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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/9865-8.txt b/9865-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6807c06 --- /dev/null +++ b/9865-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7287 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +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: Java Head + +Author: Joseph Hergesheimer + +Posting Date: November 17, 2011 [EBook #9865] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 25, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + JAVA HEAD + + By Joseph Hergesheimer + + 1918 + + + + +It is only the path of pure simplicity which guards and preserves the +spirit. _CHWANG-TZE_ + + + + +TO HAZLETON MIRKIL, JR. + +_from Dorothy and Joseph Hergesheimer_ + + + + +I + +Very late indeed in May, but early in the morning, Laurel Ammidon lay in +bed considering two widely different aspects of chairs. The day before +she had been eleven, and the comparative maturity of that age had filled +her with a moving disdain for certain fanciful thoughts which had given +her extreme youth a decidedly novel if not an actually adventurous +setting. Until yesterday, almost, she had regarded the various chairs of +the house as beings endowed with life and character; she had held +conversations with some, and, with a careless exterior not warranted by +an inner dread, avoided others in gloomy dusks. All this, now, she +contemptuously discarded. Chairs were--chairs, things to sit on, wood and +stuffed cushions. + +Yet she was slightly melancholy at losing such a satisfactory lot of +reliable familiars: unlike older people, victims of the most +disconcerting moods and mysterious changes, chairs could always be +counted on to remain secure in their individual peculiarities. + +She could see by her fireplace the elaborately carved teakwood chair +that her grandfather had brought home from China, which had never varied +from the state of a brown and rather benevolent dragon; its claws were +always claws, the grinning fretted mouth was perpetually fixed for a +cloud of smoke and a mild rumble of complaint. The severe waxed hickory +beyond with the broad arm for writing, a source of special pride, had +been an accommodating and precise old gentleman. The spindling gold +chairs in the drawingroom were supercilious creatures at a king's ball; +the graceful impressive formality of the Heppelwhites in the dining room +belonged to the loveliest of Boston ladies. Those with difficult +haircloth seats in the parlor were deacons; others in the breakfast room +talkative and unpretentious; while the deep easy-chair before the library +fire was a ship. There were mahogany stools, dwarfs of dark tricks; angry +high-backed things in the hall below; and a terrifying shape of gleaming +red that, without question, stirred hatefully and reached out curved and +dripping hands. + +Anyhow, such they had all seemed. But lately she had felt a growing +secrecy about it, an increasing dread of being laughed at; and now, +definitely eleven, she recognized the necessity of dropping such pretense +even with herself. They were just chairs, she rerepeated; there was an +end of that. + +The tall clock with the brass face outside her door, after a +premonitory whirring, loudly and firmly struck seven, and Laurel +wondered whether her sisters, in the room open from hers, were awake. +She listened attentively but there was no sound of movement. She made a +noise in her throat, that might at once have appeared accidental and +been successful in its purpose of arousing them; but there was no +response. She would have gone in and frankly waked Janet, who was not +yet thirteen and reasonable; but experience had shown her that Camilla, +reposing in the eminence and security of two years more, would permit no +such light freedom with her slumbers. + +Sidsall, who had been given a big room for herself on the other side of +their parents, would greet anyone cheerfully no matter how tightly she +might have been asleep. And Sidsall, the oldest of them all, was nearly +sixteen and had stayed for part of their cousin Lucy Saltonstone's dance, +where no less a person than Roger Brevard had asked her for a quadrille. + +Laurel's thoughts grew so active that she was unable to remain any +longer in bed; she freed herself from the enveloping linen and crossed +the room to a window through which the sun was pouring in a sharp bright +angle. She had never known the world to smell so delightful--it was one +of the notable Mays in which the lilacs blossomed--and she stood +responding with a sparkling life to the brilliant scented morning, the +honey-sweet perfume of the lilacs mingled with the faintly pungent odor +of box wet with dew. + +She could see, looking back across a smooth green corner of the Wibirds' +lawn next door, the enclosure of their own back yard, divided from the +garden by a white lattice fence and row of prim grayish poplars. At the +farther wall her grandfather, in a wide palm leaf hat, was stirring about +his pear trees, tapping the ground and poking among the branches with his +ivory headed cane. + +Laurel exuberantly performed her morning toilet, half careless, in her +soaring spirits, of the possible effect of numerous small ringings of +pitcher on basin, the clatter of drawers, upon Camilla. Yesterday she had +worn a dress of light wool delaine; but this morning, she decided +largely, summer had practically come; and, on her own authority, she got +an affair of thin pineapple cloth out of the yellow camphorwood chest. +She hurriedly finished weaving her heavy chestnut hair into two gleaming +plaits, fastened a muslin guimpe at the back, and slipped into her dress. +Here, however, she twisted her face into an expression of annoyance--her +years were affronted by the length of pantalets that hung below her +skirt. Such a show of their narrow ruffles might do for a very small +girl, but not for one of eleven; and she caught them up until only the +merest fulled edge was visible. Then she made a buoyant descent to the +lower hall, left the house by a side door to the bricked walk and an +arched gate into the yard, and joined her grandfather. + +"Six bells in the morning watch," he announced, consulting a thick gold +timepiece. "Head pump rigged and deck swabbed down?" Secure in her +knowledge of the correct answers for these sudden interrogations Laurel +impatiently replied, "Yes, sir." + +"Scuttle butt filled?" + +"Yes, sir." She frowned and dug a heel in the soft ground. + +"Then splice the keel and heave the galley overboard." + +This last she recognized as a sally of humor, and contrived a fleeting +perfunctory smile. Her grandfather turned once more to the pears. "See +the buds on those Ashton Towns," he commented. Laurel gazed critically: +the varnished red buds were bursting with white blossom, the new leaves +unrolling, tender green and sticky. "But the jargonelles--" he drew in +his lips doubtfully. She studied him with the profound interest his sheer +being always invoked: she was absorbed in his surprising large roundness +of body, like an enormous pudding; in the deliberate care with which he +moved and planted his feet; but most of all by the fact that when he was +angry his face got quite purple, the color of her mother's paletot or a +Hamburg grape. + +They crossed the yard to where the vines of the latter, and of white +Chasselas--Laurel was familiar with these names from frequent +horticultural questionings--had been laid down in cold frames for later +transplanting; and from them the old man, her palm tightly held in his, +trod ponderously to the currant bushes massed against the closed arcade +of the stables, the wood and coal and store houses, across the rear of +the place. + +At last, with frequent disconcerting mutterings and explosive breaths, +he finished his inspection and turned toward the house. Laurel, +conscious of her own superiority of apparel, surveyed her companion in a +frowning attitude exactly caught from her mother. He had on that mussy +suit of yellow Chinese silk, and there was a spot on the waistcoat +straining at its pearl buttons. She wondered, maintaining the silent +mimicry of elder remonstrance, why he would wear those untidy old things +when his chests were heaped with snowy white linen and English +broadcloths. It was very improper in an Ammidon, particularly in one who +had been captain of so many big ships, and in court dress with a cocked +hat met the Emperor of Russia. + +They did not retrace Laurel's steps, but passed through a narrow wicket +to the garden that lay directly behind the house. The enclosure was full +of robin-song and pouring sunlight; the lilac trees on either side of the +summer-house against the gallery of the stable were blurred with their +new lavender flowering; the thorned glossy foliage of the hedge of June +roses on Briggs Street glittered with diamonds of water; and the rockery +in the far corner showed a quiver of arbutus among its strange and lacy +ferns and mosses. + +Laurel sniffed the fragrant air, filled with a tumult of energy; every +instinct longed to skip; she thought of jouncing as high as the poplars, +right over the house and into Washington Square beyond. "Miss Fidget!" +her grandfather exclaimed, exasperated, releasing her hand. "You're like +holding on to a stormy petrel." + +"I don't think that's very nice," she replied. + +"God bless me," he said, turning upon her his steady blue gaze; "what +have we got here, all dressed up to go ashore?" She sharply elevated a +shoulder and retorted, "Well, I'm eleven." His look, which had seemed +quite fierce, grew kindly again. "Eleven," he echoed with a satisfactory +amazement; "that will need some cumshaws and kisses." The first, she +knew, was a word of pleasant import, brought from the East, and meant +gifts; and, realizing that the second was unavoidably connected with it, +she philosophically held up her face. Lifting her over his expanse of +stomach he kissed her loudly. She didn't object, really, or rather she +wouldn't at all but for a strong odor of Manilla cheroots and the Medford +rum he took at stated periods. + +After this they moved on, through the bay window of the drawing-room that +opened on the garden, where a woman was brushing with a nodding feather +duster, under the white arch that framed the main stairway, and turned +aside to where breakfast was being laid. Laurel saw that her father was +already seated at the table, intent upon the tall, thickly printed sheet +of the Salem _Register_. He paused to meet her dutiful lips; then with a +"Good morning, father," returned to his reading. Camilla entered at +Laurel's heels; and the latter, in a delight slightly tempered by doubt, +saw that she had been before her sister in a suitable dress for such a +warm day. Camilla still wore her dark merino; and she gazed with mingled +surprise and annoyance at Laurel's airy garb. + +"Did mother say you might put that on?" she demanded. "Because if she +didn't I expect you will have to go right up from breakfast and change. +It isn't a dress at all for so early in the morning. Why, I believe it's +one of your very best." The look of critical disapproval suddenly became +doubly accusing. + +"Laurel Ammidon, wherever are your pantalets?" + +"I'm too big to have pantalets hanging down over my shoetops," she +replied defiantly, "and so I just hitched them up. You can still see the +frill." Janet had come into the room, and stood behind her. "Don't you +notice Camilla," she advised; "she's not really grown up." They turned at +the appearance of their mother. "Dear me, Camilla," the latter observed, +"you are getting too particular for any comfort. What has upset you now?" + +"Look at Laurel," Camilla replied; "that's all you need to do. You'd +think she went to dances instead of Sidsall" + +Laurel painfully avoided her mother's comprehensive glance. "Very +beautiful," the elder said in a tone of palpable pleasure. Laurel +advanced her lower lip ever so slightly in the direction of Camilla. +"But you have taken a great deal into your own hands." She shifted +apparently to another topic. "There will be no lessons to-day for I +have to send Miss Gomes into Boston." At this announcement Laurel was +flooded with a joy that obviously belonged to her former, less +dignified state. "However," her mother continued addressing her, "since +you have dressed yourself like a lady I shall expect you to behave +appropriately; no soiled or torn skirts, and an hour at your piano +scales instead of a half." + +Laurel's anticipation of pleasure ebbed as quickly as it had come--she +would have to move with the greatest caution all day, and spend a whole +hour at the piano. It was the room to which she objected rather than the +practicing; a depressing sort of place where she was careful not to move +anything out of the stiff and threatening order in which it belonged. The +chairdeacons in particular were severely watchful; but that, now, she had +determined to ignore. + +She turned to johnnycakes, honey and milk, only half hearing, in her +preoccupation with the injustice that had overtaken her, the conversation +about the table. Her gaze strayed over the walls of the breakfast room, +where water color drawings of vessels, half models of ships on teakwood +or Spanish mahogany boards, filled every possible space. Some her +grandfather had sailed in as second and then first mate, of others he had +been master, and the rest, she knew, were owned by Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone, her grandfather, father and uncle. + +Just opposite her was the _Two Capes_ at anchor in Table Bay, the sails +all furled except the fore-topsail which hung in the gear. A gig manned +by six sailors in tarpaulin hats with an officer in the stern sheets +swung with dripping oars across the dark water of the foreground; on the +left an inky ship was standing in close hauled on the port tack with all +her canvas set. It was lighter about the _Two Capes_, and at the back a +mountain with a flat top--showing at once why it was called Table +Bay--rose against an overcast sky. Laurel knew a great deal about the +_Two Capes_--for instance that she had been a barque of two hundred and +nine tons--because it had been her grandfather's first command, and he +never tired of narrating every detail of that memorable voyage. + +Laurel could repeat most of these particulars: They sailed on the tenth +of April in 'ninety-three, and were four and a half months to the Cape of +Good Hope; twenty days later, on the rocky island of St. Paul, +grandfather had a fight with a monster seal; a sailor took the scurvy, +and, dosed with niter and vinegar, was stowed in the longboat, but he +died and was buried at sea in the Doldrums. Then, with a cargo of Sumatra +pepper, they made Corregidor Island and Manilla Bay where the old Spanish +fort stood at the mouth of the Pasig. The barque, the final cargo of hemp +and indigo and sugar in the hold, set sail again for the Cape of Good +Hope, and returned, by way of Falmouth in England and Rotterdam, home. + +The other drawings were hardly less familiar; ships, barques, brigs and +topsail schooners, the skillful work of Salmon, Anton Roux and Chinnery. +There was the _Celestina_ becalmed off Marseilles, her sails hanging idly +from the yards and stays, her hull with painted ports and carved bow and +stern mirrored in the level sea. There was the _Albacore_ running through +the northeast trades with royals and all her weather studding sails set. +Farther along the _Pallas Athena_, in heavy weather off the Cape of Good +Hope, was being driven hard across the Agulhas Bank under double-reefed +topsails, reefed courses, the fore-topmast staysail and spanker, with the +westerly current breaking in an ugly cross sea, but, as her grandfather +always explained, setting the ship thirty or forty miles to windward in a +day. She lingered, finally, over the _Metacom_, running her easting down +far to the southward with square yards under a close-reefed maintop sail, +double-reefed foresail and forestaysail, dead before a gale and gigantic +long seas hurling the ship on in the bleak watery desolation. + +Laurel was closely concerned in all these. One cause for this was the +fact that her grandfather so often selected her as the audience for his +memories and stories, during which his manner was completely that of one +navigator to another; and a second flourished in the knowledge that +Camilla affected to disdain the sea and any of its connections. + +Sidsall appeared and took her place with a collective greeting; while +Laurel, coming out of her abstraction, realized that they were discussing +the subject in which nearly every conversation now began or ended--the +solemn speculation of why her Uncle Gerrit Ammidon, master of the ship +_Nautilus_, was so long overdue from China. Laurel heard this from two +angles, or, otherwise, when her grandfather was or was not present, the +tone of the first far more encouraging than that of the latter. Her +father was speaking: + +"My opinion is that he was unexpectedly held up at Shanghai. It's a new +port for us, and, Captain Verney tells me, very difficult to make: after +Woosung you have to get hold of two bamboo poles stuck up on the bank a +hundred feet apart as a leading mark, and, with these in range, steer for +the bar. The channel is very narrow, and he says the _Nautilus_ would +have to wait for high water, perhaps for the spring tide. She may have +got ashore, strained and sprung a leak, and had to discharge her cargo +for repairs." + +"That's never Gerrit," the elder replied positively. "There isn't a +better master afloat. He can smell shoal water. I was certain we'd hear +from him when the _Sorsogon_ was back from Calcutta. Do you suppose, +William, that he took the _Nautilus_ about the Horn and--?" Laurel +wondered at the unmannerly way in which he gulped his coffee. "He might +have driven into the Antarctic winter," he proceeded. "My deck was swept +and all the boats stove off the Falklands in April." + +"Gerrit's got a ship," the other asserted, "not a hermaphrodite brig +built like a butter box. You'll find that I am right and that he has been +tied up in port." + +"I made eight hundred per cent on a first cargo for my owners," the elder +retorted. "Then there was trading, yes, and sailing, too. No chronometers +with confounded rates of variation and other fancy parlor instruments to +read your position from. When I first navigated it was with an astrolabe +and the moon. A master knew his lead, latitude and lookout then. + +"Eight hundred barrels of flour and pine boards to Rio and back with +coffee and hides for Salem," he continued; "then out to Gibraltar and +Brazil with wine and on in ballast for Calcutta. Tahiti and Morea, the +Sandwich Islands and the Feejees. Sandalwood and tortoise shell and beche +de mer; sea horses' teeth, and saltpeter for the Chinese Government. I +don't want to hear about your bills of exchange and kegs of Spanish +dollars and solid cargoes of tea run back direct. Why, with your Canton +and India agents and sight drafts the China service is like dealing with +a Boston store." + +Laurel saw that her father was assuming the expression of restrained +annoyance habitual when the elder contrasted old shipping ways with new. +"Unfortunately," he said, "the patient Chinaman will no longer exchange +silks and lacquer and teas for boiled sea slugs. He has learned to demand +something of value." + +"Why, damn it, William," the other exploded, "nothing's more valuable to +a Chinese than his belly. They'll give eighteen hundred dollars a pecul +for birds' nests any day. As for your insinuation that we used to diddle +them--I never ran opium up from India to rot their souls. And when the +Chinese Government tried to stop it there's the British commercial +interests forcing it on them with cannon in 'forty-two. + +"Look at the pepper we brought into Salem--" he was, Laurel realized with +intense interest, growing beautifully empurpled; "--lay right off the +beach at Mukka and did business with the Dato himself. We forded the bags +on the crew's backs across a river with muskets served in case the bloody +heathen drew their creeses. When we made sail everything was running over +with pepper--the boats and forecastle and cabins and between decks." + +"Well, father, the heroic times are done, of course; I can't say that I'm +sorry. I shouldn't like to finance a voyage that reached out to three +years and depended on the captain's picking up six or seven cargoes." + +The old man rose; and, muttering a plainly uncomplimentary period about +the resemblance of modern ship owners to clerks, walked with his heavy +careful tread from the room. + +"You are so foolish to argue and excite him," William's wife told him. + +Laurel regarded her with a passionate admiration for the shining hair +turning smoothly about her brow and drawn over her ears to the low coil +in the back, for her brown barége dress with velvet leaves and blue +forget-me-nots and tightest of long sleeves and high collar, and because +generally she was a mother to be owned and viewed with pride. She met +Laurel's gaze with a little friendly nod and said: + +"Don't forget about your clothes, and I think you ought to finish the +practicing before dinner, so you'll be free for a walk with your +grandfather in the afternoon." + +Soon after, Laurel stood in the hall viewing with disfavor the light +dress she had put on so gayly at rising. In spite of her sense of +increasing age she had a strong desire to play in the yard and climb +about in the woodhouse. Already the business of being grown up began to +pall upon her, the outlook dreary that included nothing but a whole hour +at the piano, an endless care of her skirts, and the slowest kind of walk +through Washington Square and down to Derby Wharf, where--no matter in +which direction and for what purpose they started forth--her +grandfather's way invariably led. + +Janet joined her, and they stood irresolutely balancing on alternate +slippers. "Did you notice," the former volunteered, "mother is letting +Camilla have lots of starch in her petticoats, so that they stand right +out like crinoline? Wasn't she hateful this morning!" Laurel heard a +slight sound at her back, and, wheeling, saw her grandfather looking out +from the library door. A swift premonition of possible additional +misfortune seized her. Moving toward the side entrance she said to Janet, +"We'd better be going right away." + +It was, however, too late. "Well, little girls," he remarked +benevolently, "since Miss Gomes has left for the day it would be as well +if I heard your geography lesson." + +"I don't think mother intended for us to study today," Laurel replied, +making a face of appeal for Janet's support. But the latter remained +solidly and silently neutral. + +"What, what," the elder mildly exploded; "mutiny in the forecastle! Get +right up here in the break of the quarter-deck or I'll harry you." He +stood aside while Laurel and Janet filed into the library. Geography was +the only subject their grandfather proposed for his instruction, and the +lesson, she knew, might take any one of several directions. He sometimes +heard it with the precision of Miss Gomes herself; he might substitute +for the regular questions such queries, drawn from his wide voyages, as +he thought to be of infinitely greater use and interest; or, better +still, he frequently gave them the benefit of long reminiscences, +through which they sat blinking in a mechanical attention or slightly +wriggling with minds far away from the old man's periods, full of +outlandish names and places, and, when he got excited, shocking swears. + +He turned the easy-chair--the one which Laurel had thought of as a +ship--away from the fireplace, now covered with a green slatted blind for +the summer; and they drew forward two of the heavy chairs with shining +claw feet that stood against the wall. Smiley's Geography, a book no +larger than the shipmaster's hand, was found and opened to Hindoostan, or +India within the Ganges. There was a dark surprising picture of Hindoos +doing Penance under the Banyan tree, and a confusing view of the Himaleh +Mountains. + +"Stuff," he proceeded, gazing with disfavor at the illustrations. "This +ought to be written by men who have seen the world and know its tides and +landmarks. Do you suppose," he demanded heatedly of Janet, "that the +fellow who put this together ever took a ship through the Formosa Channel +against the northeast monsoon?" + +"No, sir," Janet replied hastily. + +"Here are Climate and Face of the country and Religion," he located these +items with a blunt finger, "but I can't find exports. I'll lay he won't +know a Bengal chintz from a bundle handkerchief." + +"I don't think it says anything about exports," Laurel volunteered. "We +have the boundaries and--" + +"Bilge," he interrupted sharply. "I didn't fetch boundaries back in the +_Two Capes_, did I?" He thrust the offending volume into a crevice of his +chair. "Laurel," he added, "what is the outport of St. Petersburg?" + +"Cronstadt," she answered, after a violent searching of her memory. + +"And for Manilla?" he turned to Janet. + +"I can't think," she admitted. + +"Laurel?" + +"Cavite," the latter pronounced out of a racking mental effort. + +"Just so, and--" he looked up at the ceiling, "the port for Boston?" + +"I don't believe we've had that," she said firmly. His gaze fastened on +her so intently that she blushed into her lap. "Don't believe we've had +it," he echoed. + +"Why, confound it--" he paused and regarded her with a new doubt. +"Laurel," he demanded, "what is an outport?" + +She had a distinct feeling of justifiable injury. A recognized part of +the present system of examination was its strict limitation to questions +made familiar by constant repetition; and this last was entirely new. +She was sure of several kinds of ports--one they had after dinner, +another indicated a certain side of a vessel, and still a third was +Salem. But an outport--Cronstadt, Cavite, what it really meant, what they +were, had escaped her. She decided to risk an opinion. + +"An outport," she said slowly, "is a--a part of a ship," that much +seemed safe--"I expect it's the place where they throw things like +potato peels through." + +"You suppose what!" he cried, breathing quite hard. "A place where +they--" he broke off. "And you're Jeremy Ammidon's granddaughter! By +heaven, it would make a coolie laugh. It's like William, who never would +go to sea, to have four daughters in place of a son. I'm done with you; +go tinker on the piano." They got down from their chairs and departed +with an only half concealed eagerness. "Do you think he means it," Janet +asked hopefully, "and he'll never have any geography again?" + +"No, I don't," Laurel told her shortly. She was inwardly ruffled, and +further annoyed at Janet's placid acceptance of whatever the day brought +along. Janet was a stick! She turned away and found herself facing the +parlor and the memory of the impending hour of practice. Well, it had to +be done before dinner, and she went forward with dragging feet. + +Within the formal shaded space of the chamber she stopped to speculate +on the varied and colorful pictures of the wall paper reaching from the +white paneling above her waist to the deep white carving at the ceiling. +The scene which absorbed her most showed, elevated above a smooth stream, +a marble pavilion with sweeping steps and a polite company about a +reclining gentleman with bare arms and a wreath on his head and a lady in +flowing robes playing pipes. To the right, in deep green shadow, a +charmer was swinging from ropes of flowers, lovers hid behind a brown +mossy trunk; while on the left, against a weeping willow and frowning +rock, four serene creatures gathered about a barge with a gilded prow. + +Still on her reluctant progress to the piano she stopped to examine the +East India money on the lowest shelf of a locked corner cupboard. There +was a tiresome string of cash with a rattan twisted through their square +holes; silver customs taels, and mace and candareen; Chinese gold leaf +and Fukien dollars; coins from Cochin China in the shape of India ink, +with raised edges and characters; old Carolus hooked dollars; Sycee +silver ingots, smooth and flat above, but roughly oval on the lower +surface, not unlike shoes; Japanese obangs, their gold stamped and beaten +out almost as broad as a hand's palm; mohurs and pieces from Singapore; +Dutch guilders from Java; and the small silver and gold drops of Siam +called tical. + +She arrived finally at the harplike stool of the piano; but there she had +to wait until the clock in the hall above struck some division of the +hour for her guidance, and she rattled the brass rings that formed the +handles of drawers on either side of the keyboard. Later, her fingers +picking a precarious way through bass and treble, she heard Sidsall's +voice at the door; the latter was joined by their mother, and they went +out to the clatter of hoofs, the thin jingle of harness chains, where the +barouche waited for them in the street. Once Camilla obtruded into the +room. "I wonder you don't give yourself a headache," she remarked; "I +never heard more nerve-racking sounds." + +Laurel gathered that Camilla was proud of this expression, which she must +have newly caught from some grown person. She considered a reply, but, +nothing sufficiently crushing occurring, she ignored the other in a +difficult transposition of her hands. Camilla left; the clock above +struck a second quarter; the third, while she honestly continued her +efforts up until the first actual note of the hour. + +"Thank God that's over," she said in the liberal manner of a shipmaster. +Now only the walk with her grandfather remained of the actively tiresome +duties of the day. After dinner the sun blazed down with almost the heat +of midsummer, and Laurel felt unexpectedly indifferent, content to linger +in the house. Only too soon she heard inquiries for her; and in her +gaiter boots, a silk bonnet with a blue scarf tied under her chin and +flowing over a shoulder and palm leaf cashmere shawl, she accompanied the +old man across Pleasant Street and over the wide green Square to the +arched west gate with its gilt eagle and Essex Street. + +"Will we be going on Central Street?" she asked. + +"No reason for turning down there," he replied, forgetful of the +gingerbread shop with the shaky little bell inside the door, the buttered +gingerbread on the upper shelf for three cents and that without on the +lower for two. She gathered her hopes now about Webb's Drugstore, where +her grandfather sometimes stopped for a talk, and bought her rock candy, +Gibraltars or blackjacks. It was too hot for blackjacks, she decided, +and, with opportunity, would choose the cooling peppermint flavor of the +Gibraltars. + +The elms on Essex Street were far enough in leaf to cast a flickering +shade in the faintly salt air drifting from the sea; and they progressed +so slowly that Laurel was able to study the contents of most of the store +windows they passed. Some held crewels and crimped white cakes of wax, +gayly colored reticule beads with a wooden spoon for a penny measure, and +"strawberry" emery balls. There was a West India store and a place where +they sold oil and candles, another had charts for mariners; while across +the way stood the East India Marine Hall. + +Here her grandfather hesitated, and for a moment it seemed as if he would +go over and join the masters always to be found about the Museum. But in +the end he continued beyond the Essex House with its iron bow and lamp +over the entrance, past Cheapside to Webb's Drugstore, where he purchased +a bag of Peristaltic lozenges, and--after pretending to start away as if +nothing more were to be secured there--the Gibraltars. + +They were returning, in the general direction of Derby Wharf, when Jeremy +Ammidon met a companion of past days at sea, and stopped for the +inevitable conversational exchange. The latter, who had such a great +spreading beard that Laurel couldn't determine whether or not he wore a +neck scarf, said: + +"Barzil Dunsack all but died." + +"Ha!" the other exclaimed. Laurel wondered at the indelicacy in speaking +about old Captain Dunsack to her grandfather, when everyone in Salem knew +they had quarreled years ago and not spoken to each other since. + +"He was bad off," he persisted; "a cold grappled in his chest and went +into lung fever. Barzil's looking wasted, what with sickness and the +trouble about Edward." At a nod, half encouraging, he added, "It appears +Edward left Heard and Company in Canton and took ship back to Boston. +He's there now for what I know. Never sent any word to Salem or his +father. Looks a little as if he had been turned out of his berth. Then +one of Barzil's schooners caught the edge of the last hurricane off the +Great Bank and went ashore on Green Turtle Key. Used him near all up." + +Laurel saw that her grandfather was frowning heavily and silently moving +his lips. The other left them standing and her companion brought his cane +down sharply. "Boy and boy," he said. "Barzil was a good man... looking +old. So am I, so am I. Feet almost useless. Laurel," he addressed her, "I +want you to go right on home. I've got to stop around and see an old +friend who has been sick." She left obediently, but paused once to gaze +back incredulously at the bulky shape of her grandfather moving toward +Barzil Dunsack's. That quarrel was part of their family history, she had +been aware of it as long as she had of the solemn clock in the second +hall; and not very far back, perhaps when she was eight, it had taken a +fresh activity of discussion around the person of her Uncle Gerrit, who, +it was feared, might now be drowned at sea. What it had all been about +neither she nor her sisters knew, for not only was the subject dropped at +the approach of any of them but they were forbidden to mention it. + +At home she was unable to communicate her surprising news at once because +of the flood of talk that met her from the drawing-room. Olive Wibird and +Lacy, her cousin, were engaged with Sidsall in a conversation often a +duet and sometimes a trio. Laurel took a seat at the edge of the chatter +and followed it comprehensively. She didn't like Olive Wibird who would +greet her in a sugary voice; but elsewhere Olive was tremendously +admired, there were always men about her, serenades rising from the lawn +beneath her window, and Laurel herself had seen Olive's dressing table +laden with bouquets in frilly lace paper. She had one now, in a holder of +mother-of-pearl, with a gilt chain and ring. Her wide skirt was a mass of +over-drapery, knots of moss roses and green gauze ribbons; while a silver +cord ending in a tassel fell forward among her curls. + +Lacy Saltonstone, almost as plainly dressed as Sidsall, was as usual +sitting straighter than anyone else Laurel ever saw; she had a brown +face with a finely curved nose and brown eyes, and her voice was cool +and decided. + +"For me," she said, "he is the most fascinating person in Salem." + +Olive Wibird made a swift face of dissent. "He's too stiff and there is +gray in his hair. I like my men more like sparkling hock. Dancing with +him he holds you as if you were glass." + +"I don't seem to remember you and Mr. Brevard together," Lacy commented. + +"He hasn't asked me for centuries," the other admitted. "He did Sidsall, +though, as we all remember; didn't he, love?" + +Sidsall's cheeks turned bright pink. Laurel dispassionately wished that +her sister wouldn't make such a show of herself. It was too bad that +Sidsall was so--so broad and well looking; she was not in the least pale +or interesting, and had neither Lacy's Saltonstone's thin gracefulness +nor Olive's popular manner. + +"It was very noble of him," Sidsall agreed. + +"But he was extremely engaged," Lacy assured her with her wide slow +stare. "He told me that you were like apple blossoms." + +That might please Sidsall, thought Laurel, but she personally held apple +blossoms to be a very common sort of flower. Evidently something of the +kind had occurred to Olive, too, for she said: "Heaven only knows what +men will admire. It's clear they don't like a prude. I intend to have a +good time until I get married--" + +"But what if you love in vain?" Sidsall interrupted. + +"There isn't any need for that," Olive told her. "When I see a man I +want I'm going to get him. It's easy if you know how and make +opportunities. I always have one garter a little loose." + +"Laurel," her sister turned, "I'm certain your supper is ready. Go along +like a nice child." + +In her room a woman with a flat worn face and a dusty wisp of hair across +her neck was spreading underlinen, ironed into beautiful narrow wisps of +pleating, in a drawer. It was Hodie, a Methodist, the only one Laurel +knew, and the latter was always entranced by the servant's religious +exclamations, doubts and audible prayers. She was saying something now +about pits, gauds and vanities; and she ended a short profession of faith +with an amen so loud and sudden that Laurel, although she was waiting for +it, jumped. + +It was past seven, the air was so sweet with lilacs that they seemed to +be blooming in her room, and the sunlight died slowly from still space. +By leaning out of her window she could see over the Square. The +lamplighter was moving along its wooden fence, leaving faint twinkling +yellow lights, and there were little gleams from the windows on Bath +Street beyond. + +The gayety of her morning mood was replaced by a dim kind of wondering, +her thoughts became uncertain like the objects in the quivering light +outside. The palest possible star shone in the yellow sky; she had to +look hard or it was lost. Janet, stirring in the next room, seemed so far +away that she might not hear her, Laurel, no matter how loudly she +called. "Janet!" she cried, prompted by unreasoning dread. "You needn't +to yell," Janet complained, at the door. But already Laurel was oblivious +of her: she had seen a familiar figure slowly crossing Washington Square +--her grandfather coming home from Captain Dunsack's. + +Gracious, how poky he was; she was glad that she wasn't dragging along at +his side. He seemed bigger and rounder than usual. She heard the tap of +his cane as he left the Common for Pleasant Street; then his feet moved +and stopped, moved and stopped, up the steps of their house. + +She was sorry now that she hadn't known what an outport was, and +determined to ask him to-morrow. She liked his stories, that Camilla +disdained, about crews and Hong Kong and the stormy Cape. The thought of +Cape Horn brought back the memory of her Uncle Gerrit, absent in the +ship _Nautilus_. Her mental pictures of him were not clear--he was +almost always at sea--but she remembered his eyes, which were very +confusing to encounter, and his hair parted and carelessly brushing the +bottoms of his ears. + +Laurel recalled hearing that Gerrit was his father's favorite, and she +suddenly understood something of the unhappiness that weighed upon the +old man. She hoped desperately that Janet or Camilla wouldn't come in and +laugh at her for crying. In bed she saw that the room was rapidly filling +with dusk. Only yesterday she would have told herself that the dragon in +the teakwood chair was stirring; but now Laurel could see that it never +moved. She rocked like the little boats that crossed the harbor or came +in from the ships anchored beyond the wharves, and settled into a sleep +like a great placid sea flooding the world of her home and the +lamplighter and her grandfather sorrowing for Uncle Gerrit. + + + + +II + +When Jeremy Ammidon sent his granddaughter home alone, and turned toward +Captain Dunsack's, on Hardy Street, he stopped for a moment to approve +the diminishing sturdy figure. All William's children, though they were +girls, were remarkably handsome, with glowing red cheeks and clear eyes, +tumbling masses of hair and a generous vigor of body. He sighed at +Laurel's superabundant youth, and moved carefully forward; he was very +heavy, and his progress was uncertain. His thoughts were divided between +the present and the past--Barzil Dunsack, aged and ill and unfortunate, +and the happening long ago that had resulted in a separation of years +after a close youthful companionship. + +It had occurred while Barzil was master of the brig _Luna,_ owned by +Billy Gray, and he, Jeremy, was first mate. In the exactness with which +he recalled every detail of his life in ships he remembered that at the +time they were off Bourbon Island, about a hundred and ten miles +southwest of the lie de France. The _Luna_ was close hauled, and, while +Barzil was giving an order at the wheel, she fetched a bad lee lurch +and sent him in a heap across the deck, striking his head against the +bumkin bitts. He had got up dazed but not apparently seriously injured; +and after his head had been swabbed and bound by the steward he +returned to the poop. There, however, his conduct had been so +peculiar--among other things sending down the watch to put on Sunday +rig against a possible hail by the Lord--that, after a long +consultation with Mr. Patterson, the second mate and the boatswain, and +a brief announcement to the crew, he, Jeremy Ammidon, had taken command +in their interest and that of the owner. + +Barzil had made difficulties: Mr. Patterson struck up a leveled pistol in +the master's hand just as it exploded. They had confined him, in charge +of the unhappy steward, to his cabin; where, after he had completely +recovered from the effects of the blow, and Jeremy had been upheld by the +authorities at Table Bay, he stubbornly remained until the _Luna_ had +been warped into Salem. + +From the moment of their landing they had not exchanged a word. Jeremy +was surprised to find himself at present bound toward the other's house. +He was not certain that Barzil would even see him; but, he muttered, the +thing had lasted long enough, they were too old for such foolishness; and +the other had come into adverse winds, now, when he should be lying +quietly in a snug harbor. + +He had never paid serious attention to the threatened complication two or +three years before, when Gerrit had been seen repeatedly with Kate +Dunsack's irregularly born daughter. He was sorry for the two women. It +was his opinion that the man had been shipped drunk by some boarding +house runner; anyhow, only the second day out Vollar had been lost +overboard from the main-royal yard, and Kate's child born outside the +law. It was hard, he told himself again, walking down Orange Street, past +the Custom House to Derby. + +The girl, Nettie Vollar--they had adopted the father's name--was +attractive in a decided French way, with crisp black hair, a pert nose +and dimple, and, why, good heavens, twenty-one or two years old if she +was a week! How time did run. It was nothing extraordinary if Gerrit had +been seen a time or two with her on the street, or even if he had called +at the Dunsacks'. Barzil's and his quarrel didn't extend to all the +members of their families; and as for the Dunsacks being common--that was +nonsense. Barzil was as good as he any day; only where he had prospered, +and moved up into a showy place on the Common, the other had had the +head winds. Through no fault of his own the reputation had fastened on +him of being unlucky in his cargoes: if he carried tea and colonial +exports to, say, Antwerp, they would have been declared contraband while +he was at sea, and seized on the docks; he had been blown, in an +impenetrable fog, ashore on Tierra del Fuego, and, barely making Cape +Pembroke, had been obliged to beach his ship, a total loss. Then there +was Kate's trouble. Barzil was a rigorously moral and religious man and +his pain at that last must have been heavy. + +Jeremy Ammidon's mind turned to Gerrit, his son; this interest in Nettie +Vollar, if it had existed, was characteristic of the boy, who had a quick +heart and an honest disdain for the muddling narrow ways of the land. He +would have sought her out simply from the instinct to protest against the +smugness of Salem opinion. A fine sailor, and a master at twenty-two. A +great one to carry sail; yet in the sixteen years of his commands he had +had no more serious accident than the loss of a fore-topgallant mast or +splitting a couple of courses. It was Gerrit's ability, the splendid +qualities of his ship, that made Jeremy hope he would still come sailing +into the harbor with some narration of delay and danger overcome. + +He was now on Derby Street, in a region of rigging and sail lofts, block +and pump makers, ships' stores, spar yards, gilders, carvers and workers +in metal. There was a strong smell of tar and new canvas and the flat +odor that rose at low water. Sailors passed, yellow powerful +Scandinavians and dark men with earrings from southern latitudes, in red +or checked shirts, blue dungarees and glazed black hats with trailing +ribbons, or in cheap and clumsy shore clothes. There was a scraping of +fiddle from an upper window, the sound of heavy capering feet and the +stale laughter of harborside women. + +On Hardy Street he continued to the last house at the right, the farther +side of which gave across a yard of uneven bricks, straggling bushes and +aged splitting apple trees and an expanse of lush grass ending abruptly +in a wooden embankment and the water. A short fence turned in from the +sidewalk to the front door, where Jeremy knocked. A long pause followed, +in which he became first impatient and then irritable; and he was lifting +his hand for a second summons when the door suddenly opened and he was +facing Kate Vollar. There was only a faint trace of surprise on her +apathetic--Jeremy Ammidon called it moonlike--countenance; as if her +overwhelming mischance had robbed her features of all further expressions +of interest or concern. + +"I heard," Jeremy said in a voice pitched loud enough to conceal any +inward uncertainty, "that your father had been sick. Met Captain Rendell +on Essex Street and he said Barzil had lung fever. Thought I'd see if +there was any truth in it." + +"He just managed to stay alive," Kate Vollar replied, gazing at him with +her stilled gray eyes. "But he's better now, though he's not up and about +yet. Shall I tell him that--that you are here?" + +"Yes. Just say Jeremy Ammidon's below, and would like to pass a greeting +with him." + +He followed the woman in, and entered a large gloomy chamber while she +mounted the stair leading directly from the front. The blackened +fireplace gaping uncovered for the summer, the woodwork, painted yellow +with an artificial graining, and a stiff set of ebonized chairs, their +dingy crimson plush backs protected by elaborate thread antimacassars, +seemed to hold and reflect the misfortunes of their owner. Jeremy picked +up an ostrich egg, painted with a clump of viciously green coconut palms +and a cottony surf; he put it down with an absent smile and impatiently +fingered a volume of "The Life of Harriet Atwood Newell." She was one of +the missionaries who had gone out on the _Caravan_, with Augustine Heard, +to India, but forbidden to land there had died not long after on the Île +de France. + +"Houqua was a damned good heathen," he said aloud: "and so was +Nasservanjee." He left the table and proceeded to a window opening upon +the harbor, here fretted with wharves. A barque was fast in a small +stone-bound dock, newly in, his practiced glance saw, from a blue water +voyage, Africa probably. Her standing gear was in a perfection and beauty +of order that spoke of long tranquil days in the trades, and that no mere +harbor riggers could hope to accomplish. The deck was burdened with the +ugly confusion of unloading. Jeremy studied the jibs stowed in harbor +covers, the raking masts and tapering royal poles over the stolid roofs. +Ordinarily seeing no more he could not only name a vessel trading out of +Salem, but from her rig recognize anyone of a score of masters who, +otherwise unheralded, might be in command. + +However, here he was at a loss, and he thought again of the change, the +decline, that had overtaken Salem shipping, the celebrated merchants; the +pennants of William Gray, he reflected, had flown from the main truck of +fifteen ships, seven barques, thirteen brigs and schooners. Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone, in spite of his vehement protests, the counsel +of the oldest member of the firm, were moving shipment by shipment all +their business to Boston, listening to the promptings of State Street and +Central Wharf. + +To the right was the sagging landing from which Barzil's schooners +sailed trading with the West Indies; and back of it, and of his +house, stood the small office. His mind had turned to this +inconsiderable commerce when Kate Vollar entered and told him that +her father would see him. + +Barzil Dunsack was propped up in bed in a room above that in which Jeremy +had been waiting. He, totally different from the other, showed his age in +sunken dry cheeks, a forehead like an arch of bone, and a thick short +gray beard. A long faded lock of hair had been hastily brushed forward +and an incongruously bright knitted scarf drawn about his shoulders. + +Jeremy Ammidon concealed his dismay not only at Barzil's wrecked being +but at the dismal aspect of the interior, the worn rugs with their pieces +of once bright material frayed and loose, the splitting veneer of an old +chest of drawers and blistered mirror above a dusty iron grate. "You have +got in among the rocks!" he exclaimed. "Still they tell me you've +weathered the worst. Copper bound and oak ribs. Don't build them like +that to-day." + +Barzil Dunsack's eyes were bright and searching behind steel-rimmed +spectacles, and he studied Jeremy without replying. "Well, isn't there a +salute in you?" the latter demanded, incensed. "I'm not a Malay proa." + +The grim shadow of a smile dawned on Barzil's countenance. "I mind one +hanging on our quarter by Formosa," he returned; "I trained a cannon aft +and fired a shot, when she sheered off. That was in the _Flora_ in +'ninety-seven." + +A long silence enveloped them. Jeremy's mind was thronged with memories +of ports and storms, mates and ships and logged days. "Remember Oahu like +it was when we first made it," he queried, "and the Kanaka girls swimming +out to the ship with hybiscus flowers in their hair? Yes, and the +anchorage at Tahiti with the swells pounding on the coral reef and +Papeete under the mountain? It was nice there in the afternoon, lying off +the beach with the white cottages among the palms and orange trees and +the band playing in the grove by Government House." + +Captain Dunsack frowned at the trivial character of these memories. He +muttered something about the weight of the Lord, and the carnal hearts of +the men in ships. Jeremy declared, "Stuff! He'll wink at a sailor man +with hardly a free day on shore. It wasn't bad at Calcutta, either, with +an awning on the quarter-deck, watching the carriages and syces in the +Maidan and maybe a corpse or two floating about the gangway from the +burning ghauts." + +"A mean entrance," Barzil Dunsack asserted. "I don't know a worse with +the southwest monsoon in the Bay of Bengal and the pilot brigs gone +from the Sand Heads. That's where Heard got pounded with the _Emerald_ +drawing nineteen feet, and eighteen on the bar. Shook the reefs out of +his topsails, laid her on her beam ends, and with some inches saved +scraped in." + +"Pick up the three Juggernaut Pagodas of Ganjam," Jeremy remarked +absently. + +"'Thou shalt have no other God--'" + +Jeremy, with a glint in his eye, asked, "Wasn't your last consignment of +West India molasses marked Medford?" + +"You always were a scoffer," the other replied, unmoved. + +"How's Nettie?" Jeremy Ammidon inquired with a deliberate show of +interest. + +Barzil's lips tightened. "I haven't seen her for a little," he replied. +"She's been visiting at Ipswich." Jeremy added, "A good girl," but the +man in bed made no further comment. His undimmed gaze was fastened upon a +wall, his mouth folded in a hard line on a harsh and deeply seamed +countenance. An able man pursued by bad luck. + +"Nothing's been heard from Gerrit," Jeremy said after a little. Still the +other kept silent. His face darkened: by God, if Barzil hadn't a decent +word for the fact that Gerrit was seven months overdue, perhaps lost, +this was not a house for him. "I say that we've had nothing from my son +since he lay in the Lye-ee-Moon Pass off Hong Kong," he repeated sharply. + +A spasm of suffering, instantly controlled, passed over Barzil's face. +"Gerrit called once and again before he last sailed for Montevideo," he +finally pronounced. "I stopped it and he left in a temper. I--I won't +have another mortal sin here like Kate's." + +"Do you mean that Gerrit's loose?" Jeremy hotly demanded, rising. "A +more honorable boy never breathed." Barzil was cold. "I told him not to +come back," he repeated; "it would only lead to--to shamefulness." +Jeremy shook his cane toward the bed. "I may be a scoffer," he cried, +"but I wouldn't hold a judgment over a child of mine! I'm not so damned +holy that I can look down on a misfortunate girl. If Gerrit did come to +see Nettie and the boy had a liking for her, why you drove away a cursed +good husband. And if you think for a minute I wouldn't welcome her +because that Vollar fell off a yard before he could find a preacher +you're an old fool!" + +"Nettie must bear her burden: far better be dead than a stumbling block." + +"Well, I'd rather be a drunken pierhead jumper on the Waterloo Road than +any such pious blue nose. I'll tell you this, too--I'd hate to ship afore +the mast under you for all you'd have the ensign on the booby hatch with +prayers read Sunday morning. I don't wonder you got into weather; I'd +have no word for a Creator who didn't blow in your eye." + +"I'll listen to no blasphemy, Captain Ammidon," Barzil Dunsack +said sternly. + +"And I'll speak my mind, Captain Dunsack; it's this--your girls are a +long sight too good for you or for any other judgmatical, psalm-singing +devil dodger." He stood fuming at the door. "Good afternoon to you." + +Barzil Dunsack reclined with his gaunt bearded head sunk forward on his +thin chest swathed in the gay worsted wrap, his wasted hands, the tendons +corded with pale violet veins, clenched outside the checkered quilt +beneath which his body made scarcely a mark. + +Outside, in the soft glow of beginning dusk, Jeremy blamed himself +bitterly for his anger at the sick man. He had gone to see him in a +spirit friendly with old memories, forgetful of their long quarrel in the +stirred emotions of the past days of youth and first manhood; and he had +shouted at Barzil as if he were a lubber at the masthead. + +He realized that in order to be in time for supper he must turn toward +the Common and home; but his gaze caught the spars of the strange +barque; and, mechanically, he made his way over a narrow grassy passage +to the wharf. She was the _Cora Sellers_ of Marblehead, and he recognized +from a glance at the cargo that she had been out to the East Coast of +Africa--Mozambique and Zanzibar, Aden and Muscat. A matted frail of dates +swung ponderously in air, there were baled goatskins and sacks of Mocha +coffee, sagging baskets of reddish unwashed gum copal carried in bulk, +and a sun-blackened mate smoking a rat-tail Dutch cigar was supervising +the moving of elephant tusks in a milky glimmer of ivory ashore. + +There was a vague murmur of the rising tide, beyond the wharves and +warehouses the water was faintly rippled in silver and rose, and a ship +was standing into the harbor with all her canvas spread to the light +wind. He turned away with a sigh and walked slowly up toward the elms of +Pleasant Street. At his front door he stopped to regard the polished +brass plate where in place of his name he had caused to be engraved the +words Java Head. They held for him, coming into this pleasant dwelling +after so many tumultuous years at sea, the symbol of the safe and happy +end of an arduous voyage; just as the high black rock of Java Head +thrusting up over the horizon promised the placidity and accomplishment +of the Sunda Strait. Whenever he noticed the plate he felt again the +relief of coasting that northerly shore: + +He saw the mate forward with the crew passing the chains through the +hawse pipes and shackling them to the anchors. The island rose from level +groves of shore palms to lofty blue peaks terraced with rice and +red-massed kina plantations, with shining streams and green kananga +flowers and tamarinds. The land breeze, fragrant with clove buds and +cinnamon, came off to the ship in the vaporous dusk; and, in the blazing +sunlight of morning, the Anjer sampans swarmed out with a shrill chatter +of brilliant birds, monkeys and naked brown humanity, piled with dark +green oranges and limes and purple mangosteen. + +In the last few years, particularly with Gerrit away, he had turned more +and more from the surroundings of his house--rather it had become +William's house--to an inner life of memories. His own active life seemed +to him to have been infinitely fuller, more purposeful and various, than +that of present existence at Java Head. All Salem had been different: he +had a certain contempt for the existence of his son William and the +latter's associates and friends. He had said that the trading now done in +ships was like dealing at a Boston store, and the merchants reminded him +of storekeepers. The old days, when a voyage was a public affair, and a +ship's manifest posted in the Custom House on which anyone might write +himself down for a varying part of the responsibility and profit, had +given place to closed capital; the passages from port to port with the +captain, as often as not, his own supercargo and a figure of importance, +had become scheduled affairs in which a master was subjected to any +countinghouse clerk with an order from the firm: the ships themselves +were fast being ruined. + +He was in his room, after supper, seated momentarily on a day bed with a +covering of white Siberian fox skins, and he pronounced aloud, in a tone +of satirical contempt, the single word, "Clipper." Nearly everyone in the +shipping business seemed to have been touched by this madness for the +ridiculous ideas of an experimental Griffiths and his model of a ship +with the bows turned inside out, the greatest beam aft and a dead rise +like an inverted roof. That the _Rainbow_, the initial result of this +insanity, hadn't capsized at her launching had been due to some freak of +chance; just as her miraculous preservation through a voyage or so to +China could have been made possible only by continuously mild weather. + +Even if the _Rainbow_ had been fast--her run was called ninety-two days +out to Canton and home in eighty-eight--it was absurd to suppose that +there had been the usual monsoon. And if she did come in a little ahead +of vessels built on a solid full-bodied model, why her hold had no cargo +capacity worth the name. + +Things on the seas were going to the devil! He moved down to the library, +where he lighted a cheroot and addressed himself to the _Gazette_; but +his restlessness increased: the paper drooped and his thoughts turned to +Gerrit as a small boy. He saw him leaving home, for the first time, to go +to the school at Andover, in a cloth cap with a glazed peak, striped long +pantaloons and blue coat and waistcoat; later at the high desk in the +counting-rooms of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone; then sailing as +supercargo on one of the Company's ships to Russia and Liverpool. He had +soon dropped such clerking for seamen's duties, and his rise to +mastership had been rapid. + +Rhoda, William's wife, entered and stood before him accusingly. "You are +worrying again," she declared; "in here all by yourself. It really seems +as if you didn't believe in our interest or affection. I have a feeling, +and you know they are always right, that Gerrit will sail into the harbor +any day now." + +He had always liked Rhoda, a large handsome woman with rich coloring--her +countenance somehow reminded him of an apricot--and fine clothes. She +paused, studied him for a moment, and then asked, "Was your call on +Captain Dunsack pleasant?" + +"It ought to have been," he confided, "but I got mad and talked like a +Dutch uncle, and Barzil went off on a holy tack." + +"About Nettie Vollar?" + +Jeremy nodded. "Look here, Rhoda," he demanded, "did Gerrit ever say +anything to you about her?" + +"Yes," she told him; "Gerrit was very frank." + +"Did he like the girl?" + +"I couldn't make that out. But if there hadn't been, well--something +unusual in her circumstances I think he would never have noticed her. +Gerrit is a curious mixture, a very impressionable heart and a contrary +stubborn will. He was sorry for Nettie, and, at the way a great many +people treated her, threw himself into opposition. Nettie's father made +him very mad, and Gerrit pretty well damned all Salem before he left in +the _Nautilus_. He was excruciatingly funny: you know Gerrit can be, +particularly when he imitates anybody. I think being away at sea a great +deal, and having absolute command of everything, give men a different +view of things from ours. What is terribly important to Salem hardly +touches Gerrit; it's all silly pretense, or worse, to him. + +"I wouldn't mind that if it weren't for the sense of humor that leads him +into the wildest extravagances, and the fact that he'll act on his +feelings. You know I'm devoted to him but I give a sigh of relief +whenever he gets away on his ship without doing any one of the hundred +insanities he threatens." + +"Gerrit's like me," he said. + +"More than William," she agreed. "William is never impetuous, and he's +often impatient with his brother. He's a splendid husband, but Gerrit +would make a wonderful lover. I'm thankful I never fell into his +affections ... too wearing for an indolent woman." + +"You've been a great comfort and pleasure, Rhoda," he told her. "I only +wish Gerrit could marry someone like you--" + +"But who would give him sons," she interrupted. + +"It's just as you say about him, and I've always been uneasy. God knows +what he won't do--on land. William's a great deal happier, for all his +brother's humor. I joke William, but he's very satisfactory and solid. +He'll make port if he doesn't get tied up with newfangled notions. Why, +it stands to reason that a ship built like a knife would double up in the +seas off the Falklands." + +"He has a lot of confidence in Mr. McKay." + +"McKay is a good man unsettled. The _May Broughton_ is a fine barque, +and his packet ships are as seaworthy as any, but--" his indignation +increased so that he sputtered, and Rhoda laughed. "Now your girls," +he added, "fine models, all of them, plenty of beam, work in any kind +of weather." + +"That's very complimentary," she assured him, rising. "You mustn't worry +about Gerrit. Remember, my predictions never fail." + +When she had gone his mind returned to storms he had safely +weathered--the gray gales of Cape Horn, black hurricanes and the +explosive tempests in eastern straits and seas. He took from the drawer +of a bookcase with glass doors set in geometrical pattern a thin volume +bound in black boards. A paper label was inscribed in a small, carefully +formed script, "Journal of my intended voyage from Salem to the East +Indies in the Ship _Woodbine_." He opened at random: + +"Comes in with strong wind from SSE with rain squalls. Very ugly sea on. +Double reefed the Topsails, reefed the courses and furled the mainsail. +At six p.m. shipped a very heavy sea that carried away the bulwarks on +the larboard quarter and stove those on the starboard quarter and +amidships ... upper cabin filled with water. Through the night strong +gales.... Lightning at all points of the compass." + +The memory of this night, six days out from Manilla to Hong Kong, was +clearer than the actuality of the room in which he sat, an old man with +his activity, his strength, his manhood, far behind him, a hulk. + +"At ten split the mainsail in pieces. Close reefed the fore and +double reefed the main-topsails. Rising gales and heavy head sea. +Shipping a great quantity of water and leaking considerable. Bent a +new mainsail and set it. Reefed and set the jib. Pumping near two +thousand strokes an hour. + +"October seventh, Sunday. Comes in with strong gales and a heavy head +sea. Both officers crippled and man laid up. Through the night the same. +Leaking badly. A great number of junks in sight ... and so at five p.m. +come to anchor." + +He had been a good man then, sixteen days on the quarter-deck without +going below; insensible to ice or fever or weariness. He had been +autocratic, too; and had his boy servant carrying areca nuts, chunam +and tobacco in two silk bags, another with a fan and a third holding +an umbrella. Such things were all over now, he understood, in this +driving age. + +His mind continually returned to Gerrit, to dwell on the vast number of +perils held in store by the sea; there was always the possibility of +scurvy, an entire crew rotting alive in the forecastle and the ship +broached to, dismasted; of mutiny; the sheer smothering finality of +volcanic waves. He had never realized until now, in the misery of +uncertainty, the hellish loneliness of a shipmaster at sea; the pride of +duty, the necessity of discipline, that put him beyond all counsel, all +assistance and human interdependence. Jeremy, who had arrogantly accepted +this responsibility without a question, through so many long years and +voyages, now dreaded it, found it an inhuman burden, for his son. + +William couldn't be expected to appreciate the difficulties of his +brother's position: all the former's experience had been got when, with +James Saltonstone and a party of Salem merchants, he ventured to the +lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor, had a cold collation, and +returned with the pilot or in the Custom House sloop. These occasions of +huzzas and salutes and speeches were supplemented with a hasty +inspection, now and then, of a vessel lying still at the wharf with sails +harbor furled. William guessed little of the long effort through which a +ship won from the first of those moments to the last. He was solely +concerned with the returns of the cargo. + +However, Rhoda was right, and this mooning wouldn't bring Gerrit into +port. He turned to the bookcase, where a squat bottle of Medford rum +rested beside a tumbler; after a drink he lighted a cheroot and smoking +vigorously, with hands clasped behind him, paced back and forth in an +undeviating line between the door to the hall and a dark polished +secretary he had bought in London. + +While he was walking Camilla came into the room and sedately took a seat +on one of the formal chairs against the wall. "I guess you think that's +the deck of a ship," she said conversationally. He regarded her with a +faint threatening glint of humor. Camilla's dignity was stupendous; +particularly now, when, he observed, her skirts stood out in a thoroughly +grown manner. He liked Laurel best of William's children; she had, in +spite of her confusion in regard to outports, a surprising grasp upon +many of the details of life on shipboard, and a largeness of manner and +expression entertaining in a little girl. Sidsall was the most +ingratiating--she had Gerrit's direct kindling gaze; Janet showed no +individuality yet beyond an entire willingness to conform to outward +circumstance while pursuing deeply secret speculations within. But +Camilla impressed the entire family by the rigidity of her correctness in +personal and social niceties. At times, he felt, she would be a nuisance +but for the firm hand of her mother and his own contribution to their +well-being by an occasional sly sally. + +"It might be that," he admitted; "if it weren't for the facts that it's a +house and library, and I'm an old man, and you're not at all like the +second mate." + +"I should hope not," she replied decidedly. "A second mate isn't +anything, and I am a--a young lady anyhow." + +"You'll soon be out at dances." + +"I go to parties now; that is, mother let me stay at the Coggswells' on +Thursday until the men came at nine for sangaree. And I'm at all the +Ballad Soirées." + +He made a gesture of pretended surprise and admiration. "I don't suppose +they ever have a good chantey with the stuff they play?" he queried. +"Dear me, no. Mr. Dempster sings The Indian's Lament, and The May Queen: +that's a cantata and it's in three parts." + +Jeremy began to hum, and in a moment was intoning in a loud monotonous +voice, sweeping a hand up and down: + +_"To my hero, Bangedero, +Singing hey for a gay Hash girl."_ + +"I don't think that's very nice," she said primly. + +"What do you mean--not very nice?" he demanded, incensed. "There's +nothing finer with a rousing chanteyman leading it and the watch hauling +on the braces. You'd never hear the like at any Ballad Soirée. And: + +_"Sweet William, he married a wife, +'Gentle Jenny,' cried Rose Marie, +To be the sweet comfort of his life, +As the dew flies over the mulberry tree."_ + +"There isn't much sense to it," she observed. + +For a little, indignant at her disparagement of such noble fragments, he +tramped silently back and forth, followed by a cloud of smoke from the +cheroot. No one on land could understand the absorbing significance of +every detail of a ship's life.... Only Gerrit, of all his family, knew +the chanteys and watches, the anxiety and beauty of landfalls--the blue +Falklands or Teneriffe rising above the clouds, the hurried making and +taking of sail in the squalls of the Doldrums. + +"In India," he told her, stopping in his measured course, "female +children are given to the crocodiles." + +Her mouth parted at this, her eyes became dilated, and she slipped from +the chair. "That's perfectly awfully appalling," she breathed. "The +little brown girl babies. Oh, father," she cried, as William Ammidon came +into the library, "what do you suppose grandfather says, that in India +female children are...crocodiles." Words failed her. + +"What's the sense in frightening the child, father?" William +remonstrated. "I wish you would keep those horrors for the old heathen of +the Marine Society." + +Jeremy had a lively sense of guilt; he had been betrayed by Camilla's +confounded airs and pretensions. He ought to be ashamed of himself, +telling the girl such things. "The British Government is putting a stop +to that," he added hastily, "and to suttees--" + +"What are they?" she inquired. + +"Never mind, Camilla," her father interposed; "go up with your mother +and sisters. + +"I suppose it's no good speaking to you," William continued; "but my +family is not a crew and this house isn't the _Two Capes_. You might make +some effort to realize you're on land." + +"I know I'm on land, William; tell that any day from a sight of you. You +can afford to listen a little now and then about the sea. That's where +all you have came from; it's the same with near everybody in Salem. +Vessels brought them and vessels kept them going; and, with the wharves +as empty as they were this afternoon, soon there won't be any Salem to +talk about." + +"The tide's turned from here," the other replied; "with the increase in +tonnage and the importance of time we need the railway and docking +facility of the larger cities--Boston and New York." + +"It's running out fast enough," Jeremy agreed; "and there's a lot going +out with it you'll never see again--like the men who put a reef in +England in 'twelve." + +"You are always sounding the same strings; we're at peace with the world +now, and a good thing for shipping." + +"Peace!" the elder declared hotly; "you and the Democrats may call it +that, but it's a damned swindle, with the British to windward of you and +hardly a sail now drawing in your ropes. What did Edmund Burke tell +Parliament in 'seventy-five about our whalers, hey! Why, that from Davis +Strait to the Antipodes, from the Falklands to Africa, we outdrove +Holland, France and England. After the laws and bounties Congress passed +in 'eighty-nine what could you see--something like a half million tonnage +gained in three years or so. In the war of 'twelve your land soldiers +were a pretty show, with the Capitol burning; but when it was finished +the privateers had sunk over nine million dollars of British shipping to +their sixty thousand. The Chesapeake luggers have gone out with the tide, +too. And then, by God, by God, what then: the treaty of Ghent, with +England impressing our seamen and tying our ships up in what ports she +chose under a right of search! On top of this your commissioners repeal +the ship laws and the British allow you to carry only native cargoes to +the United Kingdom with a part of the customs and harbor dues off. + +"But in spite of Congress and political sharks we went out to India +and China direct, with _The George_ home from Calcutta in ninety-five +days, and the East Indiamen six or seven months on the shorter run to +England. I can show you what the London _Times_ said about that, it's in +my desk: 'Twelve years of peace, and...the shipping interest...is half +ruined...thousands of our manufactures are seeking redemption in foreign +lands.' It goes on to tell that American seamen already controlled an +important part of the British carrying trade to the East Indies. Yet your +precious lawmakers open our West India trade to Great Britain, but they +wouldn't ask the privilege to carry a cargo from British India to +Liverpool or Canada." + +"Now, father," William put in, "you are getting excited again. It isn't +good for you. We are not all such fools to-day as you make out." + +"Look at the masters themselves," Jeremy continued explosively; +"gentlemen like Gerrit, from Harvard University, and not lime-juicers +beating their way aft with a belaying pin. They could sail a ship with +two-thirds the crew of a Britisher with her clumsy yellow hemp sails and +belly you could lose a dinghy in. Mind, I don't say the English aren't +handy in a ship and that they wouldn't clew up a topsail clean at the +edge of hell. What we are on the seas came over from them. But we +bettered it, William, and they knew it; and, naturally enough, laid out +to sail around us. I don't blame England, but I do our God damn--" + +"Father," the other firmly interrupted, "you are shouting as if you were +on the quarter-deck in a gale. I must insist on your quieting down; +you'll burst a blood vessel." + +"Maybe I am," Jeremy muttered; "and it wouldn't matter much if I did. +When I see a nation with shipmasters who would set their royals when +others hove too, and get there, all snarled up with shore lines and +political duffel, I'm nigh ready to burst something." + +"Rhoda said that you were at the Dunsacks' this afternoon; I saw Edward +in Boston yesterday." + +"I don't care if you saw the Flying Dutchman," the other asserted, +breathing stormily. + +"It's curious about the China service," William went on; "anyone out +there for a number of years gets to look Chinese. Edward is as yellow as +a lemon, but nothing like as pleasant a color. Thin, too, and nervous; +hands crawling all over themselves, never still for a moment. He didn't +say why he had left Heard and Company, and I didn't quite like to ask. +Edward came on from England in the _Queen of the West,_ the Swallow Tail +Line. I did ask him if he were going to settle in Salem, but he couldn't +say; there was something about a Boston house. It seems that Gerrit +carried his chest and things from Canton in the _Nautilus_ as an +accommodation." + +Suddenly Jeremy felt very insecure, his body heavy and knees weak, +failing. He stumbled back into the chair by the fireplace, William at his +side. "You must pay some attention to what you're told, father," the +latter said anxiously. "How are you now?" + +"I'm all right," he declared testily, trying to brush away the dimness +floating before his eyes. + +"Shall I help you up to bed?" + +"I'll go to bed when I've a mind to," Jeremy retorted. "I am not under +cover yet by a long reach." To establish his well-being he rose and moved +to the secretary, where he got a fresh cheroot, and lighted it with +slightly trembling fingers. He grumbled inarticulately, remembering his +own exploits in the carrying of sail and record runs under the bluff bows +of the Honorable John Company itself. The ebb tide, he thought, returning +to William's figure and its amplification by himself. So much that had +been good sweeping out to sea never to return....Gerrit long overdue. + +Once more he shook himself free of numbing dread; automatically he had +fallen back into the passage from the secretary to the hall door. He saw +that he had worn threadbare a narrow strip where his feet had so often +pressed. It would be necessary for him to see about a fresh case of +cheroots soon, primes, too; they needn't try to put him off with the +second quality. He was put off a great deal lately; people pretended to +be listening to him, and all the time their thoughts were somewhere else, +either that or they were merely politely concealing the opinion that he +was out of date, of no importance. + +His family were always providing against his fatigue or excitement; at +the countinghouse the gravest problems, he was certain, were withheld +from him. At the occurrence of this possibility a fresh indignation +poured through his brain. Fuming and tramping up and down he determined +that to-morrow he would show any of the clerks who didn't attend to his +wishes or counsel that he was still senior partner of Ammidon, Ammidon +and Saltonstone. + + + + +III + +The evening was surprisingly warm and still, with an intermittent +falling of rain, and the windows were open in the room where Rhoda +Ammidon sat regarding half dismayed her reflection in the mirror of a +dressing table. A few minutes before she had discovered her first gray +hair. It was not only the mere assault upon her vanity, but, too, a +realization far deeper--here was the stamp of time, the mark of a +considerable progress toward the end itself. Her emotions were +various; but, curiously enough, almost the first had been a wave of +passionate tenderness for William and her little girls. The shock of +finding that arresting sign was now giving place to a purely feminine +reaction. She considered for a moment the purchase of a bottle of hair +coloring, then with a disdainful gesture dismissed such a temporary +and troublesome measure. + +She kept an undiminishing pride in her appearance and a relentless care +and choice in the details of her dress, pleased by the knowledge that +the attention men paid her showed no indication yet of growing +perfunctory. She had been much admired both in Boston and London +through her youth, and she recalled her early doubts at the prospect of +life in Salem; but she realized now that, as her years and children +multiplied, she was by imperceptible degrees returning to a traditional +New England heritage. + +She was glad, however, that William's wide connections lifted him above a +purely local view; William was really a splendid husband. Rhoda was +conscious of this together with a clear recognition of his faults, and +quite aside from both existed her unreasoning affection. The latter +vividly dominated her, shut out, on any occasion of stress, all else; but +for the most part she held him in an attitude of mildly amused +comprehension. + +Gerrit Ammidon she hadn't seen until after her engagement to William, and +she sometimes thought of the former in connection with marriage. Gerrit, +she admitted to herself, was a far more romantic figure than William; not +handsomer--William Ammidon was very good looking--but more arresting, +with his hair swinging about his ears and intense blue gaze. An exciting +man, she decided again, for whom one would eternally put on the loveliest +clothes possible; a man to make you almost as ravishingly happy as +miserable, and, therefore, disturbing as a husband. + +At this her mind returned to her gray hair and the fact that the metal +backlog of the kitchen fire, which supplied the house with hot water, had +been leaking over the hearth. A feeling of melancholy possessed her at +the turning of younger visions into commonplace necessities, but she +dismissed it with the shadow of a smile--it was absurd for a woman of her +age to dwell on such frivolous things. Yet she still lingered to wonder +if men too kept intact among their memories the radiant image of their +youth, if they ever thought of it with tenderness and extenuation. She +decided in the negative, convinced that men, even at the end of many +years, never definitely lost connection with their early selves, there +was always a trace of hopefulness, of jaunty vanity--sometimes winning +and sometimes merely ridiculous--attached to their decline. + +Rhoda stirred and moved to a window, gazing vaguely out into the moist +blue obscurity. Sidsall, she realized, was maturing with a disconcerting +rapidity. Depths were opening in the girl's being at which she, her +mother, could only guess. It was exactly as if a crystal through and +through which she had gazed had suddenly been veiled by rosy clouds. +Sidsall had a charming nature, direct and unsuspicious and generously +courageous. + +There was a sound at the door, and William entered, patently ruffled. It +was clear that he had had another disagreement with his father. "It's +shameful how you disturb him," she declared. + +"Look here, Rhoda," he replied vigorously. "I won't continually be put in +the wrong. It seems as if I had no affection for the old gentleman. I +always have the difficult thing to do, and he has been slightly +contemptuous ever since I was a boy because I didn't go to sea. The truth +is--while I wouldn't think of letting him know--he's a tremendous +nuisance pottering about the countingrooms with his stories of +antediluvian trading voyages. And worse is to come--these new clipper +ships and passages have knocked the wind out of the old slow +full-bottomed vessels. We have about determined to reorganize our fleet +entirely, and are in treaty with Donald McKay for an extreme clipper type +of twelve hundred tons. + +"Of course, he's my parent; but I wonder at Saltonstone's patience. +Father won't hear of the opium trade and it's turning over thousand per +cent profits. We are privately operating two fast topsail schooners in +India now, but it's both inconvenient and a risk. They ought to be put +right under our house flag for credit alone. It is all bound to come up, +and then he'll go off like a cannon." + +"Couldn't you wait till he's dead, William?" she asked. "It won't be a +great while now. I can see that he has failed dreadfully from this worry +about Gerrit." + +"Five years will make all the difference. We are losing tea cargoes every +month to these ships making sensational runs. I don't talk much, Rhoda, +about, well--my family; but I am as upset over Gerrit as anyone else. +Except for a tendency to carry too much sail there's not a better +shipmaster out of New England. Not only that ... he's my brother. It's +easy to like Gerrit; his opinions are a little wild, and an exaggerated +sense of justice gets him into absurd situations; yet his motives are the +purest possible. Perhaps that word pure describes him better than any +other, however people who didn't know might smile. As a man, Rhoda, I can +assert that he is surprisingly clean-hearted." + +"That's a wonderful quality," she agreed; "why anyone should smile is +beyond me. William, would you know that my hair is turning gray, do I +look a lot older than I did five years ago?" + +He studied her complacently. "You've hardly changed since I married you," +he asserted; "a great deal prettier than these young cramped figgers I +see about. The girls, too, are just like you--good armfuls all of them." + +The next day was flawlessly sunny, the slightly stirring air reminiscent +of the sea, and the lilacs everywhere were masses of purple and white +bloom. Stepping down from her carriage on the morning round of shopping +Rhoda encountered Nettie Vollar leaving one of the stores of Cheapside. + +"Why, Nettie," she exclaimed kindly, "it's been the longest time since +I've seen you. It is just no use asking you to the house, and it seems, +with nothing to do, I never have a minute for the visits I'd like to +make." Nettie, she thought, was a striking girl, no--woman, with her +stack of black hair, dark sparkling eyes and red spot on either cheek. +More fetching in profile than full face, her nose had a pert angle and +her cleft chin was enticingly rounded. Later she would be too fat but now +her body was ripely perfect. + +"I don't go anywhere much," she responded, in a voice faintly and +instinctively antagonistic. "I don't like kindness in people; but I +suppose I ought to be contented--that's all I'll probably ever get from +anybody who is a thing in the world. Mrs. Ammidon," she hesitated, then +continued more rapidly, her gaze lowered, "have you had any word about +Captain Ammidon yet? Have they given up hope of the _Nautilus_?" + +"We've had no news," Rhoda told her, and then she added her conviction +that Gerrit would return safely. + +"He was better than kind," Nettie Vollar said. "I'm sure he liked me, +Mrs. Ammidon, or he would have if everything hadn't been spoiled by +grandfather. He thinks I'm a dreadful sin, you know, a punishment on +mother. But inside of me I don't feel different from others. Sometimes +I--I wonder that I don't actually go sinful, I've had opportunities, and +being good hasn't offered me much, has it?" + +"You are naturally a good girl, Nettie," Rhoda answered simply; "but you +must be braver than ordinary. If we think differently from Salem still it +is in Salem we must live; I keep many of my beliefs secret just as you +must control most of your feelings." + +The other responded with a hard little laugh. "Thank you, though. You are +more like Gerrit, Captain Ammidon, than Mrs. Saltonstone, his own sister. +I hate her," she declared. "I hate all the Salem women, so superior and +condescending and Christian. They always have a silly look of wonder at +their charity in speaking to me... when they do. They act as if it's just +a privilege for me to be in their church. I'd rather go to a cotillion at +Hamilton Hall any day." + +"Of course you would," Rhoda agreed. There seemed to be so little for her +to offer or say that she was relieved when they parted. The afternoon +grew really sultry, but, when the shadows had lengthened, she encountered +Jeremy Ammidon wandering aimlessly about the hall and, his fine palmetto +hat and wanghee in her hand, urged him out to the East India Marine +Society. "It's much too beautiful a day for the house," she insisted. + +"There's nothing remarkable about it," he returned; "wind's too light and +variable, hardly enough to hold way on a ship." There were the stirring +strains of a quickstep without; at the door they saw the Salem Cadets, +preceded by Flag's Band, marching in columns of fours into Washington +Square. The white breeches with scarlet coats and brass buttons made a +gay showing on the green Common, the sunlight glittered on silver braid +and tassels, gilt and pompons, scaled chin straps and varnished leather. + +The old man's face grew dark at the brilliant line drawn up for +inspection, and he muttered a period about cursed young Whigs. "Wouldn't +have one of the scoundrels in my house if I could help it. Don't +understand William; he's too damned mild for my idea of a good citizen. + +"Why, it's only reasonable that a country's got to be run like a ship, +from the quarter-deck. How far do you suppose a vessel would get if the +crew hung about aft and chose representatives from the port and starboard +watches and galley for a body to lay the course and make sail?" + +"Please, father," she protested, laughing. "Do go along into the sun." +She gently pushed him toward the door. Rhoda realized the fact that +William was more than half Whig already. That threatened still another +point of difference, of departure, from all that his father held to be +sacred necessities. Jeremy, like most of the older shipmasters, was a +bitter Federalist, an upholder of a strongly centralized autocratic +government. He left, grumbling, and the staccato commands of the military +evolutions on the Common rang through the slumberous afternoon. + +She lingered in the doorway and Laurel appeared, jigging with excitement. + +"Can't I get nearer," she begged; "there's nothing to see from here." Her +mother replied, "Ask Camilla to take you over to the Square." Camilla +appeared indifferently. "I don't know why anyone should be flustered," +she observed; "it isn't like the Fourth of July with a concert and +fireworks." + +As they were going, Sidsall came out in a white tarlatan dress worked +with sprays of yellow barley, her face glowing with color, and sat on +the steps. "Positively," her mother said, looking down on the mass of +bright chestnut hair in a chenille net, "we'll soon have to have you up +in braids." + +"I wish I might," she responded. "And Hodie is too silly--I can't +get her to lace me tightly enough. She says such things are engines +of the devil." + +"It's still a little soon for that--" Rhoda broke off as a slight erect +man at the verge of middle age turned in from Pleasant Street upon them. +"Roger," she said cordially as he came quickly up the steps. He greeted +her lightly and bent over Sidsall with an extended hand: + +"The apple blossoms, I see, are here." + +Rhoda wondered what nonsense Roger Brevard was repeating; Sidsall's face +was hidden from view. But then Roger was always like that, his manner was +never at a loss for the appropriate gesture. He had a great many points +in common with her, she thought; neither had been born in Salem, and his +rightful setting was in the best metropolitan drawing-rooms. He had been +here for a dozen years, now, in charge of the local affairs of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company; and she often wondered why, a member +of a family socially notable in New York, he continued in a city, a +position, of comparative unimportance. + +She was, she said, going back to the lawn, the glare of Pleasant Street +was fatiguing; and she proceeded through the house with the surety of his +following. But on the close-cut emerald sod there was no sign of him, and +she found a seat in a basket chair by the willow tree beyond. She waited +for Roger with a small but growing impatience; he must be done +immediately with whatever he might say to Sidsall, and she wished to +discuss the possibilities of a rumor that President Polk intended to +visit Salem. There would be a collation, perhaps a military ball, to +arrange; Franklin Hall would be the better place for the latter. She +heard a faint silvery echo of laughter--Sidsall. It was extremely nice, +of course, in Roger Brevard to entertain her daughter, though she didn't +care to have the child give the effect of receiving men yet. + +It was, finally, Sidsall who appeared, unaccompanied, in the drawing-room +window. She came forward to where Rhoda sat, her face still stirred with +amusement. "Mr. Brevard went on," she said in response to her mother's +look of inquiry. "That's rather odd," the latter commented almost +sharply. "He had only a few minutes," the girl explained. She sank into a +seat and mood of abstraction. Rhoda studied her with a veiled glance. +Hers were exceptional children, they had given her scarcely an hour's +concern; and she must see that in the unsettling period which Sidsall was +now entering she was not spoiled. + +Perhaps Laurel entertained her more than the others. She was a very +normal little girl, not thoughtful like Janet, and without Camilla's +exaggerated poise; but she had a picturesque imagination; and her +companionship with her grandfather was delightful. The latter addressed +her quite as if she were a fellow shipmaster; and she had acquired some +remarkable sea expressions, some deplorable and others enigmatic: only +to-day, questioned about the order of her room, she had said that it was +"all square by the lifts and braces." For this her grandfather had given +her a gold piece. + +There was, she knew, an excellent school for older girls at Lausanne; +and, revolving the possibility of obtaining for Sidsall some of the +European advantages she, Rhoda, had enjoyed, the following afternoon she +drove to the Cliffords' on Marlboro Street for a consultation with Madra, +who had spent a number of seasons on Lake Leman. In a cool parlor with +yellow Tibet rugs and maroon hangings she had tea while Madra Clifford, +thin and imperious, with a settled ill health like white powder and a +priceless Risajii shawl, conversed in a shrill key. + +"Caroline has been in bed for a week. That vulgar Dr. Fisk, with his +elbow in her bosom, tried five times to extract her tooth, and then broke +it to the roots. I hear there is a galvanic ring for rheumatism. The pain +in my joints is excruciating; I have an idea my bones are changing into +chalk; the right knee will hardly bend." The darkly colored shawl with +its border of cypress intensified her sunken blue-traced temples and the +pallid lips. She developed the subject of her indisposition, sparing no +detail; while Rhoda Ammidon, from her superabundance of well-being, half +pitied the other and was half revolted at the mind touched, too, by +bodily ill. The fortune accumulated by the hardy Clifford men, flogged +out of crews and stained by the blood of primitive and dull savages--the +Cliffords were notorious for their brutal driving--now served only to +support Madra's debility and a horde of unscrupulous panderers to her +obsession. + +"Edward Dunsack is in Salem," she continued; "and I've heard he has the +most peculiar appearance. Very probably the result of the unmentionable +practices of the Orient. Father liked the Chinese though; so many of our +shipmasters have, and not always the merchants.... What was I saying? Oh, +yes, Edward Dunsack. I understand you had a distinct alarm in that +quarter, about the girl and Gerrit Ammidon. But I forgot to say how glad +I am about Gerrit. You must have been horribly worried--" + +"What do you mean?" Rhoda demanded. + +"Why, haven't you heard! The Nautilus was sighted. News came from Boston. +She ought to be into-day, I believe. I suppose William has been too +concerned to get you word at home." + +Rhoda Ammidon rose immediately, surprised at the force of the emotion +that blurred her eyes with tears. Gerrit was safe! Possibly they had +been told at Java Head now, but she must be there with Jeremy Ammidon; +surprises, even as joyful as this, were a great strain on him. +Neglecting the object of her visit she returned at once to Pleasant +Street, urging the coachman to an undignified haste, and keeping the +carriage at the door. + +Her father-in-law was at his secretary in the library, and it was evident +that he had heard nothing of his son's return. "Well, Rhoda," he said, +swinging about; "what a bright cheek you have--like Laurel's." + +"I feel bright, father," she replied with a nod and smile. "After this +none of you will be able to laugh at my predictions. You see, a woman's +feeling is often more correct than masculine judgment." His momentary +bewilderment gave place to a painfully strained interrogation. "Yes," she +told him, "but we are none of us surprised--Gerrit is almost in Salem +harbor." She moved near him and, with a veiled anxiety, laid her hand +upon his shoulder. + +"A splendid sailor," he muttered. It seemed as if Rhoda could really hear +the dull rising pounding of his shaken heart. But his excitement +subsided, gave way to a normal concern, a flood of vain questions and +preparation to go down to the wharf. In the midst of this a message came +from the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone that the +_Nautilus_ would dock within an hour. + +A small crowd had already gathered on Derby Wharf when Rhoda and her +companion made their way past the warehouses built at intervals along the +wharf to the place where the _Nautilus_ would be warped in. The +wharfinger saluted them, William Ammidon joined his wife, and beyond she +could see James Saltonstone conversing with the Surveyor of the Port. + +The afternoon was serene, a faint air drew in from the sea; and with it, +sweeping slowly inside Peach's Point, was the tall ship with her canvas +towering gold in the western sun against the distance of sea and sky. As +Rhoda watched she saw their house flag--a white field checkered in +blue--fluttering from the main royal truck. + +"The royals are coming in!" Jeremy Ammidon exclaimed, gripping Rhoda's +arm. "He is lowering his top-gallant yards and hauling up the courses! My +dear, there's nothing on God's earth finer than a ship." + +The _Nautilus_ slipped along surprisingly fast. Rhoda could now see the +crew moving about and coiling the gear. + +"Look, father, there's Gerrit on the quarter-deck." + +The shipmaster, shorter than common, with broad assertive shoulders in +formal black, was easily recognizable. A woman with a worn flushed face +pressed by Jeremy. "Andrew's there, too," she told them, "Mr. Broadrick, +the mate." + +The ship moved more slowly, under her topsails and jibs, in a soundless +progress with the ripples falling away in water like dark green glass, +liquid and still. She was now but a short distance from the end of the +wharf. Mr. Broadrick was forward between the knightheads with the crew +ranged to the starboard and at the braces, while Gerrit Ammidon stood +with one hand on the quarter-deck railing and the other holding a brass +speaking trumpet to his lips: + +"Let go your port fore and after braces, Mr. Broadrick; brace the fore +and mizzen yards sharp up, leave the main braces fast, and lay the main +topsail to the mast. As she comes to the wind let the jibs run down." He +turned to the man at the wheel, "Helm hard a starboard." + +"Hard a starboard, sir." + +The ship answered quickly and rounded to while her weather fore and +mizzen yards flew forward until they touched the starboard backstays +and the men hauled in the slack of the braces. With the main yard +square to check her way the jibs drooped down along the stays. "Mr. +Broadrick, you may let go the starboard anchor and furl sails." The +mate grasped a top maul and struck the trigger of the ring stopper a +clean blow, the anchor splashed into the water with a rumbling cable, +and the _Nautilus_ was home. + +Gerrit Ammidon walked hurriedly to the companionway and went below, while +the mate continued, "Stand by to let go your topsail halliards and man +the gear. Sharper with the mizzen sheets and unbend those clew lines and +garnets... stow the clews in a harbor furl." At a rhythmic shout the +bunts of the three topsails came up together. + +The wind had died away and the flags hung listlessly from the main truck +and spanker gaff. The water of the harbor was unstirred except for the +swirls at the oar blades of an incoming quarter boat and the warp paying +out at her stern. The voice of the mate, the chantey of the crew heaving +at the capstan bars, came to Rhoda subdued: + +_"The times are hard and wages low, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I guess it's time for us to go, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I thought I heard the old man say, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +To-morrow we will get our pay + .......leave her"_ + +Rhoda Ammidon discovered herself leaning forward tensely, her hands shut +in excitement and emotion; and she relaxed with a happy laugh as the +_Nautilus_, with her yards exactly square and rigging taut, her sides and +figurehead and ports bright with newly laid on paint, moved to the wharf. + +It seemed to her that Gerrit, descending a short stage from the deck, +looked markedly older than when he had last sailed. Yet he had a +surprisingly youthful air still; partly, she thought, from the manner in +which he wore his hair, falling in a waving thick line about his cheeks. +His mouth was at once fresh and severe, his face clean shaven, and his +eyes--if possible--more directly blue than ever. + +"I'll take the ship's manifest to the Collector," he said, greeting them +and impatiently waving aside the vendors after the cook's slush, the +excited women and runners and human miscellany crowding forward. "Then +Java Head." He paused, speaking over his shoulder: "I'd be thankful if +you would send the barouche down in an hour or so." + +Driving back, her hand on Jeremy Ammidon's knee, Rhoda wondered at +Gerrit's request. It was entirely unlike him to ride in the barouche; +rather he had always derided it in the terms of his calling. However, +unable to find a solution for her surprise, she listened to the other's +comments and speculations: + +"I suppose William's first question will be about the cargo, and, of +course, I hope the ship has done well. But I'm just glad to have Gerrit +back; I am for a fact, Rhoda." + +"We all are," she assured him, "and William as happy as any. You mustn't +be misled by his manner, father. I hope the supper will be good and +please you." + +"Gerrit will be satisfied with anything," he chuckled. "Probably he's +been out of beans even for a month. Did you notice that fore-royal mast +and yard? They were rigged at sea: Gerrit carried them away. It hurts him +to take in a sail. Some day I tell him he'll drag the spars out of his +ship. His confounded pride will founder him." He made these charges +lightly, with a palpable underlying pride; and, Rhoda knew, would permit +no one else to criticize his son. + +She found her daughters in a state of gala excitement on the front steps. +"Uncle Gerrit in the _Nautilus,_" Laurel chanted; and it was evident that +Camilla herself was thrilled. They all went up to put on holiday dress. +Rhoda turned to the coachman, "Have the barouche at the head of Derby +Wharf in an hour." + +Gerrit's unusual demand again puzzled her. A fantastic possibility lodged +in her brain--perhaps he was not alone. She pulled the bell rope for her +maid, changed into black moiré with cut steel bretelles, and selected +the peacock coloring of a Peri-taus shawl. She found her husband with his +father in the library. "I understand it's a splendid cargo," William +remarked. Jeremy nodded triumphantly at her, and she expressed a half +humorous resentment at this mercenary display. "He ought to be here," the +younger man declared, consulting his watch. As he spoke Rhoda saw the +barouche draw up before the house. She had a glimpse of a figure at +Gerrit Ammidon's side in extravagantly brilliant satins; there was a +sibilant whisper of rich materials in the hall, and the master entered +the library with a pale set face. + +"Father," he said, "Rhoda and William, allow me--my wife, Taou Yuen." + +Rhoda Ammidon gave an uncontrollable gasp as the Chinese woman sank in a +fluttering prostration of color at Jeremy's feet. He ejaculated, "God +bless me," and started back. William's face was inscrutable, unguessed +lines appeared about his severe mouth. Her own sensation was one of +incredulity touched with mounting anger and feeling of outrage. The woman +rose, but only to sink again before William: she was on her knees and, +supported by her hands, bent forward and touched her forehead to the +floor three times. Gerrit laughed shortly. "She was to shake your hands; +we went over and over it on shipboard. But anything less than the +_Kûl'on_ was too casual for her." + +She was now erect with a freer murmur of greeting to Rhoda. The latter +was instantly aware of one certainty--Chinese she might be, she was, but +no less absolutely aristocratic. Her face, oval and slightly flat, was +plastered with paint on paint, but her gesture, the calm scrutiny of +enigmatic black eyes under delicately arched brows, exquisite quiet +hands, were all under the most admirable instinctive command. Rhoda said: + +"I see that I am to welcome you for Gerrit's family." The other, in slow +lisping English replied: + +"Thank you greatly. I am humbled to the earth before your goodness." + +"You will want to go to your room," Rhoda continued mechanically. "It was +only prepared for one, but I'll send a servant up at once." She was +enraged at the silent stupidity of the three men and flashed a silent +command at her husband. + +"This is a decided surprise," the latter at last addressed his brother; +"nor can I pretend that it is pleasant." Jeremy Ammidon's gaze wandered +blankly from Gerrit to the woman, then back to his son. + +Never before had Rhoda seen such lovely clothes: A long gown with wide +sleeves of blue-black satin, embroidered in peach-colored flower petals +and innumerable minute sapphire and orange butterflies, a short +sleeveless jacket of sage green caught with looped red jade buttons and +threaded with silver and indigo high-soled slippers crusted and tasseled +with pearls. Her hair rose from the back in a smooth burnished loop. +There were long pins of pink jade carved into blossoms, a quivering +decoration of paper-thin gold leaves with moonstones in glistening +drops, and a band of coral lotus buds. Pierced stone bracelets hung +about her delicate wrists, fretted crystal balls swung from the lobes of +her ears; and clasped on the ends of several fingers were long pointed +filagrees of ivory. + +"Taou Yuen," Gerrit repeated shortly, with his challenging bright gaze. +"That means Peach Garden. My wife is a Manchu," he asserted in a more +biting tone; "a Manchu and the daughter of a noble. Thank you, Rhoda, +particularly. But I have always counted on you. Will you go up with her? +That is if--if my father has a room, a place, for us." + +"This will always be your home, Gerrit," Jeremy said slowly, with the +long breath of a diver in deep waters. + + + + +IV + +In the room that had been his since early maturity Gerrit Ammidon gave +an involuntary sigh of relief. Taou Yuen, his wife, was standing in the +middle of the floor, gazing about with a faint and polite smile. Her eyes +rested on a yellow camphor chest--one of the set brought home by his +father--on a severe high range of drawers made of sycamore with six legs, +on her brilliant reflection in the eagle-crowned mirror above the mantel, +and the sleigh bed with low heavily curved ends. + +The situation below, however brief and, on the whole, reasonably +conducted, had been surprisingly difficult. At the same time that he had +felt no necessity to apologize for his marriage he had known that Taou +Yuen must surprise, yes--shock, his family. She was Chinese, to them a +heathen: they would be unable to comprehend any mitigating dignity of +rank. Where they'd actually suffer, he realized, would be in the +attitude of Salem, the stupid gabble, the censure and cold pity caused +by his wife. + +Personally he regarded these with the contempt he felt for so many of the +qualities that on shore bound the interests of everyone into a single +common concern. It gave him pleasure to assault the authority and +importance of such public prejudice and self-opinion; but, unavoidably +implicating his family, at once a part of himself and Salem, he was +conscious of the fact that he had laid them all open to disagreeable +moments. He was sorry for this, and his regret, principally materialized +by his father's hurt confusion, had unexpectedly cast a shadow on a scene +to which he had looked forward with a distinct sense of comedy. Where the +realities were concerned he had no fear of Taou Yuen's ability to justify +herself completely. He possessed a stupendous admiration for her. + +He watched her now with the mingled understanding and mystification that +gave his life with her such a decided charm. Her gaze had fastened on the +mirror-stand above the drawers: she must be wondering if she would have +to paint and prepare herself for him here, openly. He knew that she +considered it a great impropriety for her face to be seen bare; all the +elaborate processes of her morning toilet must be privately conducted. He +recognized this, but had no idea what she actually thought of the room, +of his family, of the astonishing situation into which her heart had +betrayed her. + +One and then another early hope he saw at once were vain. It had seemed +to him that in America, in Salem, she might become less evidently +Chinese; not in the incongruous horror of Western clothes, but in her +attitude, in a surrender to superficial customs; he had pictured her as +merging distinctively into the local scene. In China he had hoped that in +the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street she would appear +less Eastern; but, beyond all doubt, here she was enormously more so. The +strange repressed surrounding accentuated every detail of her Manchu pomp +and color. The frank splendor of her satins and carved jades and +embroidery, her immobile striking face loaded with carmine and glinting +headdress, the flawless loveliness of hands with the pointed nail +protectors, were, in his room, infinitely dramatized. + +The other, less secure possibility that she might essentially change +perished silently. In a way his wish had been a presumption--that a +member of the oldest and most subtle civilization existing would, if she +were able, adopt such comparatively crude habits of life and thought. + +She moved slowly up to the bed, examining it curiously; and again he +understood her look of doubt--in China beds were called _kang_, or +stoves, from the fact that they were more often than not a platform of +brick with an opening beneath for hot coals. She fingered the ball fringe +of the coverlet, and then turned with amazement to the soft pillow. A +hand with the stone bracelet falling back from her smooth wrist rose to +the complicated edifice of her headdress. + +"Your pillow is coming along from the ship," he told her; "the women here +do up their hair every morning." + +She considered this with geranium lips slightly parted on flawless teeth, +and nodded slowly. The westering sun striking through the window +overlooking the Common illuminated her with a flat gold unreality. + +"I'll have a day bed brought for you," he continued, realizing that, as +the result of fortunate chance, she understood most of what he said +without an actual command of the individual words. In reply she sank +before him in the deep Manchu gesture with one knee sweeping the floor, +the humility of her posture dignified by grace. He touched the crystal +globe of an earring, pinched her chin, in the half light manner by which +he instinctively expressed his affection for her. She was calm and +pleased. "Taou Yuen," he continued, "you miss Shanghai, with the wall of +ten gates and the river Woosung stuck full of masts. You'll never think +Salem is a paradise like Soochow." + +"This is your city," she replied, slowly choosing the words. "Your +ancestors are here." There was not a shade of regret in her voice or +manner. He tried once more, and as vainly as ever, to penetrate the veil +of her perfect serenity. She never, it became apparent, descended from +the most inflexible self-control; small emotions--surface gayety of +mood, curiosity, the faintest possible indication of contempt, he had +learned to distinguish; the fact that she cared enough for him to desert +every familiar circumstance was evident; but beyond these he was +powerless to reach. + +His own emotions were hardly less obscured: the dominating feeling was +his admiration for her exquisite worldly wisdom, the perfection of her +bodily beauty, and the philosophy which bore her above the countless +trivialities that destroyed the dignity of western minds. He realized +that her paint and embroidery covered a spirit as cold and tempered as +fine metal. She was totally without the social sentiment of his own +world; but she was equally innocent of its nauseous hypocrisy, the +pretensions of a piety covering commercial dishonesty, obscenity of +thought and spreading scandal. The injustice he saw practiced on shore +had always turned him with a sense of relief to the cleansing challenge +of the sea; always, brought in contact with cunning and self-seeking men +and heartless schemes, with women cheapened by a conviction of the +indecency of life, he was in a state of hot indignation. From all this +Taou Yuen offered a complete escape. + +On the purely feminine side she was a constant delight, the last possible +refinement, he told himself, of instinct and effect. She was incapable of +the least vulgarity; never for an instant did she flag from the necessity +of beauty, never had he seen her too weary for an adornment laborious in +a hundred difficult conventions. She was, too, a continuous source of +entertainment, even as his wife she never ceased to be a spectacle; his +consciousness of her as a being outside himself persisted. + +"I must go down and see where our things are," he said, rising. In the +hall he stopped before the tall clock whose striking was a part of his +early memories. Below, the house seemed empty; and, instead of turning to +the front door and his purpose, he went into the drawing-room. + +The long glass doors to the garden were open, and the interior was filled +with the scent of lilacs. The room itself had always reminded him of +them--it was pale in color, cool gilt and lavender brocade and white +panels. Nothing had been moved or changed: the inlaid cylinder fall desk +with its garlands of painted flowers on the light waxed wood stood at the +left, the pole screen with the embroidered bouquet was before the fire +blind, the girandoles, scrolled in ormolu and hung with crystal lusters, +held the shimmer of golden reflections on the walls. + +He had remembered the drawing-room at Java Head as a place of enchanted +perfection; in his childhood its still serenity had seemed a presentment +of what might be hoped for in heaven. The thought of the room as it was +now, open but a little dim to the lilacs and warm afternoon, had haunted +him as the measure of all peace and serenity in moments of extreme +danger, his ship laboring in elemental catastrophes and in remote seas. +Its fragrance had touched him through the miasma of Whampoa Reach, +waiting for the lighters of tea to float down from Canton; standing off +in the thunder squalls of the night for the morning sea breeze to take +him into Rio; over a cognac in the coffee stalls of the French market at +New Orleans, the chanteys ringing from the cotton gangs along the levees: + +_"Were you ever down in Mobile Bay? +Aye, aye, pump away."