. + +But he did not go to find Margaret Mackintosh again. He went home +somewhat excited, and smoked four or five pipes of tobacco. At first he +was regretful, for he knew he had been doing harm. He said he was a +whimsical fool. But after a couple of "night-caps" he began to think how +picturesque she had looked in the moonlight, and he afterward dropped +off into as dreamless and undisturbed a sleep as the most virtuous may +enjoy. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + For in her youth + There is a prone and speechless dialect, + Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous art, + When she will play with reason and discourse, + And well she can persuade. + + _Measure for Measure._ + + +If anybody had stated that Geoffrey Hampstead was a scoundrel, he would +have had grounds for his opinion. As he did not attempt to palliate his +own misdeeds, nobody will do so for him. He repudiated the idea of being +led into wrong-doing, or driven into it by outside circumstances. +Whatever he did, he liked to do thoroughly, and of his own accord. When +Nature lavishes her gifts, much ability for both good and evil is +usually part of the general endowment; and, although, perhaps, if we +knew more, all wrong-doing would receive pity, Geoffrey possessed a +knowledge of results that tends to withdraw compassion. But he had +overstepped the mark when he had told Nina there was no good in him. +Even his own statement reminded him how few things there are about which +a sweeping assertion can be made with truth. He grew impatient to find +that so many people do not hold opinions--that their opinions hold them; +and when the good equalities of a person under discussion met with no +consideration he invariably spoke of them. He had a good word to say for +most people, and no lack of courage to say it, and thus he gave +impression of being fair-minded, which made men like him. He had the +compassion for the faulty which seems to appear more frequently in those +whose lives have been by no means without reproach than among the +strictest followers of religions which claim charity as their own. He +thought he realized that consciousness of virtue does not breed so much +true compassion as consciousness of sin; and a young clergyman of his +acquaintance found that his arguments as to the utility of sin in the +world were very shocking and difficult to answer. + +Thus he alternated between good and evil, very much in the ordinary way, +with only these differences, that his good seemed more disinterested and +his evil more pronounced than with most people. The good which he did +was done without the bargaining hope of future compensation, and +therefore seemed more commendable. On the other hand, as he had almost +forgotten what the idea of hell was, he was not forced to brave those +consequences which, if some believe as they profess, must render their +deliberate wrong-doing almost heroic. + +What should a man be called who had in him these combinations? Too good +to be either a Quilp or a Jonas Chuzzlewit, and much too bad to resemble +any of the spotless heroes of fiction. It will settle the matter with +those who are intolerant of distinctions and who do not examine into +mixtures of good and evil outside their own range of life to have it +understood and agreed that he was a thoroughpaced scoundrel. This will +place us all on a comfortable footing. + +Some days after the Dusenalls' entertainment Geoffrey was strolling +along King Street when he caught sight of Margaret Mackintosh coming +along the street with quiet eyes observant. She walked with a long, +elastic step, which seemed to speak of the buoyancy of her heart. + +Geoffrey walked slower, so that he might enjoy the beauty of her +carriage, and the charm of her presence as she recognized him. It seemed +to him that no one else could convey so much in a bow as she could. With +the graceful inclination of the head came the pleasure of recognition +and a quick intelligence that lighted up her face. It was the bow of a +princess, as we imagine it; not, it will be remembered, as Canada has +experienced it. A nobility and graciousness in her face and figure made +men feel that she had a right to condescend to them. Innocence was not +the chief characteristic of her face. However attractive, innocence is a +poetic name for ignorance--the ignorance which has been canonized by the +Romish faith, and has thus produced all the insipid virgins and heroines +of the old masters and writers. She did not show that pliable, ductile, +often pretty ignorance, supposedly sanctified by the name of innocence, +which has been the priestly ideal of beauty for at least nineteen +hundred years--perhaps always. + +Hers was a good face, with a sweet, firm, generous mouth, possibly +passionate, and already marked by sympathetic suffering from such human +ills as she understood. She seemed to have nothing to hide, and she was +as free and open as the day, and as fresh as the dawn; and a large part +of the charm she had for all men lay in the fact that her self-respect +was so assured to her that she had forgotten all about it. She had none +of that primness which, is the outcome of an attempt to conceal the +fact, that knowledge of which one is ashamed is continually uppermost in +the mind. + +As soon as her eye rested on Geoffrey, it lighted up with that marvelous +quickness which is the attribute of rapidly-thinking people. In a flash +her mind apparently possessed itself of all she had ever known of him. +Five or six little things to say came tumbling over each other to her +lips, as she held out her long gloved hand in greeting. Even Hampstead +felt that her quick approach, earnest manner, and the way she looked +straight at him almost disconcerted him; but he had thought to wait till +she spoke to him to see what she would say. And she thought he would +speak first, so a little pause occurred for an instant that would have +been slightly awkward had they not both been young and very good-looking +and much interested in each other. + + +"And how are you?" said she heartily, as they shook hands. The pause +might have continued as far as either of them cared. They were +self-possessed persons--these two. + +"Oh, I am pretty well, thank you," said Geoffrey, without hastening to +continue the conversation. + +"And particularly well you look. Never saw you look better," said +Margaret. + +Geoffrey made a deep bow, extending the palms of his hands toward her +and downward in reverent Oriental pantomime, as one who should say: +"Your slave is humbly glad to please, and dusts your path with his +miserable body." + +"And what brought you into town to-day?" said he, as he turned and +walked with her. "Not the giddy delight of walking on King Street, I +hope?" + +"That was my only idea, I will confess. Home was dull, and I was tired +of reading. Mother was busy and father was away somewhere; so I came out +for a walk. Yes, King Street was my only hope. No, by the way--I had an +excuse. I have been looking for a house-maid. None to be had though." + +"Don't find one," said Geoffrey. "Just come out every day to look for +one. I know several fellows who would hunt house-maids with you forever +if they got the chance." + +"Ah! they never dare to say that to me. They might get snapped up. Yet +it is hard to only receive compliments by deputy, like this. Do they +intend that, after all, I shall die an old maid? And your banks friends +are such excellent _partis_! are they not?" + +"They are," said Geoffrey. "At least, they would be if they had a house +to put a wife into--to say nothing of the maid." + +"Talking of house-maids," said Margaret, "I just met Mrs. +whats-her-name--you know, the little American with the German name; and +she had just discharged one of her maids. She said to me, 'You know I +have just one breakfast--ice-cold water and a hot roll; sometimes a +pickle. Sarah said I'd kill myself, and in spite of everything I could +say she _would_ load the table with tea or coffee and stuff I don't +want. 'Last I got mad and I walked in with her wages up to date. I said, +'Sarah I guess we had better part. You don't fill the bill.' I told her +I would try and get Sarah myself, as I didn't object to her ideas in the +matter of breakfasts. I have been looking for her and wanting some nice +person to help me to find her. What are you doing this afternoon? Won't +you come and help me to find Sarah?" This, with a little pretense of +_implorando_. + +"If you think I 'fill the bill' as 'a nice person' nothing would give me +greater pleasure. Sarah will be found. No, I have nothing in particular +on hand to-day. I was going to the gymnasium to have a fellow pummel me +with the gloves. I am certain I have received more headaches and +nose-bleedings in learning how to defend myself with my hands than one +would receive in being attacked a dozen times in earnest." + +"Well, now would be a good time to stop taking further lessons," said +Margaret. "Why do you give yourself so much trouble?" + +"Oh, for the exercise, I suppose, or the prestige of being a boxer. +Keeps one's person sacred, in a manner; and among young men serves to +give more weight to the expression of one's opinions. I think it is a +mistake, though, as far as I am concerned. Nature made me speedy on my +feet, and when the time comes I'll use her gift instead of the +artificial one." + +"I have heard it said that it is much wiser for a gentleman to run from +a street fight than to stay in it--that the fact of his not using his +feet as a means of attack in a fight always places him at a +disadvantage. Could you not learn the manly art of kicking, as well?" + +"What a murderous notion!" exclaimed Geoffrey. "I don't think that +branch of self-defense is taught in the schools. It reminds one of a +duel with axes. For my part, I think that hunting Sarah is much more +improving. That is, if one did not have blood-thirsty ideas put into his +head on the way." + +And Margaret looked so gentle and pacific. + +"I always think a very interesting subject like this should be thought +out carefully," said she, smiling. + +If she could not talk well on all subjects, she was a boon to those who +could only talk on _one_--to those who resemble a ship with only one +sail to keep them going--slow to travel on, but capable of teaching +something, and not to be despised. + +With her tall figure, classic face, and blonde hair, Margaret Mackintosh +was a vision; but when she came, with large-pupiled eyes, in quest of +knowledge, even grave and reverend seigniors were apt to forget the +information she asked for. University-degree young men, the most +superior of living creatures, soon understood that she sought for what +they had learned, and not for themselves; and this demeanor on her part, +while it tended to disturb the nice balance in which the weight of their +mental talents was accurately poised against that of their physical +fascinations, went to make friends and not lovers. + +There was one person, however, to whose appearance she was not +indifferent; who always suggested to her the Apollo Belvedere, and gave +her an increased interest in the Homer of arts, whereas the vigorous +life, heroic resolve, and shapely perfection of the ancient hero meet +with but little response in women who exist with difficulty. She was +perhaps entitled, by a sort of natural right, to expect that a masculine +appearance should approach that grade of excellence of which she was +herself an example. + +"Do you know," she continued, as they proceeded up Yonge Street, "just +before I met you I passed such a horrible young man, with long arms +reaching almost to his knees and a little face. He made me quite +uncomfortable. It's all very well to believe in our evolution as an +abstract idea; but an experience like this brings the conviction home to +one's mind altogether too vividly. It was quite a relief to meet you. +You always look so--in fact, so different from that sort of person, +don't you know?" + +She nearly said he looked so like her Apollo, but did not. + +Geoffrey smiled. "There are times when the idea seems against common +sense," said he, with a short glance at her. + +"Ah! you intend that for me. But you are almost repeating father's +remark. You know he is a confirmed follower of the theory. A few days +ago he said that the only thing he had against you was that you upset +his studies. He says you ought to hire out to the special-creationists +to be used as their clinching argument. So you see what it is to be an +Ap--" + +She stopped. + +"Ah! you were going to say something severe, then," said Geoffrey. "Just +as well, though, to snub me sometimes. I don't mind it if nobody knows +of it. But, about your father? Do you assist him in his studies?" + +"I don't know that I assist him much. He does the hardest part of the +work, and then has to explain it all to me. But I read to him a good +deal when his eyes trouble him. After procuring a new book on the +subject he never rests till he has exhausted it. We often worry through +it together, taking turns at the reading. We have just finished +Haeckel's last. We are wild about Haeckel." + +"Yes, there is something very spiritual and orthodox about him," said +Geoffrey. "And now that you must have got about as far as you can at +present, how does the theory affect you?" + +"Not at all, except to make me long to know more. If one could live to +be two hundred years old, would it not be delightful?" said Margaret, +looking far away up the street in front of her. + +"But as to your religion?" asked Geoffrey. "Do you find that it makes +any difference?" + +"I don't think I was ever a very religious person," she replied, +mistaking the word religious for 'churchy.' "I never was christened, nor +confirmed, nor taught my catechism, nor anything of that sort. Nobody +ever promised that I should renounce the devil and all his works, and +so--and so I suppose I never have." + +She looked at Geoffrey with the round eyes of guilelessness, slightly +mirthful, as if, while deprecating this wretched state, she could still +enjoy life. + +Her companion could scarcely look away from her. There was such a +combination of knowledge and purity and all-round goodness in her face +that it fascinated him and induced him to say gravely: + +"Indeed, one might have almost supposed that you had enjoyed these +benefits from your earliest youth." + +"No," she answered, "I have been neglected in church matters. Who knows? +Perhaps, if I had been different, father and I would never have been +such companions. I never remember his going to church, although he pays +his pew-rent for mother and me to go. He is afraid people would call him +an atheist, you know, and no man cares about being despised or looked +upon as peculiar in that way. He says that as long as he pays his +pew-rent the good people will let him alone. As for mother, I hardly +know what her belief is now. She is mildly contemptuous of evolution; +chiefly, I think, because she does not know, or care anything about it. +She says the creed she was brought up in is quite enough for her, and if +she can keep the dust _out_ of the house and contentment _in_ it she +will do more than most people and fullfil the whole duty of woman. I +don't think she likes to be cross-questioned about her particular +tenets, which really seem to be sufficient for her, except when she is +worried over a new phase of the old family lawsuit, and then she +oscillates between pugnacity and resignation. So you see I was left +pretty much to myself as to assuming any belief that I might care +about." + +"And what belief did you come to care about?" he asked, feeling +interested. + +"Well, father seems to think that the most dignified attitude of our +ignorance is a respectful silence; but, as you have asked which belief I +_care about_, I can answer frankly that I like best going to church and +saying my prayers. It is so much more pleasant and comfortable to try to +think our prayers are heard, for, as mother says, reason and logic are +poor outlets for emotion when the lawsuit goes wrong. With our +information as it is, our conclusions seem to depend on whether we have +or have not in us the spirit of research. They tell me in the churches +that, being unregenerate, my heart is desperately wicked, and, as I have +nothing but a little bad temper now and then to reproach myself with, I +do not agree with them. On the contrary, I always feel that my life +rather tends to lead me toward believing--or, at any rate, does not make +me prejudiced. I like to believe that God watches over and cares for us. +There being no proof or disproof of the matter, I would find it as +difficult, by way of reasoning, to altogether disbelieve as to +altogether believe." + +"Then you make evolution a part of your religion?" asked Geoffrey. + +Margaret had been brought up in an advanced latter-day school. All the +unrecognized passion within her had gone out in quest of knowledge, +which her father had taught her to regard as a source of quiet +happiness, or at least as comforting to the soul during the maturer +years as an intricate knowledge of crochet and quilt work. When she took +to her bosom the so-called dry-as-dust facts of science she clothed them +in a sort of spirituality. Even slipper-working for a married curate has +been known to stir the pulses, and, though she knew that when the +objects of our enthusiasm seem to glow it is unsafe to say whether the +glow is not merely the reflection of our own fervor, she regarded the +lately dug-up facts of science somewhat as if they were mines of +long-hidden coal, capable of use and possessed of intrinsic warmth. Her +face brightened with all the enthusiasm of a devotee as she answered +Geoffrey's question. + +"Indeed, yes. The new knowledge seems like the backbone of my religion. +I often sit in church and think what a blessed privilege it is to be +permitted to know even as little as we do about God's plan of creation." + +She joined her hands before her quickly as she walked along, forgetful +of all but the idea that enchained her. Her face showed the devotion +seen in some old pictures of early saints, but it was too capable and +animated to be the production of any of the old masters. + +"Oh, it is grand to know even a little!" she exclaimed; "to think that +this is God's plan, and that bit by bit we are allowed to unravel it! Is +it not true that we acquire knowledge as we are able to receive it? Did +not the ruder people receive the simple laws which Moses learned in +Egypt? and did not Christianity expand those laws by teaching the +religion of sympathy? These are historical facts. Why, then, should we +not regard evolution as an advanced gospel, the gospel of the knowledge +of God's works, to bind us more closely to him from our admiration of +the excellence of his handiwork--as a father might show his growing son +how his business is carried on, and how beautiful things are made? Of +course, one may reply that all the discoveries do not show that there is +a God. Perhaps they don't; but I try to think they do. I never have been +able to find that verbal creeds do much toward making us what we are. +The gloomy distort Christ's life to prove the necessity for sorrow; the +joyous do just the opposite. The naturally cruel practice their cruelty +in the name of religion. Though all start with perhaps the same words on +their lips, each individual in reality makes his religion for himself +according to his nature. Look at the difference between Guiteau and +Florence Nightingale. They both had the same creeds." + +Hampstead was silent. + +"I know that my religion might not suffice for others, because it has no +terrors, but to me it is compelling. When I turn it all over more +minutely, the beauty of the thoughts seems to carry me away. Let those +whose brittle creeds are broken grope about in their gloom, if they +will. To me it is glorious first to try to understand things, and then +to praise God for his marvelous works." + +Margaret grew more intense in her utterance as her subject grew upon +her. They had turned off on a quiet street some time before, so there +was nothing to interrupt her. As her earnestness gave weight to her +voice, the words came out more fervently and more melodiously. Both her +hands were raised, in an unconscious gesture, while the words welled +forth with a depth and force impossible to describe. + +Geoffrey walked on in silence. + +He thought of the passage, "I came not to call the righteous, but +sinners to repentance," and he wondered whether Christ would have +thought that such as Margaret stood in need of any further faith. The +shrine of Understanding was the only one she worshiped at, arguing, as +she did, that from a proper understanding and true wisdom followed all +the goodness of the Christ-life. He became conscious of a vague regret +within him that he had, as he thought, passed those impressionable +periods when a man's beliefs may be molded again. There was a distinct +longing to participate in the assurance and joy which any kind of fixed +faith is capable of producing. The Byronic temperament was not absent +from him. He was keenly susceptible to anything--either moral or +immoral--which called upon his ideality; and these ideas of Margaret's, +although he had thought of them before, seemed new to him. + +"It seems strange," he said musingly, "to hear of some of the most +learned men of the day erecting an altar similar to that which Paul +found at Athens 'to the unknown God,' and to find them impelled to +worship something which they speak of as unknown and unknowable." + +"And yet," she answered, "it is the work of some of these very men, and +their predecessors, that gives the light and life to the religion which +I, for one, find productive of comfort and enthusiasm. One can +understand the practicability of a heaven where a gradual acquisition of +the fullness of knowledge could be a joyful and everlasting occupation; +and I think a religion to fit us for such a heaven should, like the +Buddhist's, strive to increase our knowledge instead of endeavoring to +stifle it. What is there definitely held out as reward by religions to +make men improve? As far as I can see, there is nothing definite +promised, except in Buddhism perhaps, which men with active minds would +care to accept. But knowledge! knowledge! This is what may bring an +eternity of active happiness. Here is a vista as delightful as it is +boundless. Surely in this century, we have less cause to call God +altogether 'unknown' than had the men of Athens. In the light of +omniscience the difference may be slight indeed, but to us it is great. +I do hope," she added, "that what I have said does not offend any of +your own religious convictions." + +"I have none," said Geoffrey simply; "and it is very good of you to tell +me so much about yourself. I have been wanting something of the kind. +You know Bulwer says, 'No moral can be more impressive than that which +shows how a man may become entangled in his own sophisms.' He says it is +better than a volume of homilies; and it is difficult sometimes, after a +course of reading mixed up with one's own vagaries, to judge as to one's +self or others from a sufficiently stable standpoint. You always seem to +give me an intuitive knowledge of what good really is, and to tell me +where I am in any moral fog." + +They walked on together for some little distance further when Margaret +stopped and began to look up and down the street. + +"Why, where are we?" she said. "What street is this?" + +"I can not help you with the name of the street. I supposed we were +approaching the domicile of Sarah. We are now in St. John's Ward, I +think, and unless Sarah happens to be a colored person you are not +likely to find her in this neighborhood." + +"Dear me," said Margaret, as she descended from considering the possible +occupations of the heavenly host to those usual in St. John's Ward, "I +have not an idea where we are. We must have come a long distance out of +our way. It is your fault for doing all the talking." + +"On the contrary, Miss Margaret, I have been unable to get a word in +edgewise." + +The search for Sarah was abandoned, and they wended their way toward +Margaret's home, the conversation passing to other subjects and to Nina +Lindon, whom they discussed in connection with the ball at the +Dusenalls'. + +"They certainly seem very devoted, do they not?" said Margaret, +referring to Jack Cresswell also. + +"Yes, their attachment for each other is quite idyllic," said Geoffrey, +lapsing into his cynical speech, "which is as it should be. I did not +see them much together, as I left early." + +"I noticed your absence, at least I remembered afterward not having seen +you late in the evening, but, as you take such an interest in your +friend, you should have stayed longer, if only to see the very happy +expression on his face. You know she is spoken of as being the _belle_, +and certainly he ought to be proud of her, as the attention she +attracted was so very marked. I thought her appearance was charming. +They seemed to make an exception to the rule among lovers that one loves +and the other submits to be loved." + +"I am glad to hear you say this," said Geoffrey, as he silently +reflected as to the cause of Nina's return to do her duty in a way that +would tend to ease her conscience. "Jack is worthy of the best of girls. +Have you ever called upon the Lindons?" + +"No, not yet. But Mr. Cresswell spoke to me about Miss Lindon and said +he would like me to know her. So I said we would call. I am afraid, +however, that mother will complain at the length of her visiting list +being increased. She will have to be coaxed into this call to please +me." + +"Jack cherishes an idea that Miss Lindon, he, and I will become a trio +of good friends," said Geoffrey. "Now, if anything could be done to make +it a quartette, if you would consent to make a fourth, Miss Margaret, I +am certain the new arrangement would be more satisfactory to all +parties, especially so to me considered as one of the trio. A +gooseberry's part is fraught with difficulties." + +"The more the merrier, no doubt, in this case. Numbers will release you +from your responsibilities. I have myself two or three friends that +would make excellent additions to the quartette. There's Mr. Le Fevre, +of your bank, and also Mr.--" + +"Ah, well!" said Geoffrey, interrupting. "Let us consider. I don't think +that it was contemplated to make a universal brotherhood of this +arrangement. If there are to be any more elected I should propose that +the male candidates should be balloted for by the male electors only, +and that additional lady members should be disposed of by their own sex +only. Let me see. In the event of a tie in voting, the matter might be +left to a general meeting to be convened for consultation and ice-cream, +and, if the candidate be thrown out by a majority, the proposer should +be obliged to pay the expenses incurred by the conclave." + +"That seems a feasible method," said Margaret. "Although I tell you, if +we girls do not have the right men, there will be trouble. And now we +ought to name the new society. What do you say to calling it 'An +Association for the Propagation of Friendly Feeling among Themselves'?" + +"Limited," added Geoffrey, thinking that the membership ought to be +restricted. + +"Oh, limited, by all means," cried Margaret. "I should rather think so. +Limited in finances, brains, and everything else. And then the rules! +Politics and religion excluded, of course, as in any other club?" + +"Well, I don't mind those so much as discussions of millinery and +dress-making. These should be vetoed at any general meeting." + +"Excuse me. These are subjects that come under the head of art, and +ought to be permissible to any extent; but I do make strong objection to +the use of yachting terms and sporting language generally." + +"Possibly you are right," said Geoffrey. "But Jack--poor Jack! he must +refer to starboard bulkheads and that sort of thing from time to time. +However, we will agree to each other's objections, but we must certainly +place an embargo upon saying ill-natured things about our neighbors--" + +"Good heavens, man! Do you expect us to be dumb?" cried Margaret. "Very +well. It shall be so. We will call it the 'Dumb Improvement Company for +Learned Pantomime.'" + +And thus they rattled on in their fanciful talk merrily +enough--interrupting each other and laughing over their own absurdities, +and sharpening their wits on each other, as only good friends can, until +Margaret's home was reached. + +To Geoffrey it seemed to emphasize Margaret's youth and companionability +when, in following his changing moods, she could so readily make the +transition from the sublime to the ridiculous. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + ROSALIND. Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown more than + your enemies.--_As You Like It._ + + +In the few weeks following the entertainment of the Dusenalls, Hampstead +had not seen Nina. He felt he had been doing harm. The memory of that +which had occurred and a twinge or two at his unfaithfulness to his +friend Jack had made him avoid seeing her. But afterward, as fancy for +seeing her again came to him more persistently, he gradually reverted +to the old method of self-persuasion, that if she preferred Jack she +might have him. He said he did not intend to show "any just cause or +impediment" when Jack's marriage bans were published, and what the girl +might now take it into her head to do was no subject of anxiety to him. + +She, in the mean time, had lost no time in improving her acquaintance +with Margaret after the calls had been exchanged. Margaret was not +peculiar in finding within her an argument in favor of one who evidently +sought her out, and the small amount of effusion on Nina's part was not +without some of its desired effect. Nina wished to be her particular +friend. She had perceived that a difference existed between them--a +something that Geoffrey seemed to admire; and she had the vague impulse +to form herself upon her. + +Huxley explained table-turning by a simple experiment. He placed cards +underneath the hands of the people forming the charmed circle round the +table, and when they all "willed" that the table should move in a +particular direction the cards and hands moved in that direction, while +the table resisted the spirits and remained firm on its feet. In a +similar way, Nina's impulse to know Margaret and frame herself upon her +were all a process of unconscious self-deception which resembled the +illusions of unrecognized muscular movements. She had no fixed ideas +regarding Hampstead. Her actions were simply the result of his presence +in her thoughts. She moved toward him, distantly and vaguely, but +surely--somewhat as the card of a ship-compass, when it is spinning, +seems to have no fixed destination, though its ultimate direction is +certain. + +She found it easy to bring the Dusenall girls to regard Margaret as +somebody worth cultivating. The family tree of the Dusenall's commenced +with the grandfather of the Misses Dusenall, who had got rich "out +West." On inquiry they found that Margaret's family tree dwarfed that of +any purely Canadian family into a mere shrub by comparison; and on +knowing her better they found her brightness and vivacity a great +addition to little dinners and lunches where conversational powers are +at a premium. + +With plenty of money, no work, an army of servants, a large house and +grounds, a stable full of horses, and a good yacht, three or four young +people can with the assistance of their friends support life fairly +well. Lawn-tennis was their chief resource. Nina, being rather of the +Dudu type, was not wiry enough to play well, and Margaret had not +learned. She was strong and could run well, but this was not of much use +to her. When the ball came toward her through the air she seemed to +become more or less paralyzed. Between nervous anxiety to hit the ball +and inability to judge its distance, she usually ended in doing nothing, +and felt as if incurring contempt when involuntarily turning her back +upon it. If she did manage to make a hit, the ball generally had to be +found in the flower-beds far away on either side of the courts. In +cricketing parlance, she played to "cover point" or "square leg" with +much impartiality. + +So these two generally looked on and made up for their want of skill in +dignity and in conversation among themselves and with the men too +languid to play. The wonder was that the marriageable young women liked +Margaret so well. With her long, symmetrical dress rustling over the +lawn and her lace-covered parasol occasionally hiding her dainty bonnet +and well-poised head, Margaret might have been regarded as an enemy and +labeled "dangerous," but the girls trusted her with their particular +young men, with a sort of knowledge that she did not want any of them, +even if the men themselves should prove volatile and recreant. After +all, what young girls chiefly seek "when all the world is young, lad, +and all the trees are green," is to have a good time and not be +interrupted in their whims. So Margaret, who was launching out into a +gayer life than she had led before, got on well enough, and the wonder +as to what girls who did nothing found to talk about was wearing off. If +she was not much improved in circles where general advantages seemed to +promise originality, it was no bad recreation sometimes to study the +exact minimum of intelligence that general advantages produced, and the +drives in the carriages and Nina's village-cart were agreeable. She was +partial to "hen-parties." Nina had one of these exclusive feasts where +perhaps the success of many a persistent climber of the social ladder +has been annihilated. It was a luncheon party. Of course the Dusenall +girls were there, and a number of others. Mrs. Lindon did not appear. +Nina was asked where she was, but she said she did not know. As she +never did seem to know, this was not considered peculiar. + +On this day Margaret was evidently the particular guest, and she was +made much of by several girls whom she had not met before. It was worth +their while, for she was Nina's friend and Nina had such delicious +things--such a "perfect love" of a boudoir, all dadoes, and that sort of +thing, with high-art furniture for ornament and low-art furniture in +high-art colors for comfort, articles picked up in her traveling, +miniature bronzes of well-known statues, a carved tower of Pisa of +course, coral from Naples, mosaics from Florence, fancy glassware from +Venice--in fact a tourist could trace her whole journey on examining the +articles on exhibition. A French cook supplied the table with delectable +morsels which it were an insult to speak of as food. Altogether her home +was a pleasant resort for her acquaintances, and there were those +present who thought it not unwise to pay attention to any person whom +Nina made much of. + +There were some who could have been lackadaisical and admiring nothing, +if the tone of the feast had been different, but Margaret was for +admiring everything and enjoying everything, and having a generally +noisy time and lots of fun. She was a wild thing when she got off in +this way, as she said, "on a little bend," and carried the others off +with her. + +What concerns us was the talk about the bank games. Some difference of +opinion arose as to whether or not these were enjoyable. Not having been +satisfied with attention from the right quarter at previous bank games, +several showed aversion to them. Nina was looking forward with interest +to the coming events, and Margaret, when she heard that Geoffrey and +Jack and other friends were to compete in the contests, was keen to be a +spectator. Emily Dusenall remarked that Geoffrey Hampstead was said to +be a splendid runner, and that these games were the first he had taken +any part in at Toronto, as he had been away during last year's. It was +arranged that Nina and Margaret should go with the Dusenalls to the +games after some discussion as to whose carriage should be used. Nina +asserted that their carriage was brand new from England and entitled to +consideration, but the Dusenalls insisted that theirs was brand new, +too, and, more than that, the men had just been put into a new livery. +It was left to Margaret, who decided that she could not possibly go in +any carriage unless the men were in livery absolutely faultless. + +Some days after this the carriage with the men of spotless livery rolled +vice-regally and softly into the great lacrosse grounds where the Bank +Athletic Sports were taking place. The large English carriage horses +pranced gently and discreetly as they heard the patter of their feet on +the springy turf, and they champed their shining bits and shook their +chains and threw flakes of foam about their harness as if they also, if +permitted, would willingly join in the sports. There was Margaret, +sitting erect, her eyes luminous with excitement. Inwardly she was +shrinking from the gaze of the spectators who were on every side, and as +usual she talked "against time," which was her outlet for nervousness in +public places. Mrs. Mackintosh had made her get a new dress for the +occasion, which fitted her to perfection, and Nina declared she looked +just like the Princess of Wales bowing from the carriage in the Row. The +two Dusenalls were sitting in the front seat. Nina sat beside Margaret. +Nina was looking particularly well. So beautiful they both were! And +such different types! Surely, if one did not disable a critical +stranger, the other would finish him. + +The whole turn-out gave one a general impression of laces, French +gloves, essence of flowers, flower bonnets, lace-smothered parasols, and +beautiful women. There was also an air of wealth about it, which tended +to keep away the more reticent of Margaret's admirers. She knew men of +whose existence Society was not aware--men who were beginning--who lived +as they best could, and, as yet, were better provided with brains than +dress-coats. Moreover, the Dusenalls had a way of lolling back in their +carriage which they took to be an attitude capable of interpreting that +they were "to the manor born." There was a supercilious expression about +them, totally different from their appearance at Nina's luncheon, and +they had brought to perfection the art of seeing no person but the right +person. Consequently, it required more than a usual amount of confidence +in one's social position to approach their majesties. The wrong man +would get snubbed to a dead certainty. + +After passing the long grand stand the carriage drew up in an +advantageous spot where they could see the termination of the mile +walking match. The volunteer band had brokenly ceased to play God save +the Queen on discovering that theirs was _not_ the vice-regal carriage, +and, in the field, Jack Cresswell was coming round the ring, with +several others apparently abreast of him, heeling and toeing it in fine +style. As they watched the contest, sympathy with Jack soon became +aroused. Margaret heard somebody say that this was the home-stretch. +Several young bank-clerks were standing about within earshot, and she +listened to what they were saying as if all they said was oracular. + +"Gad! Jack's forging ahead," said one. + +"Yes, but Brownlee of Molson's is after him. Bet you the cigars Brownlee +wins!" + +This was too much for Margaret. She stood up in the carriage and, +without knowing it, slightly waved her parasol at Jack, not because he +would see her encouragement, but on general principles, because she felt +like doing so, regardless of what the finer feelings of the Dusenalls +might be. The walkers crossed the winning line, and it was difficult to +see who won. Margaret sat down again, her face lighted with excitement, +and said all in a breath: + +"Was not that splendid? How they did get over the ground! What a pace +they went at! Poor Jack, how tired he must be! I do hope he won, Nina," +and she laid her hand on Nina's tight-sleeved soft arm with emphasis. + +The Dusenalls did not think there was much interest in a stupid +walking-match, and they thought standing up and waving one's parasol +rather bad form, so they were not enthusiastic. + +Nina said softly: "Indeed, if you take so much interest in Jack I'll get +jealous." + +While she said this her face began to color, and Margaret's reply was +interrupted by Geoffrey Hampstead's voice which announced welcome news. +He gave them all a sort of collective half-bow and shook hands with Nina +in a careless, friendly way. + +"I come with glad tidings--as a sort of harbinger of spring, or Noah's +dove with an olive-branch--or something of the kind." + +"Is your cigar the olive-branch? To represent the dove you should have +it in your mouth," said Nina. "Stop, I will give you an olive-branch, so +that you may look your part better." + +She wished Geoffrey to know that she felt no anger for what had occurred +at the ball. Geoffrey saw the idea, and answered it understandingly as +she held out a sprig of mignonette. + +"I suppose this token of peace can only be carried in my mouth," said +Geoffrey, throwing away his cigar. + +"Certainly," said Nina, and her gloved fingers trembled slightly as she +put the olive-branch between his lips, saying "There! now you look +wonderfully like a dove." + +Margaret was smiling at this small trifling, but her anxiety about the +walking-match was quite unabated. She said: "I do not see why you call +yourself a harbinger of spring or anything else unless you have +something to tell us. What is your good news? Has Mr. Cresswell won the +prize?" + +"By about two inches," said Geoffrey. "I thought I might create an +indirect interest in myself, with Miss Lindon at least, by coming to +tell you of it." He wore a grave smile as he said this, which made Nina +blush. + +"And so you did create an indirect interest in yourself," said Margaret. +"Now you can interest us on your own account. What are you going to +compete for to-day?" + +Hampstead was clad in cricketing flannels--his coat buttoned up to the +neck. + +"I entered for a good many things," said he, "in order that I might go +in for what I fancied when the time came. They are contesting now for +the high-pole jump. Perhaps we had better watch them, as they have +already begun to compete. I am anxious to see how they do it." + +High leaping with the pole is worth watching if it be well done. +Margaret's interest increased with every trial of the men who were +competing, and she almost suffered when a "poler" did his best and +failed. One man incased in "tights" was doing well, and also a small +young fellow who had thrown off his coat, apparently in an impromptu +way, and was jumping in a pair of black trousers, which looked peculiar +and placed him at a disadvantage from their looseness. The others soon +dropped out of the contest, being unable to clear the long lath that was +always being put higher. These two had now to fight it out together. +They had both cleared the same height, and the next elevation of the +lath had caused them both to fail. Margaret was on her feet again in the +carriage, her face glowing as she watched every movement of the +"polers." Her sympathies were entirely with the funny little man in +black trousers. The other at length cleared the lath, amid applause. But +the little hero in black still held on and made his attempts gracefully. + +"Oh," said Margaret, gazing straight before her, "I would give anything +in the world to see that circus-man beaten!" + +"How much would you give, Miss Mackintosh?" said Geoffrey. + +Margaret did not hear him. + +"Oh, I want my little flying black angel to win. Is it impossible for +anybody to beat the enemy?" Then, turning excitedly to the girls, she +said hurriedly, "I could just love anybody who could beat the enemy." + +"Does 'anybody' include me?" asked Geoffrey, laughing. + +"Yes, yes," cried Margaret, catching at the idea. "Can you really defeat +him? Yes, indeed, I will devote myself forever to anybody who can beat +him. Have you a pole? Borrow one. Hurry away now, while you have a +chance." In her eagerness her words seemed to chase each other. + +"Well--will you all love me?" inquired Geoffrey, with an aggravating +delay. + +There was a shrill chorus of "Until death us do part" from the girls, +and Geoffrey skipped over a couple of benches and ran over to the +"polers," where he claimed the right to compete, as he had been entered +previously in due time for this contest. Strong objection was +immediately raised by the man in tights. The judges, after some +discussion, allowed Geoffrey to take part amid much protestation from +the members of the circus-man's bank. + +Geoffrey took his pole from Jack Cresswell, who had competed on it +without success. It was a stout pole of some South American wood, and +very long. He threw off his coat, displaying a magnificent body in a +jersey of azure silk. After walking up to look at the lath he grasped +his pole and, making a long run, struck it into the ground and mounted +into the air. He had not risen very high when he saw that he had +miscalculated the distance; so he slid down his pole to the earth. +Derisive coughs were heard from different parts of the field, and +"Tights" looked at Geoffrey maliciously and laughed. + +At the next rush that Geoffrey made, he sailed up into the air on his +pole like a great bird, and as he became almost poised in mid-air, he +went hand over hand up the stout pole. Then, by a trick that can not be +easily described, his legs and body launched out horizontally over the +lath, and throwing away his pole he dropped lightly on his feet without +disturbing anything. + +"Tights" was furious, and he said something hot to Geoffrey, who, +however, did not reply. + +A difficulty arose here because there were no more holes in the uprights +to place the pegs in to hold up the lath. Geoffrey was now even with the +enemy, but not ahead of him. So he asked the judges to place the lath +across the top of the uprights. This raised the lath a good fifteen +inches, and nobody supposed that it could be cleared. + +There was something stormy about Hampstead when a man provoked him, and +"Tights" had been very unpleasant. He pointed to the almost absurd +elevation of the lath; his tones were short and exasperating as he +addressed his very savage rival: + +"Now, my man, there's your chance to exhibit your form." + +"Tights" refused to make any useless trial, but relieved the tension of +his feelings by forcing a bet of fifty dollars on Geoffrey that he could +not clear it himself. + +The excitement was now considerable. Geoffrey took the offered bet, +pleased to be able to punish his antagonist further. But really the +whole thing was like child's-play to him. It seemed as if he could clear +anything his pole would reach. His hand-over-hand climbing was like +lightning, and he went over the lath, cricket trousers and all, with +quite as much ease as when it was in the lower position, and this amid a +wild burst of applause. + +He then grabbed his coat and made for the dressing-room, to prepare for +the hurdle race, for which the bell was ringing. + +When he ran out into the field again, after about a moment, he was clad +in tights of azure silk with long trunks of azure satin, and his feet +wore running shoes that fitted like a glove. No wonder girls raved about +him. So did the men. He was a grand picture, as beautiful as a god in +his celestial colors. + +But there was work for him to do in the hurdle race. The best amateur +runners in Canada were to be with him in this race, and there is a field +for choice among Canadian bank athletes. They were to start from a +distant part of the grounds, run around the great oval, and finish close +to our carriage, where eager faces were hopeful for his success. +Geoffrey made a bad start--not having recovered after being once called +back. The first hurdle saw him over last, but between the jumps his +speed soon put him in the ruck. There is no race like the hurdle race +for excitement. At the fourth hurdle some one in front struck the bar, +which flew up just as Geoffrey rose to it. His legs hit it in the air +and he was launched forward, turned around, and sent head downward to +the ground. The thought that he might be killed went through many minds. +But those who thought so did not know that he could gallop over these +hurdles like a horse, lighting on his hands. No doubt it was a great +wrench for him, but he lit on his hands and was off again like the wind. + +The fall had lost him his chance, he thought, but he went on with +desperation and pain, his head thrown back and his face set to win. It +was a long race, and five more hurdles had yet to be passed. The first +of these was knocked down so that in merely running through he gained +time by not having to jump, and he rapidly closed on those before him. +His speed between jumps was marvelous. His hair blew back in blonde +confusion, and he might well have been taken to represent some god of +whirlwinds, or an azure archangel on some flying mission. He hardly +seemed to touch the earth, and Margaret, who delighted in seeing men +manly and strong and fleet, felt her heart go out to him in a burst of +enthusiasm that became almost oppressive as the last hurdle was +approached. + +There were now only two men ahead of him, and Geoffrey was so set on +winning that it seemed with him to be more a matter of mind than body. A +yell suddenly arose from all sides. One of the two first men struck the +last hurdle and went down, and Geoffrey, shooting far into the air in a +tremendous leap to clear the flying timber, passed the other man in the +last arrow-like rush, and dashed in an undoubted winner. + +The enthusiasm for him was now unmingled. The sensation of horror that +many had felt on seeing him fall head downward during the race had given +way to a keen admiration for his plucky attempt to catch up with such +hopeless odds against him. There were old business men present whose +hearts had not moved so briskly since the last financial panic as when +the handicapped hero in azure leaped the last hurdle into glory. There +were men looking on whose figures would never be redeemed who, at the +moment, felt convinced that with a little training they could once more +run a good race--men whose livers were in a sad state and who certainly +forgot the holy inspiration before rising that night from their late +dinners. Surely if these old stagers could be thus moved, feminine +hearts might be excused. It was not necessary to know Geoffrey +personally to feel the contagious thrill that ran through the multitude +at the vision of his prowess. The impulse and the verdict of the large +crowd were so unanimous that no one could resist them. + +As for Margaret, she was, alas, _standing on the seat_ by the time he +raced past the carriage--a fair, earnest vision, lost in the excitement +of the moment. With her gloved hands tightly closed and her arms braced +as if for running, she appeared from her attitude as if she, too, would +join in the race where her interest lay. The true woman in her was wild +for her friend to win. Geoffrey's appearance appealed to all her sense +of the beautiful. Knowledge of art led her to admire him--art of the +ancient and vigorous type. All the plaudits that moved the multitude +were caught up and echoed even more loudly within her. It was a +dangerous moment for a virgin heart. As Geoffrey managed to land himself +a winner against such desperate odds, she saw in his face, even before +he had won, a half supercilious look of triumph and mastery that she had +never seen there before. In a brief moment she caught a glimpse of the +indomitable will that with him knew no obstacles--a will shown in a face +of the ancient type, with gleaming eyes and dilated nostrils, heroic, +god-like, possibly cruel, but instinct with victory and resolve. + +To her the triumph was undiluted. At the close of the race her lungs had +refused to work until he passed the winning line, and then her breath +came in a gasp, as she became conscious that her eyes were filled with +tears of sympathy. + +With Nina it was different. That she was intensely interested is true. +Everybody was. But, instead of that whirl of sympathetic admiration +which Margaret felt, the strongest feeling she had was a desire that +Geoffrey would come to her first, would lay, as it were, his honors at +her feet--a wish suggesting the complacency with which the tigress +receives the victor after viewing with interest the combat. + +When Geoffrey rejoined them half an hour afterward he was endeavoring to +conceal an unmistakable lameness resulting from striking the hurdle in +the race. He had had his leg bathed, which he afterward found had been +bleeding freely during the run, and had got into his flannels again. In +the mean time a small circle of admirers had grouped themselves about +the Dusenalls' carriage. + +Jack had been in to see them for a moment with a hymn of praise for +Geoffrey on his lips, but Nina made him uncomfortable by treating him +distantly, and, although Margaret beamed on him, he departed soon after +Geoffrey's arrival, making an excuse of his committee-man's duties. + +Geoffrey noticed that, on his reappearing among them, Margaret did not +address him, but left congratulations to Nina and the Dusenalls. In the +interval after the race she had suddenly begun to consider how great her +interest in Geoffrey was. She had known him for over a year. During that +time he had ever appeared at his best before her. It was so natural to +be civilized and gentle in her presence. And Margaret was not devoid of +romance, in spite of her prosaic studies. Her ideality was not checked +by them, but rather diverted into less ordinary channels, and she was as +likely as anybody else to be captivated by somebody who, besides other +qualities, could form a subject for her imaginative powers. +Nevertheless, in spite of this sometimes dangerous and always charming +ideality, she had acquired the habit of introspection which Mr. +Mackintosh had endeavored to cultivate in her. He told her that when she +fell in love she "would certainly know it." And it was the remembrance +of this sage remark that now caused her to be silent and thoughtful. She +was wondering whether she was going to fall in love with Geoffrey, and +what it would be like if she did do so, and if she could know any more +interest in him if it so turned out that she eventually became engaged +to him. Then she looked at Geoffrey, intending to be impartial and +judicial, and thought that his looks were not unpleasing, and that his +banter with Miss Dusenall was not at all slow to listen to. She was +pleased that he did not address her first. She felt that she might have +been in some way embarrassed. Sometimes he glanced at her, as if +carelessly, and yet she seemed to know that all his remarks were to +amuse her, and that he watched her without looking at her. She had never +thought of his doing this before. + +Bad Margaret! Full of guilt! + +Geoffrey was endeavoring to make the plainest Miss Dusenall fix the day +for their wedding, declaring that it was she who had promised to marry +him if he won at jumping with the pole, and that she alone had nerved +him for the struggle, and he went on arranging the matter with a +volubility and assurance which she would have resented in anybody else. +She had affected to belittle Geoffrey somewhat, not having been much +troubled with his attentions, and she was conscious now that this banter +on his part was detracting from her dignity. But what was she to do? The +man was the hero of the hour, and cared but little for her dignity and +mincing ways. She would have snubbed him, only that he carried all the +company on his side, and a would-be snub, when one's audience does not +appreciate it, returns upon one's self with boomerang violence. After +all, it was something to monopolize the most admired man in six thousand +people, even if he did make game of her and treat her, like a child. + +As for Nina, she answered feebly the desultory remarks of several young +men who hung about the carriage, and she listened, while she looked at +the contests, to one sound only--to the sound of Geoffrey's voice. From +time to time she put in a word to the other girls which showed that she +heard everything he said. This sort of thing proved unsatisfactory to +the young men who sought to engage her attention. They soon moved off, +and then she gave herself up to the luxury of hearing Geoffrey speak. It +might have been, she thought, that all his gayety was merely to attract +Margaret, but none the less was his voice music to her. Poor Nina! She +would not look at him, for fear of betraying herself. She lay back in +the carriage and vainly tried to think of her duty to Jack. Then she +thought herself overtempted, not remembering the words: + + The devil tempts us not--'tis we tempt him, + Beckoning his skill with opportunity. + +This meeting, which to her was all bitter-sweet, to Geoffrey was +piquant. To make an impression on the woman he really respected by +addressing another he cared nothing about was somewhat amusing to him, +but to know that every word he said was being drunk in by a third woman +who was as attractive as love itself and who was engaged to be married +to another man added a flavor to the entertainment which, if not +altogether new, seemed, in the present case, to be mildly pungent. + +After this Nina deceived herself less. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Come o'er the sea, + Maiden with me, + Mine through sunshine, storm, and snows. + Seasons may roll, + But the true soul + Burns the same wherever it goes. + + Is not the sea + Made for the free, + Land for courts and chains alone? + Here we are slaves; + But on the waves + Love and liberty's all our own. + + MOORE'S _Melodies._ + + +Mr. Maurice Rankin was enjoying his summer vacation. Although the courts +were closed he still could be seen carrying his blue bag through the +street on his way to and from the police court and other places. It is +true that, for ordinary professional use, the bag might have been +abandoned, but how was he to know when a sprat might catch a whale?--to +say nothing of the bag's being so convenient for the secret and +non-committal transportation of those various and delectable viands that +found their way to his aerial abode at No. 173 Tremaine Buildings. He +was now provided by the law printers with pamphlet copies of the +decisions in different courts, and a few of these might always be found +in his bag. They served to fill out to the proper dimensions this badge +of a rank entitling him to the affix of esquire, and they had been well +oiled by parcels of butter or chops which, on warm days, tried to +lubricate this dry brain food as if for greater rapidity in the bolting +of it. + +In this way he was passing his summer vacation. Many a time he thought +of his father's wealth before his failure and death. Where had those +thousands melted away to? Oh, for just one of the thousands to set him +on his feet! This perpetual grind, this endless seeking for work, with +no more hope in it than to be able to get even with his butcher's bill +at the end of the month! To see every person else go away for an outing +somewhere while he remained behind began to make him dispirited. The +buoyancy of his nature, which at first could take all his trials as a +joke, was beginning to wear off. After yielding himself to their +peculiar piquancy for six months, these jokes seemed to have lost their +first freshness, and he longed to get away somewhere for a little +change. The return, then, he thought, would be with renewed spirit. + +While thinking over these matters his step homeward was tired and slow. +He was by no means robust, and his narrow face had grown more hatchety +than ever in the last few hot days. Hope deferred was beginning to tell +upon him, but a surprise awaited him. + +Jack Cresswell and Charley Dusenall were walking at this time on the +other side of the street. They sighted Rankin going along gloomily, +with his nose on the ground, well dressed and neat as usual, but +weighted down, apparently with business, really with loneliness, law +reports, and lamb-chops. + +They both pointed to him at once. Jack said, "The very man!" and Charlie +said, nodding assent, "Just as good as the next." Jack clapped Charley +on the back--"By Jove, I hope he will come! Do him all the good in the +world." + +Charley was one of those happy-go-lucky, loose-living young men who have +companions as long as their money lasts, and who seem made of some +transmutable material which, when all things are favorable, shows some +suggestion of solidity, but, when acted upon by the acid of poverty, +degenerates into something like that parasitic substance remarkable for +its receptibility of liquids, called a sponge. He liked Rankin, although +he thought him a queer fish, and he would laugh with the others when +Rankin's quiet satire was pointed at himself, not knowing but that there +might be a joke somewhere, and not wishing to be out of it. + +The two young men crossed the road and walked up to Rankin who was just +about to enter Tremaine Buildings. Charlie asked him to come on a +yachting cruise around Lake Ontario--to be ready in two days--that Jack +would tell him all about it, as he was in a hurry. He then made off, +without waiting for Maurice to reply. + +Jack explained to Rankin that the yacht was to take out a party, with +the young ladies under the chaperonage of Mrs. Dusenall, that the two +Misses Dusenall, and Nina and Margaret were going, that he and Geoffrey +Hampstead and two or three of the yacht-club men would lend a hand to +work the craft, and that Rankin would be required to take the helm +during the dead calms. As Rankin listened he brightened up and looked +along the street in meditation. + +"The business," he said thoughtfully, "will perish. Bean can't run my +business." + +His large mouth spread over his face as he yielded himself to the warmth +of the sunny vista before him. Already he felt himself dancing over the +waves. Suddenly, as they stood at the entrance to Tremaine Buildings, he +caught Jack by the arm and whispered--so that clients, thronging the +streets might not overhear: + +"The business," he whispered. "What about it?" He drew off at arm's +length and transfixed Jack with his eagle eye. Then, as if to typify his +sudden and reckless abandonment of all the great trusts reposed in him, +he slung the blue bag as far as he could up the stairs while he cried +that the business might "go to the devil." + +"Correct," said Jack. "It will be all safe with him. You know he is the +father of lawyers. But I say, old chap, I am awfully glad you are coming +with us. You see, the old lady has to get those girls married off +somehow, and several fellows will go with us who are especially picked +out for the business. Then, of course, the Dusenall girls want +'backing,' and they thought Nina and I could certainly give them a lead. +And Nina would not go without Margaret. I rather think, too, that +Geoffrey would not go without Margaret. Wheels within wheels, you see. +Have you not got a lady-love, Morry, to bring along? No? Well, I tell +you, old man, I expect to enjoy myself. I've been round that lake a good +many times, but never with Nina." + +Jack blushed as he admitted so much to his old friend, and after a pause +he went on, with a young man's facile change of thought, to talk about +the yacht. + +"And we will just make her dance, and don't you forget it." + +"But, my dear fellow, won't she object?" + +"Object? No--likes it. She is coming out in a brand-new suit. Wait till +you see her. She'll be a dandy." + +"I can quite believe that she will appear more beautiful than ever," +said Maurice, rather mystified. + +"She is as clean as a knife, clean as a knife. I tell you, Morry, her +shape just fills the eye. She--" + +"Oh, yes, I understand. You are speaking of the yacht. I thought when +you said you would make her dance that you referred to Miss Lindon. +Excuse my ignorance of yachting terms. I know absolutely nothing about +them." + +"Never mind, old man, you might easily make the mistake. Talking of +dancing now, I had a turn with her the other day and I will say this +much--that she can waltz and no mistake. You could steer her with one +finger." + +"And shall we rig this spinnaker boom on her?" asked Rankin, with +interest. "What is a spinnaker boom? I have always wanted to know." + +"Spinnaker on who? or what?" cried Jack, looking vexed. "Don't be an +ass, Rankin." + +"My dear fellow--a thousand pardons--I certainly presumed you still +spoke of the yacht. It is perfectly impossible to understand which you +refer to." + +"Well, perhaps it is," replied Jack; "I mix the two up in my speech just +as they are mixed up in my heart, and I love them both. So let us have a +glass of sherry to them in my room." + +"I think," said Rankin, smiling, with his head on one side, "that to +prevent further confusion we ought to drink a glass to each love +separately, in order to discriminate sufficiently between the different +interests." + +"Happy thought," said Jack. "And just like you robbers. Every interest +must be represented. Fees out of the estate, every time." + +After gulping down the first glass of sherry in the American fashion, +they sat sipping the second as the Scotch and English do. It struck +Rankin as peculiar that Mr. Lindon allowed Nina to go off on this +yachting cruise when he must know that Jack would be on board. He asked +him how he accounted for his luck in this respect. + +Jack said: "I can not explain it altogether to myself. The old boy sent +her off to Europe to get her away from me, and that little manoeuvre +was not successful in making her forget me. I think that now he has +washed his hands of the matter, and lets her do entirely as she +pleases--except as to matrimony. They don't converse together on the +subject of your humble servant. He is fond of Nina in his own way--when +his ambition is not at stake. One thing I feel sure of, that we might +wait till crack of doom before his consent to our marriage would be +obtained. I never knew such a man for sticking to his own opinion." + +"But you could marry now and keep a house, in a small way," said Rankin. + +"Too small a way for Nina. She knows no more of economy than a babe. No; +I may have been unwise, from a practical view, to fall in love with her, +but the affair must go on now; we will get married some way or other. +Perhaps the old boy will die. At any rate, although I have no doubt she +would go in for 'love in a cottage,' I don't think it would be right of +me to subject her to the loss of her carriage, servants, entertainments, +and gay existence generally. Of course she would be brave over it, but +the effort would be very hard upon the dear little woman." + +When Jack thought of Nina his heart was apt to lose some of its +chronometer movement. He turned and began fumbling for his pipe. + +Maurice wished to pull him together, as it were, and said, as he grasped +the decanter and filled the wine glasses again: + +"Thank you; I don't mind if I do. Now I come to think of it, your first +proposed toast was the right one. For the next three weeks at least we +do not intend to separate the lady from the yacht. Why should we drink +them separately? Ho, ho! we will drink to them collectively!" He waved +his glass in the air. "Here's to The Lady and the Yacht considered as +one indivisible duo. May they be forever as entwined in our hearts as +they are incomprehensibly mixed up in our language!" + +"Hear, hear!" cried Jack, with renewed spirit. "Drink hearty!" And then +he energetically poured out another, and said "Tiger!"