_ + +As he left the room he saw Laurel, William's youngest child, and he +imprisoned her in an arm. "You haven't asked what I've got for you in my +sea chest," he said. Gerrit was very fond of all four of the rosy-cheeked +vigorous girls, and a sense of injury touched him at Laurel's reserved +manner. She studied him with a wondering uneasy concern. This he realized +was the result of bring home Taou Yuen; and an aggravated impatience, a +growing rebellion, seized him. He wouldn't stay with his wife at Java +Head a day longer than necessary; and if anyone, in his family or +outside, showed the slightest disdain he could retaliate with his +knowledge of local pettiness, the backbiting enmities and secret lapses. + +God knew he didn't want trouble, all he asked was a reasonable liberty, +the semblance, anyhow, of a courtesy toward his wife. Whatever might be +said would be of no moment to her--except in the attitude of his +father--and Taou Yuen's indifference furnished a splendid example for +himself. He wondered why the devil he was continually putting his fingers +in affairs that couldn't concern him. No one thanked him for his trouble, +they considered him something of a fool--a good sailor but peculiar. The +damned unexpected twists of his sense of the absurd, too, got him into +constant difficulty. + +His father was standing outside the principal entrance; and, as he joined +him on the steps, he saw two men from the _Nautilus_ carrying his ship's +desk by the beckets let in the ends. The wind was blowing gently up +Pleasant Street; the men, at his gesture, lifted their burden up the +steps, between the direction of the wind and Jeremy Ammidon. The latter +rose instantly into one of his dark rages: + +"What do you mean, you damned packetrats--coming up a companionway to the +windward of me! I'll have no whalers' habits here." He repeated +discontentedly that everything on sea and land had fallen into a decline. +Others followed with a number of Korean boxes, strapped and locked with +copper, and wicker baskets. A man in charge said to Gerrit Ammidon: + +"The chest was left for Mr. Dunsack at the foot of Hardy Street, sir, as +you ordered. The inspector sent it off complimentary with your personal +things." Gerrit asked, "He didn't stop to get a whiff of it then?" The +other shook his head. "Edward Dunsack asked me to ship it here and +explained that it was only junk he was bringing home, but what it amounts +to is about a case of Patna opium. He's lucky." + +They turned inside, William was in the library, and Gerrit instinctively +followed his father into the room. William surveyed him with a moody +discontent. "What I can't understand," he proceeded; "is why you call it +a marriage, why you brought your woman here to us, to Rhoda and the +children." + +"It's simple enough," Gerrit replied; "Taou Yuen is my wife, we are +married exactly as Rhoda and you are. She is not my woman in the sense +you mean. I won't allow that, William." + +"How can it matter what you will or will not allow when everyone'll think +the other? Shipmasters have had Chinese mistresses before, yes, and +smuggled them into Salem; but this conduct of yours is beyond speech." + +Gerrit Ammidon said: + +"Don't carry this too far." Anger like a hot cloud oppressed him. "I am +married legally and, if anything, by a ceremony less preposterous than +your own. Taou Yuen is not open to any man or woman's suspicions. I am +overwhelmingly indebted to her." + +"But she's not your race," William Ammidon muttered; "she is a Confucian +or Taoist, or some such thing." + +"You're Unitarian one day a week, and father is Congregational, Hodie's +a Methodist, and no one knows what I am," Gerrit cried. "Good God, what +does all that matter! Isn't a religion a religion? Do you suppose a +Lord worth the name would be anything but entertained by such spiteful +little dogmas. A sincere greased nigger with his voodoo must be as good +as any of us." + +"That is too strong, Gerrit," Jeremy objected. "You'll get nowhere crying +down Christianity." + +"If I could find it," the younger declared bitterly, "I'd feel +differently. It's right enough in the Bible. ...Well, we'll go on to +Boston to-morrow." + +"This is your home," his father repeated. "Naturally William, all of us +have been disturbed; but nothing beyond that. I trust we are a loyal +family. What you've done can't be mended with hard words." + +"She may become very fashionable," Gerrit mockingly told his +brother. "It'll be a blow to Camilla," Jeremy chuckled. "Some rice +must be cooked." + +"Manchus don't live on rice," Gerrit replied. "They don't bind the +feet either nor wear the common Chinese clothes. Rhoda will +understand better." + +Again in his room he found his wife bending over a gorgeous heap of +satins, bright mazarines and ornaments. "We'll go down to supper soon," +he told her. Already there were signs of her presence about the room: +the chest of drawers was covered with gold and jade and green amber, +painted paper fans set on ivory and tortoise shell, and lacquer fan +boxes; coral hairpins, sandalwood combs, silver rouge pots and rose +quartz perfume bottles with canary silk cords and tassels. On a familiar +table was her pipe, wound in gilt wire, and the flowered satin tobacco +case. An old coin was hanging at the head of the bed, a charm against +evil spirits; and on a stand was the amethyst image of Kuan-Yin _pu +tze_, the Goddess of Mercy. + +Taou Yuen sank on the floor with a little embarrassed laugh at the +confusion in which he had surprised her. "Let your attitude be grave," he +quoted from the Book of Rites with a pretended severity. Her amusement +rose in a ripple of mirth. He opened his desk, rearranging the disorder +brought about by its transportation; and, when he turned, she was +prostrate in the last rays of the sun. "_O-me-to-Fuh_," she breathed; +"_O-me-to-Fuh_," the invocation to Buddha. This at an end she announced, +"Now I am grave and respectful for your family." + +Supper, Gerrit admitted to himself, promised to be a painful occasion; +conversation rose sporadically and quickly died in glances of +irrepressible curiosity directed at his wife. She, on the contrary, +showed no pointed interest in her surroundings; and, in her hesitating +slurred English, answered Rhoda's few questions without putting any in +return. Camilla preserved a frozen silence; Sidsall was pleasantly +conciliating in her attitude toward the novel situation; Janet, her lips +moving noiselessly, was rapt in amazement; and Laurel smiled, abashed at +meeting Taou Yuen's eyes. + +The recounting of his delayed return offered Gerrit a welcome relief from +the pervading strain: "There's no tea to speak of at Shanghai, and I took +on a mixed cargo--pongees and porcelain and matting. I got camphor and +cassia and seven hundred peculs of ginger; then I decided to lay a course +to Manilla for some of the cheroots father likes. The weather was fine, I +had a good cargo, and, well--we pleasured out to Honolulu. I was riding +the island horses and shipping oil when the schooner _Kahemameha_ arrived +from the coast with the news of the gold discovery in California. Every +boat in the harbor was loaded to the trucks, crowded with passengers at +their weight in ginseng, and laid for San Francisco.... Well, I was +caught with the rest. + +"Five thousand dollars was offered me to carry a gentleman and his +attendant. Two others would pay three for the same purpose. Stowage was +worth what you asked.... The _Nautilus_ made a good run; then, about a +day from land, Mr. Broadrick told me that there wouldn't be a seaman on +the ship an hour after we anchored. They were all crazy with gold fever, +he said. I could see, too, that they were excited; the watch hung under +the weather rail jabbering like parrots; an uglier crew of sea lawyers +never developed. + +"There was one thing to do and I did it--called them aft and gave them +some hot scouse. They'd shipped for Salem and there they must go. I +didn't anchor, but stood off--the harbor was crowded with deserted +vessels like some hell for ships--and sent the jolly boat in with the +passengers and a couple of men. They didn't come back, you may be sure. +The consignment for San Francisco I carried out that evening, for I made +sail at once." + +"You had a pretty time getting a way on her," Jeremy Ammidon remarked. + +"I did," Gerrit acknowledged shortly. "The second mate's ear was taken +loose by a belaying pin that flew out of the dark like a gull. Mr. +Broadrick had a bad minute in the port forecastle after he had ordered +all hands on deck a third time. The fine weather left us, though, and +that kept the crew busy; we carried away the fore-royal mast and yard +before we were within a thousand miles of the latitude of the Horn. That +hit us like a cannon ball of ice. You know what it is at its worst," he +told his father; "weeks of snow and hail and fog and gales; and not for +anything can you keep an easting. God knows how a ship lives through the +seas; but she does, she does, and you lose the Magellan clouds astern." + +The old man nodded. + +Gerrit was relieved, however, when supper ended and his wife formally +departed for her room. Immediately slipping a hand inside Rhoda's arm he +conducted her to the drawing-room. "I'd like you to know more about it," +he said directly. + +"It was very extraordinary. A Lú Kikwáng was a high official of the +Canton Customs, and when Shanghai was declared an open port in forty-two +they made him hoppo there. I remembered him at Canton, a dignified old +duck with eighty or a hundred servants to keep anyone from possibly +speaking to him of business, but there had been some trouble about +foreign vessels selling saltpeter illegally and--he knew some English--we +had quite a friendly little consultation. Yet it hadn't prepared me for +his coming off to the _Nautilus_ at Shanghai with a linguist and an air +of the greatest mystery. His manner was beautiful, of course, absolutely +tranquil and that made what they said, what he hoped, seem even wilder +than it was. + +"His son, it appeared, had married and was accidentally drowned in the +Great Canal hardly a month after the ceremony. His widow belonged, then, +to the husband's family, and from that moment her father-in-law had had +nothing but bad luck. He had been robbed, his best stallion died, there +had been a flood in his tea which not only spoiled the crop but filled +the ground with silt--it was impossible to relate his calamities. He +consulted a necromancer at last and learned that it was all caused by the +presence of Taou Yuen. + +"This, you see, made the difficulty, as it's a frightful disgrace to +return a married daughter to her own father's home, and Lú had grown very +fond of her. She was extremely clever and virtuous, he said. The other +thing was to kill her or force her to commit suicide. He told me very +calmly that he would like to avoid this. + +"Then, in the linguist's most flowery manner, they went on with what Lú +Kikwáng proposed. He had recognized that I was a man of 'superior +propriety' and he wondered if I would take Taou Yuen away to America with +me. Very secretly though--there would be an uproar if it were known that +a Manchu woman had been married to a foreigner. I could see her first in +his garden without her knowing anything about it. + +"It's needless to tell you that I went with them that afternoon. A +meeting was arranged for the next day--" he broke off, sitting forward +with elbows on knees, gazing fixedly at his clasped hands. + +"You make that very clear, Gerrit," his sister-in-law replied; "I now +understand the past almost as well as yourself; but it's the future I'm +in doubt about. I saw immediately that your wife was not an ordinary +woman; it would be much easier if she were. Certainly you don't intend to +stay here, at Java Head; but that is immaterial. Wherever you go in +America it will not be suitable for her. She'll be no more at home with +your friends than you with hers. I feel terribly sad about it, Gerrit; +you were as selfish as only a man can be." + +"You are unjust, Rhoda," he protested. "Taou Yuen was willing to come. +She had read about other countries and saw a great deal of the English +wife of a rich Dutch factor at Shanghai; as Lú Kikwáng said, she's +wonderfully intelligent. I think she is happy, too." + +"Rubbish! Of course she loves you; I am not talking about that. How will +she get along while you are away on your long voyages? She couldn't +possibly live in the cabin of a ship, and do you suppose she'd be +contented in Salem with you absent for a year!" + +"We have as many chances of success as any other marriage," he asserted. +"The whole business is foolish enough." + +"That opinion might do for a single shipmaster, with only a month or two +out of the year on land. When you were free, Gerrit, your impatience with +convention was refreshing and possible. But can't you see that you have +given up your liberty! You have tied your hands. However loudly you may +cry out against society now you are a part of us, foolish or not. You'll +find that your wife has anchored you in Salem, Boston or Singapore, no +matter where you go: people will reach and hurt you through her. + +"She is very gorgeous and placid, superior on the surface; but the heart, +Gerrit--that isn't made of jade and ivory and silk." + +"I'll bring down your presents to-morrow," he told her, avoiding any +further present discussion of his marriage. "Has father failed, do you +think? His tempers are vigorous as ever." + +"He seems baggier about the eyes and throat. He is just as quick, but it +exhausts him more. Things would be much better if he were only content to +let William manage at the countinghouse. Times are shifting so quickly +with these new clipper ships and direct passages and political changes." + +"There's no longer any doubt about the clippers," Gerrit declared; "the +California gold rush will attend to that." + +In his room he found Taou Yuen, in soft white silk worked with bamboo +leaves, on the day bed, smoking. She rose immediately as he entered; and, +coming close to him, ran her cool fingers through his hair. He stood +gazing out at the dim oil flares that marked the confines of Washington +Square, considering all that Rhoda had said. Strangely enough it led his +thoughts away from his wife; they reverted to Nettie Vollar. + +He had been, he realized, very nearly in love with her: what he meant by +that inaccurate term was that if the affair had continued a little longer +he would have insisted on marrying her. Nettie was not indifferent to +him. An impersonal feeling had attracted him to her--a resentment of her +treatment by the larger part of Salem, particularly the oblique +admiration of the men. His supersensitiveness to any form of injustice +had driven him into the protest of calling and accompanying her, with an +exaggerated politeness, about the streets. It had not been difficult; she +was warm-blooded, luxurious, a very vivid woman. Gerrit, however, had +made a point of repressing any response to that aspect of their +intercourse--the sheerest necessity for the preservation of his disdain. + +She had cried on his shoulder, in his arms, practically; he had acted in +the purely fraternal manner. But the thing was reaching a natural +conclusion when her grandfather, Barzil Dunsack, had interfered with his +unsupportably frank accusations and command. The _Nautilus_ had been +ready for sea, and his, Gerrit's, imperious resentment had carried him +out of the Dunsacks' house--to Shanghai and Taou Yuen--without another +word to Nettie. + +How strangely life progressed, without chart or intelligent observations +or papers! He heard the tap of his wife's pipe; there was a faint +sweetish odor of drugged tobacco and the scent of cloves in which she +saturated herself. Outside was Salem, dim and without perceptible +movement; the clock in the hall struck ten. Taou Yuen didn't approach him +again nor speak; her perceptions were wonderfully acute. + +The sense of loneliness that sometimes overtook him on shore deepened, a +feeling of impotence, as if he had suddenly waked, lost and helpless, in +an unfamiliar planet. There was the soft whisper of his wife's passage +across the room. In the lamplight the paint on her cheeks made startling +unnatural patches of--paint. The reflections slid over the liquid black +mass of her hair, died in the lustrous creamy folds of her garment. She +was at once grotesque and impressive, like a figure in a Chinese +pantomime watched from the western auditorium of his inheritance. His +fondness for her, his admiration, had not lessened. He surveyed his +position, the presence here, in his room at Java Head, of Taou Yuen, with +amazement; all the small culminating episodes lost, the result was beyond +credence. His thoughts returned to Rhoda's accusation of selfishness, the +disaster implied in her pity for his wife. He tried again to analyze his +marriage, discover whatever justification, security, it possessed. Was +his admiration for Taou Yuen sufficient provision for his part of their +future together? It was founded largely on her superiority to the world +he had known; and here it was necessary for him to convince himself that +his wedding had not been merely the result of romantic accident. He knew +that the sensual had had almost no part in it, it had been mental; an act +of pity crystallizing his revolt against what he felt to be the impotence +of "Christian" ethics. Yet this was not sufficient; for he, like Rhoda, +had found under his wife's immobility the flux of immemorial woman. + +No, it wasn't enough; but more existed, he was certain of that. No one +could expect him, now, to experience the thrill of idealized passion that +was the sole property of youth. What feeling he had had for Nettie--he +was obliged to return to her from the fact that it was the only possible +comparison--had come from very much the same source as the other. The +old impersonal motives! + +The danger, Rhoda pointed out, had been admitted when his marriage made +impossible the continuation of that aloof position. He doubted that it +could change him so utterly. The thought of the entertainment his wife +would afford him in Salem expanded. He regretted that the best, the +calling and comments of the women, was necessarily lost to him, but Taou +Yuen would repeat a great deal: she, too, had a sly sense of the +ridiculous. He hoped that his sister-in-law didn't suppose her helpless; +the impenetrable Manchu control gave her a pitiless advantage over any +less absolute civilization. In the darkness before sleep the heavy exotic +scents in the room oppressed him strangely. + +He rose early, and quietly dressing went out into the garden: buds on +the June roses against the high blank fence on the street were swelling +into visible crimson; there were the stamping of horses' feet on the +cobbles of the stable inclosure, the heavy breathing and admonitions of +the coachman wielding a currycomb. The sunlight streamed down through +pale green willow and tall lilac bushes, through the octagonal latticed +summerhouse and across the vivid sod to the drawing-room door. Gerrit +turned, and entered the farther yard, where his father was inspecting the +pear trees. + +"The _Nautilus_ will need new copper sheathing," Gerrit said: "she's +pretty well stripped forward." + +"Take her around to the Salem Marine Railway at the foot of English +Street. A fine ship, Gerrit, with a proper hull. I tell you they'll never +improve on the French lines." + +"She won't go into the wind with a clipper," he admitted; "but I'll sail +her on a fair breeze with anything afloat." + +"If you come to that," his father asserted; "nothing handsomer will +ever be seen than an East India-man in the northeast trades with the +captain on the quarter-deck in a cocked hat and sword, the shoals of +flying fish and albacore skittering about a transom as high and carved +and gilded as a church, the royal pennant at the mainmast head. Maybe +it would be the _Earl of Balcarras_ with her cannons shining and the +midshipmen running about." + +"Yes," the younger man returned, "and taking in her light sails at +sunset, dropping astern like an island. The John Company's ruining +British shipping." + +Jeremy Ammidon muttered one of his favorite pessimistic complaints. "What +did you say her name was?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Taou Yuen." + +"Taou Yuen Ammidon," the elder pronounced experimentally. "It doesn't +sound right, the two won't go together." + +"But they have," Gerrit declared. He thought impatiently that he must +listen to a repetition of Rhoda's assertions. + +"I don't know much about 'em," Jeremy proceeded. "All I saw, when I was +younger, was the little singing-girls playing mora and wailing over their +infernal three-stringed fiddles something about the moon and a bowl of +water lilies." + +Taou Yuen did not come down to breakfast, and Gerrit stayed away from +their room until her toilet must be finished. It was Sunday; and with the +customary preparation for church under way William said: + +"I suppose you will go down to the ship?" + +The hidden question, the purpose of the inquiry, at once stirred into +being all Gerrit's perversity. "No," he replied carelessly; "we'll go +with you this morning." + +"That's unheard of," William exclaimed heatedly; "a woman in all her +paint and perfume and outrageous clothes in North Church, with--with my +family! I won't have it, do you understand." + +"No worse than what you see there every week," Gerrit retorted calmly; +"corsets and feathers and female gimcracks. Plenty of rouge and cologne +too. It will give them something new to stare at and whisper about." + +William Ammidon choked on his anger, and his wife laid a gloved hand on +his arm. "You must make up your mind to it," she told him. "It can't hurt +anyone. She is Gerrit's wife, you see." + +Above, the shipmaster said to Taou Yuen: "We are going to church with the +family." He surveyed her clothes with a faint glimmer of amusement. She +had, he saw, made herself especially resplendent as a Manchu. The long +gown was straw-colored satin with black bats--a symbol of +happiness--whirling on thickly embroidered silver clouds, over which she +wore a sleeve coat fastened with white jade and glittering with spangles +of beaten copper. Her slippers were pale rose, and fresh apple blossoms, +which she had had brought from the yard, made a headdress fixed with +long silver and dull red ivory pins. + +She smiled obediently at his announcement, and, with a fan of peacock +silks and betel nuts in a pouch like a tea rose hanging by a cord from a +jade button, she signified her readiness to proceed. + +William had gone on foot with his girls, Jeremy was seldom in church, and +Rhoda, Taou Yuen beside her with Gerrit facing them, followed in the +barouche. It seemed to the latter that they were almost immediately at +the door of North Church. The leisurely congregation filling the walk +stiffened in incredulous amazement as Gerrit handed his wife to the +pavement. Rhoda went promptly forward, nodding in response to countless +stupefied greetings; while Gerrit Ammidon moved on at Taou Yuen's side. + +Prepared, he restrained the latter from a prostration in the hall of the +church. Nothing had changed: the umbrella trough still bore the numbers +of the pews, the stair wound gloomily up to the organ loft. He again +found the subdued interior, the maroon upholstery, the flat Gothic +squares of the ceiling and dark red stone walls, a place of reposeful +charm. The Ammidons had two of the box pews against the right wall: his +brother and children were in the second, and, inside the other small +inclosure, he shut the gate and took his place on a contracted corner +bench. Taou Yuen sat with Rhoda against the back of the pew. The former, +blazing like a gorgeous flower on the shadowed surface of a pool, smiled +serenely at him. + +He could hear the hum of subdued comment running like ignited powder +through the church, familiar faces turned blankly toward him or nodded in +patent confusion. The men, he noted, expressed a single rigid +condemnation. The women, in crisp light dresses and ribboned bonnets, +were franker in their curiosity. Taou Yuen was a loadstone for their +glances. As the service progressed her face grew expressionless. Fretted +sandalwood bracelets drooped over her folded hands, and miniature dragon +flies quivered on the gold wires of her earrings; the sharp perfumes of +the East drifted out and mingled with the Western scents of extracts and +powders. He only saw that she was politely chewing betel nut. It wasn't, +he told himself, reverting to his critical attitude toward Salem, that he +was lacking in charity toward his neighbors, or that he felt any +superiority; but the quality that signally roused his antagonism was +precisely the men's present aspect of heavy censure and boundless +propriety, their stolid attitude of justifying the spiritual consummation +promised by the sermon and hymns. + +The long night watches, the anxiety of the sea, the profound mysteries of +the wheeling stars and the silence of the ocean at dawns, had given him, +he dimly realized, an inarticulate reverence for the supreme mystery of +creation. He was unable to put it into words or facile prayer but it was +the guarded foundation of most that he was, and it bred in him a contempt +for lesser signs. The religion of his birth, the faith of Taou Yuen, the +fetishism of the Zanzibar Coast, he had regarded as equally important, or +futile--the mere wash of the immensity of beauty, the inexorable destiny, +that had seemed to breathe on him alone at the stern of his ship. + +He lost himself now in the keenness of his remembered emotion: the +church faded into a far horizon, he felt the slight heave of the ship +and heard the creaking of the wheel as the steersman shifted his hands; +from aloft came the faint slapping of the bunt lines on rigid canvas, +the loose hemp slippers of the crew sounded across the deck, the water +whispered alongside, the ship's bell was struck and repeated in a +diminished note on the topgallant forecastle. The morning rose from +below the edge of the sea and the pure air freshened.... His thoughts +were recalled to the present by the dogmatic insistence of the +clergyman's voice, promising heaven, threatening hell. His gaze rested +on the chalky debility of Madra Clifford. + +The service over, the aisle past the Ammidon pews was filled with a +slow-moving inquisitive throng. Rhoda chose to wait until the greater +part was past, and then she followed with the unmoved Taou Yuen and +Gerrit. "This is my brother's wife," he heard the former say. "Mrs. +Saltonstone, Gerrit's sister, Mrs. Clifford and Miss Vermeil. Yes... from +Shanghai. Overdue. We were worried, of course." Taou Yuen smiled +vigorously and flapped the vivid fan. Against her brilliant colors, the +carved jade and embroideries, silver and apple blossoms, the other women +looked colorless in wide book muslin and barége, with short veils of +tulle illusion hanging from bonnets of rice straw and glazed crêpe. +Palpably shocked by her Oriental face masked in paint, her Chinese +"heathen" origin, yet they fingered the amazing needlework and wondered +over the weight of her satins. + +The men he knew gave him, for the most part, a curt greeting. They +glanced more covertly at his wife; he understood exactly what thoughts +brought out this condemnation soiled by private speculation; and his +disdain mounted at their sleek backs and glossy tile, hats supported on +stiffly bent arms. + +After dinner he walked through the warm sunny emptiness of the afternoon +to Derby Wharf and the _Nautilus_. Standing on the wharf, smoking a +cheroot, he leaned back upon his cane, studying the ship with a gaze that +missed no detail. There was not a sound from the water; across the harbor +Peach's Point seemed about to dissolve in a faint green haze; a strong +scent of mingled spices came from the warehouses. There was the splash of +oars in the Basin beyond, and the more distant peal of a church bell. + +At the sound of footfalls behind him he turned and saw Nettie Vollar and +her uncle, Edward Dunsack. A dark color rose in the girl's cheek, and her +hand pulled involuntarily at Dunsack's arm, as if she wished to retreat. +Gerrit thought that she had aged since he had latest met her: Nettie's +mouth, with its full, slightly drooping lower lip, had lost something of +its fresh arch; her eyes, though they still preserved their black +sparkle, were plainly resentful. Edward Dunsack, medium tall but thin +almost to emaciation, had a riven sallow face with close-cut silvery hair +and agate-brown eyes with contracted pupils. + +"Well, Nettie," Gerrit said, moving forward promptly, "it's pleasant to +see you again." Her hand was cold and still. "Dunsack, too." + +"I am obliged to you for my chest," the latter told him, unmoved by +Gerrit's quizzical gaze. + +"Glad to do it for you," the other replied; "it came ashore with my +personal things, and so, perhaps, saved you something." + +"Perhaps," Dunsack agreed levelly. + +Looking down at the cob filling of the wharf, Nettie Vollar said, "You +came home married, I hear, and to a Chinese lady." + +Gerrit assented. "You'll certainly know her, and like her, too. Taou +Yuen is very wise and without the prejudices--" he stopped, conscious of +the stupidity of his attempted kindness. Nettie looked up defiantly, +biting her lip--a familiar trick, he recalled. Dunsack interposed: + +"You will find that the Chinese have none of your little sympathetic +tricks. No foreigner could ever grasp the depth of their indifference to +what you might call humanity. They are born wise, as you say, but weary. +I suppose your wife plays the guitar skillfully and sings the Soochow +Love Song." + +Gerrit Ammidon studied him with somber eyes and a gathering temper: it +was, however, impossible to decide whether the implication was +deliberately insulting. He wouldn't have any Canton clerk, probably +saturated with opium, insinuate that his affair was on the plane of +that of a drunken sailor! "My wife," he said deliberately, "is a +Manchu lady. You may know that they don't learn dialect songs nor +ornament tea houses." + +"Very remarkable," Dunsack returned imperturbably. "We never see them. +How did you manage a go-between, and did you send the hour of your birth +to the Calculator of Destinies? Then there is so much to remember in a +Chinese wedding--the catties of tea and four silver ingots, the earrings +and red and green silk and Tao priest to consult the gods." Gerrit heard +this with a frowning countenance. If Nettie were not there he would put +Dunsack forward with the hypothetical crew to which he belonged. He felt +as sorry for Nettie, he discovered, as ever. It moved him to see her +vivacity of life, her appealingly warm color, slowly dulled by Salem and +the adventitious circumstance of her birth. What a dreary existence she +led in the harsh atmosphere of her grandfather and the solemn house on +Hardy Street! At one time he had fancied that he might change it... when +now here was Taou Yuen, detached and superior, waiting in his room at +Java Head. + +"I stopped for a moment to look at the ship," he said, with the trace of +an ungracious bow, "and must get back." The sunlight flung a warm moted +veil over Nettie Vollar. She gave him a startled uncalculated glance of +almost desperate appeal and his heart responded with a quickened thud. +Edward Dunsack was sallow and enigmatic, with thin pinched lips. + + + + +V + +"The stupid bruiser," Edward Dunsack declared in a thin bitterness that +startled the girl at his side. "The low sea bully!" He was gazing at the +resolute back of Captain Ammidon. A surprising hatred filled him at the +memory of the other's intolerant gaze, the careless contempt of his +words. He thought, oddly enough, of the delicate and ingenious tortures +practiced on offenders in China; the pleasant mental picture followed of +Ammidon bowed in a wooden collar, of Gerrit Ammidon bambooed, sliced, +slowly choking.... With an intense sense of horror he caught himself +dwelling on these dripping visions. His hands clasped rigidly, a sweat +stood out on his brow, in a realization that was at once dread and a +self-loathing. + +About him lay the tranquil Salem water, the still wharves, the familiar +roofs and green tree tops. This wasn't Canton, he told himself, but +America: there was Nettie; only a few streets away was his father's +house, his own home, all solid and safe and reassuring. China was a +thing of the past, its insidious secret hold broken. It was now only a +dream of evil fascination from which he had waked to the reality, the +saving substance, of Derby Wharf. "It's his domineering manner," he +explained the outburst to Nettie; "all shipmasters have it--as if the +world were a vessel they damned from a quarter-deck in the sky. I never +could put up with them." + +"He is very kind, really," she replied, looking away over the harbor. "It +is so queer--marrying a Chinese woman like that. How will he ever get +along with her or be happy?" + +"He won't," Edward Dunsack asserted. "Leave that to time." He studied her +attentively. "Was it anything to you?" he asked. + +"It might have been," she acknowledged listlessly, her gaze still on the +horizon. "He came to see me two or three times, quite differently from +other nice men, and took me to a concert at the Philharmonic Society. He +was getting to like me, I could tell that, when grandfather interfered--" + +"I see," Dunsack interrupted, "with the immorality of the supermoral." + +"Whatever it was he was past bearing. No one could blame Gerrit for +getting into a fury. The next day I stood almost in this spot, it was +late afternoon too, and watched the _Nautilus_ sail away. All the canvas +was set and I could see her for a long time. When the last trace had +gone it seemed to me that my life had sunk too ... out there." + +"The old man's a fool," he said bluntly of his father. "How do you +suppose he got hold of a Manchu?" he shifted his thought, addressing the +stillness about them rather than his companion. "Don't imagine for a +minute that you are superior to her," he told Nettie more directly. +"There is nothing more remarkable. They must be gorgeous," a faint color +stained his long cheeks. "What incredible luck," he murmured. + +He was thinking avidly of the women of China--the little gay girls like +toys, the momentary glimpses of enameled faces in hurrying red-flowered +sedan chairs, faces of ivory stained with carmine, in gold-crusted +headdresses. A sudden impatience at Nettie Vollar's obvious person and +clothes expanded to a detestation of an atmosphere he had but a minute or +so before welcomed as an escape from something infinitely worse than +death. Now it seemed impossible to spend a life in Salem. It would have +been better, when he had been released by Heard and Company, to have +taken the position open in the Dutch Hong. + +He was in a continual state of such vacillation, as if he were the seat +of two separate and antagonistic personalities; rather, he changed the +figure, in him the East struggled with the West. It was necessary for the +latter to triumph. The difficulty lay in the fact that the first was +represented by an actual circumstance while the other was only a dim +apprehension, a weakened allegiance to ties never strong. + +He cursed the extraordinary chance that, against every probability, had +brought the chest of opium safely to him here. Its purchase had been the +result of habit evading his will, he had despatched it--in that seesawing +contest--by a precarious route, half hoping that it would be lost or +seized; and, when he had seen the chest carried down Hardy Street to his +door, a species of terror had fastened upon him, a premonition of an evil +spirit flickering above him in a turning of oily smoke. Why hadn't he +pitched the thing into the water at the foot of their yard! There was +time still: he would take the balls of opium and dispose of them +secretly. A sudden energy, a renewed sense of strength, flooded him. This +distaste for Nettie changed into a pity at the ill luck that had followed +her: she didn't deserve it. Generous emotions expanded his heart. He +dreamed of taking hold of his father's small commerce in rum and sugar +with the West Indies and turning it into a concern as rich and powerful +as Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. + +Why not! + +They, too, would have a big white house on Washington Square or Chestnut +Street, with servants--Chinese servants--and horses and great ships +sailing in, laden with the East. Why not indeed! He, Edward Dunsack, had +more brains than Jeremy Ammidon, that stiff old man with a face the color +of a damask plum. His niece would go to all the balls at Franklin and +Hamilton Halls, the injustice of her position overcome by an impressively +increasing fortune. Abstractly he patted her shoulder with a hand as long +and gaunt and yellow as his face. All this would come as a result of +throwing the opium into the harbor. It was as good as accomplished. + +In the face of his prospective well-being he felt already the equal of +anyone in Salem. If Gerrit Ammidon had married a Manchu lady it was his +privilege, no, duty, to call and put his experience in things Chinese at +their command. She would speak only a little if any English; no one here +understood the preparation of her food--her delicate necessity for dishes +not the property of an entire household; a hundred such details of which +the infinitely cruder West must be ignorant. He thought complacently that +he would understand her better than anyone else in Salem, in Boston, in +America; far better than her husband. She would without doubt learn to +depend on him: they would laugh together at the manners and people about +them. Ammidon would be away for long periods on the China service.-- + +His dreams broke off with a sardonic laugh, a repetition of the tone in +which he had objurgated the ship-master. Such visions were the property +of youth, and he was forty-two, forty-two and nothing more than a +discredited clerk who had fled across the world from a shadow. But he was +right--he had seen white men who had caught the breath of China accepting +just such opportunities as the one offered to him after his dismissal by +Augustine Heard. At the Dutch Hong he'd be expected to talk about his +late employer. Such situations, he had realized in a rarely illuminating +flash, were only temporary, a descending flight. + +These men resembled the fate of, say, a brig sailing into the China +Sea in all the perfection of order of the British Marine: at, perhaps, +Hong Kong, sold to a native firm, she would be refitted under an +extravagant flag, and slowly the order would depart until, in a +slovenly tangle of rigging and defilement, she'd be seen yawing on +secret and nauseous errands. + +A homely chime of bells was repeated from the town; a ship's fast +strained resinously with the changing tide. "It will be getting on toward +supper," Nettie told him. They walked slowly from the wharf, turned +silently into Derby Street and Hardy on their way home. Beyond the inner +fence of the garden the thick uneven sod reaching to the water was dark +and cool against the luminous flush of evening. A sound of frying and +heavy odor came from the kitchen, and Kate Vollar's voice informed them +that the meal was ready. + +Barzil Dunsack bowed his head over the table and pronounced a grace in +startlingly resonant tones, the reverent humility of his words oddly +emphasized by a sort of angry impatience. It seemed as if he at once +subjected himself to his God and expressed a certain dissatisfaction with +His forbearance. Edward Dunsack was plunged in the thought of the +resolution he intended to fulfill that evening. + +The throwing away of the opium had lost a part of its symbolic meaning. +It now seemed even a little rash when he could find an immediate highly +profitable market--the opium had cost him seven hundred dollars in China. +But he must, he realized, be firm. Afterwards, in his room facing away +from the street over darkening yards and gables and foliage, he stood +gazing at the chest of mango wood that held the drug. Edward Dunsack +unlocked and lifted the lid. On the tray before him were twenty balls, +each the size of his two fists, wrapped in a hard skin of poppy leaves, +and there was a similar number beneath. It was obvious that he couldn't +carry a tray through the house, and he took out two balls, after which he +secured the remainder. + +He walked quickly down the stair and through the close turning of the +lower hall that led through a side door to the yard. A pale rectangle of +lamplight fell from the sitting room window over a brick path and ground +tramped bare of grass; a clinking of dishes sounded in the kitchen. The +sod was damp, and perhaps eight feet below the wooden buttress of the +land the water showed impenetrably black. + +Safely there he passed a tense hand over a brow suddenly wet; he was +shaking as if in the grip of a chill. His condition needed drastic +measures. The cold heavy opium gave out its tantalizing odor. In a minute +it would be disposed of and he would go for more. He calculated that this +necessitated twenty trips at the present rate--a bag might serve his +purpose better. He raised an arm with an opium ball, but his hand +remained suspended in air. An inarticulate protest seized him, a +suffocating sense of impending loss. He would never be able to get Patna +opium here; it was a valuable medical property. His nerves shook at the +thought of its delights. Then as if without his volition and against +every intention, his arm described a short arc and his hand was empty. +There was the impact of a solid object striking the water, a faint ripple +on the motionless expanse, and then absolute silence. + +He was aghast at his wanton act, the irreparable waste of a precious +substance, and cursed in a low audible Cantonese. Whose concern was it if +he did, very occasionally, smoke a "pistol"? How could it possibly +matter! The dreams about a great foreign commerce, a white house like the +Ammidons', were futile; it was too late. He could expect nothing from +life but the unspeakable monotony of his father's dwelling, the bare +office. He had worked hard, been as full of splendid early resolutions as +anyone, and he wasn't blamable if chance balked his ambition. A soul was +nothing more than a twisting leaf in the wind of fate. There remained +only to take what escape was offered--golden visions, luxury, beauty +beyond all earth. + +His contrary determination seemed of less actuality than the imagined +echoing of the splash that still hung in his brain. It was a thing far +away, belonging to another time, another man; like the memory of a period +of charming ignorance. The thought of it wove a strand of melancholy into +his present mature realization like the delicate scent of blossoming +trees borne to him on the evening air, barely perceptible and then lost +in the pungency of the opium. The latter became, mystically, all China, +the irresistible fascination that had gradually possessed his +imagination, dulling the associations of his heredity and birth, calling +him further and further into its secretive heart. + +He returned to his room, where he put back the second ball in the tray of +its chest. An extraordinary weariness hung over him, there was a sense +of leaden weight in his arms and feet. Flashes of a different perception +pierced his apathy; a voice, seemingly outside his being, whispered of +danger, evil and danger.... A twisting leaf, he told himself again with +his deep fatalism. + +The memory of Gerrit Ammidon's crisp blue gaze, his vigorous gestures and +speech, became an intolerable affront, representing the far lost point of +his own departure. His contrary feelings met and grappled in his mind; +but in the end the past, Salem, was always defeated, weaker, more faintly +perceived. In a great many essentials, he told himself, he had become +Chinese in sympathy and fiber. + +The lamp threw a smooth gleam over the mango wood chest, and he bent, +turning the key in the ornamental brass lock. He could reconsider the +disposal of the opium to-morrow; there was no hurry; he had no intention +of becoming a victim to the drug. That would be an inconceivable +stupidity, the negation of all the philosophy he had gained. Very +occasionally-- + +His thoughts swung to the surprising fact of Ammidon's Chinese wife: if, +as he had first suspected, she were a common woman of the port who had +made a fool of the dull sailor he perceived the making of a very +entertaining comedy. There would be the keenest irony in exposing her to +himself before the complacent ignorance of her husband. He knew such +women: convicted in Chinese, perhaps before the entire Ammidon family, +not a muscle of her face would betray surprise or concern. She might try +to murder him, very ingeniously, but never descend to the intrigue, the +lies, of a Western woman placed in the same position. She'd stoically +accept the situation. These visions ran rapidly, vividly, through his +brain; he was accustomed to them; a greater part of his waking life was +filled with such pictures, infinitely more alluring, persuasive, than the +disappointing actuality. He got out of his clothes, and, in a loose gown +of black silk, sat at his open window, his chin sunk in the palm of a +hand, his face set against the night. + +The next morning, at the breakfast table, he listened with a fleering +mouth to his father's long dogmatic grace before meat. His sister sat +opposite their parent, her gaze lowered in a perpetual amazement, her +entire person stamped with a stupid humility. There was nothing humble, +however, in Nettie; the crisp French coloring positively crackled with an +electric energy; her mouth was set in a rebellious red blot. Studying +her, Edward Dunsack saw that she was prettier than he had first realized +on his return to Salem. He speculated over the story she had told him +yesterday about Gerrit Ammidon's attachment. What an incredible idiot +their father had been: Edward would have relished Gerrit as a +brother-in-law; good would have come to them all from such a connection. + +If he had been in America at the time no such error would have been +permitted. With his counsel Nettie would have caught Ammidon beyond any +escape. He wondered if the girl had actually cared for the shipmaster or +if the affair had been nothing more than a sop to her wounded pride and +isolation. In a way beyond his present understanding this seemed to be +considerably important. If she had loved him no one could predict what +her attitude might be in any future development of their contact; but if +her pride only had been involved, injured, she might readily be an +instrument for his own obscure purposes. + +The office where Barzil Dunsack conducted the limited affairs of his +West India trading was a small one-room building back of the dwelling. +There was a high desk at which a clerk stood, or balanced on a +long-legged stool, a more formal secretary against the length of the +wall, with a careful model of a full ship, the spars and standing +rigging slack and the whole gray with dust, a built-in cupboard +opposite, a dilapidated chair or so and a ten-plate iron stove for wood. +A window looked out across the grass to the harbor and another opened +blankly against a board fence. + +There Edward Dunsack made a column of entries in a script fine and +regular but occasionally showing an uncontrollably tremulous line. He +was conscious of this tendency, growing through the past year; and he +surveyed his writing with a feeling of angry dismay. Try as he might, +with a frowning concentration, to pen the words and numerals firmly, +presently his attention would slip, his hand waver ever so slightly, and +a sudden stricken appearance of old age fasten on the characters.... By +heaven, to-night he'd throw all that stinking stuff away! + +Outside the day was immaculate, the expanse of the water was like +celestial silk, such sails as he saw resembled white clouds. The early +morning bird song had subsided, but a persistent robin was whistling from +the grass by the open door. The curd-like petals of a magnolia were +slowly shifting obliquely to the ground, he could hear the stir of Derby +Street. He was inexpressibly weary of the struggle always racking his +being: it seemed to him that in the midst of a serene world he was +tormented by some inimicable and fatal power. + +He fastened his thoughts on commonplace happier objects, on the page +under his hand, the entries of Medford rum and sugar cane and molasses, +and the infinitely larger affairs of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. +There was no reason why he shouldn't call on Jeremy Ammidon's family. The +latter had signified by his visit the desire to end the misunderstanding +between them. He was as well born as Gerrit Ammidon; only ill chance had +made them seem differently situated. Anyhow, unlike Canton, mere exterior +position had comparatively little weight in Salem. The shipmasters, the +more important merchants, arrogated a certain superiority to themselves: +but it broke down before the inborn democracy of the local spirit. + +That afternoon, he decided, he'd be in Pleasant Street; and later he +dressed with the most meticulous care. A growing doubt seized him as he +mounted the outside steps of the Ammidons' impressive house; but he +crushed it down and firmly rapped with the polished knocker on the +opened door. + +The family, a servant told him, was in the garden; and he followed +through a large white-paneled hall into a formal drawing-room and green +space beyond. He was again uncertain before the number of people grouped +about a summerhouse and apparently watching his approach with cold +surprise. But Gerrit Ammidon stepped forward and greeted him with an +adequately level civility. + +"You know my father," he said, and Jeremy Ammidon, his heavy body in +linen above which his face was dusky, put out an abrupt hand. There was a +Mr. Brevard, a slender unconcerned person in very fashionable but +restrained clothes; William Ammidon's wife, a large woman in India +muslin, handsome enough, Edward Dunsack conceded, in the obvious +American sense; a daughter of William's, a girl blooming into womanhood, +far too vigorous and brightly colored for his taste; and Gerrit's wife. + +The latter had been hidden from him at first, and he saw her suddenly, +completely: his surprise caused him to stand in an awkward +suspense--never had he imagined that a woman, even a Manchu, could be so +beautiful! He recognized, in a score of unmistakable details, that she +was of irreproachably high birth; her satins were embroidered with the +symbols of nobility and matrimonial felicity; the gold fingernail guards, +the jade and flowering pearls, her earrings and tasseled tobacco pouch +and ivory fan, were all in the most superlative manner. + +A deep pleasurable excitement filled him as he made his greeting in +correct Chinese. The long delicate oval of her face showed no emotion at +the sound of her native speech and she returned his periods in a slowly +chosen mechanical English. Edward Dunsack thought that as he spoke an +expression of distaste stamped Gerrit's features. However, he was left in +no doubt: "My wife," the other instructed him, "prefers to speak English. +That is the only way she has of picking it up." + +A contempt filled Dunsack which he was barely able to keep from his voice +and manner. He nodded shortly, and subsided into a study of Taou Yuen so +open that she must have become aware of his interest. Seated on the bench +that circled the interior of the latticed summerhouse she moved so that +he could no longer see her face. Brevard was beside her, talking in a low +amused voice: there was a ringing peal of laughter from Sidsall Ammidon +and a faint infinitely well-bred ripple from Taou Yuen. The brilliant +patch of her gown made an extraordinary effect in the Salem garden. +Edward Dunsack recognized the scents that stirred from her, more Eastern +and disturbing even than opium: there was a subtle natural odor of musk, +the perfumes of henna and clove blossoms and santal. + +A curious double feeling possessed him in the split consciousness of +which he was capable--he had the sensation of having come, in the suave +afternoon garden, on overwhelming disaster, and at the same time he was +enraged by the play of Fate that had given such a woman to Gerrit Ammidon +and denied him, with his special appreciation of Oriental charm, the +slightest satisfaction. A more general hatred of Gerrit tightened to a +consuming resentment of the other's blind fortune. + +One thing was unmistakably borne upon him--in spite of the courtesy he +was meeting it was clear that he could not hope to become a customary +visitor at the Ammidons'. He was put definitely outside the community of +interests in which Brevard easily entered. William Ammidon joined them, +and something like astonishment at Dunsack's presence was visible on his +complacent face. + +He remained, however, in a stubborn resistance to small adverse signs in +the hope of gaining some additional facts about Taou Yuen. She had been, +he learned, a widow and Gerrit had married her with her father-in-law's +consent although the latter was a rich official. He wanted to ask a +thousand questions, but he knew that even if the Ammidons were too dense +to grasp his curiosity, Taou Yuen herself would comprehend his +impoliteness. Nowhere else could be found the wisdom and poise of a +Manchu lady. + +Jeremy Ammidon, in a lawn chair, a smoking cheroot in his fingers, asked +him about affairs of Chinese government and commerce. As the old man +talked he flushed darkly with quick indignation. "The English have made +our political diplomats look like stuffed gulls!" he declared. "Look at +their Orders in Council and the British Prize Courts," he proceeded, +waving his cheroot; "stop an American vessel anywhere and pretend to find +a deserting English sailor. With the Treaty of Ghent and cod-headed +commissioners and a Congress that wouldn't know a ship from a bread barge +the country's going to hell on greased ways! I've said it a thousand +times and any man not a complete ass knows that you can't run a +government without a strong head. Locofocos," he muttered. + +Edward Dunsack listened to this tirade with an air of polite attention +which hid completely the fact that he heard or comprehended scarcely a +word. His thoughts were filled by the fragrant vision of Taou Yuen; +already he was deep in the problem of how to see her again, to-morrow. It +would be excessively difficult. Eastern women never, if they could avoid +it, walked; and they were, he knew, entirely without the necessity that +drove the women of Salem into a ceaseless round of calling and gossip. It +was probable that, except to ride, she wouldn't leave the house and +grounds. He cursed the chance quarrel that had set a customary void +between the houses of Dunsack and Ammidon, the unfortunate affair of his +sister and Vollar inescapably adding to the permanency of the breach; he +particularly cursed Nettie. There, however, his mind took up the twisted +thread of the vague possibility that the latter might be useful to him: +he was amazed at the way in which his premonitions fitted into the +pattern of situations yet to be materialized. + +Edward Dunsack turned from his contemplation of Taou Yuen to a careful +consideration of Gerrit Ammidon. The latter had a countenance which +showed strong, easily summoned emotions. It was an intolerant face, +Dunsack judged, and yet sentimental; and it was surprisingly young, +guileless. At the same time it was unusually determined--an affair of +uncomplicated surfaces, direct gaze, marked bone. + +He questioned sharply, irritably, the length to which his projections had +reached. What were they all about? The answer was presented by the +glittering figure of the Manchu; she had risen and was standing in the +entrance of the summerhouse. He thought, with a jerking pulse, of +Oriental similes; she was a lotus-woman, a green slip of willow, an +ambrosial moon, a mustard flower. Her teeth were white buds, her breasts +blanched almonds. + +His entire life in China had been a preparation for the realization of +the present moment. The sense of danger, of anger at Gerrit Ammidon, +perished before the supreme emotion called up by Taou Yuen. He wanted +to embrace her satin-shod feet, to cling to her odorous hands, such +hands as were never formed out of China, like petals of coral. Not only +her bodily charm intoxicated him, but the thought of her subtle mind +added its attraction, its shadows never to be pierced by the blunted +Western instinct, the knowledge of pleasures like perfumes, the calm +blend of the eight diagrams of Confucius, the stoicism of the +Buddhistic soul revolving perpetually in the urn of Fate, and of the +aloof Tao of Lao-tze. + +Brevard left with an easy familiarity, already planning a return, that +filled Edward Dunsack with resentful envy. The sun had disappeared behind +the house; long cool shadows swept down the garden; it was past time for +him to go. A reluctance to move from the magic of Taou Yuen possessed +him: he was unable to think how, when, he would next see her. He raged at +the prohibition against speaking Chinese; that ability should give him an +overwhelming advantage of Gerrit Ammidon. This was, of course, the reason +that he had been virtually commanded to limit himself to English. Many of +the forms of extreme Chinese courtesy were impossible to express in +another language. + +Finally he rose; in departing he emphasized the importance of Jeremy +Ammidon--Taou Yuen should recognize and applaud that. He saw that she was +watching him obliquely, her lips in repose, her hands still among the +satin draperies. An American would have betrayed something of her +reaction to him, he could have discovered a trace, an indication, of her +thoughts; but the Manchu's face was as inscrutable as porcelain. William +Ammidon nodded, the old man responded to his leave-taking with a degree +of warmness, Gerrit at least smiled in a not unfriendly manner. Edward +Dunsack bowed to Taou Yuen, and she gravely inclined her head. He had a +last glimpse of her glowing in the green light of the inclosure of +rose-bushes and poplars, emerald sod and tangled lilac trees. + +At the supper table his sister's appearance in somber untidy black +barége, Nettie's unrestrained gestures and speech, the coarse red cloth +and plain boiled fare, all added to a discontent that he could scarcely +restrain. With the utmost discrimination in delicate shades of beauty and +luxury he was yet condemned to spend his days in surroundings hardly +raised above poverty-stricken squalor. Incongruous as it was he could yet +imagine Taou Yuen moving with a certain appropriateness about the +Ammidons' spacious grounds and house; but he was absolutely unable to +picture her here, on Hardy Street. + +All the vivid scenes that continually formed and shifted in his mind +gathered about Gerrit Ammidon's wife. He used this phrase in a +contemptuously satirical manner: it was impossible for Ammidon actually +to marry a Manchu. Such racial mating, he told himself, could not be +consummated; there were too many deep antipathies of flesh and spirit; +the man was too--too stupidly normal. Sooner or later he would swing back +to his own. With him, Edward Dunsack, it was different; he always had an +inner kinship with China; at first sight its streets and sounds, odors +and ways, had seemed familiar, admirable. + +The realization of this, when his place with Heard and Company +collapsed, had sent him back to America, in a strange dread. He +remembered how the vague fear had followed him to Derby Wharf. Now he +laughed at it, welcoming every Chinese instinct he had. They seemed to +throw a bridge across enormous difficulties, bringing him finally to +Taou Yuen. + +He lingered at the table after supper, his head sunk on his chest, +revolving the various aspects of his position. One thing was definite--he +must have Taou Yuen; it was unthinkable that she should continue with +Gerrit Ammidon. It needed skillful planning, tortuous execution, but in +the end he'd get his desire. He had no doubt of that. It was necessary. +If she opposed him she would discover that he, too, could be subtle, +Oriental, yes--dangerous. None of the stupid inhibitions that, for +example, bound his father interfered with the free exercise of his +personal wishes. He was beyond primitive morality. + +An ecstasy of contemplation ravished his senses. + +"Goodness, Uncle Edward," Nettie exclaimed, "you scared me, you looked so +like a Chinee." + +"There are no such people," he retorted sharply, exasperated by the +vulgar error. She was undismayed; and when, in reply to the question, she +learned that he had been at the Ammidons' her surprise increased his +irritation. He saw from her manner that his calling there had been at +least unexpected. Nettie interrupted the preparation of the table for +breakfast, and dropped into a chair beyond him, her hands--the sleeves +were rolled back to her elbows--clasped before her. + +"You must tell me everything," she declared eagerly. "What is she like? +Do they seem happy? Did he hold her hand? Do Chinese women kiss? Is she +tall or--" + +"I can't remember a question out of your rattle," he interrupted her. He +was about to give expression to his admiration for Taou Yuen, when he +stopped, with tight lips. Here, perhaps, was the lever by which so much +was to be shifted. + +"She's Chinese," he said indifferently, "and that means yellow." Nettie +made a gesture of distaste. "They seem to get along well enough. Of +course, it's ridiculous to call it a marriage, and it seems to me very +questionable to impose it on the Ammidons as that. The thing is--how +long will it last, how soon will he get tired of her and send her back +to Canton?" + +Nettie Vollar closed her eyes, her hands were rigid. The lamplight, +streaming up over her face, showed him that it was tense and pale and +answered a question. Her feeling for Gerrit Ammidon had been more than a +mere hurt pride. In addition to that he saw beyond any doubt the proof of +its existence still. This complicated his problem: inspired only by a +resentment that he might fan into hatred she would be far more pliable +than in the grip of a genuine affection for Gerrit Ammidon. He understood +the processes of the former, a flexible and useful steel; but no one +could predict the vagaries, the absurd self-sacrifices, of love. Well, +he'd have to work with what offered. That, he realized, was the strength +of his philosophy--he accepted promptly, without vain regret, the means +that lay at his hand. + +"Ammidon seems worn," he said generally; "they were in the garden, and I +had a few words privately with him." Nettie glanced swiftly across the +table; her lips moved; but she repressed the obvious question trembling +on them. "He showed, I think," he continued carefully, "a very improper +interest in you." + +"How?" + +"He asked if you were well and happy. I most certainly told him, for any +number of reasons, for pride alone, that you were." + +"Then you told a lie," she cried in a tone so hard that it surprised him. + +"Of course," he went on smoothly, "I know that you are not, almost all +your circumstances prohibit that. But I don't intend to circulate it in +Salem. Opinion here may have forced you into a long loneliness, but I +shan't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing it. And, after all, you +have your grandfather mostly to blame. You would have been married to +Gerrit Ammidon now if he hadn't interfered; you would have been walking +about the Ammidons' garden with your hand on his arm in place of that +Chinese prostitute." + +"I don't see why you should make me so miserable," she declared. "I don't +care anything about the garden, it isn't that. Why do you suppose he +brought such a woman home?" + +"Pique," he told her; "he couldn't care for her in the way he might for, +well--you. As I said, he'll drop her on his next voyage to the East; he +will leave her and probably never come back to Salem again. I hear that +Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone are planning a new policy--bigger ships, +clippers in the China and California trade; and that means removal to +Boston. Their facilities here are no longer suitable." + +She moved, her chin fell upon her hands, propped up with her elbows on +the table. Apparently Edward Dunsack was gazing at the wall beyond her. +Her breast gave a single sharp heave. When Nettie looked up her face was +flushed. "I wish that I were really a bad woman," she spoke in a low +vibrant voice. + +"What is bad and what is good?" He still seemed to ignore her, +considering a question that had no personal bearing. "In one country a +thing is thought wrong and in another it is the highest virtue. In one +age this or that is condemned, when, turn the calendar, and everyone is +praising it." He became confidential, the image of kindness. "I'll tell +you what I think is wicked," he pronounced, leaning toward her, "and that +is the way you two were kept apart; unchristian is what I call it." + +"Gerrit doesn't care," she said. + +"How do you know?" he demanded. "I cannot agree with you. I don't find a +great deal in him to admire, he is too simple and transparent; but +there's no doubt of this, he is faithful. One idea, one affection, is all +his head will hold." + +"That's a beautiful trait." A palpable wistfulness settled over her. + +"It's greatly admired," he agreed; "although not by me. I believe in +taking what is yours, what you need, from life. I suppose that I have +been away from proprieties so long that they have lost their importance. +They seem to me of no greater weight than barriers of straw. But, of +course, that mightn't suit you; probably, living in Salem as you have, +its opinion is valuable." + +"Salem!" she exclaimed bitterly. "What has it ever been to me but an +unfair judgment? I owe Salem no consideration; I can't see that I owe +any to life." + +"I don't want to insist on that," he proceeded deliberately. "The tragedy +of your position is that married to Ammidon everything in the past would +have been overlooked, forgotten. Even now--" he stopped with a gesture +indicating the presence still of large possibilities. + +God, what a vacillating fool the girl was! He could say no more at +present, and he rose, leaving the room with Nettie staring dully across +the table. He went outside, to the grass fronting on the harbor. Here, +last night, he had thrown the opium into the water. It seemed to him +that he had lived through a complete existence since then: the presence +of Taou Yuen had created a new world. He thought she walked to him +through the gloom; he saw her slender body grow brighter as she +approached; he heard her speak in a low native murmur; their hands +caught in an eager tangle. + +He put aside, momentarily, the problem of the difficulties of going again +to the Ammidons' for an easier one--the bringing of Gerrit Ammidon here. +He was confident that, thrown together on the still rim of the water, at +evening, the emotion born between his niece and the shipmaster and +prematurely choked would revive. He had no means of knowing Ammidon's +present exact feeling for Nettie; he was counting only on a general +theory of men and nature at large. He was already convinced, from very +wide knowledge, experience, that the other could not form a permanent +attachment to the Manchu; and Nettie's great difference, together with +the romance of her unhappy position, must have a potent effect on the +fellow's evident sentimentality. A dank air rose from the water, like the +smell of death; and, with an uncontrollable shiver, he turned back toward +the house. + +In his room Edward Dunsack recalled that he had promised himself to throw +away the remainder of the opium on this and succeeding nights. In view of +that his movements were inexplicable: he got out from a locked chest the +_yen tsiang_, a heavy tube of dark wood inlaid with silver ideograms and +diminutive earthen cup at one end. Then he produced a small brass lamp, +brushes, long needles, and a metal rod. Taking off his clothes, and in +the somber black folds of the silk robe, he made various minutely careful +preparations. Finally, extended on his bed, he dipped the end of the rod +into opium the color of tar, kept it for a bubbling moment near the blaze +of the lamp, and then crowded the drug into the pipe. He held the bowl to +the flame and drew in a long deep inhalation. A second followed and the +pipe was empty. He repeated this until he had smoked a mace. + +A vivacious and brilliant state of being flooded him; he felt capable +of profoundly witty conversation, and laughed at the solemn absurdities +of the Ammidons, at his father attempting to call down a blessing out +of the empty sky upon their food, at his sister's lugubrious +countenance, the childish emotions of Nettie. What a nonsensical +strutting business life was. + +The confines of his room were lost in an amber radiance that filled all +space; it was at once a light and a perfume and charged with a sense of +impending rapture. A sparkling crimson shape floated down from infinite +skies--Taou Yuen. She wore a bridal costume, cunningly embroidered with +the phoenix, a hood of thin gold plate, and a band of red silk about her +brow bore the eight copper figures of the beings who are immortal. Her +hair was ornamented by the pure green jade pins of summer, her hanging +wrists were heavy with virgin silver, while her face was like the +desirous August moon flushed in low vapors. + +He raised his bony arms--the wide silk sleeves falling back--his +emaciated yellow hands. From under his dark eyelids there was a glitter +of vision like the sheen on mica... Taou Yuen floated nearer. + +Edward Dunsack woke suddenly, at the darkest ebb of night, and started +hurriedly to his feet. A sickening vertigo, a whirling head, sent him +lurching across the room. He came in contact with a chest of drawers, and +clung to it with the feeling that his legs were shriveling beneath him. +His consciousness slowly returned, and with it a pain like ruthless +tearing fingers searched his body. The rectangle of the open window, +only less dark than the room, promised a relief from the strangled effort +of his breathing, and he fell across the ledge, lifting his face to a +starless and unstirring heat. Waves of complete physical exhaustion +passed over him. An utter horror fastened on his brain. + +"Oh, God," he said, with numb lips, "we thank Thee for this, Thy daily +blessing--" He broke off with an effort. That was his father pronouncing +a grace. "Oh God--" he said again, when it seemed to him that in the +darkness he saw the blank placidity of a Buddha carved from gray stone. +Tears ran over his sunken cheeks, salt and warm like blood. + + + + +VI + +The night was so oppressive, continuing such an unusually sultry period +for the season, that Sidsall, ordinarily impervious to the effects of +weather, was unable to sleep. Although the door between her room and her +parents' was shut, she heard her father--his step, at once quick and +firm, was easily recognizable moving about beyond. Her restlessness +increased and she got up, crossing the floor to the window open on the +garden, where she knelt, the thick plait of her hair across her cheek and +shoulder, with her arms propped on the ledge. The depths of sky were +hidden in a darkness like night made visible; and, in place of moving +air, there were slow waves of perfume, now from the lilacs and now from +the opening hedge of June roses. + +Her brain was filled by a multitude of minor images and speculations, but +fixed at their back was the presence of Roger Brevard. She approved of +him absolutely. He had exactly the formal manner that gave her a pleasant +sense of delicate importance, and his clothes were beautiful, a sprig of +rose geranium in a buttonhole and his gloves and boots immaculate. She +liked rather slight graceful men, she thought, with the quiet voices of a +polite ancestry. Naturally Olive Wibird preferred less restrained +companions, although Heaven knew that Olive appeared to make all kinds +welcome. Olive's opinion of Roger Brevard would have been very different +if he had asked her to dance. + +Sidsall recalled the quadrille he had led her through at Lacy's party; he +had been a perfect partner, at once light and firm. He had been a +habitual caller at Java Head before that occasion, and had come in the +same manner since. That is, casually viewed, his visits seemed the same; +but in reality there were some small yet significant differences. They +were all held in his attitude of the afternoon when he had stayed talking +exclusively to her on the steps. + +She couldn't say just what the change was; when she attempted to examine +it her thoughts became confused and turned to a hundred absurd +considerations, such as--at present--the loveliness of the night. The +scents of the flowers were overwhelming. He got on, too, better than +almost anyone else with her Uncle Gerrit's Manchu wife. She had watched +them together until it had dawned on her that the two had some important +qualities in common--they both appeared to stand a little aside from the +world, as if they were against the wall at a cotillion. She thought this +in spite of the fact that it was precisely what Roger Brevard never did; +it was true in the mysterious way of so much now that came from ideas +over which she had no control. + +The subject of Uncle Gerrit's wife--she had not yet been told or decided +for herself what to call her--was inexhaustibly enthralling. But, before +she was again fairly launched in it, she paused to wonder at the presence +of the dreadful Dunsack man on their lawn. His hollow yellow cheeks and +staring brown eyes which somehow made her think of pain, his restless +hands and speech, all repelled her violently. Taou--Taou Yuen hadn't +liked him either: when, after the longest time, he had gone, she replied +to a short comment from her, Sidsall's, father: + +"Rotten wood cannot be carved." + +Some one else had mentioned opium. She had intended to ask more +particularly about this, but it slipped from her mind. She remembered +that her grandfather made one of his familiar exclamations peppered with +an appalling word. He was really very embarrassing, and she was glad that +Roger Brevard had left. It was a bad example for Laurel, too, who copied +him, and only that morning said "My God" to Miss Gomes. Her mind swung +back to the consideration of the Manchu: The latter was the fact upon +which Camilla was so insistent, that in this case a Manchu was a noble, +almost a princess. Camilla suffered dreadfully from the endless questions +put to her outside their house about Uncle Gerrit's wife. She had more +than once wept at the public blot laid on them. Laurel was frankly +inquisitive and Janet as puzzling as usual. + +The clothes of course were enchanting, the richness of the materials and +hand embroidery marvellous; her jewelry was never ending. It didn't seem +quite like clothing, in the sense of her own tarlatan and crinoline, her +waist which Hodie wouldn't properly lace and tulle draping; there was a +certain resemblance to the dressing in Van Amburgh's circus; but--in +spite of Camilla's private laments--every inch of it was distinguished. +The layers of paint upset them, but Uncle Gerrit had explained, a little +impatiently, that it was a Manchu custom, adding that the world couldn't +be all measured and judged by Salem. + +Sidsall liked her rather than not, she decided; and determined to make an +effort to know her better. She wanted specially to discover the nature of +the bond that held one to the other, and explore, in safety, the depths +of love. She could not help feeling that her uncle's affair, +extraordinary as it was, must throw light on the whole complicated +business of marriage. ... The clock in the hall struck an indeterminate +half hour, it appeared to grow lighter outside, and there was a +twittering of martins from the stables. From above came the vigorous +harsh cawing of crows. Suddenly sleepy she returned to bed and almost +immediately the room was flooded with sunlight. + +It was an accepted fact now that Taou Yuen, the Garden of Peaches, stayed +in her room until long after breakfast; and when Sidsall, rising from the +table, found a servant taking up a pot of hot water for tea, she secured +it and knocked carefully on the door above. The slurring hesitating voice +said "Come in," and she entered with a diffidence covered by a cheerfully +polite morning greeting. She found the other in crêpe de Chine pantaloons +wrapped tightly about her ankles and bound over quilted muslin socks with +gay brocaded ribbons and a short floating gown of gray silk worked with +willow leaves. Her hair was an undisturbed complication of lustrous +black, gold bodkins and flowers massed on either side; and her face, +without paint or powder, was as smooth as ivory and the color of very +pale coffee and cream. + +Sidsall saw that she was at her toilet, and she put down the pot of +steaming water, moving toward the door; but Taou Yuen, with a charmingly +shy gesture, begged her to stay. She swiftly drew a cup of tea from +silvery leaves, filled and lighted the minute bowl of her tobacco pipe, +deeply inhaled the smoke; then returned to a mirror. + +Fascinated, Sidsall followed every motion. + +Taou Yuen polished her face sharply with a hot damp cloth and then dipped +her fingers in a jar that held a sticky amber substance. "Honey," she +said briefly, rubbing it into her cheeks and palms. Next she attacked her +eyebrows, and skillfully wielding a thin silk cord left arches like +pencil markings. At times she interrupted her preparations to turn to +Sidsall with a little smile so engaging that the girl smiled +sympathetically in answer. There were a gilt paper box of rice powder, +with which she drenched her countenance, leaves of carmine transferred to +her cheeks with a wet finger, and a silver pot of rouge from which she +coated her lips. As she gazed approvingly at her reflection Sidsall said: + +"It's very beautiful." + +Her eyes, drawn up toward her temples, shone gayly; and, close to +Sidsall, she touched the latter affectionately on the cheek. The cold +sharp contact of the long curving finger guard gave the girl an +unpleasant shock. It seemed lifeless, or like the scratching of a beetle. +Suddenly the woman's glittering gaze, her expressionless face stiff with +paint, the blaze of her barbaric colors, filled Sidsall with a shrinking +that was almost dread. + +She was even more oppressed by an instinctive feeling of what she could +express to herself only as cruelty hidden under the other's scented +embroidery. At the same time her curiosity persisted, conquered. She was +unable, however, to think of any possible manner of introducing the new +subject of her interest, love, and was forced to be content with an +indifferent opening. + +"We were all quite surprised when Mr. Dunsack called yesterday," she +said. "He isn't in the least a friend of the family. Grandfather went to +sea with his father, but even they didn't speak for years in Salem. The +Dunsacks are a little common." + +"I know," Taou Yuen replied. "Mr. Dunsack--a long time in Canton, at the +American agents. China is bad for men like him. Black spirits get in them +and the ten sins." + +"He stared at you in the rudest way." + +"He never saw a Manchu lady before. In China the dog would not have +passed by the first gate. Here it is nothing to be a Manchu or an +honorable wife; it is all like the tea houses and rice villages. Men walk +up to you with bold eyes. I tell Gerrit and he laughs. I stay in the room +and he brings me shamefully down. This Mr. Dunsack comes and the wise old +man talks to him like a son. He touches your mother's hand. He sees the +young girls like white candles." + +"We wouldn't let him really bother us," Sidsall explained; "probably if +he comes again we'll all be out." + +Taou Yuen made a comment in Chinese. "A bad thought is a secret knife," +she continued; "it is more dangerous than the anger of the Emperor, a +sickness that kills with the stink of bodies already dead." + +This seemed rather absurd to Sidsall. She considered once more the +introduction of the subject of her new concern; but, in spite of Taou +Yuen's extravagant appearance, there was a quality of being which made +impossible any blunt interrogation. She had a decidedly aloof manner. Her +mother, Sidsall recognized, and the older women they knew, had a trace of +this; but in the Manchu it was carried infinitely further, a most +autocratic disdain. Her feeling for the other shifted rapidly from +attitude to attitude. + +She watched, she was certain, these same sensations come over her Aunt +Caroline Saltonstone, Mrs. Clifford and Mrs. Wibird, who called on Gerrit +Ammidon's wife that afternoon. They were sitting with their crinoline +widespread against their chairs, gazing with a concerted battery of +curiosity at Taou Yuen's shimmering figure in the drawing-room screened +against the sun. Mrs. Wibird, Sidsall thought--a woman of fat and faded +prettiness, with wine red splotches beneath her eyes, and a voice that +went on and on in the relating of various petty emotional +disturbances--must have resembled Olive as a girl. It was probable, then, +that Olive would look like her mother when in turn she was middle-aged. +Mrs. Clifford, unseasonably huddled in her perpetual shawl, more than +ever suggested a haggard marble in somberly rich clothes. Aunt Caroline +sat with complacent hands and loud inattentive speech. Taou Yuen smiled +at them placidly. + +"Our men," said Mrs. Clifford, "went out to China for years. It never +occurred to them however to marry a Chinese woman; but I dare say they +didn't see the right sort." + +"Most of the captains like China," Taou Yuen said. "They are so far away +from their families--" she made a brief philosophical gesture, and Madra +Clifford studied her with a narrowed gaze. "It would be the same," she +continued, "if Chinamen came to America." Mrs. Wibird shuddered. "A +yellow skin," she cried impetuously; "I can't bide the thought." + +"I'm sure we'd be tremendously interested," Mrs. Saltonstone hurriedly +put in, "if you'd tell us about your wedding. A Chinese wedding must +be--be very gay, with firecrackers and--" + +"My marriage with Captain Ammidon was not beautiful--I was a widow and he +foreign. The Manchu wedding is very nice. First there is the engagement +ceremony. I sit like this," she sank gracefully to the floor, +cross-legged, "on the bed with my eyes shut, and, if I am noble, two +princesses come and put the _ju yi_, it's jade and means all joy, on my +lap. Two little silk bags hang from the buttons of my gown with gold +coins, and two gold rings on my fingers must be marked with _Ta hsi_, +that's great happiness." + +"I'm told polygamy is an active practice," Mrs. Wibird remarked with a +rising interest. + +"Yes?" Taou Yuen asked. + +"One man--a lot of wives." + +"The Emperor has a great many and some Manchus take a second and third. +You think that is wrong here. Who knows! The Chinese women are very good, +very modest. The Four Books For Girls teach perfect submission; the five +virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity. +Confucius says, 'The root is filial piety.'" + +"Very admirable," Mrs. Wibird nodded, agitating the small dyed ostrich +plumes tipped with marabou of her bonnet; but it was clear to Sidsall +that this was not the revelation for which she had hoped. A momentary +silence, the edge of an uneasiness, enveloped the visitors. + +"What lovely satins," Mrs. Saltonstone commented. + +"Please--I have a box full; you will let me give you some?" + +"Indeed yes, and thank you." + +Mrs. Wibird, growing resentful, said that a cousin of her aunt's had been +a missionary to China, "and did a very blessed work too." + +Taou Yuen smoothly agreed that it was quite possible. "Our poor have a +great many wrong and lustful ideas," she acknowledged; "they tell lies +and beat their wives and gamble. The higher classes too, the mandarins +and princes, use the people for their own security and rob them. +Sometimes the law is not honest, and a man with gold gets free when a +laborer is put in the bamboo cage." + +Mrs. Clifford said very vigorously, "Ha!" + +The silence returned intensified. + +"I remember," the Manchu went on, "this will amuse you. My father-in-law, +who was in the Canton Customs, told me that some boxes of Bibles came out +from America, with other objects, and when they were opened at the +Mission they were the wrong ones and filled with rum." + +There was not, however, any marked appreciation of this on the part of +the Salem women. They rose to leave and Taou Yuen sank on her knee. She +gazed without a trace of emotion at the three flooding the door with +their belled skirts. "They are the same everywhere," she told the girl. +The latter moved out into the garden. There she subconsciously picked a +rose and fastened it in her hair; her thoughts turned to Roger Brevard. +In his place her Uncle Gerrit came out through the drawing-room window. +The usual shadow of the house, lengthening with afternoon, was pleasantly +enveloping, and they walked slowly over the grass. + +"A flower in your hair," he said, "and by yourself. You have been +thinking about true love." She blushed vividly at this unexpected angle +on her mind and found it impossible to meet his keen blue eyes. "Love +must be a remarkable thing." She raised a swift glance to his face and +discovered that he had not spoken to her at all, but, hat in hand, was +looking away with an expression of abstraction. + +"I mean the unreasonable silly divine kind," he specified, now gazing +at her quizzically, as if lost in a mood over which he had no control; +"the sort that is as long as life and stronger. It is entirely +different and ages older than the reasonable logical love, all proper +and suitable and civilized; or the love that is the result of a +determination, the result of a determination," he repeated, frowning +darkly at their feet. Sidsall held her breath, thrilled by the wealth +of what she had heard, fearful of diverting what might be yet revealed. +But he moved away abruptly, in a manner that enforced solitude, and +stood apparently examining the rockery. + +Her brain rang with the splendid phrase, "Love as long as life and +stronger." It seemed to clarify and state so much of her lately confused +being. Hodie, artfully drawn into the consideration of earthly affection, +was far less satisfactory than Gerrit Ammidon. She dwelt on the treasure +beyond moth or rust, lost in an ecstasy of contemplation expressed in her +customary explosive amens. At the same time she admitted that lower +unions were blessed of God, and recommended Sidsall to think on "a man +who has seen the light and by no means a sea captain." Sidsall replied +cuttingly, "I think you must forget where you are." + +"I forget nothing," Hodie stoutly maintained; "I'll witness before +anyone." She settled the flounces of Sidsall's skirt with a deft hand. + +Walking toward the Saltonstones' for tea, with a mulberry silk parasol +casting a shifting glow on her expanse of clear madras, Sidsall +wondered at the sudden change of almost all her interests and +preoccupations. It was very disturbing--she fell into daydreams that +carried her fancy away on a search that was a longing, a soft confusion +of opening her arms to mystery. This varied with a restless melancholy; +the old securities of her life were hidden in a mist of uncertainty in +which her consciousness was troubled by nameless pressures; something +within her held almost desperately back from further adventuring. But +all the time a latent fascination was drawing her on, putting aside the +curtain for her better view. + +The Saltonstones' dwelling on Chestnut Street was one of a pair--a large +solid square of brick--with two identical oval white porticoes and rows +of windows keyed in white stone. Within the staircase swept up to a +slender pillared opening, through which Lacy, calmly dressing, waved a +deliberate hand. Mrs. Saltonstone was seated by the tall gilt framed +mirror on a low marble stand between long front windows. "As usual," she +said, in connection with her daughter, "Lacy's as cool as a water monkey; +gets it from James; they wouldn't hurry if--" She searched in vain for an +expression of her family's composure. "Now I am an impetuous woman." She +promptly exhibited this quality in the vigor with which she met the wrong +canister of tea brought by a servant. She didn't intend to serve Padre +Souchong to a lot of people who apparently confused afternoon tea with an +invitation to dinner. + +In the small press which followed Sidsall stopped in the dining room with +Lacy and Olive Wibird. Olive was still discussing men. "He sat holding my +hand right on that bench by your hedge, Sidsall, and said that nothing +could keep him from coming back for me, but he died of yellow fever in +Batavia." She left in the company of a beau of fifty anyhow, with a +glistening bald head, a silly smirking bow and flood of compliments. Lacy +moved away and Sidsall found herself facing Roger Brevard. + +"That looks remarkably like a garden," he said, waving toward an open +door. The sun had become obscured in a veil of cloud, drooping until it +almost seemed to rest on the bright green foliage; her companion's mood, +too, was shadowed. "I thought you'd be here," he added outside, "and +looked for you at once." + +"There was something special you wanted to say?" + +"My dear child," he replied, "can't you guess how absolutely refreshing +you are? No, I have nothing special. But you'll soon get used to men +around with no more reason than yourself." + +She studied this seriously; and, as its complimentary intent emerged, +a corresponding color stained her cheeks. Her gaze rested on him for +the fleetest moment possible and, to her surprise, she saw that he +was frowning. + +"I came here just to see you. No," he corrected his period, "only to see +you." His manner was surprisingly abrupt and disconcerting. "I can quite +realize," he went on, "that I shouldn't say any of this. Yet, on the +other hand, it is the most natural thing in the world. I have been +listening to the conventional babble of teas and cotillions for so long +that you are like a breath of lost youth. Certainly that is appropriate. +I think," he told her, "that you are the youngest thing alive." Then he +laughed, "So young that I have annoyed you." + +"I feel a great deal older than I did, well--last month," she said. + +"That is a tragedy." She felt that if he were still amused at her she was +furious, but he was even graver than before. "To tell you helps hurry the +charm to an end. That is what might be complained against me. Yet flowers +will open, you know, and it might as well be in an honest sun." + +"I don't understand," she admitted, troubled. + +"Why, it means, Sidsall, that I am offering you an experienced hand, that +I'm certain I can do you more good than harm--" + +"That's silly," she interrupted. "If you mean that we might be friends, +really confidential friends, it would help me awfully. But then it's so +one-sided." + +"You'll have to overlook that," he answered; "probably all that I can +give you, experience, isn't worth the smallest of your feelings. Probably +you won't need me for an instant. Certainly the pleasure will be mine." + +"You didn't understand," she told him, with dignity; "it's the other way +round. I am not a particle interesting and everyone agrees that I'm too +healthy. But I can't help it if my cheeks are red and mother won't let +me have powder." It was obviously impossible to explain about Hodie and +the lacing. + +"I like it," he insisted. "I'll admit that I am unfashionable there. I +think we'll hit on a great deal to share privately." There was a faint +patter among the leaves, and a cold drop of rain fell on Sidsall's arm. +Others struck Roger Brevard but he continued without apparently noticing +them. "You must understand that I am entirely at your service. Sometimes, +although they won't come yet, there are things a--a friend can do better +than one's family. You'll ask me, Sidsall?" + +"Yes," she said solemnly. More rain struck her; she could see it now +plainly, falling between them. Roger Brevard's face was dark, the frown +still scarred his forehead. Personally she was happier than she +remembered ever being before and she wondered at his severity of bearing. +"But you must go in at once," he cried, suddenly energetic, his familiar +self; "you are getting wetter every minute." + +The clouds dissolved into a late sunlight that streamed in long bars +through the canopies of elms on the streets. From her windows Sidsall saw +a world of flashing greenery and limpid sky. Usually when she was happy +she sang unimportant bits of light song, but her present state was +serious and inarticulate. The indeterminate questions, the disturbing +vague moods, of the past days somehow combined and took on the tangible +shape of Roger Brevard. Her curiosity about love was resolved into a +sudden inner shrinking from its possibilities and meaning. + +She was lost in her aloofness from mundane affairs: Taou Yuen in +whispering silk, her grandfather's rotund tones, Laurel and Camilla and +her mother, were distant, immaterial. In the evening she sat on the +front steps, a web of white, dreamily intent on the shimmering sweep of +Washington Square. After a little she was joined by Gerrit Ammidon. He +wore linen trousers and a short blue sea jacket; and the wavering +delicately lavender trail of smoke from his cheroot was like her +floating thoughts. + +"Already," he said, "I am full of getting back on my ship." + +She smiled at him absently. + +"The land doesn't do for a sailor," he continued. "They are always into +trouble on shore. I can't say why it should be so but it is. If there's +not one kind there is another; rum and such varnish for the able seaman, +and--and complications for a master. I suppose that's because there are +so confounded many unexpected currents and slants of wind, as you might +say. On shipboard everything pretty much is charted; a thing will be +followed more or less by a fixed consequence. The waves break so and so +on coral or rocks or sand; there is usually the sun for an observation; +a good man knows his ship, how many points she'll hold on the wind, how +a cargo must be stowed, when to take in the light canvas. You can give +the man at the wheel a course and turn in or stay on deck and beat your +way through hell. It's exact, you know, but on shore--" he made a +hopeless gesture. + +"There are no regulations," he observed moodily; "or else nobody follows +them: collisions all the time, sinkings and derelicts drifting round, +awash and dismasted. But they are everywhere. That fellow, Edward +Dunsack--" he stopped, lost in speculation. Then, "He seems harmless +enough," he resumed, "even pitiful; but he sticks in your head. I wish +I'd never brought his damned chest to Salem. A fool would have known +better. I'm worse--a childish fool. A derelict," he said again. "You are +smashing over a swell at twelve knots or more, everything spread, when, +in a hollow, there it is squarely across your bow. No time to shift the +wheel, and a ship's missing, perhaps in a hundred fathom. It might be the +best ship afloat, the best master and stoutest crew, but in a minute +she's only a salty tangle." + +He laughed uneasily at the vividness of his fancy. "If it's hard for us +what must it be for Taou Yuen?" he demanded. "Married to me! Here! That's +courage for you." He tramped down the steps, across Pleasant Street, with +his bare head sunk, and vanished into the obscurity of the Square. She +caught a last glimmer of white trousers, a faint rapid gleam where his +lighted cheroot described the arc of a passionate gesture on the night. + +The spring, like the full buds of the hedge roses in the Ammidons' +garden, passed swiftly into early summer. The flowers against the house +showed gay perennial colors, the stocks and larkspur and snapdragons +succeeded the retreating flood of the lilacs. The days were still yellow +pools of heat, or else cooled by the faintly salt sea wind drawing down +the elms and chestnuts, followed by purple-green nights of moonlight. +They seemed to Sidsall to hold everything in a pause. She saw less and +less of Taou Yuen who now scarcely came out of her room except for an +occasional ride in the barouche with Mrs. Ammidon or a contemplative hour +in the garden, usually at dusk. Apparently content with the elaborate +rearrangement of her headdress, she sat for long periods, gazing out over +Washington Square, idle except for the regular tap of her pipe emptying +the ashes of the minute bowl. + +Yet Sidsall's first interest in her had almost completely shifted to +Gerrit Ammidon. He evidently preferred her company to that of the other +members of his family, and they often took short largely silent walks, +usually down to the Salem Marine Railway where the _Nautilus_ was +undergoing repairs. His protracted silences were broken by the sudden +vehement protests against the generally muddled aspect of affairs or +longer monologues of inner questioning and search. He almost never +referred to her or made her part of a conversation; she was free to dwell +on her own emotions while he, with a corrugated brow, went on in his +tortuous and solitary course. + +On an afternoon when they had walked to the foot of Briggs Street, and +were gazing out over the tranquil water of Collins Cove, Gerrit Ammidon +asked abruptly: + +"Have you seen Nettie Vollar lately?" + +Sidsall was unable to remember exactly when that had been. She rather +thought she had caught a glimpse of her in Lawrence Place with books +under her arm which she was probably taking from the Athenaeum for her +grandfather. Anyone, she told herself privately, could see that Nettie +Vollar wouldn't care for books. + +Something had occurred, or threatened to occur, between her uncle and +Nettie; what it was she had never been told; but she realized that only +one thing could really happen between a man and a girl--they must have +been in love. In the interest of this she recalled Nettie Vollar's +appearance, but was unable to discover any marked attractions. The elder +had a good figure, rather full for her age, and totally different from +her own square solidity. Her hair was coarse and carelessly arranged, her +clothes noticeable for a love of brightness rather than care in the +spending of a small sum. + +Gerrit Ammidon had the strangest tastes! + +He was standing immobile, looking across the Cove as if he were on a +quarter-deck searching for a hidden land. His legs were slightly spread, +firmly planted in a manner to defeat any sudden lurching. She grew a +little impatient at him staring like a block at nothing at all; she felt +older than he, superior in the knowledge of life; he seemed hardly more +than an absurd boy. Sidsall had a desire to shake him. He was so--so +impracticable. "Don't you think we'd better be going?" she asked finally. +Gerrit Ammidon turned and followed her obediently. + +There were lights in the rope walk on Briggs Street; through a window she +could see a man pacing down the long narrow interior laying a strand of +hemp from the burden on his shoulders. It made her shudder to think of +the monotonous passage forward and back, an eternity of slow-twisting +rope. Yet life was something like that--she took the happenings of each +day and wove them into a strand dark and bright: a strand, she realized, +that grew stronger as it lengthened.... That would be true of +everyone--of her companion and grandfather and Hodie. + +They reached the house as the family were gathering in the dining room, +when Sidsall found Roger Brevard unexpectedly staying for supper. She met +his direct greeting and smile with a warm stir of pleasure and sat in a +happy silence listening to the voices about the table. Her uncle had +brought his wife down and the candles glittering among the lusters on the +walls spread their light over the Manchu's strange vivid figure. +Everything about life was so confusing, Sidsall thought. The night flowed +in at the open windows drenched with magic: here were candles but outside +were stars. The port in its engraved glass decanter seemed to burn with a +ruby flame. "Bah!" her grandfather was exclaiming. "I'll put a thousand +dollars on Gerrit and the _Nautilus_ against any clipper built; but mind, +in all weathers." + +"Voyage by voyage," William Ammidon insisted, "he would be left in the +harbor. The California gold deposits--." + +Later a crowd, slowly collecting, recalled the fact that the Salem Band +was to play that night in the Square. "Oh, mother, look," Laurel cried; +"they've got lamps in their hats." Small wavering flames were being +lighted on the musicians' hats; there were melancholy disconnected hoots +from bassoons and the silver clear scale of a bugle. "Can't I get nearer, +mother?" Laurel implored as usual. "Can't I go and see the little lamps +on their heads?" + +"Sidsall and I will look after her," Roger Brevard put in, and almost +immediately the three were entering Washington Square. The throng was +thickest directly behind the band, radiating in thinning numbers to the +wooden boundary fence. Laurel led them to an advantageous position, where +they could watch the curious effects of the ring of lights above intent +faces drawn hollow-cheeked by the vigorous blowing of instruments. The +leader, in the center of the flickering smoky illumination, now beat with +his arms in one direction, now in another. + +A second selection followed, and a third, during which, in surprising +pauses, the band shouted a concerted "Hurrah!" Sidsall was infinitely +contented. How splendidly erect and calm and distinguished Roger Brevard +was! She hated younger men, they were only boys, who kept up a senseless +talk about college humor. He saw instantly that the people were crushing +her skirts, and firmly conducted them out of the crowd. It was nicer here +beyond the wavering dark mass: a waltz flowed about her so tender and +gracious that her eyes filled with tears. + +But Laurel had to be taken home; and, clasping Mr. Brevard's hand, the +little girl talked volubly as they moved away. "And so," she said, "I +told her to keep her topsails full." + +"What?" he demanded. + +"She was falling off, you know--losing way. Hell's hatches--" + +"Laurel," Sidsall corrected her sharply. "No, you mustn't laugh at her." + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was on the steps, the other men were in the library; +her mother had gone up with Janet. Laurel left them, and, without speech, +they walked through the house to the lawn. The stars had apparently +retreated to new infinities of distance and night, there was a throb of +music so faint that it might be only an echoing memory; Roger Brevard's +face was pale and strained. He asked: + +"Have you forgotten that we are friends?" + +"No," she returned seriously, lifting her look to his. He was very close +to her and her heart beat unsteadily. She had a choking premonition of +what was about to occur, but she stood without the slightest attempt to +prevent his kiss. It affected him even more than herself, for he stepped +back sharply with his hands clenched. Roger was silent for so long that +she said, timidly: + +"I didn't mind, so much." + +"Thank you," he replied almost harshly. "There's no need for you to +regret it. No need, no need. But if it were only a year more--." + +"We all grow older," she told him wisely. + +"So we do, Sidsall, and we change. But you should stay exactly as you are +now, white and young and fragrant. Never the fruit but always the +blossom, and always a night in early summer. The afterwards is an +indifferent performance." + +"I don't understand," her voice was shadowed. + +"Sidsall for a moment. Don't move--opening petals, shy pure +heart...loveliness...." + +"I don't understand," she repeated, but the trouble had vanished. She +even smiled at him: she was filled with an absolute security in her +vision of Roger Brevard. Why, she had no need to question; it was an +instinct beyond search and above knowledge; perhaps, she thought as they +turned toward the house, its name was love. + + + + +VII + +The days, to Nettie Vollar, seemed to be both unutterably dull and +colored by a possibility of excitement like an undercurrent of hardly +perceptible fever. Her mother, it was true, took on herself most of the +duties of Barzil Dunsack's house; but there were still a large number of +little things that returned unvaried with every morning, noon and night +for the girl's attention. The cause of any impending excitement--except +the mere presence of Gerrit Ammidon in Salem, now surely of no moment to +her--she was unable to place. The feeling that pervaded her most was the +heavy conviction that her life was a complete waste, she had the +sensation of being condemned to stay in surroundings, in a service, that +never for a moment represented her desire or true capabilities. Her +family, as she had grown into maturity, seemed strange, her place there +an unhappy accident. + +At her brightest periods she pictured being suddenly, arbitrarily, +removed into happier appropriate regions. For a time that vision had +assumed the tangible shape of Gerrit Ammidon; then this comfortable +figure had abruptly left her to an infinitely more seldom return of her +faint indefinite hope. + +Through the inordinate number of hours when she was potentially alone she +had developed a strain of almost painful thought out of keeping with the +whole of her naturally unreflective being. In moments such as the +present--she was sitting in her room overlooking Hardy Street on its +landward reach--she followed the slow turnings of her mind in the manner +of a child spelling out a sentence. Two things seemed to her of the first +importance--the existence into which she had been forced by the +circumstance of her birth, and her unknown father himself: unknown, that +is, except for vague promptings and desires which, for need of a better +reason, she traced to his personality. That he was superior, in that he +had had a distinct measure of gentle blood, she was assured by her mother +on one of the rare occasions when the subject was touched between them. +To that she credited the greater part of her obscure dissatisfaction with +conditions which she described as mean. + +The latter evidently didn't disturb her mother or grandfather; she +realized that the long-drawn silent severity of the old man had crushed +what spirit her mother may have had. It was clear that the elder woman +had been very pretty, with wide fluttering eyes which made you think of +gray moths, and delicately colored cheeks; but all that had been crushed, +too. She was meek in a way that filled her daughter with determined +resentment and fear. The resentment sprang from the silent assertion that +she wouldn't be worn down like that; the fear followed the realization of +the rigid power of the old man and the weight of all that held her +powerless to escape. Naturally she was rather cheerful than somber, an +involuntary gayety rose from her in the drabbest moments; she even defied +Barzil Dunsack with ribbons and flowers on her bonnet. + +The prospect from her window offered no relief from the interior; it was +true that in the other direction she could catch glimpses of the harbor, +by leaning out she could get the comparatively full sweep at the bottom +of the street; but there were usually things ugly and restraining between +her and the freedom of the horizon. Her favorite place had been at the +edge of the grass above the tide; but, since his return, Edward Dunsack +had hit upon it too, and his proximity made her increasingly uneasy. For +one thing he talked to himself out loud, principally in Chinese, and the +sliding unintelligible tongue, accompanied by the sight of his gaunt +yellow face, his inattentive fixed eyes, gave her an icy shiver. It was +almost worse when he conversed with her in a palpable effort at an effect +of sympathy. + +She rose and wandered finally to the embankment of the garden. The water +shimmered under the full flood of afternoon; she was gazing at the +distance in an aimless manner that had lately fastened on her when she +heard a stirring of the grass behind her and Edward Dunsack approached. +He was livid in the pitiless light, and seemed terribly fragile, a thing +that a mere clap of thunder might crumble to nothing; she felt that she +could sweep him away with a broom; yet at the same time there were +startling gleams of inner violence, a bitter energy, an effect of +deepness, that appalled her. + +"If you should ask me," he declared, "if my opinion is of any value, I'd +say that Ammidon owed you considerable. He led you to expect something +better than his running away without a word; I'd have an explanation out +of him. Of course, if he had come back married--this affair with a +Chinese woman isn't that--it would be all over. But, somehow, with things +as they are, I can't believe that it is." + +"Do you expect me to go to their house, like you did?" she replied +resentfully. + +He turned such a malicious face on her that instinctively she moved back. +For a moment he was silent, his meager leaden lips drawn tight over dark +teeth in a dry grin, his fingers like curved wires; then, relaxing, he +cursed the entire house of Ammidon. "The truth is," he ended, "that you +were a little fool; you had everything, everything, in your hand and +threw it away." His gaze strayed from her to the surface of the water, a +short distance from the land. "Threw it away," he repeated; "it can't be +got in this country either." + +He was, she thought, crazy. However, all that he said about Gerrit +lingered in her mind; it fanned to new life the embers of her rebellion. +If a chance should come she would let Gerrit Ammidon know something of +the wrong he had done her. As her uncle had pointed out, the Chinese +woman was different from an American, a white woman. Their entire +position, Gerrit's and her own, was peculiar, outside ordinary judgments. + +She saw him occasionally from a distance, as she must continue to do +while he was in Salem, since no opportunity had been made for them to +exchange words. That must come from Gerrit. + +Her mother called her, and she went in, finding the elder in the kitchen. +"I can't get enough heat to bake," she worried; "you can bear your hand +right in the oven. Your grandfather won't have his sponge biscuit for +supper." Nettie declared, "I certainly wouldn't let it bother me. Just +tell him and let him say what he likes." Her mother turned palpably +startled. "But--", she began weakly. + +"I know exactly what you're going to say," Nettie cut in, "he has it +every night and he'll expect it. How much, I'd like to ask, have you +been expecting all your life and getting nothing? And now I am the +same. I don't believe we're as wicked as grandfather lets on, and I'm +certain he's not so good as he thinks. I don't admit we are going to +hell, either; if I did I can tell you I'd be different. I'd have a good +time like some other girls I see. I guess it would be good, anyhow, +with silk flounces four yards around. I'm what I am because I don't +listen to him; I don't pay any attention to the pious old women who +make long faces at us." + +"You mustn't talk like that, Nettie," her mother protested anxiously. "It +has a right hard sound. Your grandfather is a very upright religious man. +It's proper for those who sin to suffer in this world that they may be +humble for the next." + +"I don't want to be humble," Nettie told her. "The Ammidons aren't +humble. Mrs. Saltonstone isn't." A pain deepened visibly on the elder's +pale countenance. "You mustn't think it doesn't hurt me, Nettie, to--to +see you away from all the pleasure. It tears at my heart dreadful. That +is part of the punishment." The girl made a vivid gesture, "But you sit +back and take it!" she cried. "You talk of it as punishment. I won't! I +won't! I'm going to do something different." + +"What?" her mother demanded, terrified. + +"I don't know," Nettie admitted. "But if I had it to do over I'd kiss +Gerrit Ammidon as soon as he looked for it." + +"Nettie, do you--do you think he wanted to marry you?" + +"Yes," she answered shortly. "He's like that. Whatever you might say +against him he's honest." + +Her mother began to cry, large slow tears that rolled out of her eyes +without a sound. She sat with lax hopeless hands in her lap of cheap worn +dress stuff. Nettie Vollar felt no impulse toward crying; she was bright +with anger--anger at what Barzil Dunsack had done with her mother, at the +harm he had worked in her. "You are a saint compared to Uncle Edward," +she asserted. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but there is +something." + +"I've noticed it too: times his eyes are glazed like, and then his +staring at you like a cat. It's a fact he doesn't eat right, and he +forgets what's said as soon as a body speaks. Might he have some Chinese +disease, do you think?" + +"It's not like a real sickness...." + +The evening in the dreary sitting room with only the reddish illumination +of one lamp was almost unendurable. Her grandfather sat with broad wasted +hands gripping his shrunken knees, his eyes gazing stonily out above a +nose netted with fine blue veins and harsh mouth almost concealed by the +curtain of beard. Edward rose uneasily and returned, casting a swelling +and diminishing shadow--obscurely unnatural like himself--over the faded +and weather-stained wall paper. Her mother was bowed, speechless. Nettie +wanted to scream, to horrify them all with some outrageous remark. She +would have liked to knock the lamp from the table, send it crashing over +the floor, and see the flames spread out, consume the house, consume... +she stopped, horrified at her thoughts. + +She didn't want things like that in her mind, she continued, but the echo +of dancing, of music, of the Salem Band marching up Essex Street with Mr. +Morse playing his celebrated silvery fanfare on the bugle. She wanted to +laugh, to talk, yes--to love. Why, she was young, barely twenty-one; and +here she was in a house like the old cemetery on Charter Street. Before +they went to bed her grandfather would read out from the Bible, but +always the Old Testament. Finally he rose and secured the volume, bound +in dusty calf, its pages brown along the edges. His voice rang in a slow +emphasized fervor: + +"'Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken +the Lord, thy God, when he led thee by the way? + +"'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters +of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the +waters of the river? + +"'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall +reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, +that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in +thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. + +"'For of old I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou +saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every +green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. + +"'Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art +thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? + +"'For though thou wash thee with nitre--'" + +Nettie was impressed, intimidated, in spite of the contrary resolution in +the kitchen: the words seemed to burn into her mother, herself, like +boiling fat from a pan; and a great relief flooded her when she could +escape again to the temporary relief of her room. It was hot, the windows +were up, and she made no light that might attract mosquitoes or force her +to draw the close shades. She stood undressed luxuriating in the sense of +freedom of body. She was richly white in the gloom: her full young beauty +gave her a feeling of contentment and strength, and, equally, a great +loneliness. It wasn't corrupt, a "degenerate plant," she thought with a +passionate conviction like a cry. + +She determined to say no prayer to such a ruthless Being; yet, soon +after, in her coarse nightgown, she found herself kneeling by the bed +with hard-clasped hands. It was a prayer for which Barzil Dunsack would +have had nothing but condemnation: she implored the dark, the mystery of +Augustness, for carnal and light things, yes--for waltzes and quadrilles +and songs and pleasure, young pleasure, all the aching desires of her +health and spirit and nature and years; but most for love. She said the +last blindly, in an instinct without definition, with the feeling that it +was the key, the door, to everything else; and in her mind rose the image +of Gerrit Ammidon. She saw his firm direct countenance, the frosty blue +eyes and human warmth. He needn't have come at all, she added, if it had +been only to double the dreariness of her existence. + +She wondered a little, her emotion subsiding, at the interest her uncle +showed in her affairs. It wasn't like what else she had gathered of him; +and she searched, but without success, for any hidden reason he might +have. He actively blackened the name of Ammidon while he was lost in too +great an indifference to be moved by any but extraordinary pressures. +Everything left his mind, as her mother had said, almost immediately. +Suddenly weary, she gave up all effort at understanding. + +A wind moved in from the sea, fluttering the light curtains, and brought +her a sense of coolness and release. It came from the immense free sweep +of ocean to which her sinking consciousness turned in peaceful +recognition and surrender. + +Altogether, in the days that followed, she realized a greater degree of +mental freedom than before her revolt. She had removed herself, it +appeared, a little outside the family, almost as if she were studying +them calmly through a window: a large part of the terror her grandfather +had possessed for her had disappeared, leaving for her recognition a +very old and worn man; she was sorry for her mother with a deep +affection mixed with impatience. At first she had tried to put something +of her own revived spirit in the older woman but it was like pouring +water into a cracked glass: her mother was too utterly broken to hold +any resolution whatever. + +Nettie's feeling for Edward Dunsack became an instinctive deep distrust. +It was almost impossible for her to remain when--as he so often did +now--he approached her to talk about the injustice of her mode of life +and the debt Gerrit Ammidon owed her. He would stand with his fingers +twitching, talking in a rapid sharp voice, blinking continuously against +any light brighter than that of a shaded room or dusk. He seldom left the +office or went out through the day; his place at the dinner table was far +more often empty than not. But after their early supper, in the long late +June twilights, he had an inexhaustible desire for her to stroll with +him. She occasionally agreed for the reason that they invariably passed +in the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street, and saw the +impressive block of the Ammidon mansion. However, they never met any of +its inmates. Once they had walked directly by the entrance; some girls, +perhaps a woman, certainly two men, were grouped in the doorway: it was +growing dark and Nettie couldn't be certain. + +Edward Dunsack clearly hesitated before the bricks leading in between the +high white fence posts topped with carved twisting flames; and, in a +sudden agony at the possibility of his stopping, Nettie hurried on, her +cheeks flaming and her heart, she thought, thumping in her throat. + +Her uncle followed her. There was a trail of intimate merriment from the +portico, a man's voice mingling gayly with those of the girls. "That was +the Brevard who's in the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company," Edward +Dunsack informed her. "I hear he's a great hand for leading cotillions +and balls--the balls you ought to take part in." On and on he went with +the familiar recital of her wrongs. It carried them all the way over +Pleasant and Essex and Derby Streets home. The next day, however, he was +forced to go about the town, and returned for dinner in a state of +excitement evident to anyone. + +He ate without attention whatever was before him, and extravagantly +pleasant, related how he had conversed with Mrs. Gerrit Ammidon in the +family carriage in front of the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone on Liberty Street. Nettie was surprised that his concern was +caused by such a commonplace event. "The women of China--." Words failing +him, he waved a thin dry hand. His father frowned heavily. Then, +abruptly, as if he had been snatched out of his chair by an invisible +powerful clutch, he started up and disappeared. + +The afternoon passed the full and Nettie, bound in preparation for supper +for Redmond's, the Virginia Oysterman's at Derby Wharf, stood waiting for +some money. "I can't think where I left my reticule," her mother called, +"unless it's in Edward's room where I cleaned this morning. Just run up +and see.... He'll be at the office." + +Above, Nettie found the door closed, but it opened readily as she turned +the knob: she went in without hesitation. The interior she naturally +thought was empty; and then, with an unreasoning cold fear, she saw that +Edward Dunsack was lying on the bed. Some of his clothes were tumbled on +the floor, and he wore his black Chinese gown. The room was permeated +with a heavy smooth odor; on a stand at her uncle's hand was a curious +collection of strange objects--a little brass lamp with a flickering +bluish flame, a black and silver object like a swollen unnatural pipe, +stained bodkins, a lump of what she took to be tar-- + +Her attention was caught by Edward Dunsack's face: it had fallen back +with his pinched chin pointing toward the ceiling, it was the color of +yellow clay, and through his half-opened eyelids was an empty glimmer of +gray-white. She shrank away involuntarily, and the word "Dead" formed +just audibly on her trembling lips. In an instant she was in the hall, +calling in a panic-stricken voice, her icy hands at her throat; and her +grandfather mounted the stair with surprising agility, followed by his +daughter Kate. + +"Uncle Edward," Nettie articulated, waving toward the room from which she +had fled. The two women followed the rigid advance of Barzil Dunsack. As +he saw the figure of his son there was a stabbing gasp of his breath. He +halted for a moment, and it seemed to Nettie Vollar that suddenly his +determined carriage crumbled, his shoulders sagged; then he went forward. +The bed had high slender posts that at one time supported a canopy, but +now they were bare, and an old hand held to one as he bent over. + +"Is he dead?" the older woman asked. + +Barzil Dunsack made no immediate reply; his gaze turned from his son to +the stand, the fluttering lamp and its accessories. His head moved slowly +in the act of sniffing the pungent haze swimming in the interior. Nettie +could see his face, and she was appalled by an, expression grimmer than +any she remembered; it was both harsh, implacable, and stricken, as empty +of blood as the countenance on the bed. The hand on the post tightened +until it, too, was linen white. She drew close to her mother's side, +putting a supporting arm about the soft shaking shoulders. + +"No," said Barzil Dunsack, in a booming voice, "not dead, and yet dead +forever. Go downstairs," he commanded. They backed confused to the door. +"If Edward is sick--" Kate Vollar began. The old man's face blazed with +intolerable pain and anger. + +"Woman," he demanded, "can you cure what God has smitten?" His eyes +alone, hard and bright in the seamed and hairy face, drove them out into +the hall. Below in the sitting room Nettie exclaimed, "He might have told +us something!" + +"Whatever it is," her mother returned, "it's dreadful bad. I've felt that +all along about Edward; he's never been himself this last time." +Mechanically she found her reticule beside the painted ostrich egg from +Africa. "You'll have to get the oysters anyhow," she told her daughter, +maintaining the inevitable pressure of small necessities that defied all +tragedy and death. + +Nettie escaped with an enormous relief into the sunny normal tranquility +of the afternoon. The house had become too horrible to bear; and even on +the thronged length of Derby Wharf, like a street robbed of its supports +and thrust out into the harbor, she was followed by the vision of Edward +Dunsack's peaked clayey face. + +She got the oysters, and in an overwhelming reluctance to return walked +out to the end of the wharf, where a ship was discharging her +cargo--heavy plaited mats of cassia with a delicate scent, red and blue +slabs of marble, baskets of granular cakes of gray camphor, rough brown +logs of teak, smooth dull yellow rolls of gamboge, bags with sharp +conflicting odors, baled silks and half chests of tea wrapped in bamboos +and matting painted with the ship's name, _Rose and Rosalie_. + +There Nettie found herself beside a little girl clasping the hand of a +bulky old gentleman in pongee and a palm leaf hat and following every +operation with a grave critical regard. "I guess," she said to her +companion, "it's only the cheap sort of tea, a late picking, or it would +be in canisters." She was, Nettie realized, the youngest Ammidon child +with her grand-father. The latter looked round and recognized Nettie +Vollar. "How's Barzil Dunsack?" he asked immediately. + +She was at a loss for an answer, since she could not describe the subject +of the inquiry as all right nor explain their unhappy condition. "Intend +to stop in," Jeremy Ammidon continued; "last time I was there I went up +like a rocket." Laurel--that was the child's name, she remembered--gazed +at her intently. "I was saying to grandfather," she repeated precisely, +"that this wasn't really much of a cargo. Nothing like the one Uncle +Gerrit brought back in the Nautilus. We were having an argument about +Salem too. But, of course, all the big cargoes are going into Boston," +she sturdily confronted the flushed old man. + +"You're William all over again," he asserted, almost annoyed. Both their +expressions grew stubborn in a manner that, in view of their great +difference in age and experience, Nettie thought quite absurd. What a +beautiful dress the child had on--Porto Rico drawn work, with pale yellow +ribbons to her bonnet. "I wish you'd stay here a minute with Nettie +Vollar," Jeremy told her, "while I see the wharfinger." He went unhurried +along the wharf, and Laurel Ammidon drew closer to her. + +"She's not much of a ship either," Laurel said, indicating the _Rose and +Rosalie_. "She's built like--like grandfather. They're different now. I +went to New York to see the _Sea Witch_ launched, and she's the tallest +vessel afloat, with three standing skysail yards and, ringtail and water +sails. She's black and has a gilded dragon for a figurehead; and, +although she went out in a gale, got to Rio in twenty-five days. I talked +to Captain Waterman, too; he commanded the _Natchez_, you know." + +How the child ran on! "You've studied a lot on, ships," Nettie commented. +"I know the main truck from a jewel block," Laurel replied complacently. +"But Camilla's a frightful lubber. I should think she'd make Uncle Gerrit +sick. She does me." Nettie Vollar was seized by the temptation to +question Laurel about Gerrit Ammidon, about his wife--anything that +touched or concerned him. A wave of emotion swept over her, a loneliness +and a desire the cause of which she would not face. She wanted to take +Laurel's hand in hers, and with the old ponderous comfortable gentleman +go up to the serenity of their gardens and wide happy house. She wanted +Gerrit Ammidon to smile at her with his eyes blue like a fair sea... His +father was returning. + +Laurel again grasped the large hand and they turned to leave. Jeremy +Ammidon nodded to Nettie. Nothing remained for her but the place on Hardy +Street; then she saw that the others had stopped and were signaling for +her. "Captain Dunsack... old friend," the elder said abruptly. "Stubborn +as the devil. No worse than me, though, no worse than me. Confounded +proud, too. You let me know if there is anything, that is, if you need--" +he paused, breathing stormily, glaring at her in an assumed angry +impatience. + +"Thank you," she answered, "but there's nothing." + +What most shocked her on the return home was the manner in which their +life callously continued when she felt it should have been shattered by +their suffering in Edward Dunsack's room; yet not so much theirs as her +grandfather's. He took his place at the head of the table, the grace went +up as loudly as ever above their heads; but in spite of that she saw that +the old man suddenly looked infinitely spent. His knife slipped +insecurely and scraped against the plate in fumbling and palsied hands. +All at once she had a feeling of gazing straight into his heart, and +finding--like a burning ruby hidden in earth--such an agony beneath his +schooled exterior that she choked thinking about it. + +Nettie wondered what he would do if she put an affectionate arm about his +neck and told him of their sympathy. She knew now that her Uncle Edward +had been smoking opium, and that it was a worse vice, more hopeless and +destructive, than drink. But she was certain that he'd repel her; he +looked on them all, Edward Dunsack, her mother and herself, as sinful, +"degenerate plants." Even now, she realized, there was no weakening of +his spiritual fibers such as had plainly overtaken his physical being. He +had a blasting contempt for the unrighteous flesh. + +When they had risen from the table, Edward Dunsack appeared and sinking +weakly into a chair demanded a cup of tea. He knew nothing of their +discovery, of the fact that they had stood above his revolting +insensibility. After the tea he seemed to revive; he lighted a cheroot +and said something about going out. It wasn't possible, however; his +knees sagged walking the length of the floor; in the sitting room he fell +into a leaden apathy. Nettie Vollar's gaze rested on the volume of the +life of the missionary who had died at such an early age on the Île de +France. The lamplight spread over the depressing mustard yellow paint of +the woodwork with its obviously false graining and deepened the blackness +of the fireplace. Throughout the reading of the Scripture Edward Dunsack +never shifted his slumped position; his face, with smudged closed eyes, +seemed fixed in a skeptical smile. The hollows of his temples were green. +The reading finished, old Barzil said: + +"I wish to speak to Edward alone." + +The latter straightened up. "Eh!" he exclaimed. "What?" He resettled his +stock and crossed a knee with a show of ease. Nettie followed her mother +from the room. Her last impression was that of a startling resemblance +between the young man and old--her uncle's face was as ruined as the +other's--between father and son. "I wish he'd go away," her mother +surprisingly asserted; "I won't sleep for thinking of him lying there +like a corpse." + +"He'll not," Nettie replied, musing; "something is holding him we still +don't know of." + +She had lately begun to realize a great many things of which only a month +before she had not been aware--that sudden illuminating grasp of old +Barzil's inner pain, of her mother's wasted spirit, and the sense that +some unguessed potent motive was at the back of her Uncle Edward's +apparently erratic strolling and reiterations. Nettie stopped to wonder a +little at the change in herself: she was more alive, more included. There +were no reasons that she could see why this should be so; never had the +present, the entire future, been darker. With her deeper consciousness, +too, came an increased shrinking from life, a greater capacity for +injury; and there could be no doubt that it was an older Nettie Vollar +who, in her mirror, returned the questioning in the resentful black eyes. + +No further mention was made of the opium, no hint escaped from the two +men of what Barzil Dunsack had said to his son after the evening +reading of the Bible. An evidence of the miserable episode was visible +for a while in the difficulty of any attempted general conversation; +then that died away and everything was seemingly as it had been before. +But the rising gayety and widespread public preparations at the +approach of the Fourth of July made her existence drabber than ever. +There was, too, unusual planning, for later in the month President Polk +was to be in Salem. + +The various military organizations drilled incessantly: the Salem Light +Infantry, the Mechanic Light Infantry, the Salem Cadets and Independents +and a squad of the Salem Artillery might be seen at any hour of the +morning or early evening smartly marching and countermarching, led by +Flag's or the Salem Band. Strange constructions of light wood climbed in +Washington Square--the set pieces of the celebrated pyrotechnist secured +at a "staggering expense." Preliminary strings of firecrackers were +exploded by impatient boys and the dawn of the holiday was greeted with a +sustained uproar of powder. + +All this was communicated to Nettie in the form of a determination to +forget the dreariness of home and for once anyhow be a part of the +careless holiday town. Edward Dunsack opened the day by deprecating what +fireworks Salem could show and recalling the extravagant art of China in +that particular. No one, he said, of the least moment would be abroad in +the rabble; and he intended to spend the day over the invoice of a +schooner returned from Curaçao. She was glad of this, for it left her +free to get an uninterrupted pleasure from the morning parade, the floats +and fantasies, the afternoon drilling in Washington Square, and see the +last colored disk of the fireworks. Maybe, she told herself, tying the +becoming ribbon of her bonnet beneath a round chin with a lurking dimple, +maybe she wouldn't come back home once during the entire day! She +ignored, in the rush of her spirits, even her mother's lonely labors: for +once they'd have to do without her. Nettie took a scarlet merino shawl +for the cooler evening, shook forward the little black curls about her +face, and hurried away from Hardy Street. + +She was swept along in the crowd on Essex Street until, before the office +of the Salem _Register_, she found a place that commanded the parade. +There Nettie lost all memory of the dreariness that pressed upon her; she +became one of the throng, applauding the members of the East India Marine +Society carrying the palanquin from the Museum in native dress, or stood +with sentimental tears blurring her vision. The parade ended, and +currents of people swept toward dinner; but she stopped at a baker's and +got a paper of seed cakes, made in the shape of oak leaves and sat +contentedly eating them in the Common. + +The thought of Gerritt Ammidon, with all the other deeper aspects of her +life, was thrust into the back of her consciousness; she was existing as +she breathed--without will; the instinctive lighter qualities had her in +full possession. She felt that her cheeks were glowing and hummed the +refrains of the music she had heard. One by one the military companies +marched into the Square. She was fascinated by the tall leather helmets +and silver straps under severe young lips. The Newburyport men were in a +new scarlet uniform, that was the Boston Brass Band--it was painted on +the bass drum--with the Independents; there were the Beverly Taylor +Guards. The massed onlookers filled the broad plain. + +The drilling and countermarching proceeded and the afternoon waned. At +the disposal of the spectacle, when for an hour or two Washington Square +was comparatively deserted, when the sun sank lower and lower over the +roofs of Brown Street and the gold haze thickened, turning to blue, +Nettie became quieter but no less happy. The time sped; never was she +conscious of being lonely, by herself in a multitude composed of grouped +families and friends. It was all such a beautiful relief to the other +constant dwelling on somber and hopeless facts! Already people were +streaming in under the wooden arched gates for the evening display; +already she could see a star in the clear-shining green east. + +The fireworks, the papers said, were to be in two parts, ending with a +bombardment of Vera Cruz, five hundred feet long, and a series of +triumphant arches with full-length portraits in colored lights of +celebrated Americans. There was a sudden salute of artillery, and a +flight of rockets soared upward in long flaming curves, dissolving in +showers of liquid emerald and ruby and silver against the night. Bengola +lights casting a blue glare over the standing mob and farther house +fronts were followed by a great Peruvian Cross, a silvery fountain of +water and Grand Representation of Bunker Hill Monument. + +With this the first came all too soon to an end, and Nettie was folding +the shawl about her shoulders when almost the entire Ammidon family were +upon her.... In an instinctive confusion she saw William Ammidon and his +wife with their daughters, the old man, Jeremy, and Gerrit. + +They stopped before her in an assured, not unkindly inquisitiveness, the +girls fresh and bright-faced, with crisp lovely clothes; their mother, in +a smart mantle and little bonnet with knots of French flowers, greeted +her with a direct question tempered by a smile. William Ammidon, smoking, +was unconcerned; while Gerrit stayed obscured outside the group. "Whom +are you with, Nettie?" Rhoda Ammidon asked; and when she admitted that +she was alone the elder, with visible disapproval, asserted: + +"That won't do at all in this rough assembly. I must see that you are +taken care of." She hesitated, with a slight frown on her handsome brow. +"But you will want to see the rest of the fireworks. Yes, what you must +do is to come over to our steps, the view from there is fairly good, and +then some one can walk home with you." + +They moved resolutely forward, giving Nettie Vollar no opportunity for +protest, the expression of what she might prefer; and, with so many +determined minds, she dropped silently into their progress. She was +beside Rhoda Ammidon, the girls trooped on before, and the men--Gerrit +Ammidon--followed. Her peace of mind had been broken into a hundred +half-formed doubts and acute questions. She wished that she had declined +to go with them: the invitation, no, command, had been a criticism, +really. Now, after so long, it wasn't necessary for them to become +suddenly responsible for her. + +The happiness of the day sank a little, thoughts of her mother and +grandfather and Uncle Edward returned. But, at the same time, she +realized that she was near Gerrit once more. This made a confusion of her +emotions that hid what she most felt about him. It wasn't a proximity +that meant anything, however; it had been utterly different when he came +to see her before his marriage. Yet, just the fact of his being close +behind her, and that she would be on the steps at the Ammidons' with him, +undoubtedly had a power to stir her heart. + +It brought, like her carefree excursion, a certain momentary glow, a +warmth, without relation to what had gone before or might follow; there +was the same quality of momentary rest, refreshment, complete and +isolated as a jewel in a ring. She didn't analyze it further; but drifted +with the vigorous chattering tide of the Ammidons. + +They arrived at the impressive entrance open on a high dim interior. +Jeremy and William Ammidon went in, Rhoda lingered while a chair was +brought for her, and Sidsall and Camilla, Laurel and Janet ranged +themselves facing the Square. Gerrit hung silent in the doorway. + +"Perhaps Taou Yuen will come down," Rhoda Ammidon suggested, and Nettie's +throat was pinched at the possibility of seeing Gerrit's Chinese wife. +But he answered shortly in the negative. Taou Yuen preferred to stay in +her room; the view from her window was better than this. The latter was +easily possible, for here the set pieces were almost unintelligible: an +impressive beehive could be seen surrounded by swarming golden bees, a +pyramid of Roman candles discharged their rushes of colored balls and +streamers; but the bombardment of Vera Cruz was a cause of bitter +complaint to the children. + +The fireworks had ceased to have the slightest significance for Nettie; +she was luxuriating in the suavity of the Ammidon steps and company. It +seemed to her that an actual air of ease rolled out over her from within. +Seen from her place of vantage the great throng in the Square was without +feature, the passersby on Pleasant Street--as Edward Dunsack and herself +had been--were unimportant. The massive portico and dignified fence, the +sense of spaciousness and gardens and lofty formal ceilings, the feeling +of fine silks and round clear direct voices, of servants for everything, +everyone, transcended in force all her speculations. She was +familiar--who wasn't in Salem?--with the meaning of the house's name, +Java Head. It was more, quite heaven. + +Thoughts of Gerrit winged in and out of her mind like wayward birds. She +turned with studied caution and glanced swiftly but intently at as much +of his countenance as she could see. Her memory vividly supplied the +rest. There wasn't another like it--one so clear and compelling to +read--in the world. + +The past in which he had had a part seemed like an impossibly happy +dream. She was hardly able to believe that he had been in their sitting +room, walked with her in the evening to the grassy edge of the harbor, +or held her fingers in his hard cool grasp. Now she wondered if he were +contented. She couldn't quite decide from glimpses of his face; but +something that had nothing to do with vision disturbed her with the +certainty that he was troubled. It might mean unhappiness, but she +wasn't sure. + +"Now there go the arches!" a young voice exclaimed, "and I just can't see +anything. You'd never know at all it was a temple of eight columns. Oh, +look--there's a number coming out, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.'" +A tide of hand clapping swept over the dark masses. "No," Laurel +continued, "that's Salem.... It's Washington, no, General Taylor." + +The amazing day, Nettie realized, was over, the people flowed back +through the gates like a lake breaking in streams from its bank; there +was a stir on the steps. Looking up she saw that the stars were obscured, +and a low rumble of thunder sounded from a distance, a flash lit the +horizon. Now she must go back, return to Hardy Street, to her bitter +grandfather like an iron statue eaten by rust and storms, to Edward +Dunsack following her with his dragging feet and thin insinuating voice, +to her hopeless mother. + +"It's the powder," she heard, about what she had no conception. Rhoda +Ammidon turned decidedly to her. "It was nice to have you, Nettie," she +declared; "but we must see about getting you safely home. The carriage +would be best since it's threatening rain." She didn't, she replied, want +to give them so much bother, she often went on errands after supper, +she'd, be all right-- + +"Nonsense," Mrs. Ammidon interrupted impatiently. Then Gerrit advanced +from the doorway. "I'll walk down with her," he said almost roughly. "No +need to take the horses out so late." Nettie Vollar thought that his +sister-in-law's mouth tightened in protest, but he gave them no chance +for further argument. He descended the steps with a quick grinding tread, +and she was forced to hurry through her acknowledgments in order to +overtake him. + +The night at once absorbed them. + +The air, charged with the fumes of gunpowder and rumbling with low +intermittent thunder, was oppressive and disturbing. Gerrit's head was +exactly opposite her own, and she could see his profile, pale and still, +moving on a changing dark background. He walked with the short firm +stride men acquire on the unsteady decks of vessels, swinging his arms +but slightly. Neither spoke. The rain, Nettie saw, was hanging off; +probably it would not reach Salem, Washington Square was already empty +except for a small obscure stir by the scaffolding for the fireworks. A +murmur of young voices came from a door on Bath Street. Such minute +observations filled her mind; beneath their surface she was conscious of +a deep, a fathomless, turmoil. It was a curious sensation, curious +because she couldn't tell whether it was happiness or misery. One now +exactly resembled the other to Nettie Vollar. + +She grasped, however, one difference--it was happiness now, the misery +belonged to tomorrow. But suddenly that last unrealized fact--at once +immaterial and the most leaden reality of all--lost its weight. The +greater freedom she had lately grown into became an absolute +indifference, a half willful and half automatic shutting of her eyes to +everything but the present, the actuality of Gerrit Ammidon walking by +her side. She wanted him to speak, so that she could discover his +thoughts, feelings; yet she was reluctant to have their companionship of +silence broken: words, almost all the possible terms she could imagine, +would only emphasize the distance between them. + +She was thinking of one now--a word he had never pronounced, but which +she felt had been, however obscurely, at the back of the attention he +had paid her: love. It was a queer thing. It seemed to be--everyone +agreed that it was--of the greatest, perhaps the first, importance; and +yet all sorts of other considerations, some insignificant and others +mean and more, yes--cowardly, held it in check, drove it back out of +sight, as you might hurriedly shut some shabby object into a closet at +the arrival of visitors. + +"How have you been?" he demanded in the abrupt voice of the expression of +his determination to see her home. Well enough, she assured him, if he +meant her health. He glanced at her with somber eyes. "Not altogether," +he admitted; "it included your family, things generally." + +"They are as bad as possible," she told him. She admitted this frankly, a +part of her entire surrender to the moment, careless of how it might +affect him. "They would be," he muttered savagely. "It's a habit ... +here." The "here," she knew, referred to life on shore; his gloomy +attitude toward the management and affairs of the land had caused her a +great deal of precious laughter. He had revealed a most astonishing +ignorance of necessities that she had understood instinctively when +hardly more than a child; and this simplicity had, as much as anything, +brought her affection for him to life. At the same time she in particular +had felt the justice of a great many of his charges. But no one could +reasonably hope for the sort of world--a world as orderly and trim as +that of a narrow ship--he thought should be brought about by a mere +command. Nettie wished that it could! She sighed, gazing at him. + +"Then it's no better than before?" he asked, adding, with a descriptive +gesture: "the town and people?" + +"I hardly speak to ten in a year, outside the stores and like that. Of +course they nod going into church, or a lady, I mean really, your +sister-in-law, will say something nice, even do what you saw to-night. +Though it's the first time anything like that has happened." + +She caught a repressed bitter oath. + +"I suppose I'll get used to it," she continued. "No, I won't," she added +differently; "never, never, never." + +"If you were a man now--" he said with an incredible stupidity. + +She wondered angrily if he'd rather have her a man; there had been a +time, Nettie reflected, when such a possibility would have stirred him to +violent protest. And this brought out the reflection that, while at one +time he might have cared for her, now perhaps he was merely sorry for her +unhappiness. Yes, this must be it. She had a momentary fatal impulse to +throw back at him scornfully any such small kindness. She didn't, she +told herself, want condescending sympathy. What silenced her was the +sudden knowledge that she did; she wanted anything whatsoever from Gerrit +Ammidon. The fact that he had a Chinese wife was powerless to alter her +feeling in the smallest degree. On the contrary, she was shocked to find +that it had increased immensely, it was growing with every minute. + +She wondered drearily if her stubborn love--the term took its place +without remark in the procession of her thoughts--for Gerrit didn't, in +spite of her protest to the contrary, stamp her as quite bad. Perhaps +her grandfather was right about them all--her mother and Uncle Edward +and herself, and they were wicked, lost! The energy with which she had +combated this charge now faced by the circumstance of her realized +affection for a man married to some one else, even Chinese, wavered. +All the cheerful influences of the day, rising to the supreme tranquil +hour on the Ammidon porch, sank to dejection; it was like the flight of +the rockets. + +She walked listlessly, her brain was numb; she was terribly tired. Gerrit +Ammidon's head was bent and she was unable to see his expression. He +might even have forgotten, by the token of his self-absorbed progress, +that she was at his side. + +"There's going to be a stir in Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone," he said +presently, "when my father hears of the new program. Everything is +turning to the fastest California runs possible. William and James +Saltonstone want me to take command of a clipper. But I find I'm like my +father, Nettie; all my experience has been in the East and the China +service. I'm used to it. I'd never get on navigating a passenger boat, a +packet ship, from Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Boston. +The other's in my blood, too--running the northeast trades to Brazil and +coming up into the southwest passage winds for the Cape of Good Hope. A +long reach nearly to Australia and then north again to the Indian Ocean +and southeast trades. + +"I'm fit for that, for long voyages, a blue-water sailor and all it +means; but battering back and forward round the Horn with my deck +cluttered up by prospectors and shore crews the mates would have to slam +into the rigging--!" His exclamation refused every face of such a +possibility. She understood his necessity completely; and the brief +account of such far happy journeys, safe from everything that Salem had +come to mean for her, filled her with longing. + +"I'm beginning to see," he took up again the self-examination, "that I am +to blame for a good deal that I've found fault with in others. I mean +that I'm a different variety of animal, and, naturally, no judge of the +kinds of holes they live in or the way their affairs are managed." + +"You are worlds better!" she cried. + +He turned to her, obviously startled, and she held for a long breath his +unguarded intense gaze. "Not very useful, I am afraid," he replied at +last; "not today, anyhow. I belong to a life that is dying, Nettie; mark +my words, dying if not already dead. And I'm newfangled to my father. It +goes as quickly as that." + +This was a fresh mood to all her knowledge of his impatient arrogance, +and one that sent her to him in a passionate unperceived emotion. They +had arrived at her home and were waiting aimless and silent. Beyond, the +gate to the yard was standing open, and Nettie saw that his discovery of +the fact had occurred at the identical moment of her own. She made an +involuntary movement forward and he followed her through to the blurred +tangle of bushes and bare trodden earth. Mutely they turned to the sod +spread at the harbor. + +The thunder had died away, but pale sheets of reflected lightning hovered +at short intervals low in the sky. Directly above them stars shone again. +The window of the sitting room still bore the illumination of the lamp +within; and Nettie could picture her mother, with stained and rough hands +loose on their wrists, opposite Barzil Dunsack's gaunt set countenance. + +"You said something about things as bad as possible." + +In a level voice she told him about her discovery of Edward Dunsack +unconscious in his black wrap on the bed. "I thought he had died," she +repeated almost monotonously; "he had such a yellow gone look." + +"But that can't be allowed!" he cried. "You mustn't see it. Indecent, +worse. The beast will have to be removed. No one will hear of his staying +about with two women and a fanatical old man." She was afraid that he +would go into the house at once and appear with her uncle, very much in +the manner of a dog with a rat. Her sense of a worldly knowledge, a +philosophy of realization, far deeper than his own returned. Things +couldn't be disposed of in that easy manner; it was probable that they +couldn't be disposed of, righted, at all. Her mother, with her help, must +continue to keep Barzil's home: there was no other place for Edward +Dunsack to go. "He won't hurt us," she said vaguely. "It's principally +bad for him. Then, at first, I didn't know. You get used to so much." + +He, Gerrit Ammidon, wouldn't have it, he asserted in a heated return of +his familiar dictatorial manner. The fellow would be out of there +to-morrow. It was a damned unendurable outrage! + +She smiled softly and laid a momentary hand on his sleeve. "That's +nothing, Gerrit; nothing compared to the rest, to me." He frowned down at +her out of the gloom. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +He again cursed Salem and the world with which he had proclaimed himself +out of date and sympathy. This, while it communicated to her a certain +warm comfort, resolved nothing, made no reply to her question. To-morrow +offered precisely the same hopeless outlook of yesterday. No answer from +Gerrit, Gerrit married, was possible. She saw that. + +"I'm not fit to go around on land blubbering and setting tongues to +clapping," he declared. "I ought to be locked in my cabin when the ship's +in port, and let out only after sail's made again." + +She heard a slight movement in the grass; and turning sharply caught the +vague outline of a man, the thin unsubstantial shape of Edward Dunsack. +He vanished immediately; Gerrit, absorbed in bitter thought, had missed +him. Strangely her uncle only filled her mind with the image of China, +the China that had ruined him, and which, too, in the form of a woman, a +Manchu, had destroyed the hope of any acceptable existence of her own. + +"Great pretensions and idiotic results," he went on; "no ballast. Take +what your grandfather said to me--nothing in that unexpected or to drive +a man off. Yet off I go and--" he halted oddly, just as her breath was +suspended at the admittance which she was certain must follow. But he +fell into another glooming silence. + +After all, she couldn't expect him to continue that development. A +different man might; and Nettie wasn't sure of her refusal to +listen...to the end. But she was familiar with Gerrit's unbending +conception of the necessity of truth alone. If he married a woman, +yellow, black, anything, he would perform, the obligation to the entire +boundary of his promise. Good and bad seemed equally united against her. +Little flashes of resentment struck through her leaden, conviction that +all this was useless. + +"I must be of some use to you." + +But, Nettie realized, there was only one way in which he could help her; +only one thing she wanted--could take--from him. She was terrified at the +completeness with which love had possessed her, making every other fact +and consideration of little interest or importance. Suddenly it seemed as +if she were being swept by an overwhelming current farther and farther +out from safety into a bottomless immensity that would claim her life. + +"Yet," he cried, "if I lift a hand, here, in Salem, if I as much as cross +the street to speak to you--the clapping tongues! I can do you nothing +but harm. Though Rhoda might--" + +"I don't want your Rhoda!" she interrupted passionately. "I've managed +without them all up to now." He raised his arms in a hopeless gesture. +"Nothing's to be done," she concluded. "I saw that all along; that is, +this last time." + +"It's late," he muttered absently; "you have had a day." He turned +mechanically and moved away from the indefinite black rim of the harbor. +The lamp in the sitting room had been extinguished, the house was dark. A +brief embarrassment seized her as he stood trying vainly to find +something confident, even adequate, to say for farewell. And as the stir +of his footfalls died away up Hardy Street the memory of his last futile +words mocked her laboring heart. + +She turned and faced Edward Dunsack, advancing from an obscurity deeper +than the rest. He murmured approvingly, she caught words of commendation +and unspeakable reassurance. She hurried away blindly, sick to the inmost +depths of her being. The morning, when she had tied her gay bonnet +ribbons and started out with the scarlet merino shawl on her arm, seemed +to belong to a long, long time ago, to a girl.... The popping of a final +string of firecrackers died outside. + + + + +VIII + +The dejection, the sense of a difference that held from him any +comprehension of the vast maze of shore life, persisted as Gerrit Ammidon +walked toward home. It was such an unusual feeling that he was conscious +of it; he examined and speculated upon his despondency as if it had been +something actually before him. The result of this was a still increased +disturbance. He didn't like such strange qualities arbitrarily forcing +their way into his being--he had the navigator's necessity for a clear +understanding of the combined elements within and without which resulted +in a harmonious, or at least predictable, movement. He distrusted all +fogs. In a manner the course before him was plain--married to Taou Yuen, +shipmaster in his family's firm, he had simple duties to perform, no part +of which included sailing in strange or dangerous waters; yet though this +was beyond argument he was still troubled by a great number of unpleasant +conditions of mind and obscure pressures. + +Gradually, however, his normal indignation returned, the contempt for a +society without perceptible justice, centered principally in what Nettie +Vollar had had from life. This, he assured himself, wasn't because he was +in any way involved with her; but because it was such a flagrant case. +She was a very nice girl. It was entirely allowable that he should admit +that. As a fact, he warmly felt that he was her friend; the past +justified, no, insisted on, that at least. He wondered exactly how fond +he had been of her--in other words, how near he had come to marrying her. +It had been an obvious possibility, decidedly; but the desire had never +become actual. No, his feeling for her had never broken the bounds of a +natural liking and a desire to secure decent treatment for her. The last +had been vain. + +If his mental searching had ended there it would have presented no +difficulties, created no fog; but, unfortunately, there was another +element which he admitted with great reluctance, an inborn discomfort. +Although he had been clear about what had actually happened with Nettie +there was reasonable doubt that the same limitations had operated with +her. Briefly she had missed him more than he had realized. He explained +this to his sense of innate masculine diffidence by the loneliness of her +days. She had missed him....something within whispered that she still +did. Women, he remembered hearing, were like that. + +In the light, the possibility, of this he saw that he had done her a +great wrong. + +It had been his damned headlong ignorance of the dangerous quality of +life, the irresponsibility of a child with gunpowder. With all this in +his mind it seemed doubly imperative that he should do something for her; +he owed her, he was forced to admit, more than a mere impersonal +consideration. His thoughts returned unbidden to the fact that she--she +had liked him. He insisted almost angrily on the past tense, but it +surprised him and gave him a perceptible warm glow. Nettie was very +pleasing: he inferred that she was a creature of deep emotions, +affections. + +At this he shook himself abruptly--such things were not permissible. +Gerrit felt a swift sense of shame; they injured Nettie. His mind shifted +to Taou Yuen. He found her asleep on the day bed she preferred, her +elaborate headdress resting above the narrow pillow of black wicker. He +could distinguish her face, pallid in the blue gloom, and a delicate, +half-shut hand. He was flooded with the intense admiration which +increasingly formed his chief thought of her; this, with the obvious +racial difference, put her, as it were, on an elevation--a beautifully +lacquered vase above his own blundering person. She was calm, serious and +good, in the absolute Western definitions of those terms; she had her +emotions under faultless control. Taou Yuen should be an ideal wife for +any man; she was, he corrected the form sharply. All that he knew of her +was admirable; the part which constantly baffled him didn't touch their +relationship. + +It was reasonable to expect small differences between her and Salem: at +times her calm chilled him by a swift glimpse of utter coldness, at times +he would have liked her gravity to melt into something less than ivory +perfection; even her goodness had oppressed him. The last hadn't the +human quality of, for example, Nettie Vollar's goodness, colored by +rebellion, torn by doubt, and yet triumphing. + +If he only understood the three religions of China, if he were an +intellectual man, Gerrit realized, he could have grasped his wife more +fully. He was completely ignorant of Chinese history, of all the forces +that had united to form Taou Yuen. For instance: he was unable to +reconcile her elevated spirit with the "absurd superstitions" that +influenced almost her every act--the enormous number of lucky and unlucky +days, the coin hung on his bed, the yellow charm against sickness and red +against evil spirits; only yesterday she had burnt a paper form +representing thunder and drunk its ashes in a cup of tea. She was +tremendously in earnest about the evil spirits--they were, she +maintained, lurking everywhere, in all shapes and degrees of harm. Edward +Dunsack was possessed, she declared; but he had pointed out that opium +was a sufficient explanation of anything evil in him, and that it was +unnecessary to look for a more fantastic reason. + +He lay awake for a comparatively long while, as he had several times +lately, divided between his consciousness and the regular breathing of +his wife. If the past had brought Nettie Vollar to depend on him in +some slight degree Taou Yuen did so absolutely: except for him she was +lost in a strange world. Yet Taou Yuen didn't seem helpless in the +manner of Nettie. He had once before thought of the former as finely +tempered metal. Her transcendent resignation, with its consequent lack +of sympathetic contact with the imperfect humanity of--well, Nettie, +gave Taou Yuen a dangerous freedom from all that bound Salem in +comparative safety. + +He dressed first, as usual, in the morning, while she stirred only enough +to get her pipe and tobacco, on the floor at her side. Outside, the elms +were losing their fresh greenness in the dusty film of midsummer; the +Square held an ugly litter from the fireworks of last evening. William, +too, was about, but he was uncommunicative, his brow scored in a frown. +Their father, always down before the others, had returned from the +inspection of his trees, and was tramping back and forth in the library. +The elder seemed unrested by the night, his skin, as Rhoda had pointed +out, was baggy. + +"Now that the _Nautilus_ is afloat again," Jeremy Ammidon said, "you'll +want to be at sea." Examining this natural conclusion, Gerrit was +surprised, startled, to find that it was no longer true. For the first +time in his memory he was not anxious to be under sail. This of course +was caused by a natural perplexity about Taou Yuen's comfort and +happiness. + +"I don't know what the firm's plans are for me," he answered cautiously. +"There is some talk of taking me out of the China trade for the +California runs. I shouldn't like that." + +Jeremy was turning at his secretary, and he stopped to pound his fist on +its narrow ledge. "It's that damned Griffiths again and his cursed +jackknife hull!" he exclaimed. The dark tide suffused his countenance. +Gerrit studied him thoughtfully: he didn't know just how much William had +yet told their father about the sweeping changes taking place in Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. He did see, however, that it was unwise to +excite the old gentleman unduly. + +"I was saying only yesterday," he put in pacifically, "that you and +myself are getting to be old models--" he broke off as William entered +the library. The latter evidently grasped at once the subject of their +discussion, for he went on in a firm voice somewhat contradicted by a +restrained but palpable anxiety: + +"Now, father, this was bound to come up and you must sit down and listen +quietly." The elder, on the verge of a tempestuous reply, constrained +himself to a painful attention. "It's useless to point out to you the +beneficial changes in sea carrying, for you are certain to deny their +good and drag out the past. So I am simply forced to tell you that after +careful consideration we have decided to line the firm with the events of +the day and hold our place in the growing pressure of competition. This +may sound brutal, but it was forced on us by the attitude you have +adopted. Shortly, this is what we intend, in fact are doing: + +"Orders have been placed with George Raynes at Portsmouth and Jackson up +in Boston for clippers of a thousand and twelve hundred tons and another +is almost ready to be launched from Curtis' Chelsea shipyard. It oughtn't +to be necessary to call your attention again to the fact that the _Sea +Witch_ has brought the passage from Hong Kong to something like three +months. The profits of the California trade will be enormous and depend +entirely on speed. + +"I'll admit that this is a big thing, it will cut sharply into our +funds--something like a quarter of a million dollars. But, if you will be +patient for a little only, I can promise that you'll see astonishing +returns. At the same time we have no intention of giving up China and +India, but we'll limit ourselves more closely in the nature of the +cargoes, practically nothing but tea unbroken from Canton to Boston. I'll +be glad to go into all this in detail at the countinghouse, where we have +the statistics and specifications." + +To Gerrit's surprise Jeremy Ammidon sat quietly at the end of William's +speech; he wasn't even looking at them, but had his gaze bent upon the +floor. There was a commanding, even impressive, quality in his silence +that forced the respect of both his sons. More--it made Gerrit +overwhelmingly conscious of his affection, his deep admiration, for his +father. He recalled the latter's memorable voyage in the little _Two +Capes_--the barque of two hundred and nine tons--into the dangers, so +imminent to a master, of uncomprehended waters and thousands of miles +with, for the most part, only the sheerest dead reckoning. Jeremy Ammidon +said finally: + +"If it's done it's done. I used to think there were two Ammidons in the +firm, not to mention Gerrit; but it seems there's only one. A man who has +never been to sea." He rose and marched, slower and more ponderous than +ever before, to the cupboard where he kept the square bottle of Medford +rum; there, with trembling hands, he poured himself out a measure. He +shut the glass door, but stood for an oppressive space with his back to +the room, seeing that old vision of struggle or accomplishment. + +"I suppose I've been a damned nuisance about the countinghouse for a long +time," he pronounced, turning. William rose. "You made it," he said; +"it's you. God forgive me if I have been impatient or forgetful of all we +owe you." There was a stir of skirts in the doorway, and Rhoda entered. +"Breakfast--" she stopped, and with a quick glance at her husband and +Gerrit went at once to Jeremy Ammidon. "They've been bothering you +again," she declared, and turned an expression of bright anger on the +younger men. "Ah, how hard and hateful and blind you are!" she cried. + +William, with a hopeless gesture, walked from the room. Gerrit moved to a +window facing the Square; but he saw nothing of its sultry yellow-green +expanse--he was remembering how as a child, his mother already dead, a +nurse had held him up on Derby Wharf to see his father sweep into port +from the long voyage to the East. He caught again the resonant voice, as +if sounding from a hold of ribbed oak, the tremendous vigor of the arm +that swept him up to a bearded face. He couldn't bring himself to move +now and see an old haggard man clinging with tremulous emotion and tears +to the sympathy, the strength, of a woman. + +Later in the morning, to his immense relief, Jeremy Ammidon regained a +surprising amount of composure. At first determined never to return to +Liberty Street, toward noon Gerrit found him in the hall with his broad +hat and wanghee. "I'll just have a slant at those specifications," he +remarked. "Like as not they've left off the hatch coamings." Gerrit +suggested, "Since it's so hot why don't you have the carriage round?" The +other voiced his customary disparagement of that vehicle. "If I see that +I'm going to be late for dinner," he added, "I'll get one of the young +men to fetch me something. I don't want to give Rhoda any trouble." + +Still, on the steps, he lingered, gazing pridefully up at the bulk of the +house he had built; his eyes rested on the brass plate, engraved with the +words Java Head, on the dignified white door. "A lot of talk when I had +that done," he commented; "people said they'd never heard of it, ought to +have my name there for convenience if nothing else. They didn't know. It +would take a sailor for that. Don't forget to tell Rhoda not to wait if +I'm late. All those girls of hers get hungry. I expect William consulted +Laurel about this new move," he ended with a gleam of humor. "She's a +great hand for a clipper since she talked to Captain Waterman." He was +down the steps, starting deliberately across the street. There was a last +mutter of doubt. The bulky slow figure in yellow Chinese silk moved away +and Gerrit returned to the shadowed tranquillity of the library. + +More than any other place in the house it bore the impression of his +father. He wandered about the room, lost in its associations, stopped +in front of the tall narrow walnut bookcase and took out one of the +small company of Jeremy Ammidon's logs, reading disconnectedly in the +precise script: + +"Tuesday, December 24. 132 days out. All this day gentle breezes and +cloudy. Saw kelp, birds, etc. + +"Tacked ship to the eastward under short sail. At daylight made all sail +to SW. Gentle breezes and clear pleasant weather. Saw huge shoals of +flying fish." + +"May 19, 11 days out. Hainan in sight, bearing from W by N to NNW. At +sunset the breeze died away and hauled off the land. All night light +breezes. Made all possible sail to the SSW. At the same time set the +extremity of Hainan which bore NW by N to N. Past three Chinese +vessels steering NNE. Saw much scum on the water and at 11 A.M. lost +sight of land." + +"November 14, 65 days out. These twenty-four hours commences with +variable breezes at west and smooth sea. Saw brig steering to the +Eastward. The land of Sumatra bearing SW by W to SE by S. Tied rips." + +He returned the log to its resting place with a quiet smile at the last +period. It was all incredibly simple--a lost simplicity of navigation and +a lost innocent wonder at the Mare Atlanticum of old fable. + +Neither William nor Jeremy Ammidon was present for dinner. They were, +Gerrit concluded, submerged in the effort to bring the changing +activities of the firm into the latter's comprehension. His foot was on +the stair leading up to his wife, when there was a violent knocking on +the front door. It sounded with a startling abruptness in the shut hall, +and Gerrit instinctively answered without waiting for a servant. The +flushed and breathless young man before him was evidently perturbed by +his appearance. He stammered: + +"Captain Ammidon, you--you must come down to the countinghouse. At +once, please!" + +His thoughts, directed upon his father, gathered into a chilling +certainty. "Captain Jeremy is sick?" he demanded instantly. The +hesitation of the other seemed to confirm an infinitely greater +calamity. "Dead?" he asked again, in a flooding misery of apprehension. +The clerk nodded: + +"In a second, like," he continued. "All we know they were talking in Mr. +William Ammidon's room--one of the boys was out that minute getting the +old gentleman some lunch--when we heard a fall, it was quite plain, and +Mr. Saltonstone--" + +"That will do," Gerrit cut him short. He turned into the house, rapidly +considering what must follow. He'd go, certainly; but first he must warn +Rhoda, she would have the girls to prepare.... Rhoda had always been +exceptionally considerate and fond of Jeremy Ammidon. He found her at the +entrance to her room, and said, "My father is dead." Her warm color sank +and tears filled her eyes. + +Hurrying over Bath Street to Liberty his grief was held in check by the +pressing actualities of the moment. He had time, however, to feel glad +that he had spent the morning largely in warm thoughts of the dead man. + +He passed rapidly into the entrance of the establishment of Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. Immediately on the right there was an open +railed enclosure of desks in the center of which a group of clerks +watched him with mingled respect and curiosity as he continued to the +inner shut space. It was a large light room with windows on Charter +Street. William's expansive flat-topped desk with its inked green baize +was on the left, and, under a number of framed sere ships' letters and +privateersmen's Bonds of the War of 1812, Gerrit saw the heavy body +extended on a broad wooden bench, a familiar orange Bombay handkerchief +spread over the face. + +Never in all the memory of his brother had William Ammidon been so +stricken. As he entered James Saltonstone left studying a list hastily +scribbled on a half sheet of the firm's writing paper. He nodded silently +to Gerrit, who advanced to the covered face and lifted the handkerchief. +There were still traces of congestion, but a marblelike pallor had taken +the place of the familiar ruddy color. Something of the heaviness of his +old age, the blurring thickness of long inactivity, had vanished, giving +his still countenance an expression of vigor, resolution, contradicted by +an arm trailing like the loose end of a heavy rope on the floor. William, +with a clenched hand on his desk, spoke with difficulty: + +"You must know this, Gerrit; and then I'll ask you never to allude to it +again. It might be argued that--that James and I killed him, but +absolutely without intention, by accident. Gerrit, I loved him more than +I took time to know. Well, you may or may not have heard that we own two +topsail schooners in the opium trade, between India, Ningpo and Amoy, but +you do know how father detested anything to do with the drug. We said +nothing to him about this; it seemed necessary, no--permissible. But +to-day when we were coming to a peaceable understanding about the new +contracts he stumbled over one of the schooner's manifests. Mislaid, you +see--a clerk! It swept him to his feet in a rage, he couldn't speak, +and--and he had walked, it was hot...." + +Gerrit Ammidon made no answer; there was nothing to be said. He was +shaken by a burning anger at the cupidity, the ugly commercial grasping, +to which his father had been sacrificed. A gulf opened between him and +his brother and James Saltonstone; he was as different from them as the +sea was from the land, as the wind-swept deck of the _Nautilus_ was from +this dry building with its stifling papers and greed. He might be in the +service of the firm--Gerrit was not incorporated in the partnership--he +might carry their cargoes for the multiplication of the profit, but his +essential service and responsibility, his life, were addressed to another +and infinitely higher and more difficult consummation than the stowed +kegs of Spanish dollars, the bills of sale. This was composed of the +struggle with the immeasurable elements of the seas and winds, the safety +of lives, the endless trying of his endurance and will and luck. + +"Now," he spoke with a perceptible bitterness, "you can have your way +without interference, without his mixing up your papers or making the +blunders of a slow sort of honesty." + +"I am under no obligation to your judgment or opinion," William +replied stiffly. "There are always complications you will never +penetrate nor carry. At present your assistance is more necessary than +any display of temper." + +The funeral gathered and ebbed in a long procession of carriages through +a sultry noon, the services at the grave concluded by the symbolic +dropping of the earth on Jeremy Ammidon's coffin lowered into the deep +narrow clay pit. The large varied throng lingered for a breath, as if +unable to take their attention from the raw opening that had absorbed the +shipmaster, and then there was a determined and reassuring commonplace +murmur, a hurrying away into the vital warmth of the day. + +The evening was the loveliest summer and the garden of Java Head could +afford: a slow moon disentangled itself from the indigo foliage at the +back of the stable and soared with an increasing brilliancy, bathing the +sod and summerhouse and poplars, the metallic box borders and spiked +flower beds, in a crystal clearness. The Ammidons sat about the willow, +Rhoda with a hand affectionately on her husband's arm, the +children--Laurel and Janet staying without remark long past their +accustomed hours for bed--still and white under the blanching moon. +Gerrit intently studied his wife, Taou Yuen, in a concentrated manner. +She, too, was in white, the Chinese mark of sorrow. + +Suddenly in the face of his suffering and memories she had appeared +startlingly remote, as if, from standing close beside him, she were +moving farther and farther away. The image was made profoundly +disconcerting by the fact that they acted without their own accord; it +took the aspect of a purely arbitrary phenomenon over which they had no +control. At the same time Nettie Vollar was surprisingly near, actual--he +could see every line and shading of her vivid face; he felt the warm +impact of her instant sympathy. He had caught a glimpse of Barzil Dunsack +at the funeral; but the other was immediately hidden by the crowd, and +Gerrit had been unable to discover whether his son and daughter or Nettie +had accompanied him. + +His thoughts turned in a score of associations and questions to Nettie; +but when he found himself trying to picture her exact employment at the +present moment he was angrily aroused. He had, he realized, considered +nothing else for the past hour, and his preoccupation was growing more +intense, personal. He stirred abruptly, and fixed his mind on the +imminent changes from his father's death. First the possibility would +develop of his becoming a member of the firm; but to this, he silently +declared, he would not agree. His gaze rested with a faint underlying +animosity on William, seated upright in a somber absorption, and a +disparagement of the latter's activities and scale of values. Gerrit saw +that there must be a pacific legal knot to untangle; the division of +Jeremy's estate would require time--he had somewhere heard that such +affairs often dragged on for a year; and now he was again in a fever of +impatience to be away, safe, at sea. He added the more portentous word +with the vague self-assurance that it was only the customary expression +of his notable ignorance of land; but it echoed with an ominous special +insistence in his mind. + +The _Nautilus_, he recalled, was once more afloat, repaired; and a plan +occurred to him that seemed to dispose of all his difficulties, even of +the distasteful possibility of the California clipper service. He could +take the ship as part of his inheritance; and, though ostensibly sailing +her in the interest of the firm, make such voyages and ports, carry such +cargoes, as his independence dictated. The _Nautilus_, with a cargo out +of tin and dyes and cotton manufactures, and forty or fifty thousand +trade dollars, would represent a sum of nearly two hundred thousand; but +as a family they were very rich; he'd have more than that; and bank the +remainder intact to the credit of his wife. + +There were many practical aspects of his marriage that he had not stopped +to weigh in its precipitant consummation. The problem, pointed out by +Rhoda, of his absence from Taou Yuen on cruise could not be solved with +the facility he had taken for granted. It was as impossible to leave her +happily here--he was aware of her growing impatience with Western +habit--as it would be for him to become a contented part of Chinese home +life; and not only was she uncomfortably cramped and sick on shipboard, +but he doubted whether he could persuade his crews to sail with her. +Superstitious able seamen balked at the presence of even a normal wife +aft; and a Chinese would be regarded as a sign of certain disaster. + +He would have to establish her somewhere in the East Indies; and he +viewed with a new dislike all such tropical settings. His entire life +threatened to become an affair of damnable palm trees and Oriental +stenches. Gerrit Ammidon broke into a cold sweat at the realization of +the far more direct implication that had taken substance in his mind. The +thing was going entirely too far! He wondered irritably at the obscure +cause for such violent inner agitations. + +Rhoda Ammidon with a dim smile rose, gathering her daughters about her, +and departed in a pale cloud of muslin. Taou Yuen, with her murmuring +formal politeness, moved away too, leaving the brothers together. +Whatever sympathetic intercourse they might otherwise have had, whatever +shared memories of their boyhood and their father, were made impossible +by William's admission of the immediate cause of the elder's death. + +"The Saltonstones are going into Boston this fall," William said +abruptly. "It is necessary for one of us to live there; and Caroline has +always had a hankering for wider society. Rhoda, I was surprised to +learn, wishes to remain here at Java Head for a year or so anyway. She +has a very real affection for the place. But I tell her when the girls +are older Boston, or perhaps New York, will give them far greater +opportunities. Sidsall, stranger still, was in tears at the whole thing; +she seemed ridiculously upset about leaving." + +The vision of Nettie Vollar persisted, bright and disturbing. Once he was +at sea, Gerrit told himself, on the circumscribed freedom of his +quarter-deck, he would lose the unsettling fever burning at that instant +in his veins. But the memory of long solitary passages with nothing to +distract his mind through week upon week after the ship took the trades, +when hour upon hour his thoughts turned inward on themselves and reviewed +every past act and feeling, made doubtful even that old release. The +trouble was that he instinctively avoided any square facing of the +difficulty that had multiplied with such amazing rapidity--like a banyan +tree--about the present and the shadowed future. This he was forced to +admit, but grimly added that there could be only one answer to whatever +he might lay bare--the adherence to the single fundamental duty of which +he never lost sight. No port was gained by changing blindly from course +to course, that way lay the reefs; a man could but keep steadily by the +compass. That, at least, was all he could see, propose, for himself, +being rather limited and lacking the resources which others of greater +knowledge so confidently explored. + +After breakfast on the following morning he mounted the dignified +staircase, with the sweeping railing of red narra wood and high Palladian +window at the turn, to his wife. In their room he was bathed in a cold +sweat of dismay at a sudden detached view of Taou Yuen in her complete +Manchu mourning for his father. An unhemmed garment of coarse white hemp +hung in ravelings about slippers of sackcloth; what had been an elaborate +headdress was hidden under a binding of the bleached hemp; she wore no +paint nor flowers; her pins and earrings were pasted with dough, and her +expression was drugged with the contemplative fervor of what had +evidently been a religious ceremonial. + +"For the wise old man, for your father," she said. She was exhausted and +sank onto the day bed; but almost immediately her hand reached out in the +direction of her pipe, and she smiled faintly at him. He clenched his +sinewy hands, the muscles of his jaw knotted, as he gazed steadily at the +woman, the Manchu woman, he had of his own free accord married. It +sickened him that, for the drawing of a breath, he had regarded Taou Yuen +with such appalling injustice--injustice, the evil he hated and condemned +more than any other. What, in the name of God, was he made of that he +could sink so low! + +"We'll leave here soon," he declared abruptly; "the _Nautilus_ will be +ready for sea almost any time." + +He could recognize, from his slight knowledge of her, that Taou Yuen +welcomed the news. "Shanghai?" she asked. He nodded. It came over him +that he was no longer young. His father had retired from the sea within a +few years of his own present age and built Java Head, the house that was +to be a final harbor of unalloyed happiness. No such prospect awaited +him; he had one of the premonitions that were more certain than the most +solid realities--as long as he lived he must sail in ships, struggling +with winds and calms, with currents and cockling and placid seas. Well, +that was natural, inevitable, what he would have chosen. At the same time +he dwelt, with a sensation of loneliness, on the green garden and +drawing-room filled in June with the scent of lilacs, on Rhoda surrounded +by her girls. + +When the question of the division of Jeremy Amnudon's estate came up, he +was, as he had foreseen, urged to become a partner of the firm; and, when +that failed, told that it was his vested duty to continue in his present +capacity as a shipmaster in all their interests. He was seated with +Saltonstone and William in the countinghouse and he could tell from his +brother's ill-restrained impatience that the other considered him hardly +more than a clumsy-witted, stubborn fool before the mast of the facts of +actual life. + +His gaze, above their heads, rested on the framed pass of the ship +_Mocha_, one of his father's last commands, over the bench where he had +lain dead. It was given by the President, James Monroe, in 1818, its +white paper seal embossed on the stained parchment. It had an engraving +of a lighthouse and spired town on the dark water's edge, and above, a +picture of a ship with everything drawing in a fair wind, the upper +sails torn off on a dotted wavering line for the purpose of +identification with its stub. + +"No," he told them quietly, "I'll go my own way as I said; with the +_Nautilus_, if that can be arranged." He rose with a nod of finality, and +James Saltonstone remarked, "Jeremy to the life." Gerrit replied, "I'd +not ask anything better." + +Through the evening he heard little but the discussion of Mr. Folk's +approaching visit to Salem. The President was to leave the train at the +Beverly Depot at three P.M. and be fetched with Secretary Buchanan and +Marshal Barnes in a barouche with six horses and met at the outskirts of +Salem by the city authorities. + +There would be a Beverly cavalcade, the city guard was ordered to muster +at the armory; while an evening parade at five o'clock and the military +ball in Franklin Hall were to follow. + +But when the day and occasion actually arrived it was spoiled by a +succession of unforeseen mishaps. The train was late and the presidential +party in a fever of haste--the procession, hurrying through the massed +public-school children and throngs of Chestnut Street, gave a perfunctory +attention to the salutes and short address of the mayor. The President's +reply, hardly more than a few introductory phrases, cut short, the +barouche was sent plunging over its route with the Secretary crying, +"Drive on! Drive on!" and Marshal Barnes swearing and expectorating in +callous profusion. + +Some of the crowd, the Ammidons heard, had been knocked down and injured +in the pell-mell of the rush. Gerrit's countenance showed his contempt of +what he held to be a characteristically ludicrous farce. After all, his +wishes in regard to the _Nautilus_ had been easy of execution, the ship +was now his; he was already contracting for a cargo. He had been to see +Mr. Broadrick, his first mate, and the latter was assembling the chief +members of the crew. As always at the prospect of sailing he was +unsettled, concerned with countless details of departure--like a vessel +straining at her last anchor. + +Seated in the library with Taou Yuen--he had called her aside from her +fixed passage to their room from the garden--he was recounting his main +plans for the near future, when he became aware of an arrival on the +steps outside. He heard a servant's voice, and, immediately after, the +woman appeared in the doorway; but she was forced aside by Edward +Dunsack. Gerrit's quick resentment flared at such an unmannered +intrusion, and he moved ungraciously forward. The servant explained +impotently, "I told him I would see--" + +"Yes?" Gerrit Ammidon demanded. + +Dunsack bowed ceremoniously to Taou Yuen, then he faced the other. On the +verge of speech he hesitated, as if an unexpected development made +inadequate whatever he had been prepared to say; then, with a sudden +decision, he hurried into an emotional jumble of words. "I can tell you +in a breath--Nettie was badly hurt in that cursed rabble yesterday. It +looks as if she was actually struck by one of the horses. She was +unconscious, and then delirious; now she is in her right mind but very +weak; and, since she wished to see you, I volunteered to put our pride in +my pocket and carry her message." + +An instant numbing pain compressed Gerrit's heart; he felt that, in an +involuntary exclamation, he had clearly shown the depth of his dismay. +Damn the fellow, why had he burst out in this public indecent manner! The +situation he had plausibly created, the thing he managed to insinuate, +was an insult to them all--to his wife, Taou Yuen, coldly composed +beyond, himself and to Nettie. He stood with his level gaze fixed in an +enraged perplexity on Edward Dunsack's sallow countenance, deep sunk on +its bony structure, conscious that there was no possibility of a +satisfactory or even coherent reply. + +"Something was said about this afternoon," the other added. That period, +Gerrit realized, was nearly over. But above every other consideration +rose the knowledge that he would have to see Nettie Vollar, badly +injured, as she desired. The common humanity of that necessity left him +no choice. + +He turned to Taou Yuen with a brief formal explanation. A friend, their +families had been associated for years, had been hurt and sent for +him.... Return immediately. He paused, in the act of leaving, at the door +of the library, waiting for Edward Dunsack to join him; but the other had +resolutely turned his back upon Gerrit. He showed no indication of +departure. Gerrit Ammidon was at the point of an exasperated direction; +but that, in the light of Dunsack's purpose there, appeared ridiculously +abrupt; and confident of his wife's supreme ability to control any +situation he continued without further hesitation to the street, hurrying +in a mounting anxiety toward the Dunsacks'. + +Dwelling on his conduct in the library, at the sudden announcement of +Nettie's accident, he felt that he had acted in a precipitant if not +actually confused way. As a fact, it had all been largely mechanical; his +oppression, his dread for Nettie, had made everything else dim to see and +faint to hear. Dunsack's grimacing face, the immobile figure of his wife, +the familiar sweep of the room, had been things of no more substance than +a cloud between him and the only other reality existing. He had no +memory, for instance, of having stopped to secure his hat, but he found +it swinging characteristically in a hand. And now even the semblance of +reasonable speech and conduct he had managed to command vanished before a +panic that all but forced him into a run. + +The main door of Barzil Dunsack's house was open on the narrow somber +region within; he knocked sharply against the wood at the side and was +immediately answered by the appearance of Kate Vollar. + +"This is a great kindness, Captain Ammidon," she told him in her negative +voice; "come in here, please." He looked hastily about the formal space +into which she led him, expecting to see Nettie prostrate, but she was +not there. "How is she?" he demanded impatiently. + +"Nettie?" her mother turned as if surprised by an unexpected twist of the +situation. "Oh, why she'll mend all right, the doctor says; but it will +be slow. Her arm had an ugly slithering break, and she suffers with it +all the time." A pause followed, in which she met his interrogation with +a growing mystification. "I suppose Edward told you," she ventured +finally. The sense of being at a loss was swiftly communicated to him. + +"Your brother said Nettie wanted to see me," he returned bluntly. + +"Now, however could Edward do a thing like that!" she cried in deep +distress. "Why, there's no truth to it. I asked him myself to see if +you'd kindly stop and give me some advice. What put it in my head was +that once your father offered--he told Nettie to let him know if there +was anything to be done. Edward Dunsack isn't just right in his head." + +Gerrit was filled with a mingling sense of disappointment, relief that +Nettie was no worse, and the uncomfortable conviction that he had behaved +like an hysterical fool. He, too, but angrily, wondered why Dunsack had +invented such an apparently pointless lie. Probably Kate Vollar was +right, and her brother's wits, soaked in opium, had wandered into a realm +of insane fabrications. He composed himself--the first feeling blotting +out his other emotions--to meet the deprecating interrogation before him. + +"I should be glad to do what I could in my father's place." + +"In a way," she continued, "it's about Edward. When he came back from +China and decided to stay in Salem his father turned all the books over +to him; he was to tend to everything in the way of accounts and +shipments; and, he said, he would make us all rich in a year or so. But, +instead, he has neglected the clerking until we can't tell what's going +or coming. Edward hasn't--hasn't quite been himself lately," she paused +and Gerrit nodded shortly. "Now we're not wealthy, Captain Ammidon, we +never got more than just enough from our West India trade; but in the +last couple of months, with Edward like he is and father too old for +columns of figuring--he's dreadful forgetful now--not a dollar was made. +The schooners are slow, behind the times I guess, we've had to scrape; +yet it's been something.... They're both awful hard to do with," she +stopped hopelessly. + +"You must get a reliable man in charge. Some one who knows the West India +shipping should go over your entire property, decide what is necessary, +then borrow the money. We can find that without trouble. I'll make only +one condition: That is the complete restraint of your brother. It is +known that he has the opium habit, he is a dangerous--" + +He stopped at the echo of a thin persistent tapping from above. "That's +Nettie," Kate Vollar said; "the way she calls me. I'll ask you to excuse +me for a minute." When she returned her face bore an unaccustomed flush. +"Nettie heard you in the hall or through the stovepipe." She spoke +doubtfully: "She'd like to see you, but I don't know if it would be right +with her in bed. Still, I promised I'd tell you." + +He rose promptly. The woman stood aside at the upper door and he at once +saw Nettie lying with her vigorous black hair sprawling in a thick twist +across the pillow. Her face was pinched, it seemed thin, and the +brilliancy and size of her eyes were exaggerated. One arm, clumsy and +inanimate in splints, was extended over the cotton spread; but with the +other hand she was feverishly busy with her appearance. She smiled, a wan +tremulous movement that again shut the pain like a leaden casket about +his heart. + +"Do go away, mother!" Nettie directed Kate Vollar hovering behind them. +"Your fidgeting will make me scream." With an incoherent murmur she +vanished from the room. The girl motioned toward a chair, and Gerrit drew +it forward to a table that bore water and a small glass bowl partly +covered by a sheet of paper, holding a number of symmetrical +reddish-black pills. "Opium," Nettie told him, following his gaze; "I +cried dreadfully with the hurt at first. It's dear, and Edward made those +from some he had. You know, I watched him roll them right here; it was +wonderful how quickly he did it, each exactly alike, two grains." She +told him the circumstances of her accident while he sat with his eyes +steadily on her face, his hands folded. + +He was quiet, without visible emotion or speech; but there was an utter +tumult, a tumult like the spiral of a hurricane, within him. Rebellious +feelings, tyrannical desires and thoughts, swept through him in waves of +heat and cold. Nettie's voice grew weak, the shadows deepened under her +eyes, for a little they closed; and but for the faint stir of the +coverlet over her heart she was so pallid, so still, that she might have +been dead. Moved by an uncontrollable fear he bent toward her and touched +her hand. Her gaze slowly widened, and, turning over her palm, she weakly +grasped his fingers. A great sigh of contentment fluttered from her dry +lips. "Gerrit," she whispered, barely audible. He leaned forward, blinded +by his passion for her. + +He admitted this in an honest self-knowledge that he had refused +recognition until now. Tender and reassuring words, wild declarations and +plans for the future, crowded for expression; nothing else before the +immensity of desire that possessed him was of the slightest concern; but +not a syllable was spoken. A sharp line was ploughed between his brows; +his breath came in short choked gusts, he was utterly the vessel of his +longing, and yet an ultimate basic consideration, lost in the pounding of +his veins, still restrained him. + +"I love you, Gerrit," Nettie said; "I'll never stop till I die." Her face +and voice were almost tranquil; she seemed to speak from a plane above +the ordinary necessities of common existence, as if her pain, burning out +her color and vigor and emotions, had given her the privilege of truth. +Curiously enough when it seemed to him that she had expressed what should +have sent him into a single consuming flame he grew at once completely +calm. He, too, for the moment, reached her state of freedom from earth +and flesh. + +"I love you, Nettie," he replied simply. + +However, he speedily dropped back into the sphere of actual +responsibilities. He saw all the difficulties and hovering insidious +shadows in which they might be lost. This, in turn, was pushed aside by +the incredulous realization that Nettie's life and his had been spoiled +by a thing no more important than a momentary flare of temper. If, as +might have happened, he had overlooked Barzil Dunsack's ridiculous +tirade, if he had turned into the yard where Nettie was standing instead +of tramping away up Hardy Street, everything would have been well. + +It was unjust, he cried inwardly, for such infinite consequences to +proceed from unthinking anger! A great or tragic result should spring +from great or tragic causes, the suffering and price measured by the +error. He could see that Nettie was patiently waiting for him to solve +the whole miserable problem of their future; she had an expression of +relief which seemed to take a happy issue for granted. None was possible. +A baffled rage cut his speech into quick brutal words flung like shot +against her hope. + +"I love you," he repeated, "yes. But what can that do for us now? I had +my chance and I let it go. To-day I'm married, I'll be married to-morrow, +probably till I die. Perhaps that wouldn't stop a man more +intelligent--it might be just that--than I am; perhaps he'd go right +after his love or happiness wherever or however it offered. There are +men, too, who have the habit of a number of women. That is understood to +be a custom with sailors. It has never been with me; as I say, maybe I am +too stupid. + +"What in the name of all the heavens would I do with Taou Yuen?" he +demanded. "I can't desert her here, in America, leave her with William. I +brought her thousands of miles away from her home, from all she knows and +is. If I took her back and dropped her in China it would be murder." + +An expression of unalloyed dreariness overspread Nettie's features. "I +wish I had been killed right out," she said. The starkness of the words, +of the reality they spoke, flowed over him like icy water; he felt that +he was sinking, strangling, in a sea grimmer than any about Cape Horn. He +was continually appalled by the realization that there was no escape, no +smallest glimmer, leading from the pit into which they had stumbled. He +had the sensation of wanting enormously to go with Nettie but was fast in +chains that were locked on him by a power greater than his will. + +"It's no good," his voice was flat. + +"I don't believe I'll see you again," Nettie articulated; "now the +_Nautilus_ is near ready to sail. I can't stand it," she sobbed; "that +last time you went out the harbor just about ended me, but this is worse, +worse, worse. I'll--I'll take all the opium." + +"No, you won't," he asserted, standing, confident that her spirit was too +normal, too vitally healthy, for that. His gaze wandered about the room: +her clothes were neatly piled and covered by a skirt on a chair; the +mirror on her chest of drawers was broken, a corner missing; there was a +total absence of the delicate toilet adjuncts of Rhoda and Taou +Yuen--only a small paper of powder, a comb and brush, and the washstand +with a couple of coarse towels. What dresses she had were hung behind a +ridiculously inadequate drapery. She had so little with which to +accomplish what, for a girl, was so much. + +His emotion had retreated, leaving him dull-eyed, heavy of movement. The +moment had come for his departure. Gerrit stood by the bed. Nettie turned +away from him, her face was buried in the pillow, the uppermost free +shoulder shook. "Good-by," he said. There was no answer and he patiently +repeated the short tragic phrase. Still there was no sound from Nettie. +There would be none. Even the impulse to touch her had died--died, he +thought, with a great many feelings and hopes he once had. A fleet +surprise invaded him at the absence of any impulse now to protest or +indulge in wild passionate terms; he was surprised, too, at the fact that +he was about to leave Nettie. The whole termination of the affair was +bathed in an atmosphere of stale calm, like the air in a ship's hold. + +Gerrit Ammidon gazed steadily at her averted head, at the generous line +of her body under the coverlet; then, neither hasty nor hesitating in his +walk, he left the room. Kate Vollar met him at the foot of the stair. +"You understood," she said, "that I only bothered you because your +father... because I was so put on?" + +"You were quite right," he replied in a measured voice; "it will all be +attended to. With the agreement I mentioned." + +"How they'll take it I don't know." + +"In some positions," he told her, "certain persons are without any +choice. The facts are too great for them. I said nothing to Nettie of +Edward Dunsack's reason for my coming," he added significantly. Out in +the street he stopped, facing toward Java Head and evening; but, with a +quiver of his lips, the vertical bitter line between his drawn brows, +he turned and marched slowly, his head sunk, to where the _Nautilus_ +was berthed. + + + + +IX + +Seated in the library, placidly waiting for Edward Dunsack to go, Taou +Yuen studied him briefly. A long or thoughtful survey was unnecessary: +the opium was rapidly mastering him. That fact absorbed all the rest. She +had an immeasurable contempt for such physical and moral weakness; all +the three religions fused in her overwhelmingly condemned +self-indulgence; her philosophy, the practical side of Lao-tze's +teaching, emphasized the utter futility of surrender to the five senses. +At the same time he was the subject of some interest: he was an American +who had lived in China, and not only on the fringe of the treaty +ports--he had penetrated to some extent into the spirit, the life, of +things Chinese; while she, Taou Yuen, was amazingly married to Gerrit +Ammidon, was a Manchu here, in America. + +Absolutely immobile, her hands folded in her lap, she considered these +facts, each in relation to the other: there was wisdom hidden in them for +her. If Mr. Dunsack had retained the ordinary blustering Western +commercial mind, his knowledge of China confined to the tea houses and +streets, he would probably be prosperous and strong to-day. The wisdom +lay in this--that here she must remain Manchu, Chinese; any attempt to +become a part of this incomprehensible country, any effort to involve +herself in its mysterious acts or thought, would be disastrous. She must +remain calm, unassertive, let the eternal Tao take its way. + +Edward Dunsack looked actually comic: he was staring rudely, with a +foolish air of flattery, and breathing in labored gasps--like a coolie +who had run miles with a heavy palanquin. Then her mind, hardly reacting +from immediate objects, returned to the contemplation of the deeper +significance of her presence here. Bent in on itself her thought twisted +like a moonflower vine about the solid fact of Gerrit. She realized, of +course, that he must have had the past of any healthy honorable man of +his age, and that it would have included at least one woman. However, +when even the present was an almost complete puzzle his past had been so +lost to her that she had not considered it until now. + +"You must overlook my unceremonious speech," Edward Dunsack proceeded in +creditable Chinese. "It was clumsy, but I was deeply affected. It is my +niece, you see, who was hurt, and who has a very sad history. Then there +are some special circumstances. I'd have to explain a great deal before +you could understand why she sent for your husband and why he left so +hurriedly." + +"There is nothing you need tell me," Taou Yuen replied in her slow +careful English. "Manchu eyes can see as well as American." + +"A thousand times better." He, too, returned to his native speech. "It is +delightful to talk to a truly civilized being. All that would have to be +shouted at the women of Salem is unnecessary now. You see--you understand +the heart of a man." + +"I understand you," she said impersonally. + +"I wonder if you do," he speculated. "You ought to see what--how much--I +think of you. My brain holds nothing else," he declared in a low intense +voice, drawing nearer to her. + +She had a momentary, purely feminine shrinking from his emaciated shaking +frame, the burning eyes in a face dead like a citron; then her placidity +returned, the assurance that it was all ordained, that his gestures, the +pumping of his diseased heart, had no more individual significance than +the movements of a mechanical figure operated by strings, here the +strings of supreme Fate. She even smiled slightly, a smile not the mark +of approval or humor, but an expression of absolute composure. It drove +him at once into febrile excitement. + +"At least I understand you," he cried; "far more than you suppose! You +can't impress me with your air of a Gautama. I know the freedom of your +country. It doesn't shock you to realize that your husband has gone to +see a woman he loved, perhaps loves still, and you are not disturbed at +my speaking like this." + +Here, she knew, regarding him no more than a shrilling locust, was the +center about which for a moment blindly her thoughts of Gerrit and +herself had revolved. His past--"a woman he loved." But it didn't in the +least upset her present peace of mind, her confidence in Gerrit. There +was a sharp distinction between the eternal, the divine, Tao, that which +is and must prevail, and the personal Tao, subject to rebellion and all +the evil of Yin; and she felt that her husband's Tao was good. Out of +this she remarked negligently: + +"After all, you are more ignorant of China than I thought. But, of +course, you saw only the common and low side. You have not heard of the +books girls are taught from--'The Sacred Edict' and 'Mirror of the +Heart.' You don't know even the first rule of 'The Book of Rites,' 'Let +your face and attitude be grave and thoughtful,' and the second, 'Let +your steps be deliberate and regular.'" She paused, conveying by her +manner that he was already vanishing and that she was relieved. + +"That would do well enough if you were a scholar, or a bonze," he +retorted; "but such innocence in a fashionable woman is a pretense. If +you are so pure how can you explain your gold and bracelets and pins, +all the marks of your worldly rank? Lao-tze taught, 'Rich and high but +proud brings about its own misfortune.'" He was so close to her now that +she caught a faint sickly reek from his body. It seemed to her that she +could see his identity, his reason, vanish, replaced by madness in his +staring eyes. + +"I worship you," he murmured. + +"Opium," she spoke disdainfully. + +"Your own tobacco is drugged," he asserted. "But that's not important. I +tell you I worship you, the most beautiful person in the world. These +fools in Salem, even your husband, can't realize one-tenth of your +perfection; they can't venerate you as I do. And now that Ammidon has +gone back to the first, we are free too." + +"You are a liar," she said with an unexpected colloquial ease. + +A darker color stained his dry cheeks. "You saw him," he replied. "Did +he get pale or didn't he? And did he or not rush from the room like a +man in a fever? I tell you it's no use pretending with me; say what you +please I know how delicate your senses are. I'll tell you this too: It's +written in our progression that we should meet here, yes, and be a great +deal to each other. It was written in the beginning, and we had been +drawing together through a million cycles before Gerrit Ammidon stumbled +across you." + +Taou Yuen was surprised by a sudden conviction that a part of this, at +least, was so. No living thing, however minute, escaped from the +weariness of movement, either ending in final and blessed suspension or +condemned to struggle on and on through countless lives of tormenting +passion. All had this dignity of hope or despair; all she encountered +were humble, impressive or debased in the working of the mighty law. She +had been guilty, as this American had pointed out, of dangerous and wrong +pride, and she accepted her lesson willingly. There was, however, an +annoying conflict between Edward Dunsack, the example, the impersonal, +and Edward Dunsack making violent profession of his unspeakable desire +for her. Even the word seemed to soil her; but there was no other. He +went recklessly on, trying to increase his advantage: + +"We're made to be together." + +"If we are it is because of some great wickedness of mine. If we are, +then perhaps I am lost. But it is allowed to resist evil, at least, as +far as staying out of its touch is resistance." + +"Nothing can keep you from me," he declared. Another short step and his +knees would be brushing her gown. A stronger wave of dislike, shrinking, +anger, drowned her logical and higher resignation. "It is time for you to +go," she said, her voice still even. + +"Never." + +It seemed to her that she could feel his hot quivering touch and, all her +philosophy dropping from her, she rose quickly. "If this were China," she +told him, in a cold fury, "you'd be cut up with knives, in the court-yard +where I could look on. But even here I can ring for a servant; and when +Captain Ammidon comes back he'll know what to say to you." + +She could see that the last affected him; he hesitated, drew back, his +hanging fingers clasping and unclasping. That, she thought, relieved, +would dispose of him. Then it was clear that his insanity persisted +even in the face of the considerable threat of Gerrit's hot pride and +violent tempers. + +"It's our destiny," he repeated firmly in his borrowed faith, at once a +little terrifying and a little ridiculous in the alien mold. His lips +twitched and his bony forehead glistened in a fine sweat. Now, thoroughly +roused, she laughed at him in open contempt. + +"Diseased," she cried, "take your sores away! Dog licked by dogs. Bowl +of filth," she was speaking in Chinese, in words of one syllable like +the biting of a hair whip. Edward Dunsack gasped, as if actual blows +cut him; he stood with one hand half raised, appalled at the sudden +vicious rush of her anger. A leaden pallor took the place of his normal +sallow coloring, and it was evident that he had difficulty in +withstanding the pressure of his laboring heart. He stood between her +and the door and she had a premonition that it would be useless to +attempt to avoid him or escape. She could, however, call, and some one, +there were a score of people about the house, must certainly appear. At +that moment she saw a deep change sweep over his countenance, taking +place in his every fiber. There was an inner wrenching of Edward +Dunsack's being, a blurring and infusion of blood in his eyes, a breath +longer and more agonized than any before, and she was looking closely +into the face of an overwhelming hatred. + +For a moment, she realized, he had even considered killing her with his +flickering hands. Then that impulse subsided before a sidelong expression +of cunning. "With all your Manchu attitudes," he mocked her, "yes, your +aristocratic pretense of mourning and marks of rank, you are no different +from the little pleasure girls. Your vocabulary and mind are the same. I +was a fool for a while; I saw nothing but your satins and painted face. I +forgot you were yellow, I had forgotten that all China's yellow. It's +yellow, yellow, yellow and never can be white. I shut my eyes to it and +it dragged me down into its slime." His voice was hysterical with an +agony of rending spiritual torment and hopeless grief. "It poisoned me +little by little, with the smell of its rivers and the cursed smell of +its pleasures. Then the opium. A year after I had lost my position, +everything; and when I came over here it followed me ... in my own blood. +Even then I might have broken away, I almost had, when Gerrit Ammidon +brought you to Salem. You came at a time when I was fighting hardest to +throw it all off. You see--you fascinated me. You were all that was most +alluring of China, and I wanted you so badly, it all came back so, that I +went to the opium to find you." + +"Progression," she said ironically. + +"Perhaps," he muttered. "Who knows? I'm finished for this life anyhow. +You did that. I can't even keep the books for my father's penny trade." + +His hands crept rigidly toward her. If they touched her she would be +degraded for ever. Yet she was incapable of flight, her throat refused +the cry which she had been debating; alternate waves of revulsion and +stoical resignation passed over her with chills of acute terror. Yet she +managed to preserve an unstirred exterior; and that, she observed, began +to influence him. His loathing was as great as ever; but his vision, that +had been fixed in a blaze of fury, broke, avoided her direct scrutiny, +her appearance of statue-like unconcern. + +There was a sound of quick light feet in the hall, the bright voice of +one of Gerrit's nieces. Edward Dunsack fell into a profound abstraction: +he turned and walked away from her, standing with his back to the room at +a window that opened upon the broad green park. He was so weak that he +was forced to support himself with a hand on the wall. + +Taou Yuen was motionless for a perceptible space, and then moved toward +the door in a dignified composure. All this had come from the utter +impropriety of the life in America. Dunsack glanced at her as she +withdrew, and for a moment she saw his fine profile sharp and dark +against the light-flooded window. His lips stirred but she heard no +sound. Then she was on the stair mounting to her room. + +There mechanically she filled her pipe; but doing this she noticed that +her hands were trembling. How lamentably she had failed in the +preservation, the assertion, of her superiority, not as a Manchu, but in +the deeper, the only true sense of the word--in submission. + +"Requite hatred with virtue." + +She spoke Lao-tze's admonition aloud and, in the customary devious +channel of her mental processes, her thoughts returned to her early life, +her girlhood, so marred by sickness that the Emperor had surrendered his +customary proprietary right in the daughters of Manchu nobles. + +Surrounding the fact of her early suffering, which had kept her out of +the active gayety of brothers and sisters, she remembered in the clearest +detail her father's house in the north; the later residences in Canton +and Shanghai, even the delightful river gardens of the summer place at +Soochow, were less vivid. Inside the massive tiled stone wall the +rooms--there were a hundred at least--faced in squares on the inner +courtyard, and were connected by glass enclosed verandas. The reception +houses of the front court, the deeply carved wooden platform with its +scarlet covering, were of the greatest elegance; they were always astir +with the numerous secretaries, the Chinese writers and messengers, the +_mafoos_ and chair coolies, the servants and blind musicians with the old +songs, _The Millet's in Flower_ and _Kuan Kuan Go to the Ospreys_. The +side door to the women's apartments, however, opened into a retreat, +where her father's concubine, he had but one, trailed like a bird of +paradise, and there was the constant musical drip of a fountain in an old +granite basin. There, during the years when she was lame, Taou Yuen +mostly stayed. + +She had been dropped from a palanquin in her sixth year; sharp +pains soon after burned in her hip, and the corresponding leg had +perceptibly shortened. A great many remedies were tried in vain--burning +with charcoal, the application of black plasters, sweating, +acupuncture--sticking long needles into the afflicted part. The doctors +declared that the five elements of her body--the metal, wood, water, fire +and earth, were hopelessly out of equilibrium. Her mother had then called +necromancers and devil charmers; lucky and unlucky days were explored; +strange rites were conducted before her terrified eyes screwed into the +determination to show no alarm. + +A year, perhaps, after they had become resigned to her injury, her +father, always a man of the most liberal ideas, had suddenly brought into +the garden to see her an English doctor passing through China. Against +the wailing protests of the women the Englishman had been given authority +to treat her; and he had caused to be made a thin steel brace, clasping +Taou Yuen's waist and extending in a rigid band down the length of her +injured leg. After putting a high shoe on her other foot he had commanded +them to keep the brace on her for two years. + +It was through that period of comparative inactivity that she acquired a +habit of reading and thought, a certain grasp of philosophical attitude, +common to the higher masculine Chinese mind but rare among their women. +She had, for instance, later, read Laotze's Tao-teh-king, and been +impressed by his tranquil elevation above the petty ills and concerns of +life and the flesh. Her father, like all the ruling class, regarded +Taoism--which had, indeed, degenerated into a mass of nonsense about the +transmutation of base metals into gold and the elixir of life--with +contempt. But this seemed to her no depreciation of the Greatly Eminent +One or his philosophy of the two Taoes. + +The household, or at least the family, worshipped in the form of +Confucius; his precepts and admonitions, the sacred _hiao_ or filial +submission, the tablets and ancestral piety, were a part of her blood; as +was the infinitely fainter infusion of Buddhism; yet in her intellectual +brooding it was to the Tao-teh-king that she returned. She paused to +recall that, the brace at last removed, she was practically completely +recovered; but the bent, the bracing, given her mind had remained. + +The colorful pageant of her first marriage, the smaller but splendidly +appointed house of her husband--he was extremely intelligent and had +honorably passed the examination for licentiate, one of only two hundred +successful bachelors out of twenty thousand--and the period following his +accidental drowning wheeled quickly through her brain.... + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was left. + +She loved him, Taou Yuen realized, for a quality entirely independent of +race: he had more than anyone else she knew the virtues of simplicity and +purity announced by Chwang-Tze as the marks of the True Man. "We must +become like little children," the Old Master had written. She had seen +this at once in the amazing interview sanctioned by her father-in-law. +Most women of her class, even widows, would have perished with shame at +being exposed to a foreigner. But Lu Kikwang had expressed her difference +from them in the terms of his proposal. His words had been "finely +better" although the truth was that her curiosity had always mastered the +other and more prudent instincts. Yet that alone would not have +prostrated her before Gerrit Ammidon--death was not unthinkable--nor +carried her into his strange terrifying ship and stranger life. The love +had been born almost simultaneously with her first recognition of his +character. Now her passion for him was close and jealous. A constant +shifting between such humanity and the calm detachment which prefigured +heaven was what most convinced her of the truths of Lao-tze. + +All this took body at the announcement of Edward Dunsack about Gerrit and +his niece. Certainly he might have had an affair; that she dismissed; but +the insinuated permanence of this other affection was serious. She would +not have believed Mr. Dunsack for an instant, but, as he had pointed out, +Gerrit had undoubtedly been upset; he had turned pale and hurried away +impolitely. It was by such apparently slight indications that the great +inner currents of life were discovered. The fact that Chinese officials +had more than one wife, or, to speak correctly, concubines in addition, +had no bearing with Gerrit; such was not the custom with American men. It +represented for him, yes--dishonor. + +She laboriously recalled his every attitude since they had landed in +America, and was obliged to admit that he had changed--he was less gay +and though his manner was always considerate she recognized a growing +impatience beneath his darker calm. Her philosophy was again torn in +shreds by sharp feminine emotions. She was filled with jealousy and +hatred and hurt pride. The clearest expression of his possible discontent +had marked his face when he had suddenly come into their room and saw her +rising from a prayer for his father. Gerrit's lips had been compressed, +almost disdainful; at that moment, she knew unerringly, he found her +ugly. Of course it had been the hideous garments of mourning. + +She must wear the unhemmed sackcloth and dull slippers, bind her +headdress and cover her pins with paste, for a hundred days; and then +a second mourning of black or dark blue, and no flowers, for three +years. It might well be that by then Gerrit, blind to these +proprieties, would find her unendurable. Suddenly, in the tremendous +difficulty of holding him against an entire world, his own and of +which she was supremely ignorant, it seemed to her that she needed +every possible means, every coral blossom and gold filament and finger +of paint, the cunning intoxication of subtle dress and color and +perfume. With a leaden sense of guilt, but in a fever of impatience, +of haste, she stripped off the coarse hemp for her most elaborate +satins, her santal and clover and carmine. + +When Gerrit came in it had grown dark with night, and he explained that +he had been busy inspecting the _Nautilus'_ spars. She lighted a lamp, +then another, all she could find, and studied him unobtrusively. She was +shocked at the worn expression of his face; it seemed as if he had aged +in the few hours since he had left the library. He was uneasy, silent; +and, secretly dismayed, she saw that he was indifferent to her changed +appearance, too. Taou Yuen debated the wisdom of telling him about the +painful scene with Edward Dunsack; against her original intent she +decided in the negative. She informed herself that the reason for this +was a wish to preserve him, now that they were practically at the day of +departure, from an unpleasant duty. But there was an underlying dimly +apprehended and far different motive: she was afraid that it would blow +into flame a situation that might otherwise be avoided, bring to life a +past naturally dying or dead. + +She saw that he was scarcely aware of her presence in the room, perhaps +in his life. A period of resentment followed. "You are dull," she +declared, "and I am going down to the garden for entertainment." Gerrit +nodded. He would, he told her, be along shortly. Below she found Roger +Brevard, with the oldest Ammidon girl and her mother. + +Roger Brevard, she had discovered, was in love with Sidsall. The latter, +it developed, was to leave shortly for a party; Mr. Brevard was not +going; and, when Gerrit's sister-in-law walked across the grass with her +daughter the man dropped into an easy conversation with Taou Yuen. She +had a feeling, which she had tried in vain to lose, of the vulgarity, the +impropriety of this. Yet she recognized that there was none of the former +in Roger Brevard; he resembled quite a little her dead husband, +Sié-Ngan-kwán; and for that reason she was more at ease with him--in +spite of such unaccustomed familiarity--than with anyone else in Salem +but Gerrit. + +He was, she admitted condescendingly, almost as cultivated as the +ordinary Chinese gentleman. Many of his thoughts, where she could +understand their expression, might have come from a study of the sacred +kings. At the same time her feminine perception realized that he had a +genuine liking for her. + +"You'll be delighted to leave Salem," he said, leaning forward and +studying her. + +"That would not be polite," she answered formally. "You have been so +good. But it will give me pleasure to see Shanghai again. Anyone is +happier with customs he understands." + +"And prefers," he added. "Indeed, I'd choose some of your manners rather +than ours. You see, you have been at the business of civilization so much +longer than the rest of us." + +"Our history begins two thousand years before your Christ," she told him; +"our language has been spoken without change for thirty-three centuries, +as you call them. But such facts are nothing. I would rather hear your +non--nonsense," she stumbled over the word. + +"Do you mean that what we call nonsense is really the most important?" + +"Perhaps," she replied. "Devotion to the old and dead is greatly +necessary yet you smile at it. I didn't mean that, but moons and lovers +and music." He cried in protest, "We're terribly serious about those!" + +"I hear nothing but talk about cargoes and sales and money." + +"We keep the other under our hats," he instructed her. She was completely +mystified, and he explained. + +"In China," she remarked tentatively, "it is possible for a man to love +two women at once, maybe one a little more than the other, but he can be +kind and just and affectionate to them both. Tell me, is--is that +possible with an American?" + +"No!" he spoke emphatically. "We can love, in the way you mean, only one, +perhaps only once. I wouldn't swear to that, but there are simply no +exceptions to the first. Men are unfaithful, yes; but at a cost to +themselves, or because they are incapable of restraint. To be unfaithful +in anything is to fail, isn't it? You can lie to yourself as effectively +as to anybody else." + +She fixed a painful attention upon him, but lost at least a half of his +meaning. However, one fact was clearer than ever--that Edward Dunsack had +said an evil thing about her husband. "It seems," he went on, "that even +spiritual concerns can be the result of long custom." If he was trying to +find an excuse for Chinese habit she immediately disposed of it. "No," +she said, "you are upside down. The spirit is first, the eternal Tao, +everywhere alike, but the personal spirit is different in you and in us." + +A sudden dejection seized her--now the difference seemed vaster than +anything she had in common with Gerrit. A wave of oppressive nostalgia, +of confusion and dread, submerged her in a faintly thunderous darkness. +She felt everywhere about her the presence of evil and threatening +shades. The approach of her husband, his heavy settling into a chair, did +nothing to lighten her apprehension. + +"How soon do we go?" she asked faintly. + +"In two weeks, with nothing unexpected," he responded without interest or +pleasure. It flashed through her mind that he was depressed at leaving +Salem, that other woman. His present indifference was very far from the +manner in which he had first discussed their leaving. Yet, even that, she +recalled in the light of her present sensitiveness, had been unnaturally +abrupt and clothed in a great many loud-sounding words. She told herself +arbitrarily that Edward Dunsack had lied--for the purpose which his +conduct afterward made clear--but her very feeling was proof that she +believed he had spoken the truth. + +She was a victim of an uneasy curiosity to see... she made a violent +mental effort and recaptured the name--Nettie Vollar. Of course the +latter had been the deliberate cause of whatever wickedness had +threatened at the return of Gerrit with her, Taou Yuen. She had however +no doubt of the extent of this: Gerrit was upright, faithful to the +necessity Roger Brevard had explained; all that assaulted her happiness +was on an incorporate plane, or, anyhow, in a procession of consequences +extending far back and forward of their present lives. + +But, she recognized, she had no excuse nor opportunity to see Nettie +Vollar. Mrs. Ammidon, when she heard of the accident, had at once +declared her intention of going to the Dunsacks' house; still that +promised no chance of satisfying her own desire. The least politeness in +the world prohibited her from going baldly in and demanding to see the +woman. She couldn't, all at once, make convincing a sympathy or +impersonal interest entirely contradictory to her insistent indifference. +The best she could hope was for them to sail away as quickly as possible; +when on the other side of the seas Gerrit would probably return to the +simplicity of being she had adored. + +Then a trivial and yet serious fear occurred to her--perhaps here, among +all these dead-white women, he no longer held her beautiful. The word was +his own, or it had been his; he had not repeated it, she realized, twice +since they had been in Salem. Personally, she found the American women +entirely undistinguished and dressed in grotesquely ugly and cheap +clothes--not unlike paper lanterns bobbing along the ground. Their faces +were shamelessly bare of paint and their manners would have disgraced the +lowest servant in a Chinese courtyard. This was natural, from any +consideration of the hideous or inappropriate things that surrounded +them, and from the complete lack of what she could distinguish as either +discipline or reverence. Yet Gerrit, a part of this, would be unable to +share her attitude; she had heard him praise the appearance of women so +insipid that she had turned expecting vainly an ironic smile. + +Roger Brevard rose and made his bow, the only satisfactory approach to a +courteous gesture she had met outside Gerrit's occasional half-humorous +effort since leaving Shanghai. He stirred, muttered a perfunctory phrase, +and sank back into obscurity. + +Little quirks of unfamiliar disturbing feeling ran through Taou Yuen; her +mind, it seemed, had become a thing of no importance; all that at one +time had so largely ordered her life was superseded by these illogical +emotions spreading apparently from her heart. The truth was, she told +herself, that--with all her reading and philosophy--she had had little or +no experience of actuality: the injury to her hip and quiet life in the +gray garden at Canton, her protected existence in the women's apartments, +whatever she might have learned from them neglected because of the +general silliness of their chatter, the formal early marriage, had all +combined for the preservation of her ignorance. + +She regarded herself now with distrust; nothing could have been more +unpleasant than the failure of her will, this swamping of her equanimity. +She never lost for a moment the image of superiority that should be her +perfect example, the non-assertion that was the way of heaven; but her +comprehension was like a figure ruthlessly dragged about by an +overpowering unreflective force. A sharp hatred of Nettie Vollar seared +her mind and perished in a miserable sense of weakness. + +Against the dark, charged with a confusion of the ten thousand things, +she stared wearily and wakeful. She reminded herself again that Gerrit +would soon be gone from Salem, alone with her on the long voyage to +China; but he'd return to America, come back to Salem; and she knew that +he would never bring her westward again. A period of depression followed +which seemed to have no immediate connection with Gerrit; she had an +indefinable feeling of struggling in vain against adversity, of +opposition to an implacable power. + +For a short while after she rose in the morning it appeared that she had +regained her self-control, her reason; and a consequent happy relief +irradiated her. But when Gerrit came up after she had finished her toilet +and she saw, from his haggard face, that he too must have been awake, +tormented, through the night, a passion of bitterness enveloped her at +which all that had gone before turned pale. She could scarcely restrain +herself from a noisy wailing accusation, and stood regarding him with a +tense unnatural grimace, the result of her effort to preserve propriety. +She told herself, at the tempest of vulgar phrases storming through her +consciousness, that what Edward Dunsack had said about her being no +better than the tea house girls was true, and she was aghast at the inner +treachery capable of such self-betrayal. Not a quivering word, however, +escaped; she managed a commonplace phrase and turned aside in a trivial +pretext of occupation. + +"I am going into Boston with Captain Dunsack on business connected with +his schooners." The girl's grandfather! "Very well." She spoke placidly, +and with a tempestuous heart watched him stride quickly about the park. + +She settled herself in a long motionless contemplation, fastening her +mind upon the most elevated and revered ideas conceivable. She saw the +eternal Tao flowing like a great green river of souls, smooth and mighty +and resistless; and she willed that she too might become a part of that +desirable self-effacement, safe in surrender. Men striving to create a +Tao for personal ends beat out their lives in vain. It was the figure of +the river developing, like floating on a deliberate all-powerful tide or +struggling impotently against it. + +Later a message came up from Mrs. Ammidon--she hoped that Taou Yuen would +drive with her that afternoon. She dressed with the most particular care, +in blue and dark greens, her shoulders thick with embroidered garlands +and silver _shou_, her piled hair ornamented in glittering silver leaves +and garnets. + +She went down when she heard the horses on the street below but the +barouche was empty except for the coachman. "Mrs. Ammidon left a half +hour ago," a servant told her; "and sent the carriage back for you." They +moved forward, going, she saw, into a part of the town where they seldom +drove--the narrow crowded way by the wharves--and, turning shortly into a +street that ended abruptly at the water, drew up before a dingy house on +her right. + +The door was open, and they waited, confident that Mrs. Ammidon would +hear the clatter of hoofs and come out; but a far different appeared. She +gazed for a silent space at Taou Yuen seated above her, as if confused by +the glittering magnificence. It was probable that Gerrit's brother's wife +had come there on an errand of charity for the woman was poor, dingy like +the house, with a face drawn by suffering and material struggle. + +"Of course you're Captain Ammidon's wife," she said; "and you are here +after Mrs. William Ammidon. Well, she's gone; but she left a message for +you. She will be at Henry Whipple's, the bookseller. After she saw Nettie +she went right off to send her some things; wouldn't wait for the +carriage. A kind-hearted determined body." + +Taou Yuen leaned out to command the coachman to drive on; but the other, +plainly bent on making the most of a rare opportunity for such a +conversation, continued talking in her low resigned way. + +"I was glad to have her too; Nettie gets pretty fretful up there with +nobody but me, really. She hasn't been so well, either, since--" here she +stopped abruptly, recommenced. "I like to see a person myself of Mrs. +Ammidon's kind. I've been alone all day; father's gone to Boston and +Edward away I don't know where." + +Taou Yuen's curiosity to see Nettie Vollar returned infinitely +multiplied; here, miraculously, was an opportunity for her to study the +woman who was beyond any doubt an important part of Gerrit's past, +present--it might be, his future. The men were gone. ... She got +resolutely down from the barouche. "Take me up to your daughter," she +directed quietly. + +"Why, that's very kind, but I don't know--Yes, certainly. Mind +these stairs with your satin skirt; I don't always get around to +the whole house." + +Taou Yuen saw at once that Nettie Vollar was far sicker than she had +realized: her head lay on the pillow absolutely spent, her brow damply +plastered with hair and her eyes enlarged and dull. Taou Yuen drew a +chair forward and sat beside a table with a glass bowl of small dark +pills which from a just perceptible odor she recognized as opium. She +looked intently, coldly, at the prostrate figure. A flush like match +flames burned in Nettie Vollar's cheeks, and she said in a voice at once +weak and sharp: + +"You're her!" + +Taou Yuen nodded slowly, disdainfully. + +"Oh, how could he!" the other exclaimed in what sounded like the thin +echo of a passionate cry. "I knew you were Chinese, but I never realized +it till this minute." + +As Gerrit Ammidon's wife had feared she was totally unable to judge a +single quality or feature of the girl before her. She looked exactly like +all the others she had seen in Salem: in order to realize her she needed +Gerrit's eyes, Gerrit's birth. Then one fact crept insidiously into her +consciousness--here, in a way, was another being who had Gerrit Ammidon's +childlike simplicity. That was the most terrifying discovery she could +have made. Taou Yuen felt the return of the hateful irresistible emotions +which had destroyed her self-control. She wanted to hurt Nettie Vollar in +every possible way, to mock her with the fact that she had lost Gerrit +perhaps never to see him again; she wanted to tell her that she, Taou +Yuen, entirely understood her hopes, efforts, and that they were vain. + +An utter self-loathing possessed her at the same time, a feeling of +imminent danger as if she were walking with willfully shut eyes on the +edge of a precipice above a black fatal void. Not a trace of this +appeared on her schooled countenance; and once more she completely +restrained any defiling speech. She deliberately shifted her point of +view to another possible aspect of all that confronted her--it might be +that this woman was a specter, a _kwei_, bent on Gerrit's destruction. +Such a thing often happened. How much better if Nettie Vollar had been +killed! She studied her with a renewed interest--a fresh question. +Perhaps the other would die as it was. She was extremely weak; her +spirit, Taou Yuen saw, lay listlessly in a listless body. Nettie Vollar +slightly moved her injured arm, and that little effort exhausted her for +a moment; her eyes closed, her face was as white as salt. + +A further, almost philosophical, consideration engaged Taou Yuen's +mind--this extraordinary occasion, her being with the other alone, Nettie +Vollar's fragility, were, it might