--after which they +lit cigars and went out, feeling happy and much refreshed, while Rankin +quite forgot the blue bag and the contents thereof yielding rich juices +to the law-reports in the usual way. + +About ten o'clock on the following Saturday morning valises were being +stowed away on board the yacht Ideal, and maidens fair and sailors free +were aglow with the excitement of departure. The yacht was swinging at +her anchor while the new cruising mainsail caused her to careen gently +as the wind alternately caught each side of the snowy canvas. A large +blue ensign at the peak was flapping in the breeze, impatient for the +start, while the main-sheet bound down and fettered the plunging and +restless sail. Lounging about the bows of the vessel were a number of +professional sailors with Ideal worked across the breasts of their stout +blue jerseys. The headsails were loosed and ready to go up, and the +patent windlass was cleared to wind up the anchor chain. Away aloft at +the topmast head the blue peter was promising more adventures and a new +enterprise, while grouped about the cockpit were our friends in varied +garb, some of whom nervously regarded the plunging mainsail which +refused to be quieted. Rankin was the last to come over the side, clad +in a dark-blue serge suit, provided at short notice by the +long-suffering Score. His leather portmanteau, lent by Jack, had +scarcely reached the deck before the blocks were hooked on and the gig +was hoisted in to the davits. Margaret, sitting on the bulwarks, with an +arm thrown round a backstay to steady her, was taking in all the +preparations with quiet ecstasy, her eyes following every movement aloft +and her lips softly parted with sense of invading pleasure. + +Mrs. Dusenall was down in the after-cabin making herself more busy than +useful. Instead of leaving everything to the steward, the good woman was +unpacking several baskets which had found their way aft by mistake. In a +very clean locker devoted solely to charts she stowed away five or six +pies, wedging them, thoughtfully, with a sweet melon to keep them quiet. +Then she found that the seats at the side could be raised, and here she +placed a number of articles where they stood a good chance of slipping +under the floor and never being seen again. Fortunately for the party, +her pride in her work led her to point out what she had done to the +steward, who, speechless with dismay, hastily removed everything eatable +from her reach. + +As the anchor left its weedy bed, the brass carronade split the air in +salute to the club and the blue ensign dipped also, while the headsail +clanked and rattled up the stay. There was nobody at the club house, but +the ladies thought that the ceremony of departure was effective. + +Jack was at the wheel as she paid off on the starboard tack toward the +eastern channel, and Geoffrey and others were slacking off the +main-sheet when Rankin heard himself called by Jack, who said hurriedly: + + +"Morry, will you let go that lee-backstay?" + +Maurice and Margaret left it immediately and stood aside. Jack forgot, +in the hurry of starting, that Rankin knew nothing of sailing, and +called louder to him again, pointing to the particular rope: "Let go +that lee-backstay." + +"Who's touching your lee-backstay?" cried Morry indignantly. + +The boom was now pressing strongly on the stay, while Jack, seeing his +mistake, leaned over and showed Rankin what to do. He at once cast off +the rope from the cleat, and, there being a great strain on it, the end +of it when loosed flew through his fingers so fast that it felt as if +red hot. + +"Holy Moses!" cried he, blowing on his fingers, "that rope must have +been lying on the stove." He examined the rope again, and remarked that +it was quite cool now. The pretended innocence of the little man was +deceiving. The Honorable Marcus Travers Head, one of the rich intended +victims of the Dusenalls, leaned over to Jack and asked who and what +Rankin was. + +"He's an original--that's what he is," said Jack, with some pride in his +friend, although Rankin's by-play was really very old. + +"What! ain't he soft?" inquired the Hon. M. T., with surprise. + +"About as soft as that brass cleat," said Jack shortly. "I say, old +Emptyhead, you just keep your eye open when he's around and you'll learn +something." + +There was a murmur of "Ba-a Jeuve!" and the honorable gentleman regarded +Rankin in a new light. + +The Ideal was a sloop of more than ordinary size, drawing about eight +feet of water without the small center-board, which she hardly required +for ordinary sailing. Her accommodations were excellent, and her +internal fittings were elegant, without being so wildly expensive as in +some of the American yachts. Her comparatively small draught of water +enabled her to enter the shallow ports on the lakes, and yet she was +modeled somewhat like a deep-draught boat, having some of her ballast +bolted to her keel, like the English yachts. Her cruising canvas was +bent on short spars, which relieved the crew in working her, but, even +with this reduction, her spread of canvas was very large, so that her +passage across the bay toward the lake was one of short duration. + +To Margaret and Maurice the spirited start which they made was one of +unalloyed delight. For two such fresh souls "delight" is quite the +proper word. They crossed over to the weather side and sat on the +bulwarks, where they could command a view of the whole boat. It was a +treat for all hands to see their bright faces watching the man aloft +cast loose the working gaff-topsail. When they heard his voice in the +sky calling out "Hoist away," Morry waved his hand with _abandon_ and +called out also "Hoist away," as if he would hoist away and overboard +every care he knew of, and when the booming voice aloft cried "Sheet +home," it was as good as five dollars to see Margaret echo the word with +commanding gesture--only she called it "Sea foam," which made the +sailors turn their quids and snicker quietly among themselves. But when +the huge cream-colored jib-topsail went creaking musically up from the +bowsprit-end, filling and bellying and thundering away to leeward, and +growing larger and larger as it climbed to the topmast head, their +admiration knew no bounds. As the sail was trimmed down, they felt the +good ship get her "second wind," as it were, for the rush out of the +bay. It was as if sixteen galloping horses had been suddenly harnessed +to the boat, and Margaret fairly clapped her hands. Maurice called to +Jack approvingly: + +"You said you would make her dance." + +"She's going like a scalded pup," cried Jack poetically in reply, and he +held her down to it with the wheel, tenderly but firmly, as he thereby +felt the boat's pulse. When they came to the eastern channel Jack eased +her up so close to the end of the pier that Maurice involuntarily +retreated from the bulwarks for fear she would hit the corner. The +jib-topsail commenced to thunder as the yacht came nearer the wind, but +this was soon silenced, and half a dozen men on the main-sheet flattened +in the after-canvas as she passed between the crib-work at the sides of +the channel in a way that gave one a fair opportunity for judging her +speed. + +A moment more and the Ideal was surging along the lake swells, as if she +intended to arrive "on time" at any place they pointed her for. The +main-sheet was paid out as Jack bore away to take the compass course for +Cobourg. This put the yacht nearly dead before the wind, and the pace +seemed to moderate. Charlie Dusenall then came on deck, after settling +his dunnage below and getting into his sailing clothes. Charlie had been +"making a night of it" previous to starting, and felt this morning +indisposed to exert himself. Jack and he had cruised together in all +weathers, and they were both good enough sailors to dispense with +pig-headed sailing-masters. Jack had sailed everything, from a +birch-bark canoe to a schooner of two hundred tons, and had never lost +his liking for a good deal of hard work on board a boat. As for his +garb, an old flannel shirt and trousers that greased masts could not +spoil were all that either he or Charlie ever wore. These, with the +yachting shoes, broad Scotch bonnet, belt, and sheath-knife, were found +sufficient, without any finical white jackets and blue anchors, and, if +not so fresh as they might have been, these garments certainly looked +like business. + +Before young Dusenall put his head up the companion-way he knew exactly +where the boat was by noticing her motions while below. There was +something of the "old salt" in the way he understood how the yacht was +running without coming on deck to find out. Generally he could wake up +at night and tell you how the boat was sailing, and almost what canvas +she was carrying, without getting out of his berth. These things had +become a sort of second nature. + +He was yawning as he hauled on a stout chain and dragged up from his +trousers pocket a silver watch about the size of a mud-turtle. Then he +looked at the wake through the long following waves and glanced rapidly +over the western horizon while he counted with his finger upon the face +of the enormous timepiece. "We will have to do better than this," he +said, after making a calculation, "if we wish to dance at the Arlington +to-night." + +"They are just getting the spinnaker on deck," said Jack, nodding toward +the bows. "As you say, it won't do her any harm. This breeze will +flatten out at sundown, and walloping about in a dead calm all night is +no fun." + +"What a time they take to get a sail set!" said Charlie impatiently, as +he looked at the sailors for a few moments. "I have a good mind to ask +some of you fellows to go forward and show them how." + +"Oh, never mind," said Jack, "We are not racing, and hurrying them only +makes them sulky." + +But Charlie's nerves were a little irritable to-day, and he swung +himself on deck and went forward. A long boom was lowered out over the +side and properly guyed; then a long line of sail, tied in stops, went +up and up to the topmast-head; the foot of it was hauled out to the end +of the boom; then there was a pull on a rope, and, as the wind broke +away the stops, hundreds of yards of sail spread out as if by magic to +the breeze, filling away forward like a huge three-cornered balloon, the +foot of which almost swept the surface of the water. + +"Look at that for a sail, Nina," said Jack. "Now you'll see her git +right up and git." + +When Jack was talking about yachts or sailing it was next to impossible +for him to speak in anything but a jargon of energetic slang and +metaphor picked up among the sailors, who, in their turn, picked up all +they could while ashore. He seemed to take a pleasure in throwing the +English grammar overboard. His heart warmed to sailors. He was fond of +their oddities and forcible unpolished similes; and when he sometimes +sought their society for a while, he was well received. When a man in +good clothes begins to talk sailing grammatically to lake-sailors they +seem to feel that he is not, as far as they can see, in any way up to +the mark. His want of accuracy in sailing vernacular attaches to his +whole character. + +If Jack intended to say that the spinnaker would make the Ideal go fast, +he was right. She was traveling down the lake almost as fast as she +would go in a race with the same breeze. A long thin line of fine white +bubbles extending back over the tops of several blue waves showed where +her keel had divided the water and rubbed it into white powder as she +passed. Jack had no time for continued conversation now. He had to watch +his compass and the sails, the wind, and the land. He did not wish the +wake behind the vessel to look like a snake-fence from bad steering, and +to get either of the sails aback, while under such a pressure, would be +a pretty kettle of fish. He was enjoying himself. Some good Samaritan +handed him a pipe filled and lighted, and with his leg slung comfortably +over the shaft of the wheel, his pipe going, Nina in front of him, and +all his friends around him, he felt that the moment could hardly be +improved. + +Some time after the buildings of Toronto had dwindled away to nothing, +and the thin spire of St. James's Cathedral had become a memory, the +steward announced that luncheon was ready. One of the hands relieved +Jack at the wheel, and all went below except Mrs. Dusenall, who was left +lying among cushions and pillows arranged comfortably on deck, where she +preferred to remain, as she was feeling the motion of the boat. + +Luncheon was a movable feast on the Ideal--as liable to be shifted about +as the hands of a wayward clock. The cabin was prettily decorated with +flowers, and the table, weighted so as to remain always horizontal, was +covered with snowy linen and delicate glass, while a small conceit full +of cut flowers faced each of the guests. The steward and stewardess +buzzed about with bottles and plates, and any appetite that could not +have been tempted must have been in a bad way. The absence of that +apology for a chaperon, who was trying to enjoy the breezes overhead, +gave the repast an informality which the primness of the Misses Dusenall +soon failed to check, although at first their precise intonations and +carefully copied English accent did something to restrain undue hilarity +on the part of those who did not know them well. + +The idea of being able to entertain in this style gave the Misses +Dusenall an inflation which at first showed itself in a conversation and +manner touchingly English. The average English maiden, though by nature +sufficiently insular in manner and speech, is taught to be more so. The +result is that among strangers she rarely seems quite certain of +herself, as if anxious lest she should wreck herself on a slip of the +tongue or the sounding of a false note. Her prudish manners and her +perfect knowledge of what not to say often suggest Swift's definition of +"a nice man." One trembles to think what effect the emancipation of +marriage will have upon some of these wildly innocent creatures. In +Canada, and especially in the United States, we are thankful to take +some things for granted, without the advertisement of a manner which +seems to say: "I am so awfully pure and carefully brought up, don't you +know." + +The Misses Dusenall on this occasion soon found themselves in a minority +(not the minority of Matthew Arnold), and before leaving the table they +adopted some of that more genial manner and speech which, if slightly +faulty, we are satisfied to consider as "good enough for the colonies." + +Maurice seemed to expand as the English fog gradually lifted. The aged +appearance that anxiety was giving him had disappeared. Amid the chatter +going on, in which it was difficult to get an innings, Jack Cresswell +seized a bottle of claret and called out that he proposed a toast. + +"What? toasts at such an informal luncheon as this, Jack?" exclaimed +Propriety, with the accent somewhat worn off. + +"What's the odds as long as you're happy and the 'rosy' is close at +hand?" said Jack. "Besides, this is a case of necessity--" + +"I propose that we have a series of toasts," interrupted Charlie; who +was beginning to feel himself again. "With all their necessary +subdivisions," added Rankin, in his incisive little voice, which could +always make itself heard. + +"There you are again, Rankin," cried Jack. "I proposed a toast with +Rankin two days ago, ladies, and, as I live by bread, he subdivided it +sixteen times." + +Dusenall was calling for a bottle of Seltzer water. + + +"Never mind your soda," commanded Jack. "Soda can't do justice to this +toast. I propose this toast because I regard it as one of absolute +necessity--" + +"They all are," called Maurice. + +"Gentlemen, I must protest against my learned friend's interrup--" + +"Go on, Jack. Don't protest. Propose. I am getting thirsty," cried +Hampstead's voice among a number of others. + +"Well, gentlemen, am I to proceed or not? Have I the floor, or not?" + +"That's just what he said after those sixteen horns," said Rankin, +addressing the party confidentially. "Only, then he did not 'have the +floor,' the floor had him." + +His absurdity increased the hubbub, as Jack rapped on the table to +command attention. + +"The toast I am about to propose is one of absolute neces--" + +"Oh, my!" groaned Rankin, "give me something in the mean time." He +grasped a bottle, as if in desperation. "All right, now. Go on, Jack. +Don't mind me." + +The orator went on, smiling: + +"It is, as I think I have said before, one of absolute--" + +Here the disturbance threatened to put an end to the proposed toast. + +"Take a new deal." + +"Got any more toasts like this?" + +"Oh, I would like a smoke soon. Hurry up, Jack." + +"Well, ladies and gentlemen," said Jack, banging on the table to quell +the tumult; "I will skip over the objectionable words, and propose that +we drink to the health of one who has been unable to be with us to-day, +and who needs our assistance; who perhaps at this moment is suffering +untold troubles far from our midst. Ladies and gentlemen, have you +charged your glasses?" + +Answers of "Frequently." + +"Well, then," said Jack, as he stood with a bottle in one hand and a +glass in the other, "I ask you to drink with me to the health of 'The +Chaperon,' who is nigh unto death." + +All stood up, and were loudly echoing, "The Chaperon--nigh unto death!" +when a long hand came down the skylight overhead and a voice was heard +from on high, saying: + +"Nothing of the kind. How dare you, you bad boy? Just put something into +my hand and I'll drink my own health. I don't need your assistance at +all." + +Cheers broke out from the noisy gathering, and they all rushed on deck +to see Mrs. Dusenall drink her own health, which she bravely +accomplished. + +They were a riotous lot. All the boat wanted was a policeman to keep +them in something more like order, for a small joke received too much +credit with them, and they laughed too easily. + +Frenchman's Bay and Whitby were passed before they came up from lunch. +Oshawa could be seen far away on the shore, as the yacht buzzed along +with unabated speed. A speck on the horizon had risen up out of the sea +to be called Raby Head--the sand-bluff near Darlington. Small yellow and +green squares on the far-off brown uplands that rolled back from the +shores denoted that there were farms in that vicinity; dark-blue spots, +like feathery tufts, appeared here and there where the timber forests +had been left untouched, and among them small marks or lines of white +would occasionally appear where, on looking through the glasses, little +railway trains seemed to be toiling like ants across the landscape. + +There was no ceremony to be observed, nor could it be seen that anybody +endeavored to keep up conversations which required any effort. The men, +lounging about on the white decks, seemed to smoke incessantly while +they watched the water hissing along the sides of the vessel, or lay on +their backs and watched the masthead racing with the white clouds down +the lake, and the girls, disposed on cushions, tried to read novels and +failed. The sudden change to the fresh breezes of the lake, and the long +but spirited rise and fall of the vessel made them soon doze away, or +else remain in that peaceful state of mind which does not require books +or masculine society or music, or anything else except a continuation of +things just as they are. Granby and Newcastle were mentioned as the +yacht passed by, but most of the party were drowsy, and few even raised +their heads to see what little could be seen. Port Hope created but +feeble interest, though the Gull Light, perched on the rocks far out in +the lake, appeared romantic and picturesque. It seemed like true +yachting to be approaching a strange lighthouse sitting like a white +seabird on the dangerous-looking reefs, where the waves could be seen +dashing up white and frothy. + +Somewhere off Port Hope, about three or four miles away from the "Gull," +one of the sailors had quietly remarked to the man at the wheel: + +"We're a-goin' to run out of the wind." + +Margaret was interested in this, wondering how the man knew. Far away in +front and to the eastward could be seen a white haze that obliterated +the horizon, and, as the yacht bore down to the Gull Light, one could +see that beyond a certain defined line stretching across the lake the +bright sparkle and blueness of the waves ceased, and, beyond, was a +white heaving surface of water, without a ripple on it to mark one +distance from another. It seemed strange that the wind blowing so +freshly directly toward this calm portion of the lake should not ruffle +it. The yacht went straight on before the wind at the same pace till she +crossed the dividing line and passed with her own velocity into the dead +air on the other side. The sails, out like wings, seemed at once to fill +on the wrong side, as if the breeze had come ahead, and this stopped her +headway. She soon came to a standstill. Every person at once +awoke--feeling some of that numbness experienced in railway trains when, +after running forty miles an hour for some time, the brakes are suddenly +put on. + +For half an hour the yacht lay within pistol-shot of the dancing, +sparkling waves, where the breeze blew straight toward them, as far as +the mysterious dividing line, and then disappeared. The spinnaker was +taken in, and the yacht, regardless of the helm, "walloped" about in all +directions, as the swells, swashing against the bow, or pounding under +the counter, turned her around. This was unpleasant, and might last all +night, if "the calm beat back the wind," as the sailors say, so Charley +sent out the crew in the two boats, which were lowered from the davits, +to tow the yacht into Cobourg, now about three miles away. The +main-sheet was hauled flat aft to keep the main-boom quiet, and soon she +had steerage way on. + +To insure fine weather at home one must take out an umbrella and a +water-proof. On the water, for a dead calm, sending the boats out to tow +the yacht is as good as a patent medicine. Before very long the topsail +seemed to have an inclination to fill on one side more than on the +other, so one boat was ordered back and a club-gaff-topsail used in +races was sent aloft to catch the breath moving in the upper air. This +sail had huge spars on it that set a sail reaching a good twenty-five +feet above the topmast head, and about the same distance out from the +end of the gaff. It was no child's-play getting it up, and the sailors' +chorus as they took each haul at the halyards attracted some attention. +Perhaps no amateur can quite successfully give that break in the voice +peculiar to a professional sailor when hauling heavily on a rope. And +then the interjections: + +"O-ho! H'ister up." + +"Oh-ho! Up she goes." + +"O-ho! R-Raise the dead." + +"Now-then-all-together-and-carry-away-the-mast, O-ho!" etc. + +Some especial touches were put on to-day for the benefit of the ladies, +and when the man aloft wished those on deck to "sheet home" the big +topsail, the rascal looked down at Margaret and called "sea foam!" In +the forecastle she was called "Sea Foam" during the whole trip, not +because she wore a dress of cricketing flannel, but on account of her +former mistake in the words. To Rankin and some others who saw the +little joke, the idea seemed poetical and appropriate. + + +Not more than a breath of wind moved aloft--none at all below--but it +proved sufficient to send the yacht along, and about half-past six in +the evening they slipped in to an anchor at Cobourg, fired a gun, and +had dinner. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Ah, what pleasant visions haunt me + As I gaze upon the sea! + All the old romantic legends, + All my dreams, come back to me. + + Sails of silk and ropes of sendal, + Such as gleam in ancient lore; + And the singing of the sailors, + And the answer from the shore. + + Till my soul is full of longing + For the secret of the sea, + And the heart of the great ocean + Sends a thrilling pulse through me. + + LONGFELLOW. + + +Nothing tends to convince us of the element of chance in our lives more +than noticing the consequences of whims. We act and react upon each +other, after joining in a movement, till its origin is forgotten and +lost. A politician conceives a whim to dazzle a fighting people with a +war, and the circumstances of thousands are unexpectedly and +irretrievably altered. We map out our lives for ourselves, and propose +to adhere to the chart, but on considering the effects of chance, one's +life often seems like an island upheaved from the sea, on which the +soil, according to its character, fructifies or refuses the seeds that +birds and breezes accidentally bring. + +Our yachting cruise seemed to be like this. One evening when Nina was +dining at the Dusenalls', Charley had proposed the trip in an idle sort +of way. Nina fastened on the idea, and during little talks with Mrs. +Dusenall, induced her to see that it might be advantageous for her +daughters to make a reality of the vague proposal. + +In thus providing opportunity for sweet temptation, Nina was not +deceiving herself so much as formerly, and she knew that her feeling for +Geoffrey was deep and strong. But she would morally bind herself to the +rigging and sail on without trouble while she listened to the song as +well. Would not Jack be with her always to serve as a safeguard? Dear +Jack! So fond of Jack! Of course it would be all right. And then, to be +with Geoffrey all the time for two or three weeks! or, if not with him, +near enough to hear his voice! After all, she could not be any _more_ in +love with him than she was then. Where was the harm? + +Margaret's presence on the yacht, if at times rather trying, would +certainly make an opening for excitement, and, on the whole, it would be +more comfortable to have both Geoffrey and Margaret on the yacht than to +leave them in Toronto together. This friendship between them--what did +it amount to? She had a desire to know all about it--as we painfully +pull the cot off a hurt finger, just to see how it looks. + +For Geoffrey the trip promised to be interesting, and, having in the +early days examined Cupid's armory with some curiosity, he tried to +persuade himself that the archer's shafts were for him neither very keen +nor very formidable. As Davidge used to say, "too much familiarity +breeds despisery," and up to this time of his life it had not seemed +possible for him to care for any one very devotedly--not even himself. +Yet Margaret Mackintosh, he thought, was the one woman who could be +permanently trusted with his precious future. No one less valuable could +be the making of him. He agreed with the Frenchman in saying that "of +all heavy bodies, the heaviest is the woman we have ceased to love," and +he hoped when married to be able to feel some of that respect and trust +which make things different from the ordinary French experience. But +when he thought of Margaret as his wife the thought was vague, and not +so full of purpose as some of his other schemes. The mental picture of +Margaret sitting near him by the fireside keeping up a bright chatter, +or else playing Beethoven to him, the music sounding at its best through +the puff-puff of a contemplative pipe, had not altogether dulled his +appreciation of those pleasures of the chase, as he called them, over +which he had wasted so much of his time. Moreover, he felt that it was +altogether a toss-up whether she would accept him or not, and that he +did not appeal to her quite in the same way that he did to other women. +This threw his hand out. If he wished her to marry him at any time, he +thought he would have to put his best foot foremost, and tread lightly +where the way seemed so precarious. He knew that she liked him very much +as she would a work of art. It was a good thing to have a tall figure +and clean-cut limbs, but it seemed almost pathetic to be ranked, as it +were, with old china, no matter how full of soul the willow-pattern +might be. + +Now that Nina had fairly commenced the yachting cruise, she could be +pleasant and jolly with Jack on board the boat, but when it came to +leaving the ball-room at the Arlington for a little promenade with him +on the verandas, the idea seemed slow and uninviting. After a dance, +Jack moved away with her, intending to saunter out through one of the +low windows. + +"Don't you think it is pleasanter in here?" she said. + +"Well, I find it a little warm here, don't you? Besides the moon is +shining outside, and we can get a fine view of the lake from the end of +the walk." + +"But, my dear Jack, have we not been enjoying a fine view of the lake +all day? You see I don't want every person to think that we can not be +content unless we are mooning off together in some dark corner. It does +not look well; now, does it?" + +Jack raised his eyebrows. "I did not think you were so very careful of +Mrs. Grundy. When did you turn over the new leaf? I suppose the idea did +not occur to you that being out with Geoffrey for two or three dances +might also excite comment." + +Nina had already surveyed the lake to some extent during the evening +under pleasing auspices, but she did not like being reminded of it, and +answered hotly: + +"How then, do you expect me to enjoy going to look at the lake again? I +have seen the lake three times already this evening, and no person has +made me feel that there was any great romance in the surroundings. +Surely you don't think that you would conjure up the romance, do you?" + +"Evidently I would not be able to do that for you," said Jack slowly, +while he thought how different her feelings were from his own. It galled +him to have it placed before him how stale he had become to her. He +conquered his rising anger, and said: + +"I am afraid that our engagement had become very prosaic to you." + +"Horribly so," said Nina. "It all seems just as if we were married. Not +quite so bad, though, because I suppose I would then have to be civil. +What a bore! Fancy having to be civil continually!" + +"I believe that a fair amount of civility is considered--" + +"Oh, you need not tell me what our married life will be. I know all +about it. Mutual resignation and endearing nothings. Church on Sundays; +wash on Mondays. It will be respectable and meritorious and virtuous and +generally unbearable--" + +"Hush, hush, Nina! Why do you talk in this strain? Why do you go out of +your way to say unkind things? I know you do not mean a quarter of what +you say. If I thought you did I--" + +"Was I saying unkind things?" interrupted Nina. "I did not think of +their being unkind. It seems natural enough to look at things in this +way." + +She was endeavoring now to neutralize her hasty words by softer tones, +and she only made matters worse. It is difficult to climb clear of the +consciousness of our own necessities when it envelops us like a fog, +obscuring the path. In some way a good deal of what she said to Jack now +seemed tinged with the wrong color, and out of the effort to be pleasant +had begun to grow a distaste for his presence. Much as she still liked +him, she always tried during this cruise to get into the boat or into +the party where Jack was not. + +It had been his own proposal that she should see a good deal of +Hampstead, and so it never occurred to him to be jealous; and afterward +she became more crafty in blinding his eyes to the real cause of the +dissatisfaction she now expressed. While in Jack's presence her manner +toward Geoffrey was studiously off-hand and friendly. Whatever her +manner might be when they strolled off together, it was certain that an +understanding existed between the two to conceal from Jack whatever +interest they might have in one another. She was forced to think +continuously of Geoffrey so that every other train of thought sank into +insignificance, and was crowded out. A colder person, with temptation +infinitely less, would have done what was right and would have captured +the world's approbation. It would do harm to examine too closely the +natures of many saints of pious memory and to be obliged to paint out +their accustomed halo. If the convicted are ever more richly endowed +than the social arbiters, they are different and not understood, and +therefore judged. No sin is so great as that which we ourselves are not +tempted to commit. Ignorance either deifies or spits upon what can not +be understood. But, after all, we must have some standard, some social +tribunal; and social wrong, no matter how it is looked at, must be +prevented, no matter how well we understand that some are, as regards +social law, made crooked. + +But let us hasten more slowly. + +Sunday morning, strangely enough, followed the Saturday night which had +been spent at the Arlington. The daylight of Sunday followed about two +hours after the last man coaxed himself to his berth from the yacht's +deck and the tempting night. When all the others were fairly off in a +solid sleep, as if wound up for twenty-four hours, one individual +arrived at partial consciousness and wondered where he was. A sensation +of pleasure pervaded him. Something new and enjoyable lay before him, +but he could not make up his mind what it was. That he was not in 173 +Tremaine Buildings seemed certain. If not there, where was he? To fully +consider the matter he sat up in his berth and gave his head a thump on +a beam overhead, which conveyed some intelligence to him. Then, lying +back on the pillow, he laughed and rubbed his poll. "A lubber's +mistake," quoth he; and then, after a little, "I wonder what it's like +outside?" A lanky figure in a long white garment was presently to be +seen stumbling up the companion-way, and a head appeared above the deck +with hair disheveled looking like a sleepy bird of prey. All around it +was so still that nothing could be heard but some one snoring down +below. The yacht lay with her anchor-chain nowhere--a thread would have +held her in position. The boats behind were lying motionless with their +bows under the yacht's counter, drawn up there by the weight of their +own painters lying in the water. Maurice gazed about the little +wharf-surrounded harbor with curiosity and artistic pleasure. It could +only have been this and the feeling of gladness in him that made him +interested in the lumber-piles and railway-derricks about him, but it +was all so new and strange to him. "Gad! to be off like this, on a +yacht, and to live on board, you know!" said he, talking to himself, as +he hoisted himself up by his arms and sat on the top of the sliding +hatchway. He moved away soon after sitting down, because of about half +an inch of cold dew on the hatch. This awakened him completely. He +walked gingerly toward the stern and looked at the blaze of red and gold +in the eastern sky where the sun was making a triumphal entry. Then he +walked to the bow and watched the light gild the masts of the +lumber-schooners and the fog-bank over the lake, and the carcass of a +drowned dog floating close at hand. He saw bits of the shore beyond the +town and wanted to go there. He wanted to inspect the little squat +lighthouse that shone in its reflected glory better than it ever shone +at night. Yes, he must see all these things. It was all fairyland to +him. The gig was carefully pulled alongside when, happy thought! a smoke +would be just the thing. The weird figure dived down for pipe, matches, +and "'baccy," and soon came up smiling. "Never knew anything so quiet +as this," he said, as he filled the pipe. The snore below seemed to be +the only note typical of the scene--not very musical, perhaps, but +eloquent and artistically correct. + +He had not gone far in the gig when he came across the picturesque +drowned dog. Really it would be too bad to allow this to remain where it +was, even though gilded. The sun would get up higher, and then there +would be no poetry about it, but only plain dog. So he went back to the +deck and saw a boat-hook. That would do well enough to remove the +eyesore with, but how could he row and hold the boat-hook at the same +time? If he only had a bit of string, now, or a piece of rope! But these +articles are not to be found on a well-kept deck, and it would not be +right to wake up anybody. Happy thought! He took the pike-pole and rowed +rapidly toward the dog, and, as he passed it, dropped the oars and +grabbed the dog with the end of the pike-pole. His idea was that the +momentum of the boat would, by repeated efforts, remove the dog. But the +deceased was not to be coaxed in this way from the little harbor where +he had so peacefully floated for four weeks. So Maurice, after suffering +in the contest, went on board again. Still the snore below went on, and +still nobody got up to help him. He searched the deck for any part of +the rigging that would suit him, determined to cut away as much as he +wanted of whatever came first. Ah! the signal halyards! He soon had +about two hundred feet unrove, little recking of the man who had to +"shin up" to the topmast-head to reeve the line again. The dog must go. +That Margaret's eyes should not be insulted was so settled in his +chivalrous little head that--well, in fact, the dog would have to go, +and, if not by hook or by crook, he finally went lassoed a good two +hundred feet behind, Rankin rowing lustily. + +After this object had been committed to the deep, a seagull came and +lighted on a floating plank to consider the situation, and gave a cry +that could be heard a vast distance. Maurice rowed out about half a mile +into the lake, and then could be seen a lithe figure diving in over the +side of the boat and disporting itself, which uttered cries like a +peacock when it came to the surface, and interested the lethargic +seagulls. + +While he was doing this the fog bank slowly moved in from the lake and +enveloped him, so that he began to wonder where the shore was. He got +into the boat, without taking the trouble to don his garment, and rowed +toward the place where he thought the shore was. Half an hour's rowing +brought him back to some driftwood which he had noticed before, so he +gave up rowing in circles, put on the garment, settled himself in the +stern-sheets, and lit a pipe. The air was warm, and a gentle motion in +the lake rocked him comfortably, until a voice aroused him that might +have been a hundred yards or two miles off. + +"Ahoy!" came over the water. + +"Ahoy yourself," called Rankin. + +Jack had got up, and, having missed the gig, had come to the end of the +wharf in his basswood canoe, which the Ideal also carried in this +cruise. + +"By Jove," thought Jack, "I believe that's Morry out there in the fog; +he will never get back as long as he can not see the shore." + +"Ahoy there," he called again. + +"Ahoy yourself," came back in a tone of indifference. + +"Where are you?" + +"Never you mind." + +"Who is out there with you?" + +"The gulls," answered Maurice, as he smiled to himself. + +Jack did not quite hear him. "The Gull?" thought he. "Surely not! Why, +he must be at least three miles off." + +"Do you mean the Gull Light?" he called. + +"Ya-as. What's the matter with you, any way?" + +They were so far apart that their voices sounded to each other as if +they came through a telephone. + +At this time the fog had lifted from Maurice, and he lay basking in the +sun, perfectly content with everything, while Jack, still enveloped in +fog, was feeling quite anxious about him. He paddled quickly back to the +yacht and got a pocket compass, and with this in the bottom of the canoe +steered sou'-sou'west until he got out of the fog, and discovered the +gig floating high up at the bow and low down aft, puffing smoke and +drifting up the lake before an easterly breeze and looking, in the +distance, rather like a steam-barge. + +"Is that the costume you go cruising in?" asked Jack, as he drew near. + +"This is the latest fashion, Mother Hubbard gown, don't you know!" said +Maurice, as he viewed his spindle calves with satisfaction. "Look at +that for a leg," he cried, as he waved a pipe-stem in the air. "No +discount on that leg." + +"Nor anything else," growled Jack. "What do you mean by going off this +way with the ship's boats?" + +"Not piracy, is it?" asked Morry. + +"Don't know," said Jack, "but I am going to arrest you for being a +dissolute, naked vagrant, without visible means of support, and I shall +take you to the place whence you came and--" + +"Bet you half a dollar you don't. I'm on the high seas, so 'get out of +me nar-east coorse,' or by the holy poker I'll sink you." + + +Jack came along to tie the gig's painter to his canoe and thus take it +into custody. Then a splashing match followed, during which Jack got +hold of the rope and began to paddle away. This was but a temporary +advantage. A wild figure leaped from the gig and lit on the gunwale of +the canoe, causing confusion in the enemy's fleet. Jack had just time to +grab his compass when he was shot out into the "drink," as if from a +catapult, and when he came to the surface he had to pick up his paddle, +while Morry swam back to the gig, proceeding to row about triumphantly, +having the enemy swamped and at his mercy. The overturned canoe would +barely float Jack, so Rankin made him beg for mercy and promise to make +him an eggnog when they reached the yacht. When on board again they +slept three hours before anybody thought of getting up. + +As eight o'clock was striking in the town, these two children thought it +was time for everybody to be up. They were spoiling for some kind of +devilment. Geoffrey and Charley and others were already awake, and had +slipped into shirt and trousers to go away for a morning swim in the +lake. + +Jack visited the sleepers with a yell. Mr. Lemons, another proposed +victim of the Dusenalls, still slept peacefully. + +"Now, then, do get up!" cried Jack, in a tone of reproach. + +"Wha's matter?" + +"Get up," yelled Jack. + +"Wha' for?" + +"To wash yourself, man." + +Suppressed laughter was heard from the ladies' cabins. + +"Gor any washstands on board?" still half asleep, but sliding into an +old pair of sailing trousers. + +"Washstands? Well, I never! Wouldn't a Turkish bath satisfy you? No, +sir! You'll dive off the end of the pier with the others." + +"Not much. Gimme bucket an' piece soap." + +"What! you won't wash yourself?" cried Jack, at the top of his voice. +"Oh, this is horrible! I say there, aft! you, fellows, come here! Lemons +says he won't wash himself." + +At this four or five men ran in and pulled him on deck, where Charley +stood with a towel in his hand. No one would give Lemons a chance to +explain. They said, "See here, skipper, Lemons won't wash himself." + +Charley's countenance assumed an expression of disgust. "Oh, the dirty +swab! Heave him overboard!" + +Lemons broke away then and tried to climb the rigging, but he was caught +and carried back, two men at each limb, who showered reproach upon him. +The victim was as helpless as a babe in their hands, and was conscious +that the ladies had heard everything. + +Charlie rapped on the admiralty skylight and asked for instructions. He +declared Lemons would not wash himself, and he asked what should be done +with him? In vain the victim cried that the whole thing was a plot. A +prompt answer came, with the sound of laughter, from the admiralty that +he was to go overboard. This was received with savage satisfaction, and, +after three swings backward and forward, Lemon's body was launched into +the air and disappeared under the water. + +But Lemons did not come up again. In two or three seconds it occurred to +some one to ask whether Lemons could swim. They had taken it for granted +that he could. The thought came over them that perhaps by this time he +was gone forever. Without waiting further, Geoffrey dived off the +wall-sided yacht to grope along the bottom, which was only twelve feet +from the surface. He entered the water like a knife, and from the +bubbles that rose to the surface it could be seen that a thorough search +was being made. Each one took slightly different directions, and went +over the side, one after another, like mud-turtles off a log. Between +them all, the chance of his remaining drowned upon the bottom was small. +Several came up for air, and dived again in another place and met each +other below. There was no gamboling now. They were horrified, and looked +upon it as a matter of life or death. They dived again and again, until +one man came up bleeding at the nose and sick with exhaustion. Geoffrey +swam to help him to reach the yacht, when an explosion of laughter was +heard on the deck, and there was Lemons, with the laugh entirely on his +side. As soon as he had got underneath the surface he had dived deep, +and by swimming under water had come up under the counter, where he +waited till all were in the water, and then he came on deck. + +Revenge was never more complete. Lemons was the hero of the hour. The +girls thought him splendid, and afterward the sight of eight pairs of +trousers and eight shirts drying on the main-boom seemed to do him good. + +Charlie said they ought not to make a laundry clothes-horse of the yacht +on Sunday, and proposed to leave Cobourg. Mrs. Dusenall made a slight +demur to leaving on Sunday. Jack explained that if it blew hard from the +south they could not get out at all without a steam-tug from Port Hope. +This seemed a bore--to be locked up, willy-nilly, in harbor--so the +yacht was warped to the head of the east pier, where, catching the +breeze, she cleared the west pier and headed out into the lake. Outside +they found the wind pretty well ahead and increasing, but, with sails +flattened in, the Ideal lay down to it, and clawed up to windward in a +way that did their hearts good. + +Some topsails were soon descried far away to windward, showing where two +other vessels were also beating down the lake. This gave them something +to try for, and when the topmast was housed and all made snug not a +great while elapsed before the hulls of the schooners became +occasionally visible. The sea was much higher and the motion greater +than on the previous day, but the breeze, being ahead, was more +refreshing, and nobody felt in danger of being ill after the first hour +out. They "came to" under the wooded rocks of Nicholas Island, put in a +couple of reefs, for comfort's sake, and "hove to" in calm water to take +lunch quietly. + +After lunch, as the yacht paid off on a tack to the southward to weather +the Scotch Bonnet Lighthouse, they found, on leaving the shelter of the +island, a sea rolling outside large enough to satisfy any of them. One +hardly realizes from looking at a small atlas what a nice little jump of +a sea Ontario can produce in these parts. The hour lost in mollycoddling +for lunch under the island made a difference in the work the yacht had +to do. The two schooners, having received another long start, were +making good weather of it well to windward of the light, and, when on +the tops of waves, their hulls could be seen launching ahead in fine +style through the white crests. The yacht's rigging, as she soared to +the top of the wave, supplied a musical instrument for the wind to play +barbaric tunes upon, which to Jack and some others were inspiring. As +she swept down the breezy side of a conquered wave, her rigging sounded +a savage challenge to the next bottle-green-and-white mountain to come +on and be cut down. + +Mrs. Dusenall went below and fell asleep in her berth, and some of the +others were lying about the after-cabin dozing over books. Nina and the +Dusenall girls lay on the sloping deck, propped against the +companion-hatch, where they could command the attention of several other +people who were sprawled about in the neighborhood of the wheel. +Margaret and Rankin persisted in climbing about the slanting decks, +changing their positions as new notions about the sailing of the vessel +came to them. They seemed so pleased with each other and with +everything--exchanging their private little jokes and relishing the odd +scraps culled from favorite authors that each brought out in the talk, +as old friends can. Maurice made love to her in the openest way--every +glance straight into her deep-sea eyes. Not possessing a muscle or a +figure, he wooed her with his wits and a certain virtuous boldness that +asserted his unmixed admiration and his quaint ideas with some force. +And she to him was partly motherly, chiefly sisterly, and partly +coquettish, like one who accepts the admiration of half a score before +her girlish fancies are gathered into the great egotism of the one who +shall reign thrice-crowned. Just look at Geoffrey now, as he nears this +schooner, steering the yacht as she comes up behind and to leeward of +the big vessel that majestically spurns the waves into half an acre of +foam. They tell him he can't weather her, that he'll have to bear away. +Now look at his muscular full neck and thick crisp curls. See his jaw +grow rigid and his eye flash as he calculates the weight of the wind and +the shape of the sea, the set of the sails, and the distances. +Obviously, a man to have his way. Objections do not affect him. See how +Margaret's eyes sweep quickly from the schooner back to Geoffrey, to +watch what he is doing. Why is it when they say he can't do it that it +never occurs to her that he won't? She looks at him open-eyed and +thoughtful, and thinks it is fine to carry the courage of one's opinions +to success, and she smiles as the yacht skillfully evades the main-boom +of the schooner and saws up on her windward side. + +The sunrise that Maurice saw early in the morning was too sweet to be +wholesome. As the day wore on, the barometer grew unsteady. A leaden +scud came flying overhead, and the fellows began to wonder whether they +would have to thrash around Long Point all night. A good many opinions +were passed on the weather, which certainly did not look promising. +Margaret suggested that it would be more comfortable to go into port, +but was just as well pleased to hear that they had either to go about +forty miles further for a shelter or else run back to Cobourg. Presque +Isle was not spoken of, since it was too shallow and intricate to enter +safely at night. Lemons suggested that they should go back and anchor +under Nicholas Island, where they had lunched. + +"Might as well look for needle in a hay-stack," said Charley. "It's +going to be as black as a pocket when daylight is gone. And if you did +get there it is no place to anchor on a night like this." + +Jack did not say anything. He knew that Charley would go on to South +Bay, and he looked forward to another night of it round Long Point. The +only person who cared much what was done was Mr. Lemons. Towards evening +he began to think about the next meal. + +"My dear skipper, how can you ever get a dinner cooked in such a sea as +this? The cook will never be able to prepare anything in such a +commotion," said he regretfully. + +"Won't he!" exclaimed Charley decisively. "Just wait and see. My men +understand that they have to cook if the vessel never gets up off her +beam ends." + +"What, you do not mean to say it will be all--" Mr. Lemons came and laid +his head on Charley's shoulder--"that it will be all just as it was +yesterday? Oh, say that it will. 'Stay me with flagons; comfort me with +apples.'" + +"Get up--off me, you fat lump," cried Charley, pushing him away +vehemently. "I say that we will do better to-day, or we'll put the cook +in irons. I hate a measly fellow who gives in just when you want him. I +have sacked four stewards and six cooks about this very thing, and it is +a sore subject with me." + +"De-lightful man," said Lemons, gazing rapturously at Charley. + +"Rankin will tell you," said Jack. "He drew the papers. The whole thing +is down in black and white." + +"True enough," said Maurice. "But I don't see how signing papers will +teach a man to cook on the side of a stove, when the ship is lying over +and pitching like this." + +"No more do I," said Lemons anxiously. + +"Why, man alive!" said Charley, "the whole stove works something like a +compass, don't-you-know. He has got it all swinging--slung in irons." + +"That is far better than having the cook in irons," suggested Margaret. + +"Oh!" said Mr. Lemons, as he gazed at the sky, "that remark appeals to +me. The lady is correct." + +Then he arose and grasped Charley in a vice-like grip, for though fat he +was powerful. He pinned the skipper to the deck and sat upon him. + +"Say, dearest," he cooed into his ear, "at about what hour will this +heavenly-repast be ready?" + +"Pull him off--somebody!" groaned Charley. "I hate a man that has to be +thrown in the water to--" a thump on the back silenced him. + +"May I convey your commands to the Minister of the Interior," asked his +tormentor. + +"Oh, my ribs! Yes. Tell him to begin at it at once." + +"I don't mind if I do," said Mr. Lemons sagaciously; and he disappeared +down the companion-way to interview the cook. + +"Ain't he a brick?" said Charley, after Lemons had gone forward. "He's a +regular one-er, that chap! Give him his meals on time and he's the +gamest old sardine. By the way, let us have a sweepstake on the time we +drop anchor in South Bay." + +"We haven't any money in these togs," said Geoffrey. + +"Well, you'll all have to owe it, then. We'll imagine there's a quarter +apiece in the pool." + +Margaret wanted to know what was to be done. It was explained that each +person had to write his name on a folded paper with the time he thought +anchor would be dropped in South Bay. The names were read out afterward. +They all, with two exceptions, ranged between one o'clock at night and +seven the next morning. The sea was running tremendously high and the +wind dead ahead. It was now seven o'clock in the evening and with some +thirty-five miles yet to beat to windward. What surprised them all was +that Jack had chosen ten o'clock and Charley half-past ten of the same +evening. They explained that they had based their ideas on the clouds. + +"If you look carefully," said Jack, "you'll see that close to this lower +scud coming from the east, there is a lighter cloud flying out the south +and west." + +"I wish, Jack, you had not come on this trip," said Charley. "I could +make lots of money if you were not on board." + +Sure enough, the yacht began to point up nearer and nearer to her +course, soon after they spoke. Presently she lay her course, with the +sheet lightly started, mounting over the head seas like a race-horse, +and roaring straight into the oncoming walls of water till it seemed as +if her bowsprit would be whipped out. The wind kept veering till at last +they had a quarterly breeze driving them forcibly into the seas that had +been rising all day. Ordinarily they would have shortened sail to ease +the boat, but now that dinner was ordered for half-past nine o'clock, +they drove her through it in order that they might dine in calm water. + +They raced past the revolving light on Long Point faster than they had +expected to pass it that night. The twenty-five miles run from here was +made in darkness and gloom. The boom was topped up to keep it out of the +water, and the peak of the reefed mainsail was dropped, as the +increasing gale threatened to bury the bows too much in the head seas. +Although early enough in the evening, everything around was, as Charley +had predicted, as black as a pocket. Now and then some rain drove over +them. Maurice and Margaret sat out together on deck, wrapped in heavy +coats, and watched what little they could see. The howling of the wind +and roaring of the black surges beneath them were new experiences. Close +to them was Jack, standing at the wheel, tooling her through. By the +binnacle-light his face, which was about all that could be seen, seemed +to be filled with a grave contentment that broke into a grim smile when +the boat surged into a wall of water that would have stopped a +bluff-bowed craft. Soon after dropping Long Point, he leaned over the +hatchway and called down to Charley, who was lying on his back on gay +cushions, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper. "Got the Duck +Light, skip." + +"All right, old boy. Wire in." + +Dusenall turned over his newspaper, but did not take the trouble to come +on deck to investigate. + +"Say!" he called. + +"Hello." + +"Won't she take the peak again? I've got a terrible twist on me for +dinner." + +"No. Bare poles is more what she wants just now," said Jack. + +"The deuce! Who's forrud?" + +"Billy and Joe." + +"All right. Must be damp for 'em up there." + +"Can't see. Guess it's blue water to the knees, most of the time." + +"Shouldn't wonder. Do 'em good." + +After this jargon was finished, it did not take long to run down to the +False Duck Light. Here the double-reefed mainsail was "squatted" and the +fourth reef-pennant hauled down. The reefed staysail was taken in and +stowed; and under the peak of the mainsail they jibed over. Steering by +the compass, they then rounded to leeward of Timber Island and hauled +their wind into South Bay. + +To put the Ideal over so far with so little canvas showing, it must have +been blowing a gale. They sped up into the bay close hauled, and "came +to" in about four fathoms. Down went the big anchor through the hissing +ripples to that best of holding-grounds, and the vessel, drifting back +as if for another wild run, suddenly fetched up with a grind on her iron +cable. The mad thing knew that unyielding grip, and swung around +submissively. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Full souls are double mirrors, making still + An endless vista of fair things before, + Repeating things behind. + + GEORGE ELIOT'S _Poems._ + + +There is a want of primness in the manners and customs of my characters +which a reviewer might take exception to. To be sure he might with +effect criticise their making up a pool on Sunday. But the fact was that +nobody remembered it to be Sunday until Jack wanted to collect his +winnings after dinner. At this, Mrs. Dusenall held up her hands in high +disapproval. While out in the lake, in the worst part of the sea, she +had commenced to read her Bible, and had felt thankful to arrive in +shelter. Consequently she remembered the day. + +"Surely, Charley, you have not been gambling on Sunday?" said she +reprovingly. + +The girls looked guilty, with an expression of "Oh, haven't we been +bad?" on their faces. + +Rankin endeavored to relieve the situation by explaining in many words +that the whole thing was a mere matter of form, and no more than an +expression of opinion as to the time the boat would reach the harbor, +because no money was put up--in fact, as the arrangement was made on +Sunday, the whole thing was illegal, and no money ever would be put up, +etc. + +Jack kicked him under the table for arguing away his winnings, and +Margaret quoted at him: + + "His tongue + Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear + The better reason, to perplex and dash + Maturest counsels." + +"Good," said Geoffrey. "Give him the rest of it, Miss Margaret. Rub it +in well." + +Margaret continued, and with mirthful eyes declaimed at Maurice: + + "For his thoughts were low; + To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds + Timorous and slothful: and yet he pleas'd the ear, + And with persuasive accent thus began." + +This amused Margaret, because Maurice was such a decent little man. But +Geoffrey's enjoyment of it was different. Rankin felt that there was +growing in him an antagonism to Hampstead. He was afraid of him for her +sake--afraid she would learn to like him too much. At any other time +chaff would have found him invulnerable, but Geoffrey's amusement made +him redden. + +"You seem to be well acquainted with the characteristics of Belial, +Hampstead," he said. "Margaret, your memory is excellent. Could you +favor us with the lines just preceding what you first quoted?" + +Why should Margaret have blushed as she did so? She quoted: + + "On th' other side up rose + Belial, in act more graceful and humane; + A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd + For dignity compos'd and high exploit: + But all was false and hollow; though his tongue + Dropp'd manna," etc. + +"Thank you," said Maurice. "You see the lines are intended to describe a +person far different from me in appearance. Hampstead, you observe, had +studied the passage. A coincidence, is it not?" + +Soon they were all composing themselves for sleep. Margaret was +listening peacefully to the shrieking of the wind in the rigging as she +thought how every moment on board the yacht had been one of unclouded +enjoyment. An unconscious smile went over her face that would have been +pleasant to see. Then she thought of Geoffrey and smiled again. This +time she caught herself, and asked herself why? All day, since she had +watched Geoffrey steering the yacht beside the schooner in the lake, her +mind had been chanting two lines of poetry. When asked in the evening to +repeat the lines aloud she had blushed because it seemed like confessing +herself. + + A fairer person lost not heaven; he seemed + For dignity composed and high exploit. + +In her mind Geoffrey had become identified with these two lines. But +what had friend Maurice meant by saddling the context on him in that +malevolent way? Could he really have thought that Belial's character +was also Geoffrey's? She put away this idea as untenable. She was one of +those born in homes where the struggle for existence has not for +generations taught the household to be suspicious; with the innate +nobility that tends, whether rightly or wrongly, to think the best of +others; she was one of those whom men turn to with relief after the +cunning and suspicion of the business world, each feeling the assistance +it is to meet some one who is ready to take him at the valuation he +would like to be able justly to put upon himself. + +When morning broke, there were eight or ten schooners to be seen on +different sides that had run in for shelter during the night. About six +o'clock Margaret crept out to satisfy her curiosity as to what kind of +place they were in. With only her head above the hatchway at the top of +the stairs leading up from the ladies' cabin she gazed about for some +time before she spied Maurice sitting on the counter with his back to +her, his feet dangling over the water while he watched the vessels. + +She crept toward him and gave a cry close to his ear, to startle him. + +"Don't make so much noise," said he, quite unstartled. "I don't like you +to call out like that in my ear." He added, perforce, as he looked at +her, "At least I don't like it when I can't see you." + +"Don't tell stories, Morry. You know you would like me to do it at any +time." + +"I would not, indeed," he asserted. "Come and sit down and keep quite +silent. Just when I was having such a happy, peaceful time you come and +spoil it all." + +Margaret sat down on the rail and turned herself about so that she could +sit in the same position beside him. His helping hand still held hers as +they sat together. He was almost afraid to turn toward her, for fear he +would look too tenderly. She might go away if he did. His _role_ was to +bully her, and then she would never know how exquisite it was for him +to have her sit beside him. + +"There, now! Sit perfectly quiet and don't say another word. Just look +around and enjoy yourself in a reasonable manner. I'm not going to have +my morning disarranged and my valuable reveries disturbed." + +The wind had shifted to the northwest in the morning and had blown +itself out and down to a moderate breeze with a clearing sky, with +patches of blue and broken clouds overhead. + +"Now listen to the chorus of the sailors as they get up their anchor. +Does it not seem a sweet and fitting overture to the whole oratorio of +the voyage before them? I have been watching the vessels go out, one by +one, for over an hour. I must say there are some uncommonly rude men +among the sweet singers we are listening to, and--and--" He stopped and +forgot to go on. + +"And what?" cried Margaret peremptorily. + +Maurice had lost himself in the contemplation of some locks of sunny +hair, that were flying in the breeze from Margaret's forehead, and the +graceful curve of her full neck as she looked away at the ships. + +"Oh, yes. And that's Timber Island over there, covered with trees and +stamped out round like a breakfast bun, and that's the False Duck +Island, where we came in last night. The schooner sailing yonder is +going to take the channel between that white line of breakers and South +Bay Point running out there, and those huts you see nestling in the +trees far away on the main-land are fishermen's houses--" + +He was not looking at any of these things, but was following out two +trains of thought in his active head while he talked against time. What +really absorbed him was Margaret's ear, and a sort of invisible down on +the back part of her cheek. He was thinking to himself that if five +dollars would purchase a kiss on that spot he would be content to see a +notice in the Gazette: "Maurice Rankin, failed: liabilities, $5.00." + +Margaret was listening, gravely unconscious of being so much admired, +enjoying all he said, and feasting her eyes upon the distances, the +brilliant colors, and the fleeting shadows of the broken clouds upon the +water. + +"Why, what a nice old chappie you are!" she exclaimed, giving his hand a +pat and taking hers away. "How did you manage to find out all about the +surroundings?" + +"Been around boarding the different schooners lying at anchor. Examining +their papers, you know," said he grandly. "Went around in the canoe to +the first fellow--a coal vessel. A man appeared near the bow and looked +down at me as if I were a kind of fish swimming about. 'Heave-to, or +I'll sink you,' I said in the true old nautical style. He did not say a +word, but stooped down and did heave two, in fact three, pieces of coal +at me. I passed on, satisfied that his vessel needed no further +inspection. I was then attracted by the name of another schooner, on +whose stern was painted the legend 'Bark Swaller.'" + +"What a strange name," said Margaret, as Maurice spelled it out. + +"Well, it puzzled me a good deal, as I examined it closely, being in +doubt whether Barque Swallow was intended, or perhaps the name of some +German owner. At all events a sailor spied me paddling about under the +stern of the boat and regarded me with evident suspicion. I thought I +would deal more gently with this man than with the other fellow. 'Can +you tell me,' I asked, 'the name of that round island over there?' The +only answer I got was unsatisfactory. 'Sheer off,' said he, 'wid your +dirty dug-out.' This seemed rather rude, but I did not retaliate. I +thought I might go further and fare worse, so I endeavored to mollify +him. Perhaps, I thought, being up all night in hard weather had made +these sailors irritable. + +"'Can you drink whisky?' I said--" Margaret was looking at Maurice with +a soft expression of interest and mirth. He was talking on in order that +he might continue to bask in the beauty of the face that looked straight +at him. But the strain for a moment was too great. For an instant he +slacked up his check-rein, and while he narrated his story he continued +in the same tone with: "(Believe me, my dear Margaret, you are looking +perfectly heavenly this morning) and the effect on this poor toiler of +the sea was, I assure you, quite wonderful." Rankin's tongue went +straight on, as if the parenthesis were part of the narrative. Margaret +saw that it was useless to speak, and resigned herself to listen again. +"Quite wonderful," he continued. "The fellow motioned to me to come to +the bow of the vessel, and when I got there he came over the bulwarks +and dropped like a monkey from one steel rope to another till he stood +on the bobstay chains." + +"'Whist!' said he. 'Divil a word! Have you got it there?' + +"'There is some on the yacht,' I said, 'and I want to ask you some +questions about this place. What island is that over there?' + +"'Mother of Pathrick,' said he, 'an' did ye come down all the way in +your yacht and not know Timber Island when you'd see it?' + +"He looked at me as if I was some strange being. + +"'And where was ye last night, might I axe?' + +"'Where we axe now,' I said. + +"'Faith, it was a big head that brought you into the nursery here +before last night came on! More be-token, I have'nt had a dhry rag on me +for tin hours, and divil a sail we've got widout a shplit in it the size +of a shteam-tug. Bring it in a sody-bottle, darlint, and the Lord'll +love ye if ye don't spoil it. Whisht, love! You drink my health in the +sody and don't lave any in the bottle.' + +"I came back and got him a soda-bottle of the genuine article, and while +he drank it the rapidity of his tongue was peculiar. 'So you have been +here before?' I asked. + +"'Whisht, darlint! till the captain won't hear you. Been here before? +Begorra, this place has been a mine of goold to me many a time. For +siventeen days at a slap I've laid here in Dicimber at four dollars a +day, with nothin' to do but play checkers and sphlit wood for the shtove +and pray for a gale o' wind down the lake till shpring-time.' + +"This eloquence continued until I thought he would certainly fall off +the bobstay. + +"'Tell me, now,' he said, after I had got all the information I wanted, +'have ye a berth for an old salty aboard that craft?' + +"I said we had not. + +"'Faith, perhaps you're right. I kin see by the stow on yer mainsail and +by the nate way yer heads'ls is drag-gen' in the wather that you're born +and bled up to the sea and don't require no assistance.' + +"With these sarcastic words he gave me his blessing, threw away the +bottle, and disappeared again over the bow." + +"I gather from your remarks that your friend was of Hibernian origin," +said Margaret. "Perhaps a good dynamiter spoiled. But we will speak of +him again. What I have been wanting for some time has been a trip in the +canoe to the beach over there. I want to walk over the sand bar and get +close to those great breakers rolling in on the shingle. Unhitch your +canoe-string and bring the canoe alongside." + +"Unhitch your canoe-string!" repeated Rankin contemptuously. "You must +speak more nautically or I won't understand you." + + +"Well, what ought I to say?" + +"Dunno. 'Cast adrift your towline' sounds well." + +"It does, indeed," said Margaret, as Morry swung the light cockleshell +into position and she descended into it with care. "'Cast adrift your +towline' has a full, able-bodied seaman sort of sound; but it has not +the charm of mystery about it that some expressions have. Now 'athwart +your hawse' seems portentous in its meaning. I don't want to know what +it means. I would rather go on thinking of it as of the arm that handed +forth the sword Excalibur,' clothed in white samite--mystic, wonderful.' +Do you know I read all Clark Russell's sea stories, and drive through +all his sea-going technicalities with the greatest interest, although I +understand nothing about them. When he goes aloft on the main-boom and +brails up his foregaff-bobstay I go with him. Sometimes he describes how +small the deck below looks from the dizzy height when, poised upon the +capstan-bars, he furls the signal halyards that flap and fill away and +thunder in the gale; and then I see it all--" + +"So do I, so do I!" cried Morry, as he paddled dexterously to the shore. +"You've got Clark Russell to a T. He goes on like that by the hour +together. I read every word, and the beauty of it is I always think I +understand. Why do we like his stories so much, I wonder?" + +"One reason is because his heroes are manly men and have brave hearts," +said Margaret confidently. "I think that is why they appeal to women; he +always arouses a sentiment of pity for the hero's misfortunes. Few women +can resist that." And Margaret, somewhat stirred, looked away over the +broad sea. Almost unconsciously there flashed before her the image of a +Greek god winning a foot-race under circumstances that aroused her +sympathy. Again she saw him steering a yacht, keen, strong, active, +determined, and calm amid excitement. A flush suffused her countenance, +and her eyes became soft and thoughtful as she gazed far away. Ah, these +rushes of blood to the head! How they kindle an unacknowledged idea into +activity! A moment and, like a flash, a latent, undeveloped instinct +becomes a living potent force to develop us. The admirer becomes a +lover, the plotter a criminal, and the religious man a fanatic. + +When the canoe pushed its way through the rushes and beached itself upon +the soft sand the two jumped out and crossed over to the lake side, +where the heavy ground swells of the last night's gale were still +mounting high upon the shingle. The bar leading toward them from False +Duck Island was a seething expanse of white breakers, and over the lake +to the south and west, as far as the eye could reach in the now rarefied +atmosphere a tumbling mass of bright-green waters could be seen, which +grew blue in color at the sharply cut horizon. Not far off the "Bark +Swaller" was buffeting her way to the southward, toward Oswego, and +around the wooded island with the lighthouse on it, the mail steamer, +twelve hours detained, was getting a first taste of the open water. + +It was a morning that made the two feel as if it were impossible to keep +still. The flat shingle, washed smooth by the high waves of the previous +night, was firm under foot as they walked and trotted along between the +wreckage and driftwood on one side and the highest wash of the hissing +water on the other. An occasional flight of small plover suggested the +wildness of the spot, and something of the spirit of these birds in +their curving and wheeling flight seemed to possess the two young +people--making them run and caper on the sands. + +"You ought to be able to run a pretty good race," said Maurice, +glancing at the shapely figure of his companion. + +"So I am," said Margaret, as she sprang up on a large piece of +driftwood. "I'll run you a race to that bush on the far point around the +little bay. Do you see it?" + +"I see it," said Maurice. "Are you ready? Go!" + +Margaret sprang down from the stump and was off like an arrow. Morry +thought it was only a sham and a pretense of hers, as he bounded off +beside her. He soon found his mistake, however, as his unaccustomed +muscles did their utmost to keep him abreast of the gliding figure in +the dark-blue skirt and jersey. They rounded the curve of the bay, +Maurice on the inside track. But this advantage did not give him a lead. +The distance to the winning point seemed fatal to his chances, but he +hung on, hoping his opponent would tire. Again he was mistaken. + +"Come on, Morry! Don't be beaten by a woman." + +Her voice, as she said this, seemed aggressively fresh, and the taunt +brought Rankin even with her again. He had no breath left to say +anything in reply as they came to a small indentation filled with water +where the shore curved in, making another little bay. Margaret ran +around it, but Maurice, as a last chance, splashed through it, +regardless of water up to his ankles. He gained about ten feet by this +subterfuge. A few gliding bounds, impossible to describe, and Margaret +was beside him again. + +"That was a shabby advantage to take," she said as she passed his +panting form. "Now I'll show you how fast I _can_ run." + +She left him then as he labored on. She floated away from him like a +thistle-blossom on the breeze. He forgot his defeat in his admiration of +that fleeting figure which he would have believed to move in the air had +he not seen marks in the sand made by toes of small shoes. He could +hardly comprehend how she could run away from him in this way. Yet there +was no wings attached to the lithe form before him. No wings, but a bit +of silk ankle which seemed far preferable. + +Margaret stopped at the bush which was to be the winning post. Morry +then staggered in exhausted and threw himself sideways into the yielding +mass of the willow bush and fell out on the other side. + +"Oh," he said, as he rolled over on his back with his head resting in +his hands, "wasn't that beautiful?" + +"The race--yes, indeed, it was splendid." + +"No, I don't mean the race. That was horrible. I mean to see you run." +(Gasp.) + +Margaret's face was sparkling with excitement and color, while her bosom +rose and fell after her exertion. + +"I can run fast, can I not?" Her arms were hanging demurely at her side +again. She could run, but she never seemed to be at all masculine. + +"I never ran a race with a man before," she said, laughing. + +"And never will run another with this individual," said Rankin. "Nothing +goes so fast as a train you have missed, just as it leaves the station, +and yet I have caught it sometimes. You can go faster than anything I +ever saw." (A breath.) "It is a good thing to know when one is beaten. +You will always be an uncatchable distance before me." (A sigh.) + +"My shoes are full of sand," said Margaret ruefully, looking down at +them. + +"Mine are full of water," said Maurice. He did not seem to care. He was +quite content to lie there and gaze at her without reservation. And, +with his heightened color and excitement, he actually appeared rather +good looking. + +"I think the least you could do would be to offer to take the sand out +of my shoes," said Margaret. + +"If I don't have to get up I could do it. I won't be able to get up for +about twenty minutes. But if you sit on that stump--so--I think I could +manage it." + +Resting on one elbow, he unlaced the shoes, knocked the sand out of +them, and spent a long time over the operation. Then he wondered at +their small size, and measured them, sole to sole, with his own boots +while he chattered on, as usual, about nothing. Hers were not by any +means microscopic shoes, but they seemed so to him, and he regarded them +with some of the curiosity of the miners of Blue Dog Gulch, Nevada, when +a woman's boot appeared among them after their two years' isolation from +the interesting sex. There was something in the way he handled them that +spoke of exile--something that stirred the compassion one might feel on +seeing the monks of Man Saba tend their canaries. + +The left shoe was put on with great care, and then he sat looking over +the lake for a while in silence before beginning with the second. It was +a long, well-chiseled foot, with high instep, and none of those knobs +which sometimes necessitate long dresses, and in men's boots take such a +beautiful polish. He pretended to brush some sand away, and then, +banding over, kissed the silk-covered instep, and received an admonitory +tap for his boldness. + +"Fie, Morry! to kiss an unprotected lady's foot," said Margaret archly, +as she took the shoe from him and put it on herself. "You have insulted +me." + +"Nay, Margaret, 'twas but the sign of my allegiance and fealty," said +he, looking up with what tried to be an off-hand manner. "It is the old +story," he said lightly; "the worship of the unattainable--the remnant, +perhaps, of our old nature worship. If you were not better acquainted +with the subject than I am, I could give you a discourse which would be, +I assure you, very instructive as to how we have always striven after +what we think to be good in the unattainable. We have been forbidden to +worship the sun or to appease the thunders and lightnings, and, one by +one, nearly all the objects of worship have been swept away, leaving a +world that now does not seem to know what to do with its acquired +instincts. One object is left, though, and I am inclined to think that +men are never more thoroughly admirable than when influenced by the +worship of the women who seem to them the best, that many thus come to +know the pricelessness of good and the despair of evil, with quite as +satisfactory practical results as any other creed could bring about." + +"What, then, becomes of the search for the unattainable after marriage?" +asked Margaret practically. + +"I imagine that the search would continue, that the greatest peace of +marriage is the consciousness of approaching good in being assisted to +live up to a woman's higher ideals. It seems as if the condition of +Milton's idyllic pair--'he for God only, she for God _in him_'--has but +little counterpart in real life, and that, in a thousand cases to one, +the morality of the wife is the main chance of the husband." + +"I understand, then, that we are to be worshiped as a means toward the +improvement of our husbands. I was hoping," said Margaret smiling, "that +you were going to prove us to be real goddesses, worthy of devotion for +ourselves--without more." + +"You are raising a well-worn question--as to what men worship when they +bow before a shrine. If you were the shrine, I should say generally the +shrine. At other times they worship that which the shrine suggests. What +I mean is, that it is a good thing for one to have a power with him +capable of improving all the good that is in him. For myself, the point +is somewhat wanting in interest, as I never expect to be able to put it +to a practical test." + +"Not get married, Maurice? Why will you never get married?" + +"I intended to have casually mentioned the reason a minute ago, only you +interrupted me just as I was coming to the interesting part." + +"Then tell me now, and I won't interrupt." + +"Well, you know I am like the small boys who want pie, and won't eat +anything if they don't get it," said he, striving to be prosaic. "I love +you far too well to make it possible for me to marry anybody else." + +In spite of the assistance that pulling his hair gave him, as his head +lay back in his hands, his voice shook and his form stiffened out along +the sand in a way that told of struggle. Margaret was surprised, but she +hardly yet understood the matter enough to feel pained. She had not been +led to expect that men would first express their love while lying on +their backs. + +"I thought I would tell you of it, as you would then know how +particularly well you could trust me--as your friend--a very faithful +one. You know, even in my present state, I would be full of hope, if +things were different, because the money is bound to come sooner or +later; but you, Margaret, I know, without your words, will never be +attainable--that the moon would be more easy for me to grasp." + +Margaret was not often at a loss for a word, but now she knew not what +to say. It did not seem as if anything could be said. She essayed to +speak; but he stopped her. + +"I know what you would say," he said. "They would be kind words in their +tone, full of sympathy, words that I love to hear--that I hear like +music in my ears when you are out of sight? You must, and I know you +will, forgive me for all these confessions," said he, smiling, "you +have made such a change come over my life. You have given me so much +happiness." + +"I don't see how," said Margaret, not knowing what to say. + +"No--you could hardly know why. If you knew what a different life I have +led from that of others you would understand better the real happiness +you have given me. My life of late years has been unlovely. I have not +had the soft influences of a home as it should be, but I have always +yearned for them." + +The pretense of being off-hand in his manner had left him. He talked +disjointedly, and with effort. "You can not know what it is to feel +continually the want of affection. You have never hungered for the +luxury of being in some way cared for. But these weaknesses of mine will +not bore you, because you are kind. It will make my case plainer when I +tell you that for years--as long as I can remember--there never has been +a night that a longing for the presence of my parents has not come over +me. Until I saw you. Now you have come to fill the gap. Now I think of +you, and listen to your voice, and look at your face, and care for you. +You fill more places in my heart than you know of. You are father and +mother and all beside to me, and I shall go back to my dreary life +gladder for this experience, this love for you which will remain with me +always. Still, it is dreadful to look into a future of loneliness! Oh, +Margaret, it is dreadful to be always alone--always alone." + +Margaret was watching the part of his face not covered with his cap as +his words were ground out haltingly, and she could see his lips twitch +as old memories mingled with his present emotions. As he proceeded she +saw from his simple words how deep-seated were his affections, and she +wondered at the way he had concealed his love for her. A great +compassion for him was welling up in her heart. As she listened to his +words, it came upon her what it might be to love deeply and then to +find that it only led to disappointment. She felt glad that she had +given him some happiness--glad when he said he could look forward more +cheerfully to going back to his hopeless existence. It was brave to +speak of it thus--asking nothing. But when he said it was dreadful to be +alone--always alone--his voice conveyed the idea of horror to her, and, +in a moment, without knowing exactly why, the tears were in her eyes, +and she was kneeling beside him on the sand asking what could be done, +and blaming herself for giving him trouble. Her touch upon his hand +thrilled him. He dared not remove his cap. He dared not look at her for +very fear of his happiness; but then he heard a half sob in her voice, +and that cured him. It would never do for her to be weeping. He had said +too much, he thought. He partly sat up, leaning upon his hand, and was +himself again. Margaret was looking at him (so beautiful with her dewy +eyes), with but one thought in her mind, which was how to be kind to +him, how to make up to him some of the care that his life had been shorn +of. It was all done in a moment. Margaret said tearfully, "Oh, what can +I do?" and Rankin's native quickness was present with him. He leaned +forward, inspired by a new thought, and said, "Kiss me," and Margaret, +knowing nothing but a great compassion for him, in which self was +entirely forgotten, said: "Indeed, I will, if you would care for that." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +YACHTING ONLY. + + +Some hearts might have yearned to have been on board during the fishing +in Hay Bay, and to have enjoyed those evenings when the yacht anchored +in the twilight calm, beside rocky shores, or near waving banks of sedge +and rushes, where the whip-poor-will and bull frog supplied all the +necessary music. I abandon all that occurred at pretty Picton and +Belleville, but I must not forget the little episode that happened one +evening near Indian Point as the yacht was on her way to Kingston. A +fresh breeze had been blowing during the afternoon, and the two reefs, +taken in for comfort's sake, still remained in the mainsail, as no one +after dinner felt equal to the exertion of shaking them out. The wind +had almost died away as they approached Indian Point, and not far off, +on the other side of this long, narrow arm of the sea called the Bay of +Quinte, lay MacDonald's Cove, a snug little place for anchorage in any +kind of weather. A heavy bank of clouds was rapidly rising over the +hills in the west, and hastening up the sky to extinguish the bright +moon that had been making a fairy landscape of the bay and its +surroundings, and the barometer was falling rapidly. + +This condition of affairs Jack reported to Charley, who was below with +several others having a little game in which the word "ante" seemed to +be used sometimes in a tone of reproach. Charles answered gayly, without +looking away from the game, that Jack had better get the yacht into the +Cove while there was wind to take her there, and Jack, who observed that +he was "seeing" and "raising" an antagonist for the fifth time on a pair +of fours, thought a man should not be disturbed at such a time, and went +on deck to shake out the reefs so as to drift into the Cove, if +possible, before the storm came on. But when in the middle of the bay +the wind gave out entirely. For half an hour the Ideal lay becalmed and +motionless. Oilskin suits and sou'westers were donned. Now fringes of +whitish scud, torn from the driving clouds, could be seen flying past +the bleared moon, and it seemed in the increasing darkness, while they +were waiting for the tumult, as if the shores around contracted, so as +to give the yacht no space for movement. Jack took the compass bearings +of the lighthouse, expecting soon to be in total darkness, and he had +both anchors prepared for instant use. The sails had been close-reefed, +but after being reefed they were lowered again so as to present nothing +but bare poles to the squall. The darkness came on and grew intense. +Between the rapidly increasing peals of thunder the squall could be +heard approaching, moaning over the hills in the west and down the bay +as if ravening for prey, while the lightning seemed to take a savage +delight in spearing the distant cliffs which, in the flashes, were +beautifully outlined in silhouette against an electric atmosphere. Still +the yacht lay motionless in the dead air difficult to breathe and +oppressive; and still Charley continued to "raise" and get "raised" in +the cheerfully lighted cabin, whence the laughter and the talk of the +game mingled strangely, in the ears of those on deck, with the sounds of +the coming tempest. Margaret, with her head out of the companion-way, +watched the scene with a nervousness that impending electrical storms +oppressed her with. Her quick eyes soon caught sight of something on the +water, not far off. A mystic line of white could be seen coming along +the surface. She asked what it was at a moment when the deadness and +blackness of the air seemed appalling, and the ear was filled with +strange swishing sounds. She never heard any answer. Another instant and +the yacht heeled over almost to the rail in that line of white water, +which the whips of the tornado had lashed into spume. Blinding sheets of +spray, picked up by the wind from the surface of water, flew over those +on deck, and instantly the lee scuppers were gushing with the rain and +spray which deluged the decks. Word was carried forward by a messenger +from the wheel to hoist a bit of headsail, and when this was +immediately done the yacht paid off before the squall, running easterly, +with all the furies after her. The darkness was so great that it was +impossible to see one's hand close to one's eyes. The thunderclaps near +at hand were rendered more terrific by the echoes from the hills, and +only while the lightning clothed the vessel in a spectral glare could +they see one another. Still the yacht sped on, while Jack jealously +watched the binnacle where the only guide was to be found. The Indian +Point light, though not far off, was completely blotted out by the rain, +which seemed to fall in solid masses, and even the lightning failed to +indicate the shores or otherwise reveal their position. + +A wild career, such as they were now pursuing, must end somewhere, and +in the narrow rock-bound locality they were flying through, the chance +of keeping to the proper channel entirely by compass and chart did not +by any means amount to a certainty. Nor was anchoring in the middle of +the highway to be thought of, especially as some trading vessels were +known to be in the vicinity. The chance of being cut down by them was +too great. Jack felt that an error now might cause the loss of the +yacht. After calculating a variation of the compass in these parts, he +decided to run before the gale for a while and keep in the channel if +possible--hoping for a lull in the downfall of rain, so that his +whereabouts could be discovered. + +A high chopping sea was driving the yacht on, while she scudded under +bare poles before the gale, and Jack had been for some little time +endeavoring to estimate their rate of speed when the deluge seemed to +abate partly and the glimmer of a light could be seen to the southward. +A sailor called out "There's Indian Point light." If it had been the +light he mentioned they would have had all they wanted. Jack feared +they had run past it, but, to make sure, he asked the sailors their +opinion. They all said they were certain it was Indian Point light. One +of them declared he had seen the lighthouse itself in one of the +flashes. So Jack had the peak of the mainsail partly hoisted and they +drew around to the southward, so as to anchor under the lee of the +lighthouse point. As the yacht came round sideways to the wind she lay +down to it and moved slowly and heavily through the short angry seas +that, hitting the side, threw spray all over her. Jack was feeling his +way carefully and slowly through the inky blackness of the night with +the lead-line going to show the depth of the water, when the lookout on +the bowsprit-end, after they had proceeded a considerable distance to +the south, suddenly cried "Breakers ahead!" and he tumbled inboard off +the bowsprit, as if he thought the boat about to strike at once. "Let +her go round, sir, for God's sake! We're right on the rocks." + +Jack, back at the wheel, had not been able to get a glimpse of the +foaming rocks in the lightning which the man on the bowsprit had seen. +He despaired of the boat's going about, but he tried it. The high +chopping sea stopped the yacht at once. He knew it was asking too much +of her to come about with so little way on, and the canvas all in a bag, +so, as there was evidently no room to wear the ship, he had the big +anchor dropped. His intention was to come about by means of his anchor +and get out on the other tack into the channel and anywhere away from +the rocks and the breakers that could be heard above the tempest roaring +close to them on the port side. While the chain was being paid out, the +close-reefed mainsail was hoisted up to do its work properly. The storm +staysail was also hoisted and sheeted home on the port side to back her +head off from the land. As this was being done, the sailors paid out the +anchor-chain rapidly. To do so more quickly they carelessly threw it +off the winch and let it smoke through the hawse-pipe at its own pace. +But suddenly there came a check to it, which, in the darkness, could not +be accounted for. A bight or a knot in the chain had come up and got +jammed somewhere, and now it refused to run out. The Ideal immediately +straightened out the cable, and, at the moment, all the king's horses +and all the king's men would have been powerless to clear it. Jack came +forward, and with a lantern discovered how things were. "Never mind," he +thought. "If she will lie here for a while no harm will be done." In the +mean time, while the men were getting a tackle rigged to haul up a bit +of the chain, so as to obtain control of it again, the rain ceased to +fall, while the lightning, by which alone the men could see to work, +served only to make the succeeding darkness more profound. + +The place they had sailed into was on the north shore of Amherst Island. +As Jack feared, the sailors had been wrong in thinking that the light +they saw was the one on Indian Point. It was a lantern on a schooner +which had gone ashore on the rocks close to where the Ideal now lay. + +The worst of their anxiety was, however, yet to come. During a vivid +flash, after the rain had partly cleared away, a reef of rocks was +discovered a short distance off, trending out from the shore directly +behind the yacht. Jack had been lying with his hand on the cable to feel +whether the anchor was holding or not. He soon found that the yacht was +"dragging." The sails were lowered at once, and the second anchor was +left go, in the hope that it might catch hold when the first one had +dragged back far enough to allow the second to work. + +With the rocks behind waiting for them, it was now a question of anchors +holding, or nothing--yacht or no yacht. Every moment as she pitched and +ducked and tossed against the driving seas and wind she dropped back +toward a black mass over which the waves broke savagely. The yacht was +literally locked up to the big anchor. They could neither haul up nor +pay out its cable, so that, until this was remedied by means of a tackle +(which takes some time in a jumping sea and darkness) sailing again was +impossible. Carefully they paid out chain enough for the second anchor +to do its work. Not till they were close to the rocks did they allow any +strain to come upon it. Then they took a turn on its chain and waited to +see how it would hold. + +Feeling the cable, when there is nothing to hope for but that the hook +will do its work, is a quiet though anxious occupation. Jack waited for +the sensations in the hand which will often tell whether the anchor is +holding or not, and then rose, and in the moonlight which now began to +break through the clouds his face looked anxious. "Flat rock," he +muttered, "with a layer of mud on it." + +By this time the men had got control of the big anchor's chain again and +had knocked the kink out of it. But there was no room now to slip cables +and sail off. + +The rocks were too close. The idea struck him of winding in the first +anchor a bit--in the hope that it might catch in a crack in the rock, or +on a bowlder, before it got even with the second one. + +This proved of no use, and the yacht was now approaching, stern-first, +the point or outward rock of the reef which stood up boldly in the +water. Only a few feet now separated this outside rock from the counter +of the yacht. In two minutes more the stem would be dashing itself into +matches. + +Jack's brain, you may be sure, was on the keen lookout for expedients. +He had the mainsail hoisted and the staysail flattened down to the port +side--so as to back her head off. He hoped by this possibly to grind +off the rocks by his sails after striking, and by then slipping his +cables to get out into deep water before the stern was completely stove +in. But while this was being done the thought came into his mind whether +the stern might not clear the outer rock without hitting it. The +changeable gusts of wind had been swinging the yacht sidewise--first a +little one way and then a little the other. At the time he looked back +at the yacht, they were just about near enough to strike when the wind +shifted her a little toward the north, and for a moment the stern +pointed clear of the outer rock. His first idea was that the wind was +shifting permanently. But suddenly it came to him that this might be his +only chance. He did not wait to command others, but flew to the anchor +chains and threw off the coils. The yacht shot astern like the recoil of +a cannon. He threw the chains clear of the windlass so that the vessel +could dart backward without any check. It seemed a mad thing to do--to +let both anchors go overboard--but it was a madness which when +successful is called genius. It was genius to conceive and carry out the +idea in an instant, and single handed, too, as if he were the only one +on the boat, genius to know quickly enough exactly how the vessel would +act. Half a dozen seconds sufficed to throw off the chains, and then he +got back to the wheel, steering her as she went backward grazing her +paint only against the rock, while the chains rushed out like a +whirlwind over the bows. The staysail sheets had already been flattened +down on the port side and the yacht's head paid off fast on the port +tack, while Jack rapidly slacked the main sheet well off, and as she +gathered way and plunged out into the open channel, an understanding of +the quick idea that had saved the vessel trickled through the brains of +the hired men. Instead of climbing to the rocks from a sinking yacht, as +they expected to be doing at this moment, here they were heading out +into deep water again--with the old packet good as new. + +Cresswell called to the mate to keep her "jogging around" till he spoke +to the owner about getting back the anchors, and then went below with +the other men of the party who had remained on deck throughout the +uncomfortable affair. + +The workers on deck, who looked like submarine divers, slipped out of +their oil-skins and descended from the deck to the gay cabin below. +Charley still continued to "raise" and get "raised" with a pertinacity +which defied the elements. His game had had the effect of making his +mother and the others think, in spite of their tremors, that the danger +lay chiefly in their own minds, and, under the circumstances, Charley +had no easy time of it. He had listened to every sound, and knew a good +deal more about the proximity of the rocks, and the trouble generally, +than any one would have supposed. + +He decided not to attempt to pick up the anchors that night, so they +beat back to MacDonald's Cove, where they entered, in the moonlight, and +made fast for the night to some trees beside a steep rocky shore. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + BASSANIO: So may the outward shows be least themselves; + The world is still deceived with ornament. + In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, + But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, + Obscures the show of evil? In religion, + What dammed error, but some sober brow + Will bless it, and approve it with a text, + Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? + + * * * * * + + SALARINO: My wind, cooling my broth, + Would blow me to an ague when I thought + What harm a wind too great might do at sea. + ... Should I go to church, + And see the holy edifice of stone, + And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks? + + _Merchant of Venice._ + + +When approaching from the west among picturesque islands and past wooded +points of land, our old city of Kingston affords the traveler a pleasant +scene. Above the blue and green expanse of her spacious harbor, the +penitentiary with its high wall and surrounding turrets suggests the +Canadian justice we are proud of; and, further up, rises the asylum, +suggestive only of Canadian lunacy, for which we do not claim +pre-eminence, while beyond, some little spires and domes, sparkling in +the sun, are seen over the tops of some English-looking stone +residences, where the grassy lawns stretch down to the line of waves +breaking on the rocky shore. Further off one sees the vessel-masts along +the ship-yards and docks; here and there some small Martello forts try +to look formidable; large vessels cross and recross the harbor, while +others lie at anchor drying their sails; and beyond all, on the hill at +the back, rises the garrison walls, where-- + + In spite of all temptation, + Dynamite and annexation, + +Canada is content, for the present at least, to see the English flag +instead of our own. + +As our friends came on deck the next morning (Sunday) they were able to +enjoy this pleasant approach to Kingston. Mrs. Dusenall and others had +wished to attend church if possible in the limestone city, and an early +start had been made by the sailors long before the guests were awake. +The wind came lightly from the southward, which allowed them to pick up +the anchors without difficulty, and it took but a short time to sweep in +past the city and "come to" off the barrack's wharf, where a gun was +ceremoniously fired as the anchor was lowered from the catheads. + +Mrs. Dusenall piped all hands for divine service. They came out of the +ark two by two and filed up the streets in that order until the church +was reached. The boys came out in "heavy marching order"--Sunday coats, +and all that sort of thing--which made a vast change from the +picturesque and rather buccaneer-like appearance they presented on the +yacht. + +If a traveling circus had proceeded up the center aisle of the +attractively decorated edifice, no greater curiosity could have been +exhibited among the worshipers. Mrs. Dusenall had some of the imposing +mien of a drum-major as she led her gallant band to seats at the head of +the church, and Charley was justly proud of the fine appearance they +made. He had surveyed them all with pleasure while on the sidewalk +outside, and had paid the usher half a dollar to lead them all together +to front seats. Walk as lightly as they could, it was impossible in the +stillness of the church to prevent their entrance from sounding like +that of soldiery, and once the eyes of the worshipers rested on the +noble troop they became fixed there for some time. There was a ruddy, +bronzed look about the yachting men's faces which, innocent of limestone +dust tended to deny the almost aggressive respectability which good +tailoring and cruelty collars attempted to claim for them. In the hearts +of the fair Kingstonians who glanced toward them there arose visions of +lawn-tennis, boating, and buccaneer costumes suggested by that +remarkably able-bodied and healthy appearance which a fashionable walk, +bank trousers, and a gauzy umbrella may do much to modify but can not +obliterate. As for the male devotees, it was touching to mark their +interest in Margaret as she went up the aisle keeping step with the +shortened pace of the long-limbed Geoffrey. The clergyman was just +saying that the scriptures moved them in sundry places when all at once +he became a mere cipher to them. After their first thrill at the beauty +of her face, their eyes followed Margaret and that wonderful movement of +hers that made her, as with a well-ordered regiment, almost as dangerous +in the retreat as in the advance. But Nina came along close behind her, +and those who, though disabled, survived the first volley were +slaughtered to a man when the rich charms of her appearance won her a +triumph all her own. Jack, walking by her side, full of gravity but +happy, took in the situation with pride at her silent success. Then all +the others followed, and when they were installed in a body in the three +front pews, and after they had all bowed their heads and the gentlemen +had carefully perused the legend printed in their hats--"Lincoln Bennett +& Coy, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London. Manufactured expressly for +Jas. H. Rogers, Toronto and Winnipeg"--they got their books open and +admitted that they had done things they ought not to have done and that +there was no health in them. + +The interior of the church was a luxury to the eye in its mellow +coloring from stained-glass windows and carefully-arranged lights, and +in its banners, altar-cloths, embroidery, and church millinery +generally, it left little to be desired. The clergyman was a young +unmarried offspring of a high-church college who, with a lofty disregard +for general knowledge, had acquired a great deal of theology. He it was +who arranged that dim religious light about the altar and walled up a +neighboring window so that the burning of candles seemed to become +necessary. Never having been out of America, it was difficult to imagine +where he acquired the ultra-English pronunciation that had all those +flowing "ah" sounds which after a while make all words so pleasantly +alike in the high-pitched reading of prayers when, it may be inferred, +that word-meanings are perhaps of minor import. It seemed that he alone +was, from the holiness of his office, qualified to enter that mysterious +place at the head of the chancel where, with his back to the +congregation, at stated times he went through certain genuflexions and +other movements in which the general public did not participate further +than to admire the splendor of his back. The effect of the many +mysteries on some of the Kingston men was to keep them away from the +church. A few fathers of families and others came to please wives, +sweethearts, or clients, and in the cool, agreeable edifice enjoyed some +respectable slumber or watched the proceedings with mild curiosity or +had their ears filled either with good music or the agreeable sound of +the intoning. + +The effect of the little mysteries on the well-to-do women of the church +(for it was no place for a poor man's family) was varied. On the +large-eyed, nervous, impressionable, and imaginative virgins--those who +could always be found ready in the days of human sacrifices--the +clergyman's mysteries and the exercise of the power of the Church, as +exhibited in the continual working of his strong will upon them, had of +course the usual results in enfeebling their judgment and in rendering +them very subservient. In the case of some unimaginative matrons and +more level-headed girls these attractions did not unfit them for +every-day life more than continual theatre-going, and they took a pride +in and enjoyed a sense of quasi-ownership in the man whom it tickled +their fancy to clothe in gorgeous raiment. To these solid, +pleasure-loving, good-natured women, whose religion was inextricably +mixed up with romance, the mysteries, sideshows, and formalities of +their splendid _protege_ brought satisfaction; and in their social +gatherings they discussed the doings of their favorite much as a +syndicate of owners might, in the pride of ownership, discuss their +horse. It may be pleasing to be identified with the supernatural, but +one's self-respect must need all such compensations to allow one to +become a peg for admiring women to hang their embroidery on--to be +largely dependent upon their gratuities, subject to some of their +control, to put in, say, two fair days' work in seven, and spend the +rest in fiddle-faddle. + +"There is but one God. What directly concerns you, my friends, is that +Mohammed _is his Prophet_--to interpret the supernatural for you." It +would be interesting to find out if there ever existed a religion, +savage or civilized, whose public proclamation did not contain a +qualifying clause to retain the power in the priests. + +The sermon on this occasion was on the observance of the Sabbath. It +contained much church law and theology, and in quotations from different +saints who had lived at various periods during the dark ages, and whose +sayings did not seem to be chosen so much on account of their force as +for the weight given by the names of the saints themselves, which were +delivered _ore rotundo_. But it is doubtful whether the most erudite +quotation from obscure mediaeval saints is capable of carrying much +conviction to the hearts of a Canadian audience, and Jack and Charley +had to be kicked into consciousness from an uneasy slumber. + +From the saints the priest descended to Chicago, a transition which +awoke several. And he sought to illustrate the depravity of that city by +commenting upon the large facilities there provided for +Sabbath-breaking. He spoke of the street-cars he had seen there running +on that day, and of the suburban trains that carried thousands of +working-women and girls out of the city. He did not say that the cars +were chiefly drawn by steam-power, nor that these poor, jaded, +hollow-eyed girls worked harder in one day than he did in three weeks; +nor did he speak of the weak women's hard struggle for existence in the +life-consuming factories; nor of the freshness of the lake breezes in +the spots where the trains dropped thousands of their overworked +passengers. + +Margaret Mackintosh had seen these dragged, dust-choked, narrow-chested, +smoke-dried girls, with all the bloom of youth gone from them, trying to +make their drawn faces smile as they go off together in their clean, +Sunday print dresses, too jaded for anything save rest and fresh air. +She knew that any man not devoid of the true essence of Christ might +almost weep in the fullness of his sympathy with them. But the young +priest convicted them of sacrilege, and did not say he was thankful for +being privileged to witness such a sight, or that Chicago existed to +shame the more priest-ridden cities of Canada. + +When this story was concluded, Mrs. Dusenall, and many of her kind; and +the unimpressionable girls looked acquiescence, because the words were +backed by the Church, but their hearts went out to the poor sinners in +Chicago. Only with those who took their mental bias from the priest did +his words find solid resting-place. Geoffrey sat with an inmovable face, +impossible to read. His subsequent remark to Margaret, when she had +delivered her opinions about the matter, was, however, characteristic. +He said simply, as if deprecating her vehemence: + +"The man must live, you know, and how is he to live if people go out of +town on Sunday." To Geoffrey a short time was sufficient to satisfy him +that the preacher ought to have lived in the days when mankind were +saturated with belief in miracle and looked for explanation of events +by miracle without dreaming of other explanation. + +During the next five minutes the sermon rather wandered from the +subject, but fastened upon it again in an anecdote of an occurrence said +to have taken place at an American seaport town, during the preacher's +visit there. + +Several young mechanics, instead of going to church one Sunday morning, +had engaged a yawl, and also the fishermen who owned it, to take them to +a village on the coast and back again. It appeared from the account that +for a day and a night the yawl had been blown away from the coast, and +then that the wind had changed, so as to drive it back again; and the +story of the voyage naturally found attentive listeners among our +yachting friends. + +"All through that first terrible day, and all through the long, black +night they were tossed about among the giant billows of a most +tempestuous ocean. And what, dear friends, must have been the agony and +remorse of those misguided young men when they thus realized the results +of their deliberate breaking of the holy day. As they clung to the frail +vessel, which reeled to and fro beneath them like a drunken man, and +which now alone remained to possibly save them from a watery grave--as +they perceived the billows breaking in upon that devoted ship, insomuch +that it was covered with waves, what must have been their sensations? +And when the wind suddenly changed its direction and blew them with +terrible force back again toward the rocky coast, we can imagine how +earnestly they made their resolutions never again to transgress in this +way. Once more, after a while, they saw the land again, and as they came +closer they could discern the spires of those holy edifices which they +had abandoned for the sake of forbidden pleasures and in which they were +doomed never to hear the teachings of the Church again. There lay the +harbor before them, as if in mockery of all their attempts to reach it; +and while raised on high in the air, on the summit of some white, +mountainous billow, they could obtain a Pisgah-like view of those homes +they were destined never again to enter." + +Jack was broad awake now and wondering why, with the wind dead after +them, the fishermen in charge of the boat could not make the harbor. + +"Suddenly there came a great noise, which no doubt sounded like a death +knell in the hearts of the terrified and exhausted young men. It was +soon discovered that the mainsail of the ship had been blown away by the +fury of the tempest." + +"Now what was their unhappy condition? How could they any longer strive +to reach the longed-for haven when the mainsail of the yawl was blown +away?" + +Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably at this point. He was saying to +himself: "Why not sneak in under a jib? Or even under bare poles? Or, if +the harbor was intricate, why not heave to under the mizzen and signal +for a tug?" Half a score of possibilities followed each other through +his brain, which in sailing matters worked quickly. He always inclined +from his early training to accept without question all that issued from +the pulpit; but this story bothered him. The instructor went on: + +"Clearly there was now no hope for the devoted vessel. Even the anchor +was gone; the anchor of Hope, dear friends, was gone. The strong +trustworthy anchor (in which mariners place so great confidence that it +has become the type or symbol of Hope) was gone--washed overboard by the +temptuous waves." + +Charley here received a kick under the seat from Jack whose face was now +filled with a blank incredulity, which showed that the influence of his +early training had departed from him. + +In one way or another, the preacher succeeded in irritating some of the +Ideal's crew. He went on to say that the yawl was dashed to pieces on +the rocks, and that only one man--a fisherman--survived; from which he +drew the usual moral. + +With three or four exceptions, our friends went out of church not as +good-humored as when they came in. Geoffrey alone seemed to have enjoyed +himself. His heart-felt cynicism pulled him through. He said aloud to +Mrs. Dusenall, when they were all together again, that he thought the +preacher's description of the perils of the deep was very beautiful. +(Dead silence from Jack and Charley). Mrs. Dusenall concurred with him, +and said it was wonderful how clergymen acquired so much general +knowledge. + +Presently Charley, thoughtfully: "Say, Jack, what was the matter with +that boat, any way?" + +"Blessed if I could find out," said Jack. + +"Why! did you not hear? Her mainsail was gone," said Geoffrey gravely, +to draw Jack out. + +"Well, who the deuce cares for a mains'l?" answered Jack, rising testily +to the bait. "The man does not know what he is--well, of course, he is a +clergyman, but then, you know--my stars! not make a port in broad +daylight with the wind dead aft! Perfectly impossible to miss it! And, +then the anchor--a fisherman's anchor!--washed overboard!" + +Geoffrey persisted, more gravely, in a reproachful tone; "You don't mean +to say, Jack, that you doubt that what a clergyman says is true?" + +The Misses Dusenall also looked at him very seriously. + +Jack was a candid young man, and had his religious views fixed, as it +were, hereditarily. He looked at his boots, as if he would like to evade +the question; but, seeing no escape, he came out with his answer like +parting with his teeth. + +"When the parson," he said with stolid determination, "goes in for +mediaeval saints, I don't interfere. He can forge ahead and I won't try +to split his wind. But when he talks sailing he must talk sense. No, +sir! I do _not_ believe that story--and no Angel Gabriel would make me." + +There was a force behind his tones of conviction which amused some of +his hearers. + +"Jack Cresswell! You surprise me," said Geoffrey loftily. + +After lunch the ladies went up into the city to visit some friends, and +the men were lying about under the awning, chatting, smoking, and +sipping claret. + +"Well, there was one thing about that boat that caused the entire +disturbance," said Charley, sagaciously. "I've thought the whole thing +out; and I put down the trouble to the usual cause--and that is--whisky. +When the fishermen found there was liquor on board they 'steered for the +open sea,' and when they were all stark, staring, blind drunk they went +ashore." + +"I fancy you have solved the difficulty," said Mr. Lemons. "The preacher +did not, somehow, seem to get hold of me. My notion is that he should +come down to your level and help you up--like those Arab chaps that lug +and butt you up the Pyramids--not stand at the top and order you to +climb." + +"Just so," said Geoffrey. "A speaker must in some way make his listeners +feel at home with him, just as a novel, to sell well, must contain some +one touch of nature that makes the whole world kin. The sympathies must +be excited. In books accepted by gentle folk the "one touch" of +attractive and primitive nature is refined, and in this shape it is +called poetry--in this shape it creates vague and pleasant wonderings, +especially in the minds of those whose fancies are capable of no higher +intellectual flight. When we see that people so universally seek +productions in which nature is only more or less disguised, we seem to +understand man better." + +"What are you trying to get at now?" asked Jack, with a smiling show of +impatience. + +"Why," said Hampstead, "take the work of the sprightliest modern novel +writers--say, for instance, Besant and Rice. Deduct the fun from their +books and the shadowy plot, and what remains? A girl--a fresh, young, +innocent girl--who, with her beautiful face and figure, charms the +heart. She does not do much, and (with William Black) she says even +less; but the people in the book are all in love with her, and the +reader becomes, in a second-hand and imaginative way, in love with her +also. She is quiet, lady-like, and delicious; her surroundings assist in +creating an interest in her; but in the dawn and development of love +within her lies the chief interest of most readers. The mind +concentrates itself without effort when lured by any of our earlier +instincts. What we want is a definition as to what degree of careful +mental exertion is worthy of being dignified by the name of "thought," +as distinguished from that sequence of ideas, without exertion, which is +sufficient in all animals for daily routine and the carrying out of +instinct." + +"There are some of your ideas, Hampstead, which do not seem to promise +improvement to anybody," said Jack. + +"And, for you, the worst thing about them is that they have a semblance +of truth," replied Hampstead. + +"Sometimes--yes," admitted Jack. "But I would not excuse you because +they happened to be true. The only way I excuse you is because, after +your scientific mud-groveling, you sometimes point higher than others. +Are we to understand, then, that you object to novel reading on moral +grounds?" + +"Don't be absurd. A novel may be all that it should be. I am stating +what I take to be facts, and I think it interesting to consider why we +enjoy what ladies call 'a good love-story.' You will notice that people +who adopt an over-ascetic and unnatural life and do not seek nature, +give up reading 'good love-stories.' Perhaps they vaguely realize that +the difference in the interest created by Black's insipid Yolande and +Byron's Don Juan is merely one of degree." + +"Now, will you be so good as to say candidly what gain you or any one +else ever received from thinking in such channels as these?" inquired +Jack, with impatience. + +"Certainly. It keeps me from transcendentalism--from being led off into +vanity--thoughts about my immortality--" + +"Surely," interrupted Jack, "the aspirations of one's soul are +sufficient to convince us that we will live again." + +"Jack, a man's soul is simply his power of imagining and desiring what +he hasn't got. Once a day, more or less, his soul imagines immortality. +The rest of the time it imagines his sweetheart. If a poet, his soul +combines the two. Or else it is the mighty dollar, or hunting, or +something else. Shall all his aspirations toward nature go for nothing? +His soul will conjure up his sweetheart nine thousand times for one +thought of his future state. Because he has acquired neither. If he had +acquired either, he would soon be quite as certain that there was +something still better in store for him. With our minds as active and +refined as they are, it would be quite impossible for men to do +otherwise than have their imaginings about souls and immortality. These +make no proof; the savage has none of them; and if they were proof, +whither do man's aspirations chiefly point? To earth or to heaven?" + +"Well, I suppose your answer," said Jack, "is sufficient for yourself. +You study science, then, to persuade yourself that when you die you will +remain teetotally dead?" + +"Rather to make myself content with a truth which is different from and +not so pleasant as that which we are taught in early life." + +"For goodness' sake," cried Mr. Lemons, yawning, "pass the claret." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Visam Britannos hospitibus feros. + + HORACE, _Lib. 3, Carm. 4._ + + +Mrs. Dusenall liked the visit to Kingston. She was proud of the +appearance her guests and family made at the church, and she thought of +going home and writing a book as prodigal of pretty woodcuts and +fascinating price-lists as those published by other gilded ladies. True, +she had with her no young children wherewith to awake interest in +foreign places by detailing what occurred in the ship's nursery; and +thus she might have been driven to say something about the foreign +places themselves, which, in a book of travels, are perhaps of secondary +importance when a whole gilded family may be studied in their +interesting retirement. + +They kept a log on the Ideal, and each one had to take his or her turn +at keeping the account of the cruise posted up to date. + +Some events on board or near the Ideal did not come under Mrs. +Dusenall's notice and did not appear in the log-book. Nobody flirted +with Mrs. Dusenall to make her experience exciting, and her book, if +written, would have been one long panorama of landscape interlarded with +the mildest of items. But compress your world even to the size of a +yacht, and there will be still more going on, in the same eternal way, +than any one person can observe, especially if that person happens to be +a chaperon. + +The first evening among the islands was spent in different ways. Some +paddled about to explore or bathe. Flirtation of a mild type was +prevalent--interesting possibly to the parties concerned, and, as usual, +to themselves only. Toward dusk the gig was manned by the crew for the +transportation of Mrs. Dusenall and part of her suite across the river +through the islands to the hotels at Alexandria Bay on the American +shore. The hotel guests on the balconies and verandas were continuing to +enjoy or endure that eternal siesta which at these places seems to be +quite unbroken save at meal times, and the arrival of a number of very +presentable people in a handsome gig, rowed in the man-of-war style by +uniformed sailors and steered by a person with a gold-lace badge on his +cap, created a ripple of interest. Among those on the verandas engaged, +perhaps overtaxed, in the digestion of their dinners, not a few were +slightly interested by what they saw. In a group of a dozen or more a +gentleman behind a solitaire shirt-stud, worth a good year's salary for +a Victoria Bank clerk seemed to be speaking the thoughts of the party, +though his words came out chiefly as a form of soliloquy. He seemed to +be taking a sort of admiring inventory of the gig and its occupants as +it approached the landing wharf: + +"Small sailor boy--standing in the bow--with a spear in his hand." + +It was a boat-hook in the boy's hand, but it might have been a trident. + +"He's real cunnin'--that boy--in his masquerade suit. Four sailors--also +in masquerade costume. And they can make her hump up the river, +sure's-yer-born. Now I wonder who those fellows are--in buttons--with +gold badges on their hats. Wonder what those badges might imply! Part of +the masquerade, I guess. But stylish--very." + +Then, turning to a friend, he said: + +"Cha'ley, those people are yachting round here." + +At this discovery the exhausted-looking refugee from overwork in some +city addressed as "Cha'ley," whose face was lit up solely by a cigar, +answered slowly but decisively: + +"Looks like it--very." + +Then followed a quick mental calculation in the head of the gentleman +behind the solitaire, and, as the boat came alongside the landing, the +oars being handled with trained accuracy, he said: + +"I wonder how many of those paid men they have on board. I like it. I +like the whole thing. I shall do it myself next summer. And right up to +the handle. Cha'ley, bet you half a dollar that those are first-class +gentlemen and ladies down there, and we ought to go down and _re_ceive +them." + +"Why, certainly," said the other in grave, staccato tones, which seemed +to deny the exhaustion of his appearance by indicating some internal +strength. "James," he added in solemn self-reproach, "we should have +been down--on the landing--to assist the ladies from their canoe." + +As they left the veranda several ladies called after them: + +"Mr. Cowper, we would be pleased to have you bring the ladies up." + +Mr. Cowper bowed with gravity, but did not say anything, as he was +preparing within him his form of self-introduction. + +In a few moments Mr. Cowper and Mr. Withers met our party as they slowly +meandered up the ascent toward the hotel. Mr. Cowper, hat in hand, gave +them collectively a bow, which, if somewhat foreign in its nature, was +not without dignity, and he addressed them with unmistakable +hospitality, while Mr. Withers, by a flank movement, attacked the left +wing of the party, where he conducted a little reception of his own. + +Mr. Cowper said, "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?" + +Mrs. Dusenall bowed and smiled, and the others, wondering what was +coming, bowed also as they caught Mr. Cowper's encompassing eye. "We +regret," he said, looking toward Geoffrey, to whom he was more +especially attracted on account of his cap-badge and greater stature. +"We regret, captain, that we did not notice your arrival in time to be +on the landing to assist the ladies from your canoe." + +Geoffrey's smile only indicated his gratification and had no reference +to Mr. Cowper's new name for the yacht's gig. + +"We are only guests in the hotel ourselves, but if we had known of your +coming some of us certainly would have been down to _re_ceive you in the +proper manner." + +What "proper manner" of reception Mr. Cowper had in his head it is +difficult to say. His words showed Mrs. Dusenall, however, that he was +not the custom-house officer or the hotel-keeper, which relieved her of +some anxiety lest she should make a mistake. At a slight pause in his +flow of language she thanked him in her most reassuring accents, and +continued in those suave tones and with that perfect self-possession, +with which the English duchess, her head a little on one side and chin +upraised, has been supposed carelessly to assert her person, crown, and +dignity. + +"I assure you," she said, "that we are only knocking about, as it were, +quite informally, from place to place in the yacht." + +"Quite informally," echoed Geoffrey, who was enjoying Mrs. Dusenall. + +She added: "So, of course, we could not think of allowing you to give +yourselves any trouble on our account." + +In what pageantry Mrs. Dusenall proceeded when not traveling quite +informally Mr. Cowper did not give himself the trouble to consider. The +thought came to him that he might be entertaining an English duchess +unawares, but the succeeding consciousness that he could probably buy up +this duchess "and her whole masquerade" fortified him as with triple +brass. + +"Madam," he said, with that distinctness and intensity with which +Americans convey the impression that they mean what they say, "if we +have neglected you and your friends at first, we will be pleased if you +will allow us now to try to make your visit attractive." + +Mrs. Dusenall thought this was assuming a heavy responsibility. + +"If you will come up on the pe-az-a, there are a number of real nice +ladies who would be most pleased to meet you." + +Several of the party began to think that the cares of "knocking about +quite informally" were about to commence. But as there was no escape, +and all smiled pleasantly, and Mr. Cowper conversed as he and Mr. +Withers led them up to the "pe-az-a." He was gratified at the way they +responded to his endeavors; and perhaps he was not without a latent wish +to show his hotel friends how perfectly at home he was in "first-class +British society." + +"There is always something going on here," he said; "and if there is +nothing on just now we will get up something real pleasant--or my name's +not Cowper." + +This hint as to his identity was not thrown away, and as it seemed more +than likely that they were about to be entertained immediately by this +gentleman behind the solitaire headlight, it occurred to Geoffrey that +it would be as well for the party to know what his name was. + +"Mr. Cowper, let me introduce you to Mrs. Dusenall." + +This quickness on Geoffrey's part relieved Mr. Cowper from any +difficulty in mentioning his own name. Mrs. Dusenall then introduced him +in a general way to the remainder of the party. To Miss Dusenall it was +impossible for him to do more than bow, as she was chilling in her +demeanor. She had received, as has been hinted, that final distracting +finishing polish which an English school is expected to give, and she +sought to be so entirely English as not to know what cosmopolitan +courtesy was. + +Margaret's face, however, gave Mr. Cowper encouragement and pleasure, +and, as he shook hands warmly with her, something in her appearance gave +a new spur to his hospitable intentions. The energy of a new nation +seemed bottled up within him, as he said to Margaret: + +"If I can't get up something here to make you enjoy yourself, why--why +don't believe in me any more." + +His evident but respectful admiration could only elicit a laugh and a +blush. It was impossible to resist Mr. Cowper in his energetic intention +to be host, and, in spite of his dazzling headlight, the national +generosity and forgetfulness of self were so apparent in him that +Margaret "took to him" in a way that mystified the other girls, who +regarded the headlight only as a warning beacon placed there by +Providence to preserve young ladies with an English boarding-school +finish from undesirable associations. + +Mr. Cowper was what is called "self-made"--a word that in the States +conveys with it no implied slur--for the simple reason that there is not +the same necessity for it as in England. Speaking generally, an American +has a generous consideration for women and a largeness of character, or +rather an absence of smallness, not yet sufficiently recognized as +national characteristics. He is generally the same man after "making his +pile" as before--not always fully acquainted, perhaps, with social +veneer, but kind, keen, and generous to a fault. It would be an insult +to such a one to compare him with the "self-made" Englishman, whose rude +pretension of superiority to those poorer than himself, truckling +servility to rank and position, and ignorance of everything outside his +own business render him very unlovely. + +"Now," said Mr. Cowper, when he had been introduced to them all. "Now," +he said, "we're all solid. We will just step up-stairs, if you please." +He looked at them all pleasantly as he offered his arm to assist Mrs. +Dusenall's ascent. When they arrived on the veranda above, his idea was +that, in order to bring about the perfect concord he desired to see, +individual introductions were necessary. To Mrs. Dusenall he introduced +a large number of lean girls and stout women, ninety per cent of whom +said "pleased to meet you," and Mrs. Dusenall, appearing, with +surprising activity of countenance, to be freshly gratified at each +introduction, quite won their hearts. + +But when Mr. Cowper commenced to introduce them all over again to +Margaret, that young person, not being afraid of women, rebelled, and, +touching his arm to stay his impetuous career, said: "Oh, no, it will +take too long. Let me do it." Then she turned to the company. "As Mr. +Cowper says, my name is Mackintosh," and she ducked them a sort of +old-fashioned courtesy. The company bowed--some smiling and some solemn +at her audacity. "And very much at your service," she added, as she +dipped again to the solemn ones--capturing them also. Then she turned to +the others. "And this is Miss Dusenall," and so-and-so, and so-and-so, +until they were all made known. + +"And this is Morry," she said lastly, taking the little man by the +coat-sleeve. "Make your bow, Morry." + +Rankin remained gazing on the ground until she shook him by the sleeve. +Then he took a swift, scared glance at the assembly, and said, "I'm +shy," and hid his head behind tall Margaret's shoulder. This absurdity +amused the American girls, and five or six of them, forgetting their +stiffness, crowded around to encourage him. A beaming matron came up to +Margaret and took her kindly by the elbows. + +"I must kiss you, my dear. You did that so charmingly." + +"Indeed, it's very kind of you to say so," replied Margaret, as she +received an affectionate salute. "Long introductions are so tiresome, +are they not?" + +"They do take time, my dear," said the motherly person, as they sat down +together. + +"Yes, time and introductions should be taken by the forelock," smiled +Margaret. + +"Just what you did, my dear. I _do_ wish I had a daughter like you. Oh +my!" And the little woman's face grew long for a moment at some sad +recollection. An interesting episode of family sorrow would have been +confided to Margaret if they had not been interrupted by the arrival of +four tall young men, in company with Mr. Withers. The grave, worn-out +face of Mr. Withers had just a flicker in it as his strong +ratchet-spring voice addressed itself to our party: + +"Mrs. Dusenall and friends, permit me to introduce to you the 'Little +Frauds.'" + +The four tall young men bowed with the usual gravity, and then mixed +with the company. They wore untanned leather and canvas shoes, dark-blue +stockings, light-colored knickerbocker trousers, and leather belts. +Navy-blue flannel shirts, with white silk anchors on the broad collars, +completed their costume, with the exception of black neck-ties and stiff +white linen caps with horizontal leather peaks. Taken as a whole, their +costume was such a happy combination of a baseball player's and a +Pullman-car conductor's that the brain refused to believe in the +maritime occupation suggested by the white anchors. + +Mr. Withers explained who they were. + +"The Little Frauds," he said, "are a party of young men who live +together in a kind of small shanty on one of the neighboring islands. +Although the locality is picturesque, they do not live here during the +winter, but only migrate to these parts when--well, when I suppose no +other place will have them. They come here every year to enjoy the +solitude of a hermit-life. Here they withdraw themselves from their +fellow-man, and more especially their fellow-woman." + +The gentlemen referred to were taking no manner of notice of Mr. +Withers, and in their chatter with the girls were not living up to their +character. + +"The reason why they are called 'Little Frauds' has now almost ceased to +be handed down by the voice of tradition," continued Mr. Withers. "It is +not because they are intrinsically more deceptive than other men. No man +who had any deception in his nature would go round with a leg like this +without resorting to artifice to improve its shape." + +Mr. Withers here picked up a blue-covered pipe-stem which served one of +the Frauds with the means of locomotion. + +"That, ladies and gentlemen," said Mr. Withers, slowly, in the tone of a +lecturer, and poising the limb in his hand, "is essentially the leg of a +hermit. If for no other reason than to hide that leg from the public, +its owner, ladies, should become a hermit." + +The leg here became instinct with life, and Mr. Withers suddenly stepped +back and gasped for breath. Then he explained further: + +"Seeing that the origin of the name is now almost lost in obscurity, the +Little Frauds themselves have lately taken advantage of this fact, +ladies, to palm off upon the public a spurious version of the story. +They say, in fact, that because they systematically withdrew themselves +into a life of celibacy and retirement, and being, as they claim, very +desirable as husbands, this name was given to them as being frauds upon +the matrimonial market." + +Somebody here called out: "Oh, dry up, Withers!" + +Mr. Withers took a glass of champagne from one of the waiters passing +with a tray and did quite the reverse. He took two gulps, threw the rest +over the railing, and continued: + +"One glance, ladies, at these people, who are really outcasts from +society, will satisfy you that their explanation of the term is as +palpably manufactured as the manuscripts of Mr. Shapira--" + +"Mister who?" inquired a profane voice. + +"Unaccustomed as they are to the usages of polite society, ladies, you +will excuse any utterances on their part that might seem intended to +interrupt my discourse. The real reason of this ridiculous name is as +follows--" + +Here, a remarkably good-looking Fraud stood up before Mr. Withers and +obliterated him. He spoke in a voice something like a corn-craik: + +"We commissioned Mr. Withers to speak to you, Mrs. Dusenall, and to your +party, on a topic of great interest to ourselves, but as the night is +likely to pass before Mr. Withers gets to the point, we will have to +dispense with his services." + +Mr. Withers had already retired behind his cigar again, with the air of +a man who had acquitted himself pretty well. + +The Frauds then begged leave to invite by word of mouth all our party to +a dance next evening on their island. + +Mrs. Dusenall accepted for all, as she rose to go, suggesting, at the +same time, that perhaps some of her new friends, if they did not think +it too late, would accompany them across the water in the moonlight to +examine their yacht. + +After some conversation, a number went with Mrs. Dusenall in the gig, +while Margaret and the rest of our party were ferried over by Frauds and +others in their long and comfortable row-boats. + +Some more champagne was broached on the yacht, but Mr. Withers said he +remembered once, early in life, drinking some of the old rye whisky of +Canada, and that since then he had always sought for annexation with +that delightful country. + +To the surprise of Mrs. Dusenall, both he and all the "Melican men" took +rye whisky, and ignored her champagne. + +The dismay of Mr. Cowper on hearing that the yacht would depart on the +morning after the Frauds' dance was unfeigned. He said it "broke him all +up." + +"Just when we were getting everything down solid for a little time +together," he said. + +Mrs. Dusenall explained that the yacht was to take part in a race at +Toronto in a few days, and must be on hand to defend her previously won +laurels. + +"Well, Mrs. Dusenall," said Mr. Cowper thoughtfully, "I have myself, +over there in the bay, a small smoke-grinder that--" + +"A--what?" inquired Mrs. Dusenall. + +"A steamboat, madame--a small steam-yacht. Nothing like this, of +course." He waved his hand airily as if he considered himself in a +floating palace. "But very comfortable, I do assure you. Now, if you are +going away so soon, the only thing I can do is to get you all to visit +the different islands round here in my steam-barge. I call her the old +roadster, madame, because she can't do her mile in better than three +minutes." + +As this represented a speed of twenty miles an hour, Mrs. Dusenall said +it was fast enough for her. If he could have got a steamboat fast enough +to beat the best trotting record Mr. Cowper would have been content. + +It was settled that at eleven o'clock next day the steamer should call +and take the whole party off to visit the islands; and he suggested +that, as there would be "a sandwich or something" on the boat, Mrs. +Dusenall need not think about a return to the Ideal for luncheon. + +He then gravely addressed himself to the four Frauds and to Mr. Withers: + +"Gentlemen, before we leave this elegant vessel, I wish to remind you +that no real old Canadian rye whisky will pass our lips again until such +a chance as this once more presents itself. Gentlemen, as this is the +last drink we will have to-night, we will, with Mrs. Dusenall's +permission, make ready our glasses, and we will dedicate and consecrate +this toast to the success of the Ideal and her delightful crew. Mrs. +Dusenall--ladies and gentlemen of the Ideal--this toast is not only to +celebrate our new acquaintance, which we hope may have in the future +more chances to ripen into intimacy (and which on our part will never be +forgotten), but we drink it also for another reason--for another less +worthy reason--and I can not disguise from you the fact that, to speak +plainly, _we like the liquor_. Madame, the gentlemen of the Ideal have +consented to come back with me now, to smoke just one cigar on the hotel +before we all retire for the night. Citizens of the United States, +Frauds, and others, as this is the last drink we are to have to-night, +we will drink the toast in silence." + +The gravity of the Americans is a huge national sham, throwing into +relief their humor and sunshiny good-will, as in a picture a somber gray +background throws up the high lights. + +In half an hour more all the men were back at the hotel with Mr. +Cowper; but, instead of pursuing the tranquil occupation of smoking a +cigar, as he proposed, they were led in and confronted with a banquet in +which the extensive resources of the hotel had been taxed to the utmost +Mr. Cowper called it the "little something to eat," as he pressed them +to come from the verandas into the hotel. But really it was a +magnificent affair, and, as Mr. Lemons, who was eloquent on the subject, +said, it was calculated to appeal to a man's most delicate +sensibilities. + +We will not follow them any further on this evening. Mr. Cowper's idea +was to all have a good time together--banish stiffness, promote +intimacy, and to drive to the winds all cares. He certainly succeeded, +for at twelve o'clock there was not a "Mister" in the room for anybody. +At one o'clock it was "Jack, old man," and "Cowper, old chappie," all +round. At two o'clock the friendship on all sides was not only +hermetically sealed, but it promised to be eternal, and after that, it +was thought the night was a little dark for Charley Dusenall to return +with the others to the yacht, so he remained at the hotel till morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + FERDINAND:... Full many a lady + I have eyed with best regard; and many a time + The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage + Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues + Have I liked several women; never any + With so full a soul but some defect in her + Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed, + And put it to the foil; but you, O you + So perfect and so peerless, are created + Of every creature's best. + + _The Tempest._ + + +The "old roadster" had a busy time of it the next morning preparing for +the visit to the islands. She was steaming up and down the river for a +long while before our friends knew it was time to get up. At eleven +o'clock she took on board the Canadians, and away they went--not at +"better" than twenty miles an hour, but pretty fast. Mr. Cowper's hint +that the Ideal was magnificent in its fittings had pleased the +Dusenalls. They thought he had been somewhat impressed by a swinging +chandelier over the cabin table. Mr. Cowper had examined this, found it +did not contain the last improvements, said it was splendid, and the +Dusenalls were pleased. But their pleasure was damped when they were led +into the main cabin of the "old roadster." The crimson silk-plush +cushions covering the divan around the apartment, into which they sank +somewhat heavily, did not at first afford them complete repose. The +window curtains and _portieres_ throughout the vessel were all of thick +corded silk or silk plush. The walls and ceilings in the cabins were +simply a museum of the rarest woods, and in the main cabin was a little +tiled fireplace with brass dogs and andirons, its graceful curtains +reined in with chains. The cabins alone had cost a fortune, and the +Dusenalls were for once completely taken aback. Mrs. Dusenall did not +get her head over on one side _a la duchesse_ any more that day, and it +ended in her coming to the conclusion that Americans in their +hospitalities may frequently have no other motive than to give pleasure. +This could only be realized by Britons able to denationalize themselves +so far as to understand that there may be a life on earth which is not +alternate patronage and sponging. It is to be feared though that most of +them receive attentions from Americans only as that which should, in the +ordinary course of things, be forthcoming from a people blessed with a +proper power to appreciate those excellent qualities of head and heart +with which the visitor represents his incomparable nation. + +Mr. Cowper did not do things by halves. As they sped about among the +many islands the strains of harps and violins came pleasantly from some +place about the boat where the musicians could not be seen. A number of +people from the hotels and islands were also among Mr. Cowper's guests, +and Mr. Withers, as a sort of aid-de-camp, assisted the host in bringing +everybody together and in seeing that the colored waiters with trays of +iced liquids did their duty. One room down below was reserved for the +inspection of "the boys," a room which had received a good deal of +personal attention and in which any drink known to the civilized world +could be procured. Mr. Withers confidentially invited our friends to +name anything liquid under the sun they fancied--from nectar to nitric +acid. For himself, he said that "that champagne and stuff" going round +on deck was not to his taste, and he had the deft-handed "barkeep" mix +one of his own cocktails. His own invention in this direction was +composed of eight or ten ingredients, and the Canadians were polite +enough to praise the mixture; but, afterward, when among themselves, +Jack's confession met with acquiescence when he said it seemed nothing +but hell-fire and bitters. + +The long, narrow craft threaded its tortuous way like a smooth-gliding +fish through the little channels between the islands, passing up small +natural harbors or coming alongside a precipitous rock. They several +times disembarked to see how much art had assisted nature on the +different islands, and viewed the fishponds, summer houses, awnings, and +hammocks, and the taste displayed in the picturesque dwellings. Mr. +Cowper's assurances that the owners of the islands would not object to +be caught in any kind of occupation or garment were corroborated by the +warm welcomes extended to them. Such is the freedom of the American +citizen, that a good many of the islanders who heard Mr. Cowper was +having a picnic "guessed they'd go along, too." It was evidently +expected that they would do just as they liked, without being invited; +in fact, Mr. Cowper loudly objected in several cases, declaring he had +no provisions for them. "Never mind, old man, we're not proud. We'll +whack up with your last crust, and bring a pocket-flask for ourselves." + +This seemed friendly. + +Of course the lunch, which was found to be spread under a large marquee +on a distant island, was really another banquet. The hotel retinue had +been up all night preparing for it. The waiters, glass, table-linen, +flowers, and everything else showed what money could do in the way of +transformation scenes. The only fault about it was that it was too +magnificent for a picnic. It can not be a picnic when there is no chance +of eating sand with your game-pie, no chance of carrying pails of water +half a mile, no difficulty in keeping stray cows, dogs, and your own +feet out of the table-cloth spread upon the ground. And when the trip in +the steamer had ended and most of our crew were having a little doze on +the Ideal during the latter part of the afternoon, the curiosity which +Mr. Cowper had awakened was still at its height. + +After dinner that evening, about eight o'clock, a pretty picture might +have been made of the Ideal, as she lay in the shadows, moored to a +well-wooded island where the rock banks seemed to dive perpendicularly +into blue fathomless depths. The party were taking their coffee in the +open air for greater coolness, and all had arrayed themselves for the +dance in the evening. The delicately shaded muslins and such thin +fabrics as the ladies wore blended pleasantly with the soft evening +after-glow that fell upon the rustling trees and running water. Seated +on the overhanging rocks beside the yacht, or perched up on the stowed +mainsail, they not only supplied soft color to the darkling evening +hues, but seemed to have a glow of their own, and reminded one of +Chinese lanterns lit before it is dark. This may have been only a fancy, +helped out by radiant faces and the slanting evening lights, but, even +if the simile fails, they were certainly prepared to shine as brightly +as they knew how at the ball later on. + +The little basswood canoe, with its comfortable rugs and cushions, lay +beside the yacht, bobbing about in the evening breeze, and Margaret sat +dreamily watching its wayward movements. + +"A penny for your thoughts?" asked somebody. + +"I was thinking," answered Margaret, "that the canoe is the only craft +that ought to be allowed in these waters, and that the builders of +houses on these islands ought to realize that the only dwelling +artistically correct should be one that either copies or suggests the +wigwam. No one can come among these islands without wondering how long +the Indians lived here. All the Queen Anne architecture we have seen +to-day has seemed to me to be altogether misplaced." + +"What you suggest could hardly be expected here," said Geoffrey, +"because, putting aside the difficulty of building a commodious house +which would still resemble a wigwam, there remains the old difficulty of +getting people to see in imagination what is not before them--the old +difficulty that gave us the madonnas, saints, and heroes as Dutch, +Italian, or English, according to the nationality of the painter. Of all +the pictures of Christ scattered over Europe, none that I have seen +could have been like a person living much in the open air of the Holy +Land. They will paint Joseph as brown as the air there will make +anybody, because it does not matter about Joseph, but the Christs are +always ideal." + +"Still, I am sure something might be done to carry out my idea," said +Margaret, keeping to the subject. "Surely localities have the same right +to be illustrated according to their traditions that nations have to +expect that their heroes shall be painted so as to show their +nationality. No one would paint the Arab desert and leave out the squat +black tent, the horse, and all the other adjuncts of the Bedouin. Why, +then, build Queen Anne houses in a place where the mind refuses to think +of anything but the Indian?" + +"Perhaps," said Hampstead, "the case here is unique. It is difficult to +find a parallel. But the same idea would present itself if one attempted +to build an English Church in the Moorish style instead of the Gothic or +something similar. I fancy that the subscribers would feel that the +traditions of their race and native land were not being properly +represented, as you say, in their architecture--that they would resent +an Oriental luxury of outline suggesting only Mohammed's luxurious +religion, and that nothing would suit them but the high, severe, and +moral aspect of their own race, religion, and churches. By the way, did +you ever consider how the moral altitude of each religion throughout the +world is indelibly stamped in the very shape of each one's houses of +worship. Begin at the whimsical absurdities of the Chinese, and come +westward to the monstrosities of India, then to the voluptuous domes of +the Moor and the less voluptuous domes of Constantinople, then to the +still less Oriental domes of Rome, then to the fortress-like rectangular +Norman, then to the lofty, refined, severe, upward-pointing Gothic of +Germany and England. Each church along the whole line, by its mere +external shape, will tell of the people and religion that built it +better than a host of words." + +"If that be so, it would seem like retrograding in architecture to +suggest the Indian wigwam here," said Jack. "What do you say, Margaret?" + +"I think that this is not a place where national aspirations in +monuments need be looked for. Its claims must always be on the side of +simple nature and the picturesque--a place for hard workers to +recuperate in, and, therefore, the poetry of all its early traditions +should in every way be protected and suggested." + +"Of course, I suppose, Miss Margaret, the Indian you wish to immortalize +is John Fenimore Cooper's Indian, and that you have no reference to +Batoche half-breeds. Perhaps after a while we may see the genius of this +place suggested further, but I think the Americans have had too much +trouble in exterminating 'Lo, the poor Indian' to wish to be reminded of +his former existence, and that the savagery of Queen Anne is sufficient +for them. 