be, all a part of the working of the +righteous _Yang_. In the light of this, then, she had been brought here +for a purpose ... the ending of a menace to her husband. She hesitated +for a breath--if it were the opposite malignant _Yin_ there was no bottom +to the infamy into which she might fall. It was a tremendous question. + +The actual execution of the practical suggestion, from either source, was +extremely easy; she had but to lean forward, draw her heavy sleeve across +the strained face, hold it there for a little, and Nettie Vollar would +have died of--of any one of a number of reasonable causes. She, Taou +Yuen, would call, politely distressed, for the mother ... very +regrettable. + +Gerrit free-- + +Perhaps. + +She had no shrinking from the act itself, nothing that might have been +called pity, a few more or less years in a single life were beneath +serious consideration; it was the lives to come, the lingering doubt of +which power led her on, which restrained and filled her mind. A flicker +of rage darted through her calm questioning; her mental processes again +faded. With her right arm across the supine body and enveloping the face +in her left sleeve a single twist and Nettie Vollar would choke in a +cloud of thick satin made gay with unfading flowers and the embroidered +symbol of long life. She felt her body grow rigid with purpose when the +sound of a footfall below held her motionless in an unreasoning dread. + +It was not heavy, yet she was certain that it was not the woman's. A blur +of voices drifted up to her, the dejected feminine tone and a thin +querulous demand, surprise. Taou Yuen turned cold as stone: the sensation +of oppressive danger increased until it seemed as if she, and not Nettie +Vollar, were strangling. There was a profound stillness, then a shuffling +tread on the stair, and Edward Dunsack entered, entered but stood without +advancing, his back against a closed door. + +Even since yesterday he had noticeably wasted, there were muscles of his +face that twitched continuously; his hands, it seemed to her, writhed +like worms. He said nothing, but stared at her with a fixed glittering +vision; all his one time worship--it had been so much--was devoured in +the hatred born in the Ammidon library. Frozen with apprehension she sat +without movement; her face, she felt, as still as a lacquered mask. + +To her astonishment--she had forgotten Nettie Vollar's existence--a +shaken voice from the bed demanded: + +"Uncle Edward, what's come over you! Don't you see Mrs. Ammidon! Oh--" +her speech rose in a choked exclamation. Edward Dunsack had turned the +key and was crossing the room with a dark twisted face, his eyes stark +and demented. Taou Yuen, swung round toward the advancing figure, heard a +long fluttering breath behind her. Perhaps Nettie Vollar had died of +fright. The terror in her own brain dried up before an overwhelming +realization--she had betrayed herself to the principle of evil. She was +lost. Her thoughts were at once incredibly rapid and entirely vivid, +logical: Edward Dunsack, ruined, in China; herself blinded, confused, +destroyed in America. Yesterday she had held him powerless with the mere +potency of her righteousness; but now she had no strength. + +There was a loathsome murmur from his dusty lips. He intended to kill +her, to mar and spoil her throat, a degradation forbidden by Confucius, +an eternal disfigurement. This filled her with a renewed energy of +horror.... Here there was none but a feeble woman to hear her if she +called. She rose mechanically, a hand on the table; Taou Yuen saw Nettie +Vollar's deathly pallid face rolled awkwardly from the pillow, and the +bowl of opium. There were twenty or more pills. Without hesitation, even +with a sense of relief, she swept the contents of the bowl into her palm. +The effort of swallowing so many hard particles was almost convulsive and +followed with a nauseous spasm. + +Exhausted by mental effort she sank into a chair and a dullness like +smoke settled over her. The figure of Edward Dunsack retreated to an +infinite distance. The smoke moved in a great steady volume--the eternal +and changeless Tao, without labor or desires, without.... Hatred requited +with virtue ... attracting all honor--mounting higher and higher from the +consuming passions, the seething black lives of her immeasurable fall. + + + + +X + +Although the late afternoon was at an hour when Derby Street should have +been filled by a half-idle throng in the slackening of the day's +waterside employments Roger Brevard found it noticeably empty. In this he +suddenly recognized that the street was like the countingroom of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, the heart of Salem's greatness--they +were weaker, stilled in a decline that yet was not evident in the +impressive body of the town. + +When he had first taken charge of this branch both Salem and it had been +of sufficient moment to attract him from New York; the company was +insuring Boston and New York vessels; the captains had thronged its broad +window commanding St. Peters and Essex Streets. Now only an occasional +shipmaster, holding the old traditions and habits or else retired, sat in +the comfortable armchairs with leather cushions drawn up at the coal +hearth or expansive in white through the summer. + +His mind shifted to a consideration of these facts in relation to +himself--whether the same thing overtaking the place and marine insurance +had not settled upon him too--as he made his way from Central Wharf, +where he had vainly gone for prospective business. His inquiry was +reaching a depressing certainty when, passing and gazing down Hardy +Street, he saw the Ammidon barouche standing in front of the Dunsacks'. + +Roger Brevard stopped: the Ammidon men, he knew, seldom drove about +Salem. He had heard of Nettie Vollar's accident and came to the +conclusion that Rhoda was within. If this were so, her visit, limited to +a charitable impulse, would be short; and thinking of the pleasure of +driving with her he turned into the side way. As he approached, the +coachman met him with an evident impatience. + +"No, sir," he replied to Brevard's inquiry. "But we were to get Mrs. +Ammidon at the bookstore. Mrs. Captain Gerrit called here for her, but +she went inside unexpected. All of an hour ago. I don't like to ask for +the lady, but what may be said later I can't think." + +He had scarcely finished speaking when a woman whom Brevard recognized +as Kate Vollar appeared at the door. "Oh, Mr. Brevard!" she exclaimed +with an unnaturally pallid and apprehensive face. "I'm glad to find +you. Please come upstairs with me. Why I don't know but I'm all in a +tremble. Mrs. Ammidon went to see Nettie, then Edward came in, and when +he heard who was there he acted as if he were struck dumb and went up +like a person afflicted. I waited the longest while and then followed +them and knocked. Why the door was shut I'd never tell you. But they +didn't answer, any of them," she declared with clasped straining hands. +"Three in the room and not a sound. Please--" her voice was suddenly +suffocated by dread. + +"Certainly. Quarles," he addressed the coachman, "I'll get you to come +along. If there is a lock to break it will need a heavier shoulder +than mine." + +Mounting the narrow somber stair, followed by the man and Kate Vollar, he +wondered vainly what might have happened. Obscurely some of the woman's +fear was communicated to him. Brevard knocked abruptly on the door +indicated but there was no answering voice or movement. He tried the +latch: as Nettie's mother had found, it was fastened. + +"Quarles," Roger Brevard said curtly. + +The coachman stepped forward, braced himself for the shove he directed +against the wooden barrier, and the door swept splintering inward. Roger +advanced first and a grim confusion touched him with cold horror. Taou +Yuen was half seated and half lying across a table beside the bed; he +couldn't see her face, but her body was utterly lax. Nettie Vollar, too, +was in a dreadful waxen similitude of death, with lead colored lips and +fixed sightless eyes. A slight extraordinary sound rose behind him, and +whirling, Brevard discovered that it was Edward Dunsack giggling. He was +silent immediately under the other's scrutiny, and an expression of +stubborn and malicious caution pinched his wasted sardonic countenance. + +Brevard turned to the greater necessity of the women, and moved Taou Yuen +so that he could see her features. It was evident that she was not, as he +had first thought, dead; her breathing was slow and deep and harsh, her +pulse deliberate and full; she was warm, too, but her face was suffused +by an unnatural blueness and the pupils of her inert eyes were barely +discernible. He shook her with an unceremonious vigor, but there was no +answering energy; she fell across his arm in a sheer weight of +satin-covered body. He moved back in a momentary uncontrollable repulsion +when Kate Vollar threw herself past him onto the bed. "Nettie!" she +cried, "Nettie! Nettie!" Brevard was chilled by the possibility of an +unutterable tragedy, when with a faint suffusion of color the girl gave a +gasping sigh. Her voice stirred in a terror shaken whisper: + +"Uncle Edward, don't! Why--don't. Oh!" She pressed her face with a long +shudder into the pillow. "Whatever was it--?" her mother began wildly. +Brevard caught her shoulder. "Not now," he directed; "you'll come +downstairs with me. We must have help at once and your daughter quiet." + +However he was in a quandary--he couldn't trust the woman here, he would +have to go immediately for assistance, and yet it was impossible to leave +Nettie Vollar and Gerrit's wife alone. "You will have to wait in the +room," he decided, turning to Quarles. + +Edward Dunsack was wavering against a wall; Brevard went swiftly up to +him. "We'll need you," he said shortly. Dunsack maintained his silence +and air of stubborn cunning; but, when the other man clasped his +incredibly thin arm, he went willingly followed by Kate Vollar below. +There he sat obediently, his judicious detachment broken by a repetition +of the thin shocking snigger. + +"You must be responsible for your brother," Roger Brevard told the +quivering woman. "I'll be back immediately. Now that you know Nettie's +safe you must control yourself. No one should go up--keep everybody +out--till you hear from me or the doctor or Captain Ammidon." + +What an inexplicable accident or crime, he thought, hurriedly approaching +the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone, the first and +nearest of the places to which he must go. He could remember no mark of +what had overcome Taou Yuen. How was Dunsack, who was now clearly +demented, implicated? What racking thing had Nettie Vollar seen? + +In the subsequent exclamatory rush, even on the following morning when +Roger Brevard learned that--poisoned by opium undoubtedly taken by +herself--Gerrit Ammidon's wife had died without regaining consciousness, +the greater part of the tragedy became little clearer. No statement could +be had from Edward Dunsack other than a meaningless array of +precautionary phrases; and returning in a sliding gait toward Hardy +Street he was put under a temporary restraint. + +Nettie Vollar, Brevard heard, had relapsed from her injury into a second +critical collapse. Yet, he told himself, entering the room that was his +home in Mrs. Cane's large square house on Chestnut Street, that the +Manchu still absorbed his speculations. + +It was a pleasant room and a pleasant house with a dignified portico; and +his tall windows, back on the right of the second floor, opened on the +length of the Napiers' garden. Brevard sat looking out over a dim +leafiness of evening and tried to discipline his thoughts into order and +coherence. Any dignity of death had been soiled by the ugly mystery of +the aspects surrounding the end of Taou Yuen. + +He had liked her extremely well, agreeing with Rhoda Ammidon that, +probably, they had never been permitted to know a more aristocratic +breeding or greater degrees of purely worldly and mental and personal +charm than those of Gerrit's wife. + +His mind grew more philosophical and a perception, yet without base in +facts, convinced him that Taou Yuen had been killed by America. It was a +fantastic thought, and he attempted to dismiss it, waiting for more +secure knowledge, but it persisted. She had been killed by unfamiliar +circumstances, tradition, emotions. In some manner, but how he was unable +to disentangle from the pressures of mere curiosity and conjecture, +Nettie Vollar--or rather Gerrit's old passing affair with Nettie--had +entered into the unhappy occurrence. After an hour's vain search he gave +up all effort to pierce the darkness until he had actual knowledge--if he +ever had, he was forced to add silently. It was possible that the secret +might be entirely guarded from the public, even from the closer part he +had played and his familiarity with the Ammidon family. + +He was an inmate of their inner garden with its lilac trees and hedged +roses in season, the pungent beds of flowers and box, the moonshade of +the poplars. Roger Brevard turned from the consideration of Taou Yuen to +the even more insistent claim of his increasing affection for Sidsall. He +stopped again both to lament and delight in her youth--another year and +he would have unhesitatingly announced his feeling as love to them all. +It was that, he admitted to himself almost shyly. The obvious thing was +for him to wait through the year or more until the Ammidons would hear of +a proposal and then urge his desire.... He could see her quite often +meanwhile. + +Yes, that was the sensible course, even in the face of his own +multiplying years. They were twenty-five more than Sidsall's; yet, he +added in self-extenuation, he was not definitely snared in middle age; he +was still elastic in body and youthful, but for graying hair, in +appearance. His birth was eligible from every social consideration; and, +though he was not rich, he had enough independently to assure the safety +of his wife's future. This did not come entirely, or now even in the +larger part, from the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, but took the +form of a comparatively small but secure private income. + +He paused to wonder if it had not been that latter fact which had +prevented his being successful--successful, that was, in William +Ammidon's meaning of the word. He had not made money nor a position of +importance among men of affairs. Such safety, he decided, was a dangerous +possession judged by the standards he was now considering. A few thousand +a year for life struck at the root of activity. It induced a critical +detached attitude toward life, overemphasized the importance of the cut +of a trouser and the validity of pedigree. It was a mistake to dance +noticeably well. + +Drifting, together with almost everyone else, he had reached his +present position, past forty, by imperceptible degrees, obscurely +influenced by the play of what he intrinsically was on circumstances or +accident or fate. + +Although he had never done so before, he compared himself with Gerrit +Ammidon. The other's refusal to accept a partnership in the family firm +or command a California clipper was known. Gerrit and himself were +alike in that they apprehended the values of life more clearly than did +the ordinary mind or heart. But, in retaliation, the world they +differed from curtly brushed them aside. Roger Brevard could not see +that they had made the least mark on the callous normal cruelty or the +aesthetic and spiritual blindness of the existence they shared. But it +was always possible that something bigger than their grasp of justice +or beauty was afoot. + +He turned from the darkened prospect of the window and his thoughts to +the room. Without a light he removed his formal street clothes, hanging +the coat and waistcoat, folding the trousers in a drawer, with exact +care; changing his light boots for fiber slippers he set the former in +the row of footgear drawn up like a military review against the wall. +Though it was quite obscure now, and no one would see him, he paused to +brush his slightly disarranged hair, before--tying the cord of his +chamber robe--he resumed his seat. + +The year, he reverted to Sidsall, would pass; but, try as he might, he +had no feeling of security in the future, however near. It was the +present, this Sidsall, that filled him with a tyrannical and bitter +longing. She was unbelievably beautiful now. Against the faintness of his +hope, his patience, he saw the whole slow process of the disintegration +of marine insurance, and with it his own fatuous insensibility to the +decline: that decline with its exact counterpart in himself. Salem and he +were getting dusty together. + +He straightened up vigorously in his chair--this would never do. He must +wind up his affairs here and return to New York. The tranquil backwater +had overpowered him for a time; but, again awake, he would strike out +strongly... with Sidsall. Endless doubt and hope fluctuated within him. +Voices rose from the Napier garden, and from a tree sounded the whirring +of the first locust he had noticed that summer. + +On a noon following he saw the passage of the three or four carriages +that constituted the funeral cortège of Taou Yuen's entirely private +interment. She would be buried of course by Christian service: here were +none of the elaborate Confucian rites and ceremonial; yet--from what Taou +Yuen had occasionally indicated--Confucius, Lao-tze, the Buddha, were all +more alike than different; they all vainly preached humility, purity, the +subjugation of the flesh. He stopped later in the Charter Street cemetery +and found her grave, the headstone marked: + +TAOU YUEN +A MANCHURIAN LADY +THE WIFE +OF +GERRIT AMMIDON, ESQ. +and the dates. + +He saw, naturally, but little of the Ammidons--a glimpse of Rhoda in the +carriage and William on Charter Street; the _Nautilus_, ready for sea, +continued in her berth at Phillips' Wharf. Fragments of news came to him +quoted and re-quoted, grotesquely exaggerated and even malicious reports +of the tragedy at the Dunsacks'. Standing at his high desk in the +countingroom of the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, Taou Yuen's +glittering passage through Salem already seemed to him a fable, a dream. +Even Sidsall, robustly near by, had an aspect of unreality in the tender +fabric of his visions. Captain Rendell, his spade beard at the verge of +filmed old eyes, who was seated at the window, rose with difficulty. For +a moment he swayed on insecure legs, then, barely gathering the necessary +power, moved out into the street. + +Later, when Roger Brevard was turning the key on the insurance company +for the day, Lacy Saltonstone stopped to speak in her charming slow +manner: "Mother of course is in a whirl, with Captain Ammidon about to +marry that Nettie Vollar, since she is recovering after all, and our +moving to Boston.... You see I'm there so often it will make really very +little difference to me. Sidsall is the lucky one, though you'd never +know it from seeing her.... I thought you'd have heard--why, to Lausanne, +a tremendously impressive school for a year. They have promised her +London afterward. I would call that a promise, but actually, Sidsall--." + +"Doesn't she want to go?" he asked mechanically, all the emotions that +had chimed through his being suddenly clashing in a discordant misery. He +bowed absently, and hastening to his room softly closed the door and sat +without supper, late into the evening, lost in a bitterness that +continually poisoned the resolutions formed out of his overwhelming need. +He was aghast at the inner violence that destroyed the long tranquility +of his existence, the clenched hands and spoken words lost in the shadows +over the Napiers' garden. He wanted Sidsall with a breathless tyranny +infinitely sharper than any pang of youth: she was life itself. + +She didn't want to go, Lacy had made that clear; and he told himself that +her reluctance could only, must, proceed from one cause--that she cared +for him. As he dwelt on this, the one alleviating possibility, he became +certain of its truth. He would find her at once and in spite of Rhoda and +William Ammidon explain that his whole hope lay in marrying her. With an +utter contempt at all the small orderly habits which, he now saw, were +the expression of a confirmed dry preciseness, he left his clothes in a +disorderly heap. Such a feeling as Sidsall's and his, he repeated from +the oppressive expanse of his black walnut bed, was above ordinary +precautions and observance. Then, unable to dismiss the thought of how +crumpled his trousers would be in the morning, oppressed by the picture +of the tumbled garments, he finally rose and, in the dark, relaid them in +the familiar smooth array. + +In the morning his disturbance resolved into what seemed a very decided +and reasonable attitude: He would see Rhoda that day and explain his +feeling and establish what rights and agreement he could. He was willing +to admit that Sidsall was, perhaps, too young for an immediate decision +so wide in results. The ache, the hunger for happiness sharpened by vague +premonitions of mischance, began again to pound in his heart. + +At the Ammidons' it was clear immediately that Rhoda's manner toward him +had changed: it had become more social, even voluble, and restrained. She +conversed brightly about trivial happenings, while he sat listening, +gravely silent. But it was evident that she soon became aware of his +difference, and her voice grew sharper, almost antagonistic. They were in +the formal parlor, a significant detail in itself, and Roger Brevard saw +William pass the door. Well, he would soon have to go, he must speak +about Sidsall now. It promised to be unexpectedly difficult; but the +words were forming when she came into the room. + +There were faint shadows under her eyes, the unmistakable marks of tears. +An overwhelming passion for her choked at his throat. She came directly +up to him, ignoring her mother. "Did you hear that they want me to go +away?" she asked. He nodded, "It's that I came to see your mother about." + +"They know I don't want to," she continued; "I've explained it to them +very carefully." + +"My dear Sidsall," Rhoda Ammidon cut in; "we can't have this. What Roger +has to say must be for me and your father." The girl smiled at her and +turned again to Roger Brevard. "Do you want me to go?" + +"No!" he cried, all his planning lost in uncontrollable rebellion. + +"Then I don't think I shall." + +William entered and stood at his wife's shoulder. "You won't insist," +Sidsall faced them quietly. "Ridiculous," her father replied. Brevard +realized that he must support the girl's bravery of spirit. How +adorable she was! But, before the overwhelming superior position of the +elder Ammidons, their weight of propriety and authority, his +determination wavered. + +"To be quite frank," the other man proceeded, "since it has been forced +on us, Sidsall imagines herself in love with you, Brevard. I don't need +to remind you how unsuitable and preposterous that is. She's too young to +know the meaning of love. Besides, my dear fellow, you're a quarter +century her elder. We want Sidsall to go to London like her mother, have +her cotillions, before she settles into marriage." + +"They can't understand, Roger," Sidsall touched his hand. "We're sorry to +disappoint them--" + +"You ought to be made to leave the room," William fumed. + +"That isn't necessary," Rhoda told him. "I am sure Roger understands +perfectly how impossible it is. You mustn't be hurt," she turned to him, +"if I admit that we have very different plans... at least a man nearer +Sidsall's age." + +The girl lifted a confident face to him. "You want to marry me, don't +you?" she asked. More than any other conceivable joy. But he said this +silently. His courage slowly ebbed before the parental displeasure +viewing him coldly. "Then--" Sidsall paused expectantly, a touch of +impatience even invaded her manner. "Please tell them, Roger." + +"Why I have to put up with this is beyond me," William Ammidon +expostulated with his wife. "It's shameless." + +Roger Brevard winced. He tried to say something about hope and the +future, but it was so weak, a palpable retreat, leaving Sidsall alone and +unsupported, that the words perished unfinished. The girl studied him, +suddenly startled, and her confidence ebbed. He turned away, crushed by +convention, filled with shame and a sense of self-betrayal. + +A stillness followed of unendurable length, in which he found his +attention resting on the diversified shapes of the East India money in a +corner cabinet. It was Sidsall who finally spoke, slowly and clearly: + +"Forgive me." + +He recognized that she was addressing her mother and father. From a +whisper of skirts he realized that she was leaving the room. Without the +will necessary for a last glimpse he stood with his head bowed by an +appalling sensation of weariness and years. + +In a flash of self-comprehension, Roger Brevard knew that he would never, +as he had hoped, leave Salem. He was an abstemious man, one of a family +of long lives, and he would linger here, increasingly unimportant, for a +great while, an old man in new epochs, isolated among strange people and +prejudices. Whatever the cause--the small safety or an inward flaw--he +had never been part of the corporate sweating humanity where, in the war +of spirit and flesh, the vital rewards and accomplishments were found. + +Soon after he passed Gerrit and Nettie Vollar driving in the direction of +the harbor; she was lying back wanly in the Ammidon barouche, but her +companion's face was set directly ahead, his expression of general +disdain strongly marked. A vigorous hand, Roger noted, was clasped about +Nettie's supine palm. She saw him standing on the sidewalk and bowed +slightly, but the shipmaster plainly overlooked him together with the +rest of Salem. + +The end of summer was imminent in a whirl of yellow leaves and chill gray +wind. There was a ringing of bugles through the morning, the strains of +military quicksteps, rhythmic tramping feet and the irregular fulmination +of salutes. That it was already the day of the annual Fall Review seemed +incredible to Roger Brevard. He was indifferent to the activities of the +Common; but when he heard that the _Nautilus_ was sailing in the middle +of the afternoon he left his inconsequential affairs for Phillips' Wharf. + +A small number were waiting on the solid rock-filled reach, the +wharfinger's office at its head and a stone warehouse blocking the end, +where the _Nautilus_ lay with her high-steeved bowsprit pointing outward. +The harbor was slaty, cold, and there was a continuous slapping of small +waves on the shore. Darkening clouds hung low in the west, out of which +the wind cut in flaws across the open. The town, so lately folded in lush +greenery, showed a dun lift of roofs and stripping branches tossing +against an ashy sky. + +Close beside Roger stood Barzil Dunsack, his beard blowing, with Kate +Vollar in a bright red shawl, her skirts whipping uneasily against her +father's legs. Beyond were the Ammidons--William, and Rhoda in a deep +furred wrap, and their daughters. Rhoda waved for him to join them, but +he declined with a gesture of acknowledgment. + +The deck of the _Nautilus_ was above his vision but he could see most of +the stir of departure. The peremptory voice of the mate rose from the +bow, minor directions were issued by the second mate aft, a seaman was +aloft on the main-royal yard and another stood at the stage rising +sharply from the wharf. Gerrit and his wife had not yet arrived, and the +pilot, making a leisurely appearance, stopped to exchange remarks with +the Ammidons. He climbed on board the ship and Roger could see his head +and shoulders moving toward the poop and mounting the ladder. + +The wind grew higher, shriller, every moment; it was thrashing among the +stays and braces; the man aloft, a small movement against the clouds, +swayed in its force. There was a faint clatter of hoofs from Derby +Street, Brevard had a fleeting glimpse of an arriving carriage, and +Gerrit, supporting Nettie Ammidon, advanced over the wharf. The +shipmaster walked slowly, the woman clinging, almost dragging, at his +erect strength. They went close by Roger: Nettie's pale face, her large +shining dark eyes, were filled with placid surrender. Her companion spoke +in a low grave tone, and she looked up at him in a tired and happy +acquiescence. + +The two families joined, and there was a confused determined gayety of +farewell and good wishes. Out of it finally emerged the captain of the +_Nautilus_ and the slight figure upon his arm. He wore a beaver hat, and, +as they mounted the stage, he was forced to hold it on with his free +hand. When the quarter-deck was reached they disappeared into the cabin. + +"Mr. Broadrick," the pilot called, "you can get in those bow fasts. Send +a hawser to the end of the wharf; I'm going to warp out." There was a +harsh answering clatter as the mooring chain that held the bow of the +_Nautilus_ was secured, and a group of sailors went smartly forward with +a hemp cable to the end of the wharf's seaward thrust. The _Nautilus_ lay +on the eastern side, with the wind beating over the starboard quarter, +and there was little difficulty in getting under way. Strain was kept on +the stern and breast fasts while the mate directed: + +"Ship your capstan bars." + +The capstan turned and the _Nautilus_ moved forward to the beat of song. + +"Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +I thought I heard the old man say. +Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +We'll get some rum ... +... Hurrah, my John. +Then shake her--" + +"Vast heaving," Mr. Broadrick shouted. + +The intimate spectators on Phillips' Wharf moved +out with the ship. Gerrit Ammidon was now visible on the quarter-deck +with the pilot. He walked to the port railing aft and stood gazing +somberly back at Salem. The stovepipe hat was not yet discarded, and the +hand firmly holding its brim resembled a final gesture of contempt. The +pilot approached him, there was a brief exchange of words, and the former +sharply ordered: + +"Stand by to run up your jib and fore-topmast staysail, Mr. Broadrick. +Put two good men at the sheets and see that those sails don't slat to +pieces. + +"On the wharf there--take that stern fast out to the last ringbolt. Mr. +Second Mate... get your fenders aboard." The wind increased in a violence +tipped with stinging rain. "Give her the jib and stay-sail." She heeled +slightly and gathered steerage way. Roger Brevard involuntarily waved a +parting salutation. An extraordinary emotion swept over him: a ship bound +to the East always stirred his imagination and sense of beauty, but the +departure of the _Nautilus_ had a special significance. It was the +beginning, yes, and the end, of almost the whole sweep of human suffering +and despair, of longing and hope and passion, and a reward. + +"Let go the stern fast. Steady your helm there." + +"Steady, sir." + +A mere gust of song was distinguishable against the blast of storm. Under +the lee of the stone warehouse, on the solidity of the wharf, the land, +Roger Brevard watched the _Nautilus_ while one by one the topsails were +sheeted home and the yards mastheaded. "A gale by night," somebody +said. The ship, driving with surprising speed toward the open sea, was +now apparently no more than a fragile shell on the immensity of the stark +horizon. + +The light faded: the days were growing shorter. Alone Brevard followed +the others moving away. Kate Vollar's red shawl suddenly streamed out and +was secured by a wasted hand. Just that way, he thought, the color and +vividness of his existence had been withdrawn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 9865-8.txt or 9865-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/6/9865/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9865-8.zip b/9865-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a44e42a --- /dev/null +++ b/9865-8.zip diff --git a/9865.txt b/9865.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..638ab2d --- /dev/null +++ b/9865.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7287 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +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: Java Head + +Author: Joseph Hergesheimer + +Posting Date: November 17, 2011 [EBook #9865] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 25, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + JAVA HEAD + + By Joseph Hergesheimer + + 1918 + + + + +It is only the path of pure simplicity which guards and preserves the +spirit. _CHWANG-TZE_ + + + + +TO HAZLETON MIRKIL, JR. + +_from Dorothy and Joseph Hergesheimer_ + + + + +I + +Very late indeed in May, but early in the morning, Laurel Ammidon lay in +bed considering two widely different aspects of chairs. The day before +she had been eleven, and the comparative maturity of that age had filled +her with a moving disdain for certain fanciful thoughts which had given +her extreme youth a decidedly novel if not an actually adventurous +setting. Until yesterday, almost, she had regarded the various chairs of +the house as beings endowed with life and character; she had held +conversations with some, and, with a careless exterior not warranted by +an inner dread, avoided others in gloomy dusks. All this, now, she +contemptuously discarded. Chairs were--chairs, things to sit on, wood and +stuffed cushions. + +Yet she was slightly melancholy at losing such a satisfactory lot of +reliable familiars: unlike older people, victims of the most +disconcerting moods and mysterious changes, chairs could always be +counted on to remain secure in their individual peculiarities. + +She could see by her fireplace the elaborately carved teakwood chair +that her grandfather had brought home from China, which had never varied +from the state of a brown and rather benevolent dragon; its claws were +always claws, the grinning fretted mouth was perpetually fixed for a +cloud of smoke and a mild rumble of complaint. The severe waxed hickory +beyond with the broad arm for writing, a source of special pride, had +been an accommodating and precise old gentleman. The spindling gold +chairs in the drawingroom were supercilious creatures at a king's ball; +the graceful impressive formality of the Heppelwhites in the dining room +belonged to the loveliest of Boston ladies. Those with difficult +haircloth seats in the parlor were deacons; others in the breakfast room +talkative and unpretentious; while the deep easy-chair before the library +fire was a ship. There were mahogany stools, dwarfs of dark tricks; angry +high-backed things in the hall below; and a terrifying shape of gleaming +red that, without question, stirred hatefully and reached out curved and +dripping hands. + +Anyhow, such they had all seemed. But lately she had felt a growing +secrecy about it, an increasing dread of being laughed at; and now, +definitely eleven, she recognized the necessity of dropping such pretense +even with herself. They were just chairs, she rerepeated; there was an +end of that. + +The tall clock with the brass face outside her door, after a +premonitory whirring, loudly and firmly struck seven, and Laurel +wondered whether her sisters, in the room open from hers, were awake. +She listened attentively but there was no sound of movement. She made a +noise in her throat, that might at once have appeared accidental and +been successful in its purpose of arousing them; but there was no +response. She would have gone in and frankly waked Janet, who was not +yet thirteen and reasonable; but experience had shown her that Camilla, +reposing in the eminence and security of two years more, would permit no +such light freedom with her slumbers. + +Sidsall, who had been given a big room for herself on the other side of +their parents, would greet anyone cheerfully no matter how tightly she +might have been asleep. And Sidsall, the oldest of them all, was nearly +sixteen and had stayed for part of their cousin Lucy Saltonstone's dance, +where no less a person than Roger Brevard had asked her for a quadrille. + +Laurel's thoughts grew so active that she was unable to remain any +longer in bed; she freed herself from the enveloping linen and crossed +the room to a window through which the sun was pouring in a sharp bright +angle. She had never known the world to smell so delightful--it was one +of the notable Mays in which the lilacs blossomed--and she stood +responding with a sparkling life to the brilliant scented morning, the +honey-sweet perfume of the lilacs mingled with the faintly pungent odor +of box wet with dew. + +She could see, looking back across a smooth green corner of the Wibirds' +lawn next door, the enclosure of their own back yard, divided from the +garden by a white lattice fence and row of prim grayish poplars. At the +farther wall her grandfather, in a wide palm leaf hat, was stirring about +his pear trees, tapping the ground and poking among the branches with his +ivory headed cane. + +Laurel exuberantly performed her morning toilet, half careless, in her +soaring spirits, of the possible effect of numerous small ringings of +pitcher on basin, the clatter of drawers, upon Camilla. Yesterday she had +worn a dress of light wool delaine; but this morning, she decided +largely, summer had practically come; and, on her own authority, she got +an affair of thin pineapple cloth out of the yellow camphorwood chest. +She hurriedly finished weaving her heavy chestnut hair into two gleaming +plaits, fastened a muslin guimpe at the back, and slipped into her dress. +Here, however, she twisted her face into an expression of annoyance--her +years were affronted by the length of pantalets that hung below her +skirt. Such a show of their narrow ruffles might do for a very small +girl, but not for one of eleven; and she caught them up until only the +merest fulled edge was visible. Then she made a buoyant descent to the +lower hall, left the house by a side door to the bricked walk and an +arched gate into the yard, and joined her grandfather. + +"Six bells in the morning watch," he announced, consulting a thick gold +timepiece. "Head pump rigged and deck swabbed down?" Secure in her +knowledge of the correct answers for these sudden interrogations Laurel +impatiently replied, "Yes, sir." + +"Scuttle butt filled?" + +"Yes, sir." She frowned and dug a heel in the soft ground. + +"Then splice the keel and heave the galley overboard." + +This last she recognized as a sally of humor, and contrived a fleeting +perfunctory smile. Her grandfather turned once more to the pears. "See +the buds on those Ashton Towns," he commented. Laurel gazed critically: +the varnished red buds were bursting with white blossom, the new leaves +unrolling, tender green and sticky. "But the jargonelles--" he drew in +his lips doubtfully. She studied him with the profound interest his sheer +being always invoked: she was absorbed in his surprising large roundness +of body, like an enormous pudding; in the deliberate care with which he +moved and planted his feet; but most of all by the fact that when he was +angry his face got quite purple, the color of her mother's paletot or a +Hamburg grape. + +They crossed the yard to where the vines of the latter, and of white +Chasselas--Laurel was familiar with these names from frequent +horticultural questionings--had been laid down in cold frames for later +transplanting; and from them the old man, her palm tightly held in his, +trod ponderously to the currant bushes massed against the closed arcade +of the stables, the wood and coal and store houses, across the rear of +the place. + +At last, with frequent disconcerting mutterings and explosive breaths, +he finished his inspection and turned toward the house. Laurel, +conscious of her own superiority of apparel, surveyed her companion in a +frowning attitude exactly caught from her mother. He had on that mussy +suit of yellow Chinese silk, and there was a spot on the waistcoat +straining at its pearl buttons. She wondered, maintaining the silent +mimicry of elder remonstrance, why he would wear those untidy old things +when his chests were heaped with snowy white linen and English +broadcloths. It was very improper in an Ammidon, particularly in one who +had been captain of so many big ships, and in court dress with a cocked +hat met the Emperor of Russia. + +They did not retrace Laurel's steps, but passed through a narrow wicket +to the garden that lay directly behind the house. The enclosure was full +of robin-song and pouring sunlight; the lilac trees on either side of the +summer-house against the gallery of the stable were blurred with their +new lavender flowering; the thorned glossy foliage of the hedge of June +roses on Briggs Street glittered with diamonds of water; and the rockery +in the far corner showed a quiver of arbutus among its strange and lacy +ferns and mosses. + +Laurel sniffed the fragrant air, filled with a tumult of energy; every +instinct longed to skip; she thought of jouncing as high as the poplars, +right over the house and into Washington Square beyond. "Miss Fidget!" +her grandfather exclaimed, exasperated, releasing her hand. "You're like +holding on to a stormy petrel." + +"I don't think that's very nice," she replied. + +"God bless me," he said, turning upon her his steady blue gaze; "what +have we got here, all dressed up to go ashore?" She sharply elevated a +shoulder and retorted, "Well, I'm eleven." His look, which had seemed +quite fierce, grew kindly again. "Eleven," he echoed with a satisfactory +amazement; "that will need some cumshaws and kisses." The first, she +knew, was a word of pleasant import, brought from the East, and meant +gifts; and, realizing that the second was unavoidably connected with it, +she philosophically held up her face. Lifting her over his expanse of +stomach he kissed her loudly. She didn't object, really, or rather she +wouldn't at all but for a strong odor of Manilla cheroots and the Medford +rum he took at stated periods. + +After this they moved on, through the bay window of the drawing-room that +opened on the garden, where a woman was brushing with a nodding feather +duster, under the white arch that framed the main stairway, and turned +aside to where breakfast was being laid. Laurel saw that her father was +already seated at the table, intent upon the tall, thickly printed sheet +of the Salem _Register_. He paused to meet her dutiful lips; then with a +"Good morning, father," returned to his reading. Camilla entered at +Laurel's heels; and the latter, in a delight slightly tempered by doubt, +saw that she had been before her sister in a suitable dress for such a +warm day. Camilla still wore her dark merino; and she gazed with mingled +surprise and annoyance at Laurel's airy garb. + +"Did mother say you might put that on?" she demanded. "Because if she +didn't I expect you will have to go right up from breakfast and change. +It isn't a dress at all for so early in the morning. Why, I believe it's +one of your very best." The look of critical disapproval suddenly became +doubly accusing. + +"Laurel Ammidon, wherever are your pantalets?" + +"I'm too big to have pantalets hanging down over my shoetops," she +replied defiantly, "and so I just hitched them up. You can still see the +frill." Janet had come into the room, and stood behind her. "Don't you +notice Camilla," she advised; "she's not really grown up." They turned at +the appearance of their mother. "Dear me, Camilla," the latter observed, +"you are getting too particular for any comfort. What has upset you now?" + +"Look at Laurel," Camilla replied; "that's all you need to do. You'd +think she went to dances instead of Sidsall" + +Laurel painfully avoided her mother's comprehensive glance. "Very +beautiful," the elder said in a tone of palpable pleasure. Laurel +advanced her lower lip ever so slightly in the direction of Camilla. +"But you have taken a great deal into your own hands." She shifted +apparently to another topic. "There will be no lessons to-day for I +have to send Miss Gomes into Boston." At this announcement Laurel was +flooded with a joy that obviously belonged to her former, less +dignified state. "However," her mother continued addressing her, "since +you have dressed yourself like a lady I shall expect you to behave +appropriately; no soiled or torn skirts, and an hour at your piano +scales instead of a half." + +Laurel's anticipation of pleasure ebbed as quickly as it had come--she +would have to move with the greatest caution all day, and spend a whole +hour at the piano. It was the room to which she objected rather than the +practicing; a depressing sort of place where she was careful not to move +anything out of the stiff and threatening order in which it belonged. The +chairdeacons in particular were severely watchful; but that, now, she had +determined to ignore. + +She turned to johnnycakes, honey and milk, only half hearing, in her +preoccupation with the injustice that had overtaken her, the conversation +about the table. Her gaze strayed over the walls of the breakfast room, +where water color drawings of vessels, half models of ships on teakwood +or Spanish mahogany boards, filled every possible space. Some her +grandfather had sailed in as second and then first mate, of others he had +been master, and the rest, she knew, were owned by Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone, her grandfather, father and uncle. + +Just opposite her was the _Two Capes_ at anchor in Table Bay, the sails +all furled except the fore-topsail which hung in the gear. A gig manned +by six sailors in tarpaulin hats with an officer in the stern sheets +swung with dripping oars across the dark water of the foreground; on the +left an inky ship was standing in close hauled on the port tack with all +her canvas set. It was lighter about the _Two Capes_, and at the back a +mountain with a flat top--showing at once why it was called Table +Bay--rose against an overcast sky. Laurel knew a great deal about the +_Two Capes_--for instance that she had been a barque of two hundred and +nine tons--because it had been her grandfather's first command, and he +never tired of narrating every detail of that memorable voyage. + +Laurel could repeat most of these particulars: They sailed on the tenth +of April in 'ninety-three, and were four and a half months to the Cape of +Good Hope; twenty days later, on the rocky island of St. Paul, +grandfather had a fight with a monster seal; a sailor took the scurvy, +and, dosed with niter and vinegar, was stowed in the longboat, but he +died and was buried at sea in the Doldrums. Then, with a cargo of Sumatra +pepper, they made Corregidor Island and Manilla Bay where the old Spanish +fort stood at the mouth of the Pasig. The barque, the final cargo of hemp +and indigo and sugar in the hold, set sail again for the Cape of Good +Hope, and returned, by way of Falmouth in England and Rotterdam, home. + +The other drawings were hardly less familiar; ships, barques, brigs and +topsail schooners, the skillful work of Salmon, Anton Roux and Chinnery. +There was the _Celestina_ becalmed off Marseilles, her sails hanging idly +from the yards and stays, her hull with painted ports and carved bow and +stern mirrored in the level sea. There was the _Albacore_ running through +the northeast trades with royals and all her weather studding sails set. +Farther along the _Pallas Athena_, in heavy weather off the Cape of Good +Hope, was being driven hard across the Agulhas Bank under double-reefed +topsails, reefed courses, the fore-topmast staysail and spanker, with the +westerly current breaking in an ugly cross sea, but, as her grandfather +always explained, setting the ship thirty or forty miles to windward in a +day. She lingered, finally, over the _Metacom_, running her easting down +far to the southward with square yards under a close-reefed maintop sail, +double-reefed foresail and forestaysail, dead before a gale and gigantic +long seas hurling the ship on in the bleak watery desolation. + +Laurel was closely concerned in all these. One cause for this was the +fact that her grandfather so often selected her as the audience for his +memories and stories, during which his manner was completely that of one +navigator to another; and a second flourished in the knowledge that +Camilla affected to disdain the sea and any of its connections. + +Sidsall appeared and took her place with a collective greeting; while +Laurel, coming out of her abstraction, realized that they were discussing +the subject in which nearly every conversation now began or ended--the +solemn speculation of why her Uncle Gerrit Ammidon, master of the ship +_Nautilus_, was so long overdue from China. Laurel heard this from two +angles, or, otherwise, when her grandfather was or was not present, the +tone of the first far more encouraging than that of the latter. Her +father was speaking: + +"My opinion is that he was unexpectedly held up at Shanghai. It's a new +port for us, and, Captain Verney tells me, very difficult to make: after +Woosung you have to get hold of two bamboo poles stuck up on the bank a +hundred feet apart as a leading mark, and, with these in range, steer for +the bar. The channel is very narrow, and he says the _Nautilus_ would +have to wait for high water, perhaps for the spring tide. She may have +got ashore, strained and sprung a leak, and had to discharge her cargo +for repairs." + +"That's never Gerrit," the elder replied positively. "There isn't a +better master afloat. He can smell shoal water. I was certain we'd hear +from him when the _Sorsogon_ was back from Calcutta. Do you suppose, +William, that he took the _Nautilus_ about the Horn and--?" Laurel +wondered at the unmannerly way in which he gulped his coffee. "He might +have driven into the Antarctic winter," he proceeded. "My deck was swept +and all the boats stove off the Falklands in April." + +"Gerrit's got a ship," the other asserted, "not a hermaphrodite brig +built like a butter box. You'll find that I am right and that he has been +tied up in port." + +"I made eight hundred per cent on a first cargo for my owners," the elder +retorted. "Then there was trading, yes, and sailing, too. No chronometers +with confounded rates of variation and other fancy parlor instruments to +read your position from. When I first navigated it was with an astrolabe +and the moon. A master knew his lead, latitude and lookout then. + +"Eight hundred barrels of flour and pine boards to Rio and back with +coffee and hides for Salem," he continued; "then out to Gibraltar and +Brazil with wine and on in ballast for Calcutta. Tahiti and Morea, the +Sandwich Islands and the Feejees. Sandalwood and tortoise shell and beche +de mer; sea horses' teeth, and saltpeter for the Chinese Government. I +don't want to hear about your bills of exchange and kegs of Spanish +dollars and solid cargoes of tea run back direct. Why, with your Canton +and India agents and sight drafts the China service is like dealing with +a Boston store." + +Laurel saw that her father was assuming the expression of restrained +annoyance habitual when the elder contrasted old shipping ways with new. +"Unfortunately," he said, "the patient Chinaman will no longer exchange +silks and lacquer and teas for boiled sea slugs. He has learned to demand +something of value." + +"Why, damn it, William," the other exploded, "nothing's more valuable to +a Chinese than his belly. They'll give eighteen hundred dollars a pecul +for birds' nests any day. As for your insinuation that we used to diddle +them--I never ran opium up from India to rot their souls. And when the +Chinese Government tried to stop it there's the British commercial +interests forcing it on them with cannon in 'forty-two. + +"Look at the pepper we brought into Salem--" he was, Laurel realized with +intense interest, growing beautifully empurpled; "--lay right off the +beach at Mukka and did business with the Dato himself. We forded the bags +on the crew's backs across a river with muskets served in case the bloody +heathen drew their creeses. When we made sail everything was running over +with pepper--the boats and forecastle and cabins and between decks." + +"Well, father, the heroic times are done, of course; I can't say that I'm +sorry. I shouldn't like to finance a voyage that reached out to three +years and depended on the captain's picking up six or seven cargoes." + +The old man rose; and, muttering a plainly uncomplimentary period about +the resemblance of modern ship owners to clerks, walked with his heavy +careful tread from the room. + +"You are so foolish to argue and excite him," William's wife told him. + +Laurel regarded her with a passionate admiration for the shining hair +turning smoothly about her brow and drawn over her ears to the low coil +in the back, for her brown barege dress with velvet leaves and blue +forget-me-nots and tightest of long sleeves and high collar, and because +generally she was a mother to be owned and viewed with pride. She met +Laurel's gaze with a little friendly nod and said: + +"Don't forget about your clothes, and I think you ought to finish the +practicing before dinner, so you'll be free for a walk with your +grandfather in the afternoon." + +Soon after, Laurel stood in the hall viewing with disfavor the light +dress she had put on so gayly at rising. In spite of her sense of +increasing age she had a strong desire to play in the yard and climb +about in the woodhouse. Already the business of being grown up began to +pall upon her, the outlook dreary that included nothing but a whole hour +at the piano, an endless care of her skirts, and the slowest kind of walk +through Washington Square and down to Derby Wharf, where--no matter in +which direction and for what purpose they started forth--her +grandfather's way invariably led. + +Janet joined her, and they stood irresolutely balancing on alternate +slippers. "Did you notice," the former volunteered, "mother is letting +Camilla have lots of starch in her petticoats, so that they stand right +out like crinoline? Wasn't she hateful this morning!" Laurel heard a +slight sound at her back, and, wheeling, saw her grandfather looking out +from the library door. A swift premonition of possible additional +misfortune seized her. Moving toward the side entrance she said to Janet, +"We'd better be going right away." + +It was, however, too late. "Well, little girls," he remarked +benevolently, "since Miss Gomes has left for the day it would be as well +if I heard your geography lesson." + +"I don't think mother intended for us to study today," Laurel replied, +making a face of appeal for Janet's support. But the latter remained +solidly and silently neutral. + +"What, what," the elder mildly exploded; "mutiny in the forecastle! Get +right up here in the break of the quarter-deck or I'll harry you." He +stood aside while Laurel and Janet filed into the library. Geography was +the only subject their grandfather proposed for his instruction, and the +lesson, she knew, might take any one of several directions. He sometimes +heard it with the precision of Miss Gomes herself; he might substitute +for the regular questions such queries, drawn from his wide voyages, as +he thought to be of infinitely greater use and interest; or, better +still, he frequently gave them the benefit of long reminiscences, +through which they sat blinking in a mechanical attention or slightly +wriggling with minds far away from the old man's periods, full of +outlandish names and places, and, when he got excited, shocking swears. + +He turned the easy-chair--the one which Laurel had thought of as a +ship--away from the fireplace, now covered with a green slatted blind for +the summer; and they drew forward two of the heavy chairs with shining +claw feet that stood against the wall. Smiley's Geography, a book no +larger than the shipmaster's hand, was found and opened to Hindoostan, or +India within the Ganges. There was a dark surprising picture of Hindoos +doing Penance under the Banyan tree, and a confusing view of the Himaleh +Mountains. + +"Stuff," he proceeded, gazing with disfavor at the illustrations. "This +ought to be written by men who have seen the world and know its tides and +landmarks. Do you suppose," he demanded heatedly of Janet, "that the +fellow who put this together ever took a ship through the Formosa Channel +against the northeast monsoon?" + +"No, sir," Janet replied hastily. + +"Here are Climate and Face of the country and Religion," he located these +items with a blunt finger, "but I can't find exports. I'll lay he won't +know a Bengal chintz from a bundle handkerchief." + +"I don't think it says anything about exports," Laurel volunteered. "We +have the boundaries and--" + +"Bilge," he interrupted sharply. "I didn't fetch boundaries back in the +_Two Capes_, did I?" He thrust the offending volume into a crevice of his +chair. "Laurel," he added, "what is the outport of St. Petersburg?" + +"Cronstadt," she answered, after a violent searching of her memory. + +"And for Manilla?" he turned to Janet. + +"I can't think," she admitted. + +"Laurel?" + +"Cavite," the latter pronounced out of a racking mental effort. + +"Just so, and--" he looked up at the ceiling, "the port for Boston?" + +"I don't believe we've had that," she said firmly. His gaze fastened on +her so intently that she blushed into her lap. "Don't believe we've had +it," he echoed. + +"Why, confound it--" he paused and regarded her with a new doubt. +"Laurel," he demanded, "what is an outport?" + +She had a distinct feeling of justifiable injury. A recognized part of +the present system of examination was its strict limitation to questions +made familiar by constant repetition; and this last was entirely new. +She was sure of several kinds of ports--one they had after dinner, +another indicated a certain side of a vessel, and still a third was +Salem. But an outport--Cronstadt, Cavite, what it really meant, what they +were, had escaped her. She decided to risk an opinion. + +"An outport," she said slowly, "is a--a part of a ship," that much +seemed safe--"I expect it's the place where they throw things like +potato peels through." + +"You suppose what!" he cried, breathing quite hard. "A place where +they--" he broke off. "And you're Jeremy Ammidon's granddaughter! By +heaven, it would make a coolie laugh. It's like William, who never would +go to sea, to have four daughters in place of a son. I'm done with you; +go tinker on the piano." They got down from their chairs and departed +with an only half concealed eagerness. "Do you think he means it," Janet +asked hopefully, "and he'll never have any geography again?" + +"No, I don't," Laurel told her shortly. She was inwardly ruffled, and +further annoyed at Janet's placid acceptance of whatever the day brought +along. Janet was a stick! She turned away and found herself facing the +parlor and the memory of the impending hour of practice. Well, it had to +be done before dinner, and she went forward with dragging feet. + +Within the formal shaded space of the chamber she stopped to speculate +on the varied and colorful pictures of the wall paper reaching from the +white paneling above her waist to the deep white carving at the ceiling. +The scene which absorbed her most showed, elevated above a smooth stream, +a marble pavilion with sweeping steps and a polite company about a +reclining gentleman with bare arms and a wreath on his head and a lady in +flowing robes playing pipes. To the right, in deep green shadow, a +charmer was swinging from ropes of flowers, lovers hid behind a brown +mossy trunk; while on the left, against a weeping willow and frowning +rock, four serene creatures gathered about a barge with a gilded prow. + +Still on her reluctant progress to the piano she stopped to examine the +East India money on the lowest shelf of a locked corner cupboard. There +was a tiresome string of cash with a rattan twisted through their square +holes; silver customs taels, and mace and candareen; Chinese gold leaf +and Fukien dollars; coins from Cochin China in the shape of India ink, +with raised edges and characters; old Carolus hooked dollars; Sycee +silver ingots, smooth and flat above, but roughly oval on the lower +surface, not unlike shoes; Japanese obangs, their gold stamped and beaten +out almost as broad as a hand's palm; mohurs and pieces from Singapore; +Dutch guilders from Java; and the small silver and gold drops of Siam +called tical. + +She arrived finally at the harplike stool of the piano; but there she had +to wait until the clock in the hall above struck some division of the +hour for her guidance, and she rattled the brass rings that formed the +handles of drawers on either side of the keyboard. Later, her fingers +picking a precarious way through bass and treble, she heard Sidsall's +voice at the door; the latter was joined by their mother, and they went +out to the clatter of hoofs, the thin jingle of harness chains, where the +barouche waited for them in the street. Once Camilla obtruded into the +room. "I wonder you don't give yourself a headache," she remarked; "I +never heard more nerve-racking sounds." + +Laurel gathered that Camilla was proud of this expression, which she must +have newly caught from some grown person. She considered a reply, but, +nothing sufficiently crushing occurring, she ignored the other in a +difficult transposition of her hands. Camilla left; the clock above +struck a second quarter; the third, while she honestly continued her +efforts up until the first actual note of the hour. + +"Thank God that's over," she said in the liberal manner of a shipmaster. +Now only the walk with her grandfather remained of the actively tiresome +duties of the day. After dinner the sun blazed down with almost the heat +of midsummer, and Laurel felt unexpectedly indifferent, content to linger +in the house. Only too soon she heard inquiries for her; and in her +gaiter boots, a silk bonnet with a blue scarf tied under her chin and +flowing over a shoulder and palm leaf cashmere shawl, she accompanied the +old man across Pleasant Street and over the wide green Square to the +arched west gate with its gilt eagle and Essex Street. + +"Will we be going on Central Street?" she asked. + +"No reason for turning down there," he replied, forgetful of the +gingerbread shop with the shaky little bell inside the door, the buttered +gingerbread on the upper shelf for three cents and that without on the +lower for two. She gathered her hopes now about Webb's Drugstore, where +her grandfather sometimes stopped for a talk, and bought her rock candy, +Gibraltars or blackjacks. It was too hot for blackjacks, she decided, +and, with opportunity, would choose the cooling peppermint flavor of the +Gibraltars. + +The elms on Essex Street were far enough in leaf to cast a flickering +shade in the faintly salt air drifting from the sea; and they progressed +so slowly that Laurel was able to study the contents of most of the store +windows they passed. Some held crewels and crimped white cakes of wax, +gayly colored reticule beads with a wooden spoon for a penny measure, and +"strawberry" emery balls. There was a West India store and a place where +they sold oil and candles, another had charts for mariners; while across +the way stood the East India Marine Hall. + +Here her grandfather hesitated, and for a moment it seemed as if he would +go over and join the masters always to be found about the Museum. But in +the end he continued beyond the Essex House with its iron bow and lamp +over the entrance, past Cheapside to Webb's Drugstore, where he purchased +a bag of Peristaltic lozenges, and--after pretending to start away as if +nothing more were to be secured there--the Gibraltars. + +They were returning, in the general direction of Derby Wharf, when Jeremy +Ammidon met a companion of past days at sea, and stopped for the +inevitable conversational exchange. The latter, who had such a great +spreading beard that Laurel couldn't determine whether or not he wore a +neck scarf, said: + +"Barzil Dunsack all but died." + +"Ha!" the other exclaimed. Laurel wondered at the indelicacy in speaking +about old Captain Dunsack to her grandfather, when everyone in Salem knew +they had quarreled years ago and not spoken to each other since. + +"He was bad off," he persisted; "a cold grappled in his chest and went +into lung fever. Barzil's looking wasted, what with sickness and the +trouble about Edward." At a nod, half encouraging, he added, "It appears +Edward left Heard and Company in Canton and took ship back to Boston. +He's there now for what I know. Never sent any word to Salem or his +father. Looks a little as if he had been turned out of his berth. Then +one of Barzil's schooners caught the edge of the last hurricane off the +Great Bank and went ashore on Green Turtle Key. Used him near all up." + +Laurel saw that her grandfather was frowning heavily and silently moving +his lips. The other left them standing and her companion brought his cane +down sharply. "Boy and boy," he said. "Barzil was a good man... looking +old. So am I, so am I. Feet almost useless. Laurel," he addressed her, "I +want you to go right on home. I've got to stop around and see an old +friend who has been sick." She left obediently, but paused once to gaze +back incredulously at the bulky shape of her grandfather moving toward +Barzil Dunsack's. That quarrel was part of their family history, she had +been aware of it as long as she had of the solemn clock in the second +hall; and not very far back, perhaps when she was eight, it had taken a +fresh activity of discussion around the person of her Uncle Gerrit, who, +it was feared, might now be drowned at sea. What it had all been about +neither she nor her sisters knew, for not only was the subject dropped at +the approach of any of them but they were forbidden to mention it. + +At home she was unable to communicate her surprising news at once because +of the flood of talk that met her from the drawing-room. Olive Wibird and +Lacy, her cousin, were engaged with Sidsall in a conversation often a +duet and sometimes a trio. Laurel took a seat at the edge of the chatter +and followed it comprehensively. She didn't like Olive Wibird who would +greet her in a sugary voice; but elsewhere Olive was tremendously +admired, there were always men about her, serenades rising from the lawn +beneath her window, and Laurel herself had seen Olive's dressing table +laden with bouquets in frilly lace paper. She had one now, in a holder of +mother-of-pearl, with a gilt chain and ring. Her wide skirt was a mass of +over-drapery, knots of moss roses and green gauze ribbons; while a silver +cord ending in a tassel fell forward among her curls. + +Lacy Saltonstone, almost as plainly dressed as Sidsall, was as usual +sitting straighter than anyone else Laurel ever saw; she had a brown +face with a finely curved nose and brown eyes, and her voice was cool +and decided. + +"For me," she said, "he is the most fascinating person in Salem." + +Olive Wibird made a swift face of dissent. "He's too stiff and there is +gray in his hair. I like my men more like sparkling hock. Dancing with +him he holds you as if you were glass." + +"I don't seem to remember you and Mr. Brevard together," Lacy commented. + +"He hasn't asked me for centuries," the other admitted. "He did Sidsall, +though, as we all remember; didn't he, love?" + +Sidsall's cheeks turned bright pink. Laurel dispassionately wished that +her sister wouldn't make such a show of herself. It was too bad that +Sidsall was so--so broad and well looking; she was not in the least pale +or interesting, and had neither Lacy's Saltonstone's thin gracefulness +nor Olive's popular manner. + +"It was very noble of him," Sidsall agreed. + +"But he was extremely engaged," Lacy assured her with her wide slow +stare. "He told me that you were like apple blossoms." + +That might please Sidsall, thought Laurel, but she personally held apple +blossoms to be a very common sort of flower. Evidently something of the +kind had occurred to Olive, too, for she said: "Heaven only knows what +men will admire. It's clear they don't like a prude. I intend to have a +good time until I get married--" + +"But what if you love in vain?" Sidsall interrupted. + +"There isn't any need for that," Olive told her. "When I see a man I +want I'm going to get him. It's easy if you know how and make +opportunities. I always have one garter a little loose." + +"Laurel," her sister turned, "I'm certain your supper is ready. Go along +like a nice child." + +In her room a woman with a flat worn face and a dusty wisp of hair across +her neck was spreading underlinen, ironed into beautiful narrow wisps of +pleating, in a drawer. It was Hodie, a Methodist, the only one Laurel +knew, and the latter was always entranced by the servant's religious +exclamations, doubts and audible prayers. She was saying something now +about pits, gauds and vanities; and she ended a short profession of faith +with an amen so loud and sudden that Laurel, although she was waiting for +it, jumped. + +It was past seven, the air was so sweet with lilacs that they seemed to +be blooming in her room, and the sunlight died slowly from still space. +By leaning out of her window she could see over the Square. The +lamplighter was moving along its wooden fence, leaving faint twinkling +yellow lights, and there were little gleams from the windows on Bath +Street beyond. + +The gayety of her morning mood was replaced by a dim kind of wondering, +her thoughts became uncertain like the objects in the quivering light +outside. The palest possible star shone in the yellow sky; she had to +look hard or it was lost. Janet, stirring in the next room, seemed so far +away that she might not hear her, Laurel, no matter how loudly she +called. "Janet!" she cried, prompted by unreasoning dread. "You needn't +to yell," Janet complained, at the door. But already Laurel was oblivious +of her: she had seen a familiar figure slowly crossing Washington Square +--her grandfather coming home from Captain Dunsack's. + +Gracious, how poky he was; she was glad that she wasn't dragging along at +his side. He seemed bigger and rounder than usual. She heard the tap of +his cane as he left the Common for Pleasant Street; then his feet moved +and stopped, moved and stopped, up the steps of their house. + +She was sorry now that she hadn't known what an outport was, and +determined to ask him to-morrow. She liked his stories, that Camilla +disdained, about crews and Hong Kong and the stormy Cape. The thought of +Cape Horn brought back the memory of her Uncle Gerrit, absent in the +ship _Nautilus_. Her mental pictures of him were not clear--he was +almost always at sea--but she remembered his eyes, which were very +confusing to encounter, and his hair parted and carelessly brushing the +bottoms of his ears. + +Laurel recalled hearing that Gerrit was his father's favorite, and she +suddenly understood something of the unhappiness that weighed upon the +old man. She hoped desperately that Janet or Camilla wouldn't come in and +laugh at her for crying. In bed she saw that the room was rapidly filling +with dusk. Only yesterday she would have told herself that the dragon in +the teakwood chair was stirring; but now Laurel could see that it never +moved. She rocked like the little boats that crossed the harbor or came +in from the ships anchored beyond the wharves, and settled into a sleep +like a great placid sea flooding the world of her home and the +lamplighter and her grandfather sorrowing for Uncle Gerrit. + + + + +II + +When Jeremy Ammidon sent his granddaughter home alone, and turned toward +Captain Dunsack's, on Hardy Street, he stopped for a moment to approve +the diminishing sturdy figure. All William's children, though they were +girls, were remarkably handsome, with glowing red cheeks and clear eyes, +tumbling masses of hair and a generous vigor of body. He sighed at +Laurel's superabundant youth, and moved carefully forward; he was very +heavy, and his progress was uncertain. His thoughts were divided between +the present and the past--Barzil Dunsack, aged and ill and unfortunate, +and the happening long ago that had resulted in a separation of years +after a close youthful companionship. + +It had occurred while Barzil was master of the brig _Luna,_ owned by +Billy Gray, and he, Jeremy, was first mate. In the exactness with which +he recalled every detail of his life in ships he remembered that at the +time they were off Bourbon Island, about a hundred and ten miles +southwest of the lie de France. The _Luna_ was close hauled, and, while +Barzil was giving an order at the wheel, she fetched a bad lee lurch +and sent him in a heap across the deck, striking his head against the +bumkin bitts. He had got up dazed but not apparently seriously injured; +and after his head had been swabbed and bound by the steward he +returned to the poop. There, however, his conduct had been so +peculiar--among other things sending down the watch to put on Sunday +rig against a possible hail by the Lord--that, after a long +consultation with Mr. Patterson, the second mate and the boatswain, and +a brief announcement to the crew, he, Jeremy Ammidon, had taken command +in their interest and that of the owner. + +Barzil had made difficulties: Mr. Patterson struck up a leveled pistol in +the master's hand just as it exploded. They had confined him, in charge +of the unhappy steward, to his cabin; where, after he had completely +recovered from the effects of the blow, and Jeremy had been upheld by the +authorities at Table Bay, he stubbornly remained until the _Luna_ had +been warped into Salem. + +From the moment of their landing they had not exchanged a word. Jeremy +was surprised to find himself at present bound toward the other's house. +He was not certain that Barzil would even see him; but, he muttered, the +thing had lasted long enough, they were too old for such foolishness; and +the other had come into adverse winds, now, when he should be lying +quietly in a snug harbor. + +He had never paid serious attention to the threatened complication two or +three years before, when Gerrit had been seen repeatedly with Kate +Dunsack's irregularly born daughter. He was sorry for the two women. It +was his opinion that the man had been shipped drunk by some boarding +house runner; anyhow, only the second day out Vollar had been lost +overboard from the main-royal yard, and Kate's child born outside the +law. It was hard, he told himself again, walking down Orange Street, past +the Custom House to Derby. + +The girl, Nettie Vollar--they had adopted the father's name--was +attractive in a decided French way, with crisp black hair, a pert nose +and dimple, and, why, good heavens, twenty-one or two years old if she +was a week! How time did run. It was nothing extraordinary if Gerrit had +been seen a time or two with her on the street, or even if he had called +at the Dunsacks'. Barzil's and his quarrel didn't extend to all the +members of their families; and as for the Dunsacks being common--that was +nonsense. Barzil was as good as he any day; only where he had prospered, +and moved up into a showy place on the Common, the other had had the +head winds. Through no fault of his own the reputation had fastened on +him of being unlucky in his cargoes: if he carried tea and colonial +exports to, say, Antwerp, they would have been declared contraband while +he was at sea, and seized on the docks; he had been blown, in an +impenetrable fog, ashore on Tierra del Fuego, and, barely making Cape +Pembroke, had been obliged to beach his ship, a total loss. Then there +was Kate's trouble. Barzil was a rigorously moral and religious man and +his pain at that last must have been heavy. + +Jeremy Ammidon's mind turned to Gerrit, his son; this interest in Nettie +Vollar, if it had existed, was characteristic of the boy, who had a quick +heart and an honest disdain for the muddling narrow ways of the land. He +would have sought her out simply from the instinct to protest against the +smugness of Salem opinion. A fine sailor, and a master at twenty-two. A +great one to carry sail; yet in the sixteen years of his commands he had +had no more serious accident than the loss of a fore-topgallant mast or +splitting a couple of courses. It was Gerrit's ability, the splendid +qualities of his ship, that made Jeremy hope he would still come sailing +into the harbor with some narration of delay and danger overcome. + +He was now on Derby Street, in a region of rigging and sail lofts, block +and pump makers, ships' stores, spar yards, gilders, carvers and workers +in metal. There was a strong smell of tar and new canvas and the flat +odor that rose at low water. Sailors passed, yellow powerful +Scandinavians and dark men with earrings from southern latitudes, in red +or checked shirts, blue dungarees and glazed black hats with trailing +ribbons, or in cheap and clumsy shore clothes. There was a scraping of +fiddle from an upper window, the sound of heavy capering feet and the +stale laughter of harborside women. + +On Hardy Street he continued to the last house at the right, the farther +side of which gave across a yard of uneven bricks, straggling bushes and +aged splitting apple trees and an expanse of lush grass ending abruptly +in a wooden embankment and the water. A short fence turned in from the +sidewalk to the front door, where Jeremy knocked. A long pause followed, +in which he became first impatient and then irritable; and he was lifting +his hand for a second summons when the door suddenly opened and he was +facing Kate Vollar. There was only a faint trace of surprise on her +apathetic--Jeremy Ammidon called it moonlike--countenance; as if her +overwhelming mischance had robbed her features of all further expressions +of interest or concern. + +"I heard," Jeremy said in a voice pitched loud enough to conceal any +inward uncertainty, "that your father had been sick. Met Captain Rendell +on Essex Street and he said Barzil had lung fever. Thought I'd see if +there was any truth in it." + +"He just managed to stay alive," Kate Vollar replied, gazing at him with +her stilled gray eyes. "But he's better now, though he's not up and about +yet. Shall I tell him that--that you are here?" + +"Yes. Just say Jeremy Ammidon's below, and would like to pass a greeting +with him." + +He followed the woman in, and entered a large gloomy chamber while she +mounted the stair leading directly from the front. The blackened +fireplace gaping uncovered for the summer, the woodwork, painted yellow +with an artificial graining, and a stiff set of ebonized chairs, their +dingy crimson plush backs protected by elaborate thread antimacassars, +seemed to hold and reflect the misfortunes of their owner. Jeremy picked +up an ostrich egg, painted with a clump of viciously green coconut palms +and a cottony surf; he put it down with an absent smile and impatiently +fingered a volume of "The Life of Harriet Atwood Newell." She was one of +the missionaries who had gone out on the _Caravan_, with Augustine Heard, +to India, but forbidden to land there had died not long after on the Ile +de France. + +"Houqua was a damned good heathen," he said aloud: "and so was +Nasservanjee." He left the table and proceeded to a window opening upon +the harbor, here fretted with wharves. A barque was fast in a small +stone-bound dock, newly in, his practiced glance saw, from a blue water +voyage, Africa probably. Her standing gear was in a perfection and beauty +of order that spoke of long tranquil days in the trades, and that no mere +harbor riggers could hope to accomplish. The deck was burdened with the +ugly confusion of unloading. Jeremy studied the jibs stowed in harbor +covers, the raking masts and tapering royal poles over the stolid roofs. +Ordinarily seeing no more he could not only name a vessel trading out of +Salem, but from her rig recognize anyone of a score of masters who, +otherwise unheralded, might be in command. + +However, here he was at a loss, and he thought again of the change, the +decline, that had overtaken Salem shipping, the celebrated merchants; the +pennants of William Gray, he reflected, had flown from the main truck of +fifteen ships, seven barques, thirteen brigs and schooners. Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone, in spite of his vehement protests, the counsel +of the oldest member of the firm, were moving shipment by shipment all +their business to Boston, listening to the promptings of State Street and +Central Wharf. + +To the right was the sagging landing from which Barzil's schooners +sailed trading with the West Indies; and back of it, and of his +house, stood the small office. His mind had turned to this +inconsiderable commerce when Kate Vollar entered and told him that +her father would see him. + +Barzil Dunsack was propped up in bed in a room above that in which Jeremy +had been waiting. He, totally different from the other, showed his age in +sunken dry cheeks, a forehead like an arch of bone, and a thick short +gray beard. A long faded lock of hair had been hastily brushed forward +and an incongruously bright knitted scarf drawn about his shoulders. + +Jeremy Ammidon concealed his dismay not only at Barzil's wrecked being +but at the dismal aspect of the interior, the worn rugs with their pieces +of once bright material frayed and loose, the splitting veneer of an old +chest of drawers and blistered mirror above a dusty iron grate. "You have +got in among the rocks!" he exclaimed. "Still they tell me you've +weathered the worst. Copper bound and oak ribs. Don't build them like +that to-day." + +Barzil Dunsack's eyes were bright and searching behind steel-rimmed +spectacles, and he studied Jeremy without replying. "Well, isn't there a +salute in you?" the latter demanded, incensed. "I'm not a Malay proa." + +The grim shadow of a smile dawned on Barzil's countenance. "I mind one +hanging on our quarter by Formosa," he returned; "I trained a cannon aft +and fired a shot, when she sheered off. That was in the _Flora_ in +'ninety-seven." + +A long silence enveloped them. Jeremy's mind was thronged with memories +of ports and storms, mates and ships and logged days. "Remember Oahu like +it was when we first made it," he queried, "and the Kanaka girls swimming +out to the ship with hybiscus flowers in their hair? Yes, and the +anchorage at Tahiti with the swells pounding on the coral reef and +Papeete under the mountain? It was nice there in the afternoon, lying off +the beach with the white cottages among the palms and orange trees and +the band playing in the grove by Government House." + +Captain Dunsack frowned at the trivial character of these memories. He +muttered something about the weight of the Lord, and the carnal hearts of +the men in ships. Jeremy declared, "Stuff! He'll wink at a sailor man +with hardly a free day on shore. It wasn't bad at Calcutta, either, with +an awning on the quarter-deck, watching the carriages and syces in the +Maidan and maybe a corpse or two floating about the gangway from the +burning ghauts." + +"A mean entrance," Barzil Dunsack asserted. "I don't know a worse with +the southwest monsoon in the Bay of Bengal and the pilot brigs gone +from the Sand Heads. That's where Heard got pounded with the _Emerald_ +drawing nineteen feet, and eighteen on the bar. Shook the reefs out of +his topsails, laid her on her beam ends, and with some inches saved +scraped in." + +"Pick up the three Juggernaut Pagodas of Ganjam," Jeremy remarked +absently. + +"'Thou shalt have no other God--'" + +Jeremy, with a glint in his eye, asked, "Wasn't your last consignment of +West India molasses marked Medford?" + +"You always were a scoffer," the other replied, unmoved. + +"How's Nettie?" Jeremy Ammidon inquired with a deliberate show of +interest. + +Barzil's lips tightened. "I haven't seen her for a little," he replied. +"She's been visiting at Ipswich." Jeremy added, "A good girl," but the +man in bed made no further comment. His undimmed gaze was fastened upon a +wall, his mouth folded in a hard line on a harsh and deeply seamed +countenance. An able man pursued by bad luck. + +"Nothing's been heard from Gerrit," Jeremy said after a little. Still the +other kept silent. His face darkened: by God, if Barzil hadn't a decent +word for the fact that Gerrit was seven months overdue, perhaps lost, +this was not a house for him. "I say that we've had nothing from my son +since he lay in the Lye-ee-Moon Pass off Hong Kong," he repeated sharply. + +A spasm of suffering, instantly controlled, passed over Barzil's face. +"Gerrit called once and again before he last sailed for Montevideo," he +finally pronounced. "I stopped it and he left in a temper. I--I won't +have another mortal sin here like Kate's." + +"Do you mean that Gerrit's loose?" Jeremy hotly demanded, rising. "A +more honorable boy never breathed." Barzil was cold. "I told him not to +come back," he repeated; "it would only lead to--to shamefulness." +Jeremy shook his cane toward the bed. "I may be a scoffer," he cried, +"but I wouldn't hold a judgment over a child of mine! I'm not so damned +holy that I can look down on a misfortunate girl. If Gerrit did come to +see Nettie and the boy had a liking for her, why you drove away a cursed +good husband. And if you think for a minute I wouldn't welcome her +because that Vollar fell off a yard before he could find a preacher +you're an old fool!" + +"Nettie must bear her burden: far better be dead than a stumbling block." + +"Well, I'd rather be a drunken pierhead jumper on the Waterloo Road than +any such pious blue nose. I'll tell you this, too--I'd hate to ship afore +the mast under you for all you'd have the ensign on the booby hatch with +prayers read Sunday morning. I don't wonder you got into weather; I'd +have no word for a Creator who didn't blow in your eye." + +"I'll listen to no blasphemy, Captain Ammidon," Barzil Dunsack +said sternly. + +"And I'll speak my mind, Captain Dunsack; it's this--your girls are a +long sight too good for you or for any other judgmatical, psalm-singing +devil dodger." He stood fuming at the door. "Good afternoon to you." + +Barzil Dunsack reclined with his gaunt bearded head sunk forward on his +thin chest swathed in the gay worsted wrap, his wasted hands, the tendons +corded with pale violet veins, clenched outside the checkered quilt +beneath which his body made scarcely a mark. + +Outside, in the soft glow of beginning dusk, Jeremy blamed himself +bitterly for his anger at the sick man. He had gone to see him in a +spirit friendly with old memories, forgetful of their long quarrel in the +stirred emotions of the past days of youth and first manhood; and he had +shouted at Barzil as if he were a lubber at the masthead. + +He realized that in order to be in time for supper he must turn toward +the Common and home; but his gaze caught the spars of the strange +barque; and, mechanically, he made his way over a narrow grassy passage +to the wharf. She was the _Cora Sellers_ of Marblehead, and he recognized +from a glance at the cargo that she had been out to the East Coast of +Africa--Mozambique and Zanzibar, Aden and Muscat. A matted frail of dates +swung ponderously in air, there were baled goatskins and sacks of Mocha +coffee, sagging baskets of reddish unwashed gum copal carried in bulk, +and a sun-blackened mate smoking a rat-tail Dutch cigar was supervising +the moving of elephant tusks in a milky glimmer of ivory ashore. + +There was a vague murmur of the rising tide, beyond the wharves and +warehouses the water was faintly rippled in silver and rose, and a ship +was standing into the harbor with all her canvas spread to the light +wind. He turned away with a sigh and walked slowly up toward the elms of +Pleasant Street. At his front door he stopped to regard the polished +brass plate where in place of his name he had caused to be engraved the +words Java Head. They held for him, coming into this pleasant dwelling +after so many tumultuous years at sea, the symbol of the safe and happy +end of an arduous voyage; just as the high black rock of Java Head +thrusting up over the horizon promised the placidity and accomplishment +of the Sunda Strait. Whenever he noticed the plate he felt again the +relief of coasting that northerly shore: + +He saw the mate forward with the crew passing the chains through the +hawse pipes and shackling them to the anchors. The island rose from level +groves of shore palms to lofty blue peaks terraced with rice and +red-massed kina plantations, with shining streams and green kananga +flowers and tamarinds. The land breeze, fragrant with clove buds and +cinnamon, came off to the ship in the vaporous dusk; and, in the blazing +sunlight of morning, the Anjer sampans swarmed out with a shrill chatter +of brilliant birds, monkeys and naked brown humanity, piled with dark +green oranges and limes and purple mangosteen. + +In the last few years, particularly with Gerrit away, he had turned more +and more from the surroundings of his house--rather it had become +William's house--to an inner life of memories. His own active life seemed +to him to have been infinitely fuller, more purposeful and various, than +that of present existence at Java Head. All Salem had been different: he +had a certain contempt for the existence of his son William and the +latter's associates and friends. He had said that the trading now done in +ships was like dealing at a Boston store, and the merchants reminded him +of storekeepers. The old days, when a voyage was a public affair, and a +ship's manifest posted in the Custom House on which anyone might write +himself down for a varying part of the responsibility and profit, had +given place to closed capital; the passages from port to port with the +captain, as often as not, his own supercargo and a figure of importance, +had become scheduled affairs in which a master was subjected to any +countinghouse clerk with an order from the firm: the ships themselves +were fast being ruined. + +He was in his room, after supper, seated momentarily on a day bed with a +covering of white Siberian fox skins, and he pronounced aloud, in a tone +of satirical contempt, the single word, "Clipper." Nearly everyone in the +shipping business seemed to have been touched by this madness for the +ridiculous ideas of an experimental Griffiths and his model of a ship +with the bows turned inside out, the greatest beam aft and a dead rise +like an inverted roof. That the _Rainbow_, the initial result of this +insanity, hadn't capsized at her launching had been due to some freak of +chance; just as her miraculous preservation through a voyage or so to +China could have been made possible only by continuously mild weather. + +Even if the _Rainbow_ had been fast--her run was called ninety-two days +out to Canton and home in eighty-eight--it was absurd to suppose that +there had been the usual monsoon. And if she did come in a little ahead +of vessels built on a solid full-bodied model, why her hold had no cargo +capacity worth the name. + +Things on the seas were going to the devil! He moved down to the library, +where he lighted a cheroot and addressed himself to the _Gazette_; but +his restlessness increased: the paper drooped and his thoughts turned to +Gerrit as a small boy. He saw him leaving home, for the first time, to go +to the school at Andover, in a cloth cap with a glazed peak, striped long +pantaloons and blue coat and waistcoat; later at the high desk in the +counting-rooms of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone; then sailing as +supercargo on one of the Company's ships to Russia and Liverpool. He had +soon dropped such clerking for seamen's duties, and his rise to +mastership had been rapid. + +Rhoda, William's wife, entered and stood before him accusingly. "You are +worrying again," she declared; "in here all by yourself. It really seems +as if you didn't believe in our interest or affection. I have a feeling, +and you know they are always right, that Gerrit will sail into the harbor +any day now." + +He had always liked Rhoda, a large handsome woman with rich coloring--her +countenance somehow reminded him of an apricot--and fine clothes. She +paused, studied him for a moment, and then asked, "Was your call on +Captain Dunsack pleasant?" + +"It ought to have been," he confided, "but I got mad and talked like a +Dutch uncle, and Barzil went off on a holy tack." + +"About Nettie Vollar?" + +Jeremy nodded. "Look here, Rhoda," he demanded, "did Gerrit ever say +anything to you about her?" + +"Yes," she told him; "Gerrit was very frank." + +"Did he like the girl?" + +"I couldn't make that out. But if there hadn't been, well--something +unusual in her circumstances I think he would never have noticed her. +Gerrit is a curious mixture, a very impressionable heart and a contrary +stubborn will. He was sorry for Nettie, and, at the way a great many +people treated her, threw himself into opposition. Nettie's father made +him very mad, and Gerrit pretty well damned all Salem before he left in +the _Nautilus_. He was excruciatingly funny: you know Gerrit can be, +particularly when he imitates anybody. I think being away at sea a great +deal, and having absolute command of everything, give men a different +view of things from ours. What is terribly important to Salem hardly +touches Gerrit; it's all silly pretense, or worse, to him. + +"I wouldn't mind that if it weren't for the sense of humor that leads him +into the wildest extravagances, and the fact that he'll act on his +feelings. You know I'm devoted to him but I give a sigh of relief +whenever he gets away on his ship without doing any one of the hundred +insanities he threatens." + +"Gerrit's like me," he said. + +"More than William," she agreed. "William is never impetuous, and he's +often impatient with his brother. He's a splendid husband, but Gerrit +would make a wonderful lover. I'm thankful I never fell into his +affections ... too wearing for an indolent woman." + +"You've been a great comfort and pleasure, Rhoda," he told her. "I only +wish Gerrit could marry someone like you--" + +"But who would give him sons," she interrupted. + +"It's just as you say about him, and I've always been uneasy. God knows +what he won't do--on land. William's a great deal happier, for all his +brother's humor. I joke William, but he's very satisfactory and solid. +He'll make port if he doesn't get tied up with newfangled notions. Why, +it stands to reason that a ship built like a knife would double up in the +seas off the Falklands." + +"He has a lot of confidence in Mr. McKay." + +"McKay is a good man unsettled. The _May Broughton_ is a fine barque, +and his packet ships are as seaworthy as any, but--" his indignation +increased so that he sputtered, and Rhoda laughed. "Now your girls," +he added, "fine models, all of them, plenty of beam, work in any kind +of weather." + +"That's very complimentary," she assured him, rising. "You mustn't worry +about Gerrit. Remember, my predictions never fail." + +When she had gone his mind returned to storms he had safely +weathered--the gray gales of Cape Horn, black hurricanes and the +explosive tempests in eastern straits and seas. He took from the drawer +of a bookcase with glass doors set in geometrical pattern a thin volume +bound in black boards. A paper label was inscribed in a small, carefully +formed script, "Journal of my intended voyage from Salem to the East +Indies in the Ship _Woodbine_." He opened at random: + +"Comes in with strong wind from SSE with rain squalls. Very ugly sea on. +Double reefed the Topsails, reefed the courses and furled the mainsail. +At six p.m. shipped a very heavy sea that carried away the bulwarks on +the larboard quarter and stove those on the starboard quarter and +amidships ... upper cabin filled with water. Through the night strong +gales.... Lightning at all points of the compass." + +The memory of this night, six days out from Manilla to Hong Kong, was +clearer than the actuality of the room in which he sat, an old man with +his activity, his strength, his manhood, far behind him, a hulk. + +"At ten split the mainsail in pieces. Close reefed the fore and +double reefed the main-topsails. Rising gales and heavy head sea. +Shipping a great quantity of water and leaking considerable. Bent a +new mainsail and set it. Reefed and set the jib. Pumping near two +thousand strokes an hour. + +"October seventh, Sunday. Comes in with strong gales and a heavy head +sea. Both officers crippled and man laid up. Through the night the same. +Leaking badly. A great number of junks in sight ... and so at five p.m. +come to anchor." + +He had been a good man then, sixteen days on the quarter-deck without +going below; insensible to ice or fever or weariness. He had been +autocratic, too; and had his boy servant carrying areca nuts, chunam +and tobacco in two silk bags, another with a fan and a third holding +an umbrella. Such things were all over now, he understood, in this +driving age. + +His mind continually returned to Gerrit, to dwell on the vast number of +perils held in store by the sea; there was always the possibility of +scurvy, an entire crew rotting alive in the forecastle and the ship +broached to, dismasted; of mutiny; the sheer smothering finality of +volcanic waves. He had never realized until now, in the misery of +uncertainty, the hellish loneliness of a shipmaster at sea; the pride of +duty, the necessity of discipline, that put him beyond all counsel, all +assistance and human interdependence. Jeremy, who had arrogantly accepted +this responsibility without a question, through so many long years and +voyages, now dreaded it, found it an inhuman burden, for his son. + +William couldn't be expected to appreciate the difficulties of his +brother's position: all the former's experience had been got when, with +James Saltonstone and a party of Salem merchants, he ventured to the +lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor, had a cold collation, and +returned with the pilot or in the Custom House sloop. These occasions of +huzzas and salutes and speeches were supplemented with a hasty +inspection, now and then, of a vessel lying still at the wharf with sails +harbor furled. William guessed little of the long effort through which a +ship won from the first of those moments to the last. He was solely +concerned with the returns of the cargo. + +However, Rhoda was right, and this mooning wouldn't bring Gerrit into +port. He turned to the bookcase, where a squat bottle of Medford rum +rested beside a tumbler; after a drink he lighted a cheroot and smoking +vigorously, with hands clasped behind him, paced back and forth in an +undeviating line between the door to the hall and a dark polished +secretary he had bought in London. + +While he was walking Camilla came into the room and sedately took a seat +on one of the formal chairs against the wall. "I guess you think that's +the deck of a ship," she said conversationally. He regarded her with a +faint threatening glint of humor. Camilla's dignity was stupendous; +particularly now, when, he observed, her skirts stood out in a thoroughly +grown manner. He liked Laurel best of William's children; she had, in +spite of her confusion in regard to outports, a surprising grasp upon +many of the details of life on shipboard, and a largeness of manner and +expression entertaining in a little girl. Sidsall was the most +ingratiating--she had Gerrit's direct kindling gaze; Janet showed no +individuality yet beyond an entire willingness to conform to outward +circumstance while pursuing deeply secret speculations within. But +Camilla impressed the entire family by the rigidity of her correctness in +personal and social niceties. At times, he felt, she would be a nuisance +but for the firm hand of her mother and his own contribution to their +well-being by an occasional sly sally. + +"It might be that," he admitted; "if it weren't for the facts that it's a +house and library, and I'm an old man, and you're not at all like the +second mate." + +"I should hope not," she replied decidedly. "A second mate isn't +anything, and I am a--a young lady anyhow." + +"You'll soon be out at dances." + +"I go to parties now; that is, mother let me stay at the Coggswells' on +Thursday until the men came at nine for sangaree. And I'm at all the +Ballad Soirees." + +He made a gesture of pretended surprise and admiration. "I don't suppose +they ever have a good chantey with the stuff they play?" he queried. +"Dear me, no. Mr. Dempster sings The Indian's Lament, and The May Queen: +that's a cantata and it's in three parts." + +Jeremy began to hum, and in a moment was intoning in a loud monotonous +voice, sweeping a hand up and down: + +_"To my hero, Bangedero, +Singing hey for a gay Hash girl."_ + +"I don't think that's very nice," she said primly. + +"What do you mean--not very nice?" he demanded, incensed. "There's +nothing finer with a rousing chanteyman leading it and the watch hauling +on the braces. You'd never hear the like at any Ballad Soiree. And: + +_"Sweet William, he married a wife, +'Gentle Jenny,' cried Rose Marie, +To be the sweet comfort of his life, +As the dew flies over the mulberry tree."