'Lo' has, for them, no more poetry than a professional tramp. +Out West, you know, they read it 'Loathe the poor Indian.'" + +"They don't loathe the poor Indian everywhere," said Rankin, as he +remembered an item about the dusky race. "You know our act forbidding +people to work on Sunday makes a provision for the unconverted heathen, +and says 'this act shall not apply to Indians.' Some time ago a man at +the Falls of Niagara was accustomed to run an elevator on Sunday to +carry tourists up and down the cliff to the Whirlpool Rapids. His +employes were prosecuted for carrying on their business on the Sabbath +day. When the following Sunday arrived, a quite civilized remnant of the +Tuscarora tribe were running the entire business at splendid profits, +and claimed, apparently with success, that the law could not touch +them." + +While this desultory talk was going on, Margaret was still watching the +little canoe bobbing about on the water. Geoffrey said to her: "Those +rugs and cushions in the canoe look very inviting, do they not?" + +Margaret nodded. + +"I know what you are thinking about," he whispered. "You want to go away +in the canoe, and dream over the waters and glide about from island to +island and imagine yourself an Indian princess." + +She nodded again brightly. + +"Well, if my dress-coat will not interfere with your imagining me a +'great brave,' you might get your gloves, fan, and shawl, and we can go +for a sail, and come in later on at the dance. If the coat spoils me you +can think of me as John Smith, and of yourself as Pocahontas." + +As Margaret nestled down into the cushions of the canoe, Geoffrey +stepped a little mast that carried a handkerchief of a sail, and, +getting in himself, gave a few vigorous strokes with the paddle, which +sent the craft flying from under the lee of the island. As the sail +filled and they skimmed away, he called out to Mrs. Dusenall that they +would go and see the people at the hotels, and would meet them at the +dance about nine o'clock. From the course taken by the butterfly of a +boat, which was in any direction except toward the hotels, this +explanatory statement appeared to be a mere transparency. + +Nina's spirits sank to low ebb when she saw these two going off +together. + +They sailed on for some distance in open water, and then, as the sail +proved unsatisfactory, Margaret took it down, and they commenced a +sinuous course among small islands. The dusk of the evening had still +some of the light of day in it, but the moon was already up and +endeavoring to assert her power. Everybody had given up wearing hats, +which had become unnecessary in such weather. As they glided about, +Geoffrey sometimes faced the current with long, silent strokes that gave +no idea of exertion foreign to the quiet charm of the scene, and at +other times the paddle dragged lazily through the water as he sat back +and allowed the canoe to drift along on the current close to the rocky +islands. They floated past breezy nooks where the ferns and mosses +filled the interstices between rocks and tree roots, where trees had +grown up misshapenly between the rocks, under wild creeping vines that +drooped from the overhanging boughs and swept the flowing water. Hardly +a word had been spoken since they left the yacht. For Margaret, there +was enough in the surroundings to keep her silent. She had yielded +herself to the full enjoyment of the balmy air and faint evening glows, +changing landscape, and sound of gurgling water. Her own appearance as +seen from the other end of the canoe did not tend to spoil the view. Her +happy face and graceful lines, and the full neck that tapered out of the +open-throated evening dress did not seem out of harmony with anything. +Reclining on one elbow against a cushioned thwart, she leaned forward +and altered the course of the light bark by giving a passing rock a +little push with her fan. + +They were now passing a sort of natural harbor on the shore of one of +the islands. It had been formed by the displacement of a huge block of +granite from the side of the rock wall, and the roots and trunks of +trees had roofed it in. + +Geoffrey pointed it out for inspection, and they landed lower down so +that they could walk back to a spot like that to which Shelley's +Rosalind and Helen came. + + To a stone seat beside a stream, + O'er which the columned wood did frame + A rootless temple, like a fane + Where, ere new creeds could faith obtain, + Man's early race once knelt beneath + The overhanging Deity. + +Here they rested, while Margaret, lost in the charm of the surroundings, +exclaimed: + +"Could anything be more delightful than this?" + +Geoffrey had always been conscious of something in Margaret's presence +which, seemingly without demand, exacted finer thought and led him to +some unknown region which other women did not suggest. When with her he +divined that it was by some such influence that men are separately +civilized, and that, with her, his own civilization was possible. Every +short-lived, ill-considered hope for the future seemed now so entangled +with her identity that her existence had become in some way necessary to +him. He had come to know this by discovering how unfeigned was the +earnestness with which he angled for her good opinion, and he was rather +puzzled to note his care lest "a word too much or a look too long" might +spoil his chances of arriving at some higher, happier life that her +presence assisted him vaguely to imagine. Nevertheless, so great was his +doubt as to his own character that all this seemed to him as if he must +be merely masquerading in sheep's clothing to gain her consideration, +and that it must in some way soon come to an end from his own sheer +inability to live up to it. All he knew was that this living up to an +ideal self was a civilizing process, and if he did not count upon its +permanency it certainly, he thought, did him no harm while it lasted. +"After all, was it not possible to continue in the upper air?" + +While his thoughts were running in this channel, such a long pause +elapsed, that Margaret had forgotten what he was answering to when he +said decisively: "Yes. It is pleasant." + +She looked around at him because his voice sounded as if he had been +weighing other things than the scenery in his head. + +"Oh, it is more than pleasant," she said. "It is something never to +forget." Margaret looked away over earth, water, and sky, as if to point +them out to interpret her enthusiasm. Her range of view apparently did +not include Geoffrey. Perhaps he was to understand from this that he, +personally, had little or nothing to do with her pleasure. But a glimpse +of one idea suggested more serious thought, and the next moment she was +wondering how much he had to do with her present thorough content. + +Geoffrey, who was watching her thoughts by noticing the half smile and +half blush that came to her face, felt his heart give a little bound. He +imagined he divined the presence of the thought that puzzled her, but he +answered in the off-hand way in which one deals with generalities. + + +"I believe, Miss Margaret, this whole trip provides you with great +happiness." + +"I believe it does," said Margaret. To conceal a sense of consciousness +she uprooted a rush growing at the edge of the rock seat. + +"Well, that is a great thing, to know when you are happy. Happiness is a +difficult thing to get at." + +"Do you find it so hard to be happy?" + +"I think I do," said Geoffrey. "That is, to be as much so as I would +like." + +"You must be rather difficult to please." + +"No doubt it is a mistake not to be happy all the time," replied +Geoffrey. "There is such a thing, however, as chasing happiness about +the world too long. She shakes her wings and does not return, and leaves +us nothing but not very exalting memories of times when we seem, as far +as we can recollect, to have been only momentarily happy." + +"For me, I think that I could never forget a great happiness, that it +would light up my life and make it bearable no matter what the after +conditions might be," said Margaret thoughtfully. + +"Just so," answered Geoffrey lightly. "There's the rub. How's a fellow +to cultivate a great happiness when he never can catch up to it. I don't +know of any path in which I have not sought for the jade, but I can look +back upon a life largely devoted to this chase and honestly say that +beyond a few gleams of poor triumph I never think of my existence except +as a period during which I have been forced to kill time." + +"That is because you are not spiritually minded," said Margaret, +smiling. + +"I suppose you mean consistently spiritually minded," said Geoffrey. "No +doubt some who live for an exalted hereafter may sometimes know what +actual joy is, but this can only approach continuity where one has great +imaginative ambition and weak primitive leanings. For most people the +chances of happiness in spirituality are not good. Happily, the savage +mind can not grasp the intended meaning of either the promised rewards +or punishments continually, if at all; and this inability saves them +from going mad. Of course the more men improve themselves the more they +may rejoice, both for themselves and their posterity, but mere varnished +savages like myself have a poor chance to gain happiness in consistent +spirituality. It is foolish to suppose that we are free agents. A high +morality and its own happiness are an heirloom--a desirable thing--which +our forefathers have constructed for us." + +"I have sometimes thought," said Margaret, "that if happiness depends +upon one's goodness it is not necessarily that goodness which we are +taught to recognize as such. Goodness seems to be relative and quite +changeable among different people. Some of the best people under the Old +Testament would not shine as saints under the New Testament, yet the +older people were doubtless happy enough in their beliefs. Desirable +observances necessary to a Mohammedan's goodness are not made requisite +in any European faith, and yet our people are not unhappy on this +account. Nobody can doubt that pagan priests were, and are, completely +happy when weltering in the blood of their fellow-creatures, and, if it +be true that conscience is divinely implanted in all men, that under +divine guidance it is an infallible judge between good and evil, that +one may be happy when his conscience approves his actions, and that +therefore happiness comes from God, how is it that the pagan priest +while at such work is able to think himself holy and to rejoice in it +with clearest conscience? It would seem, from this, that there must be +different goodnesses diametrically opposed to each other which are +equally-pleasing to Him and equally productive of happiness to +individuals." + +Geoffrey smiled at her, as they talked on in their usual random way, for +it seemed that she was capable of piecing her knowledge together in the +same sequence (or disorder) that he did himself. One is well-disposed +toward a mind whose processes are similar to one's own. He smiled, too, +at her attempts to reconcile facts with the idea of beneficence toward +individuals on the part Of the powers behind nature. For his part, he +had abandoned that attempt. + +"I have a rule," he said, "which seems to me to explain a good deal, +namely, if a person can become persuaded that he is rendered better or +more spiritual by following out his natural desires, he is one of the +happiest of men. The pagan priest you mentioned was gratifying his +natural desires, his love of power and love of cruelty--which in +conjunction with his beliefs made him feel more godly. Mohammed built +his vast religion on the very corner-stone of this rule. Priests are +taught from the beginning to guard and increase the power of the Church. +This is their first great trust, and it becomes a passion. Their natural +love of power is utilized for this purpose. For this object, history +tells us that no human tie is too sacred to be torn asunder and trampled +on. Natural love of dominion in a man can be trained into such perfect +accord with the desired dominion of a priesthood that he may feel not +only happy but spiritually improved in carrying out anything his Church +requires him to do--no matter what that may be." + +Geoffrey-stopped, as he noticed that Margaret shuddered. "You are +feeling cold," he said. + +"No, I was only thinking of some of the priests' faces. They terrify me +so. I don't want to interrupt you, but what do you think makes them look +like that?" + +Geoffrey shrugged his shoulders. + +"I don't know," he answered. "Perhaps interpreting the supernatural has +with some of them a bad effect upon the countenance. All one can say is +that many of them bear in their faces what in other classes of men I +consider to be unmistakable signs that their greatest happiness consists +in something which must be concealed from the public." Hampstead spoke +with the tired smile of one who on an unpleasant subject thinks more +than he will say. + +"Let us not speak of them. They make me think of Violet Keith, and all +that sort of thing. Go back to what you were saying. It seems to me that +the most refined and educated followers of different faiths do not gain +happiness in spirituality in the way you suggest. Your rule does not +seem to apply to them." + +"I think it does," answered Geoffrey, with some of that abruptness which +in a man's argument with a woman seems to accept her as a worthy +antagonist from the fact that politeness is a trifle forgotten. "You +refer to men whose mental temperament is stronger in controlling their +daily life than any other influence--men with high heads, who seem made +of moral powers--ideality, conscientiousness, and all the rest of them. +They have got the heirloom I spoke of. They are gentle from their +family modification. These few, indeed, can, I imagine, be happy in +religion, for this reason. There has been in their families for many +generations a production of mental activity, which exists more easily in +company with a high morality than with satisfactions which would only +detract from it. With such men it may be said that their earlier nature +has partly changed into what the rule applies to equally well. With +ordinary social pressure and their own temperaments they would still, +even without religion, be what they are; because any other mode of life +does not sufficiently attract them. Their ancestors went through what we +are enduring now." + +"But," said Margaret--and she continued to offer some objections, +chiefly to lead Geoffrey to talk on. However incomplete his reasoning +might be, his strong voice was becoming music to her. She did not wish +it to stop. Both her heart and her mind seemed impelled toward both him +and his way of thinking by the echo of the resonant tones which she +heard within herself. Being a woman, she found this pleasant. "But," she +said, "people who are most imperfect surely may have great happiness in +their faith?" + +"At times. Yes," replied he. "But their happiness is temporary, and +necessarily alternates with an equal amount of misery. The loss of a +hope capable of giving joy must certainly bring despair in the same +proportion, inversely, as the hope was precious. All ordinary men with +any education alternate more or less between the enjoyment of the +energetic mental life and the duller following of earlier instincts, and +when, in the mental life, they allow themselves to delight in immaterial +hopes and visions, there is unhappiness when the brain refuses to +conjure up the vision, and most complete misery after there has occurred +that transition to their older natures which must at times supervene, +unless they possess the great moral heirloom, or perhaps a refining +bodily infirmity to assist them. Ah! this struggle after happiness has +been a long one. Solomon, and all who seek it in the way he did, find +their mistake. Pleasure without ideality is a paltry thing and leads to +disgust. Religion-makers have hovered about the idea contained in my +rule to make their creeds acceptable. In this idea Mohammed pleased +many. Happiness in spirituality can only be continuous for men when they +come to have faces like some passionless but tender-hearted women, and +still retain the wish to imagine themselves as something like gods." + +Geoffrey paused. + +"Go on," said Margaret, turning her eyes slowly from looking at the +running water without seeing it. She said very quietly: "Go on; I like +to hear you talk." The spell of his presence was upon her. There was the +soft look in her eyes of a woman who is beginning to find it pleasant to +be in some way compelled, and for a moment her tones, looks, and words +seemed to be all a part of a musical chord to interpret her response to +his influence. Geoffrey looked away. The time for trusting himself to +look into the eyes that seemed very sweet in their new softness had not +arrived. For the first time he felt certain that he had affected her +favorably. Almost involuntarily he took a couple of steps to the water's +edge and back again. + +"What is there more to say?" said he, smiling. "We neither hope very +much nor fear very much nowadays. Men who have no scientific discovery +in view or who can not sufficiently idealize their lives gradually cease +expecting to be very happy. To men like myself religions are a more or +less developed form of delusion, bringing most people joy and despair +alternately and leading others to insanity. We know that religions +commenced in fear and in their later stages have been the result of a +seeking for happiness and consolation. To us the idea of immortality is +but a development of the inherent conceit we notice in the apes. We do +not allow ourselves the pleasing fantasy that because brain power +multiplies itself and evolves quickly we are to become as gods in the +future. If we do not hope much neither do we despair. Still, there is a +capacity for joy within us which sometimes seems to be cramped by the +level and unexciting mediocrity of existence. We do not readily forget +the beautiful hallucinations of our youth; and for most of us there +will, I imagine, as long as the pulses beat, be an occasional and too +frequent yearning for a joy able to lift us out of our humdrum selves." + +Margaret felt a sort of sorrow for Geoffrey. Although he spoke lightly, +something in his last words struck a minor chord in her heart. "Your +words seem too sad," she said after a pause. + +"I do not remember speaking sadly," said he. + +"No; but to believe all this seems sad when we consider the joyful +prospects of others. You seem to put my vague ideas into coherent shape. +The things you have said seem to be correct, and yet" (here she looked +up brightly) "somehow they don't seem to exactly apply to me. I never +had strong hopes nor visions about immortality. They never seemed +necessary for my happiness. Small things please me. I am nearly always +fairly happy. Small things seem worth seeking and small pleasures worth +cultivating." + +"Because you have not lived your life. Do you imagine that you will +always be content with small pleasures?" asked Geoffrey quickly as he +watched her thoughtful face. + +Margaret suddenly felt constraint. After the many and long interviews +she had had with Geoffrey she had always come away feeling as if she had +learned something. What it was that she had learned might have been hard +for her to say. His conversation seemed to her to have a certain width +and scope about it, and to her he seemed to grasp generalities and +present them in his own condensed form; but she had been unconsciously +learning more than was contained in his conversation. His words +generally appealed in some way to her intellect; but tones of voice go +for a good deal. Perhaps in making love the chief use of words is first +to attract the attention of the other person. Perhaps they do not amount +to much and could be dispensed with entirely, for we see that a dozen +suitors may unsuccessfully plead their cause with a young woman in +similar words until some one appears with tones of voice to which she +vibrates. Perhaps it matters little what he says if he only continues to +speak--to make her vibrate. Certainly Cupid studied music before he ever +studied etymology. Hampstead had never said a word to her about love, +but the resonant tones, his concentration, and the magnetism of his +presence, were doing their work without any usual formulas. + +The necessity of answering his question now brought the idea to her with +a rush that Geoffrey had taught her perhaps too much--that he had taught +her things different from what she thought she was learning--that the +simplicity of her life would never be quite the same again. She became +conscious of a movement in her pulses before unknown to her that made +her heart beat like a prisoned bird against its cage, that made her +whole being seem to strain forward toward an unknown joy which left all +the world behind it. In the whirl of feeling came the impulse to conceal +her face lest he should detect her thoughts, and she bent her head to +arrange her lace shawl, as if preparatory to going away. She looked off +over the water, so that she could answer more freely. Her answer came +haltingly. + +"Something tells me," she said, "that the small pleasures I have known +will not always be enough for me." Then faster: "But, of course, all +young people feel like this now and then. I think our conversation has +excited me a little." + +She arose, and walked a step or two, trying to quell the tumult within +her. + +"We must be going. It is late," she said in a way that showed her +self-command. + +Geoffrey arose also, to go away, and they walked to the higher ground. +Suddenly Margaret felt that for some reason she wished to remember the +appearance of this place for all her life, and she turned to view it +again. The moon was silvering the tracery of vines and foliage and the +surface of the twisting water, and giving dark-olive tones to the +shadowed underbrush close by. The large hotels could be seen through a +gap in the islands with their many lights twinkling in the distance; a +lighthouse, not far off, sent a red gleam twirling and twisting across +the current toward them, and a whip-poor-will was giving forth its +notes, while the waltz music from the far-away island floated dreamily +on the soft evening breeze. Geoffrey said nothing. He, too, was under +the influence of the scene. For once he was afraid to speak to a +woman--afraid to venture what he had to say--to win or lose all. He +thought it better to wait, and stood beside her almost trembling. But +Margaret had had no experience in dealing with the new feelings that +warred for mastery within her, and she showed one of her thoughts, as if +in soliloquy. She was too innocent. The vague pressures were too great +to allow her to be silent, and the words came forth with hasty fervor. + +"No, no! You must be wrong when you say there is nothing in the world +worth living for?" + +"No, not so," interrupted Geoffrey. "I did not say that. I said that +life, for many of us, was mediocre, because ideals were scarce and +imaginations did not find scope. But there is a better life--I know +there is--the better life of sympathy--of care--of joy--of love." + +As she listened, each deep note that Geoffrey separately brought forth +filled her with an overwhelming gladness. When he spoke slowly of +sympathy, care, joy, and love, the words were freighted with the musical +notes of a strong man's passion, and they seemed to bring a new meaning +to her, one deeper than they had ever borne before. + + Earth and heaven seemed one, + Life a glad trembling on the outer edge + Of unknown rapture. + +What a transparent confession the love of a great nature may be suddenly +betrayed into! The tears welled up into Margaret's eyes, and, partly to +check the speech that moved her too strongly, and partly to steady +herself, and chiefly because she did not know what she was doing, she +laid her hand upon his arm. + +He trembled as he tried to continue calmly with what he had been saying. +He did not move his arm or take her hand, but her touch was like +electricity. + +"I know there is such a life--a perfect life--and that there might be +such a life for me, a life that more than exhausts my imagination to +conceive of. You were wrong in saying that I said--that is, I only +said--oh, I can't remember what I said--I only know that I worship you, +Margaret--that you are my heaven, my hereafter--the only good I +know--with power to make or mar, to raise me from myself and to gild the +whole world for me--" + +Margaret put up her hand to stay the torrent of his utterance. She had +to. For, now that he gave rein to his wish, the forceful words seemed to +overwhelm her and seize and carry off her very soul. He took her hand +between both of his, and, still fearful lest she might give some reason +for sending him away, he pleaded for himself in low tones that seemed to +bring her heart upon her lips, and when he said: "Could you care for me +enough to let me love you always, Margaret?" she looked half away and +over the landscape to control her voice. Her tall, full figure rose, +like an Easter lily, from the folds of the lace shawl which had fallen +from her shoulders. Her eyes, dewy with overmuch gladness and wide with +new emotions, turned to Geoffrey's as she said, half aloud--as if +wondering within herself: + +"It must be so, I suppose." + +When she looked at him thus, Geoffrey was beyond speech. He drew her +nearer to him, touching her reverently. He did not know himself in the +fullness Of the moment. To find himself incoherent was new to him. She +was so peerless--such a vision of loveliness in the moonlight! The +thought that he now had a future before him--that soon she would be with +him for always--that soon they would be the comfort, the sympathy, the +cheer, and the joy of one another! It was all unspeakable. + +Margaret placed both her hands upon his shoulder as he drew her nearer, +and, as she laid her cheek upon her wrists, she said again, as if still +wondering within herself: + +"It must be so, I suppose. I did not know that I loved you, Geoffrey. +Oh, why are you so masterful?" + + * * * * * + +A little while after this they approached the island, where the ball was +at its height, and it seemed to Margaret that all this illumination of +Chinese lanterns, ascending in curving lines to the tree tops--that all +the music, dancing, and gayety were part of the festival going on within +her. As Geoffrey strode into the ball-room with Margaret on his arm he +carried his head high. A man who appeared well in any garb, in evening +dress he looked superb. Some who saw him that night never forgot how he +seemed to typify the majesty of manhood, and how other people seemed +dwarfed to insignificance when Margaret and he entered. If only a +modified elasticity appeared in her step, the wonder was she did not +skip down the room on her toes. They went toward Mrs. Dusenall, who came +forward and took Margaret by the elbows and gave them a little shake. + +"You naughty girl, how late you are! Dear child, how beautiful you look! +Where--?" + +Some imp of roguery got into Margaret. She bent forward and whispered to +her motherly friend. + +"Dear mother," she whispered, "we landed on an island, and Geoffrey +kissed me." + +"Heavens!" cried Mrs. Dusenall, not knowing what to think. "Why--but of +course it's all right. Of course he did, my dear--he could not do +anything else--and so will I. And so you are engaged?" + +At this Margaret tried to look grave and to shock Mrs. Dusenall again. + +"I don't know. I don't think we got as far as saying anything about +that." Then, turning to Geoffrey, with simplicity, "Are we engaged?" + +"Girl! are my words but as wind that you should mock me with their +emptiness? Come and let us dance, for it is advocated by the preacher." +And they danced. + +When Nina had seen Mrs. Dusenall kiss Margaret on her late arrival, she +knew its meaning at once, and her heart sickened. + +Pretty playthings seemed in some way rather degrading to Geoffrey that +night, and Nina was able to speak to him only for a moment, just before +all were going away. She then pretended to know nothing about the +engagement, and said, with cat-like sweetness: + +"I thought you did not care for Margaret's dancing much? I see she must +have improved, as you have been with her all the evening." + +Geoffrey answered gravely; "I believe you are right; there is a +difference. Yes, I did not think of it before, but, now you speak of it, +there does seem to have been an improvement in her dancing." + +"Ah!" said Nina. + +As Geoffrey paddled the canoe back to the yacht that night, or rather +morning, and the Yankee band had finished a complimentary God save the +Queen, and after the last cheer had been exchanged, Margaret said to him +in the darkness, just before they parted: + +"If there were no more happiness to follow, Geoffrey, to-night would +last me all my life!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + How like a younker, or a prodigal, + The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, + Hugged and embraced by the wanton wind. + How like the prodigal doth she return, + With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails. + Lean, rent, and beggared by the wanton wind. + + _Merchant of Venice._ + + + +Next morning the deck of the Ideal was all activity. + +A strong northeasterly wind had sprung up, so that by a rare chance they +were able to sail up the current instead of employing a tug. Only the +paid hands and one or two others were on deck as they struggled up the +stream till near Clayton. Here the channels opened out, the current +seemed to ease up, and they got the wind continuously as she boiled up +to Kingston. The steward went ashore at the city, and there was a delay +while he was getting in more ice for the refrigerator, and poultry, and +other supplies. Then they went off again, flying before the wind, past +the wharves of Kingston toward Snake Island lying hull down and showing +nothing but its tree-tops. + +Breakfast was very irregular that day--terribly so, the steward thought. +He was preparing breakfast at any and all times up to twelve o'clock, +and after that it was called luncheon. No troublesome bell awoke the +tired sleepers, no colored man came to take away their beds as on the +sleeping-cars. The dancers of the previous night tumbled up, more or +less thirsty, just when the spirit moved them, and, as all had a fair +quantum of sleep in this way, there were no bad tempers on board, +except--well, the steward knew enough to look pleasant. + +It was a fine start they made. But it did not last long. During the +night the heavy water-laden atmosphere began to break up into low clouds +that went flying across the face of the moon, producing weird effects in +alternate light and darkness. They were soon close-hauled on a wind from +the southward, and before the port of Charlotte was reached they had a +long tussle with a stiff breeze from the west--topmast housed, two reefs +down, and the lee-scuppers busy. + +At dawn, when they went into Charlotte, it was blowing a gale. Not a +Cape Horn gale, perhaps, but a good enough gale, and the water was +lively around the pier-heads. Several vessels could be seen up the lake, +running down to the harbor for shelter, and wallowing in the sea. So +they ran the yacht far up into the harbor between the piers, and made +fast as far away from the lake as they could get, to avoid being fouled +by incoming vessels, and to escape the heavy swell that found its way in +from outside. An hour after the sailing vessels had made the port the +mail-line steamer Eleusinian came yawing in, with some of her windows in +bad shape, and glad to get in out of the sea. + +Next morning it was blowing harder than ever. Everything outside the +cabins was disagreeable. The water they floated in seemed to be +principally mud, and on land the mud seemed principally water. Some of +the adventurous waded through the mire to see the works for smelting +iron in the neighborhood. But the only thing resembling fun outside the +boat was trying to walk on the piers. Two figures, to which yellow +oilskin suits lent their usual grace, would support a third figure, clad +in a long water-proof, resembling a sausage. These three would make a +dash through the wind and seize a tall post or a spile for mooring +vessels, and here they would pause, hold on, and recover their lost +breath. Then, slanting into the wind, they would make a sort of tack, +partly to windward, till they reached the next spile, and so on, while +occasionally they would be deluged with the top of a wave. The fun of +this consisted in the endeavor to avoid being blown into the water. +Certainly the sausage could not have gone alone. After several hours in +the cabin the element of change in this exercise made it quite a +pastime. It cooled the blood and took away the fidgets, and, on +returning, made the cabins seem a pleasant shelter instead of a prison. + +So far there had been no chance to leave the harbor for the purpose of +reaching Toronto. The wind was dead ahead from that quarter. Young +Dusenall was watching the weather continually, very anxious to get away +to be in time for the yacht race there on the 7th and 8th. He was over +at the steamboat hobnobbing with the captain of the Eleusinian, who was +also anxious to get on with his vessel. What with whisky and water, +nautical magic, and one thing or another between the two of them they +got the wind to go down suddenly about five o'clock that evening. +Charley came back in high good-humor. The captain had offered to tow the +Ideal behind the steamer to Toronto, and nothing but a long, rolling +sea, with no wind to speak of, could be noticed outside. + +Jack did not like going to sea hitched up, Mazeppa-like, to a steamer, +and he had misgivings as to the weather. The leaden-colored clouds, +banked up in the west, were moving slowly down the lake like herded +elephants. They did not yet look pacific, and he feared that they would +make another stampede before the night was over. He declared it was only +looking for another place to blow from. Charley answered that the race +came off on the day after to-morrow, and, as they had to get to Toronto +somehow, why not behind the steamer? As Jack was unable to do any more +than say what he thought, he suggested "that, if the boat must go out in +this sort of way during bad weather, that the women had better take the +train home." The trip in the yacht promised to be unpleasant, but when +Mrs. Dusenall considered the long, dusty, and hot journey around the +western end of the lake she decided to "stick to the ship." + +At seven o'clock in the evening they were flying out of port behind the +steamer at the end of a long hawser. A heavy dead swell was rolling +outside, and the way the Ideal got jerked from one wave to another boded +ill for the comfort of the passage. Charley hung on, however, thinking +that this was the worst of it and that the sea would go down. + +The night grew very dark, and two hours afterward the gale commenced +again, and blew harder than before from the same quarter. Every time +they plunged hard into a wave the decks would be swept from stem to +stern, while a blinding spray covered everything. If they had cast off +at this time they could have sailed back to Charlotte in safety, but +Charley was bound to see Toronto, and held on. + +Suddenly, in the wildness of the night, they heard a crack of breaking +timber, and the next moment the tall mast whipped back toward the stern +like a bending reed. A few anxious moments passed before those aft could +find out what had happened. In the darkness, and the further obscurity +caused by the flying water, the bowsprit had fouled the towline. The +bowstays had at once parted and, perhaps assisted by the recoil of the +mast, the bowsprit had snapped off, like a carrot, close to the stem. + +This large piece of timber was now in the water, acting like a +battering-ram against the starboard bow, with the stowed staysail, and +all the head gear, attached to it. There was no use trying to clear away +the wreck by endeavoring to chop through all the wire rigging, chains, +forestays, bowsprit shrouds, bobstays, and running gear, all adrift in a +mass that would have taken a long time to cut away or disentangle, even +in daylight and calm water. Besides this, one could not see his hand +held before his face, except by lantern-light, and such was the +unnatural pitching of the yacht that it was almost impossible to stand +without holding on to something. Charley, who was steering, asked of one +of the English hands, who was carefully crawling aft to take the wheel, +"How's everything forward?" To Charley's mind the reply seemed to +epitomize things as the man touched his hat and answered respectfully, +"Gone to 'ell, sir." He spat on the watery deck, as he said this, while +a blast of wind and half a ton of water from the bows swept away so +effectually both the remark and the tobacco juice that Mr. Lemons could +not help absurdly thinking of the tears of Sterne's recording angel. The +sailor was very much disgusted at the condition of things, and both he +and his remark were so free from any appearance of timidity that the +Hon. M. T. Head felt like giving him five dollars. While on shore, the +honorable gentleman was accustomed to emphasize his language, but, in +the present crisis, no wild horses could have dragged from him a +questionable word. + +Geoffrey's long arms and strength came in well that night. At the first +crack of the timber he slid out of his oil-skins for work, and his was +one of those cool heads that alone are of use at such a time. On a +sailing vessel the first effect of a bad accident in the night-time is +to paralyze thought. The danger and the damage are at first unknown. The +blackness of the night, the sounds of things smashing, the insecurity of +foothold, the screaming of the wind, and the tumbling of the waters, all +tend to kill that energy and concentration of thought which, to be +useful, must rise above these enervating influences. + +Jack had had more experience than Geoffrey, and thus knew better what to +do. But Geoffrey, for his part, was "all there." When he was hanging +down over the side, and climbing about to get the floating, banging mass +of wreckage attached to the throat-halyards, the tops of the waves that +struck him were unable to wash him away, and when he had succeeded in +his efforts, the wreckage was hoisted bodily inboard. + +The fellows at the wheel were momentarily expecting the mast to snap and +fall backward on their heads, as there was now no forestay on it. The +worst fault of the sloop-rig here became apparent. Unlike cutters, +sloops have no forestay leading from the masthead down to the stem, but +one leading only to the outer end of the bowsprit, and when the bowsprit +carries away, as it frequently does, the mast then has nothing but its +own strength to save it from snapping in a sudden recoil. + +What made the plunging of the mast worse was that the lower-mast +backstays had both carried away at the deck, as also had the topmast +backstays, after pulling the head off the housed topmast. All this heavy +wire rigging, with its blocks, immediately became lost to sight. It was +streaming out aft on the gale from the masthead, together with every +other line that had a chance to get adrift. If a halyard got loose from +its belaying pin that night it was not seen again. It said good-by to +the deck and went to join the flying mass overhead, that afterward by +degrees wound itself round and round the topping-lifts and +peak-halyards, effectually preventing the hoisting of the mainsail. The +long and heavy main-boom, which had long since kicked its supporting +crutch overboard, was now lowered down to rest on the cabin-top, so as +to take the weight off the mast; and while the end of it dragged in the +boiling caldron behind the counter, the middle part of it rose and fell +with every pitch, in spite of endeavors to lash it down, until it seemed +that the cabin-top would certainly give way. Had the top caved in, the +chances of swamping were good. + +Their power to sail by means of the canvas was now virtually gone. +Nothing was left for them but to follow the huge "smoke-grinding" mass +that yawed and pitched in front of them. One or two men were kept at the +stern of the steamer during this part of the night, to report any +signals of distress and to aid the yacht's steering by showing bright +lights. Near to these bright lights the figure of the captain could be +seen from time to time through the night, anxiously watching the lights +on the yacht, which told him that she still survived. Sometimes he was +apparently calling out to those on the yacht, but of course no sound +could be heard. + +The ladies were in their cabins all this time, sorry enough that they +had not taken the railway home. + +When the mast was stayed forward, by setting up the staysail-halyards, +etc., at the stem, there was nothing to do on deck but steer and keep +watch, and as nearly everything had been carried away except the whale +boat, Geoffrey went below for dry clothes and, feeling tired with his +hard work, took a nap in one of the bunks in the after-cabin. As the +sailors say, he "turned in all standing"--that is, with his clothes on. + +The other men remained on deck. Most of them were drenched to the skin +and were becoming gradually colder in the driving spray and heavy +swashes of solid wave that swept the decks with clock-like regularity. +They thought it better to remain where they could at least swim for a +while if the yacht went down, and they preferred exposure to the idea of +being drowned like rats in the cabin. + +After some time Geoffrey awoke, feeling that a soft warm hand was being +passed around his chin. He knew it was Margaret before he got his eyes +open. He peered at her for a moment without raising his head. She was +sitting on the seat outside, looking very despairing. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she said, "I think we are going to the bottom." + +Geoffrey listened, with his eyes shut, and heard both pumps clanging +outside. Margaret thought he was going off to sleep again. She was very +frightened, and the fear seemed to draw her toward Geoffrey all the more +for protection. She put her hand half around his neck and urged him to +wake up. + +"Oh, how can you go on sleeping at such a time? Do wake up, dear +Geoffrey. I tell you the yacht is sinking. We are all going to the +bottom. Do get up!" + +Geoffrey was perfectly wide awake, but this was even pleasanter than +being waked by music, and her hand on his chin seemed like a caress. +With his eyes shut, he reproached her sleepily: "No, no, don't make me +get up. I like it. I like going to the bottom." + +Margaret smiled through her fears. "But, Geoffrey, do look here! The +water has risen up over the cabin floor." + +He got up then. Certainly, things did seem a little threatening. A +couple of corks were dancing about in the water upon the carpet quite +merrily. This meant a good deal. He heard that peculiar sound of rushing +water inside the boat which can be easily recognized when once heard. +Above the howling of wind and swash of waves, both pumps could be heard +working for all they were worth. The vessel was pitching terribly, +mercilessly dragged as she was from one wave to another, without having +time to ride them. + +Geoffrey thought the time for bailing with the pails might be deferred +for a while. Without Margaret's knowledge he stuck a pen-knife into the +woodwork near the floor to define high-water mark, and thus detect any +increase in the leakage over the pumps. Then he devoted some time toward +endeavoring to calm Margaret's fears, chiefly by exhibiting a masterly +inaction in regard to the leak and in searching about for a lost pipe. +By the time he had found it and was enjoying a quiet smoke, reclining on +the cushions to make the motion seem easier, her fears began to weaken. +She did not at all object to the smoke of pipes, and Geoffrey's comfort +became contagious. Although the clanging of the pumps outside recalled +stories of shipwreck, she was, on the other hand, more influenced by the +easy-going indifference that he assumed. Twenty minutes passed in this +way, and then she felt sure that the danger was not so great as she had +thought. Geoffrey in the mean time was covertly watching his pen-knife, +that marked the rise or fall of the water in the boat. At the end of +half an hour he could see, from where he lay, that half the blade of the +knife was covered with water. So he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +and said he would go and see the boys on deck, and that Margaret had +better go and comfort the others in the ladies' cabins, and tell them it +was all right. + +When Margaret had staggered away, Geoffrey's manner was not that of one +satisfied with his surroundings. He ripped up the carpet and the planks +underneath to get at the well, and then skipped up the companion-way in +the liveliest manner. When on deck, he made out Jack at the wheel. + +"How's the well?" Jack cried, in the wind. "Did you sound it?" + +Geoffrey had to roar to make himself heard above the gale and noise of +waters. + +"Get your buckets!" he said; and Jack passed his order forward by a +messenger, who crawled along by the main-boom carefully, lest he should +go overboard in the pitching. + +"Why, the pumps were gaining on the leak a while ago!" Jack said to +Geoffrey. "Did you examine the well?" + +"There is no well left that I could see. It's all a lake on the cabin +floor. The leak gained on the pumps an inch in half an hour! I waited +and watched to make sure, and to quiet the women." + +"Then it is only a question of time," said Jack. "The buckets and pumps +won't keep her afloat long. She is working the caulking out of her +seams, and that will get worse every moment." + +There were no loiterers on board after that. They all "turned to" and +worked like machines. Even the steward and cook were on deck to take +their trick at the pumps. Five men in soaking trousers and shirts worked +five buckets in the cabin, heaving the water out of the companion-way. +Of these five, some dropped out from time to time exhausted, but the +others relieved them, and so kept the five buckets going as fast as they +could be worked. Some fell deadly sick with the heat, hard work, and +terrible pitching and driving motion of the boat, but nobody said a +word. If a man fell sick, he had something else to think of than his +comfort, and he staggered around as well as he could. From the +companion-way to the well, and from the well to the companion-way, for +two hours more they kept up the incessant toil. At first some had +attempted to be pleasant by saying it was easy to get water enough for +the whisky, and by making other light remarks. But now it was changed. +They said nothing on the exhausting and dreary round, but worked with +their teeth clinched--while the sweat poured off them as if they, too, +had started every seam and were leaking out their very lives. + +Still the pitiless great mass of a steamer in front of the yacht plunged +and yawed and dragged them without mercy through the black waters, where +a huge surge could now be occasionally discerned sweeping its foaming +crest past the little yacht, which was gradually succumbing to the wild +forces about it. + +Margaret was back again in the cabin now. She had wedged herself in, +with her back against the bunks, and one foot up against the table as a +prop to keep her in position. In one hand she held a bottle of brandy +and in the other a glass. And when a man fell out sick and exhausted she +attended to him. There was no water asked for. They took the brandy +"neat." She had succeeded in quieting the other women, and as they could +not hear the bailing in the after-cabin they were in happy ignorance of +the worst. Whatever fears she had had when the knowledge of danger first +came to her, she showed no sign of them now--but only a compassion for +the exhausted workers that heartened them up and did them good. + +A third hour had nearly expired since they began to use the buckets, and +Margaret for a long time had been watching the water, in which the +bailers worked, gradually creeping up over their feet as they spent +themselves on a dreary round, to which the toil of Sisyphus was +satisfactory. The water was rising steadily in spite of their best +efforts to keep the boat afloat. Margaret had quietly made up her mind +that they would never see the land again. There did not seem to be any +chance left, and she was going, as men say, to "die game." Her courage +and cheering words inspired the others to endless exertions. She was +like a big sister to them all. At times she was hilarious and almost +boisterous, and when she waved the bottle in the air and declared that +there was no Scott Act on board, her conduct can not be defended. +Maurice Rankin tried to say he wished they could get a Scott Act on the +water, but the remark seemed to lack intrinsic energy, and he failed +from exhaustion to utter it. + +Another half-hour passed, and while the men trudged through the +ever-deepening water Margaret experienced new thoughts whenever she +gazed at Geoffrey, who had worked almost incessantly. She looked at the +knotted cords on his arms and on his forehead, at the long tenacious jaw +set as she had seen it in the hurdle race, and she knew from the +swelling nostril and glittering eye that the idea of defeat in this +battle with the waters was one which he spurned from him. His clothes +were dripping with water. The neck-button of his shirt had carried away, +his trousers were rolled up at the bottom, and his face perspired freely +with the extraordinary strain, and yet in spite of his appearance she +felt as if she had never cared for him so much as when she now saw him. +On through the night she sat there doing her woman's part beside those +who fought with the water for their lives. She saw the treacherous enemy +gaining on them in spite of all their efforts, and in her heart felt +fully convinced that she could not have more than two hours to live. +The hot steam from men working frantically filled the cabin, the weaker +ones grew ill before her, and she looked after them without blenching. +Hers was no place for a toy woman. She was there to help all those about +to die; and to do this rightly, to force back her own nausea, and face +anxiety and death with a smile. + +As for Geoffrey, life seemed sweet to him that night. For him, it was +Margaret or--nothing. To him, this facing of death did just one thing. +It raised the tiger in him. He had what Shakespeare and prize-fighters +call "gall," that indomitable courage which women worship hereditarily, +although better kinds of courage may exist. + +Another long half-hour passed, and then Maurice fell over his bucket, +keel-up. He had fainted from exhaustion, and was dosed by Margaret in +the usual way, and after this he was set on his pins and sent on deck +for the lighter work at the pumps. After that, the paid hands, having in +some way purloined too much whisky, mutinied, and said they would be +blanketty-blanketted if they would sling another bucket. + +The others went on as steadily as before, while the crew went forward to +wait sulkily for the end. + +Jack and Charley then consulted as to what was best to be done. To hold +on in this way meant going to the bottom, without a shadow of doubt. +They had tried to signal to the steamer, to get her to slow up and take +all hands on board. But the watchers at the stern of the steamer had +been taken off to work at the steamer's pumps; for, as was afterward +found, she also was leaking badly and in a dangerous condition. + +Ought they to cut the towline, throw out the inside ballast, and cut +away the mast to ease the straining at the seams? The wooden hull, minus +the inside ballast, might float in spite of the lead on the keel, which +was not very heavy, and in this way they might drift about until picked +up the next day. But the ballast was covered with water. They could not +get it out in time to save her. Yet the seas seemed somewhat lighter +than they had been. Would not the boat leak less while proceeding in an +ordinary way, instead of being dragged from wave to wave? No doubt it +would, but was it safe to let the steamer leave them? Ought they to cut +the towline, get up a bit of a sail, and endeavor to make the north +shore of the lake? + +While duly weighing these things, Jack was making a rough calculation in +his head, as he took a look at the clock. Then he walked forward, took a +halyard in his hands, and embracing the plunging mast with his legs, he +swarmed up about twenty feet from the deck. Then, after a long look, he +suddenly slid down again, and running aft he called to the others, while +he pointed over the bows. + + +"Toronto Light, ahoy!" + +"Holy sailor!" cried Charley in delight. "Are you sure of it?" + +"Betcherlife!" said Jack. "Can't fool me on Toronto Light. Go and see +for yourself." + +Charley climbed up and took a look. Then he went down into the +forecastle and told the men they would get no pay for the trip if they +did not help to bail the boat. + +Seeing that not only life but good pay awaited them, they turned to +again and helped to keep the ship afloat. + +In a few minutes more Jack called to Margaret to come on deck. When she +had ascended, she sat on the dripping cabin-top and watched a changing +scene, impossible to forget. Soon after she appeared, there came a +flicker in the air, as short as the pulling of a trigger, and all at +once she perceived that she began dimly to see the waves and the +pitching boat. It was like a revelation, like an experience of Dante's +Virgil, to see at last some of that hell of waters in which they had +struggled so long for existence. + +As the first beginning of weird light, coming apparently from nowhere, +began to spread over the weary waste of heaving, tumbling, merciless +waters and to dilute the ink of the night, as if with only a memory of +day, a momentary chill went through Margaret, as she began to realize a +small part of what they had come through. But as the ragged sky in the +east paled faintly, rather than warmed, with an attempt at cheerfulness, +like the tired smile of a dying man, it sufficed, although so deficient +in warmth, to cheer her heart. The calm certainty of an almost immediate +death that had settled like a pall upon her was dispelled by rays of +hope that seemed to be identical with the invading rays of light. "Hope +comes from the east," she thought, as a ray from that quarter made the +atmosphere take another jump toward day, and as she fell into a tired +reverie she remembered, with a heart forced toward thanksgiving, those +other early glad tidings from the East. Worn out, she yielded to early +emotions, and thanked God for her deliverance. She arose and went +carefully along the deck, holding to the wet boom, until she reached the +mast, where she stopped and gazed at the black mass of the great steamer +still plunging and yawing and swinging through the waters, with its +lights looking yellow in the pale glimmer of dawn. After viewing the +disorder on decks she could form an idea of the work the men had had +during the darkness of the night. + +But, oh, what a broken-nosed nightmare of a yacht it was, in the dreary +morning light, with all the dripping black-looking heap of wreckage +piled over the bows, the mast pitching back toward the stern with a +tangled mass of everything imaginable wound in a huge plait down the +lifts. In this draggle-tailed thing, with a boom lying on deck and +hanging over the counter and its canvas trailing in the water, Margaret +could not recognize the peerless swan that a short time ago poised +itself upon its pinions and swept so majestically out of Toronto Bay. + +The water, at every mile traversed, now grew calmer as the gale came +partly off the land. Soon the pitching ended altogether. The opened +seams ceased to smile so invitingly to the death that lurks under every +boat's keel. The pumps and buckets had begun to gain upon the water in +the cabin, and by the time they had swept round the lighthouse and +reached the wharf the flooring had been replaced, while the pumps were +still clanging at intervals. + +When they made fast to the dock a drawn and haggard group of men--a +drooping, speechless, and even ragged group of men--allowed themselves +to sleep. It did not matter where or how they slept. They just dropped +anywhere; and for five hours Nature had all she could do to restore +these men to a semblance of themselves. + + [Note.--If Captain Estes, of the Mail Line Steamer Abyssinian, + should ever read this chapter, he will know a part of what took + place at the other end of the hawser on the night of September + 5, 1872.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + What slender youth, bedewed with liquid odors, + Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave, + Pyrrha? For whom bindest thou + In wreaths thy golden hair, + Plain in its neatness? Oh, how oft shall he + On faith, and changed gods, complain, + To whom thou untried seemest fair? + + HORACE, _Lib. I, Ode 5._ + + +A fine spring afternoon. A dark-eyed, well-dressed young lady with an +attractive figure descends from a street car near the Don Bridge. She +crosses the bridge leisurely and proceeds eastward along the Kingston +Road toward Scarborough. Whatever her destination may be, the time at +which she arrives is evidently of no consequence. She does "belong" down +Kingston Roadway. The street car dropped her there, and one may come a +long way for ten cents on street cars. From the uninterested way in +which she views the semi-rural surroundings one can see that she is +carelessly unfamiliar with the region. + +A fine horse, with his glossy coat and harness shining in the sun, comes +along behind her at a rate that would not be justified in a crowded +thoroughfare. Behind the horse a stylish dog-cart bowls along with its +plate-glass lamps also shining in the sun. Between this spot and the +city of Kingston there is no man on the road handsomer than he who +drives the dog-cart. The lady looks pleased as she hears the trap coming +along; a flush rises to her cheeks and makes her eyes still brighter. +When the horse trots over the sod and stops beside the sidewalk her +surprise is so small that she does not even scream. On the contrary, she +proceeds, without speaking, to climb into the vehicle with an expression +on her face in which alarm has no place. + +In some analogy with that mysterious law which rules that an elephant +shall not climb a tree, symmetrical people in fashionable dresses, whose +lines tend somewhat toward convexity, do not climb into a high dog-cart +with that ease which may compensate others for being long and lanky. A +middle-aged elder of the Established Kirk stands on his doorstep +directly opposite and looks pious. He says this is a meeting not of +chance but of design, and reproof is shown upon his face. The lady wears +Parisian boots, and the general expression of the middle-aged elder is +severe except where the eyes suggest weakness unlooked for in a face of +such high moral pitch. Once in, the young lady settles herself +comfortably and wraps about her dress the embroidered dust-linen as if +she were well accustomed to the situation. They drive off, and the +middle-aged elder shakes his head after them and says with renewed +personal conviction that the world is not what it ought to be. + +The road is soft and smooth, and the horse saws his head up and down as +he steps out at a pace that makes him feel pleasantly disposed toward +country roads and inclined to travel faster than a gentlemanly, +civilized, by-law-regulated horse should desire. The young lady lays +aside her parasol, which is remarkable--a gay toy--and takes up a black +silk umbrella which is not remarkable but serviceable. The good-looking +man pulls out of his pocket a large brown veil rolled up in paper, and +she of the Parisian boots ties it quickly around a little skull-cap sort +of bonnet of black beads and lace. The veil is thrown around in such a +way that the folds of it can be pulled down over her face in an instant. +Here, also, the lady shows a deftness in assuming this head-gear that +argues prior practice, and when this is done she lays her hand on the +handsome man's arm and looks up at him radiantly, while the silk +umbrella shuts out a couple of farmer's wives. + +"Doesn't it make me look hideous?" she says, referring to the veil. + +"Yes, my dear, worse than ever," says the handsome man. His face is a +mixture of careless good-nature and quiet devil-may-care recklessness. +Perhaps there are women who never make men look spiritual. It is to be +hoped that the umbrella hides his disregard for appearances on the +public street and that the farmer's wives in the neighborhood are not +too observant. + +"For goodness' sake, Geoffrey, _do_ behave better on the highway! What +will those women think?" + +"Their curiosity will gnaw them cruelly, I fear. They are looking after +us yet. I can see them." + +"Well, it is not fair to me to go on like that; besides I am terrified +all the time lest the people may find out who it is that wears the brown +veil about the country. I have heard four or five girls speaking about +it. It's the talk of the town." + +"No fear about that, Nina. I don't think your name was ever mentioned in +connection with the veil, but, in case it might be, I drove out Helen +Broadwood and Janet Carruthers lately, and, in view of the dust flying, +I persuaded them to wear the brown veil. We drove all over the city and +down King Street several times. So now the brown veil is divided between +the two of them. It was not much trouble to devote a little time to this +object, and besides, you know, the old people give excellent dinners." + +"That was nice of you to put it off on those girls and to take so much +trouble for me, but it can't last, Geoffrey, dear. We are sure to be +recognized some day. Helen and Janet will both say they were not on the +Indian road near the Humber the day we met the Joyces's wagonette, and +those girls are so stupid that people will believe them; and that bad +quarter of an hour when Millicent Hart rode behind us purposely to find +out who I was. That was a mean thing of her to do, but I paid her off. I +met her at Judge Lovell's the other night. It was a terrible party, but +I enjoyed it. I knew she expected to bring things to a climax with Mr. +Grover; she's _folle_ about that man. I monopolized him the whole +evening--in fact he came within an ace of proposing. Gracious, how that +girl hates me now!" + +"I would not try paying her off too much, or she will think you have a +strong reason for doing so," said Geoffrey. "After all, her curiosity +did her no good. You managed the umbrella to a charm." + +"The best thing you could do would be to have a linen duster for me to +wear--such as the American women travel in; then, as the veil covered my +head, I could discard the umbrella, and they would not recognize my +clothes." + +In this way they rattled down to Scarborough, and then Geoffrey turned +off the highway through a gate and drove across a lot of wild land +covered with brushwood until he struck a sort of road through the forest +which had been chopped out for the purpose of hauling cordwood in the +winter. He followed this slowly, for it was rough wheeling. Then he +stopped, tied the horse, and Nina and he sauntered off through the woods +until they reached the edge of the high cliffs overlooking the lake. +This spot escaped even picnic parties, for it was almost inaccessible +except by the newly cut and unknown road. Solitude reigned where the +finest view in the neighborhood of Toronto could be had. They could look +along the narrow cliffs eastward as far as Raby Head. At their +feet--perhaps a hundred and fifty feet down--the blue-green waves lapped +the shore in the afternoon breeze, and on the horizon, across the thirty +or forty miles of fresh water, the south shore of the lake could be +dimly seen in a summer haze. + +The winter had come and gone since we saw our friends last, and the +early spring was delicious in the warmth that hurried all nature into a +promise of maturity. Not much of importance had happened to any of them +since we last saw them. Jack was as devoted as ever, and Nina was not. +She tried to do what she could in the way of being pleasant to Jack, and +she went on with the affair partly because she had not sufficient +hardness of heart to break it off, and chiefly because Geoffrey told her +not to do so. He preferred that she should remain, in a nondescript way, +engaged to Jack. + +Hampstead generally dined with the Mackintoshes on Sunday, and called in +the evening once or twice during the week. He also took Margaret for +drives in the afternoon--generally about the town. When this happened a +boy in buttons sat behind them and held the horse when they descended to +make calls together on Margaret's friends. This was pleasant for both of +them, and a beginning of the quiet domestic life which, after marriage, +Geoffrey intended to confine himself to, and he won good opinions among +Margaret's friends from the cheerful, pleasant, domesticated manner he +had with him when they dropped in together, in an off-hand, "engaged" +sort of way to make informal calls. And so far as Margaret could know he +seemed in every way entitled to the favorable opinions she created. All +his better, kinder nature was present at these times, and no one could +make himself more agreeable when he was, as he said of himself, +"building up a moral monument more lasting than brass." + +But Geoffrey had his "days off," and then he was different. He smiled as +he thought that in cultivating a high moral tone it was well not to +overdo the thing at first; that two days out of the week would suffice +to keep him socially in the traces. He thought his "off" days frequently +made him prize Margaret all the more when he could turn with some relief +toward the one who embodied all that his imagination could picture in +the way of excellence. He despised himself and was complacent with +himself alternately, with a regularity in his inconsistencies which was +the only way (he would say, smiling) that he could call himself +consistent. If necessary, he would have admitted that he was bad; but to +himself he was fond of saying that he never tried to conceal from +himself when he was doing wrong; and, among men, he despised the many +"Bulstrodes" of existence who succeed in deceiving themselves by +falsities. He said that this openness with self seemed to have something +partly redeeming about it; perhaps only by comparison--that it possibly +ranked among the uncatalogued virtues, marked with a large note of +interrogation. He thought there were few brave enough to be quite honest +with themselves, and that there was always a chance for a man who +remained so; that the hopeless ones were chiefly those who, with or +without vice, have become liars to themselves; who, by mingling +uncontrolled weakness and professed religion, have lost the power to +properly adjust themselves. + +This day of the drive to Scarborough was one of his "off" days. He found +a piquancy in these trips with him, because so many talked about her +beauty; and, as the majority of men do not have very high ideals +concerning feminine beauty, Nina was well adapted for extensive +conquest. No doubt she was very attractive, quite dazzling sometimes. +She was partly of the French type, perfect in its way, but not the +highest type; she was lady-like in her appearance, yet with the +slightest _soupcon_ of the nurse-girl. It amused him to hear men +discussing, even squabbling about her, especially after he had come from +a trip with the brown veil. If men had been more sober in the way they +regarded her, if her costumes had been less bewitching, he soon would +have become tired. But these incentives made him pleased with his +position, and he was wont to quote the illustrious Emerson in saying +that "greatly as he rejoiced in the victories of religion and morality, +it was not without satisfaction that he woke up in the morning and found +that the world, the flesh, and the devil still held their own, and died +hard." In other words, it pleased him that Nina existed to give +life--for the present--a little of that fillip which his nature seemed +to demand. + +"What is a wise man? Well, sir, as times go, 'tis a man who knows +himself to be a fool, and hides the fact from his neighbor." + +This was the only text upon which Geoffrey founded any claim to wisdom. + +As they left the cliff and walked slowly back through the woods Nina was +leaning on his arm, and the happiness of her expression showed how +completely she could forget the duties which both abandoned in order to +meet in this way. But when they arrived at the dog-cart a change came +over her. The brown veil had to be tied on again. At many other times +she had done this placidly, as part of the masquerade. But to-day she +was not inclined to reason carefully. To-day the veil was a badge of +secrecy, a reminder of underhand dealings, a token that she must ever go +on being sly and double-faced with the public, that she must renounce +the idea of ever caring for Geoffrey in any open and acknowledged way. +To be sure, she had accepted this situation in its entirety when she +continued to yield to her own wishes by being so much with an engaged +man. But to be reasonable always, is uncommon. She resisted an +inclination to tear the veil to shreds. Something told her that +exhibitions of temper would not be very well received by her companion. +No matter how she treated Jack, was she not honest with Geoffrey? Did +she not risk her good name for him? And why should she have to mask her +face and hide it from the public? She--an heiress, who would inherit +such wealth--whose beauty made her a queen, to whom men were like +slaves! + +The veil very nearly became altered in its condition as she thought of +these things, but she put it on, and smothered her wrath until they got +out upon the highway. Then she said, after a long silence: "Would it not +be as well to let Margaret wear this brown veil a few times, Geoffrey? +She has a right to drive about with you, and if people thought it was +only she, their curiosity might cease." + +A farm-house cur came barking after the dog-cart just then, and +Geoffrey's anger expended itself partly on the dog, instead of being +embodied in a reply. + +The whip descended so viciously through the air that a more careful +person might have seen that the suggestion had not improved his temper. + +Except this, he gave no answer. She pressed the subject, although she +knew he was angry. "Don't you think, Geoffrey, that that would be a good +thing to do? It would quite remove curiosity, and would, in any case, be +only fair to me." + +Now, if there was one thing Hampstead could not and would not endure, it +was to have a woman he amused himself with attempt to put herself on a +par with the one he reverenced. Margaret was about all that remained of +his conscience. She embodied all the good he knew. Every resolve and +hope of his future depended upon her. He could not as yet, he thought, +find it possible always to live as she would like; but in a calm way, so +controlled as to seem almost dispassionate, he worshiped her, as it +were, in the abstract. + +His ideas concerning her were so rarefied that, in any other person, he +might have called them fanatical. He was bad, but he felt that he would +rather hang himself than allow so much as a breath to dim the fair +mirror of Margaret's name. At the very mention of her as wearing this +brown veil he grew pale with anger, and the barking cur got the benefit +of it, and at Nina's insistence his face and eyes grew like steel. + +"Heavens above! Can't you let her name alone? Is it not enough for you +to raise the devil in me, without scheming to give her trouble? Do you +think I will allow her to step in and be blamed for what it was your +whim to go in for--risks and all?" + +Nina was ready now to let the proposition drop, but she could not +refrain from adding: "She would not be blamed for very much if she were +blamed for all that has happened between us." + +There was truth in what she said, but Geoffrey had looked upon these +meetings as anything but innocent. Argument on the point was +insufferable, and it only made him lash out worse, as he interrupted +her. + +"Good God, Nina! you must be mad! Don't you see? Don't you understand?" + +Nina waited a second while she thought over what he meant, and her blood +seemed to boil as she considered different things. + +"Yes, I do understand. You need say no more," cried she, with her eyes +blazing. "You want me to realize that I am so much beneath her--that she +is so far above me--that, although I have done nothing much out of the +way, the imputation of her doing the same thing is a kind of death to +you. You go out of your way to try and hurt me--" + +"No, no, Nina," said Geoffrey, controlling himself, "I do not want to +hurt your feelings. If we must continue speaking on this unpleasant +subject, I will explain." + +"That will do, Geoffrey Hampstead," she exclaimed in a rage; "I don't +want to hear your explanation. I hate you and despise you! I have been a +fool myself, but you have been a greater one. I could have made a prince +of you. I was fool enough to do this, and now," here Nina tore the veil +off her head, and threw it on the road, "and now," she continued, as she +faced him with flashing eyes, "you will always remain nothing but a +miserable bank-clerk. Who are you that you should presume to insult me? +and who is she that she should be held over my head? I am as good in +every way as she is, and, if all that's said is true, I am a good deal +better." + +Geoffrey listened silently to all she said, and to her blind imputation +against Margaret. Gazing in front of him with a look that boded ill, he +reduced the horse's pace to a walk, so that he need not watch his +driving, and turned to her, speaking slowly, his face cruel and his eyes +small and glittering. + +"Listen! You have consciously played the devil with me ever since I knew +you. You have known from the first how you held me; you played your part +to perfection, and I liked it. It amused me. It made better things seem +sweeter after I left you. It is not easy to be very good all at once, +and you partly supplied me with the opposite. I don't blame you for it, +because I liked it, and I confess to encouraging you, but the fact +is--you sought me. Hush! Don't deny it! As women seek, you sought me. We +tacitly agreed to be untrue to every tie in order to meet continually, +and in a mild sort of way try to make life interesting. Did either of us +ever try by word or deed to improve the other? Certainly not. Nor did we +ever intend to do so. We taught each other nothing but scheming and +treachery. And you thought that you would make the devil so pleasing +that I could not do without him. This is the plain truth--in spite of +your sneer. Recollect, I don't mind what you say about me, but you have +undertaken to insult and lay schemes for somebody else, and that I'll +not forgive. For _that_, I say what I do, and I make you see your +position, when you, who have been a mass of treachery ever since you +were born, dare to compare yourself with--no matter who. I won't even +mention her name here. That's how I look upon this affair, if you insist +upon plain speech. Now we understand things." + +It was a cruel, brutal tirade. Truth seems very brutal sometimes. He +began slowly, but as he went on, his tongue grew faster, until it was +like a mitrailleuse. Nina was bewildered. She had angered him +intentionally; but she had not known that on one subject he was a +fanatic, and thus liable to all the madness that fanaticism implies. She +said nothing, and Hampstead, with scarcely a pause, added, in a more +ordinary tone: "It will be unpleasant for us to drive any further +together. You are accustomed to driving. I'll walk." + +He handed the reins to Nina and swung himself out without stopping the +horse. She took the reins in a half-dazed way and asked vaguely: + +"What will I do with the horse when I get to the town?" + +"Turn him adrift," said Geoffrey, over his shoulder, as he proceeded up +a cross-road, feeling that he never wished to see either her or the trap +again. + +Nina stopped the horse to try to think. She could not think. His biting +words had driven all thought out of her. She only knew he was going away +from her forever. She looked after him, and saw him a hundred yards off +lighting a cigar with a fusee as he walked along. She called to him and +he turned. The country side was quiet, and he could hear her say, "Come +here!" He went back, and found her weeping. All she could say was "Get +in." Of course he got in, and they drove off up the cross-road so as to +meet no person until she calmed herself. After a while she sobbed out: + +"Oh, you are cruel, Geoffrey. I may be a mass of treachery, but not to +you--not to you, Geoffrey. Having to put on the veil angered me. I have +been wicked. We have both been wicked. But you are so much worse than I +am. You know you are!" + +As she said this it sounded partly true and partly whimsical, so she +tried to smile again. He could not endeavor to resist tears when he knew +that he had been unnecessarily harsh, and he was glad of the opportunity +to smile also and to smooth things over. + +As a tacit confession that he was sorry for his violence, he took the +hand that lay beside him into his, and so they drove along toward the +city, each extending to the other a good deal of that fellow-feeling +which arises from community in guilt. Both felt that in tearing off the +mask for a while they had revealed to each other things which, being +confessed, left them with hardly a secret on either side, and if this +brought them more together, by making them more open with each other, +both felt that they now met upon a lower platform. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + + + Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which + he hath made crooked?--_Ecclesiastes_ vii, 13. + + +A few days after the disturbance in the dog-cart Geoffrey and Maurice +Rankin were dining, on a Sunday, with the Mackintoshes. After dinner a +walk was proposed, and Margaret went out with them, very spick-and-span +and charming in an old black silk "made over," and with a bright bunch +of common geraniums at her belt. She had invited the young lawyer partly +because he had seemed so distrustful of Geoffrey, and she wished to +bring the two more together, so that Maurice might see that he had +misjudged him. In the course of their walk Geoffrey asked, for want of +something better to say: + +"How goes the law, Rankin? Things stirring?" + +"Might be worse," replied Maurice. "By the way, Margaret, I forgot to +tell you Mr. Bean actually brought in a client the other day." + +"Somebody he had been drinking with, I suppose," said Margaret, who had +heard of Mr. Bean. + +"Right you are. They supported each other into the office, and before +Bean sank into his chair I was introduced by him as his 'jun'or +par'ner.'" + +"Could not Mr. Bean do the same every day? Supply the office by bringing +up his friends when prepared to be lavish with money?" + +"I'm afraid not. Bean would be always tipsy himself before the victim +was ready. Still, your idea is worth consideration. Of course nobody +would want law from Bean unless he were pretty far gone, and in this +case the poor old chap knew no more about what was wanted than the +inquirer." + +"Had the client any money?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Money? He was reeking with it. What he wanted, he said, was a quiet +lawyer. I told him that the quietness of our business was its strong +point, only equaled, in fact, by the unpleasant grave. Then it appeared +that he had come on a trip from the States with a carpet-bag full of +money which he said he had borrowed, and he wished, in effect, to know +whether the United States could take him back again, _vi et armis_. I +told him 'No,' and knocked ten dollars out of him before you could say +'knife.'" + +"You might have made it fifty while you were about it," said Geoffrey. + +"Well, you see, the man was not entirely sober, and, after all, ten +dollars a word is fair average pay. I never charge more than that." + +"You mean that the unfortunate was too sober to be likely to pay any +more," said Margaret. + +Maurice shrugged his shoulders in deprecation of this idea. + +Said Geoffrey: "I often meet Mr. Bean on the street. He is a very idle +man; I know by the way he carries his pipe in his mouth." + +"What has that to do with it?" + +"Everything. He smokes with his pipe in the center of his mouth." + +"Well?" + +"Well, no one does that unless very old or very idle. Men get the habit +from smoking all day while sitting down or lounging. No one can walk +hurriedly with his pipe in that position; it would jar his front teeth +out. I have noticed that an active man invariably holds his pipe in the +side of his mouth, where he can grasp it firmly." + +"Hampstead, you should have been a detective." + +"Such is genius," said Margaret. "Geoffrey has any quantity of +unprofitable genius." + +"That reminds me that I once heard my grandfather telling my father the +same thing, but it was not very correct about my father." + +"Indeed! By the way, Geoffrey, if it is not an impertinent question for +your future wife to ask, who _was_ your grandfather?" + +This ignorance on the part of an engaged girl made Maurice cackle. + +"Who _is_ he, you mean. He is still alive, I think, and as old as the +hills." + +"Dear me! How very strange that you never told me of his existence +before!" + +"His existence is not a very interesting one to me--in fact, quite the +reverse; besides I don't think we have ever lacked a more interesting +topic, have we Margaret?" + +"I imagine not," quoth Rankin dryly. Margaret stopped; she thought there +might be something "queer" about this grandfather that Geoffrey might +not care to speak about before a third person. She merely said, +therefore, intending to drop the matter gently: + +"How very old the senior Mr. Hampstead must be?" + +"Hampstead is only the family name. The old boy is Lord Warcote. I am a +sort of a Radical you know, Margaret, and the truth is I had a quarrel +with my family. Only for this, I might have gone into the matter +before." + +"Never mind going into anything unpleasant. You told my father, of +course, that you were a son of Mr. Manson Hampstead, one of the old +families in Shropshire. And so you are. We will let it rest at that. +Family differences must always be disagreeable subjects. Let us talk +about something else." + +"Now we are on the subject, I might as well tell you all about it. +First, I will secure Rankin's secrecy. Behold five cents! Mr. Rankin, I +retain you with this sum as my solicitor to advise when called upon +concerning the facts I am about to relate. You are bound now by your +professional creed not to divulge, are you not?" + +"Drive on," said Maurice, "I'm an oyster." + +"There is not a great deal to tell," said Geoffrey. "The unpleasant part +of it has always made me keep the story entirely to myself. When I came +to this continent I was in such a rage with everything and everybody +that I abandoned the chance of letters of introduction. Nobody here +knows who I am. I have worked my own way to the exalted position in +which you find me. A good while ago my father was in the English +diplomatic service, and he still retains, I believe, a responsible post +under the Government. Like a good many others, though, he was, although +clever, not always quite clever enough, and in one episode of his life, +in which I am interested, he failed to have things his own way. For ten +years he was in different parts of Russia, where his duties called him. +He had acquired such a profound knowledge of Russian and other languages +that these advantages, together with his other gifts, served to keep him +longer in a sort of exile for the simple reason that there were few, if +any, in the service who could carry out what was required as well as he +could himself. From his official duties and his pleasant manner he +became well known in Russian society, and he counted among his intimate +friends several of the nobility who possessed influence in the country. +After a long series of duties he and some young Russians, to whom +passports were almost unnecessary, used to make long trips through the +country in the mild seasons to shoot and fish. In this way some of the +young nobles rid themselves of _ennui_, and reverted by an easy +transition to the condition of their immediate ancestors. They had their +servants with them, and lived a life of conviviality and luxury even in +the wildest regions which they visited. When they entered a small town +on these journeyings they did pretty much what they liked, and nobody +dared to complain at the capital. If a small official provoked or +delayed them they horsewhipped him. In fact, what they delighted in was +going back to savagery and taking their luxuries with them, dashing over +the vast country on fleet horses, making a pandemonium whenever and +wherever they liked; in short, in giving full swing to their Tartar and +Kalmuck blood. On one occasion my father was feeling wearied to death +with red tape, but nobody was inclined at the time for another +expedition. He therefore obtained leave to go with a military detachment +to Semipalatinsk, from which town some prisoners had to be brought back +to St. Petersburg. There was little trouble in obtaining his permit, +especially as he had been partly over the road before. So he went with +his horses and servant as far as the railway would take him, and then +joined a band of fifty wild-looking Cossacks and set out. When within a +hundred and fifty versts from Semipalatinsk they encountered a warlike +band of about twenty-five well mounted Tartars returning from a +marauding expedition. They had several horses laden with booty, also +some female prisoners. It was the old story of one tribe of savages +pillaging another. The Cossacks were out in the wilderness. Although +supposed to be under discipline, they were one and all freebooters to +the backbone. Their captain, under pretense of seeing right done, +allowed an attack to be made by the Cossacks. They drove off the other +robbers, ransacked the booty, took what they wanted, and under color of +giving protection, took the women also, hoping to dispose of them +quietly as slaves at some town. These women were then mounted on several +of the pack-horses, and the Cossacks rode off on their journey, leaving +everything else on the plain for the other robbers to retake. + +"My father had kept aloof from the disturbance. It was none of his +business. He sat on his horse and quietly laughed at the whole +transaction. He had become very Russian in a good many ways, and he +certainly knew what Cossacks were, and that any protest from him would +only be useless. It was simply a case of the biter bit. He joined the +party as they galloped on to make up for lost time. + +"As for the women, it was now nothing to them that their captors had +changed. Early in the morning their village had been pillaged and their +defenders slain. It was all one to them, now. Slavery awaited them +wherever they went. So they sat their horses with their usual ease, +veiled their faces, and resigned themselves to their fate. But as the +afternoon wore on, the wily captain began to think that my father would +certainly see through the marauding escapade of his, and that it would +be unpleasant to hear about it again from the authorities, and so he +cast about him for the easiest way to deceive or propitiate him. That +evening, as my father was sitting in his _kibitka_, the curtain was +raised and the captain smilingly led in one of the captive slaves--a +woman of extraordinary beauty. And who do you think she was?" + +Margaret turned pale. She grasped Geoffrey's arm, as her quick +intelligence divined what was coming. + +"No, no," she said. "You are not going to tell me that?" + +"Yes," said Geoffrey with a pinched expression on his face. "That is +just what I am going to tell you. That poor slave--that ignorant and +beautiful savage was my mother." + +Margaret was thunderstruck. She did not comprehend how things stood, but +with a ready solicitude for him in a time of pain, she passed her hand +through his arm and drew herself closer to him, as they walked along. + +As for Maurice, he ground his teeth as he witnessed Margaret's loving +solicitude. It was a relief to him to rasp out his dislike for Geoffrey +under his breath. "I always knew he was a wolf," he muttered to himself. + +"You will see now," continued Geoffrey, "why I preferred not to be known +in this country. To be one of a family with a title in it did not +compensate me for being a thorough savage on my mother's side. + +"But I will continue my story. The beauty of the woman attracted my +father. He spoke to her kindly in her own language and made her partake +of his dinner with him. He thought that in any case he could save her +from being sold into slavery by the Cossacks. + +"These wild half-brothers of mine took it as a matter of course that my +father would be pleased with his acquisition, but they suggested _vodki_ +and got it--so that my mother was in reality purchased from them for a +few bottles of whisky. + +"They went on toward Semipalatinsk and got the prisoners. My father +intended to leave the woman at that town, but she wished to see the +White Czar and his great city, of which she had heard, and she begged so +hard to be taken back with him that he began to think he might as well +do so. + +"The fact was that a whim seized him to see her dressed as a European, +and as they waited at Semipalatinsk for ten days before returning, he +had time to have garments made which were as near to the European styles +as he could suggest. It was evidently the clothes that decided the +matter. In her coarse native habiliments she was simply a savage to a +fastidious man, but when she was arrayed in a familiar looking dress +assisted by the soft silken fabrics of the East, he was bewitched. She +told him, on the journey back, how her father had always counted upon +having enough to live on for the rest of his life when she was sold to +the traders who purchased slaves for the harems at Constantinople. + +"My father took her to St. Petersburg with him, where they lived for +three years together. Such a thing as marrying her never entered his +head. He simply lived like his friends. I never found out how much she +was received in society--no doubt she had all the society she +wanted--but I did hear from an old friend of my father, who spoke of her +with much respect, that her beauty created the greatest sensation in St. +Petersburg, and that when she went to the theatre the spectators were +all like astronomers at a transit of Venus. She made good use of her +time, however, and at the end of three years she could speak and write +English a little. + +"At the end of three years from the time he met her, my father was +called back to England. He left her in his house in St. Petersburg with +all the money necessary, and came home. I think he intended to go back +to her when he got ready. But she settled that question by coming to +England herself. She could not bear the separation after three months of +waiting. Imagine the scene when she arrived! Lord and Lady Warcote were +having a dinner party, when in came my mother, as lovely as a dream, and +throwing her arms round my father she forgot her English and addressed +him fondly in the Tartar dialect. + +"My father, for a moment, was paralyzed; but, in spite of the enervating +effect of this exotic's sudden appearance, he could not help feeling +proud of her when he saw how magnificent she was in her new Paris +costume, and it occurred to him that her wonderful beauty would carry +things off with a high hand for a while, until he could perhaps get her +back to Russia. She, however, after the moment in which she greeted him, +stood up to her full height, and glancing rapidly around the table at +all the speechless guests, recognized my grandfather from a photograph +she had seen. Lord Warcote was sitting--starchy and speechless--at the +end of the table. + +"'Ah! zo! Oo are ze little faaezer!' And before he could say a word the +handsomest woman in England had kissed him, and had taken his hand and +patted it." + +"Another brisk look around, and she recognized Lady Warcote in the same +way. She floated round the table to greet 'dear mutter.' But here she +saw she was making a mistake--that everything was not all right. Lady +Warcote was not so susceptible to female beauty as she might have been. +She arose from her chair, her face scarlet with anger, and motioned my +mother away. + +"'Manson,' she said, addressing my father, 'is this woman your wife?'" + +"My father had now recovered from his shock, and was laughing til the +tears ran down his face. My mother, seeing his merriment, took courage +again and said gayly: + +"'Yes, yes! He have buy me--for one--two--tree bottle _vodki_.' She +counted the numbers on the tips of her fingers, her shapely hands +flashing with jewels. Then her laughter chimed merrily in with my +father's guffaw. She ran back to him, took his head in both her hands +and said, imitating a long-drawn tone of childish earnestness: + +"'It was cheap--che-ap. I was wort' more dan _vodki_.' + +"Lord Warcote had lived a fast life in his earlier days. After Nature +had allowed him a rare fling for sixty years she was beginning to +withdraw her powers, and my grandfather had become as religious as he +had been fast. The effect of my mother's presence upon him was to make +him suddenly young again, and although he soon assumed his new Puritan +gravity he could not keep his eyes off her. On a jury he would have +acquitted her of anything, and when she turned around imperiously and +told a servant to bring a chair, 'Good Lord!' he said, 'she's a Russian +princess!' and he jumped up like an old courtier to get the chair +himself. The more he heard of her story the more interested he became, +and when he had heard it all, nothing would suffice but an immediate +marriage. My father protested on several grounds, but his protests made +no difference to the old man. His will, he said, would be law until he +died, and even after he died, and, what with my mother's beauty, which +made him take what he understood to be a strong religious interest in +her behalf, and one thing and another, he got quite fanatical on the +point. He forgot himself several times, and swore he would cut father +off with nothing if he refused. + +"The end of it was that they were married at once, and afterward I was +born. My poor mother had no intention of giving father trouble when she +came to England, neither did she wish in the slightest degree for a +formal marriage, the usefulness of which she did not understand. She +simply felt that she could not do without him. And I don't think he ever +regretted the step he was driven to. She had some failings, but she was +as true and loving to him as a woman could be, besides being, for a +short time, considered a miracle of beauty in London. + +"I can only remember her dimly as going out riding with father. They say +her horsemanship was the most perfect thing ever seen in the hunting +field. It was the means of her death at last. The trouble was that she +did not know what fear was while on horseback. She thought a horse ought +to do anything. Father has told me that when they were out together a +freak would seize her suddenly, and away she would go across country for +miles--riding furiously, like her forefathers, waving her whip high in +the air for him to follow, and taking everything on the full fly. If her +horse could not get over anything he had to go through it. At last, one +day, an oak fence stopped her horse forever, and she was carried home +dead. I was three years old then." + +Geoffrey paused. + +The others remained silent. His strong magnetic voice, rendered more +powerful by the vehement way he interpreted the last part of the story +in his actions, impressed them. They were walking in the Queen's Park at +this time, and it did not matter that he was more than usually graphic. +When he spoke of the wild riding of the Tartars, he sprang forward full +of a bodily eloquence. For an instant, while poised upon his toes, his +cane waving high aloft, his head and shoulders thrown back in an ecstasy +of abandon, and his left hand outstretched as if holding the reins, he +seemed to electrify them, and to give them the whole scene as it +appeared in his own mind. Rankin shuddered. Involuntarily he gasped out: + +"Hampstead! For God's sake, don't do that!" + +"Why not?" said Geoffrey, as he resumed his place beside them, while the +wild flash died out of his eyes. + +"Because no man could do it like that unless--because, in fact, you do +it too infernally well." + +Rankin felt that Margaret must be suffering. It seemed to him that. +Geoffrey had really become a Tartar marauder for a moment. Perhaps he +had. + +"Don't mind my saying this," Maurice added, with apology. "Really, I +could not help it." + +Geoffrey laughed. Margaret was grave. Rankin strayed on a few steps in +advance, and Geoffrey, taking advantage of it, whispered quickly. "What +are you thinking of, Margaret?" + +"I was thinking I saw a wild man," said Margaret truthfully. Then, to be +more pleasant, she added, "And I thought that if Tartar marauders were +all like you, Geoffrey, I would rather prefer them as a class." + +Maurice, who was unconsciously _de trop_ at this moment, turned and +said: + +"You have got me 'worked up' over your story, and now I demand to know +more. Do not say that 'the continuation of this story will be published +in the New York Ledger of the current year.' Go ahead." + +"Anything more I have to tell," said Geoffrey, "only relates to myself." + +"Never mind. For once you are interesting. Drive on." + +"Well, where was I? Oh, yes! Well, my father married again six months +after my mother's death. He married a woman who had been a flame of his +in early youth, and who had developed a fine temper in her virgin +solitude. They had six children. I was packed off to school early, and +was kept there almost continually. After that I was sent away traveling +with a tutor, a sanctimonious fellow who urged me into all the devilment +the Continent could provide, so that he might really enjoy himself. Then +I came home and got rid of him. It was at this time that I first heard +from my father about my mother and my birth. The story did me no good. I +got morbid over it. Previously I had thought myself of the best blood in +England. We were entitled as of right to royal quarterings, and the new +intelligence struck all the peacock pride out of me. I felt like a burst +balloon. The only thing I cared about was to go to Russia and see the +place my mother came from. I got letters from my father to some of his +old friends at St. Petersburg, and with their influence found my way to +the very village my mother came from. Some of the villagers remembered +quite well the raid when my mother was carried off and how her +enterprising father had been killed. What made me wonder was where my +mother got her aristocratic beauty. Among the undiluted, pug-nosed, +bestial Tartars such beauty was impossible. I found, however, that my +mother's mother had also been a captive. No one knew where she came +from. Most likely from Circassia or Persia. The villagers at the time of +the raid were the remnants of a large predatory tribe that formerly used +to sally forth on long excursions covering many hundreds of miles. At +that time--the time of their strength--they lived almost entirely by +robbery, and their name was dreaded everywhere within a radius of five +hundred miles. I have always hoped that my mother's mother was of some +better race than the Tartar. There is no doubt, however, that my +mother's father was a full-blooded Tartar, though he may have had +straighter features than the generality of them. I found there a younger +brother of my mother. He was a wallowing, drunken, thieving pig, this +uncle of mine, but under the bloated look he had acquired from excesses, +one could trace straight and possibly handsome features. As the son +would most likely resemble his father, I can only infer that the father +was not so bad-looking as he might have been, and so, with one thing and +another, I came to understand the possibility of my mother's beauty. + +"It may have been morbid of me. I should have left the matter alone, for +I believed in 'race' so much that my discoveries ground me into dust. +Nothing satisfied me, however, unless I went to the bottom of it. I +watched this uncle of mine for two or three weeks, and made a friend of +him, merely to see if I could trace in him any likeness to myself. I +made him drunk. I made him sober. I made him run and walk and ride. +Sometimes I thought I traced the likeness clearly, and then again I +changed my mind. I tried him in other ways, leaving in my quarters small +desirable objects partly concealed. They always disappeared. He stole +them with the regularity of clockwork. I can laugh over these matters +now, speaking of them for the first time in twelve years. At that time I +groaned over it, and still persevered in trying to find out what could +do me no good. I am so like my father that I could find no resemblance +in me to the Tartar uncle. But at last I got a 'sickener.' While talking +to him I noticed that he made his gestures pointing the two first +fingers; instead of all or only one finger. I watched his dirty hands +while he mumbled on, half drunk, and then I saw that for a pastime, as a +Western Yankee might whittle or pick his teeth, this man threw the third +and fourth fingers of his left hand out of joint and in again. He said +his father and also, he had heard, his grandfather could do this with +ease. + +"An hour afterward, I think I must have been a good ten miles +off--flying back to civilized Russia, my servants after me, thinking I +was mad. Perhaps I was a little queer in the head at the time." + +"What made you go off in that way?" asked Maurice, who did not see the +connection. + +Geoffrey made no verbal reply, but he held out his left hand with the +two last fingers out of joint. Then he showed how easily he could put +them "in" and "out." + +"None of my father's family can do this, but my mother could. Both my +mother and the pig of an uncle held out these two fingers in their +gestures, and curled the others up so, and I do the same. I can laugh +now, but it killed me at the time. + +"I traveled all over the world before I came back to England. My +half-brothers were then pretty well grown up and were fully acquainted +with everything concerning my birth and my mother's history. My +step-mother hated me because I was the eldest son, and she poisoned her +children's minds against me. She sought out my old tutor, who, when paid +well, told her a lot of vile and untrue stories about me. With these she +tried to poison my father's mind also in regard to me. I was moody, +morbid, and restless. They looked at me as if I was some other kind of +creature, the son of a savage, and it galled me, for all my subsequent +travelings had never removed the sting of my birth. Some deplore +illegitimacy. Rubbish! Wrong selection, not want of a ceremony, is the +real sin that is visited unto the children. + +"After my return home I could have died with more complacency than I +felt in living. Even my father seemed at last to be turned against me by +my step-mother. One day while we were at dinner my step-mother, who +possessed a fiend's temper, had a hot discussion with me about something +which I have forgotten. Words were not well chosen on either side, and +she flew into a tantrum. I remember saying at last: 'Madame, it would +take two or three keepers to keep you in order.' Everybody was against +me, of course, and when her own eldest son half arose and addressed me, +his remarks met with applause. What he said to me, in quiet scorn, was: + +"'Our mother's temper may not be good, sir, but we don't find it +necessary to send a keeper with her to keep her from stealing.' + +"I have since found out, in a roundabout way, that my beautiful mother +preferred to steal a thing out of a shop rather than pay for it. My +father had always looked at this weakness of hers as a most humorous +thing. Anything she did charmed him. Sometimes she would show him what +she had stolen, and it would be returned or paid for. However, at the +time that this was said to me at the table I did not know of these +facts. I arose, amid the derisive laughter that followed the 'good hit,' +and demanded of my father how he dared to allow my mother's name to be +insulted. I secretly felt at the time that the slur upon her honesty +might be well founded, but the possible truth of it made the insult all +the worse to me. + +"This was the last straw. I felt myself growing wild. Father did not +look at me. He merely went on with his dinner, laughing quietly at the +old joke and at my discomfiture. He said: 'I can not see any insult, +when what Harry says is perfectly true--and a devilish good joke it +was.' + +"I did not appreciate that joke. I was almost crazy at the time. My +father's laughter seemed the cruelest thing I had ever heard. I 'turned +to,' as Jack Cresswell would say, and cursed them all, individually and +collectively, and then took my hat and left the house, which I have +never seen since and never intend to see again." + +"And what about the tutor that told the stories about you?" asked +Rankin. + +"Aha, Maurice," continued Geoffrey, brightening up from painful +memories, "you have a noble mind for sequences. What about the tutor? +Just so, what about him?" and Geoffrey slapped Rankin on the back +heartily, as a pleasanter memory presented itself gratefully. + +"I wish you would not strike me like that. I am thinking of going to +church to-night, unless disabled. What about your beastly tutor? For +goodness' sake, do drive on!" + +"Oh, well, I can't tell you much about that, not just now. Of course, +the first thing I did was to pay him a call at his lodgings in London. +Your great mind saw that this was natural. That call was a relief. I +came out when it was finished and told somebody to look after him, and +then took passage for New York in a vessel that sailed from London on +the same day." + +Margaret and Rankin smiled at the grim way in which he spoke about the +visit to the tutor. + +"On arriving in New York I got a small position in a Wall Street +broker's office, and learned the business. From that I went, with the +assistance of their recommendation, into a bank. While in this bank I +fell in with some young fellows from Montreal, and afterward stayed with +them in Montreal during holidays. They wanted me to come to that city, +and I liked the English way of the Canadians, so I came. On entering the +Victoria Bank I got good recommendations from the one I had left. From +Montreal I was moved to the head office, and here I am." + +There was much to render Margaret thoughtful in this story that Geoffrey +told. She was pleased to find that he belonged to the English nobility, +because it seemed to assist her opinion when, with the confidence of +love, she had placed him in a nobility such as she hoped could exist +among mankind. Otherwise, the fact that there was a title in his family +meant very little to her. Her own father's family would have declined +any title in England involving change of name. What did affect her as a +thinking woman, and one given to the study of natural history, was the +awful gap on the other side of the house. Following so closely upon the +assurance that he was well born, it was a cruel wrench. His interests +were hers now, and it seemed as if they suffered jointly--she, through +him. She felt that all this bound them more together, and she did her +best to appear unconscious and gay. + +He looked at her when he had finished, and, behind their smiles, each +saw that the other was trying to make the best of things--that there was +something now between them to be feared, which might rise up in the +future and give them pain. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Those aggressive impulses inherited from the pre-social + state--those tendencies to seek self-satisfaction regardless of + injury to other beings, which are essential to a predatory + life, constitute an anti-social force, tending ever to cause + conflict and eventual separation of citizens.--Herbert Spencer, + _Synthetic Philosophy._ + + +Nina Lindon had by no means given up the pulse-stirring and secret +drives with Geoffrey. The only thing she had given up was saying to +herself that in the future she would not go any more. The result of this +frequent yielding to inclination was that she was miserable enough when +away from him and not particularly contented when with him. Between her +and Margaret Mackintosh a coolness had arisen. Margaret was an +unsuspicious person, but her affections had developed her womanhood, and +in some mysterious way she had divined that Nina cared to be with +Geoffrey more than she would confess. There was no jealousy on +Margaret's side. She simply dropped Nina, and perhaps would have found +it hard to say on what grounds. In such matters women take their +impressions from such small occurrences that their dislikes often seem +more like instinct even to themselves. + +As for Nina, she had liked Margaret only with her better self, and now +she had become conscious of a growing feeling of constraint when in her +presence. The increasing frigidity with which the taller beauty received +her seemed to afford ground for private dislike. She was unconfessedly +trying to bring herself to hate Margaret, and was on the lookout for a +reasonable cause to do so. To undermine a detested person treacherously +would be far more comfortable than undermining a friend. The difficulty +lay in being unable to hate sufficiently for the hate to become a +support. + +Later on in June a ball was given at Government House. The usual rabble +was present. Margaret did not go, as her father happened to be ill at +the time. Nina was there in full force. Geoffrey appeared late in the +evening with several others who had been dining with him at the club. As +the host he had been observing the hospitalities, and it took several +dances to bring his guests down to the comfortable assurance that they +really had their sea-legs on. They looked all right and perhaps felt +better than they looked; but during the first waltz or two there seemed +to be unexpected irregularities in the floor that had to be treated with +care. + +After a few dances, which Geoffrey found kept for him as usual, Nina and +he disappeared--also as usual. Nina was not among the dissolving views +who do nothing but dissolve. She was fond of her dancing as yet, and, as +a rule, only disappeared once in the course of the evening. This sounds +virtuous, but there is perhaps more safety in a plurality of +disappearances. + +The next day she telegraphed to some friends in Montreal, from whom she +had a standing invitation, that she was coming to see them. They wired +back that they would be charmed to see her. Then she telegraphed again: +"Had arranged to stop at Brockville on my return from you, but have just +heard that they go away in ten days. Would it be all the same if I went +to you about Monday week?" + +The answer came from Montreal: "That will suit us very well--though we +are disappointed. Mind you come." Then Nina wrote and posted to her +Montreal girl friend a note, in which she said: "If any letters should +come for me just keep them until I arrive. I will go to Brockville now." + +Jack Cresswell saw her off by the evening train, bought her ticket to +Montreal, and secured her compartment in the sleeper. Her two large +valises were carried into the compartment. She said she preferred to +have her wearing apparel with her and not bother about baggage-checks. + +When everything was settled in the compartment she said in a worried +nervous way to Jack: "And I suppose you will be wanting me to write to +you?" + +"When you get a chance, Nina. It is not easy, sometimes, to get away, at +a friend's house, to write letters. Don't write till you feel like doing +so and get a good chance." + +This was his kind, self-controlled way of taking her vexatious remarks. +But to-day it seemed as if kindness was what she least wished to receive +from him. + + +"If I waited till I wished to write to you I don't think I would ever +write again." + +"You don't quite mean that, Nina. You are worried and anxious to-night. +It makes you unkind and fretful." + +"Well, perhaps so," said Nina. "I think I danced too much last night. +And this stupid affair of ours worries me. I want a change, and I am +going to have it. No. I shall not write for at least ten days--perhaps +two weeks, and you had better think over the advisability of getting +somebody else to wear down to a shadow with a long engagement." + +The bell was ringing for departure. Jack tried to make the best of it, +and to excuse her inconsiderate remarks. "Remember," she repeated, "I +shall not write for at least ten days, and you had better not write for +a week or so either. I want a complete change." + +This was so very decisive that Jack could hardly repress a sigh as he +rose and said: "Well, good-by, old lady; I hope you will have a pleasant +visit." + +As he lightly kissed her cheek she stood before him as inanimate as +marble. All at once it seemed dreadful to let him believe in her so +thoroughly. A feeling of kindness toward him came over her--a moment of +remorse--remorse for everything. The train was moving off now. She +suddenly put her arms round his neck and burst into tears. Then she +pushed him away. "Run quickly now and get off. Go at once--" + +"But Nina, darling what _is_ the matter?" + +"Never mind--run, or you'll be killed getting off. I'm only worried. +Good-by!" And she pushed him through the door. + +Nina continued her passage to Montreal as far as Prescott, where she +left the train with her luggage, and crossed the St. Lawrence to +Ogdensburg. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn.... + + +When Jack, with the agility of a railroad employe, landed on his feet +all right, he stood watching the disappearing train, annoyed, +disappointed, and mystified. He usually found moderate speech sufficient +for daily use, and as he walked back slowly toward his club, all he said +was: "Well, if all women are like Nina, I don't think I altogether +understand them!" + +He felt lonely already, and for diversion bethought himself of turning +and going down to the Ideal to inspect the preparations for the race to +be sailed on the following day. There he met Charley Dusenall, and as +the yacht gently rose and fell on the slight swell coming in from the +lake, these two sat watching some of the racing spars floating alongside +and rolling about in the wavelets of the evening breeze, soaking +themselves tough for the coming contest. + +"What's the matter with you?" said Charley, noticing how grumpy and +silent Jack was. "The old story, I suppose. Has Her Majesty gone back on +you again?" + +Jack grunted assent. + +"Only _pro tem._, though?" asked Charley. + +"Oh yes, only _pro tem._, of course, but still--" + +"I know. Deuced unpleasant. But, after all, what does it matter about a +woman or two when you have got a boat under you that can cut the +eye-teeth out of an equinoctial and make your soul dance the Highland +fling. Bah, chuck the whole thing up. Finish your grog and we'll have +another. Vive le joy, as we say in Paris." + +Jack's face grew less long. "That's all very well, but--" + +"Rubbish! you want to hug your melancholy to yourself. Rats! whistle it +down the wind. D'you think I don't know? Look at me! D'you think I +haven't been through the whole gamut--from Alpha to Omaha--with all the +hemidemisemiquavers thrown in? Lord, I have quavered whole nights. And I +say that le jew ne vaut pas the candle." + +"You are quite Frenchy to-night," said Jack, brightening. + +"I always get more or less Parisian after eight o'clock at night. Dull +as a country squire in the morning, though. Woke up awfully English, and +moral to-day. By the way, you had better sleep on board to-night, so as +to be ready in good time to-morrow. And don't be spoiling your nerves +with the blues. I want you to tool her through to-morrow, and get over +your megrims first. Remember this, that-- + + Womankind more joy discovers + Making fools than keeping lovers." + +"Perhaps you are right," smiled Jack, getting up as if to shake himself +clear of his gloom. "And yet-- + + To be wroth with one we love + Doth work like madness in the brain." + +"There isn't much the matter with you," said Charley, as he saw Jack +swing over the water and make a gymnastic tour round a backstay. And +when the second gun was fired the next morning, and the Ideal was +preening her feathers as she swept through a fleet of boats, there was +nothing very sad about Jack. When the huge club topsail, sitting flat as +a board, caused her to careen gently as she zipped through the +preliminary canter, and when in the race she drew out to windward, +eating up into the wind every chance slant, Charley was watching how +Jack's finger-tips gently felt the wheel, and how his eager eye took in +everything, from the luff of the topsail to the ripples on the water or +the furthest cloud, and he whispered in his ear: "What about Her Majesty +just now, old man?" + +Jack was too intent on getting up into a favoring breath of air to +answer; but he tossed his head to signify that he was all right, and +fell to marveling that he had not thought of Nina for a full hour. + +In spite of the yachting, however, it was difficult to keep from being +lonely at other times, especially at the chambers, because Geoffrey was +out of town, taking his summer vacation, and Jack was forced to fly from +the desolation in the city and pass most of his nights on the Ideal. +This, with the afternoon sailing and a daily bulletin sent to Nina, +addressed to Montreal, served to help him to pass away the time until +the return of Geoffrey, who was greeted, as it were, with open arms. +Their bachelor quarters were very homelike and comfortable. The +sitting-room and library, which they shared together, always seemed a +little lonely when either of them was absent. + +Hampstead was pleased to get back to his luxurious arm-chair and +magazines. Jack's unsuspicious and welcoming face gave the place all the +restfulness of home after a period of more or less watchfulness against +detection. They stretched out their legs from the arm-chairs in which +they sat, and smoked and really enjoyed themselves in the old way among +their newspapers and books. After having settled in New York, when he +first came to America, Geoffrey had employed an old friend, on whose +secrecy he could rely, to call at his father's house in Shropshire and +procure for him all his old relics and curiosities. These the friend had +sent out to him. Every one of them recalled some more or less +interesting memory, and as they hung drying in the dust that Mrs. Priest +seldom attempted to remove they were like a tabular index of Geoffrey's +wanderings, on which he could cast his eyes at night and unconsciously +drop back into the past. There were whips, Tartar bridles, Arab pipes +and muskets, and old-fashioned firearms. No less than six cricket bats +proclaimed their nationality, as an offset against the stranger +trophies. There were foils and masks, boxing-gloves, fishing-rods, +snow-shoes, old swords, and any quantity of what Mrs. Priest called +"rotten old truck, only fit for a second-'and shop." Besides all this, +there were hanging shelves, covered with cups and other prizes that +Geoffrey and Jack had won in athletic contests. Even the ceiling was +made to do duty in exhibiting some lances and a central trophy composed +of Zulu assegais and Malay arrows and such things. These, with the large +bookcases of books, and, of course, Mrs. Priest, constituted their +Penates. + +Here Geoffrey ensconced himself for several evenings after his return, +immersed in his books until long after Jack had knocked out his last +pipe and turned in. His manner of taking his holidays had been an +episode which was forgotten now if anything arose to divert him, +something for him to smile at, but powerless to distract his attention +from a good article in the Nineteenth Century. + +But he did not visit Margaret for three or four days after his return. +When he saw her again, all his better nature came to the fore. He +delighted again in the quiet worship he felt for her now that he could +see more clearly the beauties of temperate life. "Now," he said, as he +stretched himself in his arm-chair one night, after having visited +Margaret earlier in the evening, "now, I will soon get married. With +Margaret, goodness will not only be practicable, but, I can imagine, +even enjoyable." Then, after a while, his mind recurred to his holidays, +which seemed to have been a long time ago. He yawned over the subject, +and thought it was time to go to bed. "Heigh-ho! I have exhausted the +devil and all his works now. He has got nothing more to offer me that I +care to accept. Now I have done with risks and worries. If I can only +get my money affairs straightened out I'll get married in September. +Federal stock is bound to rise, with the new changes in the bank, and +then I'll be all right. I'll just let Lewis have my horse and trap. +He'll give me more than I paid for them. The seven hundred will wipe out +a few things, and then if I can turn myself round again, I'll get +married at once." + +For several days after this he saw Margaret; and the more he saw of her +the more he really longed for the life that seemed best. He was tired of +plot and counterplot. As one whose intellect was generally a discerning +one, when not clouded by exciting vagaries, he had had, all his life, +the idea of enjoying goodness for itself--at some time or other. And +entering Margaret's presence seemed like going to a pure spring fountain +from which he came away refreshed. She had the quick brain that could +skim off the best of his thought and whip it up and present it in a +changed and perhaps more pleasing form. Even the look of her hands, the +way she held up cut flowers, and delighted in their faintest odors (to +him quite imperceptible) showed how much keener and more refined her +sensibilities were than his own and made him marvel to find that in some +respects she lived in a world wherein it was a physical impossibility +for him to enter. As the days wore on in which he daily saw her, he +found himself making little sacrifices for her sake, and even practicing +a trifle of self-denial. He did things that he knew would please her, +and afterward he felt all the healthy glow and ability for virtue which +are the essences that gracious deeds distill. "Doing these things makes +me better," he said. "This moral happiness is a thing to be worked up. I +can not cultivate goodness in the abstract. I must have something +tangible--something to understand; and if good deeds pay me back in this +sort of way I may yet become, partly through my deeds, what she would +wish me to be." + +Full of all this, while ruminating late one night, he took it into his +head to put it into verse, and he rather liked the simple lines. + +TO MARGARET. + +I. + + My Love! I would Love's true disciple be, + That, 'neath the king of teachers' gracious art, + Refined sense and thought might be to me + The stepping-stones to lead me to thy heart; + That thine own realm of peace I too might share. + Where Nature's smallest things show much design + To teach kind thoughts for all that breathe; and where, + As music's laws compel by rule divine, + Naught but obeying good gives joy and rest; + Where thou can'st note the immaterial scent + Of thought and thing, which we gross men at best + Can hardly know, with senses often lent + To heavy joys that leave us but to long + For that unknown which makes thyself a song. + + + +II. + + From gracious deeds exhale the perfumes rare + Of active rest, glad care, and hopeful trust + The soul snuffs these, well pleased, and seems to share, + For once, a joy in concord with the dust. + Thus simple deeds, through Love, make known th' unknown-- + That immaterial most substantial gain + Which makes of earth a heaven all its own. + And claims from spirit-land no sweeter reign. + So, while I learn in thine own atmosphere + To live, guard thou with patience all my ways, + For chance compels when weakness rules, and fear + Of self brings blackest night unto my days; + E'en now, through thee, my worst seems less forlorn, + And darkness breaks before the blushing morn. + +He wondered that the word "soul" had as yet no synonym to express what +he meant without, as he said, "borrowing the language of superstition." +For this he claimed poetical license. He was amused at the similarity of +his verse to some kind of religious prayer or praise. "Perhaps," he +said, "all loves, when sufficiently refined, have only one +language--whether the aspirations be addressed to Chemosh or Dagon or +Mary or Jahveh, or to the woman who embodies all one knows of good. But +perhaps, more likely, the song that perfect love sings in the heart has +no possible language, but is part of 'the choir invisible whose music is +the gladness of the world,' and to which we have all been trying to put +words, in religions and poems. + +"In twenty thousand years from now," he said, smiling, "archaeologists +will be fighting over a discussion as to whether, in these early days, +any superstition still existed. Just before they come to blows over the +matter my sonnets will be found, produced, and deciphered, and there +will be rejoicing on one side to have it proved that at a certain time +Anno Domini (an era supposed to refer to one Abraham or Buddha) man +still claimed that a local god existed called 'Margaret,' who was +evidently worshiped with fervor. + +"But certainly," he added, as he read the sonnet for the third time, +"their mistake will not be such a palpable one as that about the Song of +Solomon." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Never but once to meet on earth again! + She heard me as I fled--her eager tone + Sank on my heart, and almost wove a chain + Around my will to link it with her own, + So that my stern resolve was almost gone. + "I can not reach thee! whither dost thou fly? + My steps are faint. Come back, thou dearest one! + Return, ah me! return!"--The wind passed by + On which those accents died, faint, far, and lingeringly. + + SHELLEY, _The Revolt of Islam._ + + +After a prolonged visit in Montreal, Nina had been back in Toronto for a +short time, during which she had seen no one except Jack, whose two +visits she had rendered so unpleasant that he felt inclined to do +anything from _hara-kari_ to marrying somebody else. + +At this time Geoffrey received a note one morning, addressed in Nina's +handwriting. He turned pale as he tore it open: + + "DEAR MR. HAMPSTEAD: I wish to see you for a moment this + afternoon. If not too much trouble, would you call here at five + o'clock? + + "Yours sincerely, + + "MOSSBANK, _Tuesday._ + + "NINA LINDON." + +There was nothing very exciting on the face of this line, nothing to +create wrath. Yet Geoffrey tore it into shreds as if it had struck him a +blow and was dangerous. + +When he was shown into the drawing-room at Mossbank that afternoon, he +was stepping forward with courteous demeanor and a faint "company smile" +on his face, ready to look placidly and innocently upon any people who +might be calling at the time. He passed noiselessly over the thick +carpets toward the place where Nina was sitting, seeing quickly that +there was nobody else in the room, but aware that the servant was +probably at the door. + +"How-de-do, Miss Lindon?" he said aloud, for the benefit of the +inquisitive. "So you have come back to Toronto at last?" + +"Yes," said Nina, also with an engaging smile. "And how have you been +since I saw you last?" There was a charming inflection in her "company +voice" as she said these words. Then, raising her tone a little, she +said "Howard." + +The servant outside the door took several steps in a circle on the +tesselated pavement of the hall to intimate that he approached from afar +and then appeared. + +"Shut the door, please, Howard," said Nina softly. The man obliterated +himself. + +As soon as they were alone the heavenly sweetness of the caller and the +called upon vanished. Geoffrey's face became grave and his eyes +penetrating. He went toward her and took her hand in an effort to be +kind, while he looked at her searchingly with a pale face. Nina looked +weary and anxious. Neither of them spoke for a while. As Geoffrey +regarded her, she turned to him beseechingly with both anxiety and +affection in her expression. What he interpreted from the unhappiness of +her visage was more than sufficient to disturb his equanimity. He got up +and walked silently and quickly twice backward and forward. During this +moment his mind apparently made itself up on some point finally, for, as +he sat down as abruptly as he had risen, the tension of his face gave +place to something more like nonchalance and kindness. + +"You have something to tell me?" he said, in tones that endeavored to be +kind. + +Nina's face--sad, sorrowful, and tearful--bent itself low that she might +hide it from his sight. "Yes," she managed to say at last, almost +inaudibly. + +Geoffrey endeavored to assist her. "Don't say any more," said he. "Bad +news, I suppose?" + +"The very worst," cried Nina, starting up, her eyes dilating wildly and +despairingly with a sudden accession of fear. + +"Hush, hush!" said Geoffrey, laying his hand soothingly and kindly on +her arm. "You must not give way like that. You must control yourself. We +have both of us too much at stake to tell our story to every one who +likes to listen. Come and let us sit down and talk things over +sensibly." + +She gave him a quick look, half reproach, as if to say, "It is easy for +_you_ to be calm." But she sat down beside him, holding his coat-sleeve +with both hands--hardly knowing what she did. + +Hampstead leaned back, crossed his long legs in front of him, and +counted the eyelet holes in his boot. Then he took her hand, in order to +appear kind and to deal with the matter in an off-hand way. + +"As Thackeray says, Nina, 'truly, friend, life is strewn with +orange-peel.' Now and then we get a bad tumble; but we always get up +again. And I don't think that we ought to allow ourselves to be counted +among those weak creatures who most complain of the strength of a +temptation that takes at least a year to work up. After all, there is no +denying Rochefoucauld's wisdom when he said: 'C'est une espece de +bonheur de connaitre jusques a quel point on doit etre malheureux.' I +have been in a good many worries one way or another, and I always got +out of them. We will get out of this one all right, so cheer up and take +heart." + +"I don't see how," said Nina, turning her head away and feeling a sudden +hope. What was he going to say? Then she recollected that she had +lavished a small income on a dress especially for this interview. +Perhaps if he had an idea worth the hearing the dress might help it out. +She arose, as if absently, and walked to the side window and rested her +elbows against the sash in front of her. The attitude was graceful. As +she turned half over her shoulder to look back at him she could hardly +have appeared to better advantage. Her dress was really magnificent, and +it fitted a form that was ideal. In spite of his late resolutions, +Geoffrey was affected by the cunningly devised snare. A quick thought +came through his head, which he banished about as quickly as it came. + +"Well, of course, there is only one thing to be done," said he +decisively, in a tone which told her that so far she had failed. + +"What is that, dear Geoffrey? Do tell me, for I am very, very +miserable. And say it kindly, Geoffrey. Don't be too hard with me now." + +As she said this she swept toward him. She sank down beside him and +kissed him, and looked up into his face. Again the thought came to him. +Here were riches. Here was a woman whose beauty was talked about in +every city in Canada, who could be his pride, who cared for him +despairingly. If he wished, this mansion and wealth could be his. The +delicate perfumes about her seemed to steal into his brain and affect +his thought. + +An hour ago his resolves for himself had appeared so unchangeable that +they seemed of themselves to prop him up. And now he found himself +trying, with a brain that refused to assist him, to prop up his +resolutions, trying to remember what their best merits had been. One +glimmer of an idea was left in him--a purpose to preserve his fealty to +Margaret, and he thought that, if he could only get away for a moment to +think quietly, he might remember what the best points of his resolutions +had been. The perfumes, the beauty, the wealth, the liking he felt for +her, the duty he owed to her, and perhaps her concentration upon what +she desired--all conspired against him. But, with this part of an idea +left to him, he succeeded in being able slightly to turn his head away. + +When she asked him again what was to be done there was an unreal +decisiveness in his voice as he said: + +"Of course, the only thing to be done is for you to immediately marry +Jack." + +She sprang from him as if he had stabbed her. She was furious with +disappointment. + +"I will never marry Jack! What a dishonorable thing to propose!" + +The idea of dishonor to Jack seemed, for the first time, quite an +argument. When the ethics of a matter can be utilized they suddenly seem +cogent. + +"Very well," said Geoffrey, shrugging his shoulders and rising as if to +go away. "My idea was 'any port in a storm'--a poor idea, perhaps, and +certainly, as you say, entirely dishonorable, but still feasible. Of +course, if you have made up your mind not to marry him, we may as well +consider the interview as ended. I'm afraid I have nothing more to +suggest." + +He did not intend to go away, but he held out his hand as if about to +say good-by. She stood half turned away trying to think. The idea of his +leaving her to her trouble dazed her. She was terrified to realize that +she would be without help. + +"Oh, how cruel you are!" + +She almost groaned as she spoke. She was in despair. She put her hands +to her head hopelessly, her eyes dilated with trouble. + +"Don't go yet, Geoffrey." Then she tried to nerve herself for what she +had to say. After a pause: "Geoffrey, I can say things to you now, that +I could never have said before. I must speak to you fully before you go. +I must leave no stone unturned. There is no one to help me, so I must +look after myself in what must be said. I went away with you, Geoffrey, +because I loved you." She bit her lips to stay her tears and stopped to +regain a desperate fortitude. "I cared for you so much that being with +you seemed right--nay more, sacred. Oh, it drags me to the dust to speak +in this way! But I must. Does not my ruin give me a right to speak? The +question of a girl's reticence must be put away. I am forced to do the +best I can for myself. And now I say, will you stand by me?" Her head +drooped and her hands hung down by her side with shame at the position +she forced herself to take when she added: "Will you do me justice, +Geoffrey? Will you marry me?" + +Hampstead was about to speak, but she knew at once that she had +asked too much, and she continued more quickly and more despairingly: +"Nay, I won't ask so much. I only ask you to take me away. I am +distracted. I don't know what to do. I will do anything. I will be +your slave. You need not marry me--only take me away and hide +me--somewhere--anywhere--for God's sake, Geoffrey, from my shame--from +my disgrace." + +She was on her knees before him as she said these last words. If our +pleasure-loving acquaintance could have changed places with a +galley-slave at that moment he would have done so gladly. + +The first thing he did was to endeavor to quiet the wildness of her +despair. To be surprised by any person with her on her knees before him +in an agony of tears would be a circumstance difficult to explain away. + +As soon as he began to talk, it seemed to him a most dastardly thing to +sacrifice Margaret's life now to conceal his own wrong-doing. In the +light of this idea, Nina's wealth and beauty suddenly became tawdry. +Margaret's nobility and happiness suddenly seemed worth dying for. They +must not be wrecked in a moment of weakness. As if dispassionately, he +laid before Nina the history of their acquaintance, and also his 'other +obligations.' Really, it placed him in a very awkward, not to say +absurd, position. He wished to do what was right, but did not see his +way at all clear. The only way was to efface himself entirely, and +consider only what was due to others. Before the world he was engaged to +Margaret, and had been so all along. She had his word that he would +marry her. If it were only "his word" that had to be broken, that might +be done. But was the happiness of Margaret's life to be cast aside? +Which, of the two, was the more innocent--which, of the two, had the +better right or duty to bear the brunt of the disaster? + +The way he effaced his own personality in this discourse was almost +picturesque. Justice blindfold, with impartial scales in her hand, was +nothing to him. + +Nina said no word from beginning to end. All she heard in the discourse +was something to show her more and more that what she wished must be +given up. It was something to know that at least she had tried every +means in her power to move him--feeling that she had a helpless woman's +right to do so. And as the deep, kindly tones went on they calmed her +and gradually compelled her tacitly and wearily to accept his +suggestion, while his ingenuity showed her the sinuous path that lay +before her. + +At the same time, in spite of all his arguments and her own resolutions, +she could not clearly see why she should be the one to suffer instead of +Margaret. Margaret had so much more strength of character to assist her. +The ability to bear up under sorrow and trouble was a virtue she was +ready to acknowledge to be weaker in herself than in others. The +confession of this weakness, through self-pity, seemed half a virtue, +even though only made to insist upon compensations. + + * * * * * + +The next day, Jack called by appointment. + +"I thought I would just send for you, Jack," said Nina, looking half +angry and half smiling. "I felt as if I wanted to give trouble to +somebody, and I thought you were the most available person." + +"Go ahead, then, old lady. I can stand it. There is nothing a fellow may +not become accustomed to." + +Jack seated himself in one of Nina's new easy-chairs which yielded to +his weight so luxuriously that he thought he would like to get one like +it. He felt the softness of the long arms of the chair, and then, +regaining his feet, turned it round. + +"That's a nice chair, Nina. How much did it put the old man back?" + +Nina looked at him inquiringly. + +"Cost--you know. How much did it spoil the old man?" + +"How do I know? He bought it in New York with a lot of things. Do you +suppose I keep an inventory of prices to assist me in conversation?" + +"I wish you did. I'd like to get one. But I don't know. When we get +married you can hand it out the back gate to me, you know, and then +we'll be one chair ahead--and a good one, too." + +"I do wish you would leave off referring to getting married," said Nina. +And then, "By the way, that is what I wanted to speak to you about--" + +Jack smiled. "Be careful," he said. "Don't set me a bad example by +referring to the subject yourself." + +"Well, I will, for a change. I have been making up my mind +to end this way of dragging on existence. This sort of +neither-one-thing-nor-the-other has got to end. It wearies me. I am not +half as strong as I was. I went away to pick up, and now I am no +better." + +"And how do you propose to end it?" Jack was surprised at the decision +in her voice. + +"I propose to break it off all together," said she firmly. + +"Of course," said Jack, "there is no other alternative for you but +marriage." + +Nina was startled at first by these words. But he had only spoken them +casually. + +"Certainly. A break off or marriage are the only alternatives. Going on +like this is what I will not stand any longer." + +Jack was shaking in his shoes for fear this was the last of him. He +controlled his anxiety, though, and shutting his eyes, he leaned back, +supinely, as if he knew that what he said did not matter much. She would +do as she liked--no question about that! + +"I have, I think, at some previous time," said he, from the recesses of +the chair where he was calmly judicial with his eyes shut, "advocated +the desirability of marriage. I think I have mentioned the subject +before. Of course, this is only an opinion, and not entitled, perhaps, +to a great deal of weight." + +Nina for the first time in her life was annoyed that Jack was not +sufficiently ardent. The unfortunate young man had had cold water thrown +over him too many times. He was getting wise. To-day he was keeping out +of range. Nina had been decidedly eccentric lately and might give him +his _conge_ at any moment. She was evidently in a queer mood still, and, +to-day, Jack would give her no chance to gird at him. + +This well-trained care on his part bid fair to make things awkward. She +saw that it had become necessary to draw him out, and with this object +in view she asked carelessly, as if she had been absent-minded and had +not heard him: + +"What did you say then, Jack?" + +"I was merely hinting, delicately, as an outsider might, that, of the +two important alternatives, marriage seems to offer you a greater scope +for breaking up the _ennui_ of a single life that a mere change from one +form of single life to another." + +Jack did not see the bait she was holding out. He would not rise to it. +Really, it was maddening to have to lead _Jack_ on. He had been "trained +down too fine." + +"Well, for my part," she said laughingly, with her cheek laid against +the soft plush of the sofa, "I don't seem to care now which of the +alternatives is adopted." + +Jack remained quiet when he heard this. Then he said coolly: "If I were +not a wise man, that speech of yours would unduly excite me. But you +said you wanted some one to annoy, and I won't give you a chance. If I +took the advantage of the possibilities in your words we would certainly +have a row. No, old lady, you are setting a trap for me, in order that +you may scold afterward. You like having a row with me, but you can't +have one to-day. 