_ + +"There isn't much sense to it," she observed. + +For a little, indignant at her disparagement of such noble fragments, he +tramped silently back and forth, followed by a cloud of smoke from the +cheroot. No one on land could understand the absorbing significance of +every detail of a ship's life.... Only Gerrit, of all his family, knew +the chanteys and watches, the anxiety and beauty of landfalls--the blue +Falklands or Teneriffe rising above the clouds, the hurried making and +taking of sail in the squalls of the Doldrums. + +"In India," he told her, stopping in his measured course, "female +children are given to the crocodiles." + +Her mouth parted at this, her eyes became dilated, and she slipped from +the chair. "That's perfectly awfully appalling," she breathed. "The +little brown girl babies. Oh, father," she cried, as William Ammidon came +into the library, "what do you suppose grandfather says, that in India +female children are...crocodiles." Words failed her. + +"What's the sense in frightening the child, father?" William +remonstrated. "I wish you would keep those horrors for the old heathen of +the Marine Society." + +Jeremy had a lively sense of guilt; he had been betrayed by Camilla's +confounded airs and pretensions. He ought to be ashamed of himself, +telling the girl such things. "The British Government is putting a stop +to that," he added hastily, "and to suttees--" + +"What are they?" she inquired. + +"Never mind, Camilla," her father interposed; "go up with your mother +and sisters. + +"I suppose it's no good speaking to you," William continued; "but my +family is not a crew and this house isn't the _Two Capes_. You might make +some effort to realize you're on land." + +"I know I'm on land, William; tell that any day from a sight of you. You +can afford to listen a little now and then about the sea. That's where +all you have came from; it's the same with near everybody in Salem. +Vessels brought them and vessels kept them going; and, with the wharves +as empty as they were this afternoon, soon there won't be any Salem to +talk about." + +"The tide's turned from here," the other replied; "with the increase in +tonnage and the importance of time we need the railway and docking +facility of the larger cities--Boston and New York." + +"It's running out fast enough," Jeremy agreed; "and there's a lot going +out with it you'll never see again--like the men who put a reef in +England in 'twelve." + +"You are always sounding the same strings; we're at peace with the world +now, and a good thing for shipping." + +"Peace!" the elder declared hotly; "you and the Democrats may call it +that, but it's a damned swindle, with the British to windward of you and +hardly a sail now drawing in your ropes. What did Edmund Burke tell +Parliament in 'seventy-five about our whalers, hey! Why, that from Davis +Strait to the Antipodes, from the Falklands to Africa, we outdrove +Holland, France and England. After the laws and bounties Congress passed +in 'eighty-nine what could you see--something like a half million tonnage +gained in three years or so. In the war of 'twelve your land soldiers +were a pretty show, with the Capitol burning; but when it was finished +the privateers had sunk over nine million dollars of British shipping to +their sixty thousand. The Chesapeake luggers have gone out with the tide, +too. And then, by God, by God, what then: the treaty of Ghent, with +England impressing our seamen and tying our ships up in what ports she +chose under a right of search! On top of this your commissioners repeal +the ship laws and the British allow you to carry only native cargoes to +the United Kingdom with a part of the customs and harbor dues off. + +"But in spite of Congress and political sharks we went out to India +and China direct, with _The George_ home from Calcutta in ninety-five +days, and the East Indiamen six or seven months on the shorter run to +England. I can show you what the London _Times_ said about that, it's in +my desk: 'Twelve years of peace, and...the shipping interest...is half +ruined...thousands of our manufactures are seeking redemption in foreign +lands.' It goes on to tell that American seamen already controlled an +important part of the British carrying trade to the East Indies. Yet your +precious lawmakers open our West India trade to Great Britain, but they +wouldn't ask the privilege to carry a cargo from British India to +Liverpool or Canada." + +"Now, father," William put in, "you are getting excited again. It isn't +good for you. We are not all such fools to-day as you make out." + +"Look at the masters themselves," Jeremy continued explosively; +"gentlemen like Gerrit, from Harvard University, and not lime-juicers +beating their way aft with a belaying pin. They could sail a ship with +two-thirds the crew of a Britisher with her clumsy yellow hemp sails and +belly you could lose a dinghy in. Mind, I don't say the English aren't +handy in a ship and that they wouldn't clew up a topsail clean at the +edge of hell. What we are on the seas came over from them. But we +bettered it, William, and they knew it; and, naturally enough, laid out +to sail around us. I don't blame England, but I do our God damn--" + +"Father," the other firmly interrupted, "you are shouting as if you were +on the quarter-deck in a gale. I must insist on your quieting down; +you'll burst a blood vessel." + +"Maybe I am," Jeremy muttered; "and it wouldn't matter much if I did. +When I see a nation with shipmasters who would set their royals when +others hove too, and get there, all snarled up with shore lines and +political duffel, I'm nigh ready to burst something." + +"Rhoda said that you were at the Dunsacks' this afternoon; I saw Edward +in Boston yesterday." + +"I don't care if you saw the Flying Dutchman," the other asserted, +breathing stormily. + +"It's curious about the China service," William went on; "anyone out +there for a number of years gets to look Chinese. Edward is as yellow as +a lemon, but nothing like as pleasant a color. Thin, too, and nervous; +hands crawling all over themselves, never still for a moment. He didn't +say why he had left Heard and Company, and I didn't quite like to ask. +Edward came on from England in the _Queen of the West,_ the Swallow Tail +Line. I did ask him if he were going to settle in Salem, but he couldn't +say; there was something about a Boston house. It seems that Gerrit +carried his chest and things from Canton in the _Nautilus_ as an +accommodation." + +Suddenly Jeremy felt very insecure, his body heavy and knees weak, +failing. He stumbled back into the chair by the fireplace, William at his +side. "You must pay some attention to what you're told, father," the +latter said anxiously. "How are you now?" + +"I'm all right," he declared testily, trying to brush away the dimness +floating before his eyes. + +"Shall I help you up to bed?" + +"I'll go to bed when I've a mind to," Jeremy retorted. "I am not under +cover yet by a long reach." To establish his well-being he rose and moved +to the secretary, where he got a fresh cheroot, and lighted it with +slightly trembling fingers. He grumbled inarticulately, remembering his +own exploits in the carrying of sail and record runs under the bluff bows +of the Honorable John Company itself. The ebb tide, he thought, returning +to William's figure and its amplification by himself. So much that had +been good sweeping out to sea never to return....Gerrit long overdue. + +Once more he shook himself free of numbing dread; automatically he had +fallen back into the passage from the secretary to the hall door. He saw +that he had worn threadbare a narrow strip where his feet had so often +pressed. It would be necessary for him to see about a fresh case of +cheroots soon, primes, too; they needn't try to put him off with the +second quality. He was put off a great deal lately; people pretended to +be listening to him, and all the time their thoughts were somewhere else, +either that or they were merely politely concealing the opinion that he +was out of date, of no importance. + +His family were always providing against his fatigue or excitement; at +the countinghouse the gravest problems, he was certain, were withheld +from him. At the occurrence of this possibility a fresh indignation +poured through his brain. Fuming and tramping up and down he determined +that to-morrow he would show any of the clerks who didn't attend to his +wishes or counsel that he was still senior partner of Ammidon, Ammidon +and Saltonstone. + + + + +III + +The evening was surprisingly warm and still, with an intermittent +falling of rain, and the windows were open in the room where Rhoda +Ammidon sat regarding half dismayed her reflection in the mirror of a +dressing table. A few minutes before she had discovered her first gray +hair. It was not only the mere assault upon her vanity, but, too, a +realization far deeper--here was the stamp of time, the mark of a +considerable progress toward the end itself. Her emotions were +various; but, curiously enough, almost the first had been a wave of +passionate tenderness for William and her little girls. The shock of +finding that arresting sign was now giving place to a purely feminine +reaction. She considered for a moment the purchase of a bottle of hair +coloring, then with a disdainful gesture dismissed such a temporary +and troublesome measure. + +She kept an undiminishing pride in her appearance and a relentless care +and choice in the details of her dress, pleased by the knowledge that +the attention men paid her showed no indication yet of growing +perfunctory. She had been much admired both in Boston and London +through her youth, and she recalled her early doubts at the prospect of +life in Salem; but she realized now that, as her years and children +multiplied, she was by imperceptible degrees returning to a traditional +New England heritage. + +She was glad, however, that William's wide connections lifted him above a +purely local view; William was really a splendid husband. Rhoda was +conscious of this together with a clear recognition of his faults, and +quite aside from both existed her unreasoning affection. The latter +vividly dominated her, shut out, on any occasion of stress, all else; but +for the most part she held him in an attitude of mildly amused +comprehension. + +Gerrit Ammidon she hadn't seen until after her engagement to William, and +she sometimes thought of the former in connection with marriage. Gerrit, +she admitted to herself, was a far more romantic figure than William; not +handsomer--William Ammidon was very good looking--but more arresting, +with his hair swinging about his ears and intense blue gaze. An exciting +man, she decided again, for whom one would eternally put on the loveliest +clothes possible; a man to make you almost as ravishingly happy as +miserable, and, therefore, disturbing as a husband. + +At this her mind returned to her gray hair and the fact that the metal +backlog of the kitchen fire, which supplied the house with hot water, had +been leaking over the hearth. A feeling of melancholy possessed her at +the turning of younger visions into commonplace necessities, but she +dismissed it with the shadow of a smile--it was absurd for a woman of her +age to dwell on such frivolous things. Yet she still lingered to wonder +if men too kept intact among their memories the radiant image of their +youth, if they ever thought of it with tenderness and extenuation. She +decided in the negative, convinced that men, even at the end of many +years, never definitely lost connection with their early selves, there +was always a trace of hopefulness, of jaunty vanity--sometimes winning +and sometimes merely ridiculous--attached to their decline. + +Rhoda stirred and moved to a window, gazing vaguely out into the moist +blue obscurity. Sidsall, she realized, was maturing with a disconcerting +rapidity. Depths were opening in the girl's being at which she, her +mother, could only guess. It was exactly as if a crystal through and +through which she had gazed had suddenly been veiled by rosy clouds. +Sidsall had a charming nature, direct and unsuspicious and generously +courageous. + +There was a sound at the door, and William entered, patently ruffled. It +was clear that he had had another disagreement with his father. "It's +shameful how you disturb him," she declared. + +"Look here, Rhoda," he replied vigorously. "I won't continually be put in +the wrong. It seems as if I had no affection for the old gentleman. I +always have the difficult thing to do, and he has been slightly +contemptuous ever since I was a boy because I didn't go to sea. The truth +is--while I wouldn't think of letting him know--he's a tremendous +nuisance pottering about the countingrooms with his stories of +antediluvian trading voyages. And worse is to come--these new clipper +ships and passages have knocked the wind out of the old slow +full-bottomed vessels. We have about determined to reorganize our fleet +entirely, and are in treaty with Donald McKay for an extreme clipper type +of twelve hundred tons. + +"Of course, he's my parent; but I wonder at Saltonstone's patience. +Father won't hear of the opium trade and it's turning over thousand per +cent profits. We are privately operating two fast topsail schooners in +India now, but it's both inconvenient and a risk. They ought to be put +right under our house flag for credit alone. It is all bound to come up, +and then he'll go off like a cannon." + +"Couldn't you wait till he's dead, William?" she asked. "It won't be a +great while now. I can see that he has failed dreadfully from this worry +about Gerrit." + +"Five years will make all the difference. We are losing tea cargoes every +month to these ships making sensational runs. I don't talk much, Rhoda, +about, well--my family; but I am as upset over Gerrit as anyone else. +Except for a tendency to carry too much sail there's not a better +shipmaster out of New England. Not only that ... he's my brother. It's +easy to like Gerrit; his opinions are a little wild, and an exaggerated +sense of justice gets him into absurd situations; yet his motives are the +purest possible. Perhaps that word pure describes him better than any +other, however people who didn't know might smile. As a man, Rhoda, I can +assert that he is surprisingly clean-hearted." + +"That's a wonderful quality," she agreed; "why anyone should smile is +beyond me. William, would you know that my hair is turning gray, do I +look a lot older than I did five years ago?" + +He studied her complacently. "You've hardly changed since I married you," +he asserted; "a great deal prettier than these young cramped figgers I +see about. The girls, too, are just like you--good armfuls all of them." + +The next day was flawlessly sunny, the slightly stirring air reminiscent +of the sea, and the lilacs everywhere were masses of purple and white +bloom. Stepping down from her carriage on the morning round of shopping +Rhoda encountered Nettie Vollar leaving one of the stores of Cheapside. + +"Why, Nettie," she exclaimed kindly, "it's been the longest time since +I've seen you. It is just no use asking you to the house, and it seems, +with nothing to do, I never have a minute for the visits I'd like to +make." Nettie, she thought, was a striking girl, no--woman, with her +stack of black hair, dark sparkling eyes and red spot on either cheek. +More fetching in profile than full face, her nose had a pert angle and +her cleft chin was enticingly rounded. Later she would be too fat but now +her body was ripely perfect. + +"I don't go anywhere much," she responded, in a voice faintly and +instinctively antagonistic. "I don't like kindness in people; but I +suppose I ought to be contented--that's all I'll probably ever get from +anybody who is a thing in the world. Mrs. Ammidon," she hesitated, then +continued more rapidly, her gaze lowered, "have you had any word about +Captain Ammidon yet? Have they given up hope of the _Nautilus_?" + +"We've had no news," Rhoda told her, and then she added her conviction +that Gerrit would return safely. + +"He was better than kind," Nettie Vollar said. "I'm sure he liked me, +Mrs. Ammidon, or he would have if everything hadn't been spoiled by +grandfather. He thinks I'm a dreadful sin, you know, a punishment on +mother. But inside of me I don't feel different from others. Sometimes +I--I wonder that I don't actually go sinful, I've had opportunities, and +being good hasn't offered me much, has it?" + +"You are naturally a good girl, Nettie," Rhoda answered simply; "but you +must be braver than ordinary. If we think differently from Salem still it +is in Salem we must live; I keep many of my beliefs secret just as you +must control most of your feelings." + +The other responded with a hard little laugh. "Thank you, though. You are +more like Gerrit, Captain Ammidon, than Mrs. Saltonstone, his own sister. +I hate her," she declared. "I hate all the Salem women, so superior and +condescending and Christian. They always have a silly look of wonder at +their charity in speaking to me... when they do. They act as if it's just +a privilege for me to be in their church. I'd rather go to a cotillion at +Hamilton Hall any day." + +"Of course you would," Rhoda agreed. There seemed to be so little for her +to offer or say that she was relieved when they parted. The afternoon +grew really sultry, but, when the shadows had lengthened, she encountered +Jeremy Ammidon wandering aimlessly about the hall and, his fine palmetto +hat and wanghee in her hand, urged him out to the East India Marine +Society. "It's much too beautiful a day for the house," she insisted. + +"There's nothing remarkable about it," he returned; "wind's too light and +variable, hardly enough to hold way on a ship." There were the stirring +strains of a quickstep without; at the door they saw the Salem Cadets, +preceded by Flag's Band, marching in columns of fours into Washington +Square. The white breeches with scarlet coats and brass buttons made a +gay showing on the green Common, the sunlight glittered on silver braid +and tassels, gilt and pompons, scaled chin straps and varnished leather. + +The old man's face grew dark at the brilliant line drawn up for +inspection, and he muttered a period about cursed young Whigs. "Wouldn't +have one of the scoundrels in my house if I could help it. Don't +understand William; he's too damned mild for my idea of a good citizen. + +"Why, it's only reasonable that a country's got to be run like a ship, +from the quarter-deck. How far do you suppose a vessel would get if the +crew hung about aft and chose representatives from the port and starboard +watches and galley for a body to lay the course and make sail?" + +"Please, father," she protested, laughing. "Do go along into the sun." +She gently pushed him toward the door. Rhoda realized the fact that +William was more than half Whig already. That threatened still another +point of difference, of departure, from all that his father held to be +sacred necessities. Jeremy, like most of the older shipmasters, was a +bitter Federalist, an upholder of a strongly centralized autocratic +government. He left, grumbling, and the staccato commands of the military +evolutions on the Common rang through the slumberous afternoon. + +She lingered in the doorway and Laurel appeared, jigging with excitement. + +"Can't I get nearer," she begged; "there's nothing to see from here." Her +mother replied, "Ask Camilla to take you over to the Square." Camilla +appeared indifferently. "I don't know why anyone should be flustered," +she observed; "it isn't like the Fourth of July with a concert and +fireworks." + +As they were going, Sidsall came out in a white tarlatan dress worked +with sprays of yellow barley, her face glowing with color, and sat on +the steps. "Positively," her mother said, looking down on the mass of +bright chestnut hair in a chenille net, "we'll soon have to have you up +in braids." + +"I wish I might," she responded. "And Hodie is too silly--I can't +get her to lace me tightly enough. She says such things are engines +of the devil." + +"It's still a little soon for that--" Rhoda broke off as a slight erect +man at the verge of middle age turned in from Pleasant Street upon them. +"Roger," she said cordially as he came quickly up the steps. He greeted +her lightly and bent over Sidsall with an extended hand: + +"The apple blossoms, I see, are here." + +Rhoda wondered what nonsense Roger Brevard was repeating; Sidsall's face +was hidden from view. But then Roger was always like that, his manner was +never at a loss for the appropriate gesture. He had a great many points +in common with her, she thought; neither had been born in Salem, and his +rightful setting was in the best metropolitan drawing-rooms. He had been +here for a dozen years, now, in charge of the local affairs of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company; and she often wondered why, a member +of a family socially notable in New York, he continued in a city, a +position, of comparative unimportance. + +She was, she said, going back to the lawn, the glare of Pleasant Street +was fatiguing; and she proceeded through the house with the surety of his +following. But on the close-cut emerald sod there was no sign of him, and +she found a seat in a basket chair by the willow tree beyond. She waited +for Roger with a small but growing impatience; he must be done +immediately with whatever he might say to Sidsall, and she wished to +discuss the possibilities of a rumor that President Polk intended to +visit Salem. There would be a collation, perhaps a military ball, to +arrange; Franklin Hall would be the better place for the latter. She +heard a faint silvery echo of laughter--Sidsall. It was extremely nice, +of course, in Roger Brevard to entertain her daughter, though she didn't +care to have the child give the effect of receiving men yet. + +It was, finally, Sidsall who appeared, unaccompanied, in the drawing-room +window. She came forward to where Rhoda sat, her face still stirred with +amusement. "Mr. Brevard went on," she said in response to her mother's +look of inquiry. "That's rather odd," the latter commented almost +sharply. "He had only a few minutes," the girl explained. She sank into a +seat and mood of abstraction. Rhoda studied her with a veiled glance. +Hers were exceptional children, they had given her scarcely an hour's +concern; and she must see that in the unsettling period which Sidsall was +now entering she was not spoiled. + +Perhaps Laurel entertained her more than the others. She was a very +normal little girl, not thoughtful like Janet, and without Camilla's +exaggerated poise; but she had a picturesque imagination; and her +companionship with her grandfather was delightful. The latter addressed +her quite as if she were a fellow shipmaster; and she had acquired some +remarkable sea expressions, some deplorable and others enigmatic: only +to-day, questioned about the order of her room, she had said that it was +"all square by the lifts and braces." For this her grandfather had given +her a gold piece. + +There was, she knew, an excellent school for older girls at Lausanne; +and, revolving the possibility of obtaining for Sidsall some of the +European advantages she, Rhoda, had enjoyed, the following afternoon she +drove to the Cliffords' on Marlboro Street for a consultation with Madra, +who had spent a number of seasons on Lake Leman. In a cool parlor with +yellow Tibet rugs and maroon hangings she had tea while Madra Clifford, +thin and imperious, with a settled ill health like white powder and a +priceless Risajii shawl, conversed in a shrill key. + +"Caroline has been in bed for a week. That vulgar Dr. Fisk, with his +elbow in her bosom, tried five times to extract her tooth, and then broke +it to the roots. I hear there is a galvanic ring for rheumatism. The pain +in my joints is excruciating; I have an idea my bones are changing into +chalk; the right knee will hardly bend." The darkly colored shawl with +its border of cypress intensified her sunken blue-traced temples and the +pallid lips. She developed the subject of her indisposition, sparing no +detail; while Rhoda Ammidon, from her superabundance of well-being, half +pitied the other and was half revolted at the mind touched, too, by +bodily ill. The fortune accumulated by the hardy Clifford men, flogged +out of crews and stained by the blood of primitive and dull savages--the +Cliffords were notorious for their brutal driving--now served only to +support Madra's debility and a horde of unscrupulous panderers to her +obsession. + +"Edward Dunsack is in Salem," she continued; "and I've heard he has the +most peculiar appearance. Very probably the result of the unmentionable +practices of the Orient. Father liked the Chinese though; so many of our +shipmasters have, and not always the merchants.... What was I saying? Oh, +yes, Edward Dunsack. I understand you had a distinct alarm in that +quarter, about the girl and Gerrit Ammidon. But I forgot to say how glad +I am about Gerrit. You must have been horribly worried--" + +"What do you mean?" Rhoda demanded. + +"Why, haven't you heard! The Nautilus was sighted. News came from Boston. +She ought to be into-day, I believe. I suppose William has been too +concerned to get you word at home." + +Rhoda Ammidon rose immediately, surprised at the force of the emotion +that blurred her eyes with tears. Gerrit was safe! Possibly they had +been told at Java Head now, but she must be there with Jeremy Ammidon; +surprises, even as joyful as this, were a great strain on him. +Neglecting the object of her visit she returned at once to Pleasant +Street, urging the coachman to an undignified haste, and keeping the +carriage at the door. + +Her father-in-law was at his secretary in the library, and it was evident +that he had heard nothing of his son's return. "Well, Rhoda," he said, +swinging about; "what a bright cheek you have--like Laurel's." + +"I feel bright, father," she replied with a nod and smile. "After this +none of you will be able to laugh at my predictions. You see, a woman's +feeling is often more correct than masculine judgment." His momentary +bewilderment gave place to a painfully strained interrogation. "Yes," she +told him, "but we are none of us surprised--Gerrit is almost in Salem +harbor." She moved near him and, with a veiled anxiety, laid her hand +upon his shoulder. + +"A splendid sailor," he muttered. It seemed as if Rhoda could really hear +the dull rising pounding of his shaken heart. But his excitement +subsided, gave way to a normal concern, a flood of vain questions and +preparation to go down to the wharf. In the midst of this a message came +from the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone that the +_Nautilus_ would dock within an hour. + +A small crowd had already gathered on Derby Wharf when Rhoda and her +companion made their way past the warehouses built at intervals along the +wharf to the place where the _Nautilus_ would be warped in. The +wharfinger saluted them, William Ammidon joined his wife, and beyond she +could see James Saltonstone conversing with the Surveyor of the Port. + +The afternoon was serene, a faint air drew in from the sea; and with it, +sweeping slowly inside Peach's Point, was the tall ship with her canvas +towering gold in the western sun against the distance of sea and sky. As +Rhoda watched she saw their house flag--a white field checkered in +blue--fluttering from the main royal truck. + +"The royals are coming in!" Jeremy Ammidon exclaimed, gripping Rhoda's +arm. "He is lowering his top-gallant yards and hauling up the courses! My +dear, there's nothing on God's earth finer than a ship." + +The _Nautilus_ slipped along surprisingly fast. Rhoda could now see the +crew moving about and coiling the gear. + +"Look, father, there's Gerrit on the quarter-deck." + +The shipmaster, shorter than common, with broad assertive shoulders in +formal black, was easily recognizable. A woman with a worn flushed face +pressed by Jeremy. "Andrew's there, too," she told them, "Mr. Broadrick, +the mate." + +The ship moved more slowly, under her topsails and jibs, in a soundless +progress with the ripples falling away in water like dark green glass, +liquid and still. She was now but a short distance from the end of the +wharf. Mr. Broadrick was forward between the knightheads with the crew +ranged to the starboard and at the braces, while Gerrit Ammidon stood +with one hand on the quarter-deck railing and the other holding a brass +speaking trumpet to his lips: + +"Let go your port fore and after braces, Mr. Broadrick; brace the fore +and mizzen yards sharp up, leave the main braces fast, and lay the main +topsail to the mast. As she comes to the wind let the jibs run down." He +turned to the man at the wheel, "Helm hard a starboard." + +"Hard a starboard, sir." + +The ship answered quickly and rounded to while her weather fore and +mizzen yards flew forward until they touched the starboard backstays +and the men hauled in the slack of the braces. With the main yard +square to check her way the jibs drooped down along the stays. "Mr. +Broadrick, you may let go the starboard anchor and furl sails." The +mate grasped a top maul and struck the trigger of the ring stopper a +clean blow, the anchor splashed into the water with a rumbling cable, +and the _Nautilus_ was home. + +Gerrit Ammidon walked hurriedly to the companionway and went below, while +the mate continued, "Stand by to let go your topsail halliards and man +the gear. Sharper with the mizzen sheets and unbend those clew lines and +garnets... stow the clews in a harbor furl." At a rhythmic shout the +bunts of the three topsails came up together. + +The wind had died away and the flags hung listlessly from the main truck +and spanker gaff. The water of the harbor was unstirred except for the +swirls at the oar blades of an incoming quarter boat and the warp paying +out at her stern. The voice of the mate, the chantey of the crew heaving +at the capstan bars, came to Rhoda subdued: + +_"The times are hard and wages low, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I guess it's time for us to go, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I thought I heard the old man say, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +To-morrow we will get our pay + .......leave her"_ + +Rhoda Ammidon discovered herself leaning forward tensely, her hands shut +in excitement and emotion; and she relaxed with a happy laugh as the +_Nautilus_, with her yards exactly square and rigging taut, her sides and +figurehead and ports bright with newly laid on paint, moved to the wharf. + +It seemed to her that Gerrit, descending a short stage from the deck, +looked markedly older than when he had last sailed. Yet he had a +surprisingly youthful air still; partly, she thought, from the manner in +which he wore his hair, falling in a waving thick line about his cheeks. +His mouth was at once fresh and severe, his face clean shaven, and his +eyes--if possible--more directly blue than ever. + +"I'll take the ship's manifest to the Collector," he said, greeting them +and impatiently waving aside the vendors after the cook's slush, the +excited women and runners and human miscellany crowding forward. "Then +Java Head." He paused, speaking over his shoulder: "I'd be thankful if +you would send the barouche down in an hour or so." + +Driving back, her hand on Jeremy Ammidon's knee, Rhoda wondered at +Gerrit's request. It was entirely unlike him to ride in the barouche; +rather he had always derided it in the terms of his calling. However, +unable to find a solution for her surprise, she listened to the other's +comments and speculations: + +"I suppose William's first question will be about the cargo, and, of +course, I hope the ship has done well. But I'm just glad to have Gerrit +back; I am for a fact, Rhoda." + +"We all are," she assured him, "and William as happy as any. You mustn't +be misled by his manner, father. I hope the supper will be good and +please you." + +"Gerrit will be satisfied with anything," he chuckled. "Probably he's +been out of beans even for a month. Did you notice that fore-royal mast +and yard? They were rigged at sea: Gerrit carried them away. It hurts him +to take in a sail. Some day I tell him he'll drag the spars out of his +ship. His confounded pride will founder him." He made these charges +lightly, with a palpable underlying pride; and, Rhoda knew, would permit +no one else to criticize his son. + +She found her daughters in a state of gala excitement on the front steps. +"Uncle Gerrit in the _Nautilus,_" Laurel chanted; and it was evident that +Camilla herself was thrilled. They all went up to put on holiday dress. +Rhoda turned to the coachman, "Have the barouche at the head of Derby +Wharf in an hour." + +Gerrit's unusual demand again puzzled her. A fantastic possibility lodged +in her brain--perhaps he was not alone. She pulled the bell rope for her +maid, changed into black moire with cut steel bretelles, and selected +the peacock coloring of a Peri-taus shawl. She found her husband with his +father in the library. "I understand it's a splendid cargo," William +remarked. Jeremy nodded triumphantly at her, and she expressed a half +humorous resentment at this mercenary display. "He ought to be here," the +younger man declared, consulting his watch. As he spoke Rhoda saw the +barouche draw up before the house. She had a glimpse of a figure at +Gerrit Ammidon's side in extravagantly brilliant satins; there was a +sibilant whisper of rich materials in the hall, and the master entered +the library with a pale set face. + +"Father," he said, "Rhoda and William, allow me--my wife, Taou Yuen." + +Rhoda Ammidon gave an uncontrollable gasp as the Chinese woman sank in a +fluttering prostration of color at Jeremy's feet. He ejaculated, "God +bless me," and started back. William's face was inscrutable, unguessed +lines appeared about his severe mouth. Her own sensation was one of +incredulity touched with mounting anger and feeling of outrage. The woman +rose, but only to sink again before William: she was on her knees and, +supported by her hands, bent forward and touched her forehead to the +floor three times. Gerrit laughed shortly. "She was to shake your hands; +we went over and over it on shipboard. But anything less than the +_Kul'on_ was too casual for her." + +She was now erect with a freer murmur of greeting to Rhoda. The latter +was instantly aware of one certainty--Chinese she might be, she was, but +no less absolutely aristocratic. Her face, oval and slightly flat, was +plastered with paint on paint, but her gesture, the calm scrutiny of +enigmatic black eyes under delicately arched brows, exquisite quiet +hands, were all under the most admirable instinctive command. Rhoda said: + +"I see that I am to welcome you for Gerrit's family." The other, in slow +lisping English replied: + +"Thank you greatly. I am humbled to the earth before your goodness." + +"You will want to go to your room," Rhoda continued mechanically. "It was +only prepared for one, but I'll send a servant up at once." She was +enraged at the silent stupidity of the three men and flashed a silent +command at her husband. + +"This is a decided surprise," the latter at last addressed his brother; +"nor can I pretend that it is pleasant." Jeremy Ammidon's gaze wandered +blankly from Gerrit to the woman, then back to his son. + +Never before had Rhoda seen such lovely clothes: A long gown with wide +sleeves of blue-black satin, embroidered in peach-colored flower petals +and innumerable minute sapphire and orange butterflies, a short +sleeveless jacket of sage green caught with looped red jade buttons and +threaded with silver and indigo high-soled slippers crusted and tasseled +with pearls. Her hair rose from the back in a smooth burnished loop. +There were long pins of pink jade carved into blossoms, a quivering +decoration of paper-thin gold leaves with moonstones in glistening +drops, and a band of coral lotus buds. Pierced stone bracelets hung +about her delicate wrists, fretted crystal balls swung from the lobes of +her ears; and clasped on the ends of several fingers were long pointed +filagrees of ivory. + +"Taou Yuen," Gerrit repeated shortly, with his challenging bright gaze. +"That means Peach Garden. My wife is a Manchu," he asserted in a more +biting tone; "a Manchu and the daughter of a noble. Thank you, Rhoda, +particularly. But I have always counted on you. Will you go up with her? +That is if--if my father has a room, a place, for us." + +"This will always be your home, Gerrit," Jeremy said slowly, with the +long breath of a diver in deep waters. + + + + +IV + +In the room that had been his since early maturity Gerrit Ammidon gave +an involuntary sigh of relief. Taou Yuen, his wife, was standing in the +middle of the floor, gazing about with a faint and polite smile. Her eyes +rested on a yellow camphor chest--one of the set brought home by his +father--on a severe high range of drawers made of sycamore with six legs, +on her brilliant reflection in the eagle-crowned mirror above the mantel, +and the sleigh bed with low heavily curved ends. + +The situation below, however brief and, on the whole, reasonably +conducted, had been surprisingly difficult. At the same time that he had +felt no necessity to apologize for his marriage he had known that Taou +Yuen must surprise, yes--shock, his family. She was Chinese, to them a +heathen: they would be unable to comprehend any mitigating dignity of +rank. Where they'd actually suffer, he realized, would be in the +attitude of Salem, the stupid gabble, the censure and cold pity caused +by his wife. + +Personally he regarded these with the contempt he felt for so many of the +qualities that on shore bound the interests of everyone into a single +common concern. It gave him pleasure to assault the authority and +importance of such public prejudice and self-opinion; but, unavoidably +implicating his family, at once a part of himself and Salem, he was +conscious of the fact that he had laid them all open to disagreeable +moments. He was sorry for this, and his regret, principally materialized +by his father's hurt confusion, had unexpectedly cast a shadow on a scene +to which he had looked forward with a distinct sense of comedy. Where the +realities were concerned he had no fear of Taou Yuen's ability to justify +herself completely. He possessed a stupendous admiration for her. + +He watched her now with the mingled understanding and mystification that +gave his life with her such a decided charm. Her gaze had fastened on the +mirror-stand above the drawers: she must be wondering if she would have +to paint and prepare herself for him here, openly. He knew that she +considered it a great impropriety for her face to be seen bare; all the +elaborate processes of her morning toilet must be privately conducted. He +recognized this, but had no idea what she actually thought of the room, +of his family, of the astonishing situation into which her heart had +betrayed her. + +One and then another early hope he saw at once were vain. It had seemed +to him that in America, in Salem, she might become less evidently +Chinese; not in the incongruous horror of Western clothes, but in her +attitude, in a surrender to superficial customs; he had pictured her as +merging distinctively into the local scene. In China he had hoped that in +the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street she would appear +less Eastern; but, beyond all doubt, here she was enormously more so. The +strange repressed surrounding accentuated every detail of her Manchu pomp +and color. The frank splendor of her satins and carved jades and +embroidery, her immobile striking face loaded with carmine and glinting +headdress, the flawless loveliness of hands with the pointed nail +protectors, were, in his room, infinitely dramatized. + +The other, less secure possibility that she might essentially change +perished silently. In a way his wish had been a presumption--that a +member of the oldest and most subtle civilization existing would, if she +were able, adopt such comparatively crude habits of life and thought. + +She moved slowly up to the bed, examining it curiously; and again he +understood her look of doubt--in China beds were called _kang_, or +stoves, from the fact that they were more often than not a platform of +brick with an opening beneath for hot coals. She fingered the ball fringe +of the coverlet, and then turned with amazement to the soft pillow. A +hand with the stone bracelet falling back from her smooth wrist rose to +the complicated edifice of her headdress. + +"Your pillow is coming along from the ship," he told her; "the women here +do up their hair every morning." + +She considered this with geranium lips slightly parted on flawless teeth, +and nodded slowly. The westering sun striking through the window +overlooking the Common illuminated her with a flat gold unreality. + +"I'll have a day bed brought for you," he continued, realizing that, as +the result of fortunate chance, she understood most of what he said +without an actual command of the individual words. In reply she sank +before him in the deep Manchu gesture with one knee sweeping the floor, +the humility of her posture dignified by grace. He touched the crystal +globe of an earring, pinched her chin, in the half light manner by which +he instinctively expressed his affection for her. She was calm and +pleased. "Taou Yuen," he continued, "you miss Shanghai, with the wall of +ten gates and the river Woosung stuck full of masts. You'll never think +Salem is a paradise like Soochow." + +"This is your city," she replied, slowly choosing the words. "Your +ancestors are here." There was not a shade of regret in her voice or +manner. He tried once more, and as vainly as ever, to penetrate the veil +of her perfect serenity. She never, it became apparent, descended from +the most inflexible self-control; small emotions--surface gayety of +mood, curiosity, the faintest possible indication of contempt, he had +learned to distinguish; the fact that she cared enough for him to desert +every familiar circumstance was evident; but beyond these he was +powerless to reach. + +His own emotions were hardly less obscured: the dominating feeling was +his admiration for her exquisite worldly wisdom, the perfection of her +bodily beauty, and the philosophy which bore her above the countless +trivialities that destroyed the dignity of western minds. He realized +that her paint and embroidery covered a spirit as cold and tempered as +fine metal. She was totally without the social sentiment of his own +world; but she was equally innocent of its nauseous hypocrisy, the +pretensions of a piety covering commercial dishonesty, obscenity of +thought and spreading scandal. The injustice he saw practiced on shore +had always turned him with a sense of relief to the cleansing challenge +of the sea; always, brought in contact with cunning and self-seeking men +and heartless schemes, with women cheapened by a conviction of the +indecency of life, he was in a state of hot indignation. From all this +Taou Yuen offered a complete escape. + +On the purely feminine side she was a constant delight, the last possible +refinement, he told himself, of instinct and effect. She was incapable of +the least vulgarity; never for an instant did she flag from the necessity +of beauty, never had he seen her too weary for an adornment laborious in +a hundred difficult conventions. She was, too, a continuous source of +entertainment, even as his wife she never ceased to be a spectacle; his +consciousness of her as a being outside himself persisted. + +"I must go down and see where our things are," he said, rising. In the +hall he stopped before the tall clock whose striking was a part of his +early memories. Below, the house seemed empty; and, instead of turning to +the front door and his purpose, he went into the drawing-room. + +The long glass doors to the garden were open, and the interior was filled +with the scent of lilacs. The room itself had always reminded him of +them--it was pale in color, cool gilt and lavender brocade and white +panels. Nothing had been moved or changed: the inlaid cylinder fall desk +with its garlands of painted flowers on the light waxed wood stood at the +left, the pole screen with the embroidered bouquet was before the fire +blind, the girandoles, scrolled in ormolu and hung with crystal lusters, +held the shimmer of golden reflections on the walls. + +He had remembered the drawing-room at Java Head as a place of enchanted +perfection; in his childhood its still serenity had seemed a presentment +of what might be hoped for in heaven. The thought of the room as it was +now, open but a little dim to the lilacs and warm afternoon, had haunted +him as the measure of all peace and serenity in moments of extreme +danger, his ship laboring in elemental catastrophes and in remote seas. +Its fragrance had touched him through the miasma of Whampoa Reach, +waiting for the lighters of tea to float down from Canton; standing off +in the thunder squalls of the night for the morning sea breeze to take +him into Rio; over a cognac in the coffee stalls of the French market at +New Orleans, the chanteys ringing from the cotton gangs along the levees: + +_"Were you ever down in Mobile Bay? +Aye, aye, pump away."_ + +As he left the room he saw Laurel, William's youngest child, and he +imprisoned her in an arm. "You haven't asked what I've got for you in my +sea chest," he said. Gerrit was very fond of all four of the rosy-cheeked +vigorous girls, and a sense of injury touched him at Laurel's reserved +manner. She studied him with a wondering uneasy concern. This he realized +was the result of bring home Taou Yuen; and an aggravated impatience, a +growing rebellion, seized him. He wouldn't stay with his wife at Java +Head a day longer than necessary; and if anyone, in his family or +outside, showed the slightest disdain he could retaliate with his +knowledge of local pettiness, the backbiting enmities and secret lapses. + +God knew he didn't want trouble, all he asked was a reasonable liberty, +the semblance, anyhow, of a courtesy toward his wife. Whatever might be +said would be of no moment to her--except in the attitude of his +father--and Taou Yuen's indifference furnished a splendid example for +himself. He wondered why the devil he was continually putting his fingers +in affairs that couldn't concern him. No one thanked him for his trouble, +they considered him something of a fool--a good sailor but peculiar. The +damned unexpected twists of his sense of the absurd, too, got him into +constant difficulty. + +His father was standing outside the principal entrance; and, as he joined +him on the steps, he saw two men from the _Nautilus_ carrying his ship's +desk by the beckets let in the ends. The wind was blowing gently up +Pleasant Street; the men, at his gesture, lifted their burden up the +steps, between the direction of the wind and Jeremy Ammidon. The latter +rose instantly into one of his dark rages: + +"What do you mean, you damned packetrats--coming up a companionway to the +windward of me! I'll have no whalers' habits here." He repeated +discontentedly that everything on sea and land had fallen into a decline. +Others followed with a number of Korean boxes, strapped and locked with +copper, and wicker baskets. A man in charge said to Gerrit Ammidon: + +"The chest was left for Mr. Dunsack at the foot of Hardy Street, sir, as +you ordered. The inspector sent it off complimentary with your personal +things." Gerrit asked, "He didn't stop to get a whiff of it then?" The +other shook his head. "Edward Dunsack asked me to ship it here and +explained that it was only junk he was bringing home, but what it amounts +to is about a case of Patna opium. He's lucky." + +They turned inside, William was in the library, and Gerrit instinctively +followed his father into the room. William surveyed him with a moody +discontent. "What I can't understand," he proceeded; "is why you call it +a marriage, why you brought your woman here to us, to Rhoda and the +children." + +"It's simple enough," Gerrit replied; "Taou Yuen is my wife, we are +married exactly as Rhoda and you are. She is not my woman in the sense +you mean. I won't allow that, William." + +"How can it matter what you will or will not allow when everyone'll think +the other? Shipmasters have had Chinese mistresses before, yes, and +smuggled them into Salem; but this conduct of yours is beyond speech." + +Gerrit Ammidon said: + +"Don't carry this too far." Anger like a hot cloud oppressed him. "I am +married legally and, if anything, by a ceremony less preposterous than +your own. Taou Yuen is not open to any man or woman's suspicions. I am +overwhelmingly indebted to her." + +"But she's not your race," William Ammidon muttered; "she is a Confucian +or Taoist, or some such thing." + +"You're Unitarian one day a week, and father is Congregational, Hodie's +a Methodist, and no one knows what I am," Gerrit cried. "Good God, what +does all that matter! Isn't a religion a religion? Do you suppose a +Lord worth the name would be anything but entertained by such spiteful +little dogmas. A sincere greased nigger with his voodoo must be as good +as any of us." + +"That is too strong, Gerrit," Jeremy objected. "You'll get nowhere crying +down Christianity." + +"If I could find it," the younger declared bitterly, "I'd feel +differently. It's right enough in the Bible. ...Well, we'll go on to +Boston to-morrow." + +"This is your home," his father repeated. "Naturally William, all of us +have been disturbed; but nothing beyond that. I trust we are a loyal +family. What you've done can't be mended with hard words." + +"She may become very fashionable," Gerrit mockingly told his +brother. "It'll be a blow to Camilla," Jeremy chuckled. "Some rice +must be cooked." + +"Manchus don't live on rice," Gerrit replied. "They don't bind the +feet either nor wear the common Chinese clothes. Rhoda will +understand better." + +Again in his room he found his wife bending over a gorgeous heap of +satins, bright mazarines and ornaments. "We'll go down to supper soon," +he told her. Already there were signs of her presence about the room: +the chest of drawers was covered with gold and jade and green amber, +painted paper fans set on ivory and tortoise shell, and lacquer fan +boxes; coral hairpins, sandalwood combs, silver rouge pots and rose +quartz perfume bottles with canary silk cords and tassels. On a familiar +table was her pipe, wound in gilt wire, and the flowered satin tobacco +case. An old coin was hanging at the head of the bed, a charm against +evil spirits; and on a stand was the amethyst image of Kuan-Yin _pu +tze_, the Goddess of Mercy. + +Taou Yuen sank on the floor with a little embarrassed laugh at the +confusion in which he had surprised her. "Let your attitude be grave," he +quoted from the Book of Rites with a pretended severity. Her amusement +rose in a ripple of mirth. He opened his desk, rearranging the disorder +brought about by its transportation; and, when he turned, she was +prostrate in the last rays of the sun. "_O-me-to-Fuh_," she breathed; +"_O-me-to-Fuh_," the invocation to Buddha. This at an end she announced, +"Now I am grave and respectful for your family." + +Supper, Gerrit admitted to himself, promised to be a painful occasion; +conversation rose sporadically and quickly died in glances of +irrepressible curiosity directed at his wife. She, on the contrary, +showed no pointed interest in her surroundings; and, in her hesitating +slurred English, answered Rhoda's few questions without putting any in +return. Camilla preserved a frozen silence; Sidsall was pleasantly +conciliating in her attitude toward the novel situation; Janet, her lips +moving noiselessly, was rapt in amazement; and Laurel smiled, abashed at +meeting Taou Yuen's eyes. + +The recounting of his delayed return offered Gerrit a welcome relief from +the pervading strain: "There's no tea to speak of at Shanghai, and I took +on a mixed cargo--pongees and porcelain and matting. I got camphor and +cassia and seven hundred peculs of ginger; then I decided to lay a course +to Manilla for some of the cheroots father likes. The weather was fine, I +had a good cargo, and, well--we pleasured out to Honolulu. I was riding +the island horses and shipping oil when the schooner _Kahemameha_ arrived +from the coast with the news of the gold discovery in California. Every +boat in the harbor was loaded to the trucks, crowded with passengers at +their weight in ginseng, and laid for San Francisco.... Well, I was +caught with the rest. + +"Five thousand dollars was offered me to carry a gentleman and his +attendant. Two others would pay three for the same purpose. Stowage was +worth what you asked.... The _Nautilus_ made a good run; then, about a +day from land, Mr. Broadrick told me that there wouldn't be a seaman on +the ship an hour after we anchored. They were all crazy with gold fever, +he said. I could see, too, that they were excited; the watch hung under +the weather rail jabbering like parrots; an uglier crew of sea lawyers +never developed. + +"There was one thing to do and I did it--called them aft and gave them +some hot scouse. They'd shipped for Salem and there they must go. I +didn't anchor, but stood off--the harbor was crowded with deserted +vessels like some hell for ships--and sent the jolly boat in with the +passengers and a couple of men. They didn't come back, you may be sure. +The consignment for San Francisco I carried out that evening, for I made +sail at once." + +"You had a pretty time getting a way on her," Jeremy Ammidon remarked. + +"I did," Gerrit acknowledged shortly. "The second mate's ear was taken +loose by a belaying pin that flew out of the dark like a gull. Mr. +Broadrick had a bad minute in the port forecastle after he had ordered +all hands on deck a third time. The fine weather left us, though, and +that kept the crew busy; we carried away the fore-royal mast and yard +before we were within a thousand miles of the latitude of the Horn. That +hit us like a cannon ball of ice. You know what it is at its worst," he +told his father; "weeks of snow and hail and fog and gales; and not for +anything can you keep an easting. God knows how a ship lives through the +seas; but she does, she does, and you lose the Magellan clouds astern." + +The old man nodded. + +Gerrit was relieved, however, when supper ended and his wife formally +departed for her room. Immediately slipping a hand inside Rhoda's arm he +conducted her to the drawing-room. "I'd like you to know more about it," +he said directly. + +"It was very extraordinary. A Lu Kikwang was a high official of the +Canton Customs, and when Shanghai was declared an open port in forty-two +they made him hoppo there. I remembered him at Canton, a dignified old +duck with eighty or a hundred servants to keep anyone from possibly +speaking to him of business, but there had been some trouble about +foreign vessels selling saltpeter illegally and--he knew some English--we +had quite a friendly little consultation. Yet it hadn't prepared me for +his coming off to the _Nautilus_ at Shanghai with a linguist and an air +of the greatest mystery. His manner was beautiful, of course, absolutely +tranquil and that made what they said, what he hoped, seem even wilder +than it was. + +"His son, it appeared, had married and was accidentally drowned in the +Great Canal hardly a month after the ceremony. His widow belonged, then, +to the husband's family, and from that moment her father-in-law had had +nothing but bad luck. He had been robbed, his best stallion died, there +had been a flood in his tea which not only spoiled the crop but filled +the ground with silt--it was impossible to relate his calamities. He +consulted a necromancer at last and learned that it was all caused by the +presence of Taou Yuen. + +"This, you see, made the difficulty, as it's a frightful disgrace to +return a married daughter to her own father's home, and Lu had grown very +fond of her. She was extremely clever and virtuous, he said. The other +thing was to kill her or force her to commit suicide. He told me very +calmly that he would like to avoid this. + +"Then, in the linguist's most flowery manner, they went on with what Lu +Kikwang proposed. He had recognized that I was a man of 'superior +propriety' and he wondered if I would take Taou Yuen away to America with +me. Very secretly though--there would be an uproar if it were known that +a Manchu woman had been married to a foreigner. I could see her first in +his garden without her knowing anything about it. + +"It's needless to tell you that I went with them that afternoon. A +meeting was arranged for the next day--" he broke off, sitting forward +with elbows on knees, gazing fixedly at his clasped hands. + +"You make that very clear, Gerrit," his sister-in-law replied; "I now +understand the past almost as well as yourself; but it's the future I'm +in doubt about. I saw immediately that your wife was not an ordinary +woman; it would be much easier if she were. Certainly you don't intend to +stay here, at Java Head; but that is immaterial. Wherever you go in +America it will not be suitable for her. She'll be no more at home with +your friends than you with hers. I feel terribly sad about it, Gerrit; +you were as selfish as only a man can be." + +"You are unjust, Rhoda," he protested. "Taou Yuen was willing to come. +She had read about other countries and saw a great deal of the English +wife of a rich Dutch factor at Shanghai; as Lu Kikwang said, she's +wonderfully intelligent. I think she is happy, too." + +"Rubbish! Of course she loves you; I am not talking about that. How will +she get along while you are away on your long voyages? She couldn't +possibly live in the cabin of a ship, and do you suppose she'd be +contented in Salem with you absent for a year!" + +"We have as many chances of success as any other marriage," he asserted. +"The whole business is foolish enough." + +"That opinion might do for a single shipmaster, with only a month or two +out of the year on land. When you were free, Gerrit, your impatience with +convention was refreshing and possible. But can't you see that you have +given up your liberty! You have tied your hands. However loudly you may +cry out against society now you are a part of us, foolish or not. You'll +find that your wife has anchored you in Salem, Boston or Singapore, no +matter where you go: people will reach and hurt you through her. + +"She is very gorgeous and placid, superior on the surface; but the heart, +Gerrit--that isn't made of jade and ivory and silk." + +"I'll bring down your presents to-morrow," he told her, avoiding any +further present discussion of his marriage. "Has father failed, do you +think? His tempers are vigorous as ever." + +"He seems baggier about the eyes and throat. He is just as quick, but it +exhausts him more. Things would be much better if he were only content to +let William manage at the countinghouse. Times are shifting so quickly +with these new clipper ships and direct passages and political changes." + +"There's no longer any doubt about the clippers," Gerrit declared; "the +California gold rush will attend to that." + +In his room he found Taou Yuen, in soft white silk worked with bamboo +leaves, on the day bed, smoking. She rose immediately as he entered; and, +coming close to him, ran her cool fingers through his hair. He stood +gazing out at the dim oil flares that marked the confines of Washington +Square, considering all that Rhoda had said. Strangely enough it led his +thoughts away from his wife; they reverted to Nettie Vollar. + +He had been, he realized, very nearly in love with her: what he meant by +that inaccurate term was that if the affair had continued a little longer +he would have insisted on marrying her. Nettie was not indifferent to +him. An impersonal feeling had attracted him to her--a resentment of her +treatment by the larger part of Salem, particularly the oblique +admiration of the men. His supersensitiveness to any form of injustice +had driven him into the protest of calling and accompanying her, with an +exaggerated politeness, about the streets. It had not been difficult; she +was warm-blooded, luxurious, a very vivid woman. Gerrit, however, had +made a point of repressing any response to that aspect of their +intercourse--the sheerest necessity for the preservation of his disdain. + +She had cried on his shoulder, in his arms, practically; he had acted in +the purely fraternal manner. But the thing was reaching a natural +conclusion when her grandfather, Barzil Dunsack, had interfered with his +unsupportably frank accusations and command. The _Nautilus_ had been +ready for sea, and his, Gerrit's, imperious resentment had carried him +out of the Dunsacks' house--to Shanghai and Taou Yuen--without another +word to Nettie. + +How strangely life progressed, without chart or intelligent observations +or papers! He heard the tap of his wife's pipe; there was a faint +sweetish odor of drugged tobacco and the scent of cloves in which she +saturated herself. Outside was Salem, dim and without perceptible +movement; the clock in the hall struck ten. Taou Yuen didn't approach him +again nor speak; her perceptions were wonderfully acute. + +The sense of loneliness that sometimes overtook him on shore deepened, a +feeling of impotence, as if he had suddenly waked, lost and helpless, in +an unfamiliar planet. There was the soft whisper of his wife's passage +across the room. In the lamplight the paint on her cheeks made startling +unnatural patches of--paint. The reflections slid over the liquid black +mass of her hair, died in the lustrous creamy folds of her garment. She +was at once grotesque and impressive, like a figure in a Chinese +pantomime watched from the western auditorium of his inheritance. His +fondness for her, his admiration, had not lessened. He surveyed his +position, the presence here, in his room at Java Head, of Taou Yuen, with +amazement; all the small culminating episodes lost, the result was beyond +credence. His thoughts returned to Rhoda's accusation of selfishness, the +disaster implied in her pity for his wife. He tried again to analyze his +marriage, discover whatever justification, security, it possessed. Was +his admiration for Taou Yuen sufficient provision for his part of their +future together? It was founded largely on her superiority to the world +he had known; and here it was necessary for him to convince himself that +his wedding had not been merely the result of romantic accident. He knew +that the sensual had had almost no part in it, it had been mental; an act +of pity crystallizing his revolt against what he felt to be the impotence +of "Christian" ethics. Yet this was not sufficient; for he, like Rhoda, +had found under his wife's immobility the flux of immemorial woman. + +No, it wasn't enough; but more existed, he was certain of that. No one +could expect him, now, to experience the thrill of idealized passion that +was the sole property of youth. What feeling he had had for Nettie--he +was obliged to return to her from the fact that it was the only possible +comparison--had come from very much the same source as the other. The +old impersonal motives! + +The danger, Rhoda pointed out, had been admitted when his marriage made +impossible the continuation of that aloof position. He doubted that it +could change him so utterly. The thought of the entertainment his wife +would afford him in Salem expanded. He regretted that the best, the +calling and comments of the women, was necessarily lost to him, but Taou +Yuen would repeat a great deal: she, too, had a sly sense of the +ridiculous. He hoped that his sister-in-law didn't suppose her helpless; +the impenetrable Manchu control gave her a pitiless advantage over any +less absolute civilization. In the darkness before sleep the heavy exotic +scents in the room oppressed him strangely. + +He rose early, and quietly dressing went out into the garden: buds on +the June roses against the high blank fence on the street were swelling +into visible crimson; there were the stamping of horses' feet on the +cobbles of the stable inclosure, the heavy breathing and admonitions of +the coachman wielding a currycomb. The sunlight streamed down through +pale green willow and tall lilac bushes, through the octagonal latticed +summerhouse and across the vivid sod to the drawing-room door. Gerrit +turned, and entered the farther yard, where his father was inspecting the +pear trees. + +"The _Nautilus_ will need new copper sheathing," Gerrit said: "she's +pretty well stripped forward." + +"Take her around to the Salem Marine Railway at the foot of English +Street. A fine ship, Gerrit, with a proper hull. I tell you they'll never +improve on the French lines." + +"She won't go into the wind with a clipper," he admitted; "but I'll sail +her on a fair breeze with anything afloat." + +"If you come to that," his father asserted; "nothing handsomer will +ever be seen than an East India-man in the northeast trades with the +captain on the quarter-deck in a cocked hat and sword, the shoals of +flying fish and albacore skittering about a transom as high and carved +and gilded as a church, the royal pennant at the mainmast head. Maybe +it would be the _Earl of Balcarras_ with her cannons shining and the +midshipmen running about." + +"Yes," the younger man returned, "and taking in her light sails at +sunset, dropping astern like an island. The John Company's ruining +British shipping." + +Jeremy Ammidon muttered one of his favorite pessimistic complaints. "What +did you say her name was?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Taou Yuen." + +"Taou Yuen Ammidon," the elder pronounced experimentally. "It doesn't +sound right, the two won't go together." + +"But they have," Gerrit declared. He thought impatiently that he must +listen to a repetition of Rhoda's assertions. + +"I don't know much about 'em," Jeremy proceeded. "All I saw, when I was +younger, was the little singing-girls playing mora and wailing over their +infernal three-stringed fiddles something about the moon and a bowl of +water lilies." + +Taou Yuen did not come down to breakfast, and Gerrit stayed away from +their room until her toilet must be finished. It was Sunday; and with the +customary preparation for church under way William said: + +"I suppose you will go down to the ship?" + +The hidden question, the purpose of the inquiry, at once stirred into +being all Gerrit's perversity. "No," he replied carelessly; "we'll go +with you this morning." + +"That's unheard of," William exclaimed heatedly; "a woman in all her +paint and perfume and outrageous clothes in North Church, with--with my +family! I won't have it, do you understand." + +"No worse than what you see there every week," Gerrit retorted calmly; +"corsets and feathers and female gimcracks. Plenty of rouge and cologne +too. It will give them something new to stare at and whisper about." + +William Ammidon choked on his anger, and his wife laid a gloved hand on +his arm. "You must make up your mind to it," she told him. "It can't hurt +anyone. She is Gerrit's wife, you see." + +Above, the shipmaster said to Taou Yuen: "We are going to church with the +family." He surveyed her clothes with a faint glimmer of amusement. She +had, he saw, made herself especially resplendent as a Manchu. The long +gown was straw-colored satin with black bats--a symbol of +happiness--whirling on thickly embroidered silver clouds, over which she +wore a sleeve coat fastened with white jade and glittering with spangles +of beaten copper. Her slippers were pale rose, and fresh apple blossoms, +which she had had brought from the yard, made a headdress fixed with +long silver and dull red ivory pins. + +She smiled obediently at his announcement, and, with a fan of peacock +silks and betel nuts in a pouch like a tea rose hanging by a cord from a +jade button, she signified her readiness to proceed. + +William had gone on foot with his girls, Jeremy was seldom in church, and +Rhoda, Taou Yuen beside her with Gerrit facing them, followed in the +barouche. It seemed to the latter that they were almost immediately at +the door of North Church. The leisurely congregation filling the walk +stiffened in incredulous amazement as Gerrit handed his wife to the +pavement. Rhoda went promptly forward, nodding in response to countless +stupefied greetings; while Gerrit Ammidon moved on at Taou Yuen's side. + +Prepared, he restrained the latter from a prostration in the hall of the +church. Nothing had changed: the umbrella trough still bore the numbers +of the pews, the stair wound gloomily up to the organ loft. He again +found the subdued interior, the maroon upholstery, the flat Gothic +squares of the ceiling and dark red stone walls, a place of reposeful +charm. The Ammidons had two of the box pews against the right wall: his +brother and children were in the second, and, inside the other small +inclosure, he shut the gate and took his place on a contracted corner +bench. Taou Yuen sat with Rhoda against the back of the pew. The former, +blazing like a gorgeous flower on the shadowed surface of a pool, smiled +serenely at him. + +He could hear the hum of subdued comment running like ignited powder +through the church, familiar faces turned blankly toward him or nodded in +patent confusion. The men, he noted, expressed a single rigid +condemnation. The women, in crisp light dresses and ribboned bonnets, +were franker in their curiosity. Taou Yuen was a loadstone for their +glances. As the service progressed her face grew expressionless. Fretted +sandalwood bracelets drooped over her folded hands, and miniature dragon +flies quivered on the gold wires of her earrings; the sharp perfumes of +the East drifted out and mingled with the Western scents of extracts and +powders. He only saw that she was politely chewing betel nut. It wasn't, +he told himself, reverting to his critical attitude toward Salem, that he +was lacking in charity toward his neighbors, or that he felt any +superiority; but the quality that signally roused his antagonism was +precisely the men's present aspect of heavy censure and boundless +propriety, their stolid attitude of justifying the spiritual consummation +promised by the sermon and hymns. + +The long night watches, the anxiety of the sea, the profound mysteries of +the wheeling stars and the silence of the ocean at dawns, had given him, +he dimly realized, an inarticulate reverence for the supreme mystery of +creation. He was unable to put it into words or facile prayer but it was +the guarded foundation of most that he was, and it bred in him a contempt +for lesser signs. The religion of his birth, the faith of Taou Yuen, the +fetishism of the Zanzibar Coast, he had regarded as equally important, or +futile--the mere wash of the immensity of beauty, the inexorable destiny, +that had seemed to breathe on him alone at the stern of his ship. + +He lost himself now in the keenness of his remembered emotion: the +church faded into a far horizon, he felt the slight heave of the ship +and heard the creaking of the wheel as the steersman shifted his hands; +from aloft came the faint slapping of the bunt lines on rigid canvas, +the loose hemp slippers of the crew sounded across the deck, the water +whispered alongside, the ship's bell was struck and repeated in a +diminished note on the topgallant forecastle. The morning rose from +below the edge of the sea and the pure air freshened.... His thoughts +were recalled to the present by the dogmatic insistence of the +clergyman's voice, promising heaven, threatening hell. His gaze rested +on the chalky debility of Madra Clifford. + +The service over, the aisle past the Ammidon pews was filled with a +slow-moving inquisitive throng. Rhoda chose to wait until the greater +part was past, and then she followed with the unmoved Taou Yuen and +Gerrit. "This is my brother's wife," he heard the former say. "Mrs. +Saltonstone, Gerrit's sister, Mrs. Clifford and Miss Vermeil. Yes... from +Shanghai. Overdue. We were worried, of course." Taou Yuen smiled +vigorously and flapped the vivid fan. Against her brilliant colors, the +carved jade and embroideries, silver and apple blossoms, the other women +looked colorless in wide book muslin and barege, with short veils of +tulle illusion hanging from bonnets of rice straw and glazed crepe. +Palpably shocked by her Oriental face masked in paint, her Chinese +"heathen" origin, yet they fingered the amazing needlework and wondered +over the weight of her satins. + +The men he knew gave him, for the most part, a curt greeting. They +glanced more covertly at his wife; he understood exactly what thoughts +brought out this condemnation soiled by private speculation; and his +disdain mounted at their sleek backs and glossy tile, hats supported on +stiffly bent arms. + +After dinner he walked through the warm sunny emptiness of the afternoon +to Derby Wharf and the _Nautilus_. Standing on the wharf, smoking a +cheroot, he leaned back upon his cane, studying the ship with a gaze that +missed no detail. There was not a sound from the water; across the harbor +Peach's Point seemed about to dissolve in a faint green haze; a strong +scent of mingled spices came from the warehouses. There was the splash of +oars in the Basin beyond, and the more distant peal of a church bell. + +At the sound of footfalls behind him he turned and saw Nettie Vollar and +her uncle, Edward Dunsack. A dark color rose in the girl's cheek, and her +hand pulled involuntarily at Dunsack's arm, as if she wished to retreat. +Gerrit thought that she had aged since he had latest met her: Nettie's +mouth, with its full, slightly drooping lower lip, had lost something of +its fresh arch; her eyes, though they still preserved their black +sparkle, were plainly resentful. Edward Dunsack, medium tall but thin +almost to emaciation, had a riven sallow face with close-cut silvery hair +and agate-brown eyes with contracted pupils. + +"Well, Nettie," Gerrit said, moving forward promptly, "it's pleasant to +see you again." Her hand was cold and still. "Dunsack, too." + +"I am obliged to you for my chest," the latter told him, unmoved by +Gerrit's quizzical gaze. + +"Glad to do it for you," the other replied; "it came ashore with my +personal things, and so, perhaps, saved you something." + +"Perhaps," Dunsack agreed levelly. + +Looking down at the cob filling of the wharf, Nettie Vollar said, "You +came home married, I hear, and to a Chinese lady." + +Gerrit assented. "You'll certainly know her, and like her, too. Taou +Yuen is very wise and without the prejudices--" he stopped, conscious of +the stupidity of his attempted kindness. Nettie looked up defiantly, +biting her lip--a familiar trick, he recalled. Dunsack interposed: + +"You will find that the Chinese have none of your little sympathetic +tricks. No foreigner could ever grasp the depth of their indifference to +what you might call humanity. They are born wise, as you say, but weary. +I suppose your wife plays the guitar skillfully and sings the Soochow +Love Song." + +Gerrit Ammidon studied him with somber eyes and a gathering temper: it +was, however, impossible to decide whether the implication was +deliberately insulting. He wouldn't have any Canton clerk, probably +saturated with opium, insinuate that his affair was on the plane of +that of a drunken sailor! "My wife," he said deliberately, "is a +Manchu lady. You may know that they don't learn dialect songs nor +ornament tea houses." + +"Very remarkable," Dunsack returned imperturbably. "We never see them. +How did you manage a go-between, and did you send the hour of your birth +to the Calculator of Destinies? Then there is so much to remember in a +Chinese wedding--the catties of tea and four silver ingots, the earrings +and red and green silk and Tao priest to consult the gods." Gerrit heard +this with a frowning countenance. If Nettie were not there he would put +Dunsack forward with the hypothetical crew to which he belonged. He felt +as sorry for Nettie, he discovered, as ever. It moved him to see her +vivacity of life, her appealingly warm color, slowly dulled by Salem and +the adventitious circumstance of her birth. What a dreary existence she +led in the harsh atmosphere of her grandfather and the solemn house on +Hardy Street! At one time he had fancied that he might change it... when +now here was Taou Yuen, detached and superior, waiting in his room at +Java Head. + +"I stopped for a moment to look at the ship," he said, with the trace of +an ungracious bow, "and must get back." The sunlight flung a warm moted +veil over Nettie Vollar. She gave him a startled uncalculated glance of +almost desperate appeal and his heart responded with a quickened thud. +Edward Dunsack was sallow and enigmatic, with thin pinched lips. + + + + +V + +"The stupid bruiser," Edward Dunsack declared in a thin bitterness that +startled the girl at his side. "The low sea bully!" He was gazing at the +resolute back of Captain Ammidon. A surprising hatred filled him at the +memory of the other's intolerant gaze, the careless contempt of his +words. He thought, oddly enough, of the delicate and ingenious tortures +practiced on offenders in China; the pleasant mental picture followed of +Ammidon bowed in a wooden collar, of Gerrit Ammidon bambooed, sliced, +slowly choking.... With an intense sense of horror he caught himself +dwelling on these dripping visions. His hands clasped rigidly, a sweat +stood out on his brow, in a realization that was at once dread and a +self-loathing. + +About him lay the tranquil Salem water, the still wharves, the familiar +roofs and green tree tops. This wasn't Canton, he told himself, but +America: there was Nettie; only a few streets away was his father's +house, his own home, all solid and safe and reassuring. China was a +thing of the past, its insidious secret hold broken. It was now only a +dream of evil fascination from which he had waked to the reality, the +saving substance, of Derby Wharf. "It's his domineering manner," he +explained the outburst to Nettie; "all shipmasters have it--as if the +world were a vessel they damned from a quarter-deck in the sky. I never +could put up with them." + +"He is very kind, really," she replied, looking away over the harbor. "It +is so queer--marrying a Chinese woman like that. How will he ever get +along with her or be happy?" + +"He won't," Edward Dunsack asserted. "Leave that to time." He studied her +attentively. "Was it anything to you?" he asked. + +"It might have been," she acknowledged listlessly, her gaze still on the +horizon. "He came to see me two or three times, quite differently from +other nice men, and took me to a concert at the Philharmonic Society. He +was getting to like me, I could tell that, when grandfather interfered--" + +"I see," Dunsack interrupted, "with the immorality of the supermoral." + +"Whatever it was he was past bearing. No one could blame Gerrit for +getting into a fury. The next day I stood almost in this spot, it was +late afternoon too, and watched the _Nautilus_ sail away. All the canvas +was set and I could see her for a long time. When the last trace had +gone it seemed to me that my life had sunk too ... out there." + +"The old man's a fool," he said bluntly of his father. "How do you +suppose he got hold of a Manchu?" he shifted his thought, addressing the +stillness about them rather than his companion. "Don't imagine for a +minute that you are superior to her," he told Nettie more directly. +"There is nothing more remarkable. They must be gorgeous," a faint color +stained his long cheeks. "What incredible luck," he murmured. + +He was thinking avidly of the women of China--the little gay girls like +toys, the momentary glimpses of enameled faces in hurrying red-flowered +sedan chairs, faces of ivory stained with carmine, in gold-crusted +headdresses. A sudden impatience at Nettie Vollar's obvious person and +clothes expanded to a detestation of an atmosphere he had but a minute or +so before welcomed as an escape from something infinitely worse than +death. Now it seemed impossible to spend a life in Salem. It would have +been better, when he had been released by Heard and Company, to have +taken the position open in the Dutch Hong. + +He was in a continual state of such vacillation, as if he were the seat +of two separate and antagonistic personalities; rather, he changed the +figure, in him the East struggled with the West. It was necessary for the +latter to triumph. The difficulty lay in the fact that the first was +represented by an actual circumstance while the other was only a dim +apprehension, a weakened allegiance to ties never strong. + +He cursed the extraordinary chance that, against every probability, had +brought the chest of opium safely to him here. Its purchase had been the +result of habit evading his will, he had despatched it--in that seesawing +contest--by a precarious route, half hoping that it would be lost or +seized; and, when he had seen the chest carried down Hardy Street to his +door, a species of terror had fastened upon him, a premonition of an evil +spirit flickering above him in a turning of oily smoke. Why hadn't he +pitched the thing into the water at the foot of their yard! There was +time still: he would take the balls of opium and dispose of them +secretly. A sudden energy, a renewed sense of strength, flooded him. This +distaste for Nettie changed into a pity at the ill luck that had followed +her: she didn't deserve it. Generous emotions expanded his heart. He +dreamed of taking hold of his father's small commerce in rum and sugar +with the West Indies and turning it into a concern as rich and powerful +as Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. + +Why not! + +They, too, would have a big white house on Washington Square or Chestnut +Street, with servants--Chinese servants--and horses and great ships +sailing in, laden with the East. Why not indeed! He, Edward Dunsack, had +more brains than Jeremy Ammidon, that stiff old man with a face the color +of a damask plum. His niece would go to all the balls at Franklin and +Hamilton Halls, the injustice of her position overcome by an impressively +increasing fortune. Abstractly he patted her shoulder with a hand as long +and gaunt and yellow as his face. All this would come as a result of +throwing the opium into the harbor. It was as good as accomplished. + +In the face of his prospective well-being he felt already the equal of +anyone in Salem. If Gerrit Ammidon had married a Manchu lady it was his +privilege, no, duty, to call and put his experience in things Chinese at +their command. She would speak only a little if any English; no one here +understood the preparation of her food--her delicate necessity for dishes +not the property of an entire household; a hundred such details of which +the infinitely cruder West must be ignorant. He thought complacently that +he would understand her better than anyone else in Salem, in Boston, in +America; far better than her husband. She would without doubt learn to +depend on him: they would laugh together at the manners and people about +them. Ammidon would be away for long periods on the China service.-- + +His dreams broke off with a sardonic laugh, a repetition of the tone in +which he had objurgated the ship-master. Such visions were the property +of youth, and he was forty-two, forty-two and nothing more than a +discredited clerk who had fled across the world from a shadow. But he was +right--he had seen white men who had caught the breath of China accepting +just such opportunities as the one offered to him after his dismissal by +Augustine Heard. At the Dutch Hong he'd be expected to talk about his +late employer. Such situations, he had realized in a rarely illuminating +flash, were only temporary, a descending flight. + +These men resembled the fate of, say, a brig sailing into the China +Sea in all the perfection of order of the British Marine: at, perhaps, +Hong Kong, sold to a native firm, she would be refitted under an +extravagant flag, and slowly the order would depart until, in a +slovenly tangle of rigging and defilement, she'd be seen yawing on +secret and nauseous errands. + +A homely chime of bells was repeated from the town; a ship's fast +strained resinously with the changing tide. "It will be getting on toward +supper," Nettie told him. They walked slowly from the wharf, turned +silently into Derby Street and Hardy on their way home. Beyond the inner +fence of the garden the thick uneven sod reaching to the water was dark +and cool against the luminous flush of evening. A sound of frying and +heavy odor came from the kitchen, and Kate Vollar's voice informed them +that the meal was ready. + +Barzil Dunsack bowed his head over the table and pronounced a grace in +startlingly resonant tones, the reverent humility of his words oddly +emphasized by a sort of angry impatience. It seemed as if he at once +subjected himself to his God and expressed a certain dissatisfaction with +His forbearance. Edward Dunsack was plunged in the thought of the +resolution he intended to fulfill that evening. + +The throwing away of the opium had lost a part of its symbolic meaning. +It now seemed even a little rash when he could find an immediate highly +profitable market--the opium had cost him seven hundred dollars in China. +But he must, he realized, be firm. Afterwards, in his room facing away +from the street over darkening yards and gables and foliage, he stood +gazing at the chest of mango wood that held the drug. Edward Dunsack +unlocked and lifted the lid. On the tray before him were twenty balls, +each the size of his two fists, wrapped in a hard skin of poppy leaves, +and there was a similar number beneath. It was obvious that he couldn't +carry a tray through the house, and he took out two balls, after which he +secured the remainder. + +He walked quickly down the stair and through the close turning of the +lower hall that led through a side door to the yard. A pale rectangle of +lamplight fell from the sitting room window over a brick path and ground +tramped bare of grass; a clinking of dishes sounded in the kitchen. The +sod was damp, and perhaps eight feet below the wooden buttress of the +land the water showed impenetrably black. + +Safely there he passed a tense hand over a brow suddenly wet; he was +shaking as if in the grip of a chill. His condition needed drastic +measures. The cold heavy opium gave out its tantalizing odor. In a minute +it would be disposed of and he would go for more. He calculated that this +necessitated twenty trips at the present rate--a bag might serve his +purpose better. He raised an arm with an opium ball, but his hand +remained suspended in air. An inarticulate protest seized him, a +suffocating sense of impending loss. He would never be able to get Patna +opium here; it was a valuable medical property. His nerves shook at the +thought of its delights. Then as if without his volition and against +every intention, his arm described a short arc and his hand was empty. +There was the impact of a solid object striking the water, a faint ripple +on the motionless expanse, and then absolute silence. + +He was aghast at his wanton act, the irreparable waste of a precious +substance, and cursed in a low audible Cantonese. Whose concern was it if +he did, very occasionally, smoke a "pistol"? How could it possibly +matter! The dreams about a great foreign commerce, a white house like the +Ammidons', were futile; it was too late. He could expect nothing from +life but the unspeakable monotony of his father's dwelling, the bare +office. He had worked hard, been as full of splendid early resolutions as +anyone, and he wasn't blamable if chance balked his ambition. A soul was +nothing more than a twisting leaf in the wind of fate. There remained +only to take what escape was offered--golden visions, luxury, beauty +beyond all earth. + +His contrary determination seemed of less actuality than the imagined +echoing of the splash that still hung in his brain. It was a thing far +away, belonging to another time, another man; like the memory of a period +of charming ignorance. The thought of it wove a strand of melancholy into +his present mature realization like the delicate scent of blossoming +trees borne to him on the evening air, barely perceptible and then lost +in the pungency of the opium. The latter became, mystically, all China, +the irresistible fascination that had gradually possessed his +imagination, dulling the associations of his heredity and birth, calling +him further and further into its secretive heart. + +He returned to his room, where he put back the second ball in the tray of +its chest. An extraordinary weariness hung over him, there was a sense +of leaden weight in his arms and feet. Flashes of a different perception +pierced his apathy; a voice, seemingly outside his being, whispered of +danger, evil and danger.... A twisting leaf, he told himself again with +his deep fatalism. + +The memory of Gerrit Ammidon's crisp blue gaze, his vigorous gestures and +speech, became an intolerable affront, representing the far lost point of +his own departure. His contrary feelings met and grappled in his mind; +but in the end the past, Salem, was always defeated, weaker, more faintly +perceived. In a great many essentials, he told himself, he had become +Chinese in sympathy and fiber. + +The lamp threw a smooth gleam over the mango wood chest, and he bent, +turning the key in the ornamental brass lock. He could reconsider the +disposal of the opium to-morrow; there was no hurry; he had no intention +of becoming a victim to the drug. That would be an inconceivable +stupidity, the negation of all the philosophy he had gained. Very +occasionally-- + +His thoughts swung to the surprising fact of Ammidon's Chinese wife: if, +as he had first suspected, she were a common woman of the port who had +made a fool of the dull sailor he perceived the making of a very +entertaining comedy. There would be the keenest irony in exposing her to +himself before the complacent ignorance of her husband. He knew such +women: convicted in Chinese, perhaps before the entire Ammidon family, +not a muscle of her face would betray surprise or concern. She might try +to murder him, very ingeniously, but never descend to the intrigue, the +lies, of a Western woman placed in the same position. She'd stoically +accept the situation. These visions ran rapidly, vividly, through his +brain; he was accustomed to them; a greater part of his waking life was +filled with such pictures, infinitely more alluring, persuasive, than the +disappointing actuality. He got out of his clothes, and, in a loose gown +of black silk, sat at his open window, his chin sunk in the palm of a +hand, his face set against the night. + +The next morning, at the breakfast table, he listened with a fleering +mouth to his father's long dogmatic grace before meat. His sister sat +opposite their parent, her gaze lowered in a perpetual amazement, her +entire person stamped with a stupid humility. There was nothing humble, +however, in Nettie; the crisp French coloring positively crackled with an +electric energy; her mouth was set in a rebellious red blot. Studying +her, Edward Dunsack saw that she was prettier than he had first realized +on his return to Salem. He speculated over the story she had told him +yesterday about Gerrit Ammidon's attachment. What an incredible idiot +their father had been: Edward would have relished Gerrit as a +brother-in-law; good would have come to them all from such a connection. + +If he had been in America at the time no such error would have been +permitted. With his counsel Nettie would have caught Ammidon beyond any +escape. He wondered if the girl had actually cared for the shipmaster or +if the affair had been nothing more than a sop to her wounded pride and +isolation. In a way beyond his present understanding this seemed to be +considerably important. If she had loved him no one could predict what +her attitude might be in any future development of their contact; but if +her pride only had been involved, injured, she might readily be an +instrument for his own obscure purposes. + +The office where Barzil Dunsack conducted the limited affairs of his +West India trading was a small one-room building back of the dwelling. +There was a high desk at which a clerk stood, or balanced on a +long-legged stool, a more formal secretary against the length of the +wall, with a careful model of a full ship, the spars and standing +rigging slack and the whole gray with dust, a built-in cupboard +opposite, a dilapidated chair or so and a ten-plate iron stove for wood. +A window looked out across the grass to the harbor and another opened +blankly against a board fence. + +There Edward Dunsack made a column of entries in a script fine and +regular but occasionally showing an uncontrollably tremulous line. He +was conscious of this tendency, growing through the past year; and he +surveyed his writing with a feeling of angry dismay. Try as he might, +with a frowning concentration, to pen the words and numerals firmly, +presently his attention would slip, his hand waver ever so slightly, and +a sudden stricken appearance of old age fasten on the characters.... By +heaven, to-night he'd throw all that stinking stuff away! + +Outside the day was immaculate, the expanse of the water was like +celestial silk, such sails as he saw resembled white clouds. The early +morning bird song had subsided, but a persistent robin was whistling from +the grass by the open door. The curd-like petals of a magnolia were +slowly shifting obliquely to the ground, he could hear the stir of Derby +Street. He was inexpressibly weary of the struggle always racking his +being: it seemed to him that in the midst of a serene world he was +tormented by some inimicable and fatal power. + +He fastened his thoughts on commonplace happier objects, on the page +under his hand, the entries of Medford rum and sugar cane and molasses, +and the infinitely larger affairs of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. +There was no reason why he shouldn't call on Jeremy Ammidon's family. The +latter had signified by his visit the desire to end the misunderstanding +between them. He was as well born as Gerrit Ammidon; only ill chance had +made them seem differently situated. Anyhow, unlike Canton, mere exterior +position had comparatively little weight in Salem. The shipmasters, the +more important merchants, arrogated a certain superiority to themselves: +but it broke down before the inborn democracy of the local spirit. + +That afternoon, he decided, he'd be in Pleasant Street; and later he +dressed with the most meticulous care. A growing doubt seized him as he +mounted the outside steps of the Ammidons' impressive house; but he +crushed it down and firmly rapped with the polished knocker on the +opened door. + +The family, a servant told him, was in the garden; and he followed +through a large white-paneled hall into a formal drawing-room and green +space beyond. He was again uncertain before the number of people grouped +about a summerhouse and apparently watching his approach with cold +surprise. But Gerrit Ammidon stepped forward and greeted him with an +adequately level civility. + +"You know my father," he said, and Jeremy Ammidon, his heavy body in +linen above which his face was dusky, put out an abrupt hand. There was a +Mr. Brevard, a slender unconcerned person in very fashionable but +restrained clothes; William Ammidon's wife, a large woman in India +muslin, handsome enough, Edward Dunsack conceded, in the obvious +American sense; a daughter of William's, a girl blooming into womanhood, +far too vigorous and brightly colored for his taste; and Gerrit's wife. + +The latter had been hidden from him at first, and he saw her suddenly, +completely: his surprise caused him to stand in an awkward +suspense--never had he imagined that a woman, even a Manchu, could be so +beautiful! He recognized, in a score of unmistakable details, that she +was of irreproachably high birth; her satins were embroidered with the +symbols of nobility and matrimonial felicity; the gold fingernail guards, +the jade and flowering pearls, her earrings and tasseled tobacco pouch +and ivory fan, were all in the most superlative manner. + +A deep pleasurable excitement filled him as he made his greeting in +correct Chinese. The long delicate oval of her face showed no emotion at +the sound of her native speech and she returned his periods in a slowly +chosen mechanical English. Edward Dunsack thought that as he spoke an +expression of distaste stamped Gerrit's features. However, he was left in +no doubt: "My wife," the other instructed him, "prefers to speak English. +That is the only way she has of picking it up." + +A contempt filled Dunsack which he was barely able to keep from his voice +and manner. He nodded shortly, and subsided into a study of Taou Yuen so +open that she must have become aware of his interest. Seated on the bench +that circled the interior of the latticed summerhouse she moved so that +he could no longer see her face. Brevard was beside her, talking in a low +amused voice: there was a ringing peal of laughter from Sidsall Ammidon +and a faint infinitely well-bred ripple from Taou Yuen. The brilliant +patch of her gown made an extraordinary effect in the Salem garden. +Edward Dunsack recognized the scents that stirred from her, more Eastern +and disturbing even than opium: there was a subtle natural odor of musk, +the perfumes of henna and clove blossoms and santal. + +A curious double feeling possessed him in the split consciousness of +which he was capable--he had the sensation of having come, in the suave +afternoon garden, on overwhelming disaster, and at the same time he was +enraged by the play of Fate that had given such a woman to Gerrit Ammidon +and denied him, with his special appreciation of Oriental charm, the +slightest satisfaction. A more general hatred of Gerrit tightened to a +consuming resentment of the other's blind fortune. + +One thing was unmistakably borne upon him--in spite of the courtesy he +was meeting it was clear that he could not hope to become a customary +visitor at the Ammidons'. He was put definitely outside the community of +interests in which Brevard easily entered. William Ammidon joined them, +and something like astonishment at Dunsack's presence was visible on his +complacent face. + +He remained, however, in a stubborn resistance to small adverse signs in +the hope of gaining some additional facts about Taou Yuen. She had been, +he learned, a widow and Gerrit had married her with her father-in-law's +consent although the latter was a rich official. He wanted to ask a +thousand questions, but he knew that even if the Ammidons were too dense +to grasp his curiosity, Taou Yuen herself would comprehend his +impoliteness. Nowhere else could be found the wisdom and poise of a +Manchu lady. + +Jeremy Ammidon, in a lawn chair, a smoking cheroot in his fingers, asked +him about affairs of Chinese government and commerce. As the old man +talked he flushed darkly with quick indignation. "The English have made +our political diplomats look like stuffed gulls!" he declared. "Look at +their Orders in Council and the British Prize Courts," he proceeded, +waving his cheroot; "stop an American vessel anywhere and pretend to find +a deserting English sailor. With the Treaty of Ghent and cod-headed +commissioners and a Congress that wouldn't know a ship from a bread barge +the country's going to hell on greased ways! I've said it a thousand +times and any man not a complete ass knows that you can't run a +government without a strong head. Locofocos," he muttered. + +Edward Dunsack listened to this tirade with an air of polite attention +which hid completely the fact that he heard or comprehended scarcely a +word. His thoughts were filled by the fragrant vision of Taou Yuen; +already he was deep in the problem of how to see her again, to-morrow. It +would be excessively difficult. Eastern women never, if they could avoid +it, walked; and they were, he knew, entirely without the necessity that +drove the women of Salem into a ceaseless round of calling and gossip. It +was probable that, except to ride, she wouldn't leave the house and +grounds. He cursed the chance quarrel that had set a customary void +between the houses of Dunsack and Ammidon, the unfortunate affair of his +sister and Vollar inescapably adding to the permanency of the breach; he +particularly cursed Nettie. There, however, his mind took up the twisted +thread of the vague possibility that the latter might be useful to him: +he was amazed at the way in which his premonitions fitted into the +pattern of situations yet to be materialized. + +Edward Dunsack turned from his contemplation of Taou Yuen to a careful +consideration of Gerrit Ammidon. The latter had a countenance which +showed strong, easily summoned emotions. It was an intolerant face, +Dunsack judged, and yet sentimental; and it was surprisingly young, +guileless. At the same time it was unusually determined--an affair of +uncomplicated surfaces, direct gaze, marked bone. + +He questioned sharply, irritably, the length to which his projections had +reached. What were they all about? The answer was presented by the +glittering figure of the Manchu; she had risen and was standing in the +entrance of the summerhouse. He thought, with a jerking pulse, of +Oriental similes; she was a lotus-woman, a green slip of willow, an +ambrosial moon, a mustard flower. Her teeth were white buds, her breasts +blanched almonds. + +His entire life in China had been a preparation for the realization of +the present moment. The sense of danger, of anger at Gerrit Ammidon, +perished before the supreme emotion called up by Taou Yuen. He wanted +to embrace her satin-shod feet, to cling to her odorous hands, such +hands as were never formed out of China, like petals of coral. Not only +her bodily charm intoxicated him, but the thought of her subtle mind +added its attraction, its shadows never to be pierced by the blunted +Western instinct, the knowledge of pleasures like perfumes, the calm +blend of the eight diagrams of Confucius, the stoicism of the +Buddhistic soul revolving perpetually in the urn of Fate, and of the +aloof Tao of Lao-tze. + +Brevard left with an easy familiarity, already planning a return, that +filled Edward Dunsack with resentful envy. The sun had disappeared behind +the house; long cool shadows swept down the garden; it was past time for +him to go. A reluctance to move from the magic of Taou Yuen possessed +him: he was unable to think how, when, he would next see her. He raged at +the prohibition against speaking Chinese; that ability should give him an +overwhelming advantage of Gerrit Ammidon. This was, of course, the reason +that he had been virtually commanded to limit himself to English. Many of +the forms of extreme Chinese courtesy were impossible to express in +another language. + +Finally he rose; in departing he emphasized the importance of Jeremy +Ammidon--Taou Yuen should recognize and applaud that. He saw that she was +watching him obliquely, her lips in repose, her hands still among the +satin draperies. An American would have betrayed something of her +reaction to him, he could have discovered a trace, an indication, of her +thoughts; but the Manchu's face was as inscrutable as porcelain. William +Ammidon nodded, the old man responded to his leave-taking with a degree +of warmness, Gerrit at least smiled in a not unfriendly manner. Edward +Dunsack bowed to Taou Yuen, and she gravely inclined her head. He had a +last glimpse of her glowing in the green light of the inclosure of +rose-bushes and poplars, emerald sod and tangled lilac trees. + +At the supper table his sister's appearance in somber untidy black +barege, Nettie's unrestrained gestures and speech, the coarse red cloth +and plain boiled fare, all added to a discontent that he could scarcely +restrain. With the utmost discrimination in delicate shades of beauty and +luxury he was yet condemned to spend his days in surroundings hardly +raised above poverty-stricken squalor. Incongruous as it was he could yet +imagine Taou Yuen moving with a certain appropriateness about the +Ammidons' spacious grounds and house; but he was absolutely unable to +picture her here, on Hardy Street. + +All the vivid scenes that continually formed and shifted in his mind +gathered about Gerrit Ammidon's wife. He used this phrase in a +contemptuously satirical manner: it was impossible for Ammidon actually +to marry a Manchu. Such racial mating, he told himself, could not be +consummated; there were too many deep antipathies of flesh and spirit; +the man was too--too stupidly normal. Sooner or later he would swing back +to his own. With him, Edward Dunsack, it was different; he always had an +inner kinship with China; at first sight its streets and sounds, odors +and ways, had seemed familiar, admirable. + +The realization of this, when his place with Heard and Company +collapsed, had sent him back to America, in a strange dread. He +remembered how the vague fear had followed him to Derby Wharf. Now he +laughed at it, welcoming every Chinese instinct he had. They seemed to +throw a bridge across enormous difficulties, bringing him finally to +Taou Yuen. + +He lingered at the table after supper, his head sunk on his chest, +revolving the various aspects of his position. One thing was definite--he +must have Taou Yuen; it was unthinkable that she should continue with +Gerrit Ammidon. It needed skillful planning, tortuous execution, but in +the end he'd get his desire. He had no doubt of that. It was necessary. +If she opposed him she would discover that he, too, could be subtle, +Oriental, yes--dangerous. None of the stupid inhibitions that, for +example, bound his father interfered with the free exercise of his +personal wishes. He was beyond primitive morality. + +An ecstasy of contemplation ravished his senses. + +"Goodness, Uncle Edward," Nettie exclaimed, "you scared me, you looked so +like a Chinee." + +"There are no such people," he retorted sharply, exasperated by the +vulgar error. She was undismayed; and when, in reply to the question, she +learned that he had been at the Ammidons' her surprise increased his +irritation. He saw from her manner that his calling there had been at +least unexpected. Nettie interrupted the preparation of the table for +breakfast, and dropped into a chair beyond him, her hands--the sleeves +were rolled back to her elbows--clasped before her. + +"You must tell me everything," she declared eagerly. "What is she like? +Do they seem happy? Did he hold her hand? Do Chinese women kiss? Is she +tall or--" + +"I can't remember a question out of your rattle," he interrupted her. He +was about to give expression to his admiration for Taou Yuen, when he +stopped, with tight lips. Here, perhaps, was the lever by which so much +was to be shifted. + +"She's Chinese," he said indifferently, "and that means yellow." Nettie +made a gesture of distaste. "They seem to get along well enough. Of +course, it's ridiculous to call it a marriage, and it seems to me very +questionable to impose it on the Ammidons as that. The thing is--how +long will it last, how soon will he get tired of her and send her back +to Canton?" + +Nettie Vollar closed her eyes, her hands were rigid. The lamplight, +streaming up over her face, showed him that it was tense and pale and +answered a question. Her feeling for Gerrit Ammidon had been more than a +mere hurt pride. In addition to that he saw beyond any doubt the proof of +its existence still. This complicated his problem: inspired only by a +resentment that he might fan into hatred she would be far more pliable +than in the grip of a genuine affection for Gerrit Ammidon. He understood +the processes of the former, a flexible and useful steel; but no one +could predict the vagaries, the absurd self-sacrifices, of love. Well, +he'd have to work with what offered. That, he realized, was the strength +of his philosophy--he accepted promptly, without vain regret, the means +that lay at his hand. + +"Ammidon seems worn," he said generally; "they were in the garden, and I +had a few words privately with him." Nettie glanced swiftly across the +table; her lips moved; but she repressed the obvious question trembling +on them. "He showed, I think," he continued carefully, "a very improper +interest in you." + +"How?" + +"He asked if you were well and happy. I most certainly told him, for any +number of reasons, for pride alone, that you were." + +"Then you told a lie," she cried in a tone so hard that it surprised him. + +"Of course," he went on smoothly, "I know that you are not, almost all +your circumstances prohibit that. But I don't intend to circulate it in +Salem. Opinion here may have forced you into a long loneliness, but I +shan't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing it. And, after all, you +have your grandfather mostly to blame. You would have been married to +Gerrit Ammidon now if he hadn't interfered; you would have been walking +about the Ammidons' garden with your hand on his arm in place of that +Chinese prostitute." + +"I don't see why you should make me so miserable," she declared. "I don't +care anything about the garden, it isn't that. Why do you suppose he +brought such a woman home?" + +"Pique," he told her; "he couldn't care for her in the way he might for, +well--you. As I said, he'll drop her on his next voyage to the East; he +will leave her and probably never come back to Salem again. I hear that +Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone are planning a new policy--bigger ships, +clippers in the China and California trade; and that means removal to +Boston. Their facilities here are no longer suitable." + +She moved, her chin fell upon her hands, propped up with her elbows on +the table. Apparently Edward Dunsack was gazing at the wall beyond her. +Her breast gave a single sharp heave. When Nettie looked up her face was +flushed. "I wish that I were really a bad woman," she spoke in a low +vibrant voice. + +"What is bad and what is good?" He still seemed to ignore her, +considering a question that had no personal bearing. "In one country a +thing is thought wrong and in another it is the highest virtue. In one +age this or that is condemned, when, turn the calendar, and everyone is +praising it." He became confidential, the image of kindness. "I'll tell +you what I think is wicked," he pronounced, leaning toward her, "and that +is the way you two were kept apart; unchristian is what I call it." + +"Gerrit doesn't care," she said. + +"How do you know?" he demanded. "I cannot agree with you. I don't find a +great deal in him to admire, he is too simple and transparent; but +there's no doubt of this, he is faithful. One idea, one affection, is all +his head will hold." + +"That's a beautiful trait." A palpable wistfulness settled over her. + +"It's greatly admired," he agreed; "although not by me. I believe in +taking what is yours, what you need, from life. I suppose that I have +been away from proprieties so long that they have lost their importance. +They seem to me of no greater weight than barriers of straw. But, of +course, that mightn't suit you; probably, living in Salem as you have, +its opinion is valuable." + +"Salem!" she exclaimed bitterly. "What has it ever been to me but an +unfair judgment? I owe Salem no consideration; I can't see that I owe +any to life." + +"I don't want to insist on that," he proceeded deliberately. "The tragedy +of your position is that married to Ammidon everything in the past would +have been overlooked, forgotten. Even now--" he stopped with a gesture +indicating the presence still of large possibilities. + +God, what a vacillating fool the girl was! He could say no more at +present, and he rose, leaving the room with Nettie staring dully across +the table. He went outside, to the grass fronting on the harbor. Here, +last night, he had thrown the opium into the water. It seemed to him +that he had lived through a complete existence since then: the presence +of Taou Yuen had created a new world. He thought she walked to him +through the gloom; he saw her slender body grow brighter as she +approached; he heard her speak in a low native murmur; their hands +caught in an eager tangle. + +He put aside, momentarily, the problem of the difficulties of going again +to the Ammidons' for an easier one--the bringing of Gerrit Ammidon here. +He was confident that, thrown together on the still rim of the water, at +evening, the emotion born between his niece and the shipmaster and +prematurely choked would revive. He had no means of knowing Ammidon's +present exact feeling for Nettie; he was counting only on a general +theory of men and nature at large. He was already convinced, from very +wide knowledge, experience, that the other could not form a permanent +attachment to the Manchu; and Nettie's great difference, together with +the romance of her unhappy position, must have a potent effect on the +fellow's evident sentimentality. A dank air rose from the water, like the +smell of death; and, with an uncontrollable shiver, he turned back toward +the house. + +In his room Edward Dunsack recalled that he had promised himself to throw +away the remainder of the opium on this and succeeding nights. In view of +that his movements were inexplicable: he got out from a locked chest the +_yen tsiang_, a heavy tube of dark wood inlaid with silver ideograms and +diminutive earthen cup at one end. Then he produced a small brass lamp, +brushes, long needles, and a metal rod. Taking off his clothes, and in +the somber black folds of the silk robe, he made various minutely careful +preparations. Finally, extended on his bed, he dipped the end of the rod +into opium the color of tar, kept it for a bubbling moment near the blaze +of the lamp, and then crowded the drug into the pipe. He held the bowl to +the flame and drew in a long deep inhalation. A second followed and the +pipe was empty. He repeated this until he had smoked a mace. + +A vivacious and brilliant state of being flooded him; he felt capable +of profoundly witty conversation, and laughed at the solemn absurdities +of the Ammidons, at his father attempting to call down a blessing out +of the empty sky upon their food, at his sister's lugubrious +countenance, the childish emotions of Nettie. What a nonsensical +strutting business life was. + +The confines of his room were lost in an amber radiance that filled all +space; it was at once a light and a perfume and charged with a sense of +impending rapture. A sparkling crimson shape floated down from infinite +skies--Taou Yuen. She wore a bridal costume, cunningly embroidered with +the phoenix, a hood of thin gold plate, and a band of red silk about her +brow bore the eight copper figures of the beings who are immortal. Her +hair was ornamented by the pure green jade pins of summer, her hanging +wrists were heavy with virgin silver, while her face was like the +desirous August moon flushed in low vapors. + +He raised his bony arms--the wide silk sleeves falling back--his +emaciated yellow hands. From under his dark eyelids there was a glitter +of vision like the sheen on mica... Taou Yuen floated nearer. + +Edward Dunsack woke suddenly, at the darkest ebb of night, and started +hurriedly to his feet. A sickening vertigo, a whirling head, sent him +lurching across the room. He came in contact with a chest of drawers, and +clung to it with the feeling that his legs were shriveling beneath him. +His consciousness slowly returned, and with it a pain like ruthless +tearing fingers searched his body. The rectangle of the open window, +only less dark than the room, promised a relief from the strangled effort +of his breathing, and he fell across the ledge, lifting his face to a +starless and unstirring heat. Waves of complete physical exhaustion +passed over him. An utter horror fastened on his brain. + +"Oh, God," he said, with numb lips, "we thank Thee for this, Thy daily +blessing--" He broke off with an effort. That was his father pronouncing +a grace. "Oh God--" he said again, when it seemed to him that in the +darkness he saw the blank placidity of a Buddha carved from gray stone. +Tears ran over his sunken cheeks, salt and warm like blood. + + + + +VI + +The night was so oppressive, continuing such an unusually sultry period +for the season, that Sidsall, ordinarily impervious to the effects of +weather, was unable to sleep. Although the door between her room and her +parents' was shut, she heard her father--his step, at once quick and +firm, was easily recognizable moving about beyond. Her restlessness +increased and she got up, crossing the floor to the window open on the +garden, where she knelt, the thick plait of her hair across her cheek and +shoulder, with her arms propped on the ledge. The depths of sky were +hidden in a darkness like night made visible; and, in place of moving +air, there were slow waves of perfume, now from the lilacs and now from +the opening hedge of June roses. + +Her brain was filled by a multitude of minor images and speculations, but +fixed at their back was the presence of Roger Brevard. She approved of +him absolutely. He had exactly the formal manner that gave her a pleasant +sense of delicate importance, and his clothes were beautiful, a sprig of +rose geranium in a buttonhole and his gloves and boots immaculate. She +liked rather slight graceful men, she thought, with the quiet voices of a +polite ancestry. Naturally Olive Wibird preferred less restrained +companions, although Heaven knew that Olive appeared to make all kinds +welcome. Olive's opinion of Roger Brevard would have been very different +if he had asked her to dance. + +Sidsall recalled the quadrille he had led her through at Lacy's party; he +had been a perfect partner, at once light and firm. He had been a +habitual caller at Java Head before that occasion, and had come in the +same manner since. That is, casually viewed, his visits seemed the same; +but in reality there were some small yet significant differences. They +were all held in his attitude of the afternoon when he had stayed talking +exclusively to her on the steps. + +She couldn't say just what the change was; when she attempted to examine +it her thoughts became confused and turned to a hundred absurd +considerations, such as--at present--the loveliness of the night. The +scents of the flowers were overwhelming. He got on, too, better than +almost anyone else with her Uncle Gerrit's Manchu wife. She had watched +them together until it had dawned on her that the two had some important +qualities in common--they both appeared to stand a little aside from the +world, as if they were against the wall at a cotillion. She thought this +in spite of the fact that it was precisely what Roger Brevard never did; +it was true in the mysterious way of so much now that came from ideas +over which she had no control. + +The subject of Uncle Gerrit's wife--she had not yet been told or decided +for herself what to call her--was inexhaustibly enthralling. But, before +she was again fairly launched in it, she paused to wonder at the presence +of the dreadful Dunsack man on their lawn. His hollow yellow cheeks and +staring brown eyes which somehow made her think of pain, his restless +hands and speech, all repelled her violently. Taou--Taou Yuen hadn't +liked him either: when, after the longest time, he had gone, she replied +to a short comment from her, Sidsall's, father: + +"Rotten wood cannot be carved." + +Some one else had mentioned opium. She had intended to ask more +particularly about this, but it slipped from her mind. She remembered +that her grandfather made one of his familiar exclamations peppered with +an appalling word. He was really very embarrassing, and she was glad that +Roger Brevard had left. It was a bad example for Laurel, too, who copied +him, and only that morning said "My God" to Miss Gomes. Her mind swung +back to the consideration of the Manchu: The latter was the fact upon +which Camilla was so insistent, that in this case a Manchu was a noble, +almost a princess. Camilla suffered dreadfully from the endless questions +put to her outside their house about Uncle Gerrit's wife. She had more +than once wept at the public blot laid on them. Laurel was frankly +inquisitive and Janet as puzzling as usual. + +The clothes of course were enchanting, the richness of the materials and +hand embroidery marvellous; her jewelry was never ending. It didn't seem +quite like clothing, in the sense of her own tarlatan and crinoline, her +waist which Hodie wouldn't properly lace and tulle draping; there was a +certain resemblance to the dressing in Van Amburgh's circus; but--in +spite of Camilla's private laments--every inch of it was distinguished. +The layers of paint upset them, but Uncle Gerrit had explained, a little +impatiently, that it was a Manchu custom, adding that the world couldn't +be all measured and judged by Salem. + +Sidsall liked her rather than not, she decided; and determined to make an +effort to know her better. She wanted specially to discover the nature of +the bond that held one to the other, and explore, in safety, the depths +of love. She could not help feeling that her uncle's affair, +extraordinary as it was, must throw light on the whole complicated +business of marriage. ... The clock in the hall struck an indeterminate +half hour, it appeared to grow lighter outside, and there was a +twittering of martins from the stables. From above came the vigorous +harsh cawing of crows. Suddenly sleepy she returned to bed and almost +immediately the room was flooded with sunlight. + +It was an accepted fact now that Taou Yuen, the Garden of Peaches, stayed +in her room until long after breakfast; and when Sidsall, rising from the +table, found a servant taking up a pot of hot water for tea, she secured +it and knocked carefully on the door above. The slurring hesitating voice +said "Come in," and she entered with a diffidence covered by a cheerfully +polite morning greeting. She found the other in crepe de Chine pantaloons +wrapped tightly about her ankles and bound over quilted muslin socks with +gay brocaded ribbons and a short floating gown of gray silk worked with +willow leaves. Her hair was an undisturbed complication of lustrous +black, gold bodkins and flowers massed on either side; and her face, +without paint or powder, was as smooth as ivory and the color of very +pale coffee and cream. + +Sidsall saw that she was at her toilet, and she put down the pot of +steaming water, moving toward the door; but Taou Yuen, with a charmingly +shy gesture, begged her to stay. She swiftly drew a cup of tea from +silvery leaves, filled and lighted the minute bowl of her tobacco pipe, +deeply inhaled the smoke; then returned to a mirror. + +Fascinated, Sidsall followed every motion. + +Taou Yuen polished her face sharply with a hot damp cloth and then dipped +her fingers in a jar that held a sticky amber substance. "Honey," she +said briefly, rubbing it into her cheeks and palms. Next she attacked her +eyebrows, and skillfully wielding a thin silk cord left arches like +pencil markings. At times she interrupted her preparations to turn to +Sidsall with a little smile so engaging that the girl smiled +sympathetically in answer. There were a gilt paper box of rice powder, +with which she drenched her countenance, leaves of carmine transferred to +her cheeks with a wet finger, and a silver pot of rouge from which she +coated her lips. As she gazed approvingly at her reflection Sidsall said: + +"It's very beautiful." + +Her eyes, drawn up toward her temples, shone gayly; and, close to +Sidsall, she touched the latter affectionately on the cheek. The cold +sharp contact of the long curving finger guard gave the girl an +unpleasant shock. It seemed lifeless, or like the scratching of a beetle. +Suddenly the woman's glittering gaze, her expressionless face stiff with +paint, the blaze of her barbaric colors, filled Sidsall with a shrinking +that was almost dread. + +She was even more oppressed by an instinctive feeling of what she could +express to herself only as cruelty hidden under the other's scented +embroidery. At the same time her curiosity persisted, conquered. She was +unable, however, to think of any possible manner of introducing the new +subject of her interest, love, and was forced to be content with an +indifferent opening. + +"We were all quite surprised when Mr. Dunsack called yesterday," she +said. "He isn't in the least a friend of the family. Grandfather went to +sea with his father, but even they didn't speak for years in Salem. The +Dunsacks are a little common." + +"I know," Taou Yuen replied. "Mr. Dunsack--a long time in Canton, at the +American agents. China is bad for men like him. Black spirits get in them +and the ten sins." + +"He stared at you in the rudest way." + +"He never saw a Manchu lady before. In China the dog would not have +passed by the first gate. Here it is nothing to be a Manchu or an +honorable wife; it is all like the tea houses and rice villages. Men walk +up to you with bold eyes. I tell Gerrit and he laughs. I stay in the room +and he brings me shamefully down. This Mr. Dunsack comes and the wise old +man talks to him like a son. He touches your mother's hand. He sees the +young girls like white candles." + +"We wouldn't let him really bother us," Sidsall explained; "probably if +he comes again we'll all be out." + +Taou Yuen made a comment in Chinese. "A bad thought is a secret knife," +she continued; "it is more dangerous than the anger of the Emperor, a +sickness that kills with the stink of bodies already dead." + +This seemed rather absurd to Sidsall. She considered once more the +introduction of the subject of her new concern; but, in spite of Taou +Yuen's extravagant appearance, there was a quality of being which made +impossible any blunt interrogation. She had a decidedly aloof manner. Her +mother, Sidsall recognized, and the older women they knew, had a trace of +this; but in the Manchu it was carried infinitely further, a most +autocratic disdain. Her feeling for the other shifted rapidly from +attitude to attitude. + +She watched, she was certain, these same sensations come over her Aunt +Caroline Saltonstone, Mrs. Clifford and Mrs. Wibird, who called on Gerrit +Ammidon's wife that afternoon. They were sitting with their crinoline +widespread against their chairs, gazing with a concerted battery of +curiosity at Taou Yuen's shimmering figure in the drawing-room screened +against the sun. Mrs. Wibird, Sidsall thought--a woman of fat and faded +prettiness, with wine red splotches beneath her eyes, and a voice that +went on and on in the relating of various petty emotional +disturbances--must have resembled Olive as a girl. It was probable, then, +that Olive would look like her mother when in turn she was middle-aged. +Mrs. Clifford, unseasonably huddled in her perpetual shawl, more than +ever suggested a haggard marble in somberly rich clothes. Aunt Caroline +sat with complacent hands and loud inattentive speech. Taou Yuen smiled +at them placidly. + +"Our men," said Mrs. Clifford, "went out to China for years. It never +occurred to them however to marry a Chinese woman; but I dare say they +didn't see the right sort." + +"Most of the captains like China," Taou Yuen said. "They are so far away +from their families--" she made a brief philosophical gesture, and Madra +Clifford studied her with a narrowed gaze. "It would be the same," she +continued, "if Chinamen came to America." Mrs. Wibird shuddered. "A +yellow skin," she cried impetuously; "I can't bide the thought." + +"I'm sure we'd be tremendously interested," Mrs. Saltonstone hurriedly +put in, "if you'd tell us about your wedding. A Chinese wedding must +be--be very gay, with firecrackers and--" + +"My marriage with Captain Ammidon was not beautiful--I was a widow and he +foreign. The Manchu wedding is very nice. First there is the engagement +ceremony. I sit like this," she sank gracefully to the floor, +cross-legged, "on the bed with my eyes shut, and, if I am noble, two +princesses come and put the _ju yi_, it's jade and means all joy, on my +lap. Two little silk bags hang from the buttons of my gown with gold +coins, and two gold rings on my fingers must be marked with _Ta hsi_, +that's great happiness." + +"I'm told polygamy is an active practice," Mrs. Wibird remarked with a +rising interest. + +"Yes?" Taou Yuen asked. + +"One man--a lot of wives." + +"The Emperor has a great many and some Manchus take a second and third. +You think that is wrong here. Who knows! The Chinese women are very good, +very modest. The Four Books For Girls teach perfect submission; the five +virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity. +Confucius says, 'The root is filial piety.'" + +"Very admirable," Mrs. Wibird nodded, agitating the small dyed ostrich +plumes tipped with marabou of her bonnet; but it was clear to Sidsall +that this was not the revelation for which she had hoped. A momentary +silence, the edge of an uneasiness, enveloped the visitors. + +"What lovely satins," Mrs. Saltonstone commented. + +"Please--I have a box full; you will let me give you some?" + +"Indeed yes, and thank you." + +Mrs. Wibird, growing resentful, said that a cousin of her aunt's had been +a missionary to China, "and did a very blessed work too." + +Taou Yuen smoothly agreed that it was quite possible. "Our poor have a +great many wrong and lustful ideas," she acknowledged; "they tell lies +and beat their wives and gamble. The higher classes too, the mandarins +and princes, use the people for their own security and rob them. +Sometimes the law is not honest, and a man with gold gets free when a +laborer is put in the bamboo cage." + +Mrs. Clifford said very vigorously, "Ha!" + +The silence returned intensified. + +"I remember," the Manchu went on, "this will amuse you. My father-in-law, +who was in the Canton Customs, told me that some boxes of Bibles came out +from America, with other objects, and when they were opened at the +Mission they were the wrong ones and filled with rum." + +There was not, however, any marked appreciation of this on the part of +the Salem women. They rose to leave and Taou Yuen sank on her knee. She +gazed without a trace of emotion at the three flooding the door with +their belled skirts. "They are the same everywhere," she told the girl. +The latter moved out into the garden. There she subconsciously picked a +rose and fastened it in her hair; her thoughts turned to Roger Brevard. +In his place her Uncle Gerrit came out through the drawing-room window. +The usual shadow of the house, lengthening with afternoon, was pleasantly +enveloping, and they walked slowly over the grass. + +"A flower in your hair," he said, "and by yourself. You have been +thinking about true love." She blushed vividly at this unexpected angle +on her mind and found it impossible to meet his keen blue eyes. "Love +must be a remarkable thing." She raised a swift glance to his face and +discovered that he had not spoken to her at all, but, hat in hand, was +looking away with an expression of abstraction. + +"I mean the unreasonable silly divine kind," he specified, now gazing +at her quizzically, as if lost in a mood over which he had no control; +"the sort that is as long as life and stronger. It is entirely +different and ages older than the reasonable logical love, all proper +and suitable and civilized; or the love that is the result of a +determination, the result of a determination," he repeated, frowning +darkly at their feet. Sidsall held her breath, thrilled by the wealth +of what she had heard, fearful of diverting what might be yet revealed. +But he moved away abruptly, in a manner that enforced solitude, and +stood apparently examining the rockery. + +Her brain rang with the splendid phrase, "Love as long as life and +stronger." It seemed to clarify and state so much of her lately confused +being. Hodie, artfully drawn into the consideration of earthly affection, +was far less satisfactory than Gerrit Ammidon. She dwelt on the treasure +beyond moth or rust, lost in an ecstasy of contemplation expressed in her +customary explosive amens. At the same time she admitted that lower +unions were blessed of God, and recommended Sidsall to think on "a man +who has seen the light and by no means a sea captain." Sidsall replied +cuttingly, "I think you must forget where you are." + +"I forget nothing," Hodie stoutly maintained; "I'll witness before +anyone." She settled the flounces of Sidsall's skirt with a deft hand. + +Walking toward the Saltonstones' for tea, with a mulberry silk parasol +casting a shifting glow on her expanse of clear madras, Sidsall +wondered at the sudden change of almost all her interests and +preoccupations. It was very disturbing--she fell into daydreams that +carried her fancy away on a search that was a longing, a soft confusion +of opening her arms to mystery. This varied with a restless melancholy; +the old securities of her life were hidden in a mist of uncertainty in +which her consciousness was troubled by nameless pressures; something +within her held almost desperately back from further adventuring. But +all the time a latent fascination was drawing her on, putting aside the +curtain for her better view. + +The Saltonstones' dwelling on Chestnut Street was one of a pair--a large +solid square of brick--with two identical oval white porticoes and rows +of windows keyed in white stone. Within the staircase swept up to a +slender pillared opening, through which Lacy, calmly dressing, waved a +deliberate hand. Mrs. Saltonstone was seated by the tall gilt framed +mirror on a low marble stand between long front windows. "As usual," she +said, in connection with her daughter, "Lacy's as cool as a water monkey; +gets it from James; they wouldn't hurry if--" She searched in vain for an +expression of her family's composure. "Now I am an impetuous woman." She +promptly exhibited this quality in the vigor with which she met the wrong +canister of tea brought by a servant. She didn't intend to serve Padre +Souchong to a lot of people who apparently confused afternoon tea with an +invitation to dinner. + +In the small press which followed Sidsall stopped in the dining room with +Lacy and Olive Wibird. Olive was still discussing men. "He sat holding my +hand right on that bench by your hedge, Sidsall, and said that nothing +could keep him from coming back for me, but he died of yellow fever in +Batavia." She left in the company of a beau of fifty anyhow, with a +glistening bald head, a silly smirking bow and flood of compliments. Lacy +moved away and Sidsall found herself facing Roger Brevard. + +"That looks remarkably like a garden," he said, waving toward an open +door. The sun had become obscured in a veil of cloud, drooping until it +almost seemed to rest on the bright green foliage; her companion's mood, +too, was shadowed. "I thought you'd be here," he added outside, "and +looked for you at once." + +"There was something special you wanted to say?" + +"My dear child," he replied, "can't you guess how absolutely refreshing +you are? No, I have nothing special. But you'll soon get used to men +around with no more reason than yourself." + +She studied this seriously; and, as its complimentary intent emerged, +a corresponding color stained her cheeks. Her gaze rested on him for +the fleetest moment possible and, to her surprise, she saw that he +was frowning. + +"I came here just to see you. No," he corrected his period, "only to see +you." His manner was surprisingly abrupt and disconcerting. "I can quite +realize," he went on, "that I shouldn't say any of this. Yet, on the +other hand, it is the most natural thing in the world. I have been +listening to the conventional babble of teas and cotillions for so long +that you are like a breath of lost youth. Certainly that is appropriate. +I think," he told her, "that you are the youngest thing alive." Then he +laughed, "So young that I have annoyed you." + +"I feel a great deal older than I did, well--last month," she said. + +"That is a tragedy." She felt that if he were still amused at her she was +furious, but he was even