'Burnt child'--you know." + +What could be more provoking than this. Nina, in spite of her troubles, +saw the absurdity of her position, and laughed into the plush. But her +patience was at an end. She sat upright again and said vehemently: + +"Jack Cresswell, you are a born fool!" + +He looked up himself, then, from the chair. There was an expression in +Nina's face that he had not seen for a long time--a consenting and kind +look in her eyes. He got up, slowly, without any haste, still doubtful +of the situation; and as he came toward her his breath grew shorter. "I +believe I am a fool, but I could not believe what I wished. Is it true, +Nina, that you will take me at last?" + +"Listen! Come and sit down, boy, and behave yourself." + +Jack obeyed mechanically. + +She turned around to face him, while she commanded his obedience and +gave her directions with finger upraised, as if she were teaching a dog +to sit up. + +"To-morrow you will call upon my father at his office and ask his +consent to our immediate marriage." + +"Tell me to do something hard, Nina. I feel rather cooped up, just now. +I could spring over that chandelier. I don't mind tackling the old +man--that's nothing. Haven't you got some lions' dens that want looking +after?" + +"You'll feel tired enough when you come out of father's den, I'll +warrant." + +"I dare say. What if he refuses?" + +"Jack," said Nina, "I am an heiress. I dictate to every man but my +father. I have always had my own way, and always mean to have it. So, +beware! But I don't care, now, whether he refuses or not. I have come to +the conclusion that it was this long engagement that worried me, and I +am going to end it in short order. I am getting as thin as a scarecrow. +My bones are coming through my dress." Nina felt the top of one superbly +rounded arm and declared she could feel her collar-bone coming through +in that improbable place. "No, I don't care whether he refuses or not. I +am going to marry you, Jack, before the end of the week." + +Next day Jack found himself not quite so brave as he thought he would be +on entering Mr. Joseph Lindon's office. He was ushered into a rather +shabby little room, which the millionaire thought was quite good enough +for him. He took a pride in its shabbiness. Joseph Lindon, he said, did +not have to impress people with brass and Brussels. There was more solid +monetary credit in his threadbare carpet than in all the plate glass and +gilt of any other establishment in the city. + +Cresswell paused on the threshold as he entered, and then, feeling glad +that nobody else was in the room, advanced toward Mr. Lindon. Lindon saw +him out of the corner of his eye as he came in, and a saturnine smile +relaxed his face while he completed a sentence in a letter which he was +writing. + +"Good morning, Jack," he said briskly. "Come at last, have you?" + +This was rather disconcerting, but Jack replied: "Yes, and you evidently +know why." He said this cheerfully and with considerable spirit, but Mr. +Lindon's next remark was a little chilling. + +"Just so. I was afraid you would come some day. Let us cut it short, my +boy. I have a board meeting in ten minutes." + +"Well, you know all I've got to say. Now, what do you say?" + +This was a happy abruptness on Jack's part, and Lindon rather liked him +for it. It seemed business like. It seemed as if Jack thought too highly +of Mr. Lindon's sagacity to indulge in any persuasion or argument. He +lay back in his chair with an amused look. + +"Why dammit, boy, she's not in love with you." + +Jack shrugged his shoulders and smiled--as if that was point on which +modesty compelled him to be silent But his individuality asserted +itself. + +"Is that all the objection?" + +Evidently, abruptness and speaking to the point were preferred in this +office, and Jack was prepared to give the millionaire all the abruptness +he wanted. + +"No," said Lindon. "Of course, that is not all. But I know, as a matter +of fact, that my daughter does not care a pin about you. Don't think I +have been making money all my life. I can tell when a woman is in love +as well as any man. I have watched Nina myself when you were with her, +and I tell you she does not care half enough for you to marry you." + +"She says she does," said Jack, determined not to be browbeaten by this +man's force. + +"I don't believe a word of it, if she does say so. I was afraid, at one +time, that she was going to make a goose of herself with you, and I +waltzed her off to the Continent. But after she came back I thoroughly +satisfied myself that she was in no danger, or else, my boy, you would +not have had the run of my house as you have had. Under the +circumstances, Jack, I was always glad to see you, since we came back +last, and hope to see you always, just the same. Quite apart, however, +from anything she may say or consent to, I have other plans for my +daughter. I have no son to carry on the name, but my daughter's marriage +will be a grand one. With her beauty and my money, she will make the +biggest match of the day. I did not start with much of a family myself, +but I can control family. When Nina marries, sir, she marries blood; +nothing less than a dook, sir,--nothing less than a dook will satisfy +me. And I'll have a dook, sir; mark my words!" + +When his ambition was aroused, Mr. Lindon sometimes reverted to the more +marked vulgarity of forty years ago. + +Jack arose. The interview was ended as far as he was concerned. + +Lindon felt kindly toward him. He was one of the few young men who were +not overawed by his money and obsequious on account of his wine. + +"Well, good-by," he said. "Don't let this make any interruption in your +visits to Mossbank. You'll always find a good glass of wine ready for +you with Joseph Lindon. I rather like you, Jack, and if you ever want +any backing, just let me know. But, my boy"--here Lindon regarded him as +kindly as his keen, business-loving face would allow, and he laid his +hand on his arm--"my lad, you must be careful. Remember what an old man +says--you're too honest to get along all through life without getting +put upon. You must try to see into things a little more. Just try and be +a little more suspicious. If you don't, somebody will 'go for you,' sure +as a gun." + +Jack saw that this was intended kindly, and he took it quietly, +wondering if Joseph Lindon, while looking so uncommonly sober, could +have been indulging in a morning glass of wine. He went out, and Mr. +Lindon watched his free, manly bearing as he passed to the front door. + +"If I had a son like that," he said warmly, "Nina could marry whom she +liked. That boy would be family enough for me. He would have enough of +the gentleman about him both for himself and his old father. Lord, if I +had a son like that I'd make a prince of him! I'd just give him blank +checks signed with my name. Darned if I wouldn't!" + +To give a son unfilled signed checks seemed to be a culmination of +parental foolishness which would show his fondness more than anything +else he could do. Perhaps he was right. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + Life is so complicated a game that the devices of skill are + liable to be defeated at every turn by air-blown chances + incalculable as the descent of thistledown.--GEORGE ELIOT'S + _Romola_. + + +During Jack's visit to her father's office, Nina passed the time in +desultory shopping until she met him on King Street. + +"I need not ask what your success was," said she, smiling, as she joined +him. "Your face shows that clearly enough." + +"Nothing less than a dook," groaned Jack, good-humoredly. "He seems to +think they can be had at auction sales in England." + +"I am glad he refused," said Nina, "because his consent would delay my +whims. We have done our duty in asking him, and now I am going to marry +you to-morrow, Jack."' + +"To-morrow?" + +"Yes, I am afraid, dear Jack, that if I allowed the marriage to be put +off till next week or longer you might change your mind." She gave Jack +a look that disturbed thought. Affection toward him on her part was +something so new that this, together with her startling announcement, +made it difficult for him accurately to distinguish his head from his +heels. + +"But I can not leave the bank at a moment's notice." + +"No; but you can get your holidays a week sooner. You were going to take +them in a week." + +"Had we not better wait, then, for the week to expire?" + +"Fiddlesticks! Don't you see that I want to give you a chance? What I am +_really_ afraid of is that I shall change my own mind. Father said only +yesterday he was thinking of taking me to England at once. If you don't +want to take your chances you can take your consequences instead." + +It did not seem anything new or strange to Jack that she should give a +little stamp of her foot imperiously, and in all the willfulness of a +spoiled child determine suddenly upon carrying out a whim in spite of +any objections. And Jack needed no great force of argument to push him +on in this matter. His head was throbbing with excitement. To think of +the bank was habitual to him; but the wildness of the new move commended +itself to his young blood. The holidays were a mere matter of +arrangement, for the most part, between the clerks, and he thought he +saw his way to arranging for a fortnight's absence. "I'll make it all +right," he said, thinking aloud. "I will arrange it with Sappy." + +Whether "Sappy" was the bank manager or a fellow-clerk did not at the +moment interest Nina. + +"Why, Nina, I didn't know you were a person to go in for anything half +so wild. It suits me. It will be the spree of my life! But how have you +arranged everything? or have you arranged anything?" + +"Oh, there is nothing very much to arrange. I know you can not leave the +bank finally without giving due notice. So we will just go off now and +get married, and when you come back, after a week or so, you can give +the usual notice and then we will go to California. If your brother +there wants you to go into the grape-farming he must know well enough +that you have better chances there than here in the bank, and if, after +all, the business there did not get on well, I dare say father will have +changed his mind by that time." + +"And how will you account for your absence from home?" + +"Nothing simpler," said she, with a sagacious toss of her head. "I am +just telegraphing to Sophronia B. Hopkins at Lockport, New York. You +remember Sophronia B., when she was with us? I have telegraphed that I +am coming to see her. She will answer to say 'Come along'; and then I +will put her off for a couple of weeks and tell her to keep any letters +forwarded for me from here until I come." + +Jack was astonished. "I thought your head was only valuable as an +ornament," said he, with affectionate rudeness. + +"I have never, with you, had occasion to use it before. To-morrow, at +half-past seven in the morning, you will take the train for Hamilton. I +will take the 9.30 and we will go through to Buffalo together, where we +will arrive about two o'clock, and then we can be married there and go +West. But we need not arrange anything more now. You will be at the +Campbells' to-night, and anything further can be spoken about there. Go +off now to the bank and get everything ready. And, by the way, +Jack"--here she held out her hand as if for good-by--while she asked, +with what seemed to Jack an almost unimaginable coquetry and beauty, +"you won't change your mind, dear Jack?" She gave him one glance from +under her sweeping eyelashes, and then she left him to grope his way to +the bank. + +She thought, as she walked along, "I think I have read somewhere that +'whom the gods wish to take they first drive mad,' or something like +that. It is just as well, as Geoffrey suggested, to keep Jack slightly +insane to-day. It will prevent him from thinking my proposal strange. +Poor Jack! To-day he would give me his right arm as a present. How +shabbily I have treated him, and how well he has always behaved!" + +About eleven on the following forenoon, Jack was waiting in the +dining-room of the Hamilton railway station, looking out through the +window to see Nina's train come in. He thought it better to escape +observation in this way. Nor did Nina indulge in looking out the window +of the Pullman. Everything had been fully arranged, and as the bridge +train moved out of the station, Jack left his obscure post of +observation and hastily passed through the crowd on the station and got +on board the "smoker" in front. When clear of Hamilton he made his way +back through the cars to the drawing-room car, where he found Nina, who +was beginning to look a little anxious for his arrival. + +The train took nearly two hours to trundle along to the bridge. For a +time they talked together, but Nina was feeling the reaction of the +excitement of getting away. She had had a good deal to do, and she did +not feel that going away with Jack would prevent her from enjoying a +fairly comfortable nap in the large swinging arm-chairs. She soon dozed +off, and Jack, who was pleased to see her rest, walked to the end of the +car and back again to calm his nerves. This sort of thing was new to +him. He had a novel with him, but he could not read it. His "only books +were woman's looks" to-day. Other people's adventures seemed poor to him +just now, in comparison with his own. + +While thus moving about restlessly he became a little interested in an +elderly gentleman, evidently a clergyman, who was sitting unobtrusively +behind a copy of the Detroit Church Herald. He passed this retiring +person several times, in loitering about, and then, seeing him with his +paper laid down beside him, stopped and said cheerfully: + +"Got the car all to ourselves to-day." + +"Yes," said the grave-looking person, with an American accent. "And +pleasant, too, on a warm day like this. It's worth the extra quarter to +get out from among the crying babies and orange-peel and come in here +and travel comfortably. Going far?" + +"Only as far as Buffalo," said Jack, taking a seat beside him, for want +of anything better to do. + +"That is where I reside." + +"Ah, indeed!" said Jack. "You make Buffalo the scene of your official +duties?" + +The other nodded. "I have been for a visit to Detroit, and now I am +going back to relieve my superior in the church, so that he may take a +holiday also. I think we clergy need a holiday as much as any other +people I ever saw. Do you know Buffalo at all?" + +"Never was there in my life," said Jack. + +"Humph! Well, it ain't a bad place, Buffalo, when you know the people +well. I have only been there five years, but I have found in our +congregation some real nice folks. Of course, mine is the Episcopal +Church, and I have generally found the Episcopalians, in my sojournings +in different places, to be the superior people of the locality." + +From the compliment to the Episcopalians it was evident that the +clergyman had no doubt Jack belonged to that aristocratically inclined +sect, and Jack smiled at his friend's shrewdness, forgetting the fact +that "Church of England--mild, acquiescent, and gentlemanly"--was +written all over him, and that the cut of his clothes, the shape of his +whisker, the turn of his head when listening, and even the solidity of +his utility-first boots made it almost impossible for any person to +suppose he belonged to any other denomination. + +"I have heard," Jack said, "that the Buffalo people, many of them, have +lots of money, and that they give freely to the churches. I suppose +money is an element in a congregation which gentlemen of your calling do +not object to?" + +It seemed to Jack that the long gray eyes of the minister smiled at this +point more because he thought he was expected to smile than from any +sense of mirth. He was a grave man, who, behind a dignified reserve, +seemed capable of taking in a great deal at a glance. + +"No one can deny the power of money," he said. "But, though there is a +good deal of it in St. James's Church, what with a paid choir, and the +church debt, and repairs, and the new organ, and the paying of my +superior in office, I can tell you there is not very much left for the +person who plays second fiddle, as one may say." + +"Ah!" said Jack sympathetically. + +"When a man has a wife and a growing family to support and bring up in a +large city, and prices away up, twelve hundred dollars a year don't go a +very great ways, young man, and if it were not for our perquisites some +of us would find it difficult to make both ends of the string meet +around the parcel we have got to carry." + +Jack was becoming slightly interested in this man and was wondering what +his previous history was. He wondered that his new acquaintance had not +made more money than he seemed to possess. There was something behind +his grave immobility of countenance that suggested ability of some sort, +he did not know what. His slightly varying expressions of countenance +did not always seem to appear spontaneously, but to be placed there by a +directing intelligence that first considered what expression would be +the right one. It seemed like a peculiar mannerism which might in +another man be the result of a slightly sluggish brain. + +They conversed with each other all the way to the bridge, and although +the dignified reserve of the clergyman never quite thawed out, Jack +began to rather like him and be interested in his large fund of +information about the United States and anecdotes of frontier life in +California, where as a youth he had had a varied experience. + +Their baggage was examined by the customs officer on the American side +of the bridge, and the clergyman noticed a monogram in silver on Nina's +shopping-bag, "N. L.," and the initials "J. C." on Jack's valises, and +came to the conclusion from Jack's studied attentions to Nina when she +awoke that, if the young couple were not married yet, it was quite time +they were; and no doubt it entered the clerical mind that there might be +a marriage fee for himself to come out of the little acquaintance. In +view of this he renewed the conversation himself after the car went on +by the New York Central toward Buffalo. Jack introduced the Rev. Matthew +Simpson to Nina, and he made the short run to Buffalo still shorter with +amusing stories of clerical life, ending up with one about his own +marriage, which was not the less interesting on account of its being a +runaway match and the fact that he had never regretted it. Jack felt +that behind this elderly man's dignity there was a heart that understood +the world and knew what young people were. So he told a short story on +his account, which did not seem to surprise the reverend gentleman a +great deal, and it was arranged that he should perform the ceremony for +them at the hotel. On arriving in Buffalo they left their luggage at the +station, intending to go on to Cleveland at four o'clock. On the way up +Main Street, Mr. Simpson pointed out St. James's Church--a large +edifice, partly covered with ivy--and also showed the parsonage where he +lived. He urged them to wait and be married in the church, but Nina +shunned the publicity of it and pleaded their want of time. + +Jack and Nina had some dinner at the Genesee House, while Mr. Simpson +got the marriage license ready. As luck would have it, Mr. Simpson +himself issued marriage licenses, which, as he explained, also assisted +him to eke out his small income; and as soon as they had had a hurried +lunch, they all retired to a private parlor and the marriage ceremony +was performed very quietly. + +Two waiters were called in as witnesses, and it was arranged that on +their return to Buffalo in a few days, they could call at the parsonage +and then sign the church register, for which there was now no time +before the four o'clock train left for Cleveland. The license was +produced, filled out, and signed in due form, and on the large red seal +were stamped the words, "Matthew Simpson, Issuer of Marriage Licenses." +The presence of the stamp showed that he was a duly authorized person, +and satisfied Jack that in employing a chance acquaintance he was not +making any mistake. + +They were glad when the ceremony was finished, and Jack was very +pleasant with Mr. Simpson. They all got into the cab again, and rattled +off toward the station. As they came near the parsonage of St. James's +Church, Mr. Simpson said he thought he would go as far as the suburbs +with them in their train to see how some people in the hospital were +getting on. He said he would get down, now, at the parsonage, because he +wished to take something with him to one of the patients, but that they +must not risk losing the train. + +"I will take another cab and meet you at the train. It is not a matter +of much moment if I fail to catch it; but, Mr. Cresswell, if you get a +bottle of wine into the car (perhaps you will have time to get it at the +station), I will be pleased to drink Mrs. Cresswell's health." + +"That's a capital idea," said Jack with spirit. "The wine will be +doubtful, perhaps, but that won't be my fault. And now," he added, as +the carriage stopped at the parsonage, "I want to leave with you your +fee, Mr. Simpson, and I hope you will not consider that it cancels our +indebtedness to you." Jack pulled out a roll of bills. + +"Never mind, my dear young man," said Mr. Simpson heartily, "any time +will do. I will catch you at the station, and, if I don't, you can leave +it with me when you return here to sign the register." + +Mr. Simpson got out, and Jack, finding he had only two five dollar +bills, the rest being all in fifties, was rather in a dilemma how to pay +Mr. Simpson twenty dollars for his fee. + +"Here;" he said hurriedly, handing out a fifty, "you get this changed, +if you have time, on your way down. You may possibly miss us at the +station, and I can not hear of your waiting until we return." + +"Very well," said Mr. Simpson, speaking as fast as his tongue would let +him, "I will have to take my chance, and, if I can not catch you, just +call in for the balance when you return. Don't lose a moment!" With a +wave of his hand and a direction to the driver, Mr. Simpson went +hurriedly up the parsonage steps, and the cab dashed off toward the +Michigan Southern depot. + +Jack had time to purchase the wine, which ought to have been good, +judging from the price. Unfortunately, Mr. Simpson was too late to join +them. The train went off without him, and Jack and Nina drank his jolly +good health in half the bottle, and afterward the Pullman conductor +struggled successfully with the rest. + +Altogether they were in high spirits, Jack especially, and Nina's +thankfulness for being safely married to one of the best of men made her +very amiable. + + * * * * * + +Mr. and Mrs. John Cresswell approached Buffalo again, from the West, at +the close of Jack's two weeks' holidays. They decided that it would be +better for Nina to go straight to Lockport on the train which connected +with the one on which they were traveling. There was nothing for Nina to +do in Buffalo but sign the register and get her marriage "lines" from +Mr. Simpson, and Jack could do this, they thought, without a delay on +her part to do so. To arrange about the register she had written her +name on a narrow slip of paper which Jack could paste in the book at the +parsonage. This they considered would suffice, and Nina went on to pay +her intended visit to Sophronia B. Hopkins. The run to Lockport occupied +only a short time, and then she went to her friend's house. + +In the mean time Jack, who was not like the husband in Punch in that +stage of the honeymoon when the presence of a friend "or even an enemy" +would be a grateful change of companionship, walked up Main Street +smoking a cigar and trying to make the best of his sudden bereavement. +He said after the first ten minutes that he was infernally lonely, but +still the flavor of the cigar was from fair to middling. And, after all, +tobacco and quiet contemplation _have_ a place in life which can not be +altogether neglected, and they come in well again after a while, no +matter what may have caused their temporary banishment. + +He strolled leisurely up to the parsonage and inquired for Mr. Simpson. +The maid-servant said he did not live there. Jack thought this was +strange. + +"I mean the clergyman who has charge of the church alongside." + +"Oh, yes, Mr. Toxham lives here. He is inside. Will you walk in?" + +Jack was ushered into a clergyman's library, where a thin man with a +worn face was sitting. Jack bowed, introduced himself, and said he had +come here to see Mr. Matthew Simpson, "one of the associate clergymen in +St. James's Church close by." + +"I do not think I know anybody by the name of Simpson," said the +clergyman. "My name is Toxham. I have no associate clergyman with me in +the neighboring church. My church is called St. Luke's, not St. James's. +I don't think there is any St. James's Church in Buffalo." Jack grasped +the back of the chair and unconsciously sat down to steady himself. A +horrible fear overwhelmed him. His face grew ashen in hue, and the +clergyman jumped up in a fright, thinking something was going to happen. + +"It's all right," said Jack weakly. "Sit down, please. You have given me +a shock, and I feel as I never felt before. There, I am better now." + +As he wiped away the cold perspiration that had started out in beads on +his forehead he related the facts as to his marriage to Mr. Toxham, who +was greatly shocked. + +An idea occurred to him, and on looking through the city directory, as a +sort of last chance, he found the name "Matthew Simpson, issuer of +marriage licenses." + +Jack started up, filled with wild and sudden hope. He got the address, +and dashed from the house before Mr. Toxham could give him a word of +advice. Arrived at the office of Matthew Simpson, he walked in and asked +for that gentleman. + +"I am Matthew Simpson," said the man he spoke to. + +Jack looked at him as if he had seven heads, feeling the same trembling +in the knees which he had felt when with Mr. Toxham. "Really," he +thought, "if this goes on I'll be a driveling idiot by nightfall." + +"Did you issue a marriage license on, let me see, two weeks ago +to-morrow--on the 23d?" + +"More than likely I did. Perhaps a good many on that day. You don't look +as if you wanted one yourself. Anything gone wrong? But you can have one +if you like. I do the biggest business in Buffalo. I sell more marriage +licenses than any two men between here and--" + +"Turn up your books," interrupted Jack savagely. He was beginning to +wish to kill somebody. + +"I always make a charge for a search," said the man cunningly, which was +not true. + +"Well, damn it, I can pay you. Look lively now, or the police will do it +for me in five minutes, and put you where your frauds will be of no use +to you." + +It was Mr. Simpson's turn to lose color now. He was one of the trustees +of a public institution in Buffalo, and people should be careful how +they talk too suddenly about police to trustees. The books were +produced, and Jack hurriedly looked over the list of the licenses sold +on the 23d of the last month, and was surprised to find that one had +been sold to himself. His age was entered and sworn to as fifty-five +years, and the license was to marry Nina Lindon, spinster, aged twenty +years. The addresses given were all Buffalo. + +"There has been a great fraud done here," said Jack vehemently. + +"All perfectly regular, my dear sir," said Mr. Simpson. "I remember the +circumstance well. Old party, called John Cresswell, came in, dressed +like a preacher, and wanted a license for himself. 'All right, my old +covey,' says I to myself; 'trust an old stager like you to pick up the +youngest and best.' So I perdooced the papers, which took about five +minutes to fill up. He took the oath, I sealed and stamped the license, +like this one here, and as soon as he got it he took out his purse and +there was nothing in it. His face fell about a quarter of a yard. 'My +goodness,' he says. 'I have come out without any money!' He then laid +down the license and rushed to the door, and then turned round and says, +quite distressed: 'I'll take a cab,' says he, 'and drive home and get +your money. They're all waiting at the church for the marriage to take +place, but, of course, you must be paid first.'" + +"Well, I hated to see an old gent put about so, and his speaking about +'taking a cab' and coming from 'home' in such a natural, put-about sort +of way kinder made me think he was solid, and, like a dum fool, I slings +him the license and tells him to call in after the ceremony. He thanked +me, with what I should call Christian gratitude in his face. Yes, sir, +it was Christian gratitude, there, every time. And--would you believe +it?--the old boozer never showed up since!" + +"Ha!" said Jack, who only heard the main facts of what Simpson was +saying. "Did you never see this old man before?" he added. + +"Well, that is a funny thing about it. It seemed to me I knew the face. +That was one thing that made me trust him. I could not swear to it, but +I have a great mind for faces, and I believe I have, at some time or +other, sold the old coon a license before." + +Jack thought this would account for the old man, while on the train, +giving the name Matthew Simpson, when he had the whole scheme quickly +arranged in his head. Still, it might be that he was in fact some +profligate, ruined clergyman, who played these confidence games to make +a livelihood. The license was issued in his and Nina's names, and, +although incorrect on its face and not paid for, might still, he +thought, be a legal license for him to claim a _bona-fide_ marriage +under. If the license was good enough, the next thing to do was to go +to the police office and find out what he could there. "The marriage +might be a good one still." + +He threw down the price of the license for Mr. Simpson, and asked him to +be good enough to keep the papers in his possession carefully, as they +might be required afterward. He left Mr. Simpson rather mystified as to +the interest he took in the matter, and then, having still two hours +before train-time, he repaired to the police headquarters. There he +related in effect what had taken place to Superintendent Fox. Two or +three quiet-looking men were lounging about, seeming to take but little +interest in Jack's story. Detectives are not easily disturbed by that +which excites the victim who tells his unfortunate experience. These +fellows were smoking cigars, and they occasionally exchanged a low +sentence with each other in which Jack thought he heard the word +"Faro-Joseph." What that meant he did not know; but he described the +gentleman of dignified aspect, whom he had known on the train as Rev. +Matthew Simpson, and then he heard one of them mutter "Faro-Joseph" +again, while they nodded significantly. + +One of the men, who had his boots on a desk in front of him, was +consulting his note-book. He then said: + +"On the 23d of last month Faro-Joseph got off the train at the Central +Depot at two o'clock. On the 26th he left on the Michigan Southern at 10 +P. M." + +It dawned upon Jack that his clerical friend was called "Faro-Joseph" in +police circles. + +"Why did you not warn me when you saw me in company with this man. He +got off the train with me at the the time you say. Surely I should have +had some word from you!" + +"Well, gent, I tell you why. I was just about to arrest another man, and +in the crowd I did not see that you were with him. Don't remember ever +seeing you before. I might pass you twenty times and never know I had +seen you. You're not the kind we reaches out for. Now, I dare say, +unless a woman is of a fine figure--tall, possibly, or the kind of +figure you admire--chances are you don't see her at all. That is, you +could not tell afterward whether you had seen her or not. Same thing +here. You're not the kind we hunt." + +Jack turned to the superintendent and asked him whether this man, +Faro-Joseph, was not really at one time a clergyman. The superintendent +smiled pityingly. + +"Why, he only started the sky-pilot game during the last ten years, and +only takes it up occasionally. Though I believe it's his best holt. As a +Gospel-sharp he'll beat anybody out of their socks. He's immense on that +lay. What I call just perfect. He's all on the confidence ticket now and +the pasteboards. Has quite given up the heavy business. Why, sir, you +would forgive him most anything if you could see him handle card-board. +We pulled him for a 'vag.' one night about four months ago; and, just to +find out how he did things, I played a little game with him after we let +him go on promise to quit. We put the stakes about as low as they could +be put--five-cent ante, and twenty-five cent limit--just for the +experiment. Now, sir, you would be surprised. He cheated me from the +word 'go,' and I don't know yet how it was done. If he dealt the cards +he would get an all-fired hand himself, and if I dealt him nothing he'd +bluff me right up the chimney. For poker he has no match, I believe. All +I know about that game is that I lost three dollars in thirty minutes." + +"Perhaps you have his record written down somewhere?" said Jack, feeling +sick at heart, and yet fascinated by the account of Faro-Joseph. + +"Perhaps we have," said the superintendent, smiling toward one of the +loungers near by. "Just come in this way." + +The superintendent opened a large case like a wardrobe, and began +flapping back a large number of thin flat wings that all worked on +separate hinges. These wings were covered with photographs of +criminals--a terrible collection of faces--and from one of them he took +a very fair likeness of our clerical friend in another dress. Pasted at +the back of the photograph was a folded paper containing a list in fine +writing of his known convictions and suspected offenses for a period of +over forty years. He had been burglar, counterfeiter, and forger, which +the superintendent called the 'heavy business' that he had given up. +Since those earlier days he had been train-gambler, confidence-man, and +sneak-thief. + +There was nothing to be done. Faro-Joseph never had been a clergyman. To +put the law in force was out of the question for several reasons. Jack +got away to catch his train for Toronto and to think and think what it +would be best to do about Nina, and where and how they could get married +properly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Spread no wings + For sunward flight, thou soul with unplumed vans! + Sweet is the lower air and safe, and known + The homely levels. + Dear is the love, I know, of wife and child; + Pleasant the friends and pastimes of your years. + Live--ye who must--such lives as live on these; + Make golden stairways of your weakness; rise + By daily sojourn with those fantasies + To lovelier verities. + + (_Buddha's Sermon--The Light of Asia._)--ARNOLD. + + +Jack made another mistake in coming on to Toronto after finding out the +disastrous failure of his supposed marriage. If he had gone to Lockport +and found Nina at her friend's house, perhaps some arrangement could +have been made for their marriage in Buffalo on the following day. Mr. +Toxham, the clergyman on whom Jack called at the parsonage, had tried to +get his ear for advice on this subject. But, as mentioned before, when +Jack read the address of Matthew Simpson he immediately bolted out, +without waiting to listen to the suggestions which the clergyman tried +to make. If this idea occurred to Jack, there were reasons why he did +not act upon it. He was due at the bank the next morning, and regularity +at the bank was a cast-iron creed with him--the result of continually +subordinating his own wishes to that which the institution expected of +him. The clerk who was doing his work there would be leaving for his own +holidays on the following day, and Jack felt the pressure his duty +brought upon him. Again, how would it be possible, after finding where +Nina was staying in Lockport, to call at the house and take her away +from her friends almost before she had fairly arrived? Geoffrey would +have got over this difficulty. But he had the inventive mind which goes +on inventing in the presence of shock and surprise. Jack was not like +him on land. He had this ability only on a yacht during a sudden call +for alert intelligence. His nerve had not been educated to steadiness by +escapades on land, nor had he had experience in any trouble that +required much insight into consequences. The discovery that the woman +for whom he existed was not his wife seemed to prostrate and confuse +thought. He felt the need of counsel, and was afraid to trust his own +decision. If he could only get home and tell Geoffrey the whole +difficulty, he felt that matters could be mended. + +He arrived in Toronto about ten o'clock at night feeling ill and faint, +having eaten nothing since a light breakfast thirteen hours before. He +dropped in at the club and took a sandwich and some spirits to make him +sleep. Then he went to his lodgings (Geoffrey was out somewhere), rolled +into bed, and slept the clock round till eight the next morning. + +As he gradually awoke, thoroughly refreshed, there was a time during +which, although he seemed to himself to be awake, he had forgotten about +his supposed marriage. He was single John Cresswell again, with nothing +on his mind except to be at the bank "on time." So his troubles +presented themselves gently; first as only a sort of dream that he had +once been married to the love of his life--to Nina. When he fully awoke +he began to realize everything; but not as he realized it the night +before. Then, the case seemed almost hopeless. Now, his invigorated self +promised success in some way. He was glad he had not met Geoffrey the +night before. The morning confidence in himself made Geoffrey seem +unnecessary. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he walked through the museum of a +sitting-room and into Hampstead's bedroom, where he fell upon that +sleeping gentleman and rudely shook him into consciousness. + +"Hello, Jack! Got back?" growled Geoffrey as he awoke. + +"Yes. You had better get up if you want to attend the bank to-day." + +"All right," said Geoffrey, sitting up. "What sort of a time did you +have? Old people well?" + +Jack was supposed to have been in Halifax, where his parents lived with +the other old English families there. + +"Yes, I had a pretty good time," said Jack. "The old people are fine!" +he added, freshly. "How are things in the bank?" + +Geoffrey then retired to his bath-room, and an intermittent conversation +about the bank and other matters went on for a few minutes during the +pauses created by cold water and splashing. + +It was a relief to Jack that neither at breakfast nor afterward did +Geoffrey ask any more questions about his fortnight's holiday. Hampstead +knew better. + +During the next six weeks Geoffrey was decidedly unsettled. "Federal" +went up as a matter of course, and he sold out with advantage. He +cleared five thousand dollars on this transaction, and had now a capital +of fifteen thousand dollars. He was rather lucky in his venture into the +stock market. His experience on Wall Street had given him a keen insight +into such matters, and he studied probabilities until his chances of +failure were reduced, keeping up a correspondence by telegraph and +letter with his old Wall Street employers who, in a friendly way, shared +with him some of their best knowledge. + +Immediately after he had sold out "Federal" an American railway magnate +died. This man almost owned an American railway which was operating and +leasing a Canadian railway. No sooner was the death known than the stock +of the Canadian Railway took a tumble. For a moment public confidence in +it seemed to be lost. Now Geoffrey had studied chances as to this line. +He knew that it was one of the few Canadian railways that under fair +management was able to pay a periodical dividend--a small one at times, +perhaps, but always something. It did not go on for years without paying +a cent like some of the others. He had waited for this millionaire to +die in order to buy the largely depreciated stock. When the opportunity +arrived he bought on margin a very large quantity of it at a low figure. +But the trouble was that the public did not agree with him and the few +cool heads who tried to keep quiet, hold on, and wait till things +reinstated themselves. An ordinary man's chances in the stock market do +not depend upon his own sagacity more than does guessing at next week's +weather. Fortunes are lost, like lives, not from the threatened danger +but from panic. Bad rumors about the railway were afloat and the stock +continued to go down. Geoffrey hastily sold out his other stocks for +what he could get, and stuffed everything available into the widening +gap through which forces seemed to be entering to overwhelm him. + +In the meantime while Nina was at Lockport, Jack had gone on quietly +with his work in the Victoria Bank. He had not given notice of his +intentions to leave that institution, because, after his return, he had +thought he would like to take more money than he had already saved to +California with him. His brother had written previously to say that he +ought to bring with him at least three thousand dollars, to put into the +business of grape-farming, and Jack thought if he could only hold on at +the bank, where he was fairly well paid, he might in a few months +complete the sum required. Already he had put away over twenty-five +hundred dollars, and it would not take long to save the balance. + +Nina came back from Lockport blaming herself for her former unreasoning +infatuation for Geoffrey. Hers was a nature that had of necessity to +lavish its affection on something or somebody. If she could have given +this affection, or part of it, to her own mother it would have been a +valuable outlet in these later years. The confidences that ought to have +existed between them would then have been the first links to be sundered +when she sought Hampstead's society. + +Unluckily Mrs. Lindon was not in every way perfect. While she had +continued to be "not weary in well doing," as she called it, her +daughter had been gradually commencing to consider how her duties and +social law might be evaded. While Mrs. Lindon visited the Haven and +listened to the stories of the women there which were always so +interesting to her, and while she expended her time in ways that her +gossip-loving nature sought, her daughter had been left the most +defenseless person imaginable. + +The fact to be remarked was, that the same impulses which had led Nina +into wrong-doing previously were now becoming her greatest power for +good. For those who claim to distinguish the promptings that come from +Satan from those that come from Heaven, there is in nature a good deal +of irony. Nature is wonderfully kind to the pagan, considering his +disadvantages. When self has been abandoned for an inspiring object +there is no reason to think that the self-surrendered devoted Buddhist, +or the self-offered victim to Moloch, experiences, any less than the +Salvation Army captain, that deep, heart-felt, soul-set, almost ecstatic +gladness--that sensation of consecration and confidence--that internal +song which the New Testament so beautifully puts words to. It is a great +thing for a woman to be allowed to lavish her affection in a way +permitted by society, for few have enough strength of character to hold +up their heads when society frowns. + +Nina was just such a woman as many whom her mother liked to converse +with at the Haven. They were poor and she was rich and well educated, +but she was neither better nor worse than the majority of them. +Nevertheless, from a social point of view, she was on the right track +now, apparently. From a social point of view, Mrs. John Cresswell with +society at her feet would not be at all the same person as Nina Lindon +disgraced. True, it would require subtlety and deception before she +could feel that she had re-established herself safely, but, as Hampstead +quoted, "some sorts of dirt serve to clarify," and to her it seemed the +only way feasible. She did not like painstaking subtlety any more than +other people. It gave her intense unrest. She looked gladly forward to +the time when she would leave Toronto with Jack for California, said she +longed with her whole heart for the necessity of deception to be over +and done with. She did not know--Jack had not told her--that their +supposed marriage was void, and she was following out the train of +thought that leads toward ultimate good. She was saddened and subdued, +wept bitter tears of contrition for her faults, and prayed with an +agonized mind for forgiveness and strength to carry her through what lay +before her. + +The change in her was due to improved conditions under which her nature +became able to advance by woman's ordinary channels toward woman's +possible perfection. A great after-life might be opening before her. +Some time, probably, her father's wealth would be hers. After long years +of chastening remembrances of trouble, after years of the outflow toward +good of a heart that refused to be checked in its love, and would be +able from personal experience to understand, and thus lift up lovingly, +wounded souls, and with many of the perfections of a ripened womanhood, +we can imagine Nina as admirable among women, a power for good, +controlling through the heart rather than the intellect, as generous as +the sun. + +But where will these beautiful possibilities be if her sin is found out? + +Since her return Jack had not told Nina the terrible news which awaited +her. The secret on his mind made him uneasy in her presence. When he had +called once or twice in the afternoon he was very silent and even +depressed, but she considered that he had a good deal to think about, +and it was also a relief to her not to be expected to appear brilliantly +happy. What he thought was that after he had earned the rest of the +money he required they could get married at the first American town they +came to on their way to California. He could not bring himself to tell +her the truth, which would make her wretched in the mean time, and he +did not see why the real marriage should not be deferred until it was +more convenient for him to leave Canada. When Nina had spoken about +going away, he had evaded the topic, and she did not wish to press the +point. He explained his long periods of absence during this time by +several excuses. His secret weighed so heavily upon him that he dreaded +lest in a weak moment he might tell her. It was significant of the +change in Nina toward him that, during the time he was there, nothing +would induce her to sacrifice the restful moments to anybody. She would +sit beside him, talking quietly and restfully, holding his hand in hers, +or with her head upon his shoulder. Once, when he was leaving, all the +hope she now felt welled up within her as she said good-by. All that was +good and kind seemed to her to be personified in Jack, and it smote him +when she put her arms round his neck and, with a quiet yearning toward +good in her face, said: + +"Good-by, Jack, dear husband!" + +Jack's great heart was rent with pity and affection as he saw through +the gathering mists that calm, wondrous yearning look in her face that +afterward haunted him. He did not understand fully from what depths of +black anguish that look came, straining toward the light. But he knew +that he was not her husband, and he could see that when she called him +by this name she was uttering a word which to her was hallowed. + +Another week now slipped by, and Geoffrey could not understand why Jack +had not gone to California. He called on Nina to ascertain how matters +stood. She received him standing in the middle of the room. To-day +Geoffrey closed the door behind him. It was the last time he ever +intended to be in this house, and so he did not care much what the +inquisitive door-opener might think. + +There was no mark of special recognition on either side. He walked +quickly toward her, seeing, at one quick glance, that he was not +regarded as a friend. + +"Why have you and Jack not gone yet to California?" he said, without +prelude. + +"I don't know," she answered coldly, still standing and eyeing him with +aversion, as he also stood before her. "Has not Jack given any notice of +his intention to leave the bank?" + +"I have not heard of any. You ought to know that better than I," said +Geoffrey. "By the way," he added, "you might as well sit down, Nina. +There is no use that I see in playing the tragedy queen." His voice +hardened her aversion to him. + +"No," she said, her voice deep and full with resentment. "If I am always +allowed to choose, I will never sit down in your presence again. You +have come here to look after your own interests, and I have got to +listen to you, to learn from your lips your devil's cunning. You are +forced to tell me the proper plans, and I am forced to listen and act +upon them. Now go on and say what you have to say." + +Hampstead nodded, and said simply: "Perhaps you are right. I don't know +that it is worth your while to take so much trouble, but I respect the +feeling which prompts it." + +Nina looked angry. + +"Don't think I say this unkindly. You, or rather your conditions, have +changed, and I merely wish to acknowledge the improvement. We will speak +very simply to each other to-day. Now, about California; it appears to +me that Jack does not intend to go there for a good while if allowed to +do as he likes. You must go at once. He very likely is wishing to make +more money before he leaves, but this won't do. He must go at once." + +"I think," said Nina, "that there need be no further reason for your +seeing me again after this interview. You have always, lately, been +Jack's confidant. Send him to me this evening, and I will tell him to +consult with you. After that, you can arrange with him everything +necessary about our departure. He will need advice, perhaps, in many +ways, and then he can (here Nina's lip curled) benefit by your wisdom." + +"I would not sneer too much at the wisdom if I were you. My devil's +cunning, as you are pleased to call it, has put you on the right track, +whatever its faults may be. It has stood us both in good stead this +time, and, if I did force you to marry Jack, you should not blame me for +that now, and I do not think you do." + +He turned to move toward the door. He did not consider that he had any +right to say good-by, or anything else beyond what was absolutely +necessary. But his reference to Jack, in a way that seemed to speak of +his worth, aroused Nina; and this, together with the thought that she +would never again see this man who had treated her whole existence as a +plaything, induced her to speak again to him. + +"Stop," she said. "I do indeed owe you something. You forced me to marry +Jack, out of your own selfishness, of course, but still I must thank you +for it. To my last hour I will thank you for that. Yes, I will even +thank you for more--for the careful way you have shown me my way from +out of my troubles. I think I am nearly done with anguish now. A little +more will come, no doubt, and after that, please God, whatever troubles +I endure will not be shameful. And now something tells me, Geoffrey, +that I shall never see you again. I can not let you go without saying +that I forgive you all. Some time, perhaps, you will be glad I said so. +You have been by turns cunning, selfish, wise, and loving to me. You +have also seemed--I don't know that you _were_, but you have +_seemed_--cruel to me; but I do not think, now that I look back upon +everything more calmly, that you have been unjust. No; a woman should +bear her part of the consequences of her own deeds. I am glad that +Margaret's happiness is still possible and that I did not drag anybody +down with me. The more I think of everything the less I blame you. You +will think I am getting wise to look at it in this way, but I never +could look at it like this until now." + +Nina was speaking in a way that surprised Geoffrey. Sorrow had altered +her; dangers and changes were encompassing her. Though all love for him +was dead, the man whom she had once worshiped stood before her for the +last time. He, who had caused her more happiness and distress than any +other person ever could again, stood in silence taking his leave of +her--forever. Urged by hope, besieged by doubts and dangers, driven by +necessities, her mind had acquired an abnormal activity, and she seemed +all at once to be able to realize what it was to part from him for all +eternity and to become conscious while she stood there of a power to +rise in intelligence above everything surrounding her--above all the +clogging conditions of our existence--and to judge calmly, even +pityingly, of both herself and Geoffrey and of all the agonies and joys +that now seemed to have been so small and unnecessary. As she spoke the +whole of her life seemed spread out before her. She recollected, or +seemed to recollect, all the events of her life, and she remained a +moment gazing before her in a way that made her look almost unreal. + +"I can see," she said slowly, in a calm, distinct voice, "everything +that has happened in my life; but all the rest is all a blank to me." + +Geoffrey noticed that, with her clearness of vision into the past, she +evidently expected also to see something of the future and was startled +and surprised at seeing nothing. She continued looking before her, as if +unconscious of his presence, until she turned to him shuddering. + +"Good-by, Geoffrey. I feel that something is going to happen in some +way, either to you or to me; I don't know how. I see things to-day +strangely, and there are other things I want to see and can not." + +She looked at him with a look such as he had never seen in any one. + +"You will never see me again, Geoffrey. I am certain of that. I pray +that God may be as good to you as I have been." + +Geoffrey grew pale. Something convinced him that she spoke the truth and +that he never would see her again. There was something in her appearance +and in her words that made him shudder. A rarefied beauty had spread +over her; she seemed to be merely an intelligence, speaking from the +purity of some other realm. It seemed as if it were no human prompting +that urged her to the utterance of forebodings, and that her last words +were as sweet as they were terrible. + +He tried to look at her kindly, to cheer her, but he saw that, for the +moment, the emotions of our ordinary life were totally apart from her +and that he had become nothing to her but a combination of +recollections. + +He raised her hand to his lips, took a long look at her, and went his +way, leaving her standing in the middle of the room calmly watching his +retreat. + +As Hampstead went back to the club he felt unstrung. He went in and +drank several glasses of brandy to brace himself. He had been drinking a +great deal during this excitement over his investments. At ordinary +times he did not care enough about liquor to try to make a pastime of +drinking. Now, there was a fever in his blood that seemed to demand a +still greater fever. He did not get drunk, because his individuality +seemed to assert itself over and above all he consumed. To-day, to add +to the depression he felt about his prospects (for ruin was staring him +in the face), the strange words of Nina--full of presentiment--her +uncanny, prophetess-like eyes, and the conviction that he had seen her +for the last time--all weighed upon him. Her last words to him haunted +him, and he drank heavily all the evening. + +He told Jack he had called to see Nina in the afternoon, and that she +had expressed a wish to see him in the evening. + +About eight o'clock Jack made his appearance at Mossbank. Mrs. Lindon +had dragged her unwilling husband off to a dinner somewhere, so that the +young people were not in anticipation of interruption. + +Nina had got over the strange phase into which she had passed while +saying good-by to Geoffrey during the afternoon, and was doing her best +to appear natural and pleasant. After some conversation, she inquired +whether he had given the bank notice of his intention to leave. When he +said he had not, she let him know that she must leave Toronto at once, +and the first thing he did was to ejaculate: "O my God, and we not +married!" + +Nina caught the words, and sprang toward him from the chair in which she +had been sitting. + +They were a pitiable pair; with faces like ashes, confronting each +other. + +"What did you say then, Jack? Tell me all--tell me quick, or you will +kill me!" + +"Yes, it's true," groaned Jack. "I found out when I went back to Buffalo +that Simpson was only a blackleg criminal and no clergyman. We are no +more married than we ever were." + +As Jack said this he had his head down; it was bowed with the misery he +felt. He dreaded to look at Nina. If he had looked, he would have seen +her lips grow almost blue and her eyes lose their sight. The next +moment, before he could catch her, she sank on the floor in shapeless, +inert confusion. + +Jack did not wish to call for help. He seized a large ornamental fan of +peacock's feathers and fanned her vigorously. + +She soon came to. But still lay for some time before she had strength to +rise. At last he assisted her to a sofa, where she reclined wearily +until able to go on with the conversation. + +"Jack," she said, after a while, "if I don't get away from here in three +days I will go mad. Think, now! I can not help you much in the +arrangements to get away. You must arrange everything yourself. Just let +me know when to go, and I will look after myself and will meet you +somewhere--anywhere you propose. But I can not--I don't feel able to +assist you more than that. Stop! an idea strikes me! You can not arrange +everything yourself. There are always things that are apt to be +forgotten. You must get somebody to help you think out things. When we +go away I feel that it will be forever--at least, I felt so this +afternoon. You will have to arrange everything, so that there need be no +correspondence with Toronto any more." + +"Yes," said Jack, "I think your advice is good. I have always relied on +Hampstead. If you did not mind my telling him the whole story, Nina, I +think his assistance would be invaluable." + +"There is nothing that I dread his knowing," said Nina, as she buried +her face in the cushions. "He is a man of the world, and will know I am +innocent about our intended marriage. I thoroughly believe in his +power, not only to help you to arrange everything, but also to take the +secret with him to his grave." + +"I am glad to hear you say so," said Jack. "I have always thought dear +old Geoffrey, in spite of a good many things I would like to see +changed, to be the finest all-round man I ever knew." + +"Yes. Now go, Jack! I am too ill to talk a moment more. Simply tell me +when and how I am to go and I will go. As for arranging anything more, +my mind refuses to do it. Give me your arm to the foot of the stairs! +So. Good-night!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Mad, call I it; for to define true madness. + What is't, but to be nothing else but mad? + But let that go. + + _Hamlet._ + + +After leaving Nina, Jack went to the club, where he found Geoffrey +playing pool with half a dozen others, whose demeanor well indicated the +number of times the lamp had been rubbed for the genius with the tray to +appear. Geoffrey seemed to be in good-humor, but he gave Jack the idea +of playing against time. He strode around the table rapidly as he took +his shots, as if not caring whether he won or lost. The only effect the +liquor seemed to have upon him was to make him grow fierce. Every +movement of his long frame was made with a quick nervous energy, +inspiriting enough to watch, but giving an impression of complete +unrest. He was playing to stave off waking nightmares. Thoughts of his +probable ruin on the following day came to him from time to time--like a +vision of a death's head. The others with him noticed nothing different +in him, but Jack, who was quietly smoking on one of the high seats near +by, saw that he was in a more reckless mood than he had ever seen him +before. He could not help smiling as his friend strode around the table +in his shirt-sleeves, playing with a force that was almost ferocity and +a haste apparently reckless but deadly in the precision that sense of +power, skill, and alcohol gave him. After a while, in a pause, he spoke +to Geoffrey, who at once divined that more trouble of some kind awaited +him. + +When they arrived at their chambers, Jack told him briefly of the +journey with Nina for the purpose of getting married in Buffalo, and of +what Nina had just said. + +Geoffrey nodded; he was waiting for the something new that would affect +himself--the something he was not prepared for. + +"Is that all?" he asked sharply. + +"No. That is not all," answered Jack gloomily. + +"Go on, then." + +"I don't feel as if I could go on," said Jack, not noticing the rough +tone in which he was commanded to proceed. "But I suppose I must. The +fact is, Geoffrey, I found out afterward that I was not married at all +to her, and I never let her know until to-night." + +"Is she dead, then?" + +Geoffrey looked at him with his brow lowered, his eyes glittering. He +felt like striking Jack. + +"Gracious heavens, no! Why should she die?" cried Jack, startled from +his gloom. + +"It's enough to kill her," said Geoffrey. His contempt for Jack assisted +the rage he felt against him. He had been drinking steadily all day, and +now could hardly restrain the violent fury that seethed in him. "Go on, +you infernal ass! Dribble it out. Go on." + +"I see you feel for her, Geoffrey. I _am_ the biggest fool that ever was +allowed to live." + +Then, with his face averted, he told Geoffrey the whole story of the +mistake in Buffalo. His listener watched him, with lips muttering, while +sometimes his teeth seemed to be bared and gleaming. + +In this story, Geoffrey at first seemed to see a new danger to himself +and his future prospects. Then it occurred to him that the new +information did not much affect his own position. Two things seemed +certain. One was, that Joseph Lindon would spare no expense to find out +where Jack and Nina had gone and to be fully informed of everything that +happened. Secondly, that Nina could never be able to show any legal +marriage prior to the one now intended. This meant that Nina and Jack +could not return to Toronto. A vague idea went through Geoffrey's head +at this time. + +When Jack had finished his story Geoffrey was calm in appearance. But +his eyes were half closed, which gave him a cunning look. + +Then he talked with Jack, so as to impress upon his mind the fact that +it would be impossible for them ever to visit Canada again. + +"Yes," said Jack. "Unless you come out to visit us you will never see us +again. I could never make it right with the Toronto people. I will never +again be able to return to Toronto; that's clear." + +When he proposed to make arrangements as to the best ways and means of +leaving Toronto, Geoffrey said he must have time to think over +everything. It was late. It would be better to sleep, if possible, and +arrange things further to-morrow. They parted for the night, having +settled that Jack was to draw out his money at once. + +On the next morning Geoffrey ascertained that he was ruined. The stock +that he held in the Canadian railway had gone down beyond redemption as +far as he was concerned. He had mortgaged everything he possessed, +raised money on indorsed notes, raised it in every shape and way within +his means, but he had been unable to tide over the depression. A further +call had been made for margins, and he had not another cent to fill the +gap and all his stock passed to other hands. He drank steadily all day +and even carried a flask with him into the office, which he soon +emptied. Hampstead was not by any means the same man now that he was +three weeks previously. He looked sufficiently like his right self to +escape a betrayal, but the liquor and the thought of his losses raged +within him, and all the time an idea was insinuating itself into his +frenzied brain. He had gone so far as carefully to consider many schemes +to avert his ruin which he would not have countenanced before. His +weakened judgment now placed Jack before him as one who conspired +against his peace. He cunningly concealed it, but to him the mere sight +of Jack was like a red flag to a bull. Just when all his plans were +demolished, all his hopes gone, his entire ruin an accomplished fact, +this fool came in to add fuel to the fire that burned him. In this way +he regarded his old friend. + +While in this state and while at his work in the bank the next morning +he said to Jack, who occupied the next stall to him, that he had hit +upon the best way for him and Nina to depart. It would be better for +Jack to go away without giving any notice to the bank. The notice would +be of no use if he did so, because, if he must go away the next morning, +the notice would only raise inquiry. He told Jack to slip out and go +down to the docks and find if there would be any sailing vessels leaving +for American ports the next day. Jack could depart on a schooner; Nina +could make some excuse at home and follow him by steamer. + +Jack liked this proposal. He would have one more sail on old Ontario +before he left it forever. He skipped out of the side door, and soon +found a vessel at Yonge Street wharf that would finish taking in its +cargo of fire-bricks and start for Oswego at noon the following day. He +tried to arrange with the mate to go as a passenger, but the captain was +going to take his wife with him on this trip, so Jack, if he wanted to +go, would be obliged to sleep in the forecastle. He did not mind this +much, and engaged to go "before the mast." + +In the afternoon he told Nina about his intentions, and explained that +she could take the steamer to Oswego on the day after he left, so that +she would probably arrive there about the same time. He had drawn all +his money out of the bank and was now ready to go. Nina said she could +arrange about her own departure, and after they had made a few other +plans as to her course in case she got to Oswego first, Jack kissed her +and tried to cheer her from the depression in which she had sunk, and +then he departed. + +All that day Geoffrey grew more moody and further from his right self. +To drown the recollections of his ruin and his other worries, he went on +drinking steadily. The thought came to him again and again that his +marriage with Margaret was now almost impossible. He knew that, as a +married man, he could never live on his bank salary alone, and the +capital to speculate with was entirely gone. What made him still more +frenzied was the fact that he knew that this stock he had bought was +bound to re-establish itself in a very short time. But, for the moment, +every person else had gone mad. He alone was sane. Public lunacy about +this stock had robbed him of his fifteen thousand dollars. He drank +still harder when he thought this, and although he did not get drunk, +he got what can be described vaguely as "queer," and the next stage of +his queerness was that he became convinced that the public had in a +manner robbed him, and that society owed him something. When a man's +brain is in this state, he is in a dangerous condition. + +Jack wished heartily that they should dine together, as this was his +last evening in Toronto, but Geoffrey avoided doing so. He hated the +sight of Jack, but he carefully concealed the aversion which he felt. He +made an excuse and absented himself until nine or ten o'clock, and +during this time he wandered about the city and continued drinking. He +had not seen Margaret for over two weeks. Everything had been going +wrong with him. Besides his own losses, he would be heavily in debt to +the men who had "backed" his paper and who would have to pay for him. + +Jack found him in their chambers when he returned for his last night at +the old rooms, and there they sat and talked things over. Geoffrey tried +to brace himself up for the conversation with a bottle of brandy which +he had just uncorked, but it was quite impossible for him to pretend to +be as cheerful as he wished. + +Jack thought he was depressed, and said: + +"I am sorry to see you in such bad spirits to-night, Geoffrey." + +"Well, it's a bad business," said Hampstead, sententiously, looking +moodily at the floor. As this might mean anything, Jack thought that +Geoffrey was taking his departure to heart. He had every right to think +that Hampstead would miss him. + +It was now getting late, and Jack arose and laid his hand on Geoffrey's +shoulder: "Don't be cut up, old man," he said; "I have been a fool, but +I am glad that I know it and am able to make things as right as they can +be made. I know you feel for Nina and me, but you will get some other +fellow to room with you and--" + +During the conversation Hampstead had drunk a good deal of the brandy. +The kind words that Jack was speaking filled him with a fury which +lunatic cunning could scarcely conceal. The idea in his mind had been +settling itself into a resolve, and at this moment it did finally settle +itself. He shook Jack's hand off his shoulder as he arose, glared at him +for an instant, and then turned off to his bedroom. "Good night," he +said over his shoulder. "It's late. I'm off." Then he entered his +bedroom, shut the door, and bolted it. + +As he went, Jack looked at his retreating form with tears standing in +his eyes. + +"I never," he said, "saw Geoffrey show any emotion before. I never felt +quite sure whether he cared much about me until now. And now I know that +he does. I hate to see him so cut up about it; but it is comforting to +think, on going away, that he really liked me all this time." + +Jack was a clean-souled fellow. He was one of those who, no matter how +uproarious or slangy they are, always give the idea that they are +gentlemen. With this nature a certain softness of heart must go. He +stood watching the door through which Geoffrey had passed, and he +thought drearily that never again would they have such good times +together, and that most likely they would never meet again. He thought +of Geoffrey's winning ways, of his prowess, of his strength, his +stature, his handsome face, and his devil-may-care manner. He thought of +their companionship, the incidents, and even dangers they had had +together. He thought of the way Geoffrey had done his work that night on +the yacht when returning from Charlotte. He stood thinking of all these +things with an aching heart. As he turned away sadly, his heart full of +grief at parting, he burst out with "Darned if I don't love that man," +and he closed his door quickly, as if to shut out the world from +witnessing a weakness. + +On the inner side of Geoffrey's bedroom door there was something else +going on, which represented a very different train of thought. + +Geoffrey, after bolting his door, went to his dressing-case and took +from it a pair of scissors and a threaded needle. Then he took an old +waistcoat and cut the lining out of it. Then he took a second old +waistcoat and sewed the pieces of lining against the inside of it, and +also ran stitches down the middle of each piece after it was sewed on. +Thus he had a waistcoat with four long pockets on the inside--two on +each side of it, all open at the top. + +When this was done he rolled into bed, where Nature hastened to restore +herself. + +Before breakfast in the morning, Jack hailed a cab and took his two +valises to the Yacht Club beside the water's edge, and left them in his +locked