graver than before. "To tell you helps hurry the +charm to an end. That is what might be complained against me. Yet flowers +will open, you know, and it might as well be in an honest sun." + +"I don't understand," she admitted, troubled. + +"Why, it means, Sidsall, that I am offering you an experienced hand, that +I'm certain I can do you more good than harm--" + +"That's silly," she interrupted. "If you mean that we might be friends, +really confidential friends, it would help me awfully. But then it's so +one-sided." + +"You'll have to overlook that," he answered; "probably all that I can +give you, experience, isn't worth the smallest of your feelings. Probably +you won't need me for an instant. Certainly the pleasure will be mine." + +"You didn't understand," she told him, with dignity; "it's the other way +round. I am not a particle interesting and everyone agrees that I'm too +healthy. But I can't help it if my cheeks are red and mother won't let +me have powder." It was obviously impossible to explain about Hodie and +the lacing. + +"I like it," he insisted. "I'll admit that I am unfashionable there. I +think we'll hit on a great deal to share privately." There was a faint +patter among the leaves, and a cold drop of rain fell on Sidsall's arm. +Others struck Roger Brevard but he continued without apparently noticing +them. "You must understand that I am entirely at your service. Sometimes, +although they won't come yet, there are things a--a friend can do better +than one's family. You'll ask me, Sidsall?" + +"Yes," she said solemnly. More rain struck her; she could see it now +plainly, falling between them. Roger Brevard's face was dark, the frown +still scarred his forehead. Personally she was happier than she +remembered ever being before and she wondered at his severity of bearing. +"But you must go in at once," he cried, suddenly energetic, his familiar +self; "you are getting wetter every minute." + +The clouds dissolved into a late sunlight that streamed in long bars +through the canopies of elms on the streets. From her windows Sidsall saw +a world of flashing greenery and limpid sky. Usually when she was happy +she sang unimportant bits of light song, but her present state was +serious and inarticulate. The indeterminate questions, the disturbing +vague moods, of the past days somehow combined and took on the tangible +shape of Roger Brevard. Her curiosity about love was resolved into a +sudden inner shrinking from its possibilities and meaning. + +She was lost in her aloofness from mundane affairs: Taou Yuen in +whispering silk, her grandfather's rotund tones, Laurel and Camilla and +her mother, were distant, immaterial. In the evening she sat on the +front steps, a web of white, dreamily intent on the shimmering sweep of +Washington Square. After a little she was joined by Gerrit Ammidon. He +wore linen trousers and a short blue sea jacket; and the wavering +delicately lavender trail of smoke from his cheroot was like her +floating thoughts. + +"Already," he said, "I am full of getting back on my ship." + +She smiled at him absently. + +"The land doesn't do for a sailor," he continued. "They are always into +trouble on shore. I can't say why it should be so but it is. If there's +not one kind there is another; rum and such varnish for the able seaman, +and--and complications for a master. I suppose that's because there are +so confounded many unexpected currents and slants of wind, as you might +say. On shipboard everything pretty much is charted; a thing will be +followed more or less by a fixed consequence. The waves break so and so +on coral or rocks or sand; there is usually the sun for an observation; +a good man knows his ship, how many points she'll hold on the wind, how +a cargo must be stowed, when to take in the light canvas. You can give +the man at the wheel a course and turn in or stay on deck and beat your +way through hell. It's exact, you know, but on shore--" he made a +hopeless gesture. + +"There are no regulations," he observed moodily; "or else nobody follows +them: collisions all the time, sinkings and derelicts drifting round, +awash and dismasted. But they are everywhere. That fellow, Edward +Dunsack--" he stopped, lost in speculation. Then, "He seems harmless +enough," he resumed, "even pitiful; but he sticks in your head. I wish +I'd never brought his damned chest to Salem. A fool would have known +better. I'm worse--a childish fool. A derelict," he said again. "You are +smashing over a swell at twelve knots or more, everything spread, when, +in a hollow, there it is squarely across your bow. No time to shift the +wheel, and a ship's missing, perhaps in a hundred fathom. It might be the +best ship afloat, the best master and stoutest crew, but in a minute +she's only a salty tangle." + +He laughed uneasily at the vividness of his fancy. "If it's hard for us +what must it be for Taou Yuen?" he demanded. "Married to me! Here! That's +courage for you." He tramped down the steps, across Pleasant Street, with +his bare head sunk, and vanished into the obscurity of the Square. She +caught a last glimmer of white trousers, a faint rapid gleam where his +lighted cheroot described the arc of a passionate gesture on the night. + +The spring, like the full buds of the hedge roses in the Ammidons' +garden, passed swiftly into early summer. The flowers against the house +showed gay perennial colors, the stocks and larkspur and snapdragons +succeeded the retreating flood of the lilacs. The days were still yellow +pools of heat, or else cooled by the faintly salt sea wind drawing down +the elms and chestnuts, followed by purple-green nights of moonlight. +They seemed to Sidsall to hold everything in a pause. She saw less and +less of Taou Yuen who now scarcely came out of her room except for an +occasional ride in the barouche with Mrs. Ammidon or a contemplative hour +in the garden, usually at dusk. Apparently content with the elaborate +rearrangement of her headdress, she sat for long periods, gazing out over +Washington Square, idle except for the regular tap of her pipe emptying +the ashes of the minute bowl. + +Yet Sidsall's first interest in her had almost completely shifted to +Gerrit Ammidon. He evidently preferred her company to that of the other +members of his family, and they often took short largely silent walks, +usually down to the Salem Marine Railway where the _Nautilus_ was +undergoing repairs. His protracted silences were broken by the sudden +vehement protests against the generally muddled aspect of affairs or +longer monologues of inner questioning and search. He almost never +referred to her or made her part of a conversation; she was free to dwell +on her own emotions while he, with a corrugated brow, went on in his +tortuous and solitary course. + +On an afternoon when they had walked to the foot of Briggs Street, and +were gazing out over the tranquil water of Collins Cove, Gerrit Ammidon +asked abruptly: + +"Have you seen Nettie Vollar lately?" + +Sidsall was unable to remember exactly when that had been. She rather +thought she had caught a glimpse of her in Lawrence Place with books +under her arm which she was probably taking from the Athenaeum for her +grandfather. Anyone, she told herself privately, could see that Nettie +Vollar wouldn't care for books. + +Something had occurred, or threatened to occur, between her uncle and +Nettie; what it was she had never been told; but she realized that only +one thing could really happen between a man and a girl--they must have +been in love. In the interest of this she recalled Nettie Vollar's +appearance, but was unable to discover any marked attractions. The elder +had a good figure, rather full for her age, and totally different from +her own square solidity. Her hair was coarse and carelessly arranged, her +clothes noticeable for a love of brightness rather than care in the +spending of a small sum. + +Gerrit Ammidon had the strangest tastes! + +He was standing immobile, looking across the Cove as if he were on a +quarter-deck searching for a hidden land. His legs were slightly spread, +firmly planted in a manner to defeat any sudden lurching. She grew a +little impatient at him staring like a block at nothing at all; she felt +older than he, superior in the knowledge of life; he seemed hardly more +than an absurd boy. Sidsall had a desire to shake him. He was so--so +impracticable. "Don't you think we'd better be going?" she asked finally. +Gerrit Ammidon turned and followed her obediently. + +There were lights in the rope walk on Briggs Street; through a window she +could see a man pacing down the long narrow interior laying a strand of +hemp from the burden on his shoulders. It made her shudder to think of +the monotonous passage forward and back, an eternity of slow-twisting +rope. Yet life was something like that--she took the happenings of each +day and wove them into a strand dark and bright: a strand, she realized, +that grew stronger as it lengthened.... That would be true of +everyone--of her companion and grandfather and Hodie. + +They reached the house as the family were gathering in the dining room, +when Sidsall found Roger Brevard unexpectedly staying for supper. She met +his direct greeting and smile with a warm stir of pleasure and sat in a +happy silence listening to the voices about the table. Her uncle had +brought his wife down and the candles glittering among the lusters on the +walls spread their light over the Manchu's strange vivid figure. +Everything about life was so confusing, Sidsall thought. The night flowed +in at the open windows drenched with magic: here were candles but outside +were stars. The port in its engraved glass decanter seemed to burn with a +ruby flame. "Bah!" her grandfather was exclaiming. "I'll put a thousand +dollars on Gerrit and the _Nautilus_ against any clipper built; but mind, +in all weathers." + +"Voyage by voyage," William Ammidon insisted, "he would be left in the +harbor. The California gold deposits--." + +Later a crowd, slowly collecting, recalled the fact that the Salem Band +was to play that night in the Square. "Oh, mother, look," Laurel cried; +"they've got lamps in their hats." Small wavering flames were being +lighted on the musicians' hats; there were melancholy disconnected hoots +from bassoons and the silver clear scale of a bugle. "Can't I get nearer, +mother?" Laurel implored as usual. "Can't I go and see the little lamps +on their heads?" + +"Sidsall and I will look after her," Roger Brevard put in, and almost +immediately the three were entering Washington Square. The throng was +thickest directly behind the band, radiating in thinning numbers to the +wooden boundary fence. Laurel led them to an advantageous position, where +they could watch the curious effects of the ring of lights above intent +faces drawn hollow-cheeked by the vigorous blowing of instruments. The +leader, in the center of the flickering smoky illumination, now beat with +his arms in one direction, now in another. + +A second selection followed, and a third, during which, in surprising +pauses, the band shouted a concerted "Hurrah!" Sidsall was infinitely +contented. How splendidly erect and calm and distinguished Roger Brevard +was! She hated younger men, they were only boys, who kept up a senseless +talk about college humor. He saw instantly that the people were crushing +her skirts, and firmly conducted them out of the crowd. It was nicer here +beyond the wavering dark mass: a waltz flowed about her so tender and +gracious that her eyes filled with tears. + +But Laurel had to be taken home; and, clasping Mr. Brevard's hand, the +little girl talked volubly as they moved away. "And so," she said, "I +told her to keep her topsails full." + +"What?" he demanded. + +"She was falling off, you know--losing way. Hell's hatches--" + +"Laurel," Sidsall corrected her sharply. "No, you mustn't laugh at her." + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was on the steps, the other men were in the library; +her mother had gone up with Janet. Laurel left them, and, without speech, +they walked through the house to the lawn. The stars had apparently +retreated to new infinities of distance and night, there was a throb of +music so faint that it might be only an echoing memory; Roger Brevard's +face was pale and strained. He asked: + +"Have you forgotten that we are friends?" + +"No," she returned seriously, lifting her look to his. He was very close +to her and her heart beat unsteadily. She had a choking premonition of +what was about to occur, but she stood without the slightest attempt to +prevent his kiss. It affected him even more than herself, for he stepped +back sharply with his hands clenched. Roger was silent for so long that +she said, timidly: + +"I didn't mind, so much." + +"Thank you," he replied almost harshly. "There's no need for you to +regret it. No need, no need. But if it were only a year more--." + +"We all grow older," she told him wisely. + +"So we do, Sidsall, and we change. But you should stay exactly as you are +now, white and young and fragrant. Never the fruit but always the +blossom, and always a night in early summer. The afterwards is an +indifferent performance." + +"I don't understand," her voice was shadowed. + +"Sidsall for a moment. Don't move--opening petals, shy pure +heart...loveliness...." + +"I don't understand," she repeated, but the trouble had vanished. She +even smiled at him: she was filled with an absolute security in her +vision of Roger Brevard. Why, she had no need to question; it was an +instinct beyond search and above knowledge; perhaps, she thought as they +turned toward the house, its name was love. + + + + +VII + +The days, to Nettie Vollar, seemed to be both unutterably dull and +colored by a possibility of excitement like an undercurrent of hardly +perceptible fever. Her mother, it was true, took on herself most of the +duties of Barzil Dunsack's house; but there were still a large number of +little things that returned unvaried with every morning, noon and night +for the girl's attention. The cause of any impending excitement--except +the mere presence of Gerrit Ammidon in Salem, now surely of no moment to +her--she was unable to place. The feeling that pervaded her most was the +heavy conviction that her life was a complete waste, she had the +sensation of being condemned to stay in surroundings, in a service, that +never for a moment represented her desire or true capabilities. Her +family, as she had grown into maturity, seemed strange, her place there +an unhappy accident. + +At her brightest periods she pictured being suddenly, arbitrarily, +removed into happier appropriate regions. For a time that vision had +assumed the tangible shape of Gerrit Ammidon; then this comfortable +figure had abruptly left her to an infinitely more seldom return of her +faint indefinite hope. + +Through the inordinate number of hours when she was potentially alone she +had developed a strain of almost painful thought out of keeping with the +whole of her naturally unreflective being. In moments such as the +present--she was sitting in her room overlooking Hardy Street on its +landward reach--she followed the slow turnings of her mind in the manner +of a child spelling out a sentence. Two things seemed to her of the first +importance--the existence into which she had been forced by the +circumstance of her birth, and her unknown father himself: unknown, that +is, except for vague promptings and desires which, for need of a better +reason, she traced to his personality. That he was superior, in that he +had had a distinct measure of gentle blood, she was assured by her mother +on one of the rare occasions when the subject was touched between them. +To that she credited the greater part of her obscure dissatisfaction with +conditions which she described as mean. + +The latter evidently didn't disturb her mother or grandfather; she +realized that the long-drawn silent severity of the old man had crushed +what spirit her mother may have had. It was clear that the elder woman +had been very pretty, with wide fluttering eyes which made you think of +gray moths, and delicately colored cheeks; but all that had been crushed, +too. She was meek in a way that filled her daughter with determined +resentment and fear. The resentment sprang from the silent assertion that +she wouldn't be worn down like that; the fear followed the realization of +the rigid power of the old man and the weight of all that held her +powerless to escape. Naturally she was rather cheerful than somber, an +involuntary gayety rose from her in the drabbest moments; she even defied +Barzil Dunsack with ribbons and flowers on her bonnet. + +The prospect from her window offered no relief from the interior; it was +true that in the other direction she could catch glimpses of the harbor, +by leaning out she could get the comparatively full sweep at the bottom +of the street; but there were usually things ugly and restraining between +her and the freedom of the horizon. Her favorite place had been at the +edge of the grass above the tide; but, since his return, Edward Dunsack +had hit upon it too, and his proximity made her increasingly uneasy. For +one thing he talked to himself out loud, principally in Chinese, and the +sliding unintelligible tongue, accompanied by the sight of his gaunt +yellow face, his inattentive fixed eyes, gave her an icy shiver. It was +almost worse when he conversed with her in a palpable effort at an effect +of sympathy. + +She rose and wandered finally to the embankment of the garden. The water +shimmered under the full flood of afternoon; she was gazing at the +distance in an aimless manner that had lately fastened on her when she +heard a stirring of the grass behind her and Edward Dunsack approached. +He was livid in the pitiless light, and seemed terribly fragile, a thing +that a mere clap of thunder might crumble to nothing; she felt that she +could sweep him away with a broom; yet at the same time there were +startling gleams of inner violence, a bitter energy, an effect of +deepness, that appalled her. + +"If you should ask me," he declared, "if my opinion is of any value, I'd +say that Ammidon owed you considerable. He led you to expect something +better than his running away without a word; I'd have an explanation out +of him. Of course, if he had come back married--this affair with a +Chinese woman isn't that--it would be all over. But, somehow, with things +as they are, I can't believe that it is." + +"Do you expect me to go to their house, like you did?" she replied +resentfully. + +He turned such a malicious face on her that instinctively she moved back. +For a moment he was silent, his meager leaden lips drawn tight over dark +teeth in a dry grin, his fingers like curved wires; then, relaxing, he +cursed the entire house of Ammidon. "The truth is," he ended, "that you +were a little fool; you had everything, everything, in your hand and +threw it away." His gaze strayed from her to the surface of the water, a +short distance from the land. "Threw it away," he repeated; "it can't be +got in this country either." + +He was, she thought, crazy. However, all that he said about Gerrit +lingered in her mind; it fanned to new life the embers of her rebellion. +If a chance should come she would let Gerrit Ammidon know something of +the wrong he had done her. As her uncle had pointed out, the Chinese +woman was different from an American, a white woman. Their entire +position, Gerrit's and her own, was peculiar, outside ordinary judgments. + +She saw him occasionally from a distance, as she must continue to do +while he was in Salem, since no opportunity had been made for them to +exchange words. That must come from Gerrit. + +Her mother called her, and she went in, finding the elder in the kitchen. +"I can't get enough heat to bake," she worried; "you can bear your hand +right in the oven. Your grandfather won't have his sponge biscuit for +supper." Nettie declared, "I certainly wouldn't let it bother me. Just +tell him and let him say what he likes." Her mother turned palpably +startled. "But--", she began weakly. + +"I know exactly what you're going to say," Nettie cut in, "he has it +every night and he'll expect it. How much, I'd like to ask, have you +been expecting all your life and getting nothing? And now I am the +same. I don't believe we're as wicked as grandfather lets on, and I'm +certain he's not so good as he thinks. I don't admit we are going to +hell, either; if I did I can tell you I'd be different. I'd have a good +time like some other girls I see. I guess it would be good, anyhow, +with silk flounces four yards around. I'm what I am because I don't +listen to him; I don't pay any attention to the pious old women who +make long faces at us." + +"You mustn't talk like that, Nettie," her mother protested anxiously. "It +has a right hard sound. Your grandfather is a very upright religious man. +It's proper for those who sin to suffer in this world that they may be +humble for the next." + +"I don't want to be humble," Nettie told her. "The Ammidons aren't +humble. Mrs. Saltonstone isn't." A pain deepened visibly on the elder's +pale countenance. "You mustn't think it doesn't hurt me, Nettie, to--to +see you away from all the pleasure. It tears at my heart dreadful. That +is part of the punishment." The girl made a vivid gesture, "But you sit +back and take it!" she cried. "You talk of it as punishment. I won't! I +won't! I'm going to do something different." + +"What?" her mother demanded, terrified. + +"I don't know," Nettie admitted. "But if I had it to do over I'd kiss +Gerrit Ammidon as soon as he looked for it." + +"Nettie, do you--do you think he wanted to marry you?" + +"Yes," she answered shortly. "He's like that. Whatever you might say +against him he's honest." + +Her mother began to cry, large slow tears that rolled out of her eyes +without a sound. She sat with lax hopeless hands in her lap of cheap worn +dress stuff. Nettie Vollar felt no impulse toward crying; she was bright +with anger--anger at what Barzil Dunsack had done with her mother, at the +harm he had worked in her. "You are a saint compared to Uncle Edward," +she asserted. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but there is +something." + +"I've noticed it too: times his eyes are glazed like, and then his +staring at you like a cat. It's a fact he doesn't eat right, and he +forgets what's said as soon as a body speaks. Might he have some Chinese +disease, do you think?" + +"It's not like a real sickness...." + +The evening in the dreary sitting room with only the reddish illumination +of one lamp was almost unendurable. Her grandfather sat with broad wasted +hands gripping his shrunken knees, his eyes gazing stonily out above a +nose netted with fine blue veins and harsh mouth almost concealed by the +curtain of beard. Edward rose uneasily and returned, casting a swelling +and diminishing shadow--obscurely unnatural like himself--over the faded +and weather-stained wall paper. Her mother was bowed, speechless. Nettie +wanted to scream, to horrify them all with some outrageous remark. She +would have liked to knock the lamp from the table, send it crashing over +the floor, and see the flames spread out, consume the house, consume... +she stopped, horrified at her thoughts. + +She didn't want things like that in her mind, she continued, but the echo +of dancing, of music, of the Salem Band marching up Essex Street with Mr. +Morse playing his celebrated silvery fanfare on the bugle. She wanted to +laugh, to talk, yes--to love. Why, she was young, barely twenty-one; and +here she was in a house like the old cemetery on Charter Street. Before +they went to bed her grandfather would read out from the Bible, but +always the Old Testament. Finally he rose and secured the volume, bound +in dusty calf, its pages brown along the edges. His voice rang in a slow +emphasized fervor: + +"'Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken +the Lord, thy God, when he led thee by the way? + +"'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters +of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the +waters of the river? + +"'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall +reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, +that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in +thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. + +"'For of old I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou +saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every +green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. + +"'Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art +thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? + +"'For though thou wash thee with nitre--'" + +Nettie was impressed, intimidated, in spite of the contrary resolution in +the kitchen: the words seemed to burn into her mother, herself, like +boiling fat from a pan; and a great relief flooded her when she could +escape again to the temporary relief of her room. It was hot, the windows +were up, and she made no light that might attract mosquitoes or force her +to draw the close shades. She stood undressed luxuriating in the sense of +freedom of body. She was richly white in the gloom: her full young beauty +gave her a feeling of contentment and strength, and, equally, a great +loneliness. It wasn't corrupt, a "degenerate plant," she thought with a +passionate conviction like a cry. + +She determined to say no prayer to such a ruthless Being; yet, soon +after, in her coarse nightgown, she found herself kneeling by the bed +with hard-clasped hands. It was a prayer for which Barzil Dunsack would +have had nothing but condemnation: she implored the dark, the mystery of +Augustness, for carnal and light things, yes--for waltzes and quadrilles +and songs and pleasure, young pleasure, all the aching desires of her +health and spirit and nature and years; but most for love. She said the +last blindly, in an instinct without definition, with the feeling that it +was the key, the door, to everything else; and in her mind rose the image +of Gerrit Ammidon. She saw his firm direct countenance, the frosty blue +eyes and human warmth. He needn't have come at all, she added, if it had +been only to double the dreariness of her existence. + +She wondered a little, her emotion subsiding, at the interest her uncle +showed in her affairs. It wasn't like what else she had gathered of him; +and she searched, but without success, for any hidden reason he might +have. He actively blackened the name of Ammidon while he was lost in too +great an indifference to be moved by any but extraordinary pressures. +Everything left his mind, as her mother had said, almost immediately. +Suddenly weary, she gave up all effort at understanding. + +A wind moved in from the sea, fluttering the light curtains, and brought +her a sense of coolness and release. It came from the immense free sweep +of ocean to which her sinking consciousness turned in peaceful +recognition and surrender. + +Altogether, in the days that followed, she realized a greater degree of +mental freedom than before her revolt. She had removed herself, it +appeared, a little outside the family, almost as if she were studying +them calmly through a window: a large part of the terror her grandfather +had possessed for her had disappeared, leaving for her recognition a +very old and worn man; she was sorry for her mother with a deep +affection mixed with impatience. At first she had tried to put something +of her own revived spirit in the older woman but it was like pouring +water into a cracked glass: her mother was too utterly broken to hold +any resolution whatever. + +Nettie's feeling for Edward Dunsack became an instinctive deep distrust. +It was almost impossible for her to remain when--as he so often did +now--he approached her to talk about the injustice of her mode of life +and the debt Gerrit Ammidon owed her. He would stand with his fingers +twitching, talking in a rapid sharp voice, blinking continuously against +any light brighter than that of a shaded room or dusk. He seldom left the +office or went out through the day; his place at the dinner table was far +more often empty than not. But after their early supper, in the long late +June twilights, he had an inexhaustible desire for her to stroll with +him. She occasionally agreed for the reason that they invariably passed +in the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street, and saw the +impressive block of the Ammidon mansion. However, they never met any of +its inmates. Once they had walked directly by the entrance; some girls, +perhaps a woman, certainly two men, were grouped in the doorway: it was +growing dark and Nettie couldn't be certain. + +Edward Dunsack clearly hesitated before the bricks leading in between the +high white fence posts topped with carved twisting flames; and, in a +sudden agony at the possibility of his stopping, Nettie hurried on, her +cheeks flaming and her heart, she thought, thumping in her throat. + +Her uncle followed her. There was a trail of intimate merriment from the +portico, a man's voice mingling gayly with those of the girls. "That was +the Brevard who's in the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company," Edward +Dunsack informed her. "I hear he's a great hand for leading cotillions +and balls--the balls you ought to take part in." On and on he went with +the familiar recital of her wrongs. It carried them all the way over +Pleasant and Essex and Derby Streets home. The next day, however, he was +forced to go about the town, and returned for dinner in a state of +excitement evident to anyone. + +He ate without attention whatever was before him, and extravagantly +pleasant, related how he had conversed with Mrs. Gerrit Ammidon in the +family carriage in front of the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone on Liberty Street. Nettie was surprised that his concern was +caused by such a commonplace event. "The women of China--." Words failing +him, he waved a thin dry hand. His father frowned heavily. Then, +abruptly, as if he had been snatched out of his chair by an invisible +powerful clutch, he started up and disappeared. + +The afternoon passed the full and Nettie, bound in preparation for supper +for Redmond's, the Virginia Oysterman's at Derby Wharf, stood waiting for +some money. "I can't think where I left my reticule," her mother called, +"unless it's in Edward's room where I cleaned this morning. Just run up +and see.... He'll be at the office." + +Above, Nettie found the door closed, but it opened readily as she turned +the knob: she went in without hesitation. The interior she naturally +thought was empty; and then, with an unreasoning cold fear, she saw that +Edward Dunsack was lying on the bed. Some of his clothes were tumbled on +the floor, and he wore his black Chinese gown. The room was permeated +with a heavy smooth odor; on a stand at her uncle's hand was a curious +collection of strange objects--a little brass lamp with a flickering +bluish flame, a black and silver object like a swollen unnatural pipe, +stained bodkins, a lump of what she took to be tar-- + +Her attention was caught by Edward Dunsack's face: it had fallen back +with his pinched chin pointing toward the ceiling, it was the color of +yellow clay, and through his half-opened eyelids was an empty glimmer of +gray-white. She shrank away involuntarily, and the word "Dead" formed +just audibly on her trembling lips. In an instant she was in the hall, +calling in a panic-stricken voice, her icy hands at her throat; and her +grandfather mounted the stair with surprising agility, followed by his +daughter Kate. + +"Uncle Edward," Nettie articulated, waving toward the room from which she +had fled. The two women followed the rigid advance of Barzil Dunsack. As +he saw the figure of his son there was a stabbing gasp of his breath. He +halted for a moment, and it seemed to Nettie Vollar that suddenly his +determined carriage crumbled, his shoulders sagged; then he went forward. +The bed had high slender posts that at one time supported a canopy, but +now they were bare, and an old hand held to one as he bent over. + +"Is he dead?" the older woman asked. + +Barzil Dunsack made no immediate reply; his gaze turned from his son to +the stand, the fluttering lamp and its accessories. His head moved slowly +in the act of sniffing the pungent haze swimming in the interior. Nettie +could see his face, and she was appalled by an, expression grimmer than +any she remembered; it was both harsh, implacable, and stricken, as empty +of blood as the countenance on the bed. The hand on the post tightened +until it, too, was linen white. She drew close to her mother's side, +putting a supporting arm about the soft shaking shoulders. + +"No," said Barzil Dunsack, in a booming voice, "not dead, and yet dead +forever. Go downstairs," he commanded. They backed confused to the door. +"If Edward is sick--" Kate Vollar began. The old man's face blazed with +intolerable pain and anger. + +"Woman," he demanded, "can you cure what God has smitten?" His eyes +alone, hard and bright in the seamed and hairy face, drove them out into +the hall. Below in the sitting room Nettie exclaimed, "He might have told +us something!" + +"Whatever it is," her mother returned, "it's dreadful bad. I've felt that +all along about Edward; he's never been himself this last time." +Mechanically she found her reticule beside the painted ostrich egg from +Africa. "You'll have to get the oysters anyhow," she told her daughter, +maintaining the inevitable pressure of small necessities that defied all +tragedy and death. + +Nettie escaped with an enormous relief into the sunny normal tranquility +of the afternoon. The house had become too horrible to bear; and even on +the thronged length of Derby Wharf, like a street robbed of its supports +and thrust out into the harbor, she was followed by the vision of Edward +Dunsack's peaked clayey face. + +She got the oysters, and in an overwhelming reluctance to return walked +out to the end of the wharf, where a ship was discharging her +cargo--heavy plaited mats of cassia with a delicate scent, red and blue +slabs of marble, baskets of granular cakes of gray camphor, rough brown +logs of teak, smooth dull yellow rolls of gamboge, bags with sharp +conflicting odors, baled silks and half chests of tea wrapped in bamboos +and matting painted with the ship's name, _Rose and Rosalie_. + +There Nettie found herself beside a little girl clasping the hand of a +bulky old gentleman in pongee and a palm leaf hat and following every +operation with a grave critical regard. "I guess," she said to her +companion, "it's only the cheap sort of tea, a late picking, or it would +be in canisters." She was, Nettie realized, the youngest Ammidon child +with her grand-father. The latter looked round and recognized Nettie +Vollar. "How's Barzil Dunsack?" he asked immediately. + +She was at a loss for an answer, since she could not describe the subject +of the inquiry as all right nor explain their unhappy condition. "Intend +to stop in," Jeremy Ammidon continued; "last time I was there I went up +like a rocket." Laurel--that was the child's name, she remembered--gazed +at her intently. "I was saying to grandfather," she repeated precisely, +"that this wasn't really much of a cargo. Nothing like the one Uncle +Gerrit brought back in the Nautilus. We were having an argument about +Salem too. But, of course, all the big cargoes are going into Boston," +she sturdily confronted the flushed old man. + +"You're William all over again," he asserted, almost annoyed. Both their +expressions grew stubborn in a manner that, in view of their great +difference in age and experience, Nettie thought quite absurd. What a +beautiful dress the child had on--Porto Rico drawn work, with pale yellow +ribbons to her bonnet. "I wish you'd stay here a minute with Nettie +Vollar," Jeremy told her, "while I see the wharfinger." He went unhurried +along the wharf, and Laurel Ammidon drew closer to her. + +"She's not much of a ship either," Laurel said, indicating the _Rose and +Rosalie_. "She's built like--like grandfather. They're different now. I +went to New York to see the _Sea Witch_ launched, and she's the tallest +vessel afloat, with three standing skysail yards and, ringtail and water +sails. She's black and has a gilded dragon for a figurehead; and, +although she went out in a gale, got to Rio in twenty-five days. I talked +to Captain Waterman, too; he commanded the _Natchez_, you know." + +How the child ran on! "You've studied a lot on, ships," Nettie commented. +"I know the main truck from a jewel block," Laurel replied complacently. +"But Camilla's a frightful lubber. I should think she'd make Uncle Gerrit +sick. She does me." Nettie Vollar was seized by the temptation to +question Laurel about Gerrit Ammidon, about his wife--anything that +touched or concerned him. A wave of emotion swept over her, a loneliness +and a desire the cause of which she would not face. She wanted to take +Laurel's hand in hers, and with the old ponderous comfortable gentleman +go up to the serenity of their gardens and wide happy house. She wanted +Gerrit Ammidon to smile at her with his eyes blue like a fair sea... His +father was returning. + +Laurel again grasped the large hand and they turned to leave. Jeremy +Ammidon nodded to Nettie. Nothing remained for her but the place on Hardy +Street; then she saw that the others had stopped and were signaling for +her. "Captain Dunsack... old friend," the elder said abruptly. "Stubborn +as the devil. No worse than me, though, no worse than me. Confounded +proud, too. You let me know if there is anything, that is, if you need--" +he paused, breathing stormily, glaring at her in an assumed angry +impatience. + +"Thank you," she answered, "but there's nothing." + +What most shocked her on the return home was the manner in which their +life callously continued when she felt it should have been shattered by +their suffering in Edward Dunsack's room; yet not so much theirs as her +grandfather's. He took his place at the head of the table, the grace went +up as loudly as ever above their heads; but in spite of that she saw that +the old man suddenly looked infinitely spent. His knife slipped +insecurely and scraped against the plate in fumbling and palsied hands. +All at once she had a feeling of gazing straight into his heart, and +finding--like a burning ruby hidden in earth--such an agony beneath his +schooled exterior that she choked thinking about it. + +Nettie wondered what he would do if she put an affectionate arm about his +neck and told him of their sympathy. She knew now that her Uncle Edward +had been smoking opium, and that it was a worse vice, more hopeless and +destructive, than drink. But she was certain that he'd repel her; he +looked on them all, Edward Dunsack, her mother and herself, as sinful, +"degenerate plants." Even now, she realized, there was no weakening of +his spiritual fibers such as had plainly overtaken his physical being. He +had a blasting contempt for the unrighteous flesh. + +When they had risen from the table, Edward Dunsack appeared and sinking +weakly into a chair demanded a cup of tea. He knew nothing of their +discovery, of the fact that they had stood above his revolting +insensibility. After the tea he seemed to revive; he lighted a cheroot +and said something about going out. It wasn't possible, however; his +knees sagged walking the length of the floor; in the sitting room he fell +into a leaden apathy. Nettie Vollar's gaze rested on the volume of the +life of the missionary who had died at such an early age on the Ile de +France. The lamplight spread over the depressing mustard yellow paint of +the woodwork with its obviously false graining and deepened the blackness +of the fireplace. Throughout the reading of the Scripture Edward Dunsack +never shifted his slumped position; his face, with smudged closed eyes, +seemed fixed in a skeptical smile. The hollows of his temples were green. +The reading finished, old Barzil said: + +"I wish to speak to Edward alone." + +The latter straightened up. "Eh!" he exclaimed. "What?" He resettled his +stock and crossed a knee with a show of ease. Nettie followed her mother +from the room. Her last impression was that of a startling resemblance +between the young man and old--her uncle's face was as ruined as the +other's--between father and son. "I wish he'd go away," her mother +surprisingly asserted; "I won't sleep for thinking of him lying there +like a corpse." + +"He'll not," Nettie replied, musing; "something is holding him we still +don't know of." + +She had lately begun to realize a great many things of which only a month +before she had not been aware--that sudden illuminating grasp of old +Barzil's inner pain, of her mother's wasted spirit, and the sense that +some unguessed potent motive was at the back of her Uncle Edward's +apparently erratic strolling and reiterations. Nettie stopped to wonder a +little at the change in herself: she was more alive, more included. There +were no reasons that she could see why this should be so; never had the +present, the entire future, been darker. With her deeper consciousness, +too, came an increased shrinking from life, a greater capacity for +injury; and there could be no doubt that it was an older Nettie Vollar +who, in her mirror, returned the questioning in the resentful black eyes. + +No further mention was made of the opium, no hint escaped from the two +men of what Barzil Dunsack had said to his son after the evening +reading of the Bible. An evidence of the miserable episode was visible +for a while in the difficulty of any attempted general conversation; +then that died away and everything was seemingly as it had been before. +But the rising gayety and widespread public preparations at the +approach of the Fourth of July made her existence drabber than ever. +There was, too, unusual planning, for later in the month President Polk +was to be in Salem. + +The various military organizations drilled incessantly: the Salem Light +Infantry, the Mechanic Light Infantry, the Salem Cadets and Independents +and a squad of the Salem Artillery might be seen at any hour of the +morning or early evening smartly marching and countermarching, led by +Flag's or the Salem Band. Strange constructions of light wood climbed in +Washington Square--the set pieces of the celebrated pyrotechnist secured +at a "staggering expense." Preliminary strings of firecrackers were +exploded by impatient boys and the dawn of the holiday was greeted with a +sustained uproar of powder. + +All this was communicated to Nettie in the form of a determination to +forget the dreariness of home and for once anyhow be a part of the +careless holiday town. Edward Dunsack opened the day by deprecating what +fireworks Salem could show and recalling the extravagant art of China in +that particular. No one, he said, of the least moment would be abroad in +the rabble; and he intended to spend the day over the invoice of a +schooner returned from Curacao. She was glad of this, for it left her +free to get an uninterrupted pleasure from the morning parade, the floats +and fantasies, the afternoon drilling in Washington Square, and see the +last colored disk of the fireworks. Maybe, she told herself, tying the +becoming ribbon of her bonnet beneath a round chin with a lurking dimple, +maybe she wouldn't come back home once during the entire day! She +ignored, in the rush of her spirits, even her mother's lonely labors: for +once they'd have to do without her. Nettie took a scarlet merino shawl +for the cooler evening, shook forward the little black curls about her +face, and hurried away from Hardy Street. + +She was swept along in the crowd on Essex Street until, before the office +of the Salem _Register_, she found a place that commanded the parade. +There Nettie lost all memory of the dreariness that pressed upon her; she +became one of the throng, applauding the members of the East India Marine +Society carrying the palanquin from the Museum in native dress, or stood +with sentimental tears blurring her vision. The parade ended, and +currents of people swept toward dinner; but she stopped at a baker's and +got a paper of seed cakes, made in the shape of oak leaves and sat +contentedly eating them in the Common. + +The thought of Gerritt Ammidon, with all the other deeper aspects of her +life, was thrust into the back of her consciousness; she was existing as +she breathed--without will; the instinctive lighter qualities had her in +full possession. She felt that her cheeks were glowing and hummed the +refrains of the music she had heard. One by one the military companies +marched into the Square. She was fascinated by the tall leather helmets +and silver straps under severe young lips. The Newburyport men were in a +new scarlet uniform, that was the Boston Brass Band--it was painted on +the bass drum--with the Independents; there were the Beverly Taylor +Guards. The massed onlookers filled the broad plain. + +The drilling and countermarching proceeded and the afternoon waned. At +the disposal of the spectacle, when for an hour or two Washington Square +was comparatively deserted, when the sun sank lower and lower over the +roofs of Brown Street and the gold haze thickened, turning to blue, +Nettie became quieter but no less happy. The time sped; never was she +conscious of being lonely, by herself in a multitude composed of grouped +families and friends. It was all such a beautiful relief to the other +constant dwelling on somber and hopeless facts! Already people were +streaming in under the wooden arched gates for the evening display; +already she could see a star in the clear-shining green east. + +The fireworks, the papers said, were to be in two parts, ending with a +bombardment of Vera Cruz, five hundred feet long, and a series of +triumphant arches with full-length portraits in colored lights of +celebrated Americans. There was a sudden salute of artillery, and a +flight of rockets soared upward in long flaming curves, dissolving in +showers of liquid emerald and ruby and silver against the night. Bengola +lights casting a blue glare over the standing mob and farther house +fronts were followed by a great Peruvian Cross, a silvery fountain of +water and Grand Representation of Bunker Hill Monument. + +With this the first came all too soon to an end, and Nettie was folding +the shawl about her shoulders when almost the entire Ammidon family were +upon her.... In an instinctive confusion she saw William Ammidon and his +wife with their daughters, the old man, Jeremy, and Gerrit. + +They stopped before her in an assured, not unkindly inquisitiveness, the +girls fresh and bright-faced, with crisp lovely clothes; their mother, in +a smart mantle and little bonnet with knots of French flowers, greeted +her with a direct question tempered by a smile. William Ammidon, smoking, +was unconcerned; while Gerrit stayed obscured outside the group. "Whom +are you with, Nettie?" Rhoda Ammidon asked; and when she admitted that +she was alone the elder, with visible disapproval, asserted: + +"That won't do at all in this rough assembly. I must see that you are +taken care of." She hesitated, with a slight frown on her handsome brow. +"But you will want to see the rest of the fireworks. Yes, what you must +do is to come over to our steps, the view from there is fairly good, and +then some one can walk home with you." + +They moved resolutely forward, giving Nettie Vollar no opportunity for +protest, the expression of what she might prefer; and, with so many +determined minds, she dropped silently into their progress. She was +beside Rhoda Ammidon, the girls trooped on before, and the men--Gerrit +Ammidon--followed. Her peace of mind had been broken into a hundred +half-formed doubts and acute questions. She wished that she had declined +to go with them: the invitation, no, command, had been a criticism, +really. Now, after so long, it wasn't necessary for them to become +suddenly responsible for her. + +The happiness of the day sank a little, thoughts of her mother and +grandfather and Uncle Edward returned. But, at the same time, she +realized that she was near Gerrit once more. This made a confusion of her +emotions that hid what she most felt about him. It wasn't a proximity +that meant anything, however; it had been utterly different when he came +to see her before his marriage. Yet, just the fact of his being close +behind her, and that she would be on the steps at the Ammidons' with him, +undoubtedly had a power to stir her heart. + +It brought, like her carefree excursion, a certain momentary glow, a +warmth, without relation to what had gone before or might follow; there +was the same quality of momentary rest, refreshment, complete and +isolated as a jewel in a ring. She didn't analyze it further; but drifted +with the vigorous chattering tide of the Ammidons. + +They arrived at the impressive entrance open on a high dim interior. +Jeremy and William Ammidon went in, Rhoda lingered while a chair was +brought for her, and Sidsall and Camilla, Laurel and Janet ranged +themselves facing the Square. Gerrit hung silent in the doorway. + +"Perhaps Taou Yuen will come down," Rhoda Ammidon suggested, and Nettie's +throat was pinched at the possibility of seeing Gerrit's Chinese wife. +But he answered shortly in the negative. Taou Yuen preferred to stay in +her room; the view from her window was better than this. The latter was +easily possible, for here the set pieces were almost unintelligible: an +impressive beehive could be seen surrounded by swarming golden bees, a +pyramid of Roman candles discharged their rushes of colored balls and +streamers; but the bombardment of Vera Cruz was a cause of bitter +complaint to the children. + +The fireworks had ceased to have the slightest significance for Nettie; +she was luxuriating in the suavity of the Ammidon steps and company. It +seemed to her that an actual air of ease rolled out over her from within. +Seen from her place of vantage the great throng in the Square was without +feature, the passersby on Pleasant Street--as Edward Dunsack and herself +had been--were unimportant. The massive portico and dignified fence, the +sense of spaciousness and gardens and lofty formal ceilings, the feeling +of fine silks and round clear direct voices, of servants for everything, +everyone, transcended in force all her speculations. She was +familiar--who wasn't in Salem?--with the meaning of the house's name, +Java Head. It was more, quite heaven. + +Thoughts of Gerrit winged in and out of her mind like wayward birds. She +turned with studied caution and glanced swiftly but intently at as much +of his countenance as she could see. Her memory vividly supplied the +rest. There wasn't another like it--one so clear and compelling to +read--in the world. + +The past in which he had had a part seemed like an impossibly happy +dream. She was hardly able to believe that he had been in their sitting +room, walked with her in the evening to the grassy edge of the harbor, +or held her fingers in his hard cool grasp. Now she wondered if he were +contented. She couldn't quite decide from glimpses of his face; but +something that had nothing to do with vision disturbed her with the +certainty that he was troubled. It might mean unhappiness, but she +wasn't sure. + +"Now there go the arches!" a young voice exclaimed, "and I just can't see +anything. You'd never know at all it was a temple of eight columns. Oh, +look--there's a number coming out, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.'" +A tide of hand clapping swept over the dark masses. "No," Laurel +continued, "that's Salem.... It's Washington, no, General Taylor." + +The amazing day, Nettie realized, was over, the people flowed back +through the gates like a lake breaking in streams from its bank; there +was a stir on the steps. Looking up she saw that the stars were obscured, +and a low rumble of thunder sounded from a distance, a flash lit the +horizon. Now she must go back, return to Hardy Street, to her bitter +grandfather like an iron statue eaten by rust and storms, to Edward +Dunsack following her with his dragging feet and thin insinuating voice, +to her hopeless mother. + +"It's the powder," she heard, about what she had no conception. Rhoda +Ammidon turned decidedly to her. "It was nice to have you, Nettie," she +declared; "but we must see about getting you safely home. The carriage +would be best since it's threatening rain." She didn't, she replied, want +to give them so much bother, she often went on errands after supper, +she'd, be all right-- + +"Nonsense," Mrs. Ammidon interrupted impatiently. Then Gerrit advanced +from the doorway. "I'll walk down with her," he said almost roughly. "No +need to take the horses out so late." Nettie Vollar thought that his +sister-in-law's mouth tightened in protest, but he gave them no chance +for further argument. He descended the steps with a quick grinding tread, +and she was forced to hurry through her acknowledgments in order to +overtake him. + +The night at once absorbed them. + +The air, charged with the fumes of gunpowder and rumbling with low +intermittent thunder, was oppressive and disturbing. Gerrit's head was +exactly opposite her own, and she could see his profile, pale and still, +moving on a changing dark background. He walked with the short firm +stride men acquire on the unsteady decks of vessels, swinging his arms +but slightly. Neither spoke. The rain, Nettie saw, was hanging off; +probably it would not reach Salem, Washington Square was already empty +except for a small obscure stir by the scaffolding for the fireworks. A +murmur of young voices came from a door on Bath Street. Such minute +observations filled her mind; beneath their surface she was conscious of +a deep, a fathomless, turmoil. It was a curious sensation, curious +because she couldn't tell whether it was happiness or misery. One now +exactly resembled the other to Nettie Vollar. + +She grasped, however, one difference--it was happiness now, the misery +belonged to tomorrow. But suddenly that last unrealized fact--at once +immaterial and the most leaden reality of all--lost its weight. The +greater freedom she had lately grown into became an absolute +indifference, a half willful and half automatic shutting of her eyes to +everything but the present, the actuality of Gerrit Ammidon walking by +her side. She wanted him to speak, so that she could discover his +thoughts, feelings; yet she was reluctant to have their companionship of +silence broken: words, almost all the possible terms she could imagine, +would only emphasize the distance between them. + +She was thinking of one now--a word he had never pronounced, but which +she felt had been, however obscurely, at the back of the attention he +had paid her: love. It was a queer thing. It seemed to be--everyone +agreed that it was--of the greatest, perhaps the first, importance; and +yet all sorts of other considerations, some insignificant and others +mean and more, yes--cowardly, held it in check, drove it back out of +sight, as you might hurriedly shut some shabby object into a closet at +the arrival of visitors. + +"How have you been?" he demanded in the abrupt voice of the expression of +his determination to see her home. Well enough, she assured him, if he +meant her health. He glanced at her with somber eyes. "Not altogether," +he admitted; "it included your family, things generally." + +"They are as bad as possible," she told him. She admitted this frankly, a +part of her entire surrender to the moment, careless of how it might +affect him. "They would be," he muttered savagely. "It's a habit ... +here." The "here," she knew, referred to life on shore; his gloomy +attitude toward the management and affairs of the land had caused her a +great deal of precious laughter. He had revealed a most astonishing +ignorance of necessities that she had understood instinctively when +hardly more than a child; and this simplicity had, as much as anything, +brought her affection for him to life. At the same time she in particular +had felt the justice of a great many of his charges. But no one could +reasonably hope for the sort of world--a world as orderly and trim as +that of a narrow ship--he thought should be brought about by a mere +command. Nettie wished that it could! She sighed, gazing at him. + +"Then it's no better than before?" he asked, adding, with a descriptive +gesture: "the town and people?" + +"I hardly speak to ten in a year, outside the stores and like that. Of +course they nod going into church, or a lady, I mean really, your +sister-in-law, will say something nice, even do what you saw to-night. +Though it's the first time anything like that has happened." + +She caught a repressed bitter oath. + +"I suppose I'll get used to it," she continued. "No, I won't," she added +differently; "never, never, never." + +"If you were a man now--" he said with an incredible stupidity. + +She wondered angrily if he'd rather have her a man; there had been a +time, Nettie reflected, when such a possibility would have stirred him to +violent protest. And this brought out the reflection that, while at one +time he might have cared for her, now perhaps he was merely sorry for her +unhappiness. Yes, this must be it. She had a momentary fatal impulse to +throw back at him scornfully any such small kindness. She didn't, she +told herself, want condescending sympathy. What silenced her was the +sudden knowledge that she did; she wanted anything whatsoever from Gerrit +Ammidon. The fact that he had a Chinese wife was powerless to alter her +feeling in the smallest degree. On the contrary, she was shocked to find +that it had increased immensely, it was growing with every minute. + +She wondered drearily if her stubborn love--the term took its place +without remark in the procession of her thoughts--for Gerrit didn't, in +spite of her protest to the contrary, stamp her as quite bad. Perhaps +her grandfather was right about them all--her mother and Uncle Edward +and herself, and they were wicked, lost! The energy with which she had +combated this charge now faced by the circumstance of her realized +affection for a man married to some one else, even Chinese, wavered. +All the cheerful influences of the day, rising to the supreme tranquil +hour on the Ammidon porch, sank to dejection; it was like the flight of +the rockets. + +She walked listlessly, her brain was numb; she was terribly tired. Gerrit +Ammidon's head was bent and she was unable to see his expression. He +might even have forgotten, by the token of his self-absorbed progress, +that she was at his side. + +"There's going to be a stir in Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone," he said +presently, "when my father hears of the new program. Everything is +turning to the fastest California runs possible. William and James +Saltonstone want me to take command of a clipper. But I find I'm like my +father, Nettie; all my experience has been in the East and the China +service. I'm used to it. I'd never get on navigating a passenger boat, a +packet ship, from Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Boston. +The other's in my blood, too--running the northeast trades to Brazil and +coming up into the southwest passage winds for the Cape of Good Hope. A +long reach nearly to Australia and then north again to the Indian Ocean +and southeast trades. + +"I'm fit for that, for long voyages, a blue-water sailor and all it +means; but battering back and forward round the Horn with my deck +cluttered up by prospectors and shore crews the mates would have to slam +into the rigging--!" His exclamation refused every face of such a +possibility. She understood his necessity completely; and the brief +account of such far happy journeys, safe from everything that Salem had +come to mean for her, filled her with longing. + +"I'm beginning to see," he took up again the self-examination, "that I am +to blame for a good deal that I've found fault with in others. I mean +that I'm a different variety of animal, and, naturally, no judge of the +kinds of holes they live in or the way their affairs are managed." + +"You are worlds better!" she cried. + +He turned to her, obviously startled, and she held for a long breath his +unguarded intense gaze. "Not very useful, I am afraid," he replied at +last; "not today, anyhow. I belong to a life that is dying, Nettie; mark +my words, dying if not already dead. And I'm newfangled to my father. It +goes as quickly as that." + +This was a fresh mood to all her knowledge of his impatient arrogance, +and one that sent her to him in a passionate unperceived emotion. They +had arrived at her home and were waiting aimless and silent. Beyond, the +gate to the yard was standing open, and Nettie saw that his discovery of +the fact had occurred at the identical moment of her own. She made an +involuntary movement forward and he followed her through to the blurred +tangle of bushes and bare trodden earth. Mutely they turned to the sod +spread at the harbor. + +The thunder had died away, but pale sheets of reflected lightning hovered +at short intervals low in the sky. Directly above them stars shone again. +The window of the sitting room still bore the illumination of the lamp +within; and Nettie could picture her mother, with stained and rough hands +loose on their wrists, opposite Barzil Dunsack's gaunt set countenance. + +"You said something about things as bad as possible." + +In a level voice she told him about her discovery of Edward Dunsack +unconscious in his black wrap on the bed. "I thought he had died," she +repeated almost monotonously; "he had such a yellow gone look." + +"But that can't be allowed!" he cried. "You mustn't see it. Indecent, +worse. The beast will have to be removed. No one will hear of his staying +about with two women and a fanatical old man." She was afraid that he +would go into the house at once and appear with her uncle, very much in +the manner of a dog with a rat. Her sense of a worldly knowledge, a +philosophy of realization, far deeper than his own returned. Things +couldn't be disposed of in that easy manner; it was probable that they +couldn't be disposed of, righted, at all. Her mother, with her help, must +continue to keep Barzil's home: there was no other place for Edward +Dunsack to go. "He won't hurt us," she said vaguely. "It's principally +bad for him. Then, at first, I didn't know. You get used to so much." + +He, Gerrit Ammidon, wouldn't have it, he asserted in a heated return of +his familiar dictatorial manner. The fellow would be out of there +to-morrow. It was a damned unendurable outrage! + +She smiled softly and laid a momentary hand on his sleeve. "That's +nothing, Gerrit; nothing compared to the rest, to me." He frowned down at +her out of the gloom. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +He again cursed Salem and the world with which he had proclaimed himself +out of date and sympathy. This, while it communicated to her a certain +warm comfort, resolved nothing, made no reply to her question. To-morrow +offered precisely the same hopeless outlook of yesterday. No answer from +Gerrit, Gerrit married, was possible. She saw that. + +"I'm not fit to go around on land blubbering and setting tongues to +clapping," he declared. "I ought to be locked in my cabin when the ship's +in port, and let out only after sail's made again." + +She heard a slight movement in the grass; and turning sharply caught the +vague outline of a man, the thin unsubstantial shape of Edward Dunsack. +He vanished immediately; Gerrit, absorbed in bitter thought, had missed +him. Strangely her uncle only filled her mind with the image of China, +the China that had ruined him, and which, too, in the form of a woman, a +Manchu, had destroyed the hope of any acceptable existence of her own. + +"Great pretensions and idiotic results," he went on; "no ballast. Take +what your grandfather said to me--nothing in that unexpected or to drive +a man off. Yet off I go and--" he halted oddly, just as her breath was +suspended at the admittance which she was certain must follow. But he +fell into another glooming silence. + +After all, she couldn't expect him to continue that development. A +different man might; and Nettie wasn't sure of her refusal to +listen...to the end. But she was familiar with Gerrit's unbending +conception of the necessity of truth alone. If he married a woman, +yellow, black, anything, he would perform, the obligation to the entire +boundary of his promise. Good and bad seemed equally united against her. +Little flashes of resentment struck through her leaden, conviction that +all this was useless. + +"I must be of some use to you." + +But, Nettie realized, there was only one way in which he could help her; +only one thing she wanted--could take--from him. She was terrified at the +completeness with which love had possessed her, making every other fact +and consideration of little interest or importance. Suddenly it seemed as +if she were being swept by an overwhelming current farther and farther +out from safety into a bottomless immensity that would claim her life. + +"Yet," he cried, "if I lift a hand, here, in Salem, if I as much as cross +the street to speak to you--the clapping tongues! I can do you nothing +but harm. Though Rhoda might--" + +"I don't want your Rhoda!" she interrupted passionately. "I've managed +without them all up to now." He raised his arms in a hopeless gesture. +"Nothing's to be done," she concluded. "I saw that all along; that is, +this last time." + +"It's late," he muttered absently; "you have had a day." He turned +mechanically and moved away from the indefinite black rim of the harbor. +The lamp in the sitting room had been extinguished, the house was dark. A +brief embarrassment seized her as he stood trying vainly to find +something confident, even adequate, to say for farewell. And as the stir +of his footfalls died away up Hardy Street the memory of his last futile +words mocked her laboring heart. + +She turned and faced Edward Dunsack, advancing from an obscurity deeper +than the rest. He murmured approvingly, she caught words of commendation +and unspeakable reassurance. She hurried away blindly, sick to the inmost +depths of her being. The morning, when she had tied her gay bonnet +ribbons and started out with the scarlet merino shawl on her arm, seemed +to belong to a long, long time ago, to a girl.... The popping of a final +string of firecrackers died outside. + + + + +VIII + +The dejection, the sense of a difference that held from him any +comprehension of the vast maze of shore life, persisted as Gerrit Ammidon +walked toward home. It was such an unusual feeling that he was conscious +of it; he examined and speculated upon his despondency as if it had been +something actually before him. The result of this was a still increased +disturbance. He didn't like such strange qualities arbitrarily forcing +their way into his being--he had the navigator's necessity for a clear +understanding of the combined elements within and without which resulted +in a harmonious, or at least predictable, movement. He distrusted all +fogs. In a manner the course before him was plain--married to Taou Yuen, +shipmaster in his family's firm, he had simple duties to perform, no part +of which included sailing in strange or dangerous waters; yet though this +was beyond argument he was still troubled by a great number of unpleasant +conditions of mind and obscure pressures. + +Gradually, however, his normal indignation returned, the contempt for a +society without perceptible justice, centered principally in what Nettie +Vollar had had from life. This, he assured himself, wasn't because he was +in any way involved with her; but because it was such a flagrant case. +She was a very nice girl. It was entirely allowable that he should admit +that. As a fact, he warmly felt that he was her friend; the past +justified, no, insisted on, that at least. He wondered exactly how fond +he had been of her--in other words, how near he had come to marrying her. +It had been an obvious possibility, decidedly; but the desire had never +become actual. No, his feeling for her had never broken the bounds of a +natural liking and a desire to secure decent treatment for her. The last +had been vain. + +If his mental searching had ended there it would have presented no +difficulties, created no fog; but, unfortunately, there was another +element which he admitted with great reluctance, an inborn discomfort. +Although he had been clear about what had actually happened with Nettie +there was reasonable doubt that the same limitations had operated with +her. Briefly she had missed him more than he had realized. He explained +this to his sense of innate masculine diffidence by the loneliness of her +days. She had missed him....something within whispered that she still +did. Women, he remembered hearing, were like that. + +In the light, the possibility, of this he saw that he had done her a +great wrong. + +It had been his damned headlong ignorance of the dangerous quality of +life, the irresponsibility of a child with gunpowder. With all this in +his mind it seemed doubly imperative that he should do something for her; +he owed her, he was forced to admit, more than a mere impersonal +consideration. His thoughts returned unbidden to the fact that she--she +had liked him. He insisted almost angrily on the past tense, but it +surprised him and gave him a perceptible warm glow. Nettie was very +pleasing: he inferred that she was a creature of deep emotions, +affections. + +At this he shook himself abruptly--such things were not permissible. +Gerrit felt a swift sense of shame; they injured Nettie. His mind shifted +to Taou Yuen. He found her asleep on the day bed she preferred, her +elaborate headdress resting above the narrow pillow of black wicker. He +could distinguish her face, pallid in the blue gloom, and a delicate, +half-shut hand. He was flooded with the intense admiration which +increasingly formed his chief thought of her; this, with the obvious +racial difference, put her, as it were, on an elevation--a beautifully +lacquered vase above his own blundering person. She was calm, serious and +good, in the absolute Western definitions of those terms; she had her +emotions under faultless control. Taou Yuen should be an ideal wife for +any man; she was, he corrected the form sharply. All that he knew of her +was admirable; the part which constantly baffled him didn't touch their +relationship. + +It was reasonable to expect small differences between her and Salem: at +times her calm chilled him by a swift glimpse of utter coldness, at times +he would have liked her gravity to melt into something less than ivory +perfection; even her goodness had oppressed him. The last hadn't the +human quality of, for example, Nettie Vollar's goodness, colored by +rebellion, torn by doubt, and yet triumphing. + +If he only understood the three religions of China, if he were an +intellectual man, Gerrit realized, he could have grasped his wife more +fully. He was completely ignorant of Chinese history, of all the forces +that had united to form Taou Yuen. For instance: he was unable to +reconcile her elevated spirit with the "absurd superstitions" that +influenced almost her every act--the enormous number of lucky and unlucky +days, the coin hung on his bed, the yellow charm against sickness and red +against evil spirits; only yesterday she had burnt a paper form +representing thunder and drunk its ashes in a cup of tea. She was +tremendously in earnest about the evil spirits--they were, she +maintained, lurking everywhere, in all shapes and degrees of harm. Edward +Dunsack was possessed, she declared; but he had pointed out that opium +was a sufficient explanation of anything evil in him, and that it was +unnecessary to look for a more fantastic reason. + +He lay awake for a comparatively long while, as he had several times +lately, divided between his consciousness and the regular breathing of +his wife. If the past had brought Nettie Vollar to depend on him in +some slight degree Taou Yuen did so absolutely: except for him she was +lost in a strange world. Yet Taou Yuen didn't seem helpless in the +manner of Nettie. He had once before thought of the former as finely +tempered metal. Her transcendent resignation, with its consequent lack +of sympathetic contact with the imperfect humanity of--well, Nettie, +gave Taou Yuen a dangerous freedom from all that bound Salem in +comparative safety. + +He dressed first, as usual, in the morning, while she stirred only enough +to get her pipe and tobacco, on the floor at her side. Outside, the elms +were losing their fresh greenness in the dusty film of midsummer; the +Square held an ugly litter from the fireworks of last evening. William, +too, was about, but he was uncommunicative, his brow scored in a frown. +Their father, always down before the others, had returned from the +inspection of his trees, and was tramping back and forth in the library. +The elder seemed unrested by the night, his skin, as Rhoda had pointed +out, was baggy. + +"Now that the _Nautilus_ is afloat again," Jeremy Ammidon said, "you'll +want to be at sea." Examining this natural conclusion, Gerrit was +surprised, startled, to find that it was no longer true. For the first +time in his memory he was not anxious to be under sail. This of course +was caused by a natural perplexity about Taou Yuen's comfort and +happiness. + +"I don't know what the firm's plans are for me," he answered cautiously. +"There is some talk of taking me out of the China trade for the +California runs. I shouldn't like that." + +Jeremy was turning at his secretary, and he stopped to pound his fist on +its narrow ledge. "It's that damned Griffiths again and his cursed +jackknife hull!" he exclaimed. The dark tide suffused his countenance. +Gerrit studied him thoughtfully: he didn't know just how much William had +yet told their father about the sweeping changes taking place in Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. He did see, however, that it was unwise to +excite the old gentleman unduly. + +"I was saying only yesterday," he put in pacifically, "that you and +myself are getting to be old models--" he broke off as William entered +the library. The latter evidently grasped at once the subject of their +discussion, for he went on in a firm voice somewhat contradicted by a +restrained but palpable anxiety: + +"Now, father, this was bound to come up and you must sit down and listen +quietly." The elder, on the verge of a tempestuous reply, constrained +himself to a painful attention. "It's useless to point out to you the +beneficial changes in sea carrying, for you are certain to deny their +good and drag out the past. So I am simply forced to tell you that after +careful consideration we have decided to line the firm with the events of +the day and hold our place in the growing pressure of competition. This +may sound brutal, but it was forced on us by the attitude you have +adopted. Shortly, this is what we intend, in fact are doing: + +"Orders have been placed with George Raynes at Portsmouth and Jackson up +in Boston for clippers of a thousand and twelve hundred tons and another +is almost ready to be launched from Curtis' Chelsea shipyard. It oughtn't +to be necessary to call your attention again to the fact that the _Sea +Witch_ has brought the passage from Hong Kong to something like three +months. The profits of the California trade will be enormous and depend +entirely on speed. + +"I'll admit that this is a big thing, it will cut sharply into our +funds--something like a quarter of a million dollars. But, if you will be +patient for a little only, I can promise that you'll see astonishing +returns. At the same time we have no intention of giving up China and +India, but we'll limit ourselves more closely in the nature of the +cargoes, practically nothing but tea unbroken from Canton to Boston. I'll +be glad to go into all this in detail at the countinghouse, where we have +the statistics and specifications." + +To Gerrit's surprise Jeremy Ammidon sat quietly at the end of William's +speech; he wasn't even looking at them, but had his gaze bent upon the +floor. There was a commanding, even impressive, quality in his silence +that forced the respect of both his sons. More--it made Gerrit +overwhelmingly conscious of his affection, his deep admiration, for his +father. He recalled the latter's memorable voyage in the little _Two +Capes_--the barque of two hundred and nine tons--into the dangers, so +imminent to a master, of uncomprehended waters and thousands of miles +with, for the most part, only the sheerest dead reckoning. Jeremy Ammidon +said finally: + +"If it's done it's done. I used to think there were two Ammidons in the +firm, not to mention Gerrit; but it seems there's only one. A man who has +never been to sea." He rose and marched, slower and more ponderous than +ever before, to the cupboard where he kept the square bottle of Medford +rum; there, with trembling hands, he poured himself out a measure. He +shut the glass door, but stood for an oppressive space with his back to +the room, seeing that old vision of struggle or accomplishment. + +"I suppose I've been a damned nuisance about the countinghouse for a long +time," he pronounced, turning. William rose. "You made it," he said; +"it's you. God forgive me if I have been impatient or forgetful of all we +owe you." There was a stir of skirts in the doorway, and Rhoda entered. +"Breakfast--" she stopped, and with a quick glance at her husband and +Gerrit went at once to Jeremy Ammidon. "They've been bothering you +again," she declared, and turned an expression of bright anger on the +younger men. "Ah, how hard and hateful and blind you are!" she cried. + +William, with a hopeless gesture, walked from the room. Gerrit moved to a +window facing the Square; but he saw nothing of its sultry yellow-green +expanse--he was remembering how as a child, his mother already dead, a +nurse had held him up on Derby Wharf to see his father sweep into port +from the long voyage to the East. He caught again the resonant voice, as +if sounding from a hold of ribbed oak, the tremendous vigor of the arm +that swept him up to a bearded face. He couldn't bring himself to move +now and see an old haggard man clinging with tremulous emotion and tears +to the sympathy, the strength, of a woman. + +Later in the morning, to his immense relief, Jeremy Ammidon regained a +surprising amount of composure. At first determined never to return to +Liberty Street, toward noon Gerrit found him in the hall with his broad +hat and wanghee. "I'll just have a slant at those specifications," he +remarked. "Like as not they've left off the hatch coamings." Gerrit +suggested, "Since it's so hot why don't you have the carriage round?" The +other voiced his customary disparagement of that vehicle. "If I see that +I'm going to be late for dinner," he added, "I'll get one of the young +men to fetch me something. I don't want to give Rhoda any trouble." + +Still, on the steps, he lingered, gazing pridefully up at the bulk of the +house he had built; his eyes rested on the brass plate, engraved with the +words Java Head, on the dignified white door. "A lot of talk when I had +that done," he commented; "people said they'd never heard of it, ought to +have my name there for convenience if nothing else. They didn't know. It +would take a sailor for that. Don't forget to tell Rhoda not to wait if +I'm late. All those girls of hers get hungry. I expect William consulted +Laurel about this new move," he ended with a gleam of humor. "She's a +great hand for a clipper since she talked to Captain Waterman." He was +down the steps, starting deliberately across the street. There was a last +mutter of doubt. The bulky slow figure in yellow Chinese silk moved away +and Gerrit returned to the shadowed tranquillity of the library. + +More than any other place in the house it bore the impression of his +father. He wandered about the room, lost in its associations, stopped +in front of the tall narrow walnut bookcase and took out one of the +small company of Jeremy Ammidon's logs, reading disconnectedly in the +precise script: + +"Tuesday, December 24. 132 days out. All this day gentle breezes and +cloudy. Saw kelp, birds, etc. + +"Tacked ship to the eastward under short sail. At daylight made all sail +to SW. Gentle breezes and clear pleasant weather. Saw huge shoals of +flying fish." + +"May 19, 11 days out. Hainan in sight, bearing from W by N to NNW. At +sunset the breeze died away and hauled off the land. All night light +breezes. Made all possible sail to the SSW. At the same time set the +extremity of Hainan which bore NW by N to N. Past three Chinese +vessels steering NNE. Saw much scum on the water and at 11 A.M. lost +sight of land." + +"November 14, 65 days out. These twenty-four hours commences with +variable breezes at west and smooth sea. Saw brig steering to the +Eastward. The land of Sumatra bearing SW by W to SE by S. Tied rips." + +He returned the log to its resting place with a quiet smile at the last +period. It was all incredibly simple--a lost simplicity of navigation and +a lost innocent wonder at the Mare Atlanticum of old fable. + +Neither William nor Jeremy Ammidon was present for dinner. They were, +Gerrit concluded, submerged in the effort to bring the changing +activities of the firm into the latter's comprehension. His foot was on +the stair leading up to his wife, when there was a violent knocking on +the front door. It sounded with a startling abruptness in the shut hall, +and Gerrit instinctively answered without waiting for a servant. The +flushed and breathless young man before him was evidently perturbed by +his appearance. He stammered: + +"Captain Ammidon, you--you must come down to the countinghouse. At +once, please!" + +His thoughts, directed upon his father, gathered into a chilling +certainty. "Captain Jeremy is sick?" he demanded instantly. The +hesitation of the other seemed to confirm an infinitely greater +calamity. "Dead?" he asked again, in a flooding misery of apprehension. +The clerk nodded: + +"In a second, like," he continued. "All we know they were talking in Mr. +William Ammidon's room--one of the boys was out that minute getting the +old gentleman some lunch--when we heard a fall, it was quite plain, and +Mr. Saltonstone--" + +"That will do," Gerrit cut him short. He turned into the house, rapidly +considering what must follow. He'd go, certainly; but first he must warn +Rhoda, she would have the girls to prepare.... Rhoda had always been +exceptionally considerate and fond of Jeremy Ammidon. He found her at the +entrance to her room, and said, "My father is dead." Her warm color sank +and tears filled her eyes. + +Hurrying over Bath Street to Liberty his grief was held in check by the +pressing actualities of the moment. He had time, however, to feel glad +that he had spent the morning largely in warm thoughts of the dead man. + +He passed rapidly into the entrance of the establishment of Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. Immediately on the right there was an open +railed enclosure of desks in the center of which a group of clerks +watched him with mingled respect and curiosity as he continued to the +inner shut space. It was a large light room with windows on Charter +Street. William's expansive flat-topped desk with its inked green baize +was on the left, and, under a number of framed sere ships' letters and +privateersmen's Bonds of the War of 1812, Gerrit saw the heavy body +extended on a broad wooden bench, a familiar orange Bombay handkerchief +spread over the face. + +Never in all the memory of his brother had William Ammidon been so +stricken. As he entered James Saltonstone left studying a list hastily +scribbled on a half sheet of the firm's writing paper. He nodded silently +to Gerrit, who advanced to the covered face and lifted the handkerchief. +There were still traces of congestion, but a marblelike pallor had taken +the place of the familiar ruddy color. Something of the heaviness of his +old age, the blurring thickness of long inactivity, had vanished, giving +his still countenance an expression of vigor, resolution, contradicted by +an arm trailing like the loose end of a heavy rope on the floor. William, +with a clenched hand on his desk, spoke with difficulty: + +"You must know this, Gerrit; and then I'll ask you never to allude to it +again. It might be argued that--that James and I killed him, but +absolutely without intention, by accident. Gerrit, I loved him more than +I took time to know. Well, you may or may not have heard that we own two +topsail schooners in the opium trade, between India, Ningpo and Amoy, but +you do know how father detested anything to do with the drug. We said +nothing to him about this; it seemed necessary, no--permissible. But +to-day when we were coming to a peaceable understanding about the new +contracts he stumbled over one of the schooner's manifests. Mislaid, you +see--a clerk! It swept him to his feet in a rage, he couldn't speak, +and--and he had walked, it was hot...." + +Gerrit Ammidon made no answer; there was nothing to be said. He was +shaken by a burning anger at the cupidity, the ugly commercial grasping, +to which his father had been sacrificed. A gulf opened between him and +his brother and James Saltonstone; he was as different from them as the +sea was from the land, as the wind-swept deck of the _Nautilus_ was from +this dry building with its stifling papers and greed. He might be in the +service of the firm--Gerrit was not incorporated in the partnership--he +might carry their cargoes for the multiplication of the profit, but his +essential service and responsibility, his life, were addressed to another +and infinitely higher and more difficult consummation than the stowed +kegs of Spanish dollars, the bills of sale. This was composed of the +struggle with the immeasurable elements of the seas and winds, the safety +of lives, the endless trying of his endurance and will and luck. + +"Now," he spoke with a perceptible bitterness, "you can have your way +without interference, without his mixing up your papers or making the +blunders of a slow sort of honesty." + +"I am under no obligation to your judgment or opinion," William +replied stiffly. "There are always complications you will never +penetrate nor carry. At present your assistance is more necessary than +any display of temper." + +The funeral gathered and ebbed in a long procession of carriages through +a sultry noon, the services at the grave concluded by the symbolic +dropping of the earth on Jeremy Ammidon's coffin lowered into the deep +narrow clay pit. The large varied throng lingered for a breath, as if +unable to take their attention from the raw opening that had absorbed the +shipmaster, and then there was a determined and reassuring commonplace +murmur, a hurrying away into the vital warmth of the day. + +The evening was the loveliest summer and the garden of Java Head could +afford: a slow moon disentangled itself from the indigo foliage at the +back of the stable and soared with an increasing brilliancy, bathing the +sod and summerhouse and poplars, the metallic box borders and spiked +flower beds, in a crystal clearness. The Ammidons sat about the willow, +Rhoda with a hand affectionately on her husband's arm, the +children--Laurel and Janet staying without remark long past their +accustomed hours for bed--still and white under the blanching moon. +Gerrit intently studied his wife, Taou Yuen, in a concentrated manner. +She, too, was in white, the Chinese mark of sorrow. + +Suddenly in the face of his suffering and memories she had appeared +startlingly remote, as if, from standing close beside him, she were +moving farther and farther away. The image was made profoundly +disconcerting by the fact that they acted without their own accord; it +took the aspect of a purely arbitrary phenomenon over which they had no +control. At the same time Nettie Vollar was surprisingly near, actual--he +could see every line and shading of her vivid face; he felt the warm +impact of her instant sympathy. He had caught a glimpse of Barzil Dunsack +at the funeral; but the other was immediately hidden by the crowd, and +Gerrit had been unable to discover whether his son and daughter or Nettie +had accompanied him. + +His thoughts turned in a score of associations and questions to Nettie; +but when he found himself trying to picture her exact employment at the +present moment he was angrily aroused. He had, he realized, considered +nothing else for the past hour, and his preoccupation was growing more +intense, personal. He stirred abruptly, and fixed his mind on the +imminent changes from his father's death. First the possibility would +develop of his becoming a member of the firm; but to this, he silently +declared, he would not agree. His gaze rested with a faint underlying +animosity on William, seated upright in a somber absorption, and a +disparagement of the latter's activities and scale of values. Gerrit saw +that there must be a pacific legal knot to untangle; the division of +Jeremy's estate would require time--he had somewhere heard that such +affairs often dragged on for a year; and now he was again in a fever of +impatience to be away, safe, at sea. He added the more portentous word +with the vague self-assurance that it was only the customary expression +of his notable ignorance of land; but it echoed with an ominous special +insistence in his mind. + +The _Nautilus_, he recalled, was once more afloat, repaired; and a plan +occurred to him that seemed to dispose of all his difficulties, even of +the distasteful possibility of the California clipper service. He could +take the ship as part of his inheritance; and, though ostensibly sailing +her in the interest of the firm, make such voyages and ports, carry such +cargoes, as his independence dictated. The _Nautilus_, with a cargo out +of tin and dyes and cotton manufactures, and forty or fifty thousand +trade dollars, would represent a sum of nearly two hundred thousand; but +as a family they were very rich; he'd have more than that; and bank the +remainder intact to the credit of his wife. + +There were many practical aspects of his marriage that he had not stopped +to weigh in its precipitant consummation. The problem, pointed out by +Rhoda, of his absence from Taou Yuen on cruise could not be solved with +the facility he had taken for granted. It was as impossible to leave her +happily here--he was aware of her growing impatience with Western +habit--as it would be for him to become a contented part of Chinese home +life; and not only was she uncomfortably cramped and sick on shipboard, +but he doubted whether he could persuade his crews to sail with her. +Superstitious able seamen balked at the presence of even a normal wife +aft; and a Chinese would be regarded as a sign of certain disaster. + +He would have to establish her somewhere in the East Indies; and he +viewed with a new dislike all such tropical settings. His entire life +threatened to become an affair of damnable palm trees and Oriental +stenches. Gerrit Ammidon broke into a cold sweat at the realization of +the far more direct implication that had taken substance in his mind. The +thing was going entirely too far! He wondered irritably at the obscure +cause for such violent inner agitations. + +Rhoda Ammidon with a dim smile rose, gathering her daughters about her, +and departed in a pale cloud of muslin. Taou Yuen, with her murmuring +formal politeness, moved away too, leaving the brothers together. +Whatever sympathetic intercourse they might otherwise have had, whatever +shared memories of their boyhood and their father, were made impossible +by William's admission of the immediate cause of the elder's death. + +"The Saltonstones are going into Boston this fall," William said +abruptly. "It is necessary for one of us to live there; and Caroline has +always had a hankering for wider society. Rhoda, I was surprised to +learn, wishes to remain here at Java Head for a year or so anyway. She +has a very real affection for the place. But I tell her when the girls +are older Boston, or perhaps New York, will give them far greater +opportunities. Sidsall, stranger still, was in tears at the whole thing; +she seemed ridiculously upset about leaving." + +The vision of Nettie Vollar persisted, bright and disturbing. Once he was +at sea, Gerrit told himself, on the circumscribed freedom of his +quarter-deck, he would lose the unsettling fever burning at that instant +in his veins. But the memory of long solitary passages with nothing to +distract his mind through week upon week after the ship took the trades, +when hour upon hour his thoughts turned inward on themselves and reviewed +every past act and feeling, made doubtful even that old release. The +trouble was that he instinctively avoided any square facing of the +difficulty that had multiplied with such amazing rapidity--like a banyan +tree--about the present and the shadowed future. This he was forced to +admit, but grimly added that there could be only one answer to whatever +he might lay bare--the adherence to the single fundamental duty of which +he never lost sight. No port was gained by changing blindly from course +to course, that way lay the reefs; a man could but keep steadily by the +compass. That, at least, was all he could see, propose, for himself, +being rather limited and lacking the resources which others of greater +knowledge so confidently explored. + +After breakfast on the following morning he mounted the dignified +staircase, with the sweeping railing of red narra wood and high Palladian +window at the turn, to his wife. In their room he was bathed in a cold +sweat of dismay at a sudden detached view of Taou Yuen in her complete +Manchu mourning for his father. An unhemmed garment of coarse white hemp +hung in ravelings about slippers of sackcloth; what had been an elaborate +headdress was hidden under a binding of the bleached hemp; she wore no +paint nor flowers; her pins and earrings were pasted with dough, and her +expression was drugged with the contemplative fervor of what had +evidently been a religious ceremonial. + +"For the wise old man, for your father," she said. She was exhausted and +sank onto the day bed; but almost immediately her hand reached out in the +direction of her pipe, and she smiled faintly at him. He clenched his +sinewy hands, the muscles of his jaw knotted, as he gazed steadily at the +woman, the Manchu woman, he had of his own free accord married. It +sickened him that, for the drawing of a breath, he had regarded Taou Yuen +with such appalling injustice--injustice, the evil he hated and condemned +more than any other. What, in the name of God, was he made of that he +could sink so low! + +"We'll leave here soon," he declared abruptly; "the _Nautilus_ will be +ready for sea almost any time." + +He could recognize, from his slight knowledge of her, that Taou Yuen +welcomed the news. "Shanghai?" she asked. He nodded. It came over him +that he was no longer young. His father had retired from the sea within a +few years of his own present age and built Java Head, the house that was +to be a final harbor of unalloyed happiness. No such prospect awaited +him; he had one of the premonitions that were more certain than the most +solid realities--as long as he lived he must sail in ships, struggling +with winds and calms, with currents and cockling and placid seas. Well, +that was natural, inevitable, what he would have chosen. At the same time +he dwelt, with a sensation of loneliness, on the green garden and +drawing-room filled in June with the scent of lilacs, on Rhoda surrounded +by her girls. + +When the question of the division of Jeremy Amnudon's estate came up, he +was, as he had foreseen, urged to become a partner of the firm; and, when +that failed, told that it was his vested duty to continue in his present +capacity as a shipmaster in all their interests. He was seated with +Saltonstone and William in the countinghouse and he could tell from his +brother's ill-restrained impatience that the other considered him hardly +more than a clumsy-witted, stubborn fool before the mast of the facts of +actual life. + +His gaze, above their heads, rested on the framed pass of the ship +_Mocha_, one of his father's last commands, over the bench where he had +lain dead. It was given by the President, James Monroe, in 1818, its +white paper seal embossed on the stained parchment. It had an engraving +of a lighthouse and spired town on the dark water's edge, and above, a +picture of a ship with everything drawing in a fair wind, the upper +sails torn off on a dotted wavering line for the purpose of +identification with its stub. + +"No," he told them quietly, "I'll go my own way as I said; with the +_Nautilus_, if that can be arranged." He rose with a nod of finality, and +James Saltonstone remarked, "Jeremy to the life." Gerrit replied, "I'd +not ask anything better." + +Through the evening he heard little but the discussion of Mr. Folk's +approaching visit to Salem. The President was to leave the train at the +Beverly Depot at three P.M. and be fetched with Secretary Buchanan and +Marshal Barnes in a barouche with six horses and met at the outskirts of +Salem by the city authorities. + +There would be a Beverly cavalcade, the city guard was ordered to muster +at the armory; while an evening parade at five o'clock and the military +ball in Franklin Hall were to follow. + +But when the day and occasion actually arrived it was spoiled by a +succession of unforeseen mishaps. The train was late and the presidential +party in a fever of haste--the procession, hurrying through the massed +public-school children and throngs of Chestnut Street, gave a perfunctory +attention to the salutes and short address of the mayor. The President's +reply, hardly more than a few introductory phrases, cut short, the +barouche was sent plunging over its route with the Secretary crying, +"Drive on! Drive on!" and Marshal Barnes swearing and expectorating in +callous profusion. + +Some of the crowd, the Ammidons heard, had been knocked down and injured +in the pell-mell of the rush. Gerrit's countenance showed his contempt of +what he held to be a characteristically ludicrous farce. After all, his +wishes in regard to the _Nautilus_ had been easy of execution, the ship +was now his; he was already contracting for a cargo. He had been to see +Mr. Broadrick, his first mate, and the latter was assembling the chief +members of the crew. As always at the prospect of sailing he was +unsettled, concerned with countless details of departure--like a vessel +straining at her last anchor. + +Seated in the library with Taou Yuen--he had called her aside from her +fixed passage to their room from the garden--he was recounting his main +plans for the near future, when he became aware of an arrival on the +steps outside. He heard a servant's voice, and, immediately after, the +woman appeared in the doorway; but she was forced aside by Edward +Dunsack. Gerrit's quick resentment flared at such an unmannered +intrusion, and he moved ungraciously forward. The servant explained +impotently, "I told him I would see--" + +"Yes?" Gerrit Ammidon demanded. + +Dunsack bowed ceremoniously to Taou Yuen, then he faced the other. On the +verge of speech he hesitated, as if an unexpected development made +inadequate whatever he had been prepared to say; then, with a sudden +decision, he hurried into an emotional jumble of words. "I can tell you +in a breath--Nettie was badly hurt in that cursed rabble yesterday. It +looks as if she was actually struck by one of the horses. She was +unconscious, and then delirious; now she is in her right mind but very +weak; and, since she wished to see you, I volunteered to put our pride in +my pocket and carry her message." + +An instant numbing pain compressed Gerrit's heart; he felt that, in an +involuntary exclamation, he had clearly shown the depth of his dismay. +Damn the fellow, why had he burst out in this public indecent manner! The +situation he had plausibly created, the thing he managed to insinuate, +was an insult to them all--to his wife, Taou Yuen, coldly composed +beyond, himself and to Nettie. He stood with his level gaze fixed in an +enraged perplexity on Edward Dunsack's sallow countenance, deep sunk on +its bony structure, conscious that there was no possibility of a +satisfactory or even coherent reply. + +"Something was said about this afternoon," the other added. That period, +Gerrit realized, was nearly over. But above every other consideration +rose the knowledge that he would have to see Nettie Vollar, badly +injured, as she desired. The common humanity of that necessity left him +no choice. + +He turned to Taou Yuen with a brief formal explanation. A friend, their +families had been associated for years, had been hurt and sent for +him.... Return immediately. He paused, in the act of leaving, at the door +of the library, waiting for Edward Dunsack to join him; but the other had +resolutely turned his back upon Gerrit. He showed no indication of +departure. Gerrit Ammidon was at the point of an exasperated direction; +but that, in the light of Dunsack's purpose there, appeared ridiculously +abrupt; and confident of his wife's supreme ability to control any +situation he continued without further hesitation to the street, hurrying +in a mounting anxiety toward the Dunsacks'. + +Dwelling on his conduct in the library, at the sudden announcement of +Nettie's accident, he felt that he had acted in a precipitant if not +actually confused way. As a fact, it had all been largely mechanical; his +oppression, his dread for Nettie, had made everything else dim to see and +faint to hear. Dunsack's grimacing face, the immobile figure of his wife, +the familiar sweep of the room, had been things of no more substance than +a cloud between him and the only other reality existing. He had no +memory, for instance, of having stopped to secure his hat, but he found +it swinging characteristically in a hand. And now even the semblance of +reasonable speech and conduct he had managed to command vanished before a +panic that all but forced him into a run. + +The main door of Barzil Dunsack's house was open on the narrow somber +region within; he knocked sharply against the wood at the side and was +immediately answered by the appearance of Kate Vollar. + +"This is a great kindness, Captain Ammidon," she told him in her negative +voice; "come in here, please." He looked hastily about the formal space +into which she led him, expecting to see Nettie prostrate, but she was +not there. "How is she?" he demanded impatiently. + +"Nettie?" her mother turned as if surprised by an unexpected twist of the +situation. "Oh, why she'll mend all right, the doctor says; but it will +be slow. Her arm had an ugly slithering break, and she suffers with it +all the time." A pause followed, in which she met his interrogation with +a growing mystification. "I suppose Edward told you," she ventured +finally. The sense of being at a loss was swiftly communicated to him. + +"Your brother said Nettie wanted to see me," he returned bluntly. + +"Now, however could Edward do a thing like that!" she cried in deep +distress. "Why, there's no truth to it. I asked him myself to see if +you'd kindly stop and give me some advice. What put it in my head was +that once your father offered--he told Nettie to let him know if there +was anything to be done. Edward Dunsack isn't just right in his head." + +Gerrit was filled with a mingling sense of disappointment, relief that +Nettie was no worse, and the uncomfortable conviction that he had behaved +like an hysterical fool. He, too, but angrily, wondered why Dunsack had +invented such an apparently pointless lie. Probably Kate Vollar was +right, and her brother's wits, soaked in opium, had wandered into a realm +of insane fabrications. He composed himself--the first feeling blotting +out his other emotions--to meet the deprecating interrogation before him. + +"I should be glad to do what I could in my father's place." + +"In a way," she continued, "it's about Edward. When he came back from +China and decided to stay in Salem his father turned all the books over +to him; he was to tend to everything in the way of accounts and +shipments; and, he said, he would make us all rich in a year or so. But, +instead, he has neglected the clerking until we can't tell what's going +or coming. Edward hasn't--hasn't quite been himself lately," she paused +and Gerrit nodded shortly. "Now we're not wealthy, Captain Ammidon, we +never got more than just enough from our West India trade; but in the +last couple of months, with Edward like he is and father too old for +columns of figuring--he's dreadful forgetful now--not a dollar was made. +The schooners are slow, behind the times I guess, we've had to scrape; +yet it's been something.... They're both awful hard to do with," she +stopped hopelessly. + +"You must get a reliable man in charge. Some one who knows the West India +shipping should go over your entire property, decide what is necessary, +then borrow the money. We can find that without trouble. I'll make only +one condition: That is the complete restraint of your brother. It is +known that he has the opium habit, he is a dangerous--" + +He stopped at the echo of a thin persistent tapping from above. "That's +Nettie," Kate Vollar said; "the way she calls me. I'll ask you to excuse +me for a minute." When she returned her face bore an unaccustomed flush. +"Nettie heard you in the hall or through the stovepipe." She spoke +doubtfully: "She'd like to see you, but I don't know if it would be right +with her in bed. Still, I promised I'd tell you." + +He rose promptly. The woman stood aside at the upper door and he at once +saw Nettie lying with her vigorous black hair sprawling in a thick twist +across the pillow. Her face was pinched, it seemed thin, and the +brilliancy and size of her eyes were exaggerated. One arm, clumsy and +inanimate in splints, was extended over the cotton spread; but with the +other hand she was feverishly busy with her appearance. She smiled, a wan +tremulous movement that again shut the pain like a leaden casket about +his heart. + +"Do go away, mother!" Nettie directed Kate Vollar hovering behind them. +"Your fidgeting will make me scream." With an incoherent murmur she +vanished from the room. The girl motioned toward a chair, and Gerrit drew +it forward to a table that bore water and a small glass bowl partly +covered by a sheet of paper, holding a number of symmetrical +reddish-black pills. "Opium," Nettie told him, following his gaze; "I +cried dreadfully with the hurt at first. It's dear, and Edward made those +from some he had. You know, I watched him roll them right here; it was +wonderful how quickly he did it, each exactly alike, two grains." She +told him the circumstances of her accident while he sat with his eyes +steadily on her face, his hands folded. + +He was quiet, without visible emotion or speech; but there was an utter +tumult, a tumult like the spiral of a hurricane, within him. Rebellious +feelings, tyrannical desires and thoughts, swept through him in waves of +heat and cold. Nettie's voice grew weak, the shadows deepened under her +eyes, for a little they closed; and but for the faint stir of the +coverlet over her heart she was so pallid, so still, that she might have +been dead. Moved by an uncontrollable fear he bent toward her and touched +her hand. Her gaze slowly widened, and, turning over her palm, she weakly +grasped his fingers. A great sigh of contentment fluttered from her dry +lips. "Gerrit," she whispered, barely audible. He leaned forward, blinded +by his passion for her. + +He admitted this in an honest self-knowledge that he had refused +recognition until now. Tender and reassuring words, wild declarations and +plans for the future, crowded for expression; nothing else before the +immensity of desire that possessed him was of the slightest concern; but +not a syllable was spoken. A sharp line was ploughed between his brows; +his breath came in short choked gusts, he was utterly the vessel of his +longing, and yet an ultimate basic consideration, lost in the pounding of +his veins, still restrained him. + +"I love you, Gerrit," Nettie said; "I'll never stop till I die." Her face +and voice were almost tranquil; she seemed to speak from a plane above +the ordinary necessities of common existence, as if her pain, burning out +her color and vigor and emotions, had given her the privilege of truth. +Curiously enough when it seemed to him that she had expressed what should +have sent him into a single consuming flame he grew at once completely +calm. He, too, for the moment, reached her state of freedom from earth +and flesh. + +"I love you, Nettie," he replied simply. + +However, he speedily dropped back into the sphere of actual +responsibilities. He saw all the difficulties and hovering insidious +shadows in which they might be lost. This, in turn, was pushed aside by +the incredulous realization that Nettie's life and his had been spoiled +by a thing no more important than a momentary flare of temper. If, as +might have happened, he had overlooked Barzil Dunsack's ridiculous +tirade, if he had turned into the yard where Nettie was standing instead +of tramping away up Hardy Street, everything would have been well. + +It was unjust, he cried inwardly, for such infinite consequences to +proceed from unthinking anger! A great or tragic result should spring +from great or tragic causes, the suffering and price measured by the +error. He could see that Nettie was patiently waiting for him to solve +the whole miserable problem of their future; she had an expression of +relief which seemed to take a happy issue for granted. None was possible. +A baffled rage cut his speech into quick brutal words flung like shot +against her hope. + +"I love you," he repeated, "yes. But what can that do for us now? I had +my chance and I let it go. To-day I'm married, I'll be married to-morrow, +probably till I die. Perhaps that wouldn't stop a man more +intelligent--it might be just that--than I am; perhaps he'd go right +after his love or happiness wherever or however it offered. There are +men, too, who have the habit of a number of women. That is understood to +be a custom with sailors. It has never been with me; as I say, maybe I am +too stupid. + +"What in the name of all the heavens would I do with Taou Yuen?" he +demanded. "I can't desert her here, in America, leave her with William. I +brought her thousands of miles away from her home, from all she knows and +is. If I took her back and dropped her in China it would be murder." + +An expression of unalloyed dreariness overspread Nettie's features. "I +wish I had been killed right out," she said. The starkness of the words, +of the reality they spoke, flowed over him like icy water; he felt that +he was sinking, strangling, in a sea grimmer than any about Cape Horn. He +was continually appalled by the realization that there was no escape, no +smallest glimmer, leading from the pit into which they had stumbled. He +had the sensation of wanting enormously to go with Nettie but was fast in +chains that were locked on him by a power greater than his will. + +"It's no good," his voice was flat. + +"I don't believe I'll see you again," Nettie articulated; "now the +_Nautilus_ is near ready to sail. I can't stand it," she sobbed; "that +last time you went out the harbor just about ended me, but this is worse, +worse, worse. I'll--I'll take all the opium." + +"No, you won't," he asserted, standing, confident that her spirit was too +normal, too vitally healthy, for that. His gaze wandered about the room: +her clothes were neatly piled and covered by a skirt on a chair; the +mirror on her chest of drawers was broken, a corner missing; there was a +total absence of the delicate toilet adjuncts of Rhoda and Taou +Yuen--only a small paper of powder, a comb and brush, and the washstand +with a couple of coarse towels. What dresses she had were hung behind a +ridiculously inadequate drapery. She had so little with which to +accomplish what, for a girl, was so much. + +His emotion had retreated, leaving him dull-eyed, heavy of movement. The +moment had come for his departure. Gerrit stood by the bed. Nettie turned +away from him, her face was buried in the pillow, the uppermost free +shoulder shook. "Good-by," he said. There was no answer and he patiently +repeated the short tragic phrase. Still there was no sound from Nettie. +There would be none. Even the impulse to touch her had died--died, he +thought, with a great many feelings and hopes he once had. A fleet +surprise invaded him at the absence of any impulse now to protest or +indulge in wild passionate terms; he was surprised, too, at the fact that +he was about to leave Nettie. The whole termination of the affair was +bathed in an atmosphere of stale calm, like the air in a ship's hold. + +Gerrit Ammidon gazed steadily at her averted head, at the generous line +of her body under the coverlet; then, neither hasty nor hesitating in his +walk, he left the room. Kate Vollar met him at the foot of the stair. +"You understood," she said, "that I only bothered you because your +father... because I was so put on?" + +"You were quite right," he replied in a measured voice; "it will all be +attended to. With the agreement I mentioned." + +"How they'll take it I don't know." + +"In some positions," he told her, "certain persons are without any +choice. The facts are too great for them. I said nothing to Nettie of +Edward Dunsack's reason for my coming," he added significantly. Out in +the street he stopped, facing toward Java Head and evening; but, with a +quiver of his lips, the vertical bitter line between his drawn brows, +he turned and marched slowly, his head sunk, to where the _Nautilus_ +was berthed. + + + + +IX + +Seated in the library, placidly waiting for Edward Dunsack to go, Taou +Yuen studied him briefly. A long or thoughtful survey was unnecessary: +the opium was rapidly mastering him. That fact absorbed all the rest. She +had an immeasurable contempt for such physical and moral weakness; all +the three religions fused in her overwhelmingly condemned +self-indulgence; her philosophy, the practical side of Lao-tze's +teaching, emphasized the utter futility of surrender to the five senses. +At the same time he was the subject of some interest: he was an American +who had lived in China, and not only on the fringe of the treaty +ports--he had penetrated to some extent into the spirit, the life, of +things Chinese; while she, Taou Yuen, was amazingly married to Gerrit +Ammidon, was a Manchu here, in America. + +Absolutely immobile, her hands folded in her lap, she considered these +facts, each in relation to the other: there was wisdom hidden in them for +her. If Mr. Dunsack had retained the ordinary blustering Western +commercial mind, his knowledge of China confined to the tea houses and +streets, he would probably be prosperous and strong to-day. The wisdom +lay in this--that here she must remain Manchu, Chinese; any attempt to +become a part of this incomprehensible country, any effort to involve +herself in its mysterious acts or thought, would be disastrous. She must +remain calm, unassertive, let the eternal Tao take its way. + +Edward Dunsack looked actually comic: he was staring rudely, with a +foolish air of flattery, and breathing in labored gasps--like a coolie +who had run miles with a heavy palanquin. Then her mind, hardly reacting +from immediate objects, returned to the contemplation of the deeper +significance of her presence here. Bent in on itself her thought twisted +like a moonflower vine about the solid fact of Gerrit. She realized, of +course, that he must have had the past of any healthy honorable man of +his age, and that it would have included at least one woman. However, +when even the present was an almost complete puzzle his past had been so +lost to her that she had not considered it until now. + +"You must overlook my unceremonious speech," Edward Dunsack proceeded in +creditable Chinese. "It was clumsy, but I was deeply affected. It is my +niece, you see, who was hurt, and who has a very sad history. Then there +are some special circumstances. I'd have to explain a great deal before +you could understand why she sent for your husband and why he left so +hurriedly." + +"There is nothing you need tell me," Taou Yuen replied in her slow +careful English. "Manchu eyes can see as well as American." + +"A thousand times better." He, too, returned to his native speech. "It is +delightful to talk to a truly civilized being. All that would have to be +shouted at the women of Salem is unnecessary now. You see--you understand +the heart of a man." + +"I understand you," she said impersonally. + +"I wonder if you do," he speculated. "You ought to see what--how much--I +think of you. My brain holds nothing else," he declared in a low intense +voice, drawing nearer to her. + +She had a momentary, purely feminine shrinking from his emaciated shaking +frame, the burning eyes in a face dead like a citron; then her placidity +returned, the assurance that it was all ordained, that his gestures, the +pumping of his diseased heart, had no more individual significance than +the movements of a mechanical figure operated by strings, here the +strings of supreme Fate. She even smiled slightly, a smile not the mark +of approval or humor, but an expression of absolute composure. It drove +him at once into febrile excitement. + +"At least I understand you," he cried; "far more than you suppose! You +can't impress me with your air of a Gautama. I know the freedom of your +country. It doesn't shock you to realize that your husband has gone to +see a woman he loved, perhaps loves still, and you are not disturbed at +my speaking like this." + +Here, she knew, regarding him no more than a shrilling locust, was the +center about which for a moment blindly her thoughts of Gerrit and +herself had revolved. His past--"a woman he loved." But it didn't in the +least upset her present peace of mind, her confidence in Gerrit. There +was a sharp distinction between the eternal, the divine, Tao, that which +is and must prevail, and the personal Tao, subject to rebellion and all +the evil of Yin; and she felt that her husband's Tao was good. Out of +this she remarked negligently: + +"After all, you are more ignorant of China than I thought. But, of +course, you saw only the common and low side. You have not heard of the +books girls are taught from--'The Sacred Edict' and 'Mirror of the +Heart.' You don't know even the first rule of 'The Book of Rites,' 'Let +your face and attitude be grave and thoughtful,' and the second, 