cupboard there. He only intended to take this amount of luggage +with him. The rest of his things could come on when Geoffrey packed up +and forwarded his share of their joint museum and library. Geoffrey did +not turn up at breakfast. He breakfasted on a cup of strong coffee and +brandy at a restaurant, and went to the bank early. + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote, commonly called "Sappy" in +the bank, was a younger son of a long-drawn-out race. He had been sent +out to make his fortune in the colonies, and he had progressed so far +toward affluence that, in eight years of "beastly servitude, you know," +he had attained the proud position of discount clerk at the Victoria +Bank, and it did not seem probable that his abilities would be ever +recognized to any further extent. The great scope of his intelligence +was shown in the variety of wearing apparel he was able to choose, all +by himself, and he was the showman, the dude, the _incroyable_ of the +Victoria Bank. When he met a man for the first time he weighed him +according to the merits of the garments he wore. He met Geoffrey as he +came into the bank this morning. + +"My deah fellah," he said, "where did you get that dreadful waistcoat?" + +"None of your business, Sappy. You used to wear one yourself when they +were in fashion. I remember your rushing off to get one from the same +piece when you first saw this one." + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote had a weak child's voice, +which he cultivated because it separated him from the common herd--most +effectually. It made all ordinary people wish to kick him every time he +opened his mouth. He liked to be thought to have ideas about art, and he +talked sweetly about the furniture of "ma mothah" (my mother.) + +Geoffrey walked past this specimen with but little ceremony. The brandy +and coffee and another brandy without coffee had succeeded in putting +him into just the same state in which he had gone to bed on the previous +night. He could talk to any person and could do his work, but fumes of +alcohol and abandonment of recklessness had for a time driven out all +the morality he ever possessed; and where some ideas of justice had +generally reigned there flourished, in the fumes of the liquor which he +had drunk, noxious weedy outgrowths of a debased intelligence unchecked +by the self-respect of civilization. To-day, he was, to himself, the +victim of a public that had robbed him. Society owed him a debt. + +They all went to work in the usual way. About a quarter-past eleven +o'clock Jack put his head to Geoffrey's wicket and they whispered +together: + +Jack said, "Time for me to be off?" + +"Yes, just leave everything as if you were coming back. If you put away +anything, or close the ledger, they may ask where you are before you get +fairly off. By the way, how are you carrying your money?" + +"By Jove! I forgot that," said Jack, "or I might have made the package +smaller by exchanging for larger bills. It makes a terrible 'wollage' in +my pocket." + +Geoffrey stepped back a moment and picked two American bills for +one-thousand dollars each from a package of fifty of them lying beside +him. + +"Here," he said. "Take these two and pin them in the watch-pocket of +your waistcoat. Don't give me back your money here. Just run up to our +chambers and leave your two thousand under my bed-clothes. I don't want +any one to see you paying me the money here, or they will think I +connived at your going. I can get it during the afternoon and make my +cash all right." + +Jack did not quite see the necessity of this, but he had not time to +think it out, and even if he had, he would have done what Geoffrey told +him. + +"All right," he said, "thank you. That will make two 'one-thousands' and +seven 'one hundreds,' and the rest small, for immediate use." + +"Very well. Go into the passage, now, and wait at the side door. I will +come out and say good-by to you." + +Jack took his hat and sauntered out into the passage. + +In a minute Geoffrey, with his hands in his pockets, strolled to the +side door. + +"Good-by, Jack," he said hastily. "When your schooner sails past the +foot of Bay Street here, just get up on the counter and wave your +handkerchief so that I may see the last of you." + +"All right, dear old man. I'll not forget to take my last look at the +old Vic, and to do as you say. I must run now, and leave the two +thousand in your bed, and then get on board. Good-by. God bless you!" + +Geoffrey sauntered back to his stall and took a drain at a flask of +brandy to keep off the chill he felt for a moment, and to brace himself +up generally. + +Jack hurried off to the chambers, counted out the two thousand dollars +which he had wished to get rid of, and after taking a last look at the +old rooms, he hurried to the Yacht Club. Here he put the valises into +his own skiff after changing his good clothes for the old sailing +clothes already described. Then, under an old soft-felt hat with holes +in the top, he rowed down to the schooner, threw his valises on board, +and climbed over the side. He let his skiff go adrift. He had no further +use for it. There were some stone-hookers at the neighboring dock. He +called to the men on one of them and said, "There's a boat for you!" +Then he dropped down the forecastle ladder with his luggage. + +His arrival on board was none too early, for the covers were off the +sails and the tug was coming alongside to drag the vessel away from the +wharf, and start her on her way with the east wind blowing to take her +out of the bay. The tug was towing her toward the west channel as they +passed the different streets in front of the city. At Bay Street, Jack +left off helping to make canvas for a minute, and, running to the +counter, sprang up on the bulwarks and waved his handkerchief to +somebody who, he knew, was watching through the windows of the Victoria +Bank. + +There was nothing to detain the schooner now. The wind was from the +east, and consequently dead ahead for the trip, but it was a good fresh +working breeze, and Geoffrey, when he saw how things looked on the +schooner, knew that it had fairly started on its passage to Oswego. + +He glanced around him to make assurance doubly sure, and then he divided +the pile of forty-eight (formerly fifty) one-thousand-dollar bills into +four thin packages. These he slipped hurriedly into the four long +pockets which he had made in the waistcoat the previous night. He then +buttoned up the waistcoat, and from the even distribution of the bills +upon his person it was impossible to see any indication of their +presence. + +When this was done and he had surveyed himself carefully, he took +another pull at the flask on general principles and proceeded to take +further steps. He might as well have left the liquor alone, because his +nerve, once he commenced operations, was like iron. + +He banged about some drawers, as if he were looking for something, and +then called out: + +"Jack?" + +No answer. + +"Jack?" + +Still no answer. + +The ledger-keeper from A to M, who occupied the stall beyond Jack's, +then growled out: + +"What's the matter with you?" + +"Where's Jack?" + +"I don't know. He asked me to look after his ledger for a moment, and +then went out. He has been out for over an hour, and if the beggar +thinks I'm going to be skipping round to look up his confounded ledger +all day he's mistaken. I'll give him a piece of my mind when he comes +in." + +"A to M" went on growling and sputtering, like a leaky shower-bath. + +"That's all very well," said Geoffrey; "but you fellows are playing a +trick on me, and I don't scare worth a cent." + +Everybody could hear this conversation. Geoffrey then stepped on a stool +and leaned over the partition, smiling, and seized the hard-working +receiving-teller by the hair. + +"Come, you beggar, I tell you I don't scare. Just hand over the money. +Really, it's a very poor kind of a joke." + +"What's a poor kind of a joke? Seizing me by the hair?" + +Geoffrey looked at him smilingly, as if he did not believe him and still +thought there had been a plan to abstract the money and frighten him. + +"Well, I don't care much personally; but that packet of fifty thousand +is gone, and if any fellow is playing the fool he had better bring it +back." + +Several of the clerks now came round to his wicket. This sort of talk +sounds very unpleasant in a bank. + +"Where did you leave the bills?" they asked. + +"Right here," said Geoffrey, laying his hand on a little desk close +beside the wicket, opening into the box in which Jack had worked. + +"Well, you had better report the thing at once," said several, who were +looking on with long faces. + +"I shall, right straight," said Geoffrey energetically. His face bore an +admirable expression of consternation, checked by the _sang froid_ of an +innocent bank-clerk. He strode off into the manager's room. + +"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir. I thought it was a hoax at first, +but it looks very much as if fifty thousand dollars had been taken from +my box." + +"What, stolen!" + +"Looks like it--very. If you would kindly step this way, sir, I will +explain what I know about it." + +Geoffrey then showed the manager where the bills had been laid, and did +not profess to be able to tell anything more. + +"Mr. Northcote, ring up the chief of police, and tell me when he is +there," said the manager. "Where is Mr. Cresswell?" + +No answer. + +"Does anybody know where Mr. Cresswell is?" + +Ledger-keeper from A to M then said that Mr. Cresswell went out over an +hour ago, and had asked him to look after his ledger for five minutes. +Mr. Cresswell had not returned. + +The manager walked into Jack's box and looked around him. Everything was +lying about as if he had just stopped working, and this, to the +manager's mind, seemed to give the thing a black look. It seemed as if +Jack, if he had made off with the money, had left things in this way as +a blind. + +The telephone was ready now, and the manager requested the chief of +police to send a couple of his best detectives at once. Only one was +available at first. This man, Detective Dearborn, appeared in five +minutes, and was made acquainted with all the known circumstances. When +this was done, fully two hours had elapsed since Jack's departure, and +still he had not turned up. + +Detective Dearborn was a man with large, usually mild, brown eyes. There +was nothing in the upper part of his face to be remarked except general +immobility of countenance. The lower part of his face, however, was +suggestive. His lower jaw protruded beyond the upper. Whether this means +anything in the human being may be doubted, but one involuntarily got +the idea that if this man once "took hold," nothing short of red-hot +irons would burn him off. + +He took a careful, mild survey of the premises, listened to everything +that was said, remarked that the package could not have been taken from +the public passageway if left in the place indicated, looked over Jack's +abandoned stall, asked a few questions from the manager, and, like a +sensible man, came to the conclusion that Jack had taken the money. + +He walked into the manager's room and asked him several questions about +Jack's habits and his usual pursuits. Geoffrey was called in to assist +at this. Yes, he could take the detective to Jack's room. Jack had no +habits that cost much money. "Had he been speculating at all?" Geoffrey +thought not, although some time ago Mr. Cresswell had said that he was +"in a little spec.," and hoped to make something. Did not know what the +"spec." was. + +"May I ask," said Dearborn, "when you last spoke to Mr. Cresswell?" + +"We spoke to each other for a minute just before he went out. He asked +me if I was going to the Dusenalls' 'shine' to-night. I said I was. Then +he spoke about several young ladies of our acquaintance, and other +things which had no reference to this matter." + +"Was the lost money in the place you say at that time?" + +"Yes. I remember having my hand on the packet while I spoke to him." + +"May I ask if you at any time during the morning left your stall?" + +"Yes, I did, once. I went out as far as the side door for an instant +shortly after Mr. Cresswell went out." + +"What for?" + +"Well," said Geoffrey, smiling, "I was thinking of boating this +afternoon, and I wanted to see how the sky promised for the afternoon." + +The mild eyes looked at Geoffrey with uncomfortable mildness at this +answer. It might be all right, but Dearborn thought that this was the +first suspicious sound which he had heard. + +"My young gentleman, I'll keep my eye on you," he thought. "That reply +did not sound quite right, and you seem a trifle too unconcerned." + +Another detective arrived now, and he was detailed to inform the others +and to watch the railway stations and steamboats. Immediately afterward, +descriptions of Jack flew all over Canada to the many different points +of exit from the country. Had he tried to leave Canada by sail or +steamboat he would have been arrested to a certainty. Geoffrey laughed +in his sleeve as he thought of the way he had sent Jack off in a +schooner--a way that few people would dream of taking, and yet, perhaps, +the safest way of all, as schooners could not, in the ordinary course of +things, be watched by the detectives. But if the news got beyond police +circles that Jack had absconded with money, or if it should be +discovered in any way that he had gone on the schooner to Oswego--if +this were published--Joseph Lindon might become alarmed, and prevent his +daughter from going to Oswego also. Even the news of Jack's departure +for parts unknown might make him suspicious. With this in view he +immediately said to the manager and the detective: + +"I would like to make a suggestion, if there be no objection." + +"Certainly, Mr. Hampstead. We will be glad to listen to what you have to +say." + +"Of course, I can not think that Mr. Cresswell took the money," said +Geoffrey. "But I think if complete secrecy were ordered, both in the +bank and elsewhere, while every endeavor was being made at discovery, +the detectives would have a better chance of success, on whatever theory +they may work. Possibly the money may be recovered before many hours are +over, and in that case the bank might wish to hush the matter up +quietly. Prematurely advertising a thing like this often does harm; and +there can be no question about the interests of the bank in the matter." + +"I will act upon that suggestion at once," said the manager. "In the +mean time, you will go, please, with the detective and admit him to Mr. +Cresswell's rooms, and see what is to be seen there. I will give the +strictest orders that nothing of this is to be told outside by the +officials or police." + +Orders were delivered to all the detectives to give no items to +newspaper reporters, and the chance of Nina's getting away on the +following morning seemed secured. Geoffrey laughed to himself as he +thought he had crushed the last adder that could appear to strike him. + +He let Mr. Dearborn into Jack's room. Everything was in confusion. +Bureau drawers were lying open, and Jack's valises were gone. Dearborn +saw at a glance that Cresswell had fled, and he lost no time, but turned +on his heel immediately, thanked Hampstead, and rattled down-stairs. +Geoffrey first ascertained that he was really gone, and then went back, +took out the two thousand dollars that Jack had put under his +bed-clothes, and, hastily taking the forty-eight stolen bills from the +interior of his waistcoat, he stuffed the whole amount into an old +Wellington boot that was hanging on a nail in a closet. Out of Jack's +two thousand he put several bills in his pocket to pay for his evening's +amusements. He then returned to the bank. It will be seen that his +object in not taking this two thousand from Jack at the bank was that he +could not safely conceal such a large package on his person, and he +could not put it with his cash, because, in case his cash was examined, +it would be found to contain two thousand dollars too much, which would +cause inquiry. + +The manager while brooding over the event, and asking questions, soon +found out that the missing bills had been all in one deposit. The +receiving teller had taken them in the day before. The item was looked +into and it was noted that this was a deposit of the Montreal Telegraph +Company. On inquiry it was found to be a balance due from the Western +Union Telegraph Company in the States for exchanges. The Montreal +Telegraph Company had received the money from New York by express, and +to guard against loss the Western Union had taken the precaution to +write by mail to the company at Toronto giving the number of each bill +in full, and saying that all the bills were those of the United States +National Bank at New York. In two hours, therefore, Dearborn was +supplied with the numbers of all the bills. Geoffrey was startled at +this turn of events. But he thought it did not matter much. He could +slip over to the States in a few months and get rid of the whole of the +money in different places. + +While all this internal commotion was going on at the Victoria Bank, +Nina was paying a little visit to her father's office. She alighted from +an equipage every part of which, including coachman, footman, horses, +and liveries, had been imported from England. The coachman and footman +did not wear their hats on one side or cross their legs and talk affably +to each other as they seem to do in the American cities. Joseph Lindon +was, in effect, perfectly right when he said they were the "real +thing"--"first chop." + +Nina swept through the outer office, looking more charming than ever. +After she had passed in, one of the clerks, called Moses, indulged in +the vulgar pantomime peculiar to clerks of low degree. He placed both +hands on his heart, gasped, and rolled back against the wall to indicate +that he was irretrievably smashed by her appearance. + +Her father received her gladly. + +"Ah!" he said, "you have condescended to pay me a visit, my fine lady! +It's money you're after. I can see it in your eye. Now, how much, my +dear, will this little visit cost me, I wonder? Just name your figure, +my dear, and strike it rather high." Mr. Lindon was in a remarkably +good humor. + +"No, father, I did not come altogether for money. I came to know if I +could go over to Oswego for a week. Louisa Dallas, who stayed with us +last winter, wants me to go over." + +"Certainly, my dear, you can do anything you please--in reason. I +thought the Dallases lived in Rochester?" + +"So they did; but they have moved. Well, that is all right. Now, if you +have any money to throw away upon me I will try to do you credit with +it. Don't I always do you credit?" + +"Credit? You are the handsomest girl I ever saw. Do me credit? Why, of +course, and always will. Come and kiss me, my dear. I declare you would +charm the heart of a wheel-barrow. Now, how much would you like this +morning? Strike it high, girl. Understand, you can have all the money +you want. You will go to Oswego and see your friends and have a good +time. Perhaps they won't have much money to throw away, but don't let +that stand in the way. Trot out the whole of them and set up the entire +business yourself. Take them all down to Watkin's Glen, or some place +else. There's nothing to do in Oswego. You can't spend half the money I +can give you. Why, dash it, I cleared fifty thousand dollars before +lunch-time to-day, and now how much will you have of it?" + +"Well, there's a little bill at Murray's for odds and ends." + + +"How much?" + +"Oh, five or six hundred, perhaps." + +"Blow five or six hundred! Is that all the money you can spend? Of +course you are the best-dressed woman in town, but you must do better +than this. I tell you you have just got to sweep all these other women +away like flies before you. I'll clothe you in gold if you say the +word. Five or six hundred! Rubbish!" + +He struck a bell, and the impressionable Moses appeared. + +"How much will you have?" he said to Nina, smiling. He loved to try and +stagger her with his magnificence. + +"I suppose Murray ought to be paid and a few other bills lying about." +Nina thought this would be a good chance for Jack, and she said to +herself she would strike it high. + +"I suppose a thousand dollars would do," she said, rather timidly; +adding, "with Murray and all." + +"Damn Murray and all!" cried Mr. Lindon, in a burst of good nature. "You +sha'n't pay any of them.--Moses, write Miss Lindon a check for a couple +of thousand, and bring it here." + +While Moses wrote the check out, Lindon, with a display of affection he +rarely showed, drew Nina down upon his knee. + +"How did you make so much money to-day, father?" she asked. + +"Oh, you don't know anything about such matters. Yesterday I bought the +stock of a Canadian railway. At ten o'clock this morning it took a +sudden rise because I let people know I was buying. I got a lot of it +before I let them know, and then up she went, steadily, the whole +morning. At twelve o'clock I had made at least fifty thousand, and by +nightfall I may have made a hundred thousand. I don't know how it stands +just now, and I don't much care." + +This was the identical stock Hampstead had been unable to retain. If he +could have held on a few hours longer he would have made more honestly +on this day than he had stolen at the same hour. + +The check was signed and handed to Nina. She put it in her shopping-bag +and took her father's head between her hands and kissed his capable old +face with a warmth that surprised him a little. To her this was a final +good-by. + +"You're a good old daddy to me," she said, feeling her heart rise at the +thought of leaving him forever. She ran off then to the door to conceal +her feelings. + +"Just wait," he said, "till we go to England soon, and then I'll show +you what's what." + +She made an effort to seem bright, and cast back at him a glance like +bright sun through mists, as she said: + +"Of course--yes. We must not forget 'the dook.'" + +She cashed the check with satisfaction, knowing that it took Jack a long +time to save two thousand dollars. + +When she rolled down to the wharf the next day in the Lindon barouche, +the officials on the steamboat's deck were impressed with her +magnificence and beauty. + +For most men, nothing could be more sweetly beautiful than her +appearance, as she went carefully along the gangway to the old +Eleusinian, and there was quite a competition between the old captain +and the young second officer as to who should show her more civility. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Comprehensive talkers are apt to be tiresome when we are not + athirst for information; but to be quite fair, we must admit + that superior reticence is a good deal due to lack of matter. + Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily + brood over a full nest.--GEORGE ELIOT--(_Felix Holt_). + + +It did not take Detective Dearborn long to find out that Jack had +engaged a cab early in the morning and had then removed some luggage +from his rooms. This confirmed him in the idea that the crime had been a +carefully planned one. But his trouble lay in not being able to find the +driver of the cab. This man had driven off somewhere on a trip that took +him apparently out of town, and Dearborn began to wonder whether Jack +had been driven to some neighboring town, so as to proceed in a less +conspicuous way by some railway. + +Late at night, however, Jehu turned up at his own house very drunk. The +horses had brought him home without being driven. He had been down at +Leslieville all day, with some "sports," who were enjoying a +pigeon-shooting match at that place, and who had retained cabby at +regulation rates and all he could drink--a happy day for him. Dearborn +found he could tell him nothing about the occurrence of the morning of +the same day, or where he had gone with Jack's valises; so, perforce, he +had to let him sleep it off till morning. + +The first rational account the detective could get out of him was at ten +o'clock on the morning following. He then found out why the valises had +not been seen at the railway stations, or at any of the usual points of +departure. The caretaker of the yacht club could only tell him, when he +called, that Mr. Cresswell had been at the club somewhere about noon the +day before, and had gone away in his boating-clothes, rowing east round +the head of the wharf close by. + +"I must tell you," said Dearborn to the caretaker, "that Mr. Cresswell's +friends are alarmed at his absence and have sent me to look after him. +Would you know the boat he went in if you saw it?" + +"Oh, yes. I handle it frequently, in one way and and another. I painted +it for him last spring." + +"Well, if you don't mind making a dollar, I'd be glad if you would walk +along the docks and help me find it." + +"Come along," said the caretaker. "There is nothing to do here, at this +hour, but watch the club-house, and I certainly can't make an extra +dollar doing that. We'll call it two dollars if I find the boat, seeing +as how I'm dragged off from duty." + +"All right," said Dearborn, who had _carte blanche_ for expenses from +the bank. + +They walked off together at a good pace. + +"You say that none of the yachts left the harbor yesterday?" + +"No. There they are, over there, every one of them." + +"Well, what size was the skiff he went off in?" + +"An ordinary fourteen-foot shooting-skiff. One of old Rennardson's. You +mind old Rennardson? He built a handy boat, did the old man." + +"Could it cross the lake?" + +"Well it could, perhaps, on six days in the week, in summer. Perhaps on +the seventh the best handling in the world wouldn't save her. But they +are a fine little boat, for all that I've crossed the bay myself in them +when there was an all-fired sea runnin'." + +"Could it have crossed the lake yesterday?" + +"I don't think Mr. Cresswell would be such a fool as to try. Perhaps he +could have done it if anybody could. But risks for nothing ain't his +style. Not but what he'll run his chances when the time comes. You +should have seen him bring in that Ideal last fall, in the race I sailed +with him. The wind sprung up heavy in the afternoon. Lord! it was a +sight to see that boat come in to the winnin' buoy with the mast hanging +over her bows like a Greek fruiter. You see, he had the wind dead after +him, blowin' heavy, and he'd piled rags on to her, wings and all, till +she was in a blind fury and goin' through it like a harpooned whale. The +owner was a-standing by him a-watchin' for everythin' to carry out of +her. 'Jack,' says he, 'she can't do it. The backstays won't do the +work.' 'Slack them up, then, four inches, and let the mast do its own +part of the work,' says Mr. Cresswell. And he kept on easin' backstays +to give fair play all round, till the mast was hangin' forward like a +cornstalk; but I'm dummed if he'd lift a rag on her till she passed the +gun. Perhaps you don't care for that sort of thing. I follered the sea +myself formerly. Lord! it was immense, that little sail! And thirty +seconds ain't a great deal to win on. Nothin' but bull-head grit would +ha' done it." + +Mr. Dearborn was not much comforted by all this talk. Cresswell might +have crossed the lake in his skiff. Evidently he was a man who would do +it if he wished. They continued their search on every wharf and through +every boat-house, which occupied a good deal of time. + +Suddenly, near Yonge Street wharf, the caretaker said: "Give us your two +dollars, mister. There's the skiff on the deck of the stone-hooker." + +Inquiries soon showed that Jack had gone off on the schooner North Star +to Oswego, and then Mr. Dearborn began to look grave. The schooner had +got a long start. He was well acquainted with all different routes to +different places, and he finally decided to go on the Eleusinian by +water to Oswego. Possibly he might be able to come across the schooner +in the lake before she arrived at Oswego, and bribe the captain to land +him and his prisoner on Canadian soil, where his warrant would be good. +He had still half an hour to spare, so he dashed off in a cab to the +chief's office, and wired the Oswego police to arrest Jack, on the +arrival of the North Star, on the charge of bringing stolen money into +the States. + +Of course, Dearborn knew he could not extradite Jack from Oswego for his +offense, but he thought that after being locked up the money could be +scared out of him, when he found that he could get a long sentence in +the States on the above charge, which Dearborn knew could be proved if +the stolen bills were found in his possession. + +If Geoffrey had known what the able Mr. Dearborn had ferreted out, and +what his plans were, he would have felt more uneasy. + +As the afternoon wore on, it was interesting to watch two very +unconcerned people at the bow of the upper deck of the Eleusinian. The +steamer was making excellent time--plowing into the eye of the wind with +all the power that had so nearly dragged the life out of the poor Ideal +in the preceding summer. Nina was sitting in an arm-chair, cushioned +into comfort by the assiduous second officer, who found that his duties +much required his presence in that portion of the boat where Nina +happened, to be. She was sitting, looking through the spyglasses from +time to time at every sail that hove in sight, and seeming disinclined +to leave the deck. + +Mr. Dearborn was tempting providence by smoking a cigar close by. The +steamer went almost too fast to pitch much, but there was a decided rise +and fall at the bows. He noticed that the officer suggested to Nina that +by sitting further aft she would escape some of the motion, and that she +declined the change, saying she liked the breeze and was a good sailor. +Once they passed close to a vessel with three masts. Dearborn had +ascertained, before leaving, that the North Star had only two masts, so +he was not anxious. Nina, however, knew nothing about the rig of the +North Star, and she was up standing beside the bulwarks gazing intently +through the binoculars at the crew. She seemed disappointed when she +lowered the glasses, and Dearborn began to wonder whether this was "the +woman in the case." He afterward watched her as she attempted to read a +novel, and noticed that she continually stopped to scan the horizon. +Still, nearly every person does this, more or less, and his idea rather +waned again as he thought that this was quite too fine a person to +bother her head about a poor bank-clerk--such a man as he was hunting. +Mr. Dearborn, perhaps owing to the peculiar formation of his jaw, +generally lost all idea of the respectability of a man as soon as he got +on his trail. He might have the benefit of all doubts in his favor +until the warrant for his arrest was placed in Mr. Dearborn's hands. +After that, as a rule, the individual, whether acquitted or not at his +subsequent trial, took no high stand in Mr. Dearborn's mind. If +acquitted, it was only the result of lawyers' trickery; not on account +of innocence. Men who ought to know best say that if a prize-fighter +wishes to win he must actually hate his antagonist--must fight to really +kill him; and that only when he is entirely disabled is it time enough +to hope that he will not die. Mr. Dearborn, similarly, had that tenacity +of purpose that made every attempt at escape seem to double the +culprit's guilt, and in a hard capture this supplied him with that +"gall" which could meet and overcome the desperate courage of a man at +bay. + +Soon another schooner loomed up in the moist air of the east wind, and, +when the hull was visible, Mr. Dearborn approached Nina and said: + +"Would you oblige me, madame, by allowing me to look through your +glasses?" + +"Certainly," said Nina; "they belong to the ship--not to me." + +Dearborn took a long look at the approaching vessel. The North Star had +been described to him as having a peculiar cut-away bow, and the vessel +coming across their track had a perpendicular bow. + +Nina then looked through the glasses intently, and for a moment they +stood beside each other. + +"I wonder why all the vessels seem to be crossing our track, instead of +going in our direction," she said to quiet-looking Mr. Dearborn. + +"I don't know much about sailing, miss. But I know that vessels can't +sail straight into the wind. They seesaw backward and forward, first one +way and then the other. How they get up against the wind I could never +understand. They are like lawyers, I think. They see a point ahead of +them, and they just beat about the bush till they get there. Some of +these things are hard to take in." + +Nina smiled. + +"A good many of these vessels," added Mr. Dearborn, while he watched his +fair companion, "are going to Oswego." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Nina, unconsciously brightening. + +"And the wind is ahead for that trip," said Dearborn. + +"Is it?" + +Nina had been round Lake Ontario in a yacht, and she had had an English +boarding-school finish. She could have told the general course of the +Ganges or the Hoang-ho, but she had no idea in what direction she was +going on her own lake to Oswego. In English schools Canada is a land not +worth learning about, and where hardly any person would live +voluntarily. People go about chiefly on snow-shoes, and it is easy in +most places to kill enough game for dinner from your own doorstep. + +"Yes, it would take a sailing vessel a long time, I should think, to get +to Oswego." + +"How long do you suppose?" asked Nina. + +"I don't really know. It depends on the vessel. I suppose a smart yacht +could do it in a pretty short time. That Toronto yacht, the Ideal, I +suppose, could--" + +"Oh, you know the Ideal?" + +"No. She was pointed out to me once. They say she's a rare one to go, +and no mistake. That young fellow, Treadwell, that sails her--they say +he is one of the finest yachtsmen in Canada." + +"Oh," said Nina, laughing and blushing. It was funny to hear this quiet +stranger praising Jack. She felt proud of his small glory. + +"Yes," said Dearborn, rubbing his forehead, as if trying to recollect. +"That's his name--Treadwell. However, it does not matter." + +"Not at all," said Nina. She was somewhat more on her guard now against +strangers since her experience with the Rev. Matthew Simpson. But +evidently this man did not even know Jack's name, and did not want to +know it for any reason. + +Dearborn was hanging "off and on," as sailors say, thinking that if she +knew anything about this Cresswell she would perhaps give him a lead. +Not getting any lead, he muttered half aloud, by way of coming back to +the point: + +"Treadwell--Treadwell--no--that's not the name." Then aloud. "It's +provoking when one can not remember a name, madame." + +He then fell to muttering other similar sounding names, and Nina could +not refrain from smiling at his stupid, mild way of bothering himself +about what was clearly no use to him. + +"Ah! I have it! What a relief it is to succeed in a little thing like +that! Cresswell. That's the name!" + +The air of triumph on the mild-eyed man was amusing, and Nina laughed +softly to herself. + +He turned from gazing over the water and saw her laughing. Then he +smiled, too, as if he wished to join in, if there was anything to laugh +at. + +"You are amused, madame. Perhaps you know this gentleman quite well--and +are laughing at my stupidity?" + +"I ought to," said Nina, unable to resist the temptation to paralyze +this well-behaved person of the middle classes. "I am his wife." And she +laughed heartily at her little joke. + +If ever a man did get a surprise it was detective Dearborn. For a bare +instant, it threw him off his guard. He saw too much all at once. Here +was the woman who perhaps had all the $50,000 on her person. He tried to +show polite surprise and pleasure at the intelligence; but it was too +late. For an instant he had looked keen. Comparatively, Nina was +brighter nowadays. Danger and deception had sharpened her faculties. She +was thoughtless enough, certainly, to mention who she was; but she did +not see any reason why she should not. She might as well call herself +Mrs. Cresswell now as when she got to Oswego, where she would have to do +so. Mr. Dearborn had gone almost as far in self-betrayal. He longed for +a warrant to arrest her, and get the money from her, but he said in his +subdued, abstracted sort of way: + +"How strange that is! No wonder you laugh! However, I said nothing +against him--quite the contrary--and that is always a comfort when we +feel we have been putting our foot in it. I was wondering, Mrs. +Cresswell, who you were. It seemed to me I had seen you on the street in +Toronto." + +He spoke very politely. No one could take any exception to this tone. +Even when he made the following remark it did not seem very much more +than the ordinary growth of a chance conversation among travelers. He +added: + +"Let me see--a? Your maiden name was--a?" He raised his eyebrows with +would-be polite inquiry; but it did not work. He had looked keen for the +tenth part of a second, and now he might as well go in and rest himself +for the remainder of the night. + +Nina drooped her eyelids coldly. + +"I do not know that that is a matter of any consequence." + +She gave a little movement, as if she drew herself to herself, and she +leisurely returned the glasses to their case. + +Mr. Dearborn saw he had got his _conge_, and he wanted to kill himself. +He felt rather awkward, and could not think of the right thing to say. + +The writer of Happy Thoughts has not provided mankind with the best +reply to a snub that comes "straight from the shoulder." Even a +Chesterfield may be unequal to the occasion. + +"I hope you will not think me inquisitive?" he said lamely. + +"Not at all," said Nina quickly. She slightly inclined her head, without +looking at him, as she moved away to her chair--not wishing to appear +too abrupt. + +She sat there wondering who this man was, and thinking she had been +foolish to say anything about herself. The evening came on chill, windy, +and foggy, and she grew strangely lonely. She had got the idea that this +man was watching her. It made her very nervous and wretched. She longed +for some strong friend to be with her--some one on whom she could rely. + +Everything had conspired to depress her in the past few weeks. She had +now left her home and a kind father--never to return. She was out in the +world, with no one to look to but Jack. This would be a long night for +her, she thought. She was too nervous to go to sleep. She felt so tired +of all the unrest of her life. What would she not give to have all her +former chances back before her again! How she longed for the mental +peace she had known until lately. Oh, the fool she had been! the +wickedness of it all! How she had been forced from one thing to another +by the consequences of her fault! She was terribly wretched, poor girl, +as the evening wore on. She went to her cabin and undressed for bed. She +said her prayers kneeling on the damp carpet. She prayed for Jack's +safety and for her own, and for the man who assisted her to all her +misery. Still her despair and forlornness weighed upon her more and +more. The sense of being entirely alone, without any protection from a +nameless fear, which the idea of being watched all day by an unknown man +greatly increased; the terrible doubt about everything in the +future--all this culminated in an absolute terror. She lay in bed and +tried to pray again, and then an idea she acquired when a child came to +her, that prayers were unavailing unless said while kneeling on the hard +floor. In all her terror, the conviction of wickedness almost made her +faint, and to make things worse, she got those awful words into her +head, "the wages of sin is death," and she could not get them out. +Yielding to the idea that her prayers would be better if said kneeling, +she climbed out panic-stricken to the cold floor, which chilled her to +the bone, and terrified by the words ringing in her head she almost +shrieked aloud: + + +"O God, take those words away from me! O God, thou knowest I have +suffered! O God, I am terrified! I am alone. O God, protect me! Forgive +me all things, for I do repent." + +Here she felt that if she prayed any more she would be hysterical and +beyond her own control. She crept back into bed; but all she could think +of until she dropped to sleep, exhausted, was, "The wages of sin is +death--The wages of sin--is _Death_." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + BRUTUS: O that a man might know + The end of this day's business ere it come! + But it sufficeth that the day will end, + And then the end is known. + + _Julius Caesar._ + + +When Jack got on board the North Star he found that, although he had +shipped as working passenger, the wily mate had taken him as one of the +crew, with the intention, doubtless, of pocketing the wages which +otherwise would have gone to the sailor who would have been employed. +Several of the sailors were rather intoxicated, and the rest were just +getting over a spree. They came down into the forecastle just before +leaving, and seeing Jack there, whom they did not know, were very +silent. One of them at last said: + +"Is every man here a Union man?" + +Jack knew he was not, and that, being ignorant of secret signs, he would +perhaps be found out. He answered, "I don't belong to the Union." + +The man who spoke first then, said sulkily: "That settles it; I'm going +ashore. The rules says that no member shall sail on a vessel if there is +any scab on board." + +Jack understood from this, after a moment's thought, that this +expression must refer to one who did not avail himself of the healthy +privileges of the Sailors' Union. + + +He explained that he was only going as a passenger, and was not under +pay. + +This seemed to make the matter satisfactory, and after the malcontent +quieted down they all got to work peacefully. It took them a long time +to get all the canvas set while the tug towed the vessel out of and +beyond the harbor. + +Jack found he was no match for these men in the toil of making heavy +canvas. He felt like a child among them. The halyards were so large and +coarse to the touch, and after being exposed to the weather, their fiber +was like fine wire and ate into his hands painfully, although the +latter were well enough seasoned for yachting work. His hands almost +refused to hold the ropes when they had got thoroughly scalded in the +work, and by the time all the canvas was set he was ready to drop on the +deck with exhaustion. + +He was on the mate's watch. This man saw that, although Jack was +physically inferior, his knowledge seemed all right. This puzzled the +sailors. He was dressed in clothes which had looked rough and plebeian +on the Ideal, but here he was far too well dressed. If there were tears +in his clothes and in his hat, there were no patches anywhere, and this +seemed to be, _prima facie_, a suspicious circumstance. He regretted +that his clothes were not down to the standard. After being reviled on +the yachts because they were so disreputable, he now felt that they were +so particularly aristocratic that he longed for the garments of a tramp. +He saw that if the sailors suspected that he was not one of themselves +by profession they would send him to Coventry for the rest of the trip. +This would be unpleasant, for as the men got sober they proved +good-humored fellows in their way, although full of cranks and queer +ideas. + +At eight bells, on the first night, Jack came on deck in a long ulster, +which, although used for duck-shooting and sailing for five years since +it last saw King Street, was still painfully whole. The vessel was lying +over pretty well and thrashing through the waves in creditable style. +The watch just going off duty had "put it up" with the mate that Jack +should be sent aloft to stow the fore-gafftopsail. + +They could not make Jack out. And when he went up the weather-rigging, +after slipping out of the ulster, every man on board except the captain +was covertly watching him--wondering how he would get through the task. +The topsail had been "clewed up" at the masthead--and was banging about +in the strong wind like a suspended Chinese lantern. + +Suppose a person were to tie together the four corners of a new +drawing-room carpet, and were then to hoist it in this shape to the top +of a tall pine tree bending in the wind to an angle of thirty degrees. +Let him now climb up, and with a single long line master the banging +mass by winding the line tightly around it from the top down to the +bottom, and afterward secure the long bundle to the side of the tree. If +this be done, by way of experiment, while the seeker after knowledge +holds himself on as best he can by his legs, and performs the operation +on a black night entirely by the sense of touch he will understand part +of what our lake sailors have to do. + +Jack, to say truly, had all he wanted. The sail was a new one. The +canvas and the bolt-ropes were so stiff as to almost defy his strength. +But he got it done and descended, tired enough. All hands were satisfied +that he knew a good deal, and yet they said they were sure he was "not +quite the clean wheat." The ulster had been very damaging. + +The evening of the second day saw them still working down the lake, and +having had some favorable slants of wind they had got well on their way. +As Jack's watch went below at midnight, a fog had settled over the sea, +and he was glad to get down out of the cold, and have a comfortable +smoke before turning into his old camping blankets for the rest of his +four hours off. + +By the light of a bad-smelling tin lamp nailed against the Samson-post, +and sitting on a locker beside one of the swinging anchor chains that +came down through the hawse pipe from the deck above into the fore-peak +under the man's feet, one of the sailors fell to telling one of his many +adventures on the lakes. There was no attempt at humor in this story. It +was a simple, artless tale of deadly peril, cold, exhaustion, and +privation on our inland sea. It was told with a terrible earnestness, +born of a realization of the awful anxiety that had stamped upon his +perfect memory every little detail that occurred. + +This was an experience when, in the month of December, the schooner he +was then sailing on had been sent on a last trip from Oswego to Toronto. +They had almost got around the Lighthouse Point at Toronto, after a +desperately cold passage, when a gale struck them, and, not being able +to carry enough canvas to weather the point, they were thus driven down +the lake again with the sails either blown from the bolt-ropes or split +to ribbons, with the exception of a bit of the foresail, with which they +ran before the wind. To go to South Bay would probably mean being frozen +in all winter, and perhaps the loss of the ship, so the captain headed +for Oswego, hoping the snow and sleet would clear off to enable them to +see the harbor when they got there. On the way down a huge sea came over +the stern, stove in the cabin, and smashed the compasses. + +"We hedn't kept no dead reckonin', an' we cudn't tell anyways how fast +we wus goin'. We just druv' on afore it for hours. Cudn't see more'n a +vessel's length anywheres for snow, and, as for ice, we wus makin' ice +on top of her like you'd think we wus a-loadin' ice from a elevator; we +wus just one of 'Greenland's icy mountings' gone adrift. Waal, the old +man guv it up at last, and acknowledged the corn right up and up. Says +he, 'Boys, she's a goner. We've druv' down below and past Oswego, and +that's the last of her.'" + +"This looked pretty bad--fur the old man to collapse all up like this; +fur all on yer knows as well as I do that to get down below Oswego in a +westerly gale in December means that naathin' is goin' to survive but +the insurance. There's no harbors, ner shelter, ner lifeboats, ner +naathin'. Yer anchors are no more use to yer off that shore than a +busted postage-stamp. Thet's the time, boys, fur to jine the Salvation +Army and trample down Satan under yer feet and run her fur the shore and +pray to God for a soft spot and lots of power fer to drive her well up +into a farm. + +"Waal, gents, the old man tuckered out, and went off to his cabin fur to +make it all solid with his 'eavenly parents, and two or three of us +chaps as hed been watchin' things pretty close come to the conclusion +thet we hedn't got below Oswego yet. So we all went in a body, as a kind +o' depitation from ourselves, and says us to the old man: 'Hev you guv +up the nevigation of this vessel? becus, ef yer hev, there's others here +as wud like to take a whack at playin' captain.' + +"'All right,' says the old man from his knees (fur he was down gettin' +the prayers ready-made out of a book), 'I've guv her up,' says he; 'do +you jibe your fores'l and head her fur the sutherd and look out for a +soft spot. Yer kin do what yer likes with her.' + +"So we jibes the fores'l then, just puttin' the wheel over and lettin' +the wind do the rest of it, fer there was six inches of ice on to the +sheets, and yer couldn't touch a line anywheres unless yer got in to it +with a axe. Waal, the old fores'l flickers across without carryin' away +naathin', and, just as we did this, another vessel heaves right across +the course we bed been a-driven' on. Our helm was over and the ship was +a-swingin' when we sighted her, or else we'd have cut her in two like a +bloomin' cowcumber. And then we seed our chance. That ere vessel was +goin' along, on the full kioodle, with every appearance of knowin' where +she was goin' to--which we didn't. 'Hooray!' says we, 'we ain't below +Oswego yet, and that vessel will show us the road. She's got the due +course from somewheres, and she's our only chance.' + +"And we follered her. You can bet your Sunday pants we was everlastin'ly +right on her track. She was all we hed, boys, 'tween us and th' etarnal +never-endin' psalm. Death seemed like a awful cold passage that time, +boys! We wus all frost-bit and froze up ginerally; and clothes weren't +no better'n paper onto us." + +"But she had a _leetle_ more fores'l onto her than we hed; and after a +while she begun to draw away from us. We hed naathin' left more to set +fer to catch up with her. We hollered to make her ease up, but she paid +no attention. Guess she didn't hear, or thought we hed our compasses all +right--which we hedn't. Waal, gents, it was a awful time. Our last +chance was disappearin' in the snow-storm, and there wus us left there, +'most froze to death, and not knowin' where to go. Yer cudn't see her, +thro' the snow, more'n two lengths ahead; and, when she got past that, +all yer cud see was the track of her keel in the water right under our +bows. Well, fellows, I got down furrud on the chains, and we 'stablished +a line o' signals from me along the rest of them to the man at the +wheel. If I once lost that tract in the water we wus done forever. +Sometimes I wus afeared I hed lost it, and then I got it again, and then +it seemed to grow weaker; and I thought a little pray to God would do no +harm. And I lifts up my hand--so--" + +The man had left his seat and was crouching on the floor as he told this +part of the story. The words rolled out with a terrific energy as he +glared down at the floor, stooping in the attitude in which he had +watched the track in the water. The tones of his voice had a wild terror +in them that thrilled Jack to the very core, and made him feel as if he +could not breathe. + +"And I lifts up me hand--so (and, gents, I wus lookin' at that streak in +the water. I want yer to understand I was a-lookin' at it). And I lifts +up me hand--so--and I says 'Holy Christ, don't let that vessel get off +no farderer--'" + +The story was never finished. + +A sound came to them that seemed to Jack to be only a continuation of +the horror of the story he had heard. A crash sounded through the ship +and they were all knocked off their seats into the fore-peak with a +sudden shock. They tumbled up on deck in a flash, and there they saw +that a great steamer had mounted partly on top of the schooner's +counter. The mainmast had gone over the side to leeward. + +The schooner had been about to cross the steamer's course when they +first saw her lights in the fog, and, partly mistaking her direction, +the sailing captain had put his ship about. This brought the stern of +the schooner, as she swung in stays, directly in line with the course of +the steamer. The steamer's helm was put hard over, and the engines were +reversed, but not until within fifty feet of the schooner. The stern of +the schooner swung around as she turned to go off on the other tack, so +that, although the stem or cutwater of the steamer got past, the counter +of the schooner was struck and forced through the steamer's starboard +bow under the false sides. When they struck, the schooner's stern was +depressed in the seaway and the steamer's bow was high in the air, so +that the latter received a deadly blow which tore a hole about six feet +high by ten long in her bow. Both boats went ahead together, chiefly +owing to the momentum of the huge steamer. And for a moment the +steamer's false sides rested on what was left of the schooner's counter +on the port side. + +A man leaning over from the upper deck of the steamer cried: + +"What schooner is that?" + +"Schooner North Star, of Toronto," was the reply. + +The man vaulted over the bulwarks and slid actively down the sloping +side of the steamer to the deck of the schooner and looked around him. +No sooner had he done so than the motion of the waves parted the two +boats. The steamer ceased to move ahead. The forward canvas of the +schooner had caught the wind and she was beginning to pay off on the +port tack, the mainmast, mainsail, and rigging dragging in the water. + +Jack, who was filled with helpless anxiety, then discovered that the +steamer was the Eleusinian. At the same moment he heard a shriek from +the bow of the steamer and there he saw Nina, her long hair driving +behind her, beckoning him to come to help her. The steamer, filling like +a broken bottle, had already taken one lurch preparatory to going down +and Jack yelled: + +"Jump, Nina! Jump into the water and I will save you!" + +But Nina, not knowing that the steamer was going down, had not the +courage to cast herself into the black heaving waves. + +Jack saw this hesitation, and yelled to her again to jump. He made fast +the end of a coil of light line, and then sprang to the bulwarks to jump +overboard so that when he swam to the bows of the steamer Nina could +jump into the water near him. + +He knew without looking that the schooner, with no after-canvas set, +could do nothing at present but fall off and drift away before the wind, +as she was now doing, and as her one yawl boat had been smashed to dust +in the collision, the only chance for Nina was for him to have a line in +his hand whereby to regain the schooner as it drifted off. It was a wild +moment for Jack, but his nerve was equal to the occasion. While he +belayed the end of the light line to a ring on the bulwarks, he called +to his mates on the schooner to let go everything and douse their +forward canvas. + +It takes a long time even to read what had to be done. What Jack did was +done in a moment; but as he sprang to the bulwarks to vault over the +side, a strong pair of arms seized him from behind and held him like a +vice with his arms at his sides. + +"Let me go," he cried, as he struggled in the grasp of a stranger. + +"No, sir. You're wanted. I have had trouble enough to get you without +letting you drown yourself." + +Jack struggled wildly; but the more frantic he became the more he roused +the detective to ferocity. He heaved forward to throw Dearborn over his +head; but the two fell together, crashing their heads upon the deck, +where they writhed convulsively. + +The iron grip never relaxed. At last Jack, lifting Dearborn with him, +got on his feet and, seizing something on the bulwarks to hold himself +in position, he stopped his efforts to escape. "For God's sake," he +cried brokenly, "for Christ's sake, let me go! See, there she is! She is +going to be my wife!" + +In his excitement Dearborn forgot that the woman on the steamer might +have the stolen money with her. To him Jack's jumping overboard promised +certain death and the loss of a prisoner. + +As Jack tried to point to Nina, who was clasping the little flag-pole at +the bow of the steamer--a white figure in the surrounding gloom, waving +and apparently calling to him--he saw the steamer take a slow, sickening +lurch forward, and then a long lurch aft. The bows rose high in the air, +with that poor desolate figure clasping the flag-pole, and then the +Eleusinian slowly disappeared. + +For an instant the bows remained above the surface while the air escaped +from the interior, and the last that could be seen was the white figure +clinging desperately to the little mast as if forsaken by all. No power +had answered her agonies of prayer for deliverance. + + * * * * * + +After the strong man who had pinioned Jack saw the vessel go down, he +became aware that he was holding his culprit up rather than down. He +looked around at his face, and there saw a pair of staring eyes that +discerned nothing. He laid him on the deck then, and finally placed him +in the after-cabin on the floor. Jack did not regain consciousness. His +breathing returned only to allow a delirium to supervene. Dearborn and a +sailor had again to hold him, or he would have plunged over the +bulwarks, thinking the steamer had not yet sunk. + +The captain's wife, who had been sleeping in the extra berth off the +after-cabin, had been crushed between the timbers when the collision +took place, and under the frantic orders of the captain the rest of the +crew were trying to extricate the screaming woman. The mate had been +disabled in the falling of the mainmast, so that no attempts were made +to save those who were left swimming when the Eleusinian went down, and +the schooner, under her forward canvas, sailed off, dragging her +wreckage after her, slowly, of course, but faster than any one could +swim. Thus no one was saved from the steamer except the detective, who +had not thought of saving his own life when he had dropped to the deck +of the schooner, but only of seizing Jack. + +The mate was able, after a time, to give his directions while lying on +the deck. The wreckage was chopped away, and the vessel was brought +nearer the wind to raise the injured port quarter well above the waves +until canvas could be nailed over the gaping aperture. When this was +done they squared away before the wind, hoisted the center-board, and +made good time up the lake. They had a fair wind to Port Dalhousie--the +only place available for dockyards and refitting--where they arrived at +two o'clock in the day. + +After raving in delirium until they arrived at Port Dalhousie, Jack fell +off then into a sleep, and when the Empress of India was ready to leave +at four o'clock for Toronto, Dearborn woke him up and found that his +consciousness seemed to have partly returned. The detective was pleased +that the disabled vessel had sought a Canadian port, where his warrant +for Jack's arrest was good. However, the prisoner made no resistance, +and at nine o'clock he was duly locked up at Toronto, having remained in +a sort of stupor from which nothing could arouse him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + + + The time is out of joint;--O cursed spite. + That I was ever born to set it right. + + _Hamlet._ + + +As the afternoon wore on, on that day when the bank lost its $50,000, +Geoffrey Hampstead was back at his work as usual. He did not change his +waistcoat while at his rooms, because he thought this might be remarked. +He merely left the money there, and went back to his work as if nothing +had happened. The excitement among the clerks in the bank was feverish. +Geoffrey let them know what he and Dearborn had seen in Jack's room, and +that the confusion there clearly showed that he had gone off somewhere. +Most faces looked black at this, but there were several who, in spite of +the worst appearances, refused to believe in Jack's guilt. Geoffrey was +one of them. Geoffrey was quite broken down. Everybody felt sorry for +him. He had made a great friend of Jack, and every one could see that +the blow had almost prostrated him. + +Toward the end of the afternoon he said to a couple of his friends: "I +wish you fellows would dine with me to-night. I feel as if I had to have +somebody with me." + +These two did so. In the evening they picked up some more of the bank +men, and all repaired to Geoffrey's quarters. They saw he was drinking +heavily, and perhaps out of fellow-feeling for a man who had had a blow, +they also drank a good deal themselves, and lapsed into hilarity, +partly in order to draw Geoffrey out of his gloom. + +At one o'clock the night was still young so far as they were concerned, +and the liquor in the rooms had run short. Geoffrey did not wish to be +left alone. The noise and foolishness of his friends diverted his +thoughts from more unpleasant subjects. When the wine ran out, he said +they must have some more. They said it would be impossible to get it; +but Geoffrey said Patsey Priest could procure it, and he rang on Mrs. +Priest's bell until Patsey appeared, looking like a disheveled monkey. +He was received with an ovation. Geoffrey gave him the money, and sent +him to a neighboring large hotel to get a case of champagne. When he +returned, having accomplished his errand, the young gentlemen were +enthusiastic over him. He was made to stand on a table and take an +affidavit on an album that he had brought the right change back. Then +some jackass said a collection must be taken up for Patsey, and he +headed the list with a dollar. Of course, everybody else gave a dollar +also, because this was such a fine idea. Mr. St. George Le Mesurier +Hector Northcote was delighted with Patsey. "Mr. Priest," he said, "you +are a gentleman and a man of finish; but it grieves me to notice that +your garments, although compatible with genius, do not, of themselves, +suggest that luxury which genius should command. Wait here for a moment; +you must be clad in costly raiment." + +Mr. St. G. Le M. H. Northcote darted unsteadily, not to say lurched, +into Geoffrey's room, looking for that "very dreadful waistcoat" which +he had been pained to see Geoffrey wearing during the day. He found it +at once in a closet, and, wrapping it in among several trousers and +coats which he had selected at random, he came out again with the bundle +in his hand. + +"What are you doing there with my clothes?" asked Geoffrey, rising +good-humoredly, but inwardly nervous, and going toward the bedroom as +Northcote came out. + +"I am going to give them to a gentleman whose station in life is not +properly typified in his garb." + +Geoffrey did not see the waistcoat lying inside one of the coats in the +bundle, and so he thought it better to humor the idea than run any +chances. He had taken off this objectionable article before going to +dinner, intending to come back and burn it when he had more time. + +He took the bundle from Northcote and handed it to Patsey as he dragged +that individual to the door. "Here," he said. "Don't come down in rags +to my room again. Now, get out." + +Patsey disappeared hurriedly through the door. He had his own opinion of +these young men who were so ready to pay for the pleasure of knocking +him about, and if he had been required to classify mammalia he would not +have applied the old name of _homo sapiens_ to any species to which they +belonged. + +The next day, to kill time during the anxious hours, Geoffrey went out +yachting with Dusenall and several others. As the wind fell off, they +did not reach the moorings again until late in the evening, when they +dined at the club-house on the island, and slept on the Ideal instead of +going home. After an early breakfast the next morning they were rowed +across the bay, and Geoffrey reached the bank at the usual time. + +In this way, having been away from town all night, he knew nothing of +the news that had spread like wildfire through certain circles on the +previous night, that Jack Cresswell had been arrested and brought to +Toronto. The first person whom he met at the door of the bank was the +omnipresent Detective Dearborn, who smiled and asked him what he thought +of the news. + +"What news?" asked Geoffrey, his eyes growing small. + +"Why, this," he replied, handing Geoffrey one of the morning papers, +which he had not yet seen. Geoffrey read the following, printed in very +large type, on the first page: + + CLEVER CAPTURE! + + JACK CRESSWELL, THE VICTORIA BANK ROBBER ARRESTED! + THE STOLEN $50,000 SUPPOSED TO BE NOW RECOVERED! + EXCITING CHASE AND EXTRAORDINARY DETECTIVE WORK! + A BULL'S-EYE FOR DETECTIVE DEARBORN! + PRISONER CAPTURED DURING A COLLISION BETWEEN TWO VESSELS! + WRECK OF THE STEAMER ELEUSINIAN!! + ALL ON BOARD LOST!! + EXCEPT THE WILY DETECTIVE. + GREAT EXCITEMENT!! + FURTHER DISCLOSURES ABOUT THE BANK!!! + THE BLOATED ARISTOCRACY SHAKEN TO ITS FOUNDATIONS!!!! + +Detective Dearborn, on his arrival in Toronto, was so certain of +convicting his prisoner that he threw the hungry newspaper reporters +some choice and tempting _morceaux_. And, from the little that he gave +them, they built up such an interesting and imaginative article that one +was forced to think of the scientific society described by Bret Harte, +when Mr. Brown-- + + Reconstructed there. + From those same bones an animal that was extremely rare. + +Indeed, from the glowing colors in which the detective's chase was +painted, from the many allusions to Jack's high standing in society and +his terrible downfall, from a full description of Jack as being the +petted darling of all the unwise virgins of the upper ten, and from the +way that the name of Jack was familiarly bandied about, one necessarily +ended the article with a disbelief in any form of respectability, +especially in the upper classes, and with a profound conviction that +society generally was rotten to the core. The name "Jack" seemed now to +have a criminal sound about it, and reminded the reader of "Thimble-rig +Jack" and "Jack Sheppard," and other notorieties who have done much to +show that people called "Jack" should be regarded with suspicion. + +Mr. Dearborn watched Geoffrey's face as he glanced over the newspaper. +Dearborn had a sort of an idea from all he could learn, that Jack had +had a longer head than his own to back him up, and, for reasons which +need not be mentioned now, he suspected that there was more than one in +this business. + +However, Geoffrey knew that he was being watched, and his nerve was +still equal to the occasion. He turned white, as a matter of course--so +did everybody in the bank--and Dearborn got no points from his face. + +Geoffrey handed him back the paper, and said commiseratingly: "Poor +Jack, he has dished himself, sure enough, this time." + +Dearborn served him then with a subpoena to attend the hearing before +the police magistrate at an hour which was then striking, and Geoffrey +walked over to the police court with him. + +Standing-room in the court that day was difficult to get. In the morning +well-worn _habitues_ of that interesting place easily sold the width of +their bodies on the floor for fifty cents. + +Maurice Rankin had rushed off to see Jack in the morning. He knew +nothing about the evidence, but he felt that Jack was innocent. He found +his friend apparently in a sort of stupor, and was hardly recognized by +him. + +"You must have the best lawyer I can get to defend you, Jack," he said. + + +No answer. + +"Don't you intend to make any defense or have any assistance? I can get +you a splendid man in two minutes." + +Jack shook his head slowly, and said, with an evident effort: + +"No. I don't care." + +Rankin did not know what to make of him; but, finally, he said: + +"Well, if you won't have any person better, I will sit there, and if I +see my way to anything I'll perhaps say a word. You do not object to my +doing this, do you?" Jack's answer, or rather the motion of his head, +might have meant anything, but Rankin took it to mean assent. + +At half-past nine, Jack was led from the cell outside to the court-room +by two policemen who seemed partly to support him. + +A thrill ran through his old friends when they saw him. His face was +ghastly, and his jaw had dropped in an enervated way that gave him the +appearance of a man who had been fairly cornered and had "thrown up the +sponge" in despair. He had not been brushed or combed for two nights and +a day. He still wore his old, dirty sailing clothes. The sailor's +sheath-knife attached to his leather belt had been removed by the +police. His partial stupor was construed to be dogged sullenness, and it +assisted in giving every one a thoroughly bad impression as to his +innocence. + +After he was placed in the dock he sat down and absently picked at some +blisters on his hands, until the magistrate spoke to him, and then the +policemen ordered him to stand up. When he stood thus, partly raised +above the spectators, his eyes were lusterless and stolid and he looked +vacantly in the direction of the magistrate. + +"John Cresswell, it is charged against you that you did, on the 25th day +of August last, at the city of Toronto, in the county of York, +feloniously steal, take, and carry away fifty thousand dollars, the +property of the Victoria Bank of Canada," etc. + +Rankin saw that Jack did not comprehend what was going on. He got up, +and was going to say something when the magistrate continued: + +"Do you wish that the charge against you shall be tried by me or with a +jury at the next assizes, or by some other court of competent +jurisdiction?" + +No answer. + +The magistrate looked at Jack keenly. It struck him that the prisoner +had been imbibing and was not yet sober, and so he spoke louder, and in +a more explanatory and informal tone. + +"You may be tried, if you like, on some other day, before the county +judge without a jury, or you may wait till the coming assizes and be +tried with a jury, or, if you consent to it, you may be tried here, now, +before me. Which do you wish to do?" + +Still no answer. + +Rankin considered. He knew nothing of the evidence, and thought it +impossible for Jack to be guilty. He did not wish to relinquish any +chances his friend might have with a jury, and he felt that Jack himself +ought to answer if he could. He went to him and said simply, for it was +so difficult to make him understand: + +"Do you want to be tried now or afterward?" + +Jack nodded his head, while he seemed to be trying to collect himself. + +"You mean to be tried now?" + +Jack looked a little brighter here, and said weakly: + +"Certainly--why not?" + +Detective Dearborn, had not been idle since his return; and all the +witnesses that the prosecution required were present. + +His first witness was Geoffrey Hampstead. His evidence was looked upon +by the spectators as uninteresting, and merely for the sake of form. +Everybody knew what he had to say. He merely explained how the packet of +fifty bills belonging to the Victoria Bank had been put in a certain +place on the desk in his box at the bank, and that, he said, was all he +knew about it. + +At this point, Jack leaned over the bar and said; with a stupid pleasure +in his face: + +"Morry, there's old Geoffrey. I can see him. What's he talking about? +Say, if you get a chance, tell him I am awfully glad to see him again." + +Rankin now became convinced that there was something the matter with +Jack's head, and he resolved to speak to the court to obtain a +postponement of the case when the present witness had given his +evidence. + +It was also drawn from Geoffrey, by the county attorney, that the +prisoner alone had had access to the place where the money lay, that it +could not have been reached from the public hall-way, and that the +prisoner had gone out very soon after he had spoken to the witness--when +the money lay within his reach. + +The crown prosecutor said he would ask the witness nothing more at +present, but would require him again. + +Rankin then represented to the police magistrate that his client was too +ill to give him any instructions in the matter. The defendant was a +personal friend of his, and although willing to act for him, he was, as +yet, completely in the dark as to any of the facts, and in view of this +he deemed it only proper to request that the whole matter should be +postponed until he should be properly able to judge for himself. + +The magistrate then asked, with something of a twinkle in his eye. + +"What do you think is the matter with your client, Mr. Rankin?" + +"It is hard for me, not being a doctor, to say," answered Rankin, +looking back thoughtfully toward Jack. "I think, however, that he is +suffering from some affection of the brain." + +A horse-laugh was heard from some one among the "unwashed," and the +police strained their heads to see who made the noise. The old plea of +insanity seemed to be coming up once again, and one man in the crowd was +certainly amused. + +The magistrate said: "I do not think there is any reason why I should +not go on hearing the evidence, now. I will note your objection, Mr. +Rankin, and I perceive that you may be in a rather awkward position, +perhaps, if you are in total ignorance of the facts." + +Rankin was in a quandary. If he sat down and declined to cross-examine +the witnesses or act for the defendant in any way, Jack might be +convicted, and all chances for technical loopholes of escape might be +lost forever. There might, however, in this case, if the trial were +forced on, be a ground for some after proceedings on the claim that he +did not get fair play. On the other hand, cross-examination might +possibly break up the prosecution, if the evidence was weak or +unsatisfactory. He came to the conclusion that he would go on and +examine the witness and try to have it understood that he did so under +protest. + +After partly explaining to the magistrate what he wished to do, he asked +Geoffrey a few questions--not seeing his way at all clearly, but just +for the general purpose of fishing until he elicited something that he +might use. + +"You say that after the defendant spoke to you in the bank you heard him +go out through the side door. Where does that side door lead?" + +"It leads into an empty hall, and then you go out of an outer side door +into the street." + +"Is not this outer side door sometimes left open in hot weather?" + +"Yes, I think it was open all that day." + +"How are the partitions between the stalls or boxes of the different +clerks in the Victoria Bank constructed?" + +"They are made rather high (about five feet six high) and they are built +of wood--black walnut, I think." + +"Then, if the door of your box was closed you could not see who came in +or out of Mr. Cresswell's stall?" + +"Only through the wicket between our boxes." + +"How long after Mr. Cresswell went out did you notice that the money was +gone?" + +"I can't quite remember. I was going on with my work with my back to the +money. It might have been from an hour to an hour and a half. I went out +to the side door myself for an instant, to see what the weather was +going to be in the afternoon. It was some time after I came back that I +found that the money was gone." + +"Then, as far as you are able to tell, somebody might have come into Mr. +Cresswell's stall after he went out, and taken the money without your +knowing it?" + +"Certainly. There was perhaps an hour and a half in which this could +have been done." + +"This package of money, as it lay, could have been seen from the public +hall-way of the bank through your front wicket, could it not?" + +"Yes." + +"And it was perfectly possible for a person, after seeing the money in +this way, to go around and come in the side door, enter Mr. Cresswell's +box and take the money?" + +"Yes, I have heard of as daring robberies as that." + +"Or it would have been easy for any of the other bank officials to have +taken the money?" + +"If they had wished to do so--yes." + +"And it would have been possible for you, when you went to the side +door, to have handed the money to some one there ready to receive it?" + +"Oh, yes," said Geoffrey, laughing; "I might have had a confederate +outside. I could have given a confederate about two hundred thousand +dollars that morning, I think." + +"Thank you," said Rankin to Geoffrey, as he sat down. + +Geoffrey saw what Rankin wanted, and he assisted him as far as he could +to open up any other possibilities to account for the disappearance of +the money. + +The cabman who removed Jack's valises early in the morning was then +called. He identified Jack as the person who had engaged him. Had been +often engaged before by Mr. Cresswell. He also identified Jack's +valises, which were produced. + +Rankin did not cross-examine this man. His evidence was brought in to +show that Jack's absconding was a carefully planned one--partly put into +action before the stealing of the money--and not the result of any hasty +impulse. + +The caretaker of the yacht-club house was also called, for the same +object. He told what he knew, and was restrained with difficulty from +continually saying that he did not see anything suspicious about what he +saw. The caretaker was evidently partial to the prisoner. + +Detective Dearborn then took the stand, and as he proceeded in his story +the interest grew intense. But when he mentioned meeting a young lady on +the steamboat, and getting into a conversation with her, Rankin arose +and said he had no doubt there were few ladies who could resist his +friend Detective Dearborn, but that he did not see what she had to do +with the case. + +Then the county attorney jumped to his feet and contended that this +evidence was admissible to show that this woman was going to the same +place as the prisoner and had conspired with the prisoner to rob the +bank. + +Rankin replied that there was no charge against the prisoner for +conspiracy, that the woman was not mentioned in the charge, and unless +it were shown that she was in some way connected with the prisoner in +the larceny evidence as to her conversations could not be received if +not spoken in the prisoner's presence. + +Rankin had no idea who this woman was or what she had said. He only +choked off everything he could on general principles. + +The magistrate refused to receive as evidence the conversation between +her and the detective. So Rankin made his point, not knowing how +valuable it was to his client. + +Detective Dearborn was much chagrined at this. He thought that his +story, as an interesting narrative of detective life, was quite spoiled +by the omission, and he blurted out as a sort of "aside" to the +spectators: + +"Well, any way, she said she was Cresswell's wife." + +This remark created a sensation in court, as he anticipated. But the +magistrate rebuked him very sharply for it, saying: "I would have you +remember that the evidence of very zealous police officers is always +sufficiently open to suspicion. Showing more zeal than the law allows to +obtain a conviction does not improve your condition as a witness." + +Although merited, this was a sore snub for the able detective, and it +seemed quite to take the heart out of him; but he afterward recovered +himself as he fell to describing what had occurred in the collision and +how he had got on board the North Star--the sole survivor from the +Eleusinian. In speaking of the arrest he did not say that he had +prevented Jack from saving the life dearest on earth to him. He gave the +truth a very unpleasant turn against the prisoner by saying that Jack +struggled violently to escape from the arrest and tried to throw +himself overboard. This, of course, gave all the impression that he was +ready to seek death rather than be captured. It gave a desperate aspect +to his conduct, and accorded well with his sullen appearance in the +court-room. Dearborn suppressed the fact that Jack had been delirious +and raving for twelve hours afterward, as this might explain his present +condition and cause delay. He had lost no opportunity of circulating the +suggestion that he was shamming insanity. + +After he had briefly described his return to Toronto with his prisoner, +the crown attorney asked him: + +"Did you find any articles upon his person?" + +"Yes; I took this knife away from him." + +"Ah, indeed!" said the crown attorney, taking the knife and examining +it. "Quite a murderous-looking weapon." + +"Which will be found strapped to the back of every sailor that +breathes," interrupted Rankin indignantly. "I hope my learned friend +won't arrest his barber for using razors in his daily work." + +"And what else did you find upon him?" asked the attorney, returning to +the case for want of good retort. + +Detective Dearborn thought a sensation agreeable to himself would +certainly be made by his answer: + +"Well," he said, with the _sang froid_ with which detectives delight to +make their best points, "I found on him two of the stolen +one-thousand-dollar bills--" + +"Now, now, now!" cried Rankin, jumping to his feet in an instant. "You +can not possibly know that of your own knowledge. You are getting too +zealous again, Mr. Dearborn." + +"Don't alarm yourself, my acute friend," said the crown attorney, +conscious that all the evidence he required was coming on afterward. "We +will prove the identity of the recovered bills to your most complete +satisfaction." Then, turning to the witness, he said: "Go on." + + +Dearborn, who had made the little stir he expected went on to explain +what the other moneys were that he had found on Jack, and described how +he found the bills pinned securely inside a watch-pocket of a waistcoat +that he wore underneath his outer shirt. + +Rankin asked Dearborn only one question. There did not seem to be any +use in resisting the matter except on the one point which remained to be +proved. + +"You do not pretend to identify these bills yourself?" + +"No, sir, I don't. But we'll fix that all right for you," he said, +triumphantly, as he descended from the box. + +The clerk in the Montreal Telegraph Company's office who compared the +numbers of the bills with the list of numbers sent from New York, then +identified the two recovered bills beyond any doubt. He also swore that +he personally deposited the package of bills with the receiving teller +of the Victoria Bank. + +The receiving teller swore to having received such a package and having +handed it to Mr. Hampstead to be used in his department. + +Geoffrey Hampstead was recalled, and acknowledged receiving such a +package from the other clerk. But what surprised everybody was that he +took up the recovered bills and swore positively that the stolen bills +were of a light-brown color, and not dark-green, like the ones found on +the prisoner. + +Geoffrey had seen that the whole case depended on the identification of +these bills. If he could break the evidence of the other witnesses +sufficiently on this point, there might, he thought, be a chance of +having Jack liberated. + +A peculiar thing happened here, which startled the dense mass of people +looking on. + +The prisoner arose to his feet, and, taking hold of the railing to +steady himself, said in a rolling, hollow voice, while Geoffrey was +swearing that the stolen bills were of a light-brown color: + +"Geoffrey, old man, don't tell any lies on my account. The bills were +all dark-green." Then he sat down again wearily. + +If there was a man in the room who until now had still hoped that Jack +was innocent, his last clinging hope was dissipated by this speech. + +A deep silence prevailed for an instant, as the conviction of his guilt +sank into every heart. + +Some said it was just like Geoffrey to go up and try to swear his friend +off. They thought it was like him, inasmuch as it was a daring stroke +which was aimed at the root of the whole prosecution. Probably he lost +few friends among those who thought he had perjured himself for this +object. Those who did not think this, supposed he was mistaken in his +recollection as to the color of the bills. A small special edition of a +vulgar newspaper, issued an hour afterward, said: + +"In this case of Regina _vs._ Cresswell, if Hampstead had been able to +shake the identification of these bills no doubt Regina would have 'got +left.'" + +When Jack had returned to consciousness, at Port Dalhousie, it was only +partially. He looked at the detective dreamily when informed that he had +to go to Toronto. He felt desperately ill and weak, and thought of one +thing only--Nina's death. Even that he only realized faintly. Mentally +and bodily he was like a water-logged wreck that could be towed about +from place to place but was capable in itself of doing little more than +barely floating. When Rankin had spoken to him, before the trial, about +getting a lawyer, he was merely conscious of a slight annoyance that +disturbed the one weak current of his thought. When the magistrate had +addressed him in the court-room, the change from the dark cell to the +light room and the crowd of faces had nearly banished again the few rays +of intelligence which he possessed. He did not know what the magistrate +was saying. Vaguely conscious that there was some charge against him, he +was paralyzed by a death-like weakness which prevented his caring in the +slightest degree what happened. When Rankin spoke incisively to him, the +voice was familiar, and he was able to make an answer, and in the course +of the trial gleams of intelligence came to him. The vibrations of +Geoffrey's well-known voice aroused him with a half-thrill of pleasure, +and during the re-examination he had partly comprehended that there was +some charge against him about these bills, and he came to the conclusion +that as Geoffrey must have known the true color of the bills, he was +only telling an untruth for the purpose of getting him off. This was as +far as his intelligence climbed, and when he sat down again the exertion +proved too much for him, and his mind wandered. + +Of course, after this terribly damaging remark, there was nothing left +for Rankin to cling to. Clearly, Jack knew all about the bills, and had +given up all hope of acquittal. The two other clerks were called to +contradict Geoffrey as to the color of the bills, and with that the case +for the prosecution closed. + +Rankin said he was as yet unprepared with any evidence for the defense. +Evidence of previous good character could certainly be obtained in any +quantity from any person who had ever known the prisoner, and, in any +case, he should be allowed time to produce this evidence. He easily +showed a number of reasons why a postponement for a week should be +granted. + +The magistrate shook his head, and then told John Cresswell to stand up. + +Jack was partly hoisted up by a policeman. He stood holding on to the +bar in front of him with his head down, perhaps the most guilty looking +individual that had been in that dock for a month. + +"John Cresswell, the evidence against you in this case leaves no shadow +of doubt in my mind that you are guilty of the offense charged. Your +counsel has requested a delay in order that your defense may be more +thoroughly gone into. I have watched your demeanor throughout the trial, +and, although a little doubtful at first, I have come to the conclusion +that you are shamming insanity. I saw you on several occasions look +perfectly intelligent, and your remarks show that you fully understand +the bearing of the case. I will therefore refuse to postpone the trial +further than three o'clock this afternoon. This will give your counsel +an opportunity to produce evidence of previous good character or any +other evidence that he may wish to bring forward. Forty-eight thousand +dollars of the stolen money are still missing, and, so far, I certainly +presume that you know where that large sum of money is secreted. Unless +the aspect of the case be changed by further evidence sentence will be +passed on you this afternoon, and I wish to tell you now that if, in the +mean time, you make restitution of the money, such action on your part +may materially affect the sentence I shall pass upon you." + +The magistrate was going on to say: "I will adjourn the court now until +three o'clock," when he perceived that Jack, who was still standing, was +speaking to him and looking at him vacantly. What Jack said while his +head swayed about drunkenly was this: + +"If you'll let me off this watch now I'll do double time to-morrow, +governor. I never was sea-sick before, but I must turn in for a while, +for I can't stand without holding on to something." + +Nobody knew what to make of this except Detective Dearborn, who had +possessed all along the clew to his distressing condition. But what did +the detective care for his condition? John Cresswell was black with +guilt. The fact of his being "cut up" because, a woman got drowned did +not change his guilt. He and that deuced fine woman were partners in +this business, and forty-eight thousand had gone to the bottom of the +lake in her pocket The detective could not forgive himself for not +allowing Jack to try and save the girl. The girl herself was no object, +but it would have fetched things out beautifully as a culmination of +detective work to bring her back also--along with the money. Forty-eight +and two would make fifty, and if the bank could not afford to give away +one in consideration of getting back the forty-nine--Bah! he knew his +mad thirst to hold his prey had made him a fool. + +Was it the formation of his jaw? They say a bull-dog is not the best +fighter, because he will not let go his first grip in order to take a +better one. + +The court-room was empty in five minutes after the adjournment, and a +couple of the "Vics" followed Jack down-stairs. Rankin went down also +and was going to get Jack some stimulant, but he found the bank fellows +ahead of him. One of them had got a pint of "fizz," another had procured +from the neighboring restaurant some oysters and a small flask of +brandy. + +These young men were beautiful in the matter of stand-up collars, their +linen was chaste, and extensive, and-their clothes ornamental, but they +could stick to a friend. The language of these young men, who showed +such a laxity in moral tone as to attempt to refresh an undoubted +criminal, was ordinarily almost too correct, but now they were profane. +Every one of them had been fond of Jack, and their sympathy was greater +than their self-control. For once they forgot to be respectable, and +were cursing to keep themselves from showing too much feeling--a phase +not uncommon. + +Rankin saw Jack take some brandy and that afterward he was able to peck +at the oysters. Then he walked off to No. 173 Tremaine Buildings to +think out what had best be done and to have a solitary piece of bread +and butter, and perhaps a cup of tea, if Mrs. Priest's stove happened to +have a fire in it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + So Justice, while she winks at crimes, + Stumbles on innocence sometimes. + + _Hudibras._ + + He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and + will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.--HENRY + WARD BEECHER. + + +About two o'clock on this day of the trial, when Geoffrey and all the +rest of the bank-clerks were hurrying through their work in order to get +out to attend the police court, Mr. Dearborn came in unexpectedly, and +talked to Hampstead for a while. He said that the prisoner Cresswell +was very ill, perhaps dying, and had begged him to go and bring Geoffrey +to see him--if only for a moment. + +"All right," said Hampstead, "I'll speak to the manager about going, and +will then drop over with you." + +He did so, and they walked to the police station together. They +descended into the basement, and Mr. Dearborn unlocked a cell which was +very dark inside. + +"You'll find him in there," said the detective. "I'll have to keep the +door locked, of course, while you are with him." + +Geoffrey entered, and the door was locked on the outside. He looked +around the cell, and then a fear struck him. He turned coolly to the +detective, who was still outside the bars, and said: "You have brought +me to the wrong cell. Cresswell is not in this one." + +"Well, the fact is," said Mr. Dearborn, "a warrant was just now placed +in my hands for your arrest, and, as they say you are particularly good +both at running and the manly art, I thought a little stratagem might +work the thing in nice, quiet shape." + +"Just so," said Hampstead, laughing. "Perhaps you are right. I don't +think you could catch me if I got started. Who issued the warrant, and +what is it about?" + +"Here is the warrant. You are entitled to see it. An information was +laid, and that's all I know about it. You'll be called up in court in a +few minutes, and I must leave you now--to look after some other +business." + +At three o'clock, when the court-room was packed almost to suffocation, +the magistrate mounted the bench, and Cresswell was brought up and +remanded until the next morning. The spectators were much disappointed +at not hearing the termination of the matter, but their interest revived +as they heard the magistrate say, "Bring in the other prisoner." + +A dead silence followed, broken only by the measured tread of men's feet +in the corridor outside. The double doors opened, and there appeared +Geoffrey Hampstead handcuffed and accompanied by four huge policemen. In +ten minutes, any person in the court could easily sell his standing-room +at a dollar and a half a stand, or upward. + +There was no hang-dog look about Geoffrey. His crest was high. It was +surprising to see how dignified a man could appear in handcuffs. +Suppressed indignation was so vividly stamped upon his face that all +gained the idea that the gentleman was suffering an outrage. As he +approached the dock, one of his guards laid his hand on his arm. +Hampstead stopped short and turned to the policeman as if he would eat +him: + +"Take your hand off my arm!" he rasped out. The man did so in a hurry, +and the spectators were impressed by the incident. + +A charge about the fifty thousand dollars was read out to Geoffrey, +similar to that in the Cresswell case. That he did, etc.--on, etc.--at, +etc.--feloniously, etc.--and all the rest of it. + +Now Hampstead did not see how, when he was apparently innocent, and +another man practically convicted, he could possibly be thought guilty +also. The case against Cresswell had been so complete that it was +impossible for any one to doubt his guilt. Hampstead knew also that if +he were tried once now and acquitted, he never could be tried again for +the same offense. He had been fond of talking to Rankin about criminal +law, and on some points was better posted than most men. He did not know +whether Jack would be well enough to give evidence to-day, if at all, +and if, for want of proof or otherwise, the case against him failed now, +he would be safe forever. Jack might recover soon, and then the case +would be worse if he told all he knew. He did not engage a lawyer, as +this might seem as if he were doubtful and needed assistance. He was, he +thought, quite as well able to see loopholes of escape as a lawyer would +be, so long as they did not depend on technicalities. Altogether he had +decided, after his arrest and after careful thought, to take his trial +at once. + +He elected to be tried before a police magistrate, said he was ready for +trial, and pleaded "not guilty." + +About this time the manager of the Victoria Bank, who was very much +astonished and hurt at the proceedings taken against Geoffrey, leaned +over and asked the county attorney if he had much evidence against Mr. +Hampstead. The poor manager was beginning almost to doubt his own +honesty. Every person seemed guilty in this matter. As for Jack and +Hampstead, he would have previously been quite ready to have sworn to +his belief in their honesty. + +"My dear sir," replied the county attorney, "I don't know anything about +it. Mr. Rankin came flying down in a cab, saw the prisoner Cresswell, +swore out a warrant, had Mr. Hampstead arrested, sent the detectives +flying about in all directions, and that's all I know about it. He is +running the entire show himself." + +"Indeed!" said the manager. "I shall never be surprised at anything +again, after to-day." + +Nobody knew but Rankin himself what was coming on. Several detectives +had had special work allotted to them, but this was all they knew, and +the small lawyer sat with apparent composure until it was time to call +his first witness. + +Mr. St. George Le Mesurier Hector Northcote was the first witness +called, and his fashionable outfit created some amusement among the +"unwashed." Rankin, with a certain malignity, made him give his name in +full, which, together with his affected utterance, interested those who +were capable of smiling. + +After some formal questions, Rankin unrolled a parcel, shook out a +waistcoat with a large pattern on it, and handed it to the witness. + +"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?" + +"Oh, yes. It belongs to Mr. Hampstead. At least it used to belong to +him." + +"When did you see it last?" + +"Up in his rooms a few evenings ago." + +"That was the night of the day the fifty thousand dollars was stolen +from the bank?" + +"Yes." + +"What did you do with it then?" + +"I took it out of his bedroom closet to give to a poor boy." + +"Why did you do that?" + +"I thought it was a kindness to Mr. Hampstead to take that very dreadful +waistcoat away from him. I took this and a number of other garments to +give to the boy." + +"You were quite generous that night! Did Mr. Hampstead object?" + +"Object? Oh, no! I should have said that he took them from me and gave +them to the boy himself." + +"Now, why were you so generous with Mr. Hampstead's clothes, and why +should he consent to give them to the boy?" + +This was getting painful for Sappy. His manager was standing, as he +said, plumb in front of him. + +"Well, if I must tell unpleasant things," said Sappy, "the boy was sent +out that evening to get us a little wine, and I thought giving him that +waistcoat would be a satisfaction to all parties." + +"You were perfectly right. You have given a great deal of satisfaction +to a great many people. So Mr. Hampstead was entertaining his friends +that night?" + +"Yes. We dined with him at the club that evening, and adjourned +afterward to his rooms to have a little music." + +"Ah! Just so. Seeing how pleasantly things had been going in the bank +that day, and that his particular friend Cresswell had decamped with +fifty thousand dollars, Mr. Hampstead was celebrating the occasion. Now, +I suppose that, taking in the cost of the dinners and the wine--or +rather, excuse me--the _music_, and all the rest of it, you got the +impression that Mr. Hampstead had a good deal of money that night?" + +"That's none of your business," said Sappy, firing up. "Mr. Hampstead +spends his money like a gentleman. I suppose he did spend a good deal +that night, and generally does." + +"Very good," said Rankin. + +He then went on to ask questions about Hampstead's salary and his +probable expenses, but perhaps this was to kill time, for he kept +looking toward the door, as if he expected somebody to come in. Finally +he let poor Sappy depart in peace, after making him show beyond any +doubt that Geoffrey wore this waistcoat at the time of the theft at the +bank--that the garment was old fashioned, and that it had seemed +peculiar that Hampstead, a man of some fashion, should be wearing it. + +Patsey Priest was now called, and he slunk in from an adjoining room, in +company with a policeman. He had a fixed impression in his mind that +Geoffrey was his prosecutor, and that he was going to be charged with +stealing liquors, cigars, tobacco, and clothes. He was prepared to prove +his innocence of all these crimes, but he trembled visibly. His mother +had put his oldest clothes upon him, as poverty, she thought, might +prove a good plea before the day was out. The difference between his +garments and those of the previous witness was striking. His skin, as +seen through the holes in his apparel, suggested how, by mere _laches_, +real estate could become personalty. + +"Where were you on Wednesday night last, about one or two o'clock in the +evening?" + +"I wus in Mr. 'Ampstead's rooms part of the time." + +"Did you ever see that waistcoat before?" + + +"Yes, I did, and he gev it to me, so help me on fourteen Bibles, as I +kin prove by five or six gents right in front of me over there, and its +altogether wrong ye are fur to try and fix it on to a poor boy as has +to get his livin' honest and support his mother, and her a widder--" + +"Stop, stop!" called Rankin. "Did you get this other waistcoat at the +same time?" + +"Yes, I did, an' a lot more besides, an' I tuk them all up and gev them +to me mother just the same as I gives her all me wages and the hull of +the clothes an' more besides give me fur goin' round to the Rah-seen +House fur to buy the drinks--" + +"That will do, that will do," interrupted Rankin. "You can go." + +"Faith, I knew ye'd hev to discharge me, fur I'm as innercent as y'are +yerself." + +Mrs. Priest was called. + +She came in with more assurance now, as she had become convinced, from +seeing Hampstead in the dock and guarded by the police, that the matter +in question did not refer to her consumption of coal, or her legal right +to perquisites. + +"Mrs. Priest, did you ever see that waistcoat before?" said Rankin. + +"See it before! Didn't you take it out of me own hands not two hours +ago? What are ye after, man?" + +Rankin explained, that the magistrate wished to know all about it. + +"Well, I'll tell his lordship the hull story: Ye see, yer 'anor, the boy +gets the clothes from Mr. Geoffrey and brings them up to me last +Wednesday night begone and says they was give to him, an' the next day I +wus lookin' through them, and I thought I'd sell this weskit becas the +patthern is a thrifle large for a child, an' I puts me 'and into these +'ere pockets on the inside an' I pulls out a paper--" + +"Stop! Is this the paper you found?" + +"Yes, that's it; 'an I thought it might be of some use, as it hed +figures on it and writin'. An' I says to Mr. Renkin, when he come into +my room to-day fur to get a cup--" + +"Never mind what I came in for," said Rankin, coloring. + +"An' I says to Mr. Rankin, sez I, 'Is this paper any use, do you think, +to Mr. 'Ampstead.' An' he looks at it awful hard and sez, 'Where did yer +get it? An' then I ups and told him (for I wus quite innercent, and so +wus the boy) that I had got it out of the weskit--out of these 'ere +inside pockets. An' then I shows him that other weskit an' how the +lining of one weskit had been cut out and sewn onter the other--as +anybody can see as compares the two--an' I never saw any weskit with +four long pockets on the inside before, an' I wondered what they wus +fur. + +"An' I hedn't got the words out of me mouth before Mr. Renkin turned as +white as the drippin' snow and says, 'My God!' an' he grabs the two +weskits widout me leave or license, an' also the paper, an' I thought +he'd break his neck down the stairs in the dark. An' that's all I know +about it until the cops brought me and the child here in the hack, after +we put on our best clothes fur to be decent to answer to the charge +before yer lordship; an' if that's all yer lordship wants ter know, I'd +like to axe yer lordship if there'll be anythin' comin' to me fur comin' +down here widout resistin' the cops?" + +As Rankin finished with Mrs. Priest, the police magistrate reminded the +prisoner that he had the right to cross-examine the witness. + +Hampstead smiled, and said he had no doubt all she said was true. + +Rankin then read the marks on the piece of paper. It was a longish slip +of paper, about three inches wide, and had been cut off from a large +sheet of office letter-paper. There had been printing at the top of this +sheet when it was entire. On the piece cut off still remained the +printed words "Western Union." On the opposite side of the paper, which +seemed to have been used as a wrapper and fastened with a pin, were the +figures, in blue pencil, "$50,000," and, below, a direction or +memorandum: "For Mont. Teleg. Co'y. Toronto." These words had had a pen +passed through them. + +The excitement caused by this evidence was increased when Hampstead +arose and requested to be allowed to withdraw his consent to be tried +before the magistrate. + +"I see," he said, smiling, "that my friend Mr. Rankin has been led +astray by some facts which can be thoroughly well explained. But I must +have time and opportunity to get such evidence as I require." + +The magistrate rather sternly replied that he had consented to his trial +to-day, and said he was ready for trial, and that the request for a +change would be refused. The trial must go on. + +The Montreal Telegraph clerk was then called, and identified the wrapper +as the one that had been around the stolen fifty thousand dollars. He +had run his pen through the written words before depositing the money in +the Victoria Bank. He again identified by their numbers the two +one-thousand dollar bills found on Jack, and he was then told to stand +down until again required. + +The receiving teller of the bank could not swear positively to the +wrapper. He remembered that there had been a paper around the bills with +blue writing on it, which he thought he had not removed when counting +the bills. + +Rankin then requested the police to bring in John Cresswell. + +Want of proper nourishment had had much to do with Jack's mental +weakness. Besides the exhaustion which he had suffered from, he had not, +until his friends looked after him, eaten or drunk anything for over +forty hours. He had neglected the food brought him by the police. + +As the constable half supported him to the box, he was still a pitiable +object, in spite of the champagne the fellows had made him swallow. As +his bodily strength had come back under stimulant, his intellect had +returned also with proportional strength, which of course was not great. +His ideas as to what was going on were of the vaguest kind. He looked +surprised to see Geoffrey in custody, but smiled across the room to him +and nodded. + +After he was sworn, Rankin asked him: + +"You went away last Wednesday on a schooner called the North Star?" + +"Yes." + +"Did any person tell you to go in this way, instead of by steamer or +railway?" + +"I think it was Geoffrey's suggestion at first. I had to go away on +private business. I think we arranged the manner of my going together." + +"Did any person tell you to take your valises to the yacht club early on +Wednesday morning?" + +"I think it was Hampstead's idea originally, and I thought it was a good +one." + +"You wished to go away secretly?" + +"Well, we discussed that point. I was going by rail, but Hampstead +thought the schooner was best." + +"You evidently did everything he told you?" + +"Certainly, I did," said Jack, as he smiled across to Geoffrey. +"Hampstead has the best head for management I know of." + +"Quite so. No doubt about that! Now, since the accident to the boats in +the lake some bills were found upon you. Are those your bills?" +(producing them). + +"Yes, they look like my bills. The seven one-hundred dollars I got +myself, and the two for one thousand each I got--" Jack stopped here and +looked troubled. He looked across at Geoffrey and remained silent. It +came to him for the first time that Hampstead was being charged with +something that had gone wrong in the bank about this money. + +The magistrate said sharply "I wish to know where you got that money. +You will be good enough to answer without delay." + +Jack looked worried. "My money was all in smallish bills, and either +Geoffrey or I (I forget which) suggested that I had better take these +two American one-thousand-dollar bills, as they would be smaller in my +pocket. He slipped these two out of a package of bills which I imagine +were all of the same denomination." + +Rankin evidently was wishing to spin out the time, for he glanced at the +side door whenever it was opened. + +He went on asking questions and showing that Geoffrey had been at the +bottom of everything, and in the mean time three men appeared in the +room, and one of them handed Rankin a parcel. + +"During your trial this morning I think I heard you say that the bills +you saw on Hampstead's desk were all dark-green colored?" + +"I think they were all the same color as these two. He ran his finger +over them as he drew these two out." + +"I have some money here," said Rankin. "Does this package look anything +like the one you then saw?" + +"I could not swear to it. It looks like it." + +Even the magistrate was excited now. The news had flown through the +business part of the city that Geoffrey Hampstead had been arrested and +was on trial for stealing the fifty thousand dollars. The news stirred +men as if the post-office had been blown up with dynamite. The +court-room was jammed. When word had been passed outside that things +looked bad for Hampstead, as much as five dollars was paid by a broker +for standing room in the court. It had also become known that Maurice +Rankin had caused the arrest to be made himself, and that nobody but he +knew what could be proved. People thought at first that the bank +authorities were forcing the prosecution, and wondered that they had not +employed an older man. The fact that this young sprig, professionally +unknown, had assumed the entire responsibility himself, gave a greater +interest to the proceedings. + +The magistrate leaned over his desk and asked quietly: + +"What money is that you have there, Mr. Rankin?" + +Maurice's naturally incisive voice sounded like a bell in the death-like +stillness of the court-room. + +"These," he said, "are what I will prove to be the forty-eight +thousand-dollar bills stolen from the bank." + +The pent-up excitement could be restrained no longer. A sound, half +cheer and half yell, filled the room. + +Rankin had not been idle after he left Mrs. Priest that day. He first +went in a cab to Jack, and simply asked him if Geoffrey had worn the +large-patterned waistcoat on the day he went away. Jack remembered +hearing Sappy talking about his wearing it. Rankin then drove to the +Montreal Telegraph clerk, who identified the wrapper. Then he had the +warrant issued for Hampstead's arrest, and also subpoenas, which were +handed to different policemen for service, with instructions to bring +the witnesses with them if possible. The Priests, mother and son, he +secured by having a constable bring them in a cab. He then requested the +magistrate to hear the case at once. + +He supposed, rightly enough, that Hampstead, on becoming aware that the +numbers of the stolen bills were all known would be afraid to pass any +of them, and would still have the money somewhere in his possession. So +he had three detectives sent with a search warrant to break in +Geoffrey's door and search for it. He thought it was by no means certain +that they would find the money, and he was anxious on this point, but he +knew that, even if he failed to secure a conviction against Hampstead, +he had at least sufficient evidence to render Jack's conviction +doubtful. In the case against Hampstead, Jack's evidence would be heard +in full, and Rankin felt satisfied that in some way it would explain +away the terribly damaging case that had been made out against him in +the morning. + +The sudden shout in the court had been so full of sympathy for Jack and +admiration for Rankin's cleverness that for the first time in his +magisterial existence "His Worship" forgot to check it, and the call to +order by the police was of the weakest kind. All the bank-clerks of the +city were jammed into that room, and for a moment Jack's friends were +wild. + +A few more questions were put to Jack, but only to improve his position +before the public as to the charge against himself. + +"Are you aware that you have been made a victim of in a matter where the +Victoria Bank was robbed of fifty thousand dollars?" + +"No," said Jack, looking dazed. "I am not." + +"Are you aware that you were tried this morning for stealing that +money?" + +"I seemed at times to know that something was wrong. Once I knew I was +charged with stealing something or other, but I did not know or care. I +must have been unconscious after the collision in the lake. The first +thing I knew of, they said we were at Port Dalhousie. We must have +sailed there with nothing drawing but the forward canvas, and that must +have taken a good while." + +Jack was now allowed to stand down, but he was not removed from the +court-room. + +To clear up Jack's record thoroughly, Rankin called Detective Dearborn +and, before the magistrate stopped the examination as being irrelevant, +he succeeded in showing that Jack had been delirious for twelve hours +after his arrest. The fact that Dearborn had not mentioned these +circumstances placed him in a rather bad light with the audience, while +it showed once again what a common habit it is with the police to +suppress and even distort facts in order to secure a conviction. + +The telegraph clerk identified the recovered forty-eight bills, and the +receiving teller, gave the same evidence as in the Cresswell case, and +then the detective who found the money in Hampstead's room was called. + +As soon as he heard his first words, Geoffrey knew what was coming and +rose to his feet and addressed the magistrate: + +"I suppose, Your Worship, that it is not too late to withdraw my plea of +not guilty and at this late hour plead guilty. This will be my only +opportunity to cast a full light on this case, and, if I may be +permitted, I will do so." + +The magistrate nodded. Geoffrey continued: + +"Of course, it is perfectly clear that Cresswell is quite innocent. For +private reasons, in a matter that was entirely honorable to himself, +Cresswell wished to leave Canada. He was going through the States to +California, and did not intend to return, and would have resisted being +brought back to Canada. There was no law existing by which he could be +extradited. He could only be brought back by his own consent. From the +way I sent him on the schooner, his arrest before arriving in the United +States was in the highest degree improbable. If he had afterward been +arrested in the States I could have at once arranged to be sent by the +bank to persuade him to return. I had it all planned that he never +should return. He would have done as I told him. Even if he insisted on +coming back I then would be safe in the States. Of course, I did not +know that identification could be made of the bills--which could not +have been foreseen--and my object in giving him two of them was that +suspicion would rest temporarily on him, which might be necessary to +give me time to escape. As it turned out, if Cresswell had insisted on +returning to Canada he would be returning to certain conviction--part of +the identified money being found on him. + +"So far I speak only of my intentions at the time of the theft. But I +hope no one will think I would allow my old friend Jack Cresswell to go +to jail under sentence for my misdeeds. To-night I intended to cross the +lake in a small boat and then telegraph to the bank where to find all +the money at my chambers. This, with a letter of explanation, would have +acquitted Jack. I had to save him--also myself, from imprisonment; but +there was another matter worth far more than the money to me which I +hoped to be able to eventually make right. If I had got away to-night +the bank would have had its money to-morrow. + +"On the day before the theft I had lost all my twelve years' earnings +and profits in speculation. If I had been able to hold my stocks until +the evening of the theft I would have made over seventy-five thousand +dollars. For weeks during the excitement preceding my loss I had been +drinking a great deal, and when the chance came to recoup myself from +the bank I seemed to take the money almost as a matter of right." + +As Geoffrey continued he was looking up out of the window, evidently +oblivious of the crowd about him, thinking the thing out, as if +confessing to himself. + +"I know that without the liquor I never would have stolen, and that with +it I became--" + +His face grew bitter as he thought of his thieving Tartar uncle and his +mother who could not be prevented from stealing. But he pulled himself +together and continued: "It would have been open to me to call men from +this gathering to give evidence as to my previous character, and I have +no hesitation in leaving this point in your hands if it will do anything +to shorten my sentence. On this ground only am I entitled to ask for +your consideration, and you will be doing a kindness if you will pass +sentence at once." + +As Hampstead said these words he looked abstractedly around for the last +time upon the scores of former friends who now averted their faces. +There was no bravado in his appearance. He held himself erect, as he +always did, and his face was impenetrable. His eyes claimed acquaintance +with none who met his glance. Some smiled faintly, impressed as they +were with his bearing, but he seemed to look into them and past them, as +if saying to himself: "There's Brown, and there's Jones, and there's +Robinson, I wonder when I will ever see them again?" + +There were men in that throng who knew, when Hampstead spoke of the +effects of the liquor on him, exactly what was meant, who knew from +personal experience that, if there is any devilish tendency in a man or +any hereditary predisposition to any kind of wrong-doing, alcohol will +bring it out, and these men could not refrain from some sympathy with +him who had partly explained his fall, and somehow there were none who +thought after Geoffrey's statement that he would have sacrificed Jack to +imprisonment under sentence. + +The magistrate addressed him: + +"Geoffrey Hampstead, I do not think there has been anything against your +character since you came to Toronto. That an intelligence such as yours +should have been prostituted to the uses to which you have put it is one +of the most melancholy things that ever came to my knowledge. I can not +think you belong to the criminal classes, and I would be glad to be out +of this matter altogether, because I feel how unable one may be to deal +for the best with a case like yours. It may be that if you were +liberated you would never risk your ruin again. I do not think you +would; but, in that case, this court might as well be closed and the +police disbanded. I am compelled to make your case exemplary, and I +sentence you to six years in the Kingston Penitentiary." + +A dead silence followed, and then his former friends and acquaintances +began to go away. They went away quietly, not looking at each other. +There was something in the proceedings of the day that silenced them. +They had lost faith in one honest man and had found it again; and +another, on whom some nobility was stamped, they had seen condemned as a +convict. As they took their last look at the man whom they had often +envied and admired, they wished to escape observation. So many of them +were thinking how, at such a time in their lives, if things had not +luckily turned out as they did, they, too, might have fallen under some +kind of temptation, and they knew the sympathy that comes from secret +consciousness of what their own possibilities in guilt might have been. + +Geoffrey received his sentence looking out of the window toward the blue +sky and the swallows that flew past. Every word that the magistrate had +said had in it the tone of a friend, which made it harder to bear. While +he heard it all vividly, he strained to keep his attention on the flying +swallows in order that he might not break down. Outside of that window, +and just in that direction, Margaret, the wife that never would be, was +waiting for him. The man's face was like ashes. Oh, the relief to have +dashed himself upon the floor when he thought of Margaret! + +Yet he held out. He felt it would be better for him to be dead; but he +met his fate bravely, and now sought relief in another way. He caught +Rankin's eye, and motioned to him to come near. + +With a face that was afraid to relax its tension, he said, with an +effort at something like his ordinary speech: + +"Rankin, you forsook me sadly to-day, did you not? But I can still count +on you to do me a good turn--if only in return for to-day." + +"Go on, Geoffrey. Yes, I have disliked you from the first. But now I +don't. You make people like you, no matter what you do. You take it like +a man. What do you want?" + +Rankin could not command his countenance as Geoffrey could. Now that he +had accomplished the work of convicting him, it seemed terrible that one +who, with all his faults, appeared so manly a man, and so brave, should +be on his way to six years' darkness. + +Geoffrey pulled him closer and whispered in his ear: "Go to Margaret--at +once--before she can read anything! Take a cab. Tell her all. Break it +to her. You can put it gently. Go to her now--let her know, fairly, +before you come away, that all my chances are gone--that she is +released--that I am nothing--now--but a dead man." + +His head went down as the words were finished with a wild effort, and +his great frame shook convulsively for a moment. The thought of Margaret +killed him. + +During the day, before his arrest, he had seen that he would have to +return at least part of the money to corroborate his story and to save +Jack. And he could not abscond with the balance, because that would mean +the loss of Margaret. By returning the money and saving himself from +imprisonment, he had hoped that eventually she would forgive him. And +now-- + +Maurice could not stand it. He said, hurriedly: "All right. I'll see you +to-morrow." And then he dashed off, out a side door, and into a cab. And +on the way to Margaret he wept like a child behind the carriage curtains +for the fate of the man whom he had convicted. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Yea, it becomes a man + To cherish memory, where he had delight, + For kindness is the natural birth of kindness. + Whose soul records not the great debt of joy, + Is stamped forever an ignoble man. + + SOPHOCLES (_Ajax_). + + +As Rankin broke the news to Margaret--by degrees and very quietly--she +showed but little sign of feeling. Her face whitened and she moved +stiffly to the open window, where she could sit in the draught. As she +made Rankin tell her the whole story she simply grew stony, while she +sat with bloodless hands clinched together, as if she thus clutched at +her soul to save it from the madness of a terrible grief. + +Suddenly she interrupted him. + +"Dismiss your cab," she said. "I will walk back with you part of the +way." + +When she turned toward him, the strained face was so white and the eyes +so wide and expressionless that he became afraid. + +"Perhaps you would rather be alone," said he, doubtful about letting her +go into the street. + +She seemed to divine what was in his mind, for she made him feel more at +ease by a gentler tone: + +"Alone? No, no! Anything but that! The walk will do me good." + +The cab was dismissed while she put on her hat, and as they walked +through the quiet streets toward the heart of the city, he went on with +all the particulars, which she seemed determined to hear. Several times +they met people who knew her and knew of her engagement to Hampstead, +and they were surprised to see her walking with--of all men--Maurice +Rankin. But she saw no one, gazing before her with the look which means +madness if the mind be not diverted. Suddenly, as they had to cross one +of the main arteries of the city, a sound fell upon Margaret's ear that +made her stop and grasp Rankin by the arm. Then the cry came again--from +a boy running toward them along the street: + +"Special edition of the Evening News! All about Geoffrey Hampstead, the +bank robber!" + +For a moment her grasp came near tearing a piece out of Rankin's arm. +But this was only when the blow struck her. She stopped the boy and +bought a paper. She gave him half a dollar and walked on. + +"This will do to give them at home," she said simply. "I could not tell +them myself." + +But the blow was too much for her. To hear the name of the man she +worshiped yelled through the streets as a bank robber's was more than +she felt able to bear. She must get home now. Another experience of this +kind, and something would happen. + +"Good-by!" she said, as she stopped abruptly at the corner of a street. +Not a vestige of a tear had been seen in her eyes. "I will go home now. +You have been very kind. I forgive you for--" + +She turned quickly, and Rankin stood and watched her as she passed +rapidly away. + + * * * * * + +No. 173 Tremaine Buildings had become slightly better furnished since +the opening of this story. Between the time when he made the cruise in +the Ideal and the events recorded in the preceding chapters, Rankin had +contributed somewhat to his comforts in an inexpensive way. In order to +buy his coal, which he did now with much satisfaction, he had still to +practice the strictest economy. But he took some pleasure in his +solitary existence. From time to time he bought different kinds of +preserves sold in pressed-glass goblets and jugs of various sizes. After +the jam was consumed the prize in glassware would be washed by Mrs. +Priest and added to his collection, and there was a keen sense of humor +in him when he added each terrible utensil to his stock. "A poor +thing--but mine own!" he would quote, as he bowed to an imaginary +audience and pointed with apologetic pride to a hideous pressed-glass +butter-bolt. + +In buying packages of dusty, doctored, and detestable tea he acquired +therewith a collection of gift-spoons of different sizes, and also +knives, forks, and plates, which, if not tending to develop a taste for +high art, were useful. At a certain "seven-cent store" he procured, for +the prevailing price, articles in tinware, the utility of which was out +of all proportion to the cost. + +Thus, when he sat down of an evening and surveyed a packing-box filled +with several sacks of coal, all paid for; when he viewed the collection +of glassware, the "family plate," and the very desirable cutlery; when +he gazed with pride upon his seven-cent treasures and his curtains of +chintz at ten cents a mile; when he considered that all these were his +very own, his sense of having possessions made him less communistic and +more conservative. Primitively, a Conservative was a being who owned +something, just as Darwin's chimpanzee in the "Zoo," who discovered how +to break nuts with a stone and hid the stone, was a Tory; the other +monkeys who stole it were necessarily Reformers. + +About ten o'clock on the evening of the trial Rankin was sitting among +his possessions sipping some "gift-spoon" tea. Around him were three +evening papers and two special editions. The "startling developments" +and "unexpected changes" which had "transpired" at the Victoria Bank had +made the special editions sell off like cheap peaches, and Rankin was +enjoying the weakness--pardonable in youth and not unknown to +maturity--of reading each paper's account of himself and the trial. They +spoke of his "acuteness" and "foresight," and commented on his being +the sole means of recovering the forty-eight thousand dollars. One paper +must have jumped at a conclusion when it called him "a well-known and +promising young lawyer--one of the rising men at the bar." + +"The tide has turned," he said. "Twenty cents a day is not going to +cover my total expenses after this. I feel it in my bones that the money +will come pouring in now." He was mechanically filling a pipe when a rap +at the door recalled him from his dream. A tall Scotchman, whom Rankin +recognized as the messenger of the Victoria Bank, handed him a letter +and then felt around for the stairs in the darkness, and descended +backward, on his hands and knees, for fear of accidents. + +A pleasing letter from the manager of the Victoria Bank inclosed one of +the recovered thousand-dollar bills. + +Rankin sat down. "I shall never," he said, with an air of resolve, +"steal any more coal! And now I'll have a cigar, three for a quarter, +and blow the expense!" + +Two weeks afterward there came to him a copy of a resolution passed by +the bank directors, together with a notification that they had arranged +with the bank solicitors, Messrs. Godlie, Lobbyer, Dertewercke, and +Toylor, to have him taken in as a junior partner. + + * * * * * + +Immediately after Geoffrey was sentenced, Jack Cresswell was, of course, +discharged. A dozen hands were being held out to congratulate him, when +Detective Dearborn drew him through a side door into an empty room, +where they had a short talk about keeping the name of Nina Lindon from +the public, and then they departed together for Tremaine Buildings in a +cab, while the two valises in front looked, like their owner, none the +better for their vicissitudes. Dearborn felt that little could be said +to mend the trouble he had caused Jack, but he did all he could, and +there was certainly nothing hard-hearted in the care with which the +redoubtable detective assisted his former victim to bed. Mrs. Priest was +summoned, also a doctor. Jack was found to be worse than he thought, and +Patsey was ordered to remain within call in the next room, where he +consumed cigars at twelve dollars the hundred throughout the night. + +The next day Mrs. Mackintosh and Margaret came down in a cab to Jack's +lonely quarters, and insisted upon his being moved to their house during +his illness. While unable to go home to his parents at Halifax he was +loath to give trouble to his friends, and made excuses, until he saw +that Margaret really wished him to come, and divined that his coming +might be a relief to her. + +It was so. In the weeks that followed, whatever these two suffered in +the darkness and solitude of the nights, during the day-time they were +brave. The heart of each knew its own bitterness. In a short time Jack +found the comfort of speech in telling Margaret many things. Unavoidably +Geoffrey's name came up, for he was entangled in both their lives. +Little by little Jack's story came out, as he lay back weakly on his +couch, until, warmed by Margaret's sympathy, he told her all about Nina +and himself--so far as he knew the story--and in the presence of his +manifold troubles, and at the thought of his suffering when he +witnessed, as a captive, Nina's death, Margaret felt that she was in the +presence of one who had known even greater grief than her own. This was +good for her. After a while she was able to speak to Jack about +Geoffrey, and this brought them more and more together. + +When he got well, his breach of duty in going away without notice was +overlooked, and he was taken back to his old post. There he worked on +as the years rolled by. Country managerships were offered to him, and +declined. He had nothing to make money for, and the only thing he really +enjoyed was Margaret's society, in which he would talk about Nina and +Geoffrey without restraint. For many years he remained ignorant that his +marriage with Nina was, after all, for New York State a valid one, since +marriage by simple contract, without religious ceremony, is sufficient +in that State. He never dreamed Geoffrey had been indirectly the cause +of his life's ruin, and always spoke of him as a man almost without +blame. However unreasonable, there are, among all the faulty emotions, +few more beautiful than a man's affection for a man. When it exists, it +is the least exacting attachment of his life. + +Margaret listened to his superlatives about Geoffrey. She listened; but +as the years passed on she grew wiser. When walking in the open fields, +or perhaps beside the wide lake, an image would come to her in gladsome +colors, in matchless beauty--a Greek god with floating hair and full of +resolve and victory, and in her dreams she would see and talk with him, +and would find him grave and thoughtful and tender, and all that a man +could be. Then would come the rending of the heart. This was a thief who +had decoyed his friend, and, good or bad, was lost to her. + +And thus time passed on. For two or three years she went nowhere. She +tried going into society, after Geoffrey's sentence, thinking to obtain +relief in change of thought, but the experiment was a failure. She found +that she had not the elasticity of temperament which can doff care and +don gayety as society demands. So she gave up the attempt for years, and +then went again only at her mother's solicitation. She said she had her +patients at the hospital, her studies with her father, her many books to +read, her long walks with Jack and Maurice Rankin, and what more did she +want? + +She did not hear of Geoffrey. The six years of his imprisonment had +dragged themselves into the past, and she supposed he was free again, if +he had not died in the penitentiary. But nothing was heard of him, and +thus the time rolled on, while Margaret's mother secretly wept to see +her daughter's early bloom departing, while no hope of any happy married +life seemed possible to her. + +Grave, pleasant, studious, thoughtful, as the years rolled by, she went +on with her hospital work. From the depths of the grief into which she +was plunged, she could discern some truths that might have remained +unknown if her life had continued sunny--just as at noonday from the +bottom of a deep pit or well the stars above us can be seen. To her the +bitterness of her life was medicinal. Speaking chemically, it was like +the acid of the unripe apple acting upon the starch in it to make a +sugar--thus to perfect a sweet maturity. She was one of the richly +endowed women in whom sensitiveness and strength combine peculiarly for +either superlative joy or sorrow, and hers was a grief which, for her, +nothing but tending the bed of sickness seemed to mitigate. Many a +bruised heart was healed, gladdened, and bewitched by the angel smile on +the sweet firm, full lips which could quiver with compassion. There are +some smiles, given for others, when grief has made thought for self +unbearable, which nothing but a descent into hell and glorious rising +again could produce. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + This is peace! + To conquer love of self and lust of life, + To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, + To still the inward strife; + For glory, to be lord of self;... + ... For countless wealth, + To lay up lasting treasure + Of perfect service rendered, duties done + In charity, soft speech, and stainless days; + + These riches shall not fade away in life + Nor any death dispraise. + + (_Buddha's Sermon.--The Light of Asia._) ARNOLD. + + +Geoffrey Hampstead had come out of the penitentiary with his former +hopes for life shattered. Margaret was lost to him. He came out without +a tie on earth--a living man from whom all previous reasons for +existence seemed to have been removed. For six years he had worked in +the penitentiary with all the energy that was in him, in order to keep +his thoughts from driving him mad. At one time all had been before him. +And now--Oh, the silent grinding of the teeth during the first two years +of it! After that he grew quieter and became able to regard his life +calmly. He learned how to suffer. To a large extent he ceased now to +think about himself. In the lowest depths of mental misery self died. +Then, for the first time in his life, he was able to realize the extent +of his wrongs to others. What now broke him down gradually was not, as +at first, the bitterness of his own lost hopes, but the thought that the +life of Margaret was wrecked--and by him, that the lives of others had +been wrecked--and by him. This was what the penitentiary now consisted +of. This was the penitentiary which would last for always. + +When the period of his sentence had expired, he had gone to New York and +obtained work with his old employers on Wall Street. But his mind was +not in his occupation. With his energy, it was impossible to live with +no definite end in view. Why plod along on microscopic savings, like a +mere machine to be fed and to work? When mental anguish, for him the +worst whip of retribution, had made thought for self so unbearable that +at last it died, there arose in him, untarnished by selfishness, the +nobility which had always been occultly stamped upon him, and which in +prison enabled him to protect himself, as it were, against madness, and +to refuse to be unable to suffer--a nobility able to realize the +perfection of a life lived for others, which none can realize until +first thought for self has been in some way killed. Rightly or wrongly, +he had become convinced in years of anguished thought that with a +continually aching heart may coexist an internal gladness that arises +from the gift of self to others and makes the suffering not only +bearable but even desirable--that this was altogether a mental +phenomenon, such as memory, but one on which religions had been built, +and that it was capable of making a heaven of earth and leading one, +with the ecstasy of self-gift, even to crucifixion. + +He determined to go to Paris to study medicine. For this, money was +required, and he conceived a plan for making a small fortune suddenly. +If he failed, what then? The world would lose a helper. His employers, +on being approached, saw that if proper contracts were made they were +sure to get their money back, and supplied him with all he required for +expenses. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Rankin, of the firm of Godlie, Dertewercke, Toylor, and Rankin, had, +for more than six years, shared with Jack Cresswell the old rooms +"_vice_ Hampstead, on active service." All Geoffrey's old relics had +been left untouched. He had sent word to have them sold, and Rankin, to +satisfy him, had let him think they were sold and that the money they +brought had been applied as directed. The money had been applied as +directed; but it had come out of Rankin's little bank account, and so, +until the time came when they could be handed over to Hampstead, the old +trophies remained where they were after being insured for a sum which, +for "old truck and rubbage only fit for a second-'and shop," seemed, to +Mrs. Priest, suspiciously large. + +Rankin had received from a client the disposal of several passes on a +special train that was to take some railway officials and their families +to Niagara Falls to see the great swimmer, John Jackson, together with +his dog, endeavor to swim the Whirlpool Rapids. Half the world was +excited over this event, which had been advertised everywhere. While +dining with Jack at the Mackintoshes on the Sunday previous to the +event, Rankin proposed that Margaret should accompany Jack and him to +see the trial made. + +Margaret hesitated, but Rankin said: "Oh, you know, as far as the fellow +himself is concerned, it will be hard to say how he is as he goes past. +You'll just see a head in the water for a moment, and then it will have +vanished down the river." + +"I don't suppose there will be much to see if the water takes him past +at the rate of nineteen miles an hour," said Margaret. + +"Just so. There won't be much to see. But we can have a pleasant day at +the falls and give the abused hack-men a chance. The 'special' will have +a number of ladies on board, and, if you like champagne, now's your +chance. What is a special train without champagne?" + +"Well, what do you say, mother?" asked Margaret. + +Mrs. Mackintosh, to give her daughter an acceptable change and to get +her out of her fixed ways, would have sent her to almost anything from +balloon ascension to a church lottery. + +"Do as you wish, my dear. I think I would like you to go. I do not see +how it would be possible for a spectator to know whether the man was +suffering or not in those waters, and, as for his sacrificing his life, +why that is his own lookout. If he lives I suppose he will get well +paid, will he not, Mr. Rankin?" + +"They expect he will make about twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. +Arrangements have been made not only with the railways, but also with +the hotels for his commission on all profits, which will be paid to him +if he lives, or, if not, to his family. I don't know that it should be +necessarily looked upon as a suicidal speculation. I have examined the +water a good many times, and am by no means certain that his safe +passage is impossible, if he can keep on the surface and not get dragged +under where the water seems to shoot downward. If he gets through, or +even if he tries it and fails, he will prove himself as brave a man as +ever lived." + +"I think I will go," said Margaret, brightening up with her old love for +daring. "It is not like going to a bullfight, and the excitement will be +intense." + +So they went off on the special, and when they arrived at the rapids, +after descending the precipice in the hydraulic lift, they went along +the path to the platform where the photographs are taken. This place was +filled with seats, numbered and reserved, and Rankin's party were seated +in the front row. No less than a hundred thousand people were watching +the forces of the river at this time. They were noticing how the +precipices gradually converged as they approached the rapids, and how +apparent was the downward slope of the water as it rushed through the +narrowed gorge. They were noticing how the descending current struck +projections of fallen rock at the sides, causing back-waves to wash from +each bank diagonally across the main volume of the river, and make a +continual combat of waters in the middle of the stream. Here, the deep, +irresistible flow of the main current charges into the midst of the +battle raging between the lateral surges, and carries them off bodily, +while they continue to fight and tear at each other as far as one can +see down the river. It is a bewildering spectacle of immeasurable +forces, giving the idea of thousands of white horses driven madly into a +narrowing gorge, where, in the crush, hundreds are forced upward and +ride along on the backs of the others, plunging and flinging their white +crests high in the air and gnashing at each other as they go. + +The worst spot of all is directly in front of the platform, where +Rankin's party was sitting. They waited until the time at which Jackson +was advertised to begin his swim, and then they grew impatient. Jack was +standing on a wooden parapet near at hand waiting until the swimmer +should appear around the bend far up the river, for they could not see +him take to the water from the place where they were. + +All at once, before the rest of the people near him could see anything, +Jack called out: "There he is!" as he descried, with his sailor's eyes, +two black specks on the water far away, up above the bridges. + +Jackson and his dog had jumped out of a boat in the middle of the river, +in the calm part half a mile up, and, as they swam down with the current +under the bridges, the dense mass of people there admired the easy grace +with which he swam, and remarked the whiteness of his skin. His dog, a +huge creature, half Great Dane and half Newfoundland, swam in front of +him, directed by his voice. Both of them could be seen to raise +themselves once or twice, so that they could get a better view of the +wild water in front of them. The dog recognized the danger, and for a +moment turned toward the shore and barked; but his master raised his +hand and directed him onward. Another moment, now, and the fight for +life began, for reaching the shore was as impossible as flying to the +moon. + +The first back-wash that came to them was a small one, and they both +passed through it, each receiving the water in the face. The next wash +followed almost immediately, and they tried to swim over it, but it +turned both man and dog over on their sides and spread them out at full +length on the surface of the main current. The people on the suspension +bridge could see that both received a terrible blow. They both seemed to +dive under the next wave, and then the water became so turbulent and the +speed of their passage so great that it was impossible to give a minute +description of what happened. + +Rankin's party and the multitude of spectators now watched what they +could see in breathless silence. At times, as the swimmers approached, +our party could see them hoisted in the air on the top of a wave, or +ridge or upheaval of water. Most of the time they were lost to sight in +the gulleys or, valleys, or else they were beneath the surface. It does +not take long to go a few hundred yards at nineteen miles an hour, and +in what scarcely seemed more than an instant the man, with the dog still +in front of him, had come near them. What Jack noticed was that as the +man here shook the water out of his eyes and raised himself, shoulders +out, by "treading water," his skin was almost scarlet. This, alone told +a tale of what he had gone through since the people on the bridges had +remarked the whiteness of his skin. + +He was now almost opposite them, and his face, set desperately, turned, +during an instant in a quieter spot, toward the platform. Margaret gave +a piercing shriek, and fell back into Rankin's arms. At the next +half-moment a huge boiling mountain, foaming up against the current in +which the swimmer's body floated, struck him a terrible blow, and threw +the dog back on top of him. Both were engulfed. After a while the dog's +head appeared again, but Geoffrey Hampstead was overwhelmed in the +Bedlam of waters, whose foaming, raging madness battered out his life. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Geoffrey Hampstead, by Thomas Stinson Jarvis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GEOFFREY HAMPSTEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 34611.txt or 34611.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34611/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + +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. 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