'Let +your steps be deliberate and regular.'" She paused, conveying by her +manner that he was already vanishing and that she was relieved. + +"That would do well enough if you were a scholar, or a bonze," he +retorted; "but such innocence in a fashionable woman is a pretense. If +you are so pure how can you explain your gold and bracelets and pins, +all the marks of your worldly rank? Lao-tze taught, 'Rich and high but +proud brings about its own misfortune.'" He was so close to her now that +she caught a faint sickly reek from his body. It seemed to her that she +could see his identity, his reason, vanish, replaced by madness in his +staring eyes. + +"I worship you," he murmured. + +"Opium," she spoke disdainfully. + +"Your own tobacco is drugged," he asserted. "But that's not important. I +tell you I worship you, the most beautiful person in the world. These +fools in Salem, even your husband, can't realize one-tenth of your +perfection; they can't venerate you as I do. And now that Ammidon has +gone back to the first, we are free too." + +"You are a liar," she said with an unexpected colloquial ease. + +A darker color stained his dry cheeks. "You saw him," he replied. "Did +he get pale or didn't he? And did he or not rush from the room like a +man in a fever? I tell you it's no use pretending with me; say what you +please I know how delicate your senses are. I'll tell you this too: It's +written in our progression that we should meet here, yes, and be a great +deal to each other. It was written in the beginning, and we had been +drawing together through a million cycles before Gerrit Ammidon stumbled +across you." + +Taou Yuen was surprised by a sudden conviction that a part of this, at +least, was so. No living thing, however minute, escaped from the +weariness of movement, either ending in final and blessed suspension or +condemned to struggle on and on through countless lives of tormenting +passion. All had this dignity of hope or despair; all she encountered +were humble, impressive or debased in the working of the mighty law. She +had been guilty, as this American had pointed out, of dangerous and wrong +pride, and she accepted her lesson willingly. There was, however, an +annoying conflict between Edward Dunsack, the example, the impersonal, +and Edward Dunsack making violent profession of his unspeakable desire +for her. Even the word seemed to soil her; but there was no other. He +went recklessly on, trying to increase his advantage: + +"We're made to be together." + +"If we are it is because of some great wickedness of mine. If we are, +then perhaps I am lost. But it is allowed to resist evil, at least, as +far as staying out of its touch is resistance." + +"Nothing can keep you from me," he declared. Another short step and his +knees would be brushing her gown. A stronger wave of dislike, shrinking, +anger, drowned her logical and higher resignation. "It is time for you to +go," she said, her voice still even. + +"Never." + +It seemed to her that she could feel his hot quivering touch and, all her +philosophy dropping from her, she rose quickly. "If this were China," she +told him, in a cold fury, "you'd be cut up with knives, in the court-yard +where I could look on. But even here I can ring for a servant; and when +Captain Ammidon comes back he'll know what to say to you." + +She could see that the last affected him; he hesitated, drew back, his +hanging fingers clasping and unclasping. That, she thought, relieved, +would dispose of him. Then it was clear that his insanity persisted +even in the face of the considerable threat of Gerrit's hot pride and +violent tempers. + +"It's our destiny," he repeated firmly in his borrowed faith, at once a +little terrifying and a little ridiculous in the alien mold. His lips +twitched and his bony forehead glistened in a fine sweat. Now, thoroughly +roused, she laughed at him in open contempt. + +"Diseased," she cried, "take your sores away! Dog licked by dogs. Bowl +of filth," she was speaking in Chinese, in words of one syllable like +the biting of a hair whip. Edward Dunsack gasped, as if actual blows +cut him; he stood with one hand half raised, appalled at the sudden +vicious rush of her anger. A leaden pallor took the place of his normal +sallow coloring, and it was evident that he had difficulty in +withstanding the pressure of his laboring heart. He stood between her +and the door and she had a premonition that it would be useless to +attempt to avoid him or escape. She could, however, call, and some one, +there were a score of people about the house, must certainly appear. At +that moment she saw a deep change sweep over his countenance, taking +place in his every fiber. There was an inner wrenching of Edward +Dunsack's being, a blurring and infusion of blood in his eyes, a breath +longer and more agonized than any before, and she was looking closely +into the face of an overwhelming hatred. + +For a moment, she realized, he had even considered killing her with his +flickering hands. Then that impulse subsided before a sidelong expression +of cunning. "With all your Manchu attitudes," he mocked her, "yes, your +aristocratic pretense of mourning and marks of rank, you are no different +from the little pleasure girls. Your vocabulary and mind are the same. I +was a fool for a while; I saw nothing but your satins and painted face. I +forgot you were yellow, I had forgotten that all China's yellow. It's +yellow, yellow, yellow and never can be white. I shut my eyes to it and +it dragged me down into its slime." His voice was hysterical with an +agony of rending spiritual torment and hopeless grief. "It poisoned me +little by little, with the smell of its rivers and the cursed smell of +its pleasures. Then the opium. A year after I had lost my position, +everything; and when I came over here it followed me ... in my own blood. +Even then I might have broken away, I almost had, when Gerrit Ammidon +brought you to Salem. You came at a time when I was fighting hardest to +throw it all off. You see--you fascinated me. You were all that was most +alluring of China, and I wanted you so badly, it all came back so, that I +went to the opium to find you." + +"Progression," she said ironically. + +"Perhaps," he muttered. "Who knows? I'm finished for this life anyhow. +You did that. I can't even keep the books for my father's penny trade." + +His hands crept rigidly toward her. If they touched her she would be +degraded for ever. Yet she was incapable of flight, her throat refused +the cry which she had been debating; alternate waves of revulsion and +stoical resignation passed over her with chills of acute terror. Yet she +managed to preserve an unstirred exterior; and that, she observed, began +to influence him. His loathing was as great as ever; but his vision, that +had been fixed in a blaze of fury, broke, avoided her direct scrutiny, +her appearance of statue-like unconcern. + +There was a sound of quick light feet in the hall, the bright voice of +one of Gerrit's nieces. Edward Dunsack fell into a profound abstraction: +he turned and walked away from her, standing with his back to the room at +a window that opened upon the broad green park. He was so weak that he +was forced to support himself with a hand on the wall. + +Taou Yuen was motionless for a perceptible space, and then moved toward +the door in a dignified composure. All this had come from the utter +impropriety of the life in America. Dunsack glanced at her as she +withdrew, and for a moment she saw his fine profile sharp and dark +against the light-flooded window. His lips stirred but she heard no +sound. Then she was on the stair mounting to her room. + +There mechanically she filled her pipe; but doing this she noticed that +her hands were trembling. How lamentably she had failed in the +preservation, the assertion, of her superiority, not as a Manchu, but in +the deeper, the only true sense of the word--in submission. + +"Requite hatred with virtue." + +She spoke Lao-tze's admonition aloud and, in the customary devious +channel of her mental processes, her thoughts returned to her early life, +her girlhood, so marred by sickness that the Emperor had surrendered his +customary proprietary right in the daughters of Manchu nobles. + +Surrounding the fact of her early suffering, which had kept her out of +the active gayety of brothers and sisters, she remembered in the clearest +detail her father's house in the north; the later residences in Canton +and Shanghai, even the delightful river gardens of the summer place at +Soochow, were less vivid. Inside the massive tiled stone wall the +rooms--there were a hundred at least--faced in squares on the inner +courtyard, and were connected by glass enclosed verandas. The reception +houses of the front court, the deeply carved wooden platform with its +scarlet covering, were of the greatest elegance; they were always astir +with the numerous secretaries, the Chinese writers and messengers, the +_mafoos_ and chair coolies, the servants and blind musicians with the old +songs, _The Millet's in Flower_ and _Kuan Kuan Go to the Ospreys_. The +side door to the women's apartments, however, opened into a retreat, +where her father's concubine, he had but one, trailed like a bird of +paradise, and there was the constant musical drip of a fountain in an old +granite basin. There, during the years when she was lame, Taou Yuen +mostly stayed. + +She had been dropped from a palanquin in her sixth year; sharp +pains soon after burned in her hip, and the corresponding leg had +perceptibly shortened. A great many remedies were tried in vain--burning +with charcoal, the application of black plasters, sweating, +acupuncture--sticking long needles into the afflicted part. The doctors +declared that the five elements of her body--the metal, wood, water, fire +and earth, were hopelessly out of equilibrium. Her mother had then called +necromancers and devil charmers; lucky and unlucky days were explored; +strange rites were conducted before her terrified eyes screwed into the +determination to show no alarm. + +A year, perhaps, after they had become resigned to her injury, her +father, always a man of the most liberal ideas, had suddenly brought into +the garden to see her an English doctor passing through China. Against +the wailing protests of the women the Englishman had been given authority +to treat her; and he had caused to be made a thin steel brace, clasping +Taou Yuen's waist and extending in a rigid band down the length of her +injured leg. After putting a high shoe on her other foot he had commanded +them to keep the brace on her for two years. + +It was through that period of comparative inactivity that she acquired a +habit of reading and thought, a certain grasp of philosophical attitude, +common to the higher masculine Chinese mind but rare among their women. +She had, for instance, later, read Laotze's Tao-teh-king, and been +impressed by his tranquil elevation above the petty ills and concerns of +life and the flesh. Her father, like all the ruling class, regarded +Taoism--which had, indeed, degenerated into a mass of nonsense about the +transmutation of base metals into gold and the elixir of life--with +contempt. But this seemed to her no depreciation of the Greatly Eminent +One or his philosophy of the two Taoes. + +The household, or at least the family, worshipped in the form of +Confucius; his precepts and admonitions, the sacred _hiao_ or filial +submission, the tablets and ancestral piety, were a part of her blood; as +was the infinitely fainter infusion of Buddhism; yet in her intellectual +brooding it was to the Tao-teh-king that she returned. She paused to +recall that, the brace at last removed, she was practically completely +recovered; but the bent, the bracing, given her mind had remained. + +The colorful pageant of her first marriage, the smaller but splendidly +appointed house of her husband--he was extremely intelligent and had +honorably passed the examination for licentiate, one of only two hundred +successful bachelors out of twenty thousand--and the period following his +accidental drowning wheeled quickly through her brain.... + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was left. + +She loved him, Taou Yuen realized, for a quality entirely independent of +race: he had more than anyone else she knew the virtues of simplicity and +purity announced by Chwang-Tze as the marks of the True Man. "We must +become like little children," the Old Master had written. She had seen +this at once in the amazing interview sanctioned by her father-in-law. +Most women of her class, even widows, would have perished with shame at +being exposed to a foreigner. But Lu Kikwang had expressed her difference +from them in the terms of his proposal. His words had been "finely +better" although the truth was that her curiosity had always mastered the +other and more prudent instincts. Yet that alone would not have +prostrated her before Gerrit Ammidon--death was not unthinkable--nor +carried her into his strange terrifying ship and stranger life. The love +had been born almost simultaneously with her first recognition of his +character. Now her passion for him was close and jealous. A constant +shifting between such humanity and the calm detachment which prefigured +heaven was what most convinced her of the truths of Lao-tze. + +All this took body at the announcement of Edward Dunsack about Gerrit and +his niece. Certainly he might have had an affair; that she dismissed; but +the insinuated permanence of this other affection was serious. She would +not have believed Mr. Dunsack for an instant, but, as he had pointed out, +Gerrit had undoubtedly been upset; he had turned pale and hurried away +impolitely. It was by such apparently slight indications that the great +inner currents of life were discovered. The fact that Chinese officials +had more than one wife, or, to speak correctly, concubines in addition, +had no bearing with Gerrit; such was not the custom with American men. It +represented for him, yes--dishonor. + +She laboriously recalled his every attitude since they had landed in +America, and was obliged to admit that he had changed--he was less gay +and though his manner was always considerate she recognized a growing +impatience beneath his darker calm. Her philosophy was again torn in +shreds by sharp feminine emotions. She was filled with jealousy and +hatred and hurt pride. The clearest expression of his possible discontent +had marked his face when he had suddenly come into their room and saw her +rising from a prayer for his father. Gerrit's lips had been compressed, +almost disdainful; at that moment, she knew unerringly, he found her +ugly. Of course it had been the hideous garments of mourning. + +She must wear the unhemmed sackcloth and dull slippers, bind her +headdress and cover her pins with paste, for a hundred days; and then +a second mourning of black or dark blue, and no flowers, for three +years. It might well be that by then Gerrit, blind to these +proprieties, would find her unendurable. Suddenly, in the tremendous +difficulty of holding him against an entire world, his own and of +which she was supremely ignorant, it seemed to her that she needed +every possible means, every coral blossom and gold filament and finger +of paint, the cunning intoxication of subtle dress and color and +perfume. With a leaden sense of guilt, but in a fever of impatience, +of haste, she stripped off the coarse hemp for her most elaborate +satins, her santal and clover and carmine. + +When Gerrit came in it had grown dark with night, and he explained that +he had been busy inspecting the _Nautilus'_ spars. She lighted a lamp, +then another, all she could find, and studied him unobtrusively. She was +shocked at the worn expression of his face; it seemed as if he had aged +in the few hours since he had left the library. He was uneasy, silent; +and, secretly dismayed, she saw that he was indifferent to her changed +appearance, too. Taou Yuen debated the wisdom of telling him about the +painful scene with Edward Dunsack; against her original intent she +decided in the negative. She informed herself that the reason for this +was a wish to preserve him, now that they were practically at the day of +departure, from an unpleasant duty. But there was an underlying dimly +apprehended and far different motive: she was afraid that it would blow +into flame a situation that might otherwise be avoided, bring to life a +past naturally dying or dead. + +She saw that he was scarcely aware of her presence in the room, perhaps +in his life. A period of resentment followed. "You are dull," she +declared, "and I am going down to the garden for entertainment." Gerrit +nodded. He would, he told her, be along shortly. Below she found Roger +Brevard, with the oldest Ammidon girl and her mother. + +Roger Brevard, she had discovered, was in love with Sidsall. The latter, +it developed, was to leave shortly for a party; Mr. Brevard was not +going; and, when Gerrit's sister-in-law walked across the grass with her +daughter the man dropped into an easy conversation with Taou Yuen. She +had a feeling, which she had tried in vain to lose, of the vulgarity, the +impropriety of this. Yet she recognized that there was none of the former +in Roger Brevard; he resembled quite a little her dead husband, +Sie-Ngan-kwan; and for that reason she was more at ease with him--in +spite of such unaccustomed familiarity--than with anyone else in Salem +but Gerrit. + +He was, she admitted condescendingly, almost as cultivated as the +ordinary Chinese gentleman. Many of his thoughts, where she could +understand their expression, might have come from a study of the sacred +kings. At the same time her feminine perception realized that he had a +genuine liking for her. + +"You'll be delighted to leave Salem," he said, leaning forward and +studying her. + +"That would not be polite," she answered formally. "You have been so +good. But it will give me pleasure to see Shanghai again. Anyone is +happier with customs he understands." + +"And prefers," he added. "Indeed, I'd choose some of your manners rather +than ours. You see, you have been at the business of civilization so much +longer than the rest of us." + +"Our history begins two thousand years before your Christ," she told him; +"our language has been spoken without change for thirty-three centuries, +as you call them. But such facts are nothing. I would rather hear your +non--nonsense," she stumbled over the word. + +"Do you mean that what we call nonsense is really the most important?" + +"Perhaps," she replied. "Devotion to the old and dead is greatly +necessary yet you smile at it. I didn't mean that, but moons and lovers +and music." He cried in protest, "We're terribly serious about those!" + +"I hear nothing but talk about cargoes and sales and money." + +"We keep the other under our hats," he instructed her. She was completely +mystified, and he explained. + +"In China," she remarked tentatively, "it is possible for a man to love +two women at once, maybe one a little more than the other, but he can be +kind and just and affectionate to them both. Tell me, is--is that +possible with an American?" + +"No!" he spoke emphatically. "We can love, in the way you mean, only one, +perhaps only once. I wouldn't swear to that, but there are simply no +exceptions to the first. Men are unfaithful, yes; but at a cost to +themselves, or because they are incapable of restraint. To be unfaithful +in anything is to fail, isn't it? You can lie to yourself as effectively +as to anybody else." + +She fixed a painful attention upon him, but lost at least a half of his +meaning. However, one fact was clearer than ever--that Edward Dunsack had +said an evil thing about her husband. "It seems," he went on, "that even +spiritual concerns can be the result of long custom." If he was trying to +find an excuse for Chinese habit she immediately disposed of it. "No," +she said, "you are upside down. The spirit is first, the eternal Tao, +everywhere alike, but the personal spirit is different in you and in us." + +A sudden dejection seized her--now the difference seemed vaster than +anything she had in common with Gerrit. A wave of oppressive nostalgia, +of confusion and dread, submerged her in a faintly thunderous darkness. +She felt everywhere about her the presence of evil and threatening +shades. The approach of her husband, his heavy settling into a chair, did +nothing to lighten her apprehension. + +"How soon do we go?" she asked faintly. + +"In two weeks, with nothing unexpected," he responded without interest or +pleasure. It flashed through her mind that he was depressed at leaving +Salem, that other woman. His present indifference was very far from the +manner in which he had first discussed their leaving. Yet, even that, she +recalled in the light of her present sensitiveness, had been unnaturally +abrupt and clothed in a great many loud-sounding words. She told herself +arbitrarily that Edward Dunsack had lied--for the purpose which his +conduct afterward made clear--but her very feeling was proof that she +believed he had spoken the truth. + +She was a victim of an uneasy curiosity to see... she made a violent +mental effort and recaptured the name--Nettie Vollar. Of course the +latter had been the deliberate cause of whatever wickedness had +threatened at the return of Gerrit with her, Taou Yuen. She had however +no doubt of the extent of this: Gerrit was upright, faithful to the +necessity Roger Brevard had explained; all that assaulted her happiness +was on an incorporate plane, or, anyhow, in a procession of consequences +extending far back and forward of their present lives. + +But, she recognized, she had no excuse nor opportunity to see Nettie +Vollar. Mrs. Ammidon, when she heard of the accident, had at once +declared her intention of going to the Dunsacks' house; still that +promised no chance of satisfying her own desire. The least politeness in +the world prohibited her from going baldly in and demanding to see the +woman. She couldn't, all at once, make convincing a sympathy or +impersonal interest entirely contradictory to her insistent indifference. +The best she could hope was for them to sail away as quickly as possible; +when on the other side of the seas Gerrit would probably return to the +simplicity of being she had adored. + +Then a trivial and yet serious fear occurred to her--perhaps here, among +all these dead-white women, he no longer held her beautiful. The word was +his own, or it had been his; he had not repeated it, she realized, twice +since they had been in Salem. Personally, she found the American women +entirely undistinguished and dressed in grotesquely ugly and cheap +clothes--not unlike paper lanterns bobbing along the ground. Their faces +were shamelessly bare of paint and their manners would have disgraced the +lowest servant in a Chinese courtyard. This was natural, from any +consideration of the hideous or inappropriate things that surrounded +them, and from the complete lack of what she could distinguish as either +discipline or reverence. Yet Gerrit, a part of this, would be unable to +share her attitude; she had heard him praise the appearance of women so +insipid that she had turned expecting vainly an ironic smile. + +Roger Brevard rose and made his bow, the only satisfactory approach to a +courteous gesture she had met outside Gerrit's occasional half-humorous +effort since leaving Shanghai. He stirred, muttered a perfunctory phrase, +and sank back into obscurity. + +Little quirks of unfamiliar disturbing feeling ran through Taou Yuen; her +mind, it seemed, had become a thing of no importance; all that at one +time had so largely ordered her life was superseded by these illogical +emotions spreading apparently from her heart. The truth was, she told +herself, that--with all her reading and philosophy--she had had little or +no experience of actuality: the injury to her hip and quiet life in the +gray garden at Canton, her protected existence in the women's apartments, +whatever she might have learned from them neglected because of the +general silliness of their chatter, the formal early marriage, had all +combined for the preservation of her ignorance. + +She regarded herself now with distrust; nothing could have been more +unpleasant than the failure of her will, this swamping of her equanimity. +She never lost for a moment the image of superiority that should be her +perfect example, the non-assertion that was the way of heaven; but her +comprehension was like a figure ruthlessly dragged about by an +overpowering unreflective force. A sharp hatred of Nettie Vollar seared +her mind and perished in a miserable sense of weakness. + +Against the dark, charged with a confusion of the ten thousand things, +she stared wearily and wakeful. She reminded herself again that Gerrit +would soon be gone from Salem, alone with her on the long voyage to +China; but he'd return to America, come back to Salem; and she knew that +he would never bring her westward again. A period of depression followed +which seemed to have no immediate connection with Gerrit; she had an +indefinable feeling of struggling in vain against adversity, of +opposition to an implacable power. + +For a short while after she rose in the morning it appeared that she had +regained her self-control, her reason; and a consequent happy relief +irradiated her. But when Gerrit came up after she had finished her toilet +and she saw, from his haggard face, that he too must have been awake, +tormented, through the night, a passion of bitterness enveloped her at +which all that had gone before turned pale. She could scarcely restrain +herself from a noisy wailing accusation, and stood regarding him with a +tense unnatural grimace, the result of her effort to preserve propriety. +She told herself, at the tempest of vulgar phrases storming through her +consciousness, that what Edward Dunsack had said about her being no +better than the tea house girls was true, and she was aghast at the inner +treachery capable of such self-betrayal. Not a quivering word, however, +escaped; she managed a commonplace phrase and turned aside in a trivial +pretext of occupation. + +"I am going into Boston with Captain Dunsack on business connected with +his schooners." The girl's grandfather! "Very well." She spoke placidly, +and with a tempestuous heart watched him stride quickly about the park. + +She settled herself in a long motionless contemplation, fastening her +mind upon the most elevated and revered ideas conceivable. She saw the +eternal Tao flowing like a great green river of souls, smooth and mighty +and resistless; and she willed that she too might become a part of that +desirable self-effacement, safe in surrender. Men striving to create a +Tao for personal ends beat out their lives in vain. It was the figure of +the river developing, like floating on a deliberate all-powerful tide or +struggling impotently against it. + +Later a message came up from Mrs. Ammidon--she hoped that Taou Yuen would +drive with her that afternoon. She dressed with the most particular care, +in blue and dark greens, her shoulders thick with embroidered garlands +and silver _shou_, her piled hair ornamented in glittering silver leaves +and garnets. + +She went down when she heard the horses on the street below but the +barouche was empty except for the coachman. "Mrs. Ammidon left a half +hour ago," a servant told her; "and sent the carriage back for you." They +moved forward, going, she saw, into a part of the town where they seldom +drove--the narrow crowded way by the wharves--and, turning shortly into a +street that ended abruptly at the water, drew up before a dingy house on +her right. + +The door was open, and they waited, confident that Mrs. Ammidon would +hear the clatter of hoofs and come out; but a far different appeared. She +gazed for a silent space at Taou Yuen seated above her, as if confused by +the glittering magnificence. It was probable that Gerrit's brother's wife +had come there on an errand of charity for the woman was poor, dingy like +the house, with a face drawn by suffering and material struggle. + +"Of course you're Captain Ammidon's wife," she said; "and you are here +after Mrs. William Ammidon. Well, she's gone; but she left a message for +you. She will be at Henry Whipple's, the bookseller. After she saw Nettie +she went right off to send her some things; wouldn't wait for the +carriage. A kind-hearted determined body." + +Taou Yuen leaned out to command the coachman to drive on; but the other, +plainly bent on making the most of a rare opportunity for such a +conversation, continued talking in her low resigned way. + +"I was glad to have her too; Nettie gets pretty fretful up there with +nobody but me, really. She hasn't been so well, either, since--" here she +stopped abruptly, recommenced. "I like to see a person myself of Mrs. +Ammidon's kind. I've been alone all day; father's gone to Boston and +Edward away I don't know where." + +Taou Yuen's curiosity to see Nettie Vollar returned infinitely +multiplied; here, miraculously, was an opportunity for her to study the +woman who was beyond any doubt an important part of Gerrit's past, +present--it might be, his future. The men were gone. ... She got +resolutely down from the barouche. "Take me up to your daughter," she +directed quietly. + +"Why, that's very kind, but I don't know--Yes, certainly. Mind +these stairs with your satin skirt; I don't always get around to +the whole house." + +Taou Yuen saw at once that Nettie Vollar was far sicker than she had +realized: her head lay on the pillow absolutely spent, her brow damply +plastered with hair and her eyes enlarged and dull. Taou Yuen drew a +chair forward and sat beside a table with a glass bowl of small dark +pills which from a just perceptible odor she recognized as opium. She +looked intently, coldly, at the prostrate figure. A flush like match +flames burned in Nettie Vollar's cheeks, and she said in a voice at once +weak and sharp: + +"You're her!" + +Taou Yuen nodded slowly, disdainfully. + +"Oh, how could he!" the other exclaimed in what sounded like the thin +echo of a passionate cry. "I knew you were Chinese, but I never realized +it till this minute." + +As Gerrit Ammidon's wife had feared she was totally unable to judge a +single quality or feature of the girl before her. She looked exactly like +all the others she had seen in Salem: in order to realize her she needed +Gerrit's eyes, Gerrit's birth. Then one fact crept insidiously into her +consciousness--here, in a way, was another being who had Gerrit Ammidon's +childlike simplicity. That was the most terrifying discovery she could +have made. Taou Yuen felt the return of the hateful irresistible emotions +which had destroyed her self-control. She wanted to hurt Nettie Vollar in +every possible way, to mock her with the fact that she had lost Gerrit +perhaps never to see him again; she wanted to tell her that she, Taou +Yuen, entirely understood her hopes, efforts, and that they were vain. + +An utter self-loathing possessed her at the same time, a feeling of +imminent danger as if she were walking with willfully shut eyes on the +edge of a precipice above a black fatal void. Not a trace of this +appeared on her schooled countenance; and once more she completely +restrained any defiling speech. She deliberately shifted her point of +view to another possible aspect of all that confronted her--it might be +that this woman was a specter, a _kwei_, bent on Gerrit's destruction. +Such a thing often happened. How much better if Nettie Vollar had been +killed! She studied her with a renewed interest--a fresh question. +Perhaps the other would die as it was. She was extremely weak; her +spirit, Taou Yuen saw, lay listlessly in a listless body. Nettie Vollar +slightly moved her injured arm, and that little effort exhausted her for +a moment; her eyes closed, her face was as white as salt. + +A further, almost philosophical, consideration engaged Taou Yuen's +mind--this extraordinary occasion, her being with the other alone, Nettie +Vollar's fragility, were, it might be, all a part of the working of the +righteous _Yang_. In the light of this, then, she had been brought here +for a purpose ... the ending of a menace to her husband. She hesitated +for a breath--if it were the opposite malignant _Yin_ there was no bottom +to the infamy into which she might fall. It was a tremendous question. + +The actual execution of the practical suggestion, from either source, was +extremely easy; she had but to lean forward, draw her heavy sleeve across +the strained face, hold it there for a little, and Nettie Vollar would +have died of--of any one of a number of reasonable causes. She, Taou +Yuen, would call, politely distressed, for the mother ... very +regrettable. + +Gerrit free-- + +Perhaps. + +She had no shrinking from the act itself, nothing that might have been +called pity, a few more or less years in a single life were beneath +serious consideration; it was the lives to come, the lingering doubt of +which power led her on, which restrained and filled her mind. A flicker +of rage darted through her calm questioning; her mental processes again +faded. With her right arm across the supine body and enveloping the face +in her left sleeve a single twist and Nettie Vollar would choke in a +cloud of thick satin made gay with unfading flowers and the embroidered +symbol of long life. She felt her body grow rigid with purpose when the +sound of a footfall below held her motionless in an unreasoning dread. + +It was not heavy, yet she was certain that it was not the woman's. A blur +of voices drifted up to her, the dejected feminine tone and a thin +querulous demand, surprise. Taou Yuen turned cold as stone: the sensation +of oppressive danger increased until it seemed as if she, and not Nettie +Vollar, were strangling. There was a profound stillness, then a shuffling +tread on the stair, and Edward Dunsack entered, entered but stood without +advancing, his back against a closed door. + +Even since yesterday he had noticeably wasted, there were muscles of his +face that twitched continuously; his hands, it seemed to her, writhed +like worms. He said nothing, but stared at her with a fixed glittering +vision; all his one time worship--it had been so much--was devoured in +the hatred born in the Ammidon library. Frozen with apprehension she sat +without movement; her face, she felt, as still as a lacquered mask. + +To her astonishment--she had forgotten Nettie Vollar's existence--a +shaken voice from the bed demanded: + +"Uncle Edward, what's come over you! Don't you see Mrs. Ammidon! Oh--" +her speech rose in a choked exclamation. Edward Dunsack had turned the +key and was crossing the room with a dark twisted face, his eyes stark +and demented. Taou Yuen, swung round toward the advancing figure, heard a +long fluttering breath behind her. Perhaps Nettie Vollar had died of +fright. The terror in her own brain dried up before an overwhelming +realization--she had betrayed herself to the principle of evil. She was +lost. Her thoughts were at once incredibly rapid and entirely vivid, +logical: Edward Dunsack, ruined, in China; herself blinded, confused, +destroyed in America. Yesterday she had held him powerless with the mere +potency of her righteousness; but now she had no strength. + +There was a loathsome murmur from his dusty lips. He intended to kill +her, to mar and spoil her throat, a degradation forbidden by Confucius, +an eternal disfigurement. This filled her with a renewed energy of +horror.... Here there was none but a feeble woman to hear her if she +called. She rose mechanically, a hand on the table; Taou Yuen saw Nettie +Vollar's deathly pallid face rolled awkwardly from the pillow, and the +bowl of opium. There were twenty or more pills. Without hesitation, even +with a sense of relief, she swept the contents of the bowl into her palm. +The effort of swallowing so many hard particles was almost convulsive and +followed with a nauseous spasm. + +Exhausted by mental effort she sank into a chair and a dullness like +smoke settled over her. The figure of Edward Dunsack retreated to an +infinite distance. The smoke moved in a great steady volume--the eternal +and changeless Tao, without labor or desires, without.... Hatred requited +with virtue ... attracting all honor--mounting higher and higher from the +consuming passions, the seething black lives of her immeasurable fall. + + + + +X + +Although the late afternoon was at an hour when Derby Street should have +been filled by a half-idle throng in the slackening of the day's +waterside employments Roger Brevard found it noticeably empty. In this he +suddenly recognized that the street was like the countingroom of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, the heart of Salem's greatness--they +were weaker, stilled in a decline that yet was not evident in the +impressive body of the town. + +When he had first taken charge of this branch both Salem and it had been +of sufficient moment to attract him from New York; the company was +insuring Boston and New York vessels; the captains had thronged its broad +window commanding St. Peters and Essex Streets. Now only an occasional +shipmaster, holding the old traditions and habits or else retired, sat in +the comfortable armchairs with leather cushions drawn up at the coal +hearth or expansive in white through the summer. + +His mind shifted to a consideration of these facts in relation to +himself--whether the same thing overtaking the place and marine insurance +had not settled upon him too--as he made his way from Central Wharf, +where he had vainly gone for prospective business. His inquiry was +reaching a depressing certainty when, passing and gazing down Hardy +Street, he saw the Ammidon barouche standing in front of the Dunsacks'. + +Roger Brevard stopped: the Ammidon men, he knew, seldom drove about +Salem. He had heard of Nettie Vollar's accident and came to the +conclusion that Rhoda was within. If this were so, her visit, limited to +a charitable impulse, would be short; and thinking of the pleasure of +driving with her he turned into the side way. As he approached, the +coachman met him with an evident impatience. + +"No, sir," he replied to Brevard's inquiry. "But we were to get Mrs. +Ammidon at the bookstore. Mrs. Captain Gerrit called here for her, but +she went inside unexpected. All of an hour ago. I don't like to ask for +the lady, but what may be said later I can't think." + +He had scarcely finished speaking when a woman whom Brevard recognized +as Kate Vollar appeared at the door. "Oh, Mr. Brevard!" she exclaimed +with an unnaturally pallid and apprehensive face. "I'm glad to find +you. Please come upstairs with me. Why I don't know but I'm all in a +tremble. Mrs. Ammidon went to see Nettie, then Edward came in, and when +he heard who was there he acted as if he were struck dumb and went up +like a person afflicted. I waited the longest while and then followed +them and knocked. Why the door was shut I'd never tell you. But they +didn't answer, any of them," she declared with clasped straining hands. +"Three in the room and not a sound. Please--" her voice was suddenly +suffocated by dread. + +"Certainly. Quarles," he addressed the coachman, "I'll get you to come +along. If there is a lock to break it will need a heavier shoulder +than mine." + +Mounting the narrow somber stair, followed by the man and Kate Vollar, he +wondered vainly what might have happened. Obscurely some of the woman's +fear was communicated to him. Brevard knocked abruptly on the door +indicated but there was no answering voice or movement. He tried the +latch: as Nettie's mother had found, it was fastened. + +"Quarles," Roger Brevard said curtly. + +The coachman stepped forward, braced himself for the shove he directed +against the wooden barrier, and the door swept splintering inward. Roger +advanced first and a grim confusion touched him with cold horror. Taou +Yuen was half seated and half lying across a table beside the bed; he +couldn't see her face, but her body was utterly lax. Nettie Vollar, too, +was in a dreadful waxen similitude of death, with lead colored lips and +fixed sightless eyes. A slight extraordinary sound rose behind him, and +whirling, Brevard discovered that it was Edward Dunsack giggling. He was +silent immediately under the other's scrutiny, and an expression of +stubborn and malicious caution pinched his wasted sardonic countenance. + +Brevard turned to the greater necessity of the women, and moved Taou Yuen +so that he could see her features. It was evident that she was not, as he +had first thought, dead; her breathing was slow and deep and harsh, her +pulse deliberate and full; she was warm, too, but her face was suffused +by an unnatural blueness and the pupils of her inert eyes were barely +discernible. He shook her with an unceremonious vigor, but there was no +answering energy; she fell across his arm in a sheer weight of +satin-covered body. He moved back in a momentary uncontrollable repulsion +when Kate Vollar threw herself past him onto the bed. "Nettie!" she +cried, "Nettie! Nettie!" Brevard was chilled by the possibility of an +unutterable tragedy, when with a faint suffusion of color the girl gave a +gasping sigh. Her voice stirred in a terror shaken whisper: + +"Uncle Edward, don't! Why--don't. Oh!" She pressed her face with a long +shudder into the pillow. "Whatever was it--?" her mother began wildly. +Brevard caught her shoulder. "Not now," he directed; "you'll come +downstairs with me. We must have help at once and your daughter quiet." + +However he was in a quandary--he couldn't trust the woman here, he would +have to go immediately for assistance, and yet it was impossible to leave +Nettie Vollar and Gerrit's wife alone. "You will have to wait in the +room," he decided, turning to Quarles. + +Edward Dunsack was wavering against a wall; Brevard went swiftly up to +him. "We'll need you," he said shortly. Dunsack maintained his silence +and air of stubborn cunning; but, when the other man clasped his +incredibly thin arm, he went willingly followed by Kate Vollar below. +There he sat obediently, his judicious detachment broken by a repetition +of the thin shocking snigger. + +"You must be responsible for your brother," Roger Brevard told the +quivering woman. "I'll be back immediately. Now that you know Nettie's +safe you must control yourself. No one should go up--keep everybody +out--till you hear from me or the doctor or Captain Ammidon." + +What an inexplicable accident or crime, he thought, hurriedly approaching +the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone, the first and +nearest of the places to which he must go. He could remember no mark of +what had overcome Taou Yuen. How was Dunsack, who was now clearly +demented, implicated? What racking thing had Nettie Vollar seen? + +In the subsequent exclamatory rush, even on the following morning when +Roger Brevard learned that--poisoned by opium undoubtedly taken by +herself--Gerrit Ammidon's wife had died without regaining consciousness, +the greater part of the tragedy became little clearer. No statement could +be had from Edward Dunsack other than a meaningless array of +precautionary phrases; and returning in a sliding gait toward Hardy +Street he was put under a temporary restraint. + +Nettie Vollar, Brevard heard, had relapsed from her injury into a second +critical collapse. Yet, he told himself, entering the room that was his +home in Mrs. Cane's large square house on Chestnut Street, that the +Manchu still absorbed his speculations. + +It was a pleasant room and a pleasant house with a dignified portico; and +his tall windows, back on the right of the second floor, opened on the +length of the Napiers' garden. Brevard sat looking out over a dim +leafiness of evening and tried to discipline his thoughts into order and +coherence. Any dignity of death had been soiled by the ugly mystery of +the aspects surrounding the end of Taou Yuen. + +He had liked her extremely well, agreeing with Rhoda Ammidon that, +probably, they had never been permitted to know a more aristocratic +breeding or greater degrees of purely worldly and mental and personal +charm than those of Gerrit's wife. + +His mind grew more philosophical and a perception, yet without base in +facts, convinced him that Taou Yuen had been killed by America. It was a +fantastic thought, and he attempted to dismiss it, waiting for more +secure knowledge, but it persisted. She had been killed by unfamiliar +circumstances, tradition, emotions. In some manner, but how he was unable +to disentangle from the pressures of mere curiosity and conjecture, +Nettie Vollar--or rather Gerrit's old passing affair with Nettie--had +entered into the unhappy occurrence. After an hour's vain search he gave +up all effort to pierce the darkness until he had actual knowledge--if he +ever had, he was forced to add silently. It was possible that the secret +might be entirely guarded from the public, even from the closer part he +had played and his familiarity with the Ammidon family. + +He was an inmate of their inner garden with its lilac trees and hedged +roses in season, the pungent beds of flowers and box, the moonshade of +the poplars. Roger Brevard turned from the consideration of Taou Yuen to +the even more insistent claim of his increasing affection for Sidsall. He +stopped again both to lament and delight in her youth--another year and +he would have unhesitatingly announced his feeling as love to them all. +It was that, he admitted to himself almost shyly. The obvious thing was +for him to wait through the year or more until the Ammidons would hear of +a proposal and then urge his desire.... He could see her quite often +meanwhile. + +Yes, that was the sensible course, even in the face of his own +multiplying years. They were twenty-five more than Sidsall's; yet, he +added in self-extenuation, he was not definitely snared in middle age; he +was still elastic in body and youthful, but for graying hair, in +appearance. His birth was eligible from every social consideration; and, +though he was not rich, he had enough independently to assure the safety +of his wife's future. This did not come entirely, or now even in the +larger part, from the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, but took the +form of a comparatively small but secure private income. + +He paused to wonder if it had not been that latter fact which had +prevented his being successful--successful, that was, in William +Ammidon's meaning of the word. He had not made money nor a position of +importance among men of affairs. Such safety, he decided, was a dangerous +possession judged by the standards he was now considering. A few thousand +a year for life struck at the root of activity. It induced a critical +detached attitude toward life, overemphasized the importance of the cut +of a trouser and the validity of pedigree. It was a mistake to dance +noticeably well. + +Drifting, together with almost everyone else, he had reached his +present position, past forty, by imperceptible degrees, obscurely +influenced by the play of what he intrinsically was on circumstances or +accident or fate. + +Although he had never done so before, he compared himself with Gerrit +Ammidon. The other's refusal to accept a partnership in the family firm +or command a California clipper was known. Gerrit and himself were +alike in that they apprehended the values of life more clearly than did +the ordinary mind or heart. But, in retaliation, the world they +differed from curtly brushed them aside. Roger Brevard could not see +that they had made the least mark on the callous normal cruelty or the +aesthetic and spiritual blindness of the existence they shared. But it +was always possible that something bigger than their grasp of justice +or beauty was afoot. + +He turned from the darkened prospect of the window and his thoughts to +the room. Without a light he removed his formal street clothes, hanging +the coat and waistcoat, folding the trousers in a drawer, with exact +care; changing his light boots for fiber slippers he set the former in +the row of footgear drawn up like a military review against the wall. +Though it was quite obscure now, and no one would see him, he paused to +brush his slightly disarranged hair, before--tying the cord of his +chamber robe--he resumed his seat. + +The year, he reverted to Sidsall, would pass; but, try as he might, he +had no feeling of security in the future, however near. It was the +present, this Sidsall, that filled him with a tyrannical and bitter +longing. She was unbelievably beautiful now. Against the faintness of his +hope, his patience, he saw the whole slow process of the disintegration +of marine insurance, and with it his own fatuous insensibility to the +decline: that decline with its exact counterpart in himself. Salem and he +were getting dusty together. + +He straightened up vigorously in his chair--this would never do. He must +wind up his affairs here and return to New York. The tranquil backwater +had overpowered him for a time; but, again awake, he would strike out +strongly... with Sidsall. Endless doubt and hope fluctuated within him. +Voices rose from the Napier garden, and from a tree sounded the whirring +of the first locust he had noticed that summer. + +On a noon following he saw the passage of the three or four carriages +that constituted the funeral cortege of Taou Yuen's entirely private +interment. She would be buried of course by Christian service: here were +none of the elaborate Confucian rites and ceremonial; yet--from what Taou +Yuen had occasionally indicated--Confucius, Lao-tze, the Buddha, were all +more alike than different; they all vainly preached humility, purity, the +subjugation of the flesh. He stopped later in the Charter Street cemetery +and found her grave, the headstone marked: + +TAOU YUEN +A MANCHURIAN LADY +THE WIFE +OF +GERRIT AMMIDON, ESQ. +and the dates. + +He saw, naturally, but little of the Ammidons--a glimpse of Rhoda in the +carriage and William on Charter Street; the _Nautilus_, ready for sea, +continued in her berth at Phillips' Wharf. Fragments of news came to him +quoted and re-quoted, grotesquely exaggerated and even malicious reports +of the tragedy at the Dunsacks'. Standing at his high desk in the +countingroom of the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, Taou Yuen's +glittering passage through Salem already seemed to him a fable, a dream. +Even Sidsall, robustly near by, had an aspect of unreality in the tender +fabric of his visions. Captain Rendell, his spade beard at the verge of +filmed old eyes, who was seated at the window, rose with difficulty. For +a moment he swayed on insecure legs, then, barely gathering the necessary +power, moved out into the street. + +Later, when Roger Brevard was turning the key on the insurance company +for the day, Lacy Saltonstone stopped to speak in her charming slow +manner: "Mother of course is in a whirl, with Captain Ammidon about to +marry that Nettie Vollar, since she is recovering after all, and our +moving to Boston.... You see I'm there so often it will make really very +little difference to me. Sidsall is the lucky one, though you'd never +know it from seeing her.... I thought you'd have heard--why, to Lausanne, +a tremendously impressive school for a year. They have promised her +London afterward. I would call that a promise, but actually, Sidsall--." + +"Doesn't she want to go?" he asked mechanically, all the emotions that +had chimed through his being suddenly clashing in a discordant misery. He +bowed absently, and hastening to his room softly closed the door and sat +without supper, late into the evening, lost in a bitterness that +continually poisoned the resolutions formed out of his overwhelming need. +He was aghast at the inner violence that destroyed the long tranquility +of his existence, the clenched hands and spoken words lost in the shadows +over the Napiers' garden. He wanted Sidsall with a breathless tyranny +infinitely sharper than any pang of youth: she was life itself. + +She didn't want to go, Lacy had made that clear; and he told himself that +her reluctance could only, must, proceed from one cause--that she cared +for him. As he dwelt on this, the one alleviating possibility, he became +certain of its truth. He would find her at once and in spite of Rhoda and +William Ammidon explain that his whole hope lay in marrying her. With an +utter contempt at all the small orderly habits which, he now saw, were +the expression of a confirmed dry preciseness, he left his clothes in a +disorderly heap. Such a feeling as Sidsall's and his, he repeated from +the oppressive expanse of his black walnut bed, was above ordinary +precautions and observance. Then, unable to dismiss the thought of how +crumpled his trousers would be in the morning, oppressed by the picture +of the tumbled garments, he finally rose and, in the dark, relaid them in +the familiar smooth array. + +In the morning his disturbance resolved into what seemed a very decided +and reasonable attitude: He would see Rhoda that day and explain his +feeling and establish what rights and agreement he could. He was willing +to admit that Sidsall was, perhaps, too young for an immediate decision +so wide in results. The ache, the hunger for happiness sharpened by vague +premonitions of mischance, began again to pound in his heart. + +At the Ammidons' it was clear immediately that Rhoda's manner toward him +had changed: it had become more social, even voluble, and restrained. She +conversed brightly about trivial happenings, while he sat listening, +gravely silent. But it was evident that she soon became aware of his +difference, and her voice grew sharper, almost antagonistic. They were in +the formal parlor, a significant detail in itself, and Roger Brevard saw +William pass the door. Well, he would soon have to go, he must speak +about Sidsall now. It promised to be unexpectedly difficult; but the +words were forming when she came into the room. + +There were faint shadows under her eyes, the unmistakable marks of tears. +An overwhelming passion for her choked at his throat. She came directly +up to him, ignoring her mother. "Did you hear that they want me to go +away?" she asked. He nodded, "It's that I came to see your mother about." + +"They know I don't want to," she continued; "I've explained it to them +very carefully." + +"My dear Sidsall," Rhoda Ammidon cut in; "we can't have this. What Roger +has to say must be for me and your father." The girl smiled at her and +turned again to Roger Brevard. "Do you want me to go?" + +"No!" he cried, all his planning lost in uncontrollable rebellion. + +"Then I don't think I shall." + +William entered and stood at his wife's shoulder. "You won't insist," +Sidsall faced them quietly. "Ridiculous," her father replied. Brevard +realized that he must support the girl's bravery of spirit. How +adorable she was! But, before the overwhelming superior position of the +elder Ammidons, their weight of propriety and authority, his +determination wavered. + +"To be quite frank," the other man proceeded, "since it has been forced +on us, Sidsall imagines herself in love with you, Brevard. I don't need +to remind you how unsuitable and preposterous that is. She's too young to +know the meaning of love. Besides, my dear fellow, you're a quarter +century her elder. We want Sidsall to go to London like her mother, have +her cotillions, before she settles into marriage." + +"They can't understand, Roger," Sidsall touched his hand. "We're sorry to +disappoint them--" + +"You ought to be made to leave the room," William fumed. + +"That isn't necessary," Rhoda told him. "I am sure Roger understands +perfectly how impossible it is. You mustn't be hurt," she turned to him, +"if I admit that we have very different plans... at least a man nearer +Sidsall's age." + +The girl lifted a confident face to him. "You want to marry me, don't +you?" she asked. More than any other conceivable joy. But he said this +silently. His courage slowly ebbed before the parental displeasure +viewing him coldly. "Then--" Sidsall paused expectantly, a touch of +impatience even invaded her manner. "Please tell them, Roger." + +"Why I have to put up with this is beyond me," William Ammidon +expostulated with his wife. "It's shameless." + +Roger Brevard winced. He tried to say something about hope and the +future, but it was so weak, a palpable retreat, leaving Sidsall alone and +unsupported, that the words perished unfinished. The girl studied him, +suddenly startled, and her confidence ebbed. He turned away, crushed by +convention, filled with shame and a sense of self-betrayal. + +A stillness followed of unendurable length, in which he found his +attention resting on the diversified shapes of the East India money in a +corner cabinet. It was Sidsall who finally spoke, slowly and clearly: + +"Forgive me." + +He recognized that she was addressing her mother and father. From a +whisper of skirts he realized that she was leaving the room. Without the +will necessary for a last glimpse he stood with his head bowed by an +appalling sensation of weariness and years. + +In a flash of self-comprehension, Roger Brevard knew that he would never, +as he had hoped, leave Salem. He was an abstemious man, one of a family +of long lives, and he would linger here, increasingly unimportant, for a +great while, an old man in new epochs, isolated among strange people and +prejudices. Whatever the cause--the small safety or an inward flaw--he +had never been part of the corporate sweating humanity where, in the war +of spirit and flesh, the vital rewards and accomplishments were found. + +Soon after he passed Gerrit and Nettie Vollar driving in the direction of +the harbor; she was lying back wanly in the Ammidon barouche, but her +companion's face was set directly ahead, his expression of general +disdain strongly marked. A vigorous hand, Roger noted, was clasped about +Nettie's supine palm. She saw him standing on the sidewalk and bowed +slightly, but the shipmaster plainly overlooked him together with the +rest of Salem. + +The end of summer was imminent in a whirl of yellow leaves and chill gray +wind. There was a ringing of bugles through the morning, the strains of +military quicksteps, rhythmic tramping feet and the irregular fulmination +of salutes. That it was already the day of the annual Fall Review seemed +incredible to Roger Brevard. He was indifferent to the activities of the +Common; but when he heard that the _Nautilus_ was sailing in the middle +of the afternoon he left his inconsequential affairs for Phillips' Wharf. + +A small number were waiting on the solid rock-filled reach, the +wharfinger's office at its head and a stone warehouse blocking the end, +where the _Nautilus_ lay with her high-steeved bowsprit pointing outward. +The harbor was slaty, cold, and there was a continuous slapping of small +waves on the shore. Darkening clouds hung low in the west, out of which +the wind cut in flaws across the open. The town, so lately folded in lush +greenery, showed a dun lift of roofs and stripping branches tossing +against an ashy sky. + +Close beside Roger stood Barzil Dunsack, his beard blowing, with Kate +Vollar in a bright red shawl, her skirts whipping uneasily against her +father's legs. Beyond were the Ammidons--William, and Rhoda in a deep +furred wrap, and their daughters. Rhoda waved for him to join them, but +he declined with a gesture of acknowledgment. + +The deck of the _Nautilus_ was above his vision but he could see most of +the stir of departure. The peremptory voice of the mate rose from the +bow, minor directions were issued by the second mate aft, a seaman was +aloft on the main-royal yard and another stood at the stage rising +sharply from the wharf. Gerrit and his wife had not yet arrived, and the +pilot, making a leisurely appearance, stopped to exchange remarks with +the Ammidons. He climbed on board the ship and Roger could see his head +and shoulders moving toward the poop and mounting the ladder. + +The wind grew higher, shriller, every moment; it was thrashing among the +stays and braces; the man aloft, a small movement against the clouds, +swayed in its force. There was a faint clatter of hoofs from Derby +Street, Brevard had a fleeting glimpse of an arriving carriage, and +Gerrit, supporting Nettie Ammidon, advanced over the wharf. The +shipmaster walked slowly, the woman clinging, almost dragging, at his +erect strength. They went close by Roger: Nettie's pale face, her large +shining dark eyes, were filled with placid surrender. Her companion spoke +in a low grave tone, and she looked up at him in a tired and happy +acquiescence. + +The two families joined, and there was a confused determined gayety of +farewell and good wishes. Out of it finally emerged the captain of the +_Nautilus_ and the slight figure upon his arm. He wore a beaver hat, and, +as they mounted the stage, he was forced to hold it on with his free +hand. When the quarter-deck was reached they disappeared into the cabin. + +"Mr. Broadrick," the pilot called, "you can get in those bow fasts. Send +a hawser to the end of the wharf; I'm going to warp out." There was a +harsh answering clatter as the mooring chain that held the bow of the +_Nautilus_ was secured, and a group of sailors went smartly forward with +a hemp cable to the end of the wharf's seaward thrust. The _Nautilus_ lay +on the eastern side, with the wind beating over the starboard quarter, +and there was little difficulty in getting under way. Strain was kept on +the stern and breast fasts while the mate directed: + +"Ship your capstan bars." + +The capstan turned and the _Nautilus_ moved forward to the beat of song. + +"Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +I thought I heard the old man say. +Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +We'll get some rum ... +... Hurrah, my John. +Then shake her--" + +"Vast heaving," Mr. Broadrick shouted. + +The intimate spectators on Phillips' Wharf moved +out with the ship. Gerrit Ammidon was now visible on the quarter-deck +with the pilot. He walked to the port railing aft and stood gazing +somberly back at Salem. The stovepipe hat was not yet discarded, and the +hand firmly holding its brim resembled a final gesture of contempt. The +pilot approached him, there was a brief exchange of words, and the former +sharply ordered: + +"Stand by to run up your jib and fore-topmast staysail, Mr. Broadrick. +Put two good men at the sheets and see that those sails don't slat to +pieces. + +"On the wharf there--take that stern fast out to the last ringbolt. Mr. +Second Mate... get your fenders aboard." The wind increased in a violence +tipped with stinging rain. "Give her the jib and stay-sail." She heeled +slightly and gathered steerage way. Roger Brevard involuntarily waved a +parting salutation. An extraordinary emotion swept over him: a ship bound +to the East always stirred his imagination and sense of beauty, but the +departure of the _Nautilus_ had a special significance. It was the +beginning, yes, and the end, of almost the whole sweep of human suffering +and despair, of longing and hope and passion, and a reward. + +"Let go the stern fast. Steady your helm there." + +"Steady, sir." + +A mere gust of song was distinguishable against the blast of storm. Under +the lee of the stone warehouse, on the solidity of the wharf, the land, +Roger Brevard watched the _Nautilus_ while one by one the topsails were +sheeted home and the yards mastheaded. "A gale by night," somebody +said. The ship, driving with surprising speed toward the open sea, was +now apparently no more than a fragile shell on the immensity of the stark +horizon. + +The light faded: the days were growing shorter. Alone Brevard followed +the others moving away. Kate Vollar's red shawl suddenly streamed out and +was secured by a wasted hand. Just that way, he thought, the color and +vividness of his existence had been withdrawn. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + +***** This file should be named 9865.txt or 9865.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/6/9865/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +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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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Java Head + +Author: Joseph Hergesheimer + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9865] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 25, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + JAVA HEAD + + By Joseph Hergesheimer + + 1918 + + + + +It is only the path of pure simplicity which guards and preserves the +spirit. _CHWANG-TZE_ + + + + +TO HAZLETON MIRKIL, JR. + +_from Dorothy and Joseph Hergesheimer_ + + + + +I + +Very late indeed in May, but early in the morning, Laurel Ammidon lay in +bed considering two widely different aspects of chairs. The day before +she had been eleven, and the comparative maturity of that age had filled +her with a moving disdain for certain fanciful thoughts which had given +her extreme youth a decidedly novel if not an actually adventurous +setting. Until yesterday, almost, she had regarded the various chairs of +the house as beings endowed with life and character; she had held +conversations with some, and, with a careless exterior not warranted by +an inner dread, avoided others in gloomy dusks. All this, now, she +contemptuously discarded. Chairs were--chairs, things to sit on, wood and +stuffed cushions. + +Yet she was slightly melancholy at losing such a satisfactory lot of +reliable familiars: unlike older people, victims of the most +disconcerting moods and mysterious changes, chairs could always be +counted on to remain secure in their individual peculiarities. + +She could see by her fireplace the elaborately carved teakwood chair +that her grandfather had brought home from China, which had never varied +from the state of a brown and rather benevolent dragon; its claws were +always claws, the grinning fretted mouth was perpetually fixed for a +cloud of smoke and a mild rumble of complaint. The severe waxed hickory +beyond with the broad arm for writing, a source of special pride, had +been an accommodating and precise old gentleman. The spindling gold +chairs in the drawingroom were supercilious creatures at a king's ball; +the graceful impressive formality of the Heppelwhites in the dining room +belonged to the loveliest of Boston ladies. Those with difficult +haircloth seats in the parlor were deacons; others in the breakfast room +talkative and unpretentious; while the deep easy-chair before the library +fire was a ship. There were mahogany stools, dwarfs of dark tricks; angry +high-backed things in the hall below; and a terrifying shape of gleaming +red that, without question, stirred hatefully and reached out curved and +dripping hands. + +Anyhow, such they had all seemed. But lately she had felt a growing +secrecy about it, an increasing dread of being laughed at; and now, +definitely eleven, she recognized the necessity of dropping such pretense +even with herself. They were just chairs, she rerepeated; there was an +end of that. + +The tall clock with the brass face outside her door, after a +premonitory whirring, loudly and firmly struck seven, and Laurel +wondered whether her sisters, in the room open from hers, were awake. +She listened attentively but there was no sound of movement. She made a +noise in her throat, that might at once have appeared accidental and +been successful in its purpose of arousing them; but there was no +response. She would have gone in and frankly waked Janet, who was not +yet thirteen and reasonable; but experience had shown her that Camilla, +reposing in the eminence and security of two years more, would permit no +such light freedom with her slumbers. + +Sidsall, who had been given a big room for herself on the other side of +their parents, would greet anyone cheerfully no matter how tightly she +might have been asleep. And Sidsall, the oldest of them all, was nearly +sixteen and had stayed for part of their cousin Lucy Saltonstone's dance, +where no less a person than Roger Brevard had asked her for a quadrille. + +Laurel's thoughts grew so active that she was unable to remain any +longer in bed; she freed herself from the enveloping linen and crossed +the room to a window through which the sun was pouring in a sharp bright +angle. She had never known the world to smell so delightful--it was one +of the notable Mays in which the lilacs blossomed--and she stood +responding with a sparkling life to the brilliant scented morning, the +honey-sweet perfume of the lilacs mingled with the faintly pungent odor +of box wet with dew. + +She could see, looking back across a smooth green corner of the Wibirds' +lawn next door, the enclosure of their own back yard, divided from the +garden by a white lattice fence and row of prim grayish poplars. At the +farther wall her grandfather, in a wide palm leaf hat, was stirring about +his pear trees, tapping the ground and poking among the branches with his +ivory headed cane. + +Laurel exuberantly performed her morning toilet, half careless, in her +soaring spirits, of the possible effect of numerous small ringings of +pitcher on basin, the clatter of drawers, upon Camilla. Yesterday she had +worn a dress of light wool delaine; but this morning, she decided +largely, summer had practically come; and, on her own authority, she got +an affair of thin pineapple cloth out of the yellow camphorwood chest. +She hurriedly finished weaving her heavy chestnut hair into two gleaming +plaits, fastened a muslin guimpe at the back, and slipped into her dress. +Here, however, she twisted her face into an expression of annoyance--her +years were affronted by the length of pantalets that hung below her +skirt. Such a show of their narrow ruffles might do for a very small +girl, but not for one of eleven; and she caught them up until only the +merest fulled edge was visible. Then she made a buoyant descent to the +lower hall, left the house by a side door to the bricked walk and an +arched gate into the yard, and joined her grandfather. + +"Six bells in the morning watch," he announced, consulting a thick gold +timepiece. "Head pump rigged and deck swabbed down?" Secure in her +knowledge of the correct answers for these sudden interrogations Laurel +impatiently replied, "Yes, sir." + +"Scuttle butt filled?" + +"Yes, sir." She frowned and dug a heel in the soft ground. + +"Then splice the keel and heave the galley overboard." + +This last she recognized as a sally of humor, and contrived a fleeting +perfunctory smile. Her grandfather turned once more to the pears. "See +the buds on those Ashton Towns," he commented. Laurel gazed critically: +the varnished red buds were bursting with white blossom, the new leaves +unrolling, tender green and sticky. "But the jargonelles--" he drew in +his lips doubtfully. She studied him with the profound interest his sheer +being always invoked: she was absorbed in his surprising large roundness +of body, like an enormous pudding; in the deliberate care with which he +moved and planted his feet; but most of all by the fact that when he was +angry his face got quite purple, the color of her mother's paletot or a +Hamburg grape. + +They crossed the yard to where the vines of the latter, and of white +Chasselas--Laurel was familiar with these names from frequent +horticultural questionings--had been laid down in cold frames for later +transplanting; and from them the old man, her palm tightly held in his, +trod ponderously to the currant bushes massed against the closed arcade +of the stables, the wood and coal and store houses, across the rear of +the place. + +At last, with frequent disconcerting mutterings and explosive breaths, +he finished his inspection and turned toward the house. Laurel, +conscious of her own superiority of apparel, surveyed her companion in a +frowning attitude exactly caught from her mother. He had on that mussy +suit of yellow Chinese silk, and there was a spot on the waistcoat +straining at its pearl buttons. She wondered, maintaining the silent +mimicry of elder remonstrance, why he would wear those untidy old things +when his chests were heaped with snowy white linen and English +broadcloths. It was very improper in an Ammidon, particularly in one who +had been captain of so many big ships, and in court dress with a cocked +hat met the Emperor of Russia. + +They did not retrace Laurel's steps, but passed through a narrow wicket +to the garden that lay directly behind the house. The enclosure was full +of robin-song and pouring sunlight; the lilac trees on either side of the +summer-house against the gallery of the stable were blurred with their +new lavender flowering; the thorned glossy foliage of the hedge of June +roses on Briggs Street glittered with diamonds of water; and the rockery +in the far corner showed a quiver of arbutus among its strange and lacy +ferns and mosses. + +Laurel sniffed the fragrant air, filled with a tumult of energy; every +instinct longed to skip; she thought of jouncing as high as the poplars, +right over the house and into Washington Square beyond. "Miss Fidget!" +her grandfather exclaimed, exasperated, releasing her hand. "You're like +holding on to a stormy petrel." + +"I don't think that's very nice," she replied. + +"God bless me," he said, turning upon her his steady blue gaze; "what +have we got here, all dressed up to go ashore?" She sharply elevated a +shoulder and retorted, "Well, I'm eleven." His look, which had seemed +quite fierce, grew kindly again. "Eleven," he echoed with a satisfactory +amazement; "that will need some cumshaws and kisses." The first, she +knew, was a word of pleasant import, brought from the East, and meant +gifts; and, realizing that the second was unavoidably connected with it, +she philosophically held up her face. Lifting her over his expanse of +stomach he kissed her loudly. She didn't object, really, or rather she +wouldn't at all but for a strong odor of Manilla cheroots and the Medford +rum he took at stated periods. + +After this they moved on, through the bay window of the drawing-room that +opened on the garden, where a woman was brushing with a nodding feather +duster, under the white arch that framed the main stairway, and turned +aside to where breakfast was being laid. Laurel saw that her father was +already seated at the table, intent upon the tall, thickly printed sheet +of the Salem _Register_. He paused to meet her dutiful lips; then with a +"Good morning, father," returned to his reading. Camilla entered at +Laurel's heels; and the latter, in a delight slightly tempered by doubt, +saw that she had been before her sister in a suitable dress for such a +warm day. Camilla still wore her dark merino; and she gazed with mingled +surprise and annoyance at Laurel's airy garb. + +"Did mother say you might put that on?" she demanded. "Because if she +didn't I expect you will have to go right up from breakfast and change. +It isn't a dress at all for so early in the morning. Why, I believe it's +one of your very best." The look of critical disapproval suddenly became +doubly accusing. + +"Laurel Ammidon, wherever are your pantalets?" + +"I'm too big to have pantalets hanging down over my shoetops," she +replied defiantly, "and so I just hitched them up. You can still see the +frill." Janet had come into the room, and stood behind her. "Don't you +notice Camilla," she advised; "she's not really grown up." They turned at +the appearance of their mother. "Dear me, Camilla," the latter observed, +"you are getting too particular for any comfort. What has upset you now?" + +"Look at Laurel," Camilla replied; "that's all you need to do. You'd +think she went to dances instead of Sidsall" + +Laurel painfully avoided her mother's comprehensive glance. "Very +beautiful," the elder said in a tone of palpable pleasure. Laurel +advanced her lower lip ever so slightly in the direction of Camilla. +"But you have taken a great deal into your own hands." She shifted +apparently to another topic. "There will be no lessons to-day for I +have to send Miss Gomes into Boston." At this announcement Laurel was +flooded with a joy that obviously belonged to her former, less +dignified state. "However," her mother continued addressing her, "since +you have dressed yourself like a lady I shall expect you to behave +appropriately; no soiled or torn skirts, and an hour at your piano +scales instead of a half." + +Laurel's anticipation of pleasure ebbed as quickly as it had come--she +would have to move with the greatest caution all day, and spend a whole +hour at the piano. It was the room to which she objected rather than the +practicing; a depressing sort of place where she was careful not to move +anything out of the stiff and threatening order in which it belonged. The +chairdeacons in particular were severely watchful; but that, now, she had +determined to ignore. + +She turned to johnnycakes, honey and milk, only half hearing, in her +preoccupation with the injustice that had overtaken her, the conversation +about the table. Her gaze strayed over the walls of the breakfast room, +where water color drawings of vessels, half models of ships on teakwood +or Spanish mahogany boards, filled every possible space. Some her +grandfather had sailed in as second and then first mate, of others he had +been master, and the rest, she knew, were owned by Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone, her grandfather, father and uncle. + +Just opposite her was the _Two Capes_ at anchor in Table Bay, the sails +all furled except the fore-topsail which hung in the gear. A gig manned +by six sailors in tarpaulin hats with an officer in the stern sheets +swung with dripping oars across the dark water of the foreground; on the +left an inky ship was standing in close hauled on the port tack with all +her canvas set. It was lighter about the _Two Capes_, and at the back a +mountain with a flat top--showing at once why it was called Table +Bay--rose against an overcast sky. Laurel knew a great deal about the +_Two Capes_--for instance that she had been a barque of two hundred and +nine tons--because it had been her grandfather's first command, and he +never tired of narrating every detail of that memorable voyage. + +Laurel could repeat most of these particulars: They sailed on the tenth +of April in 'ninety-three, and were four and a half months to the Cape of +Good Hope; twenty days later, on the rocky island of St. Paul, +grandfather had a fight with a monster seal; a sailor took the scurvy, +and, dosed with niter and vinegar, was stowed in the longboat, but he +died and was buried at sea in the Doldrums. Then, with a cargo of Sumatra +pepper, they made Corregidor Island and Manilla Bay where the old Spanish +fort stood at the mouth of the Pasig. The barque, the final cargo of hemp +and indigo and sugar in the hold, set sail again for the Cape of Good +Hope, and returned, by way of Falmouth in England and Rotterdam, home. + +The other drawings were hardly less familiar; ships, barques, brigs and +topsail schooners, the skillful work of Salmon, Anton Roux and Chinnery. +There was the _Celestina_ becalmed off Marseilles, her sails hanging idly +from the yards and stays, her hull with painted ports and carved bow and +stern mirrored in the level sea. There was the _Albacore_ running through +the northeast trades with royals and all her weather studding sails set. +Farther along the _Pallas Athena_, in heavy weather off the Cape of Good +Hope, was being driven hard across the Agulhas Bank under double-reefed +topsails, reefed courses, the fore-topmast staysail and spanker, with the +westerly current breaking in an ugly cross sea, but, as her grandfather +always explained, setting the ship thirty or forty miles to windward in a +day. She lingered, finally, over the _Metacom_, running her easting down +far to the southward with square yards under a close-reefed maintop sail, +double-reefed foresail and forestaysail, dead before a gale and gigantic +long seas hurling the ship on in the bleak watery desolation. + +Laurel was closely concerned in all these. One cause for this was the +fact that her grandfather so often selected her as the audience for his +memories and stories, during which his manner was completely that of one +navigator to another; and a second flourished in the knowledge that +Camilla affected to disdain the sea and any of its connections. + +Sidsall appeared and took her place with a collective greeting; while +Laurel, coming out of her abstraction, realized that they were discussing +the subject in which nearly every conversation now began or ended--the +solemn speculation of why her Uncle Gerrit Ammidon, master of the ship +_Nautilus_, was so long overdue from China. Laurel heard this from two +angles, or, otherwise, when her grandfather was or was not present, the +tone of the first far more encouraging than that of the latter. Her +father was speaking: + +"My opinion is that he was unexpectedly held up at Shanghai. It's a new +port for us, and, Captain Verney tells me, very difficult to make: after +Woosung you have to get hold of two bamboo poles stuck up on the bank a +hundred feet apart as a leading mark, and, with these in range, steer for +the bar. The channel is very narrow, and he says the _Nautilus_ would +have to wait for high water, perhaps for the spring tide. She may have +got ashore, strained and sprung a leak, and had to discharge her cargo +for repairs." + +"That's never Gerrit," the elder replied positively. "There isn't a +better master afloat. He can smell shoal water. I was certain we'd hear +from him when the _Sorsogon_ was back from Calcutta. Do you suppose, +William, that he took the _Nautilus_ about the Horn and--?" Laurel +wondered at the unmannerly way in which he gulped his coffee. "He might +have driven into the Antarctic winter," he proceeded. "My deck was swept +and all the boats stove off the Falklands in April." + +"Gerrit's got a ship," the other asserted, "not a hermaphrodite brig +built like a butter box. You'll find that I am right and that he has been +tied up in port." + +"I made eight hundred per cent on a first cargo for my owners," the elder +retorted. "Then there was trading, yes, and sailing, too. No chronometers +with confounded rates of variation and other fancy parlor instruments to +read your position from. When I first navigated it was with an astrolabe +and the moon. A master knew his lead, latitude and lookout then. + +"Eight hundred barrels of flour and pine boards to Rio and back with +coffee and hides for Salem," he continued; "then out to Gibraltar and +Brazil with wine and on in ballast for Calcutta. Tahiti and Morea, the +Sandwich Islands and the Feejees. Sandalwood and tortoise shell and beche +de mer; sea horses' teeth, and saltpeter for the Chinese Government. I +don't want to hear about your bills of exchange and kegs of Spanish +dollars and solid cargoes of tea run back direct. Why, with your Canton +and India agents and sight drafts the China service is like dealing with +a Boston store." + +Laurel saw that her father was assuming the expression of restrained +annoyance habitual when the elder contrasted old shipping ways with new. +"Unfortunately," he said, "the patient Chinaman will no longer exchange +silks and lacquer and teas for boiled sea slugs. He has learned to demand +something of value." + +"Why, damn it, William," the other exploded, "nothing's more valuable to +a Chinese than his belly. They'll give eighteen hundred dollars a pecul +for birds' nests any day. As for your insinuation that we used to diddle +them--I never ran opium up from India to rot their souls. And when the +Chinese Government tried to stop it there's the British commercial +interests forcing it on them with cannon in 'forty-two. + +"Look at the pepper we brought into Salem--" he was, Laurel realized with +intense interest, growing beautifully empurpled; "--lay right off the +beach at Mukka and did business with the Dato himself. We forded the bags +on the crew's backs across a river with muskets served in case the bloody +heathen drew their creeses. When we made sail everything was running over +with pepper--the boats and forecastle and cabins and between decks." + +"Well, father, the heroic times are done, of course; I can't say that I'm +sorry. I shouldn't like to finance a voyage that reached out to three +years and depended on the captain's picking up six or seven cargoes." + +The old man rose; and, muttering a plainly uncomplimentary period about +the resemblance of modern ship owners to clerks, walked with his heavy +careful tread from the room. + +"You are so foolish to argue and excite him," William's wife told him. + +Laurel regarded her with a passionate admiration for the shining hair +turning smoothly about her brow and drawn over her ears to the low coil +in the back, for her brown barege dress with velvet leaves and blue +forget-me-nots and tightest of long sleeves and high collar, and because +generally she was a mother to be owned and viewed with pride. She met +Laurel's gaze with a little friendly nod and said: + +"Don't forget about your clothes, and I think you ought to finish the +practicing before dinner, so you'll be free for a walk with your +grandfather in the afternoon." + +Soon after, Laurel stood in the hall viewing with disfavor the light +dress she had put on so gayly at rising. In spite of her sense of +increasing age she had a strong desire to play in the yard and climb +about in the woodhouse. Already the business of being grown up began to +pall upon her, the outlook dreary that included nothing but a whole hour +at the piano, an endless care of her skirts, and the slowest kind of walk +through Washington Square and down to Derby Wharf, where--no matter in +which direction and for what purpose they started forth--her +grandfather's way invariably led. + +Janet joined her, and they stood irresolutely balancing on alternate +slippers. "Did you notice," the former volunteered, "mother is letting +Camilla have lots of starch in her petticoats, so that they stand right +out like crinoline? Wasn't she hateful this morning!" Laurel heard a +slight sound at her back, and, wheeling, saw her grandfather looking out +from the library door. A swift premonition of possible additional +misfortune seized her. Moving toward the side entrance she said to Janet, +"We'd better be going right away." + +It was, however, too late. "Well, little girls," he remarked +benevolently, "since Miss Gomes has left for the day it would be as well +if I heard your geography lesson." + +"I don't think mother intended for us to study today," Laurel replied, +making a face of appeal for Janet's support. But the latter remained +solidly and silently neutral. + +"What, what," the elder mildly exploded; "mutiny in the forecastle! Get +right up here in the break of the quarter-deck or I'll harry you." He +stood aside while Laurel and Janet filed into the library. Geography was +the only subject their grandfather proposed for his instruction, and the +lesson, she knew, might take any one of several directions. He sometimes +heard it with the precision of Miss Gomes herself; he might substitute +for the regular questions such queries, drawn from his wide voyages, as +he thought to be of infinitely greater use and interest; or, better +still, he frequently gave them the benefit of long reminiscences, +through which they sat blinking in a mechanical attention or slightly +wriggling with minds far away from the old man's periods, full of +outlandish names and places, and, when he got excited, shocking swears. + +He turned the easy-chair--the one which Laurel had thought of as a +ship--away from the fireplace, now covered with a green slatted blind for +the summer; and they drew forward two of the heavy chairs with shining +claw feet that stood against the wall. Smiley's Geography, a book no +larger than the shipmaster's hand, was found and opened to Hindoostan, or +India within the Ganges. There was a dark surprising picture of Hindoos +doing Penance under the Banyan tree, and a confusing view of the Himaleh +Mountains. + +"Stuff," he proceeded, gazing with disfavor at the illustrations. "This +ought to be written by men who have seen the world and know its tides and +landmarks. Do you suppose," he demanded heatedly of Janet, "that the +fellow who put this together ever took a ship through the Formosa Channel +against the northeast monsoon?" + +"No, sir," Janet replied hastily. + +"Here are Climate and Face of the country and Religion," he located these +items with a blunt finger, "but I can't find exports. I'll lay he won't +know a Bengal chintz from a bundle handkerchief." + +"I don't think it says anything about exports," Laurel volunteered. "We +have the boundaries and--" + +"Bilge," he interrupted sharply. "I didn't fetch boundaries back in the +_Two Capes_, did I?" He thrust the offending volume into a crevice of his +chair. "Laurel," he added, "what is the outport of St. Petersburg?" + +"Cronstadt," she answered, after a violent searching of her memory. + +"And for Manilla?" he turned to Janet. + +"I can't think," she admitted. + +"Laurel?" + +"Cavite," the latter pronounced out of a racking mental effort. + +"Just so, and--" he looked up at the ceiling, "the port for Boston?" + +"I don't believe we've had that," she said firmly. His gaze fastened on +her so intently that she blushed into her lap. "Don't believe we've had +it," he echoed. + +"Why, confound it--" he paused and regarded her with a new doubt. +"Laurel," he demanded, "what is an outport?" + +She had a distinct feeling of justifiable injury. A recognized part of +the present system of examination was its strict limitation to questions +made familiar by constant repetition; and this last was entirely new. +She was sure of several kinds of ports--one they had after dinner, +another indicated a certain side of a vessel, and still a third was +Salem. But an outport--Cronstadt, Cavite, what it really meant, what they +were, had escaped her. She decided to risk an opinion. + +"An outport," she said slowly, "is a--a part of a ship," that much +seemed safe--"I expect it's the place where they throw things like +potato peels through." + +"You suppose what!" he cried, breathing quite hard. "A place where +they--" he broke off. "And you're Jeremy Ammidon's granddaughter! By +heaven, it would make a coolie laugh. It's like William, who never would +go to sea, to have four daughters in place of a son. I'm done with you; +go tinker on the piano." They got down from their chairs and departed +with an only half concealed eagerness. "Do you think he means it," Janet +asked hopefully, "and he'll never have any geography again?" + +"No, I don't," Laurel told her shortly. She was inwardly ruffled, and +further annoyed at Janet's placid acceptance of whatever the day brought +along. Janet was a stick! She turned away and found herself facing the +parlor and the memory of the impending hour of practice. Well, it had to +be done before dinner, and she went forward with dragging feet. + +Within the formal shaded space of the chamber she stopped to speculate +on the varied and colorful pictures of the wall paper reaching from the +white paneling above her waist to the deep white carving at the ceiling. +The scene which absorbed her most showed, elevated above a smooth stream, +a marble pavilion with sweeping steps and a polite company about a +reclining gentleman with bare arms and a wreath on his head and a lady in +flowing robes playing pipes. To the right, in deep green shadow, a +charmer was swinging from ropes of flowers, lovers hid behind a brown +mossy trunk; while on the left, against a weeping willow and frowning +rock, four serene creatures gathered about a barge with a gilded prow. + +Still on her reluctant progress to the piano she stopped to examine the +East India money on the lowest shelf of a locked corner cupboard. There +was a tiresome string of cash with a rattan twisted through their square +holes; silver customs taels, and mace and candareen; Chinese gold leaf +and Fukien dollars; coins from Cochin China in the shape of India ink, +with raised edges and characters; old Carolus hooked dollars; Sycee +silver ingots, smooth and flat above, but roughly oval on the lower +surface, not unlike shoes; Japanese obangs, their gold stamped and beaten +out almost as broad as a hand's palm; mohurs and pieces from Singapore; +Dutch guilders from Java; and the small silver and gold drops of Siam +called tical. + +She arrived finally at the harplike stool of the piano; but there she had +to wait until the clock in the hall above struck some division of the +hour for her guidance, and she rattled the brass rings that formed the +handles of drawers on either side of the keyboard. Later, her fingers +picking a precarious way through bass and treble, she heard Sidsall's +voice at the door; the latter was joined by their mother, and they went +out to the clatter of hoofs, the thin jingle of harness chains, where the +barouche waited for them in the street. Once Camilla obtruded into the +room. "I wonder you don't give yourself a headache," she remarked; "I +never heard more nerve-racking sounds." + +Laurel gathered that Camilla was proud of this expression, which she must +have newly caught from some grown person. She considered a reply, but, +nothing sufficiently crushing occurring, she ignored the other in a +difficult transposition of her hands. Camilla left; the clock above +struck a second quarter; the third, while she honestly continued her +efforts up until the first actual note of the hour. + +"Thank God that's over," she said in the liberal manner of a shipmaster. +Now only the walk with her grandfather remained of the actively tiresome +duties of the day. After dinner the sun blazed down with almost the heat +of midsummer, and Laurel felt unexpectedly indifferent, content to linger +in the house. Only too soon she heard inquiries for her; and in her +gaiter boots, a silk bonnet with a blue scarf tied under her chin and +flowing over a shoulder and palm leaf cashmere shawl, she accompanied the +old man across Pleasant Street and over the wide green Square to the +arched west gate with its gilt eagle and Essex Street. + +"Will we be going on Central Street?" she asked. + +"No reason for turning down there," he replied, forgetful of the +gingerbread shop with the shaky little bell inside the door, the buttered +gingerbread on the upper shelf for three cents and that without on the +lower for two. She gathered her hopes now about Webb's Drugstore, where +her grandfather sometimes stopped for a talk, and bought her rock candy, +Gibraltars or blackjacks. It was too hot for blackjacks, she decided, +and, with opportunity, would choose the cooling peppermint flavor of the +Gibraltars. + +The elms on Essex Street were far enough in leaf to cast a flickering +shade in the faintly salt air drifting from the sea; and they progressed +so slowly that Laurel was able to study the contents of most of the store +windows they passed. Some held crewels and crimped white cakes of wax, +gayly colored reticule beads with a wooden spoon for a penny measure, and +"strawberry" emery balls. There was a West India store and a place where +they sold oil and candles, another had charts for mariners; while across +the way stood the East India Marine Hall. + +Here her grandfather hesitated, and for a moment it seemed as if he would +go over and join the masters always to be found about the Museum. But in +the end he continued beyond the Essex House with its iron bow and lamp +over the entrance, past Cheapside to Webb's Drugstore, where he purchased +a bag of Peristaltic lozenges, and--after pretending to start away as if +nothing more were to be secured there--the Gibraltars. + +They were returning, in the general direction of Derby Wharf, when Jeremy +Ammidon met a companion of past days at sea, and stopped for the +inevitable conversational exchange. The latter, who had such a great +spreading beard that Laurel couldn't determine whether or not he wore a +neck scarf, said: + +"Barzil Dunsack all but died." + +"Ha!" the other exclaimed. Laurel wondered at the indelicacy in speaking +about old Captain Dunsack to her grandfather, when everyone in Salem knew +they had quarreled years ago and not spoken to each other since. + +"He was bad off," he persisted; "a cold grappled in his chest and went +into lung fever. Barzil's looking wasted, what with sickness and the +trouble about Edward." At a nod, half encouraging, he added, "It appears +Edward left Heard and Company in Canton and took ship back to Boston. +He's there now for what I know. Never sent any word to Salem or his +father. Looks a little as if he had been turned out of his berth. Then +one of Barzil's schooners caught the edge of the last hurricane off the +Great Bank and went ashore on Green Turtle Key. Used him near all up." + +Laurel saw that her grandfather was frowning heavily and silently moving +his lips. The other left them standing and her companion brought his cane +down sharply. "Boy and boy," he said. "Barzil was a good man... looking +old. So am I, so am I. Feet almost useless. Laurel," he addressed her, "I +want you to go right on home. I've got to stop around and see an old +friend who has been sick." She left obediently, but paused once to gaze +back incredulously at the bulky shape of her grandfather moving toward +Barzil Dunsack's. That quarrel was part of their family history, she had +been aware of it as long as she had of the solemn clock in the second +hall; and not very far back, perhaps when she was eight, it had taken a +fresh activity of discussion around the person of her Uncle Gerrit, who, +it was feared, might now be drowned at sea. What it had all been about +neither she nor her sisters knew, for not only was the subject dropped at +the approach of any of them but they were forbidden to mention it. + +At home she was unable to communicate her surprising news at once because +of the flood of talk that met her from the drawing-room. Olive Wibird and +Lacy, her cousin, were engaged with Sidsall in a conversation often a +duet and sometimes a trio. Laurel took a seat at the edge of the chatter +and followed it comprehensively. She didn't like Olive Wibird who would +greet her in a sugary voice; but elsewhere Olive was tremendously +admired, there were always men about her, serenades rising from the lawn +beneath her window, and Laurel herself had seen Olive's dressing table +laden with bouquets in frilly lace paper. She had one now, in a holder of +mother-of-pearl, with a gilt chain and ring. Her wide skirt was a mass of +over-drapery, knots of moss roses and green gauze ribbons; while a silver +cord ending in a tassel fell forward among her curls. + +Lacy Saltonstone, almost as plainly dressed as Sidsall, was as usual +sitting straighter than anyone else Laurel ever saw; she had a brown +face with a finely curved nose and brown eyes, and her voice was cool +and decided. + +"For me," she said, "he is the most fascinating person in Salem." + +Olive Wibird made a swift face of dissent. "He's too stiff and there is +gray in his hair. I like my men more like sparkling hock. Dancing with +him he holds you as if you were glass." + +"I don't seem to remember you and Mr. Brevard together," Lacy commented. + +"He hasn't asked me for centuries," the other admitted. "He did Sidsall, +though, as we all remember; didn't he, love?" + +Sidsall's cheeks turned bright pink. Laurel dispassionately wished that +her sister wouldn't make such a show of herself. It was too bad that +Sidsall was so--so broad and well looking; she was not in the least pale +or interesting, and had neither Lacy's Saltonstone's thin gracefulness +nor Olive's popular manner. + +"It was very noble of him," Sidsall agreed. + +"But he was extremely engaged," Lacy assured her with her wide slow +stare. "He told me that you were like apple blossoms." + +That might please Sidsall, thought Laurel, but she personally held apple +blossoms to be a very common sort of flower. Evidently something of the +kind had occurred to Olive, too, for she said: "Heaven only knows what +men will admire. It's clear they don't like a prude. I intend to have a +good time until I get married--" + +"But what if you love in vain?" Sidsall interrupted. + +"There isn't any need for that," Olive told her. "When I see a man I +want I'm going to get him. It's easy if you know how and make +opportunities. I always have one garter a little loose." + +"Laurel," her sister turned, "I'm certain your supper is ready. Go along +like a nice child." + +In her room a woman with a flat worn face and a dusty wisp of hair across +her neck was spreading underlinen, ironed into beautiful narrow wisps of +pleating, in a drawer. It was Hodie, a Methodist, the only one Laurel +knew, and the latter was always entranced by the servant's religious +exclamations, doubts and audible prayers. She was saying something now +about pits, gauds and vanities; and she ended a short profession of faith +with an amen so loud and sudden that Laurel, although she was waiting for +it, jumped. + +It was past seven, the air was so sweet with lilacs that they seemed to +be blooming in her room, and the sunlight died slowly from still space. +By leaning out of her window she could see over the Square. The +lamplighter was moving along its wooden fence, leaving faint twinkling +yellow lights, and there were little gleams from the windows on Bath +Street beyond. + +The gayety of her morning mood was replaced by a dim kind of wondering, +her thoughts became uncertain like the objects in the quivering light +outside. The palest possible star shone in the yellow sky; she had to +look hard or it was lost. Janet, stirring in the next room, seemed so far +away that she might not hear her, Laurel, no matter how loudly she +called. "Janet!" she cried, prompted by unreasoning dread. "You needn't +to yell," Janet complained, at the door. But already Laurel was oblivious +of her: she had seen a familiar figure slowly crossing Washington Square +--her grandfather coming home from Captain Dunsack's. + +Gracious, how poky he was; she was glad that she wasn't dragging along at +his side. He seemed bigger and rounder than usual. She heard the tap of +his cane as he left the Common for Pleasant Street; then his feet moved +and stopped, moved and stopped, up the steps of their house. + +She was sorry now that she hadn't known what an outport was, and +determined to ask him to-morrow. She liked his stories, that Camilla +disdained, about crews and Hong Kong and the stormy Cape. The thought of +Cape Horn brought back the memory of her Uncle Gerrit, absent in the +ship _Nautilus_. Her mental pictures of him were not clear--he was +almost always at sea--but she remembered his eyes, which were very +confusing to encounter, and his hair parted and carelessly brushing the +bottoms of his ears. + +Laurel recalled hearing that Gerrit was his father's favorite, and she +suddenly understood something of the unhappiness that weighed upon the +old man. She hoped desperately that Janet or Camilla wouldn't come in and +laugh at her for crying. In bed she saw that the room was rapidly filling +with dusk. Only yesterday she would have told herself that the dragon in +the teakwood chair was stirring; but now Laurel could see that it never +moved. She rocked like the little boats that crossed the harbor or came +in from the ships anchored beyond the wharves, and settled into a sleep +like a great placid sea flooding the world of her home and the +lamplighter and her grandfather sorrowing for Uncle Gerrit. + + + + +II + +When Jeremy Ammidon sent his granddaughter home alone, and turned toward +Captain Dunsack's, on Hardy Street, he stopped for a moment to approve +the diminishing sturdy figure. All William's children, though they were +girls, were remarkably handsome, with glowing red cheeks and clear eyes, +tumbling masses of hair and a generous vigor of body. He sighed at +Laurel's superabundant youth, and moved carefully forward; he was very +heavy, and his progress was uncertain. His thoughts were divided between +the present and the past--Barzil Dunsack, aged and ill and unfortunate, +and the happening long ago that had resulted in a separation of years +after a close youthful companionship. + +It had occurred while Barzil was master of the brig _Luna,_ owned by +Billy Gray, and he, Jeremy, was first mate. In the exactness with which +he recalled every detail of his life in ships he remembered that at the +time they were off Bourbon Island, about a hundred and ten miles +southwest of the lie de France. The _Luna_ was close hauled, and, while +Barzil was giving an order at the wheel, she fetched a bad lee lurch +and sent him in a heap across the deck, striking his head against the +bumkin bitts. He had got up dazed but not apparently seriously injured; +and after his head had been swabbed and bound by the steward he +returned to the poop. There, however, his conduct had been so +peculiar--among other things sending down the watch to put on Sunday +rig against a possible hail by the Lord--that, after a long +consultation with Mr. Patterson, the second mate and the boatswain, and +a brief announcement to the crew, he, Jeremy Ammidon, had taken command +in their interest and that of the owner. + +Barzil had made difficulties: Mr. Patterson struck up a leveled pistol in +the master's hand just as it exploded. They had confined him, in charge +of the unhappy steward, to his cabin; where, after he had completely +recovered from the effects of the blow, and Jeremy had been upheld by the +authorities at Table Bay, he stubbornly remained until the _Luna_ had +been warped into Salem. + +From the moment of their landing they had not exchanged a word. Jeremy +was surprised to find himself at present bound toward the other's house. +He was not certain that Barzil would even see him; but, he muttered, the +thing had lasted long enough, they were too old for such foolishness; and +the other had come into adverse winds, now, when he should be lying +quietly in a snug harbor. + +He had never paid serious attention to the threatened complication two or +three years before, when Gerrit had been seen repeatedly with Kate +Dunsack's irregularly born daughter. He was sorry for the two women. It +was his opinion that the man had been shipped drunk by some boarding +house runner; anyhow, only the second day out Vollar had been lost +overboard from the main-royal yard, and Kate's child born outside the +law. It was hard, he told himself again, walking down Orange Street, past +the Custom House to Derby. + +The girl, Nettie Vollar--they had adopted the father's name--was +attractive in a decided French way, with crisp black hair, a pert nose +and dimple, and, why, good heavens, twenty-one or two years old if she +was a week! How time did run. It was nothing extraordinary if Gerrit had +been seen a time or two with her on the street, or even if he had called +at the Dunsacks'. Barzil's and his quarrel didn't extend to all the +members of their families; and as for the Dunsacks being common--that was +nonsense. Barzil was as good as he any day; only where he had prospered, +and moved up into a showy place on the Common, the other had had the +head winds. Through no fault of his own the reputation had fastened on +him of being unlucky in his cargoes: if he carried tea and colonial +exports to, say, Antwerp, they would have been declared contraband while +he was at sea, and seized on the docks; he had been blown, in an +impenetrable fog, ashore on Tierra del Fuego, and, barely making Cape +Pembroke, had been obliged to beach his ship, a total loss. Then there +was Kate's trouble. Barzil was a rigorously moral and religious man and +his pain at that last must have been heavy. + +Jeremy Ammidon's mind turned to Gerrit, his son; this interest in Nettie +Vollar, if it had existed, was characteristic of the boy, who had a quick +heart and an honest disdain for the muddling narrow ways of the land. He +would have sought her out simply from the instinct to protest against the +smugness of Salem opinion. A fine sailor, and a master at twenty-two. A +great one to carry sail; yet in the sixteen years of his commands he had +had no more serious accident than the loss of a fore-topgallant mast or +splitting a couple of courses. It was Gerrit's ability, the splendid +qualities of his ship, that made Jeremy hope he would still come sailing +into the harbor with some narration of delay and danger overcome. + +He was now on Derby Street, in a region of rigging and sail lofts, block +and pump makers, ships' stores, spar yards, gilders, carvers and workers +in metal. There was a strong smell of tar and new canvas and the flat +odor that rose at low water. Sailors passed, yellow powerful +Scandinavians and dark men with earrings from southern latitudes, in red +or checked shirts, blue dungarees and glazed black hats with trailing +ribbons, or in cheap and clumsy shore clothes. There was a scraping of +fiddle from an upper window, the sound of heavy capering feet and the +stale laughter of harborside women. + +On Hardy Street he continued to the last house at the right, the farther +side of which gave across a yard of uneven bricks, straggling bushes and +aged splitting apple trees and an expanse of lush grass ending abruptly +in a wooden embankment and the water. A short fence turned in from the +sidewalk to the front door, where Jeremy knocked. A long pause followed, +in which he became first impatient and then irritable; and he was lifting +his hand for a second summons when the door suddenly opened and he was +facing Kate Vollar. There was only a faint trace of surprise on her +apathetic--Jeremy Ammidon called it moonlike--countenance; as if her +overwhelming mischance had robbed her features of all further expressions +of interest or concern. + +"I heard," Jeremy said in a voice pitched loud enough to conceal any +inward uncertainty, "that your father had been sick. Met Captain Rendell +on Essex Street and he said Barzil had lung fever. Thought I'd see if +there was any truth in it." + +"He just managed to stay alive," Kate Vollar replied, gazing at him with +her stilled gray eyes. "But he's better now, though he's not up and about +yet. Shall I tell him that--that you are here?" + +"Yes. Just say Jeremy Ammidon's below, and would like to pass a greeting +with him." + +He followed the woman in, and entered a large gloomy chamber while she +mounted the stair leading directly from the front. The blackened +fireplace gaping uncovered for the summer, the woodwork, painted yellow +with an artificial graining, and a stiff set of ebonized chairs, their +dingy crimson plush backs protected by elaborate thread antimacassars, +seemed to hold and reflect the misfortunes of their owner. Jeremy picked +up an ostrich egg, painted with a clump of viciously green coconut palms +and a cottony surf; he put it down with an absent smile and impatiently +fingered a volume of "The Life of Harriet Atwood Newell." She was one of +the missionaries who had gone out on the _Caravan_, with Augustine Heard, +to India, but forbidden to land there had died not long after on the Ile +de France. + +"Houqua was a damned good heathen," he said aloud: "and so was +Nasservanjee." He left the table and proceeded to a window opening upon +the harbor, here fretted with wharves. A barque was fast in a small +stone-bound dock, newly in, his practiced glance saw, from a blue water +voyage, Africa probably. Her standing gear was in a perfection and beauty +of order that spoke of long tranquil days in the trades, and that no mere +harbor riggers could hope to accomplish. The deck was burdened with the +ugly confusion of unloading. Jeremy studied the jibs stowed in harbor +covers, the raking masts and tapering royal poles over the stolid roofs. +Ordinarily seeing no more he could not only name a vessel trading out of +Salem, but from her rig recognize anyone of a score of masters who, +otherwise unheralded, might be in command. + +However, here he was at a loss, and he thought again of the change, the +decline, that had overtaken Salem shipping, the celebrated merchants; the +pennants of William Gray, he reflected, had flown from the main truck of +fifteen ships, seven barques, thirteen brigs and schooners. Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone, in spite of his vehement protests, the counsel +of the oldest member of the firm, were moving shipment by shipment all +their business to Boston, listening to the promptings of State Street and +Central Wharf. + +To the right was the sagging landing from which Barzil's schooners +sailed trading with the West Indies; and back of it, and of his +house, stood the small office. His mind had turned to this +inconsiderable commerce when Kate Vollar entered and told him that +her father would see him. + +Barzil Dunsack was propped up in bed in a room above that in which Jeremy +had been waiting. He, totally different from the other, showed his age in +sunken dry cheeks, a forehead like an arch of bone, and a thick short +gray beard. A long faded lock of hair had been hastily brushed forward +and an incongruously bright knitted scarf drawn about his shoulders. + +Jeremy Ammidon concealed his dismay not only at Barzil's wrecked being +but at the dismal aspect of the interior, the worn rugs with their pieces +of once bright material frayed and loose, the splitting veneer of an old +chest of drawers and blistered mirror above a dusty iron grate. "You have +got in among the rocks!" he exclaimed. "Still they tell me you've +weathered the worst. Copper bound and oak ribs. Don't build them like +that to-day." + +Barzil Dunsack's eyes were bright and searching behind steel-rimmed +spectacles, and he studied Jeremy without replying. "Well, isn't there a +salute in you?" the latter demanded, incensed. "I'm not a Malay proa." + +The grim shadow of a smile dawned on Barzil's countenance. "I mind one +hanging on our quarter by Formosa," he returned; "I trained a cannon aft +and fired a shot, when she sheered off. That was in the _Flora_ in +'ninety-seven." + +A long silence enveloped them. Jeremy's mind was thronged with memories +of ports and storms, mates and ships and logged days. "Remember Oahu like +it was when we first made it," he queried, "and the Kanaka girls swimming +out to the ship with hybiscus flowers in their hair? Yes, and the +anchorage at Tahiti with the swells pounding on the coral reef and +Papeete under the mountain? It was nice there in the afternoon, lying off +the beach with the white cottages among the palms and orange trees and +the band playing in the grove by Government House." + +Captain Dunsack frowned at the trivial character of these memories. He +muttered something about the weight of the Lord, and the carnal hearts of +the men in ships. Jeremy declared, "Stuff! He'll wink at a sailor man +with hardly a free day on shore. It wasn't bad at Calcutta, either, with +an awning on the quarter-deck, watching the carriages and syces in the +Maidan and maybe a corpse or two floating about the gangway from the +burning ghauts." + +"A mean entrance," Barzil Dunsack asserted. "I don't know a worse with +the southwest monsoon in the Bay of Bengal and the pilot brigs gone +from the Sand Heads. That's where Heard got pounded with the _Emerald_ +drawing nineteen feet, and eighteen on the bar. Shook the reefs out of +his topsails, laid her on her beam ends, and with some inches saved +scraped in." + +"Pick up the three Juggernaut Pagodas of Ganjam," Jeremy remarked +absently. + +"'Thou shalt have no other God--'" + +Jeremy, with a glint in his eye, asked, "Wasn't your last consignment of +West India molasses marked Medford?" + +"You always were a scoffer," the other replied, unmoved. + +"How's Nettie?" Jeremy Ammidon inquired with a deliberate show of +interest. + +Barzil's lips tightened. "I haven't seen her for a little," he replied. +"She's been visiting at Ipswich." Jeremy added, "A good girl," but the +man in bed made no further comment. His undimmed gaze was fastened upon a +wall, his mouth folded in a hard line on a harsh and deeply seamed +countenance. An able man pursued by bad luck. + +"Nothing's been heard from Gerrit," Jeremy said after a little. Still the +other kept silent. His face darkened: by God, if Barzil hadn't a decent +word for the fact that Gerrit was seven months overdue, perhaps lost, +this was not a house for him. "I say that we've had nothing from my son +since he lay in the Lye-ee-Moon Pass off Hong Kong," he repeated sharply. + +A spasm of suffering, instantly controlled, passed over Barzil's face. +"Gerrit called once and again before he last sailed for Montevideo," he +finally pronounced. "I stopped it and he left in a temper. I--I won't +have another mortal sin here like Kate's." + +"Do you mean that Gerrit's loose?" Jeremy hotly demanded, rising. "A +more honorable boy never breathed." Barzil was cold. "I told him not to +come back," he repeated; "it would only lead to--to shamefulness." +Jeremy shook his cane toward the bed. "I may be a scoffer," he cried, +"but I wouldn't hold a judgment over a child of mine! I'm not so damned +holy that I can look down on a misfortunate girl. If Gerrit did come to +see Nettie and the boy had a liking for her, why you drove away a cursed +good husband. And if you think for a minute I wouldn't welcome her +because that Vollar fell off a yard before he could find a preacher +you're an old fool!" + +"Nettie must bear her burden: far better be dead than a stumbling block." + +"Well, I'd rather be a drunken pierhead jumper on the Waterloo Road than +any such pious blue nose. I'll tell you this, too--I'd hate to ship afore +the mast under you for all you'd have the ensign on the booby hatch with +prayers read Sunday morning. I don't wonder you got into weather; I'd +have no word for a Creator who didn't blow in your eye." + +"I'll listen to no blasphemy, Captain Ammidon," Barzil Dunsack +said sternly. + +"And I'll speak my mind, Captain Dunsack; it's this--your girls are a +long sight too good for you or for any other judgmatical, psalm-singing +devil dodger." He stood fuming at the door. "Good afternoon to you." + +Barzil Dunsack reclined with his gaunt bearded head sunk forward on his +thin chest swathed in the gay worsted wrap, his wasted hands, the tendons +corded with pale violet veins, clenched outside the checkered quilt +beneath which his body made scarcely a mark. + +Outside, in the soft glow of beginning dusk, Jeremy blamed himself +bitterly for his anger at the sick man. He had gone to see him in a +spirit friendly with old memories, forgetful of their long quarrel in the +stirred emotions of the past days of youth and first manhood; and he had +shouted at Barzil as if he were a lubber at the masthead. + +He realized that in order to be in time for supper he must turn toward +the Common and home; but his gaze caught the spars of the strange +barque; and, mechanically, he made his way over a narrow grassy passage +to the wharf. She was the _Cora Sellers_ of Marblehead, and he recognized +from a glance at the cargo that she had been out to the East Coast of +Africa--Mozambique and Zanzibar, Aden and Muscat. A matted frail of dates +swung ponderously in air, there were baled goatskins and sacks of Mocha +coffee, sagging baskets of reddish unwashed gum copal carried in bulk, +and a sun-blackened mate smoking a rat-tail Dutch cigar was supervising +the moving of elephant tusks in a milky glimmer of ivory ashore. + +There was a vague murmur of the rising tide, beyond the wharves and +warehouses the water was faintly rippled in silver and rose, and a ship +was standing into the harbor with all her canvas spread to the light +wind. He turned away with a sigh and walked slowly up toward the elms of +Pleasant Street. At his front door he stopped to regard the polished +brass plate where in place of his name he had caused to be engraved the +words Java Head. They held for him, coming into this pleasant dwelling +after so many tumultuous years at sea, the symbol of the safe and happy +end of an arduous voyage; just as the high black rock of Java Head +thrusting up over the horizon promised the placidity and accomplishment +of the Sunda Strait. Whenever he noticed the plate he felt again the +relief of coasting that northerly shore: + +He saw the mate forward with the crew passing the chains through the +hawse pipes and shackling them to the anchors. The island rose from level +groves of shore palms to lofty blue peaks terraced with rice and +red-massed kina plantations, with shining streams and green kananga +flowers and tamarinds. The land breeze, fragrant with clove buds and +cinnamon, came off to the ship in the vaporous dusk; and, in the blazing +sunlight of morning, the Anjer sampans swarmed out with a shrill chatter +of brilliant birds, monkeys and naked brown humanity, piled with dark +green oranges and limes and purple mangosteen. + +In the last few years, particularly with Gerrit away, he had turned more +and more from the surroundings of his house--rather it had become +William's house--to an inner life of memories. His own active life seemed +to him to have been infinitely fuller, more purposeful and various, than +that of present existence at Java Head. All Salem had been different: he +had a certain contempt for the existence of his son William and the +latter's associates and friends. He had said that the trading now done in +ships was like dealing at a Boston store, and the merchants reminded him +of storekeepers. The old days, when a voyage was a public affair, and a +ship's manifest posted in the Custom House on which anyone might write +himself down for a varying part of the responsibility and profit, had +given place to closed capital; the passages from port to port with the +captain, as often as not, his own supercargo and a figure of importance, +had become scheduled affairs in which a master was subjected to any +countinghouse clerk with an order from the firm: the ships themselves +were fast being ruined. + +He was in his room, after supper, seated momentarily on a day bed with a +covering of white Siberian fox skins, and he pronounced aloud, in a tone +of satirical contempt, the single word, "Clipper." Nearly everyone in the +shipping business seemed to have been touched by this madness for the +ridiculous ideas of an experimental Griffiths and his model of a ship +with the bows turned inside out, the greatest beam aft and a dead rise +like an inverted roof. That the _Rainbow_, the initial result of this +insanity, hadn't capsized at her launching had been due to some freak of +chance; just as her miraculous preservation through a voyage or so to +China could have been made possible only by continuously mild weather. + +Even if the _Rainbow_ had been fast--her run was called ninety-two days +out to Canton and home in eighty-eight--it was absurd to suppose that +there had been the usual monsoon. And if she did come in a little ahead +of vessels built on a solid full-bodied model, why her hold had no cargo +capacity worth the name. + +Things on the seas were going to the devil! He moved down to the library, +where he lighted a cheroot and addressed himself to the _Gazette_; but +his restlessness increased: the paper drooped and his thoughts turned to +Gerrit as a small boy. He saw him leaving home, for the first time, to go +to the school at Andover, in a cloth cap with a glazed peak, striped long +pantaloons and blue coat and waistcoat; later at the high desk in the +counting-rooms of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone; then sailing as +supercargo on one of the Company's ships to Russia and Liverpool. He had +soon dropped such clerking for seamen's duties, and his rise to +mastership had been rapid. + +Rhoda, William's wife, entered and stood before him accusingly. "You are +worrying again," she declared; "in here all by yourself. It really seems +as if you didn't believe in our interest or affection. I have a feeling, +and you know they are always right, that Gerrit will sail into the harbor +any day now." + +He had always liked Rhoda, a large handsome woman with rich coloring--her +countenance somehow reminded him of an apricot--and fine clothes. She +paused, studied him for a moment, and then asked, "Was your call on +Captain Dunsack pleasant?" + +"It ought to have been," he confided, "but I got mad and talked like a +Dutch uncle, and Barzil went off on a holy tack." + +"About Nettie Vollar?" + +Jeremy nodded. "Look here, Rhoda," he demanded, "did Gerrit ever say +anything to you about her?" + +"Yes," she told him; "Gerrit was very frank." + +"Did he like the girl?" + +"I couldn't make that out. But if there hadn't been, well--something +unusual in her circumstances I think he would never have noticed her. +Gerrit is a curious mixture, a very impressionable heart and a contrary +stubborn will. He was sorry for Nettie, and, at the way a great many +people treated her, threw himself into opposition. Nettie's father made +him very mad, and Gerrit pretty well damned all Salem before he left in +the _Nautilus_. He was excruciatingly funny: you know Gerrit can be, +particularly when he imitates anybody. I think being away at sea a great +deal, and having absolute command of everything, give men a different +view of things from ours. What is terribly important to Salem hardly +touches Gerrit; it's all silly pretense, or worse, to him. + +"I wouldn't mind that if it weren't for the sense of humor that leads him +into the wildest extravagances, and the fact that he'll act on his +feelings. You know I'm devoted to him but I give a sigh of relief +whenever he gets away on his ship without doing any one of the hundred +insanities he threatens." + +"Gerrit's like me," he said. + +"More than William," she agreed. "William is never impetuous, and he's +often impatient with his brother. He's a splendid husband, but Gerrit +would make a wonderful lover. I'm thankful I never fell into his +affections ... too wearing for an indolent woman." + +"You've been a great comfort and pleasure, Rhoda," he told her. "I only +wish Gerrit could marry someone like you--" + +"But who would give him sons," she interrupted. + +"It's just as you say about him, and I've always been uneasy. God knows +what he won't do--on land. William's a great deal happier, for all his +brother's humor. I joke William, but he's very satisfactory and solid. +He'll make port if he doesn't get tied up with newfangled notions. Why, +it stands to reason that a ship built like a knife would double up in the +seas off the Falklands." + +"He has a lot of confidence in Mr. McKay." + +"McKay is a good man unsettled. The _May Broughton_ is a fine barque, +and his packet ships are as seaworthy as any, but--" his indignation +increased so that he sputtered, and Rhoda laughed. "Now your girls," +he added, "fine models, all of them, plenty of beam, work in any kind +of weather." + +"That's very complimentary," she assured him, rising. "You mustn't worry +about Gerrit. Remember, my predictions never fail." + +When she had gone his mind returned to storms he had safely +weathered--the gray gales of Cape Horn, black hurricanes and the +explosive tempests in eastern straits and seas. He took from the drawer +of a bookcase with glass doors set in geometrical pattern a thin volume +bound in black boards. A paper label was inscribed in a small, carefully +formed script, "Journal of my intended voyage from Salem to the East +Indies in the Ship _Woodbine_." He opened at random: + +"Comes in with strong wind from SSE with rain squalls. Very ugly sea on. +Double reefed the Topsails, reefed the courses and furled the mainsail. +At six p.m. shipped a very heavy sea that carried away the bulwarks on +the larboard quarter and stove those on the starboard quarter and +amidships ... upper cabin filled with water. Through the night strong +gales.... Lightning at all points of the compass." + +The memory of this night, six days out from Manilla to Hong Kong, was +clearer than the actuality of the room in which he sat, an old man with +his activity, his strength, his manhood, far behind him, a hulk. + +"At ten split the mainsail in pieces. Close reefed the fore and +double reefed the main-topsails. Rising gales and heavy head sea. +Shipping a great quantity of water and leaking considerable. Bent a +new mainsail and set it. Reefed and set the jib. Pumping near two +thousand strokes an hour. + +"October seventh, Sunday. Comes in with strong gales and a heavy head +sea. Both officers crippled and man laid up. Through the night the same. +Leaking badly. A great number of junks in sight ... and so at five p.m. +come to anchor." + +He had been a good man then, sixteen days on the quarter-deck without +going below; insensible to ice or fever or weariness. He had been +autocratic, too; and had his boy servant carrying areca nuts, chunam +and tobacco in two silk bags, another with a fan and a third holding +an umbrella. Such things were all over now, he understood, in this +driving age. + +His mind continually returned to Gerrit, to dwell on the vast number of +perils held in store by the sea; there was always the possibility of +scurvy, an entire crew rotting alive in the forecastle and the ship +broached to, dismasted; of mutiny; the sheer smothering finality of +volcanic waves. He had never realized until now, in the misery of +uncertainty, the hellish loneliness of a shipmaster at sea; the pride of +duty, the necessity of discipline, that put him beyond all counsel, all +assistance and human interdependence. Jeremy, who had arrogantly accepted +this responsibility without a question, through so many long years and +voyages, now dreaded it, found it an inhuman burden, for his son. + +William couldn't be expected to appreciate the difficulties of his +brother's position: all the former's experience had been got when, with +James Saltonstone and a party of Salem merchants, he ventured to the +lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor, had a cold collation, and +returned with the pilot or in the Custom House sloop. These occasions of +huzzas and salutes and speeches were supplemented with a hasty +inspection, now and then, of a vessel lying still at the wharf with sails +harbor furled. William guessed little of the long effort through which a +ship won from the first of those moments to the last. He was solely +concerned with the returns of the cargo. + +However, Rhoda was right, and this mooning wouldn't bring Gerrit into +port. He turned to the bookcase, where a squat bottle of Medford rum +rested beside a tumbler; after a drink he lighted a cheroot and smoking +vigorously, with hands clasped behind him, paced back and forth in an +undeviating line between the door to the hall and a dark polished +secretary he had bought in London. + +While he was walking Camilla came into the room and sedately took a seat +on one of the formal chairs against the wall. "I guess you think that's +the deck of a ship," she said conversationally. He regarded her with a +faint threatening glint of humor. Camilla's dignity was stupendous; +particularly now, when, he observed, her skirts stood out in a thoroughly +grown manner. He liked Laurel best of William's children; she had, in +spite of her confusion in regard to outports, a surprising grasp upon +many of the details of life on shipboard, and a largeness of manner and +expression entertaining in a little girl. Sidsall was the most +ingratiating--she had Gerrit's direct kindling gaze; Janet showed no +individuality yet beyond an entire willingness to conform to outward +circumstance while pursuing deeply secret speculations within. But +Camilla impressed the entire family by the rigidity of her correctness in +personal and social niceties. At times, he felt, she would be a nuisance +but for the firm hand of her mother and his own contribution to their +well-being by an occasional sly sally. + +"It might be that," he admitted; "if it weren't for the facts that it's a +house and library, and I'm an old man, and you're not at all like the +second mate." + +"I should hope not," she replied decidedly. "A second mate isn't +anything, and I am a--a young lady anyhow." + +"You'll soon be out at dances." + +"I go to parties now; that is, mother let me stay at the Coggswells' on +Thursday until the men came at nine for sangaree. And I'm at all the +Ballad Soirees." + +He made a gesture of pretended surprise and admiration. "I don't suppose +they ever have a good chantey with the stuff they play?" he queried. +"Dear me, no. Mr. Dempster sings The Indian's Lament, and The May Queen: +that's a cantata and it's in three parts." + +Jeremy began to hum, and in a moment was intoning in a loud monotonous +voice, sweeping a hand up and down: + +_"To my hero, Bangedero, +Singing hey for a gay Hash girl."_ + +"I don't think that's very nice," she said primly. + +"What do you mean--not very nice?" he demanded, incensed. "There's +nothing finer with a rousing chanteyman leading it and the watch hauling +on the braces. You'd never hear the like at any Ballad Soiree. And: + +_"Sweet William, he married a wife, +'Gentle Jenny,' cried Rose Marie, +To be the sweet comfort of his life, +As the dew flies over the mulberry tree."_ + +"There isn't much sense to it," she observed. + +For a little, indignant at her disparagement of such noble fragments, he +tramped silently back and forth, followed by a cloud of smoke from the +cheroot. No one on land could understand the absorbing significance of +every detail of a ship's life.... Only Gerrit, of all his family, knew +the chanteys and watches, the anxiety and beauty of landfalls--the blue +Falklands or Teneriffe rising above the clouds, the hurried making and +taking of sail in the squalls of the Doldrums. + +"In India," he told her, stopping in his measured course, "female +children are given to the crocodiles." + +Her mouth parted at this, her eyes became dilated, and she slipped from +the chair. "That's perfectly awfully appalling," she breathed. "The +little brown girl babies. Oh, father," she cried, as William Ammidon came +into the library, "what do you suppose grandfather says, that in India +female children are...crocodiles." Words failed her. + +"What's the sense in frightening the child, father?" William +remonstrated. "I wish you would keep those horrors for the old heathen of +the Marine Society." + +Jeremy had a lively sense of guilt; he had been betrayed by Camilla's +confounded airs and pretensions. He ought to be ashamed of himself, +telling the girl such things. "The British Government is putting a stop +to that," he added hastily, "and to suttees--" + +"What are they?" she inquired. + +"Never mind, Camilla," her father interposed; "go up with your mother +and sisters. + +"I suppose it's no good speaking to you," William continued; "but my +family is not a crew and this house isn't the _Two Capes_. You might make +some effort to realize you're on land." + +"I know I'm on land, William; tell that any day from a sight of you. You +can afford to listen a little now and then about the sea. That's where +all you have came from; it's the same with near everybody in Salem. +Vessels brought them and vessels kept them going; and, with the wharves +as empty as they were this afternoon, soon there won't be any Salem to +talk about." + +"The tide's turned from here," the other replied; "with the increase in +tonnage and the importance of time we need the railway and docking +facility of the larger cities--Boston and New York." + +"It's running out fast enough," Jeremy agreed; "and there's a lot going +out with it you'll never see again--like the men who put a reef in +England in 'twelve." + +"You are always sounding the same strings; we're at peace with the world +now, and a good thing for shipping." + +"Peace!" the elder declared hotly; "you and the Democrats may call it +that, but it's a damned swindle, with the British to windward of you and +hardly a sail now drawing in your ropes. What did Edmund Burke tell +Parliament in 'seventy-five about our whalers, hey! Why, that from Davis +Strait to the Antipodes, from the Falklands to Africa, we outdrove +Holland, France and England. After the laws and bounties Congress passed +in 'eighty-nine what could you see--something like a half million tonnage +gained in three years or so. In the war of 'twelve your land soldiers +were a pretty show, with the Capitol burning; but when it was finished +the privateers had sunk over nine million dollars of British shipping to +their sixty thousand. The Chesapeake luggers have gone out with the tide, +too. And then, by God, by God, what then: the treaty of Ghent, with +England impressing our seamen and tying our ships up in what ports she +chose under a right of search! On top of this your commissioners repeal +the ship laws and the British allow you to carry only native cargoes to +the United Kingdom with a part of the customs and harbor dues off. + +"But in spite of Congress and political sharks we went out to India +and China direct, with _The George_ home from Calcutta in ninety-five +days, and the East Indiamen six or seven months on the shorter run to +England. I can show you what the London _Times_ said about that, it's in +my desk: 'Twelve years of peace, and...the shipping interest...is half +ruined...thousands of our manufactures are seeking redemption in foreign +lands.' It goes on to tell that American seamen already controlled an +important part of the British carrying trade to the East Indies. Yet your +precious lawmakers open our West India trade to Great Britain, but they +wouldn't ask the privilege to carry a cargo from British India to +Liverpool or Canada." + +"Now, father," William put in, "you are getting excited again. It isn't +good for you. We are not all such fools to-day as you make out." + +"Look at the masters themselves," Jeremy continued explosively; +"gentlemen like Gerrit, from Harvard University, and not lime-juicers +beating their way aft with a belaying pin. They could sail a ship with +two-thirds the crew of a Britisher with her clumsy yellow hemp sails and +belly you could lose a dinghy in. Mind, I don't say the English aren't +handy in a ship and that they wouldn't clew up a topsail clean at the +edge of hell. What we are on the seas came over from them. But we +bettered it, William, and they knew it; and, naturally enough, laid out +to sail around us. I don't blame England, but I do our God damn--" + +"Father," the other firmly interrupted, "you are shouting as if you were +on the quarter-deck in a gale. I must insist on your quieting down; +you'll burst a blood vessel." + +"Maybe I am," Jeremy muttered; "and it wouldn't matter much if I did. +When I see a nation with shipmasters who would set their royals when +others hove too, and get there, all snarled up with shore lines and +political duffel, I'm nigh ready to burst something." + +"Rhoda said that you were at the Dunsacks' this afternoon; I saw Edward +in Boston yesterday." + +"I don't care if you saw the Flying Dutchman," the other asserted, +breathing stormily. + +"It's curious about the China service," William went on; "anyone out +there for a number of years gets to look Chinese. Edward is as yellow as +a lemon, but nothing like as pleasant a color. Thin, too, and nervous; +hands crawling all over themselves, never still for a moment. He didn't +say why he had left Heard and Company, and I didn't quite like to ask. +Edward came on from England in the _Queen of the West,_ the Swallow Tail +Line. I did ask him if he were going to settle in Salem, but he couldn't +say; there was something about a Boston house. It seems that Gerrit +carried his chest and things from Canton in the _Nautilus_ as an +accommodation." + +Suddenly Jeremy felt very insecure, his body heavy and knees weak, +failing. He stumbled back into the chair by the fireplace, William at his +side. "You must pay some attention to what you're told, father," the +latter said anxiously. "How are you now?" + +"I'm all right," he declared testily, trying to brush away the dimness +floating before his eyes. + +"Shall I help you up to bed?" + +"I'll go to bed when I've a mind to," Jeremy retorted. "I am not under +cover yet by a long reach." To establish his well-being he rose and moved +to the secretary, where he got a fresh cheroot, and lighted it with +slightly trembling fingers. He grumbled inarticulately, remembering his +own exploits in the carrying of sail and record runs under the bluff bows +of the Honorable John Company itself. The ebb tide, he thought, returning +to William's figure and its amplification by himself. So much that had +been good sweeping out to sea never to return....Gerrit long overdue. + +Once more he shook himself free of numbing dread; automatically he had +fallen back into the passage from the secretary to the hall door. He saw +that he had worn threadbare a narrow strip where his feet had so often +pressed. It would be necessary for him to see about a fresh case of +cheroots soon, primes, too; they needn't try to put him off with the +second quality. He was put off a great deal lately; people pretended to +be listening to him, and all the time their thoughts were somewhere else, +either that or they were merely politely concealing the opinion that he +was out of date, of no importance. + +His family were always providing against his fatigue or excitement; at +the countinghouse the gravest problems, he was certain, were withheld +from him. At the occurrence of this possibility a fresh indignation +poured through his brain. Fuming and tramping up and down he determined +that to-morrow he would show any of the clerks who didn't attend to his +wishes or counsel that he was still senior partner of Ammidon, Ammidon +and Saltonstone. + + + + +III + +The evening was surprisingly warm and still, with an intermittent +falling of rain, and the windows were open in the room where Rhoda +Ammidon sat regarding half dismayed her reflection in the mirror of a +dressing table. A few minutes before she had discovered her first gray +hair. It was not only the mere assault upon her vanity, but, too, a +realization far deeper--here was the stamp of time, the mark of a +considerable progress toward the end itself. Her emotions were +various; but, curiously enough, almost the first had been a wave of +passionate tenderness for William and her little girls. The shock of +finding that arresting sign was now giving place to a purely feminine +reaction. She considered for a moment the purchase of a bottle of hair +coloring, then with a disdainful gesture dismissed such a temporary +and troublesome measure. + +She kept an undiminishing pride in her appearance and a relentless care +and choice in the details of her dress, pleased by the knowledge that +the attention men paid her showed no indication yet of growing +perfunctory. She had been much admired both in Boston and London +through her youth, and she recalled her early doubts at the prospect of +life in Salem; but she realized now that, as her years and children +multiplied, she was by imperceptible degrees returning to a traditional +New England heritage. + +She was glad, however, that William's wide connections lifted him above a +purely local view; William was really a splendid husband. Rhoda was +conscious of this together with a clear recognition of his faults, and +quite aside from both existed her unreasoning affection. The latter +vividly dominated her, shut out, on any occasion of stress, all else; but +for the most part she held him in an attitude of mildly amused +comprehension. + +Gerrit Ammidon she hadn't seen until after her engagement to William, and +she sometimes thought of the former in connection with marriage. Gerrit, +she admitted to herself, was a far more romantic figure than William; not +handsomer--William Ammidon was very good looking--but more arresting, +with his hair swinging about his ears and intense blue gaze. An exciting +man, she decided again, for whom one would eternally put on the loveliest +clothes possible; a man to make you almost as ravishingly happy as +miserable, and, therefore, disturbing as a husband. + +At this her mind returned to her gray hair and the fact that the metal +backlog of the kitchen fire, which supplied the house with hot water, had +been leaking over the hearth. A feeling of melancholy possessed her at +the turning of younger visions into commonplace necessities, but she +dismissed it with the shadow of a smile--it was absurd for a woman of her +age to dwell on such frivolous things. Yet she still lingered to wonder +if men too kept intact among their memories the radiant image of their +youth, if they ever thought of it with tenderness and extenuation. She +decided in the negative, convinced that men, even at the end of many +years, never definitely lost connection with their early selves, there +was always a trace of hopefulness, of jaunty vanity--sometimes winning +and sometimes merely ridiculous--attached to their decline. + +Rhoda stirred and moved to a window, gazing vaguely out into the moist +blue obscurity. Sidsall, she realized, was maturing with a disconcerting +rapidity. Depths were opening in the girl's being at which she, her +mother, could only guess. It was exactly as if a crystal through and +through which she had gazed had suddenly been veiled by rosy clouds. +Sidsall had a charming nature, direct and unsuspicious and generously +courageous. + +There was a sound at the door, and William entered, patently ruffled. It +was clear that he had had another disagreement with his father. "It's +shameful how you disturb him," she declared. + +"Look here, Rhoda," he replied vigorously. "I won't continually be put in +the wrong. It seems as if I had no affection for the old gentleman. I +always have the difficult thing to do, and he has been slightly +contemptuous ever since I was a boy because I didn't go to sea. The truth +is--while I wouldn't think of letting him know--he's a tremendous +nuisance pottering about the countingrooms with his stories of +antediluvian trading voyages. And worse is to come--these new clipper +ships and passages have knocked the wind out of the old slow +full-bottomed vessels. We have about determined to reorganize our fleet +entirely, and are in treaty with Donald McKay for an extreme clipper type +of twelve hundred tons. + +"Of course, he's my parent; but I wonder at Saltonstone's patience. +Father won't hear of the opium trade and it's turning over thousand per +cent profits. We are privately operating two fast topsail schooners in +India now, but it's both inconvenient and a risk. They ought to be put +right under our house flag for credit alone. It is all bound to come up, +and then he'll go off like a cannon." + +"Couldn't you wait till he's dead, William?" she asked. "It won't be a +great while now. I can see that he has failed dreadfully from this worry +about Gerrit." + +"Five years will make all the difference. We are losing tea cargoes every +month to these ships making sensational runs. I don't talk much, Rhoda, +about, well--my family; but I am as upset over Gerrit as anyone else. +Except for a tendency to carry too much sail there's not a better +shipmaster out of New England. Not only that ... he's my brother. It's +easy to like Gerrit; his opinions are a little wild, and an exaggerated +sense of justice gets him into absurd situations; yet his motives are the +purest possible. Perhaps that word pure describes him better than any +other, however people who didn't know might smile. As a man, Rhoda, I can +assert that he is surprisingly clean-hearted." + +"That's a wonderful quality," she agreed; "why anyone should smile is +beyond me. William, would you know that my hair is turning gray, do I +look a lot older than I did five years ago?" + +He studied her complacently. "You've hardly changed since I married you," +he asserted; "a great deal prettier than these young cramped figgers I +see about. The girls, too, are just like you--good armfuls all of them." + +The next day was flawlessly sunny, the slightly stirring air reminiscent +of the sea, and the lilacs everywhere were masses of purple and white +bloom. Stepping down from her carriage on the morning round of shopping +Rhoda encountered Nettie Vollar leaving one of the stores of Cheapside. + +"Why, Nettie," she exclaimed kindly, "it's been the longest time since +I've seen you. It is just no use asking you to the house, and it seems, +with nothing to do, I never have a minute for the visits I'd like to +make." Nettie, she thought, was a striking girl, no--woman, with her +stack of black hair, dark sparkling eyes and red spot on either cheek. +More fetching in profile than full face, her nose had a pert angle and +her cleft chin was enticingly rounded. Later she would be too fat but now +her body was ripely perfect. + +"I don't go anywhere much," she responded, in a voice faintly and +instinctively antagonistic. "I don't like kindness in people; but I +suppose I ought to be contented--that's all I'll probably ever get from +anybody who is a thing in the world. Mrs. Ammidon," she hesitated, then +continued more rapidly, her gaze lowered, "have you had any word about +Captain Ammidon yet? Have they given up hope of the _Nautilus_?" + +"We've had no news," Rhoda told her, and then she added her conviction +that Gerrit would return safely. + +"He was better than kind," Nettie Vollar said. "I'm sure he liked me, +Mrs. Ammidon, or he would have if everything hadn't been spoiled by +grandfather. He thinks I'm a dreadful sin, you know, a punishment on +mother. But inside of me I don't feel different from others. Sometimes +I--I wonder that I don't actually go sinful, I've had opportunities, and +being good hasn't offered me much, has it?" + +"You are naturally a good girl, Nettie," Rhoda answered simply; "but you +must be braver than ordinary. If we think differently from Salem still it +is in Salem we must live; I keep many of my beliefs secret just as you +must control most of your feelings." + +The other responded with a hard little laugh. "Thank you, though. You are +more like Gerrit, Captain Ammidon, than Mrs. Saltonstone, his own sister. +I hate her," she declared. "I hate all the Salem women, so superior and +condescending and Christian. They always have a silly look of wonder at +their charity in speaking to me... when they do. They act as if it's just +a privilege for me to be in their church. I'd rather go to a cotillion at +Hamilton Hall any day." + +"Of course you would," Rhoda agreed. There seemed to be so little for her +to offer or say that she was relieved when they parted. The afternoon +grew really sultry, but, when the shadows had lengthened, she encountered +Jeremy Ammidon wandering aimlessly about the hall and, his fine palmetto +hat and wanghee in her hand, urged him out to the East India Marine +Society. "It's much too beautiful a day for the house," she insisted. + +"There's nothing remarkable about it," he returned; "wind's too light and +variable, hardly enough to hold way on a ship." There were the stirring +strains of a quickstep without; at the door they saw the Salem Cadets, +preceded by Flag's Band, marching in columns of fours into Washington +Square. The white breeches with scarlet coats and brass buttons made a +gay showing on the green Common, the sunlight glittered on silver braid +and tassels, gilt and pompons, scaled chin straps and varnished leather. + +The old man's face grew dark at the brilliant line drawn up for +inspection, and he muttered a period about cursed young Whigs. "Wouldn't +have one of the scoundrels in my house if I could help it. Don't +understand William; he's too damned mild for my idea of a good citizen. + +"Why, it's only reasonable that a country's got to be run like a ship, +from the quarter-deck. How far do you suppose a vessel would get if the +crew hung about aft and chose representatives from the port and starboard +watches and galley for a body to lay the course and make sail?" + +"Please, father," she protested, laughing. "Do go along into the sun." +She gently pushed him toward the door. Rhoda realized the fact that +William was more than half Whig already. That threatened still another +point of difference, of departure, from all that his father held to be +sacred necessities. Jeremy, like most of the older shipmasters, was a +bitter Federalist, an upholder of a strongly centralized autocratic +government. He left, grumbling, and the staccato commands of the military +evolutions on the Common rang through the slumberous afternoon. + +She lingered in the doorway and Laurel appeared, jigging with excitement. + +"Can't I get nearer," she begged; "there's nothing to see from here." Her +mother replied, "Ask Camilla to take you over to the Square." Camilla +appeared indifferently. "I don't know why anyone should be flustered," +she observed; "it isn't like the Fourth of July with a concert and +fireworks." + +As they were going, Sidsall came out in a white tarlatan dress worked +with sprays of yellow barley, her face glowing with color, and sat on +the steps. "Positively," her mother said, looking down on the mass of +bright chestnut hair in a chenille net, "we'll soon have to have you up +in braids." + +"I wish I might," she responded. "And Hodie is too silly--I can't +get her to lace me tightly enough. She says such things are engines +of the devil." + +"It's still a little soon for that--" Rhoda broke off as a slight erect +man at the verge of middle age turned in from Pleasant Street upon them. +"Roger," she said cordially as he came quickly up the steps. He greeted +her lightly and bent over Sidsall with an extended hand: + +"The apple blossoms, I see, are here." + +Rhoda wondered what nonsense Roger Brevard was repeating; Sidsall's face +was hidden from view. But then Roger was always like that, his manner was +never at a loss for the appropriate gesture. He had a great many points +in common with her, she thought; neither had been born in Salem, and his +rightful setting was in the best metropolitan drawing-rooms. He had been +here for a dozen years, now, in charge of the local affairs of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company; and she often wondered why, a member +of a family socially notable in New York, he continued in a city, a +position, of comparative unimportance. + +She was, she said, going back to the lawn, the glare of Pleasant Street +was fatiguing; and she proceeded through the house with the surety of his +following. But on the close-cut emerald sod there was no sign of him, and +she found a seat in a basket chair by the willow tree beyond. She waited +for Roger with a small but growing impatience; he must be done +immediately with whatever he might say to Sidsall, and she wished to +discuss the possibilities of a rumor that President Polk intended to +visit Salem. There would be a collation, perhaps a military ball, to +arrange; Franklin Hall would be the better place for the latter. She +heard a faint silvery echo of laughter--Sidsall. It was extremely nice, +of course, in Roger Brevard to entertain her daughter, though she didn't +care to have the child give the effect of receiving men yet. + +It was, finally, Sidsall who appeared, unaccompanied, in the drawing-room +window. She came forward to where Rhoda sat, her face still stirred with +amusement. "Mr. Brevard went on," she said in response to her mother's +look of inquiry. "That's rather odd," the latter commented almost +sharply. "He had only a few minutes," the girl explained. She sank into a +seat and mood of abstraction. Rhoda studied her with a veiled glance. +Hers were exceptional children, they had given her scarcely an hour's +concern; and she must see that in the unsettling period which Sidsall was +now entering she was not spoiled. + +Perhaps Laurel entertained her more than the others. She was a very +normal little girl, not thoughtful like Janet, and without Camilla's +exaggerated poise; but she had a picturesque imagination; and her +companionship with her grandfather was delightful. The latter addressed +her quite as if she were a fellow shipmaster; and she had acquired some +remarkable sea expressions, some deplorable and others enigmatic: only +to-day, questioned about the order of her room, she had said that it was +"all square by the lifts and braces." For this her grandfather had given +her a gold piece. + +There was, she knew, an excellent school for older girls at Lausanne; +and, revolving the possibility of obtaining for Sidsall some of the +European advantages she, Rhoda, had enjoyed, the following afternoon she +drove to the Cliffords' on Marlboro Street for a consultation with Madra, +who had spent a number of seasons on Lake Leman. In a cool parlor with +yellow Tibet rugs and maroon hangings she had tea while Madra Clifford, +thin and imperious, with a settled ill health like white powder and a +priceless Risajii shawl, conversed in a shrill key. + +"Caroline has been in bed for a week. That vulgar Dr. Fisk, with his +elbow in her bosom, tried five times to extract her tooth, and then broke +it to the roots. I hear there is a galvanic ring for rheumatism. The pain +in my joints is excruciating; I have an idea my bones are changing into +chalk; the right knee will hardly bend." The darkly colored shawl with +its border of cypress intensified her sunken blue-traced temples and the +pallid lips. She developed the subject of her indisposition, sparing no +detail; while Rhoda Ammidon, from her superabundance of well-being, half +pitied the other and was half revolted at the mind touched, too, by +bodily ill. The fortune accumulated by the hardy Clifford men, flogged +out of crews and stained by the blood of primitive and dull savages--the +Cliffords were notorious for their brutal driving--now served only to +support Madra's debility and a horde of unscrupulous panderers to her +obsession. + +"Edward Dunsack is in Salem," she continued; "and I've heard he has the +most peculiar appearance. Very probably the result of the unmentionable +practices of the Orient. Father liked the Chinese though; so many of our +shipmasters have, and not always the merchants.... What was I saying? Oh, +yes, Edward Dunsack. I understand you had a distinct alarm in that +quarter, about the girl and Gerrit Ammidon. But I forgot to say how glad +I am about Gerrit. You must have been horribly worried--" + +"What do you mean?" Rhoda demanded. + +"Why, haven't you heard! The Nautilus was sighted. News came from Boston. +She ought to be into-day, I believe. I suppose William has been too +concerned to get you word at home." + +Rhoda Ammidon rose immediately, surprised at the force of the emotion +that blurred her eyes with tears. Gerrit was safe! Possibly they had +been told at Java Head now, but she must be there with Jeremy Ammidon; +surprises, even as joyful as this, were a great strain on him. +Neglecting the object of her visit she returned at once to Pleasant +Street, urging the coachman to an undignified haste, and keeping the +carriage at the door. + +Her father-in-law was at his secretary in the library, and it was evident +that he had heard nothing of his son's return. "Well, Rhoda," he said, +swinging about; "what a bright cheek you have--like Laurel's." + +"I feel bright, father," she replied with a nod and smile. "After this +none of you will be able to laugh at my predictions. You see, a woman's +feeling is often more correct than masculine judgment." His momentary +bewilderment gave place to a painfully strained interrogation. "Yes," she +told him, "but we are none of us surprised--Gerrit is almost in Salem +harbor." She moved near him and, with a veiled anxiety, laid her hand +upon his shoulder. + +"A splendid sailor," he muttered. It seemed as if Rhoda could really hear +the dull rising pounding of his shaken heart. But his excitement +subsided, gave way to a normal concern, a flood of vain questions and +preparation to go down to the wharf. In the midst of this a message came +from the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone that the +_Nautilus_ would dock within an hour. + +A small crowd had already gathered on Derby Wharf when Rhoda and her +companion made their way past the warehouses built at intervals along the +wharf to the place where the _Nautilus_ would be warped in. The +wharfinger saluted them, William Ammidon joined his wife, and beyond she +could see James Saltonstone conversing with the Surveyor of the Port. + +The afternoon was serene, a faint air drew in from the sea; and with it, +sweeping slowly inside Peach's Point, was the tall ship with her canvas +towering gold in the western sun against the distance of sea and sky. As +Rhoda watched she saw their house flag--a white field checkered in +blue--fluttering from the main royal truck. + +"The royals are coming in!" Jeremy Ammidon exclaimed, gripping Rhoda's +arm. "He is lowering his top-gallant yards and hauling up the courses! My +dear, there's nothing on God's earth finer than a ship." + +The _Nautilus_ slipped along surprisingly fast. Rhoda could now see the +crew moving about and coiling the gear. + +"Look, father, there's Gerrit on the quarter-deck." + +The shipmaster, shorter than common, with broad assertive shoulders in +formal black, was easily recognizable. A woman with a worn flushed face +pressed by Jeremy. "Andrew's there, too," she told them, "Mr. Broadrick, +the mate." + +The ship moved more slowly, under her topsails and jibs, in a soundless +progress with the ripples falling away in water like dark green glass, +liquid and still. She was now but a short distance from the end of the +wharf. Mr. Broadrick was forward between the knightheads with the crew +ranged to the starboard and at the braces, while Gerrit Ammidon stood +with one hand on the quarter-deck railing and the other holding a brass +speaking trumpet to his lips: + +"Let go your port fore and after braces, Mr. Broadrick; brace the fore +and mizzen yards sharp up, leave the main braces fast, and lay the main +topsail to the mast. As she comes to the wind let the jibs run down." He +turned to the man at the wheel, "Helm hard a starboard." + +"Hard a starboard, sir." + +The ship answered quickly and rounded to while her weather fore and +mizzen yards flew forward until they touched the starboard backstays +and the men hauled in the slack of the braces. With the main yard +square to check her way the jibs drooped down along the stays. "Mr. +Broadrick, you may let go the starboard anchor and furl sails." The +mate grasped a top maul and struck the trigger of the ring stopper a +clean blow, the anchor splashed into the water with a rumbling cable, +and the _Nautilus_ was home. + +Gerrit Ammidon walked hurriedly to the companionway and went below, while +the mate continued, "Stand by to let go your topsail halliards and man +the gear. Sharper with the mizzen sheets and unbend those clew lines and +garnets... stow the clews in a harbor furl." At a rhythmic shout the +bunts of the three topsails came up together. + +The wind had died away and the flags hung listlessly from the main truck +and spanker gaff. The water of the harbor was unstirred except for the +swirls at the oar blades of an incoming quarter boat and the warp paying +out at her stern. The voice of the mate, the chantey of the crew heaving +at the capstan bars, came to Rhoda subdued: + +_"The times are hard and wages low, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I guess it's time for us to go, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I thought I heard the old man say, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +To-morrow we will get our pay + .......leave her"_ + +Rhoda Ammidon discovered herself leaning forward tensely, her hands shut +in excitement and emotion; and she relaxed with a happy laugh as the +_Nautilus_, with her yards exactly square and rigging taut, her sides and +figurehead and ports bright with newly laid on paint, moved to the wharf. + +It seemed to her that Gerrit, descending a short stage from the deck, +looked markedly older than when he had last sailed. Yet he had a +surprisingly youthful air still; partly, she thought, from the manner in +which he wore his hair, falling in a waving thick line about his cheeks. +His mouth was at once fresh and severe, his face clean shaven, and his +eyes--if possible--more directly blue than ever. + +"I'll take the ship's manifest to the Collector," he said, greeting them +and impatiently waving aside the vendors after the cook's slush, the +excited women and runners and human miscellany crowding forward. "Then +Java Head." He paused, speaking over his shoulder: "I'd be thankful if +you would send the barouche down in an hour or so." + +Driving back, her hand on Jeremy Ammidon's knee, Rhoda wondered at +Gerrit's request. It was entirely unlike him to ride in the barouche; +rather he had always derided it in the terms of his calling. However, +unable to find a solution for her surprise, she listened to the other's +comments and speculations: + +"I suppose William's first question will be about the cargo, and, of +course, I hope the ship has done well. But I'm just glad to have Gerrit +back; I am for a fact, Rhoda." + +"We all are," she assured him, "and William as happy as any. You mustn't +be misled by his manner, father. I hope the supper will be good and +please you." + +"Gerrit will be satisfied with anything," he chuckled. "Probably he's +been out of beans even for a month. Did you notice that fore-royal mast +and yard? They were rigged at sea: Gerrit carried them away. It hurts him +to take in a sail. Some day I tell him he'll drag the spars out of his +ship. His confounded pride will founder him." He made these charges +lightly, with a palpable underlying pride; and, Rhoda knew, would permit +no one else to criticize his son. + +She found her daughters in a state of gala excitement on the front steps. +"Uncle Gerrit in the _Nautilus,_" Laurel chanted; and it was evident that +Camilla herself was thrilled. They all went up to put on holiday dress. +Rhoda turned to the coachman, "Have the barouche at the head of Derby +Wharf in an hour." + +Gerrit's unusual demand again puzzled her. A fantastic possibility lodged +in her brain--perhaps he was not alone. She pulled the bell rope for her +maid, changed into black moire with cut steel bretelles, and selected +the peacock coloring of a Peri-taus shawl. She found her husband with his +father in the library. "I understand it's a splendid cargo," William +remarked. Jeremy nodded triumphantly at her, and she expressed a half +humorous resentment at this mercenary display. "He ought to be here," the +younger man declared, consulting his watch. As he spoke Rhoda saw the +barouche draw up before the house. She had a glimpse of a figure at +Gerrit Ammidon's side in extravagantly brilliant satins; there was a +sibilant whisper of rich materials in the hall, and the master entered +the library with a pale set face. + +"Father," he said, "Rhoda and William, allow me--my wife, Taou Yuen." + +Rhoda Ammidon gave an uncontrollable gasp as the Chinese woman sank in a +fluttering prostration of color at Jeremy's feet. He ejaculated, "God +bless me," and started back. William's face was inscrutable, unguessed +lines appeared about his severe mouth. Her own sensation was one of +incredulity touched with mounting anger and feeling of outrage. The woman +rose, but only to sink again before William: she was on her knees and, +supported by her hands, bent forward and touched her forehead to the +floor three times. Gerrit laughed shortly. "She was to shake your hands; +we went over and over it on shipboard. But anything less than the +_Kul'on_ was too casual for her." + +She was now erect with a freer murmur of greeting to Rhoda. The latter +was instantly aware of one certainty--Chinese she might be, she was, but +no less absolutely aristocratic. Her face, oval and slightly flat, was +plastered with paint on paint, but her gesture, the calm scrutiny of +enigmatic black eyes under delicately arched brows, exquisite quiet +hands, were all under the most admirable instinctive command. Rhoda said: + +"I see that I am to welcome you for Gerrit's family." The other, in slow +lisping English replied: + +"Thank you greatly. I am humbled to the earth before your goodness." + +"You will want to go to your room," Rhoda continued mechanically. "It was +only prepared for one, but I'll send a servant up at once." She was +enraged at the silent stupidity of the three men and flashed a silent +command at her husband. + +"This is a decided surprise," the latter at last addressed his brother; +"nor can I pretend that it is pleasant." Jeremy Ammidon's gaze wandered +blankly from Gerrit to the woman, then back to his son. + +Never before had Rhoda seen such lovely clothes: A long gown with wide +sleeves of blue-black satin, embroidered in peach-colored flower petals +and innumerable minute sapphire and orange butterflies, a short +sleeveless jacket of sage green caught with looped red jade buttons and +threaded with silver and indigo high-soled slippers crusted and tasseled +with pearls. Her hair rose from the back in a smooth burnished loop. +There were long pins of pink jade carved into blossoms, a quivering +decoration of paper-thin gold leaves with moonstones in glistening +drops, and a band of coral lotus buds. Pierced stone bracelets hung +about her delicate wrists, fretted crystal balls swung from the lobes of +her ears; and clasped on the ends of several fingers were long pointed +filagrees of ivory. + +"Taou Yuen," Gerrit repeated shortly, with his challenging bright gaze. +"That means Peach Garden. My wife is a Manchu," he asserted in a more +biting tone; "a Manchu and the daughter of a noble. Thank you, Rhoda, +particularly. But I have always counted on you. Will you go up with her? +That is if--if my father has a room, a place, for us." + +"This will always be your home, Gerrit," Jeremy said slowly, with the +long breath of a diver in deep waters. + + + + +IV + +In the room that had been his since early maturity Gerrit Ammidon gave +an involuntary sigh of relief. Taou Yuen, his wife, was standing in the +middle of the floor, gazing about with a faint and polite smile. Her eyes +rested on a yellow camphor chest--one of the set brought home by his +father--on a severe high range of drawers made of sycamore with six legs, +on her brilliant reflection in the eagle-crowned mirror above the mantel, +and the sleigh bed with low heavily curved ends. + +The situation below, however brief and, on the whole, reasonably +conducted, had been surprisingly difficult. At the same time that he had +felt no necessity to apologize for his marriage he had known that Taou +Yuen must surprise, yes--shock, his family. She was Chinese, to them a +heathen: they would be unable to comprehend any mitigating dignity of +rank. Where they'd actually suffer, he realized, would be in the +attitude of Salem, the stupid gabble, the censure and cold pity caused +by his wife. + +Personally he regarded these with the contempt he felt for so many of the +qualities that on shore bound the interests of everyone into a single +common concern. It gave him pleasure to assault the authority and +importance of such public prejudice and self-opinion; but, unavoidably +implicating his family, at once a part of himself and Salem, he was +conscious of the fact that he had laid them all open to disagreeable +moments. He was sorry for this, and his regret, principally materialized +by his father's hurt confusion, had unexpectedly cast a shadow on a scene +to which he had looked forward with a distinct sense of comedy. Where the +realities were concerned he had no fear of Taou Yuen's ability to justify +herself completely. He possessed a stupendous admiration for her. + +He watched her now with the mingled understanding and mystification that +gave his life with her such a decided charm. Her gaze had fastened on the +mirror-stand above the drawers: she must be wondering if she would have +to paint and prepare herself for him here, openly. He knew that she +considered it a great impropriety for her face to be seen bare; all the +elaborate processes of her morning toilet must be privately conducted. He +recognized this, but had no idea what she actually thought of the room, +of his family, of the astonishing situation into which her heart had +betrayed her. + +One and then another early hope he saw at once were vain. It had seemed +to him that in America, in Salem, she might become less evidently +Chinese; not in the incongruous horror of Western clothes, but in her +attitude, in a surrender to superficial customs; he had pictured her as +merging distinctively into the local scene. In China he had hoped that in +the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street she would appear +less Eastern; but, beyond all doubt, here she was enormously more so. The +strange repressed surrounding accentuated every detail of her Manchu pomp +and color. The frank splendor of her satins and carved jades and +embroidery, her immobile striking face loaded with carmine and glinting +headdress, the flawless loveliness of hands with the pointed nail +protectors, were, in his room, infinitely dramatized. + +The other, less secure possibility that she might essentially change +perished silently. In a way his wish had been a presumption--that a +member of the oldest and most subtle civilization existing would, if she +were able, adopt such comparatively crude habits of life and thought. + +She moved slowly up to the bed, examining it curiously; and again he +understood her look of doubt--in China beds were called _kang_, or +stoves, from the fact that they were more often than not a platform of +brick with an opening beneath for hot coals. She fingered the ball fringe +of the coverlet, and then turned with amazement to the soft pillow. A +hand with the stone bracelet falling back from her smooth wrist rose to +the complicated edifice of her headdress. + +"Your pillow is coming along from the ship," he told her; "the women here +do up their hair every morning." + +She considered this with geranium lips slightly parted on flawless teeth, +and nodded slowly. The westering sun striking through the window +overlooking the Common illuminated her with a flat gold unreality. + +"I'll have a day bed brought for you," he continued, realizing that, as +the result of fortunate chance, she understood most of what he said +without an actual command of the individual words. In reply she sank +before him in the deep Manchu gesture with one knee sweeping the floor, +the humility of her posture dignified by grace. He touched the crystal +globe of an earring, pinched her chin, in the half light manner by which +he instinctively expressed his affection for her. She was calm and +pleased. "Taou Yuen," he continued, "you miss Shanghai, with the wall of +ten gates and the river Woosung stuck full of masts. You'll never think +Salem is a paradise like Soochow." + +"This is your city," she replied, slowly choosing the words. "Your +ancestors are here." There was not a shade of regret in her voice or +manner. He tried once more, and as vainly as ever, to penetrate the veil +of her perfect serenity. She never, it became apparent, descended from +the most inflexible self-control; small emotions--surface gayety of +mood, curiosity, the faintest possible indication of contempt, he had +learned to distinguish; the fact that she cared enough for him to desert +every familiar circumstance was evident; but beyond these he was +powerless to reach. + +His own emotions were hardly less obscured: the dominating feeling was +his admiration for her exquisite worldly wisdom, the perfection of her +bodily beauty, and the philosophy which bore her above the countless +trivialities that destroyed the dignity of western minds. He realized +that her paint and embroidery covered a spirit as cold and tempered as +fine metal. She was totally without the social sentiment of his own +world; but she was equally innocent of its nauseous hypocrisy, the +pretensions of a piety covering commercial dishonesty, obscenity of +thought and spreading scandal. The injustice he saw practiced on shore +had always turned him with a sense of relief to the cleansing challenge +of the sea; always, brought in contact with cunning and self-seeking men +and heartless schemes, with women cheapened by a conviction of the +indecency of life, he was in a state of hot indignation. From all this +Taou Yuen offered a complete escape. + +On the purely feminine side she was a constant delight, the last possible +refinement, he told himself, of instinct and effect. She was incapable of +the least vulgarity; never for an instant did she flag from the necessity +of beauty, never had he seen her too weary for an adornment laborious in +a hundred difficult conventions. She was, too, a continuous source of +entertainment, even as his wife she never ceased to be a spectacle; his +consciousness of her as a being outside himself persisted. + +"I must go down and see where our things are," he said, rising. In the +hall he stopped before the tall clock whose striking was a part of his +early memories. Below, the house seemed empty; and, instead of turning to +the front door and his purpose, he went into the drawing-room. + +The long glass doors to the garden were open, and the interior was filled +with the scent of lilacs. The room itself had always reminded him of +them--it was pale in color, cool gilt and lavender brocade and white +panels. Nothing had been moved or changed: the inlaid cylinder fall desk +with its garlands of painted flowers on the light waxed wood stood at the +left, the pole screen with the embroidered bouquet was before the fire +blind, the girandoles, scrolled in ormolu and hung with crystal lusters, +held the shimmer of golden reflections on the walls. + +He had remembered the drawing-room at Java Head as a place of enchanted +perfection; in his childhood its still serenity had seemed a presentment +of what might be hoped for in heaven. The thought of the room as it was +now, open but a little dim to the lilacs and warm afternoon, had haunted +him as the measure of all peace and serenity in moments of extreme +danger, his ship laboring in elemental catastrophes and in remote seas. +Its fragrance had touched him through the miasma of Whampoa Reach, +waiting for the lighters of tea to float down from Canton; standing off +in the thunder squalls of the night for the morning sea breeze to take +him into Rio; over a cognac in the coffee stalls of the French market at +New Orleans, the chanteys ringing from the cotton gangs along the levees: + +_"Were you ever down in Mobile Bay? +Aye, aye, pump away."_ + +As he left the room he saw Laurel, William's youngest child, and he +imprisoned her in an arm. "You haven't asked what I've got for you in my +sea chest," he said. Gerrit was very fond of all four of the rosy-cheeked +vigorous girls, and a sense of injury touched him at Laurel's reserved +manner. She studied him with a wondering uneasy concern. This he realized +was the result of bring home Taou Yuen; and an aggravated impatience, a +growing rebellion, seized him. He wouldn't stay with his wife at Java +Head a day longer than necessary; and if anyone, in his family or +outside, showed the slightest disdain he could retaliate with his +knowledge of local pettiness, the backbiting enmities and secret lapses. + +God knew he didn't want trouble, all he asked was a reasonable liberty, +the semblance, anyhow, of a courtesy toward his wife. Whatever might be +said would be of no moment to her--except in the attitude of his +father--and Taou Yuen's indifference furnished a splendid example for +himself. He wondered why the devil he was continually putting his fingers +in affairs that couldn't concern him. No one thanked him for his trouble, +they considered him something of a fool--a good sailor but peculiar. The +damned unexpected twists of his sense of the absurd, too, got him into +constant difficulty. + +His father was standing outside the principal entrance; and, as he joined +him on the steps, he saw two men from the _Nautilus_ carrying his ship's +desk by the beckets let in the ends. The wind was blowing gently up +Pleasant Street; the men, at his gesture, lifted their burden up the +steps, between the direction of the wind and Jeremy Ammidon. The latter +rose instantly into one of his dark rages: + +"What do you mean, you damned packetrats--coming up a companionway to the +windward of me! I'll have no whalers' habits here." He repeated +discontentedly that everything on sea and land had fallen into a decline. +Others followed with a number of Korean boxes, strapped and locked with +copper, and wicker baskets. A man in charge said to Gerrit Ammidon: + +"The chest was left for Mr. Dunsack at the foot of Hardy Street, sir, as +you ordered. The inspector sent it off complimentary with your personal +things." Gerrit asked, "He didn't stop to get a whiff of it then?" The +other shook his head. "Edward Dunsack asked me to ship it here and +explained that it was only junk he was bringing home, but what it amounts +to is about a case of Patna opium. He's lucky." + +They turned inside, William was in the library, and Gerrit instinctively +followed his father into the room. William surveyed him with a moody +discontent. "What I can't understand," he proceeded; "is why you call it +a marriage, why you brought your woman here to us, to Rhoda and the +children." + +"It's simple enough," Gerrit replied; "Taou Yuen is my wife, we are +married exactly as Rhoda and you are. She is not my woman in the sense +you mean. I won't allow that, William." + +"How can it matter what you will or will not allow when everyone'll think +the other? Shipmasters have had Chinese mistresses before, yes, and +smuggled them into Salem; but this conduct of yours is beyond speech." + +Gerrit Ammidon said: + +"Don't carry this too far." Anger like a hot cloud oppressed him. "I am +married legally and, if anything, by a ceremony less preposterous than +your own. Taou Yuen is not open to any man or woman's suspicions. I am +overwhelmingly indebted to her." + +"But she's not your race," William Ammidon muttered; "she is a Confucian +or Taoist, or some such thing." + +"You're Unitarian one day a week, and father is Congregational, Hodie's +a Methodist, and no one knows what I am," Gerrit cried. "Good God, what +does all that matter! Isn't a religion a religion? Do you suppose a +Lord worth the name would be anything but entertained by such spiteful +little dogmas. A sincere greased nigger with his voodoo must be as good +as any of us." + +"That is too strong, Gerrit," Jeremy objected. "You'll get nowhere crying +down Christianity." + +"If I could find it," the younger declared bitterly, "I'd feel +differently. It's right enough in the Bible. ...Well, we'll go on to +Boston to-morrow." + +"This is your home," his father repeated. "Naturally William, all of us +have been disturbed; but nothing beyond that. I trust we are a loyal +family. What you've done can't be mended with hard words." + +"She may become very fashionable," Gerrit mockingly told his +brother. "It'll be a blow to Camilla," Jeremy chuckled. "Some rice +must be cooked." + +"Manchus don't live on rice," Gerrit replied. "They don't bind the +feet either nor wear the common Chinese clothes. Rhoda will +understand better." + +Again in his room he found his wife bending over a gorgeous heap of +satins, bright mazarines and ornaments. "We'll go down to supper soon," +he told her. Already there were signs of her presence about the room: +the chest of drawers was covered with gold and jade and green amber, +painted paper fans set on ivory and tortoise shell, and lacquer fan +boxes; coral hairpins, sandalwood combs, silver rouge pots and rose +quartz perfume bottles with canary silk cords and tassels. On a familiar +table was her pipe, wound in gilt wire, and the flowered satin tobacco +case. An old coin was hanging at the head of the bed, a charm against +evil spirits; and on a stand was the amethyst image of Kuan-Yin _pu +tze_, the Goddess of Mercy. + +Taou Yuen sank on the floor with a little embarrassed laugh at the +confusion in which he had surprised her. "Let your attitude be grave," he +quoted from the Book of Rites with a pretended severity. Her amusement +rose in a ripple of mirth. He opened his desk, rearranging the disorder +brought about by its transportation; and, when he turned, she was +prostrate in the last rays of the sun. "_O-me-to-Fuh_," she breathed; +"_O-me-to-Fuh_," the invocation to Buddha. This at an end she announced, +"Now I am grave and respectful for your family." + +Supper, Gerrit admitted to himself, promised to be a painful occasion; +conversation rose sporadically and quickly died in glances of +irrepressible curiosity directed at his wife. She, on the contrary, +showed no pointed interest in her surroundings; and, in her hesitating +slurred English, answered Rhoda's few questions without putting any in +return. Camilla preserved a frozen silence; Sidsall was pleasantly +conciliating in her attitude toward the novel situation; Janet, her lips +moving noiselessly, was rapt in amazement; and Laurel smiled, abashed at +meeting Taou Yuen's eyes. + +The recounting of his delayed return offered Gerrit a welcome relief from +the pervading strain: "There's no tea to speak of at Shanghai, and I took +on a mixed cargo--pongees and porcelain and matting. I got camphor and +cassia and seven hundred peculs of ginger; then I decided to lay a course +to Manilla for some of the cheroots father likes. The weather was fine, I +had a good cargo, and, well--we pleasured out to Honolulu. I was riding +the island horses and shipping oil when the schooner _Kahemameha_ arrived +from the coast with the news of the gold discovery in California. Every +boat in the harbor was loaded to the trucks, crowded with passengers at +their weight in ginseng, and laid for San Francisco.... Well, I was +caught with the rest. + +"Five thousand dollars was offered me to carry a gentleman and his +attendant. Two others would pay three for the same purpose. Stowage was +worth what you asked.... The _Nautilus_ made a good run; then, about a +day from land, Mr. Broadrick told me that there wouldn't be a seaman on +the ship an hour after we anchored. They were all crazy with gold fever, +he said. I could see, too, that they were excited; the watch hung under +the weather rail jabbering like parrots; an uglier crew of sea lawyers +never developed. + +"There was one thing to do and I did it--called them aft and gave them +some hot scouse. They'd shipped for Salem and there they must go. I +didn't anchor, but stood off--the harbor was crowded with deserted +vessels like some hell for ships--and sent the jolly boat in with the +passengers and a couple of men. They didn't come back, you may be sure. +The consignment for San Francisco I carried out that evening, for I made +sail at once." + +"You had a pretty time getting a way on her," Jeremy Ammidon remarked. + +"I did," Gerrit acknowledged shortly. "The second mate's ear was taken +loose by a belaying pin that flew out of the dark like a gull. Mr. +Broadrick had a bad minute in the port forecastle after he had ordered +all hands on deck a third time. The fine weather left us, though, and +that kept the crew busy; we carried away the fore-royal mast and yard +before we were within a thousand miles of the latitude of the Horn. That +hit us like a cannon ball of ice. You know what it is at its worst," he +told his father; "weeks of snow and hail and fog and gales; and not for +anything can you keep an easting. God knows how a ship lives through the +seas; but she does, she does, and you lose the Magellan clouds astern." + +The old man nodded. + +Gerrit was relieved, however, when supper ended and his wife formally +departed for her room. Immediately slipping a hand inside Rhoda's arm he +conducted her to the drawing-room. "I'd like you to know more about it," +he said directly. + +"It was very extraordinary. A Lu Kikwang was a high official of the +Canton Customs, and when Shanghai was declared an open port in forty-two +they made him hoppo there. I remembered him at Canton, a dignified old +duck with eighty or a hundred servants to keep anyone from possibly +speaking to him of business, but there had been some trouble about +foreign vessels selling saltpeter illegally and--he knew some English--we +had quite a friendly little consultation. Yet it hadn't prepared me for +his coming off to the _Nautilus_ at Shanghai with a linguist and an air +of the greatest mystery. His manner was beautiful, of course, absolutely +tranquil and that made what they said, what he hoped, seem even wilder +than it was. + +"His son, it appeared, had married and was accidentally drowned in the +Great Canal hardly a month after the ceremony. His widow belonged, then, +to the husband's family, and from that moment her father-in-law had had +nothing but bad luck. He had been robbed, his best stallion died, there +had been a flood in his tea which not only spoiled the crop but filled +the ground with silt--it was impossible to relate his calamities. He +consulted a necromancer at last and learned that it was all caused by the +presence of Taou Yuen. + +"This, you see, made the difficulty, as it's a frightful disgrace to +return a married daughter to her own father's home, and Lu had grown very +fond of her. She was extremely clever and virtuous, he said. The other +thing was to kill her or force her to commit suicide. He told me very +calmly that he would like to avoid this. + +"Then, in the linguist's most flowery manner, they went on with what Lu +Kikwang proposed. He had recognized that I was a man of 'superior +propriety' and he wondered if I would take Taou Yuen away to America with +me. Very secretly though--there would be an uproar if it were known that +a Manchu woman had been married to a foreigner. I could see her first in +his garden without her knowing anything about it. + +"It's needless to tell you that I went with them that afternoon. A +meeting was arranged for the next day--" he broke off, sitting forward +with elbows on knees, gazing fixedly at his clasped hands. + +"You make that very clear, Gerrit," his sister-in-law replied; "I now +understand the past almost as well as yourself; but it's the future I'm +in doubt about. I saw immediately that your wife was not an ordinary +woman; it would be much easier if she were. Certainly you don't intend to +stay here, at Java Head; but that is immaterial. Wherever you go in +America it will not be suitable for her. She'll be no more at home with +your friends than you with hers. I feel terribly sad about it, Gerrit; +you were as selfish as only a man can be." + +"You are unjust, Rhoda," he protested. "Taou Yuen was willing to come. +She had read about other countries and saw a great deal of the English +wife of a rich Dutch factor at Shanghai; as Lu Kikwang said, she's +wonderfully intelligent. I think she is happy, too." + +"Rubbish! Of course she loves you; I am not talking about that. How will +she get along while you are away on your long voyages? She couldn't +possibly live in the cabin of a ship, and do you suppose she'd be +contented in Salem with you absent for a year!" + +"We have as many chances of success as any other marriage," he asserted. +"The whole business is foolish enough." + +"That opinion might do for a single shipmaster, with only a month or two +out of the year on land. When you were free, Gerrit, your impatience with +convention was refreshing and possible. But can't you see that you have +given up your liberty! You have tied your hands. However loudly you may +cry out against society now you are a part of us, foolish or not. You'll +find that your wife has anchored you in Salem, Boston or Singapore, no +matter where you go: people will reach and hurt you through her. + +"She is very gorgeous and placid, superior on the surface; but the heart, +Gerrit--that isn't made of jade and ivory and silk." + +"I'll bring down your presents to-morrow," he told her, avoiding any +further present discussion of his marriage. "Has father failed, do you +think? His tempers are vigorous as ever." + +"He seems baggier about the eyes and throat. He is just as quick, but it +exhausts him more. Things would be much better if he were only content to +let William manage at the countinghouse. Times are shifting so quickly +with these new clipper ships and direct passages and political changes." + +"There's no longer any doubt about the clippers," Gerrit declared; "the +California gold rush will attend to that." + +In his room he found Taou Yuen, in soft white silk worked with bamboo +leaves, on the day bed, smoking. She rose immediately as he entered; and, +coming close to him, ran her cool fingers through his hair. He stood +gazing out at the dim oil flares that marked the confines of Washington +Square, considering all that Rhoda had said. Strangely enough it led his +thoughts away from his wife; they reverted to Nettie Vollar. + +He had been, he realized, very nearly in love with her: what he meant by +that inaccurate term was that if the affair had continued a little longer +he would have insisted on marrying her. Nettie was not indifferent to +him. An impersonal feeling had attracted him to her--a resentment of her +treatment by the larger part of Salem, particularly the oblique +admiration of the men. His supersensitiveness to any form of injustice +had driven him into the protest of calling and accompanying her, with an +exaggerated politeness, about the streets. It had not been difficult; she +was warm-blooded, luxurious, a very vivid woman. Gerrit, however, had +made a point of repressing any response to that aspect of their +intercourse--the sheerest necessity for the preservation of his disdain. + +She had cried on his shoulder, in his arms, practically; he had acted in +the purely fraternal manner. But the thing was reaching a natural +conclusion when her grandfather, Barzil Dunsack, had interfered with his +unsupportably frank accusations and command. The _Nautilus_ had been +ready for sea, and his, Gerrit's, imperious resentment had carried him +out of the Dunsacks' house--to Shanghai and Taou Yuen--without another +word to Nettie. + +How strangely life progressed, without chart or intelligent observations +or papers! He heard the tap of his wife's pipe; there was a faint +sweetish odor of drugged tobacco and the scent of cloves in which she +saturated herself. Outside was Salem, dim and without perceptible +movement; the clock in the hall struck ten. Taou Yuen didn't approach him +again nor speak; her perceptions were wonderfully acute. + +The sense of loneliness that sometimes overtook him on shore deepened, a +feeling of impotence, as if he had suddenly waked, lost and helpless, in +an unfamiliar planet. There was the soft whisper of his wife's passage +across the room. In the lamplight the paint on her cheeks made startling +unnatural patches of--paint. The reflections slid over the liquid black +mass of her hair, died in the lustrous creamy folds of her garment. She +was at once grotesque and impressive, like a figure in a Chinese +pantomime watched from the western auditorium of his inheritance. His +fondness for her, his admiration, had not lessened. He surveyed his +position, the presence here, in his room at Java Head, of Taou Yuen, with +amazement; all the small culminating episodes lost, the result was beyond +credence. His thoughts returned to Rhoda's accusation of selfishness, the +disaster implied in her pity for his wife. He tried again to analyze his +marriage, discover whatever justification, security, it possessed. Was +his admiration for Taou Yuen sufficient provision for his part of their +future together? It was founded largely on her superiority to the world +he had known; and here it was necessary for him to convince himself that +his wedding had not been merely the result of romantic accident. He knew +that the sensual had had almost no part in it, it had been mental; an act +of pity crystallizing his revolt against what he felt to be the impotence +of "Christian" ethics. Yet this was not sufficient; for he, like Rhoda, +had found under his wife's immobility the flux of immemorial woman. + +No, it wasn't enough; but more existed, he was certain of that. No one +could expect him, now, to experience the thrill of idealized passion that +was the sole property of youth. What feeling he had had for Nettie--he +was obliged to return to her from the fact that it was the only possible +comparison--had come from very much the same source as the other. The +old impersonal motives! + +The danger, Rhoda pointed out, had been admitted when his marriage made +impossible the continuation of that aloof position. He doubted that it +could change him so utterly. The thought of the entertainment his wife +would afford him in Salem expanded. He regretted that the best, the +calling and comments of the women, was necessarily lost to him, but Taou +Yuen would repeat a great deal: she, too, had a sly sense of the +ridiculous. He hoped that his sister-in-law didn't suppose her helpless; +the impenetrable Manchu control gave her a pitiless advantage over any +less absolute civilization. In the darkness before sleep the heavy exotic +scents in the room oppressed him strangely. + +He rose early, and quietly dressing went out into the garden: buds on +the June roses against the high blank fence on the street were swelling +into visible crimson; there were the stamping of horses' feet on the +cobbles of the stable inclosure, the heavy breathing and admonitions of +the coachman wielding a currycomb. The sunlight streamed down through +pale green willow and tall lilac bushes, through the octagonal latticed +summerhouse and across the vivid sod to the drawing-room door. Gerrit +turned, and entered the farther yard, where his father was inspecting the +pear trees. + +"The _Nautilus_ will need new copper sheathing," Gerrit said: "she's +pretty well stripped forward." + +"Take her around to the Salem Marine Railway at the foot of English +Street. A fine ship, Gerrit, with a proper hull. I tell you they'll never +improve on the French lines." + +"She won't go into the wind with a clipper," he admitted; "but I'll sail +her on a fair breeze with anything afloat." + +"If you come to that," his father asserted; "nothing handsomer will +ever be seen than an East India-man in the northeast trades with the +captain on the quarter-deck in a cocked hat and sword, the shoals of +flying fish and albacore skittering about a transom as high and carved +and gilded as a church, the royal pennant at the mainmast head. Maybe +it would be the _Earl of Balcarras_ with her cannons shining and the +midshipmen running about." + +"Yes," the younger man returned, "and taking in her light sails at +sunset, dropping astern like an island. The John Company's ruining +British shipping." + +Jeremy Ammidon muttered one of his favorite pessimistic complaints. "What +did you say her name was?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Taou Yuen." + +"Taou Yuen Ammidon," the elder pronounced experimentally. "It doesn't +sound right, the two won't go together." + +"But they have," Gerrit declared. He thought impatiently that he must +listen to a repetition of Rhoda's assertions. + +"I don't know much about 'em," Jeremy proceeded. "All I saw, when I was +younger, was the little singing-girls playing mora and wailing over their +infernal three-stringed fiddles something about the moon and a bowl of +water lilies." + +Taou Yuen did not come down to breakfast, and Gerrit stayed away from +their room until her toilet must be finished. It was Sunday; and with the +customary preparation for church under way William said: + +"I suppose you will go down to the ship?" + +The hidden question, the purpose of the inquiry, at once stirred into +being all Gerrit's perversity. "No," he replied carelessly; "we'll go +with you this morning." + +"That's unheard of," William exclaimed heatedly; "a woman in all her +paint and perfume and outrageous clothes in North Church, with--with my +family! I won't have it, do you understand." + +"No worse than what you see there every week," Gerrit retorted calmly; +"corsets and feathers and female gimcracks. Plenty of rouge and cologne +too. It will give them something new to stare at and whisper about." + +William Ammidon choked on his anger, and his wife laid a gloved hand on +his arm. "You must make up your mind to it," she told him. "It can't hurt +anyone. She is Gerrit's wife, you see." + +Above, the shipmaster said to Taou Yuen: "We are going to church with the +family." He surveyed her clothes with a faint glimmer of amusement. She +had, he saw, made herself especially resplendent as a Manchu. The long +gown was straw-colored satin with black bats--a symbol of +happiness--whirling on thickly embroidered silver clouds, over which she +wore a sleeve coat fastened with white jade and glittering with spangles +of beaten copper. Her slippers were pale rose, and fresh apple blossoms, +which she had had brought from the yard, made a headdress fixed with +long silver and dull red ivory pins. + +She smiled obediently at his announcement, and, with a fan of peacock +silks and betel nuts in a pouch like a tea rose hanging by a cord from a +jade button, she signified her readiness to proceed. + +William had gone on foot with his girls, Jeremy was seldom in church, and +Rhoda, Taou Yuen beside her with Gerrit facing them, followed in the +barouche. It seemed to the latter that they were almost immediately at +the door of North Church. The leisurely congregation filling the walk +stiffened in incredulous amazement as Gerrit handed his wife to the +pavement. Rhoda went promptly forward, nodding in response to countless +stupefied greetings; while Gerrit Ammidon moved on at Taou Yuen's side. + +Prepared, he restrained the latter from a prostration in the hall of the +church. Nothing had changed: the umbrella trough still bore the numbers +of the pews, the stair wound gloomily up to the organ loft. He again +found the subdued interior, the maroon upholstery, the flat Gothic +squares of the ceiling and dark red stone walls, a place of reposeful +charm. The Ammidons had two of the box pews against the right wall: his +brother and children were in the second, and, inside the other small +inclosure, he shut the gate and took his place on a contracted corner +bench. Taou Yuen sat with Rhoda against the back of the pew. The former, +blazing like a gorgeous flower on the shadowed surface of a pool, smiled +serenely at him. + +He could hear the hum of subdued comment running like ignited powder +through the church, familiar faces turned blankly toward him or nodded in +patent confusion. The men, he noted, expressed a single rigid +condemnation. The women, in crisp light dresses and ribboned bonnets, +were franker in their curiosity. Taou Yuen was a loadstone for their +glances. As the service progressed her face grew expressionless. Fretted +sandalwood bracelets drooped over her folded hands, and miniature dragon +flies quivered on the gold wires of her earrings; the sharp perfumes of +the East drifted out and mingled with the Western scents of extracts and +powders. He only saw that she was politely chewing betel nut. It wasn't, +he told himself, reverting to his critical attitude toward Salem, that he +was lacking in charity toward his neighbors, or that he felt any +superiority; but the quality that signally roused his antagonism was +precisely the men's present aspect of heavy censure and boundless +propriety, their stolid attitude of justifying the spiritual consummation +promised by the sermon and hymns. + +The long night watches, the anxiety of the sea, the profound mysteries of +the wheeling stars and the silence of the ocean at dawns, had given him, +he dimly realized, an inarticulate reverence for the supreme mystery of +creation. He was unable to put it into words or facile prayer but it was +the guarded foundation of most that he was, and it bred in him a contempt +for lesser signs. The religion of his birth, the faith of Taou Yuen, the +fetishism of the Zanzibar Coast, he had regarded as equally important, or +futile--the mere wash of the immensity of beauty, the inexorable destiny, +that had seemed to breathe on him alone at the stern of his ship. + +He lost himself now in the keenness of his remembered emotion: the +church faded into a far horizon, he felt the slight heave of the ship +and heard the creaking of the wheel as the steersman shifted his hands; +from aloft came the faint slapping of the bunt lines on rigid canvas, +the loose hemp slippers of the crew sounded across the deck, the water +whispered alongside, the ship's bell was struck and repeated in a +diminished note on the topgallant forecastle. The morning rose from +below the edge of the sea and the pure air freshened.... His thoughts +were recalled to the present by the dogmatic insistence of the +clergyman's voice, promising heaven, threatening hell. His gaze rested +on the chalky debility of Madra Clifford. + +The service over, the aisle past the Ammidon pews was filled with a +slow-moving inquisitive throng. Rhoda chose to wait until the greater +part was past, and then she followed with the unmoved Taou Yuen and +Gerrit. "This is my brother's wife," he heard the former say. "Mrs. +Saltonstone, Gerrit's sister, Mrs. Clifford and Miss Vermeil. Yes... from +Shanghai. Overdue. We were worried, of course." Taou Yuen smiled +vigorously and flapped the vivid fan. Against her brilliant colors, the +carved jade and embroideries, silver and apple blossoms, the other women +looked colorless in wide book muslin and barege, with short veils of +tulle illusion hanging from bonnets of rice straw and glazed crepe. +Palpably shocked by her Oriental face masked in paint, her Chinese +"heathen" origin, yet they fingered the amazing needlework and wondered +over the weight of her satins. + +The men he knew gave him, for the most part, a curt greeting. They +glanced more covertly at his wife; he understood exactly what thoughts +brought out this condemnation soiled by private speculation; and his +disdain mounted at their sleek backs and glossy tile, hats supported on +stiffly bent arms. + +After dinner he walked through the warm sunny emptiness of the afternoon +to Derby Wharf and the _Nautilus_. Standing on the wharf, smoking a +cheroot, he leaned back upon his cane, studying the ship with a gaze that +missed no detail. There was not a sound from the water; across the harbor +Peach's Point seemed about to dissolve in a faint green haze; a strong +scent of mingled spices came from the warehouses. There was the splash of +oars in the Basin beyond, and the more distant peal of a church bell. + +At the sound of footfalls behind him he turned and saw Nettie Vollar and +her uncle, Edward Dunsack. A dark color rose in the girl's cheek, and her +hand pulled involuntarily at Dunsack's arm, as if she wished to retreat. +Gerrit thought that she had aged since he had latest met her: Nettie's +mouth, with its full, slightly drooping lower lip, had lost something of +its fresh arch; her eyes, though they still preserved their black +sparkle, were plainly resentful. Edward Dunsack, medium tall but thin +almost to emaciation, had a riven sallow face with close-cut silvery hair +and agate-brown eyes with contracted pupils. + +"Well, Nettie," Gerrit said, moving forward promptly, "it's pleasant to +see you again." Her hand was cold and still. "Dunsack, too." + +"I am obliged to you for my chest," the latter told him, unmoved by +Gerrit's quizzical gaze. + +"Glad to do it for you," the other replied; "it came ashore with my +personal things, and so, perhaps, saved you something." + +"Perhaps," Dunsack agreed levelly. + +Looking down at the cob filling of the wharf, Nettie Vollar said, "You +came home married, I hear, and to a Chinese lady." + +Gerrit assented. "You'll certainly know her, and like her, too. Taou +Yuen is very wise and without the prejudices--" he stopped, conscious of +the stupidity of his attempted kindness. Nettie looked up defiantly, +biting her lip--a familiar trick, he recalled. Dunsack interposed: + +"You will find that the Chinese have none of your little sympathetic +tricks. No foreigner could ever grasp the depth of their indifference to +what you might call humanity. They are born wise, as you say, but weary. +I suppose your wife plays the guitar skillfully and sings the Soochow +Love Song." + +Gerrit Ammidon studied him with somber eyes and a gathering temper: it +was, however, impossible to decide whether the implication was +deliberately insulting. He wouldn't have any Canton clerk, probably +saturated with opium, insinuate that his affair was on the plane of +that of a drunken sailor! "My wife," he said deliberately, "is a +Manchu lady. You may know that they don't learn dialect songs nor +ornament tea houses." + +"Very remarkable," Dunsack returned imperturbably. "We never see them. +How did you manage a go-between, and did you send the hour of your birth +to the Calculator of Destinies? Then there is so much to remember in a +Chinese wedding--the catties of tea and four silver ingots, the earrings +and red and green silk and Tao priest to consult the gods." Gerrit heard +this with a frowning countenance. If Nettie were not there he would put +Dunsack forward with the hypothetical crew to which he belonged. He felt +as sorry for Nettie, he discovered, as ever. It moved him to see her +vivacity of life, her appealingly warm color, slowly dulled by Salem and +the adventitious circumstance of her birth. What a dreary existence she +led in the harsh atmosphere of her grandfather and the solemn house on +Hardy Street! At one time he had fancied that he might change it... when +now here was Taou Yuen, detached and superior, waiting in his room at +Java Head. + +"I stopped for a moment to look at the ship," he said, with the trace of +an ungracious bow, "and must get back." The sunlight flung a warm moted +veil over Nettie Vollar. She gave him a startled uncalculated glance of +almost desperate appeal and his heart responded with a quickened thud. +Edward Dunsack was sallow and enigmatic, with thin pinched lips. + + + + +V + +"The stupid bruiser," Edward Dunsack declared in a thin bitterness that +startled the girl at his side. "The low sea bully!" He was gazing at the +resolute back of Captain Ammidon. A surprising hatred filled him at the +memory of the other's intolerant gaze, the careless contempt of his +words. He thought, oddly enough, of the delicate and ingenious tortures +practiced on offenders in China; the pleasant mental picture followed of +Ammidon bowed in a wooden collar, of Gerrit Ammidon bambooed, sliced, +slowly choking.... With an intense sense of horror he caught himself +dwelling on these dripping visions. His hands clasped rigidly, a sweat +stood out on his brow, in a realization that was at once dread and a +self-loathing. + +About him lay the tranquil Salem water, the still wharves, the familiar +roofs and green tree tops. This wasn't Canton, he told himself, but +America: there was Nettie; only a few streets away was his father's +house, his own home, all solid and safe and reassuring. China was a +thing of the past, its insidious secret hold broken. It was now only a +dream of evil fascination from which he had waked to the reality, the +saving substance, of Derby Wharf. "It's his domineering manner," he +explained the outburst to Nettie; "all shipmasters have it--as if the +world were a vessel they damned from a quarter-deck in the sky. I never +could put up with them." + +"He is very kind, really," she replied, looking away over the harbor. "It +is so queer--marrying a Chinese woman like that. How will he ever get +along with her or be happy?" + +"He won't," Edward Dunsack asserted. "Leave that to time." He studied her +attentively. "Was it anything to you?" he asked. + +"It might have been," she acknowledged listlessly, her gaze still on the +horizon. "He came to see me two or three times, quite differently from +other nice men, and took me to a concert at the Philharmonic Society. He +was getting to like me, I could tell that, when grandfather interfered--" + +"I see," Dunsack interrupted, "with the immorality of the supermoral." + +"Whatever it was he was past bearing. No one could blame Gerrit for +getting into a fury. The next day I stood almost in this spot, it was +late afternoon too, and watched the _Nautilus_ sail away. All the canvas +was set and I could see her for a long time. When the last trace had +gone it seemed to me that my life had sunk too ... out there." + +"The old man's a fool," he said bluntly of his father. "How do you +suppose he got hold of a Manchu?" he shifted his thought, addressing the +stillness about them rather than his companion. "Don't imagine for a +minute that you are superior to her," he told Nettie more directly. +"There is nothing more remarkable. They must be gorgeous," a faint color +stained his long cheeks. "What incredible luck," he murmured. + +He was thinking avidly of the women of China--the little gay girls like +toys, the momentary glimpses of enameled faces in hurrying red-flowered +sedan chairs, faces of ivory stained with carmine, in gold-crusted +headdresses. A sudden impatience at Nettie Vollar's obvious person and +clothes expanded to a detestation of an atmosphere he had but a minute or +so before welcomed as an escape from something infinitely worse than +death. Now it seemed impossible to spend a life in Salem. It would have +been better, when he had been released by Heard and Company, to have +taken the position open in the Dutch Hong. + +He was in a continual state of such vacillation, as if he were the seat +of two separate and antagonistic personalities; rather, he changed the +figure, in him the East struggled with the West. It was necessary for the +latter to triumph. The difficulty lay in the fact that the first was +represented by an actual circumstance while the other was only a dim +apprehension, a weakened allegiance to ties never strong. + +He cursed the extraordinary chance that, against every probability, had +brought the chest of opium safely to him here. Its purchase had been the +result of habit evading his will, he had despatched it--in that seesawing +contest--by a precarious route, half hoping that it would be lost or +seized; and, when he had seen the chest carried down Hardy Street to his +door, a species of terror had fastened upon him, a premonition of an evil +spirit flickering above him in a turning of oily smoke. Why hadn't he +pitched the thing into the water at the foot of their yard! There was +time still: he would take the balls of opium and dispose of them +secretly. A sudden energy, a renewed sense of strength, flooded him. This +distaste for Nettie changed into a pity at the ill luck that had followed +her: she didn't deserve it. Generous emotions expanded his heart. He +dreamed of taking hold of his father's small commerce in rum and sugar +with the West Indies and turning it into a concern as rich and powerful +as Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. + +Why not! + +They, too, would have a big white house on Washington Square or Chestnut +Street, with servants--Chinese servants--and horses and great ships +sailing in, laden with the East. Why not indeed! He, Edward Dunsack, had +more brains than Jeremy Ammidon, that stiff old man with a face the color +of a damask plum. His niece would go to all the balls at Franklin and +Hamilton Halls, the injustice of her position overcome by an impressively +increasing fortune. Abstractly he patted her shoulder with a hand as long +and gaunt and yellow as his face. All this would come as a result of +throwing the opium into the harbor. It was as good as accomplished. + +In the face of his prospective well-being he felt already the equal of +anyone in Salem. If Gerrit Ammidon had married a Manchu lady it was his +privilege, no, duty, to call and put his experience in things Chinese at +their command. She would speak only a little if any English; no one here +understood the preparation of her food--her delicate necessity for dishes +not the property of an entire household; a hundred such details of which +the infinitely cruder West must be ignorant. He thought complacently that +he would understand her better than anyone else in Salem, in Boston, in +America; far better than her husband. She would without doubt learn to +depend on him: they would laugh together at the manners and people about +them. Ammidon would be away for long periods on the China service.-- + +His dreams broke off with a sardonic laugh, a repetition of the tone in +which he had objurgated the ship-master. Such visions were the property +of youth, and he was forty-two, forty-two and nothing more than a +discredited clerk who had fled across the world from a shadow. But he was +right--he had seen white men who had caught the breath of China accepting +just such opportunities as the one offered to him after his dismissal by +Augustine Heard. At the Dutch Hong he'd be expected to talk about his +late employer. Such situations, he had realized in a rarely illuminating +flash, were only temporary, a descending flight. + +These men resembled the fate of, say, a brig sailing into the China +Sea in all the perfection of order of the British Marine: at, perhaps, +Hong Kong, sold to a native firm, she would be refitted under an +extravagant flag, and slowly the order would depart until, in a +slovenly tangle of rigging and defilement, she'd be seen yawing on +secret and nauseous errands. + +A homely chime of bells was repeated from the town; a ship's fast +strained resinously with the changing tide. "It will be getting on toward +supper," Nettie told him. They walked slowly from the wharf, turned +silently into Derby Street and Hardy on their way home. Beyond the inner +fence of the garden the thick uneven sod reaching to the water was dark +and cool against the luminous flush of evening. A sound of frying and +heavy odor came from the kitchen, and Kate Vollar's voice informed them +that the meal was ready. + +Barzil Dunsack bowed his head over the table and pronounced a grace in +startlingly resonant tones, the reverent humility of his words oddly +emphasized by a sort of angry impatience. It seemed as if he at once +subjected himself to his God and expressed a certain dissatisfaction with +His forbearance. Edward Dunsack was plunged in the thought of the +resolution he intended to fulfill that evening. + +The throwing away of the opium had lost a part of its symbolic meaning. +It now seemed even a little rash when he could find an immediate highly +profitable market--the opium had cost him seven hundred dollars in China. +But he must, he realized, be firm. Afterwards, in his room facing away +from the street over darkening yards and gables and foliage, he stood +gazing at the chest of mango wood that held the drug. Edward Dunsack +unlocked and lifted the lid. On the tray before him were twenty balls, +each the size of his two fists, wrapped in a hard skin of poppy leaves, +and there was a similar number beneath. It was obvious that he couldn't +carry a tray through the house, and he took out two balls, after which he +secured the remainder. + +He walked quickly down the stair and through the close turning of the +lower hall that led through a side door to the yard. A pale rectangle of +lamplight fell from the sitting room window over a brick path and ground +tramped bare of grass; a clinking of dishes sounded in the kitchen. The +sod was damp, and perhaps eight feet below the wooden buttress of the +land the water showed impenetrably black. + +Safely there he passed a tense hand over a brow suddenly wet; he was +shaking as if in the grip of a chill. His condition needed drastic +measures. The cold heavy opium gave out its tantalizing odor. In a minute +it would be disposed of and he would go for more. He calculated that this +necessitated twenty trips at the present rate--a bag might serve his +purpose better. He raised an arm with an opium ball, but his hand +remained suspended in air. An inarticulate protest seized him, a +suffocating sense of impending loss. He would never be able to get Patna +opium here; it was a valuable medical property. His nerves shook at the +thought of its delights. Then as if without his volition and against +every intention, his arm described a short arc and his hand was empty. +There was the impact of a solid object striking the water, a faint ripple +on the motionless expanse, and then absolute silence. + +He was aghast at his wanton act, the irreparable waste of a precious +substance, and cursed in a low audible Cantonese. Whose concern was it if +he did, very occasionally, smoke a "pistol"? How could it possibly +matter! The dreams about a great foreign commerce, a white house like the +Ammidons', were futile; it was too late. He could expect nothing from +life but the unspeakable monotony of his father's dwelling, the bare +office. He had worked hard, been as full of splendid early resolutions as +anyone, and he wasn't blamable if chance balked his ambition. A soul was +nothing more than a twisting leaf in the wind of fate. There remained +only to take what escape was offered--golden visions, luxury, beauty +beyond all earth. + +His contrary determination seemed of less actuality than the imagined +echoing of the splash that still hung in his brain. It was a thing far +away, belonging to another time, another man; like the memory of a period +of charming ignorance. The thought of it wove a strand of melancholy into +his present mature realization like the delicate scent of blossoming +trees borne to him on the evening air, barely perceptible and then lost +in the pungency of the opium. The latter became, mystically, all China, +the irresistible fascination that had gradually possessed his +imagination, dulling the associations of his heredity and birth, calling +him further and further into its secretive heart. + +He returned to his room, where he put back the second ball in the tray of +its chest. An extraordinary weariness hung over him, there was a sense +of leaden weight in his arms and feet. Flashes of a different perception +pierced his apathy; a voice, seemingly outside his being, whispered of +danger, evil and danger.... A twisting leaf, he told himself again with +his deep fatalism. + +The memory of Gerrit Ammidon's crisp blue gaze, his vigorous gestures and +speech, became an intolerable affront, representing the far lost point of +his own departure. His contrary feelings met and grappled in his mind; +but in the end the past, Salem, was always defeated, weaker, more faintly +perceived. In a great many essentials, he told himself, he had become +Chinese in sympathy and fiber. + +The lamp threw a smooth gleam over the mango wood chest, and he bent, +turning the key in the ornamental brass lock. He could reconsider the +disposal of the opium to-morrow; there was no hurry; he had no intention +of becoming a victim to the drug. That would be an inconceivable +stupidity, the negation of all the philosophy he had gained. Very +occasionally-- + +His thoughts swung to the surprising fact of Ammidon's Chinese wife: if, +as he had first suspected, she were a common woman of the port who had +made a fool of the dull sailor he perceived the making of a very +entertaining comedy. There would be the keenest irony in exposing her to +himself before the complacent ignorance of her husband. He knew such +women: convicted in Chinese, perhaps before the entire Ammidon family, +not a muscle of her face would betray surprise or concern. She might try +to murder him, very ingeniously, but never descend to the intrigue, the +lies, of a Western woman placed in the same position. She'd stoically +accept the situation. These visions ran rapidly, vividly, through his +brain; he was accustomed to them; a greater part of his waking life was +filled with such pictures, infinitely more alluring, persuasive, than the +disappointing actuality. He got out of his clothes, and, in a loose gown +of black silk, sat at his open window, his chin sunk in the palm of a +hand, his face set against the night. + +The next morning, at the breakfast table, he listened with a fleering +mouth to his father's long dogmatic grace before meat. His sister sat +opposite their parent, her gaze lowered in a perpetual amazement, her +entire person stamped with a stupid humility. There was nothing humble, +however, in Nettie; the crisp French coloring positively crackled with an +electric energy; her mouth was set in a rebellious red blot. Studying +her, Edward Dunsack saw that she was prettier than he had first realized +on his return to Salem. He speculated over the story she had told him +yesterday about Gerrit Ammidon's attachment. What an incredible idiot +their father had been: Edward would have relished Gerrit as a +brother-in-law; good would have come to them all from such a connection. + +If he had been in America at the time no such error would have been +permitted. With his counsel Nettie would have caught Ammidon beyond any +escape. He wondered if the girl had actually cared for the shipmaster or +if the affair had been nothing more than a sop to her wounded pride and +isolation. In a way beyond his present understanding this seemed to be +considerably important. If she had loved him no one could predict what +her attitude might be in any future development of their contact; but if +her pride only had been involved, injured, she might readily be an +instrument for his own obscure purposes. + +The office where Barzil Dunsack conducted the limited affairs of his +West India trading was a small one-room building back of the dwelling. +There was a high desk at which a clerk stood, or balanced on a +long-legged stool, a more formal secretary against the length of the +wall, with a careful model of a full ship, the spars and standing +rigging slack and the whole gray with dust, a built-in cupboard +opposite, a dilapidated chair or so and a ten-plate iron stove for wood. +A window looked out across the grass to the harbor and another opened +blankly against a board fence. + +There Edward Dunsack made a column of entries in a script fine and +regular but occasionally showing an uncontrollably tremulous line. He +was conscious of this tendency, growing through the past year; and he +surveyed his writing with a feeling of angry dismay. Try as he might, +with a frowning concentration, to pen the words and numerals firmly, +presently his attention would slip, his hand waver ever so slightly, and +a sudden stricken appearance of old age fasten on the characters.... By +heaven, to-night he'd throw all that stinking stuff away! + +Outside the day was immaculate, the expanse of the water was like +celestial silk, such sails as he saw resembled white clouds. The early +morning bird song had subsided, but a persistent robin was whistling from +the grass by the open door. The curd-like petals of a magnolia were +slowly shifting obliquely to the ground, he could hear the stir of Derby +Street. He was inexpressibly weary of the struggle always racking his +being: it seemed to him that in the midst of a serene world he was +tormented by some inimicable and fatal power. + +He fastened his thoughts on commonplace happier objects, on the page +under his hand, the entries of Medford rum and sugar cane and molasses, +and the infinitely larger affairs of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. +There was no reason why he shouldn't call on Jeremy Ammidon's family. The +latter had signified by his visit the desire to end the misunderstanding +between them. He was as well born as Gerrit Ammidon; only ill chance had +made them seem differently situated. Anyhow, unlike Canton, mere exterior +position had comparatively little weight in Salem. The shipmasters, the +more important merchants, arrogated a certain superiority to themselves: +but it broke down before the inborn democracy of the local spirit. + +That afternoon, he decided, he'd be in Pleasant Street; and later he +dressed with the most meticulous care. A growing doubt seized him as he +mounted the outside steps of the Ammidons' impressive house; but he +crushed it down and firmly rapped with the polished knocker on the +opened door. + +The family, a servant told him, was in the garden; and he followed +through a large white-paneled hall into a formal drawing-room and green +space beyond. He was again uncertain before the number of people grouped +about a summerhouse and apparently watching his approach with cold +surprise. But Gerrit Ammidon stepped forward and greeted him with an +adequately level civility. + +"You know my father," he said, and Jeremy Ammidon, his heavy body in +linen above which his face was dusky, put out an abrupt hand. There was a +Mr. Brevard, a slender unconcerned person in very fashionable but +restrained clothes; William Ammidon's wife, a large woman in India +muslin, handsome enough, Edward Dunsack conceded, in the obvious +American sense; a daughter of William's, a girl blooming into womanhood, +far too vigorous and brightly colored for his taste; and Gerrit's wife. + +The latter had been hidden from him at first, and he saw her suddenly, +completely: his surprise caused him to stand in an awkward +suspense--never had he imagined that a woman, even a Manchu, could be so +beautiful! He recognized, in a score of unmistakable details, that she +was of irreproachably high birth; her satins were embroidered with the +symbols of nobility and matrimonial felicity; the gold fingernail guards, +the jade and flowering pearls, her earrings and tasseled tobacco pouch +and ivory fan, were all in the most superlative manner. + +A deep pleasurable excitement filled him as he made his greeting in +correct Chinese. The long delicate oval of her face showed no emotion at +the sound of her native speech and she returned his periods in a slowly +chosen mechanical English. Edward Dunsack thought that as he spoke an +expression of distaste stamped Gerrit's features. However, he was left in +no doubt: "My wife," the other instructed him, "prefers to speak English. +That is the only way she has of picking it up." + +A contempt filled Dunsack which he was barely able to keep from his voice +and manner. He nodded shortly, and subsided into a study of Taou Yuen so +open that she must have become aware of his interest. Seated on the bench +that circled the interior of the latticed summerhouse she moved so that +he could no longer see her face. Brevard was beside her, talking in a low +amused voice: there was a ringing peal of laughter from Sidsall Ammidon +and a faint infinitely well-bred ripple from Taou Yuen. The brilliant +patch of her gown made an extraordinary effect in the Salem garden. +Edward Dunsack recognized the scents that stirred from her, more Eastern +and disturbing even than opium: there was a subtle natural odor of musk, +the perfumes of henna and clove blossoms and santal. + +A curious double feeling possessed him in the split consciousness of +which he was capable--he had the sensation of having come, in the suave +afternoon garden, on overwhelming disaster, and at the same time he was +enraged by the play of Fate that had given such a woman to Gerrit Ammidon +and denied him, with his special appreciation of Oriental charm, the +slightest satisfaction. A more general hatred of Gerrit tightened to a +consuming resentment of the other's blind fortune. + +One thing was unmistakably borne upon him--in spite of the courtesy he +was meeting it was clear that he could not hope to become a customary +visitor at the Ammidons'. He was put definitely outside the community of +interests in which Brevard easily entered. William Ammidon joined them, +and something like astonishment at Dunsack's presence was visible on his +complacent face. + +He remained, however, in a stubborn resistance to small adverse signs in +the hope of gaining some additional facts about Taou Yuen. She had been, +he learned, a widow and Gerrit had married her with her father-in-law's +consent although the latter was a rich official. He wanted to ask a +thousand questions, but he knew that even if the Ammidons were too dense +to grasp his curiosity, Taou Yuen herself would comprehend his +impoliteness. Nowhere else could be found the wisdom and poise of a +Manchu lady. + +Jeremy Ammidon, in a lawn chair, a smoking cheroot in his fingers, asked +him about affairs of Chinese government and commerce. As the old man +talked he flushed darkly with quick indignation. "The English have made +our political diplomats look like stuffed gulls!" he declared. "Look at +their Orders in Council and the British Prize Courts," he proceeded, +waving his cheroot; "stop an American vessel anywhere and pretend to find +a deserting English sailor. With the Treaty of Ghent and cod-headed +commissioners and a Congress that wouldn't know a ship from a bread barge +the country's going to hell on greased ways! I've said it a thousand +times and any man not a complete ass knows that you can't run a +government without a strong head. Locofocos," he muttered. + +Edward Dunsack listened to this tirade with an air of polite attention +which hid completely the fact that he heard or comprehended scarcely a +word. His thoughts were filled by the fragrant vision of Taou Yuen; +already he was deep in the problem of how to see her again, to-morrow. It +would be excessively difficult. Eastern women never, if they could avoid +it, walked; and they were, he knew, entirely without the necessity that +drove the women of Salem into a ceaseless round of calling and gossip. It +was probable that, except to ride, she wouldn't leave the house and +grounds. He cursed the chance quarrel that had set a customary void +between the houses of Dunsack and Ammidon, the unfortunate affair of his +sister and Vollar inescapably adding to the permanency of the breach; he +particularly cursed Nettie. There, however, his mind took up the twisted +thread of the vague possibility that the latter might be useful to him: +he was amazed at the way in which his premonitions fitted into the +pattern of situations yet to be materialized. + +Edward Dunsack turned from his contemplation of Taou Yuen to a careful +consideration of Gerrit Ammidon. The latter had a countenance which +showed strong, easily summoned emotions. It was an intolerant face, +Dunsack judged, and yet sentimental; and it was surprisingly young, +guileless. At the same time it was unusually determined--an affair of +uncomplicated surfaces, direct gaze, marked bone. + +He questioned sharply, irritably, the length to which his projections had +reached. What were they all about? The answer was presented by the +glittering figure of the Manchu; she had risen and was standing in the +entrance of the summerhouse. He thought, with a jerking pulse, of +Oriental similes; she was a lotus-woman, a green slip of willow, an +ambrosial moon, a mustard flower. Her teeth were white buds, her breasts +blanched almonds. + +His entire life in China had been a preparation for the realization of +the present moment. The sense of danger, of anger at Gerrit Ammidon, +perished before the supreme emotion called up by Taou Yuen. He wanted +to embrace her satin-shod feet, to cling to her odorous hands, such +hands as were never formed out of China, like petals of coral. Not only +her bodily charm intoxicated him, but the thought of her subtle mind +added its attraction, its shadows never to be pierced by the blunted +Western instinct, the knowledge of pleasures like perfumes, the calm +blend of the eight diagrams of Confucius, the stoicism of the +Buddhistic soul revolving perpetually in the urn of Fate, and of the +aloof Tao of Lao-tze. + +Brevard left with an easy familiarity, already planning a return, that +filled Edward Dunsack with resentful envy. The sun had disappeared behind +the house; long cool shadows swept down the garden; it was past time for +him to go. A reluctance to move from the magic of Taou Yuen possessed +him: he was unable to think how, when, he would next see her. He raged at +the prohibition against speaking Chinese; that ability should give him an +overwhelming advantage of Gerrit Ammidon. This was, of course, the reason +that he had been virtually commanded to limit himself to English. Many of +the forms of extreme Chinese courtesy were impossible to express in +another language. + +Finally he rose; in departing he emphasized the importance of Jeremy +Ammidon--Taou Yuen should recognize and applaud that. He saw that she was +watching him obliquely, her lips in repose, her hands still among the +satin draperies. An American would have betrayed something of her +reaction to him, he could have discovered a trace, an indication, of her +thoughts; but the Manchu's face was as inscrutable as porcelain. William +Ammidon nodded, the old man responded to his leave-taking with a degree +of warmness, Gerrit at least smiled in a not unfriendly manner. Edward +Dunsack bowed to Taou Yuen, and she gravely inclined her head. He had a +last glimpse of her glowing in the green light of the inclosure of +rose-bushes and poplars, emerald sod and tangled lilac trees. + +At the supper table his sister's appearance in somber untidy black +barege, Nettie's unrestrained gestures and speech, the coarse red cloth +and plain boiled fare, all added to a discontent that he could scarcely +restrain. With the utmost discrimination in delicate shades of beauty and +luxury he was yet condemned to spend his days in surroundings hardly +raised above poverty-stricken squalor. Incongruous as it was he could yet +imagine Taou Yuen moving with a certain appropriateness about the +Ammidons' spacious grounds and house; but he was absolutely unable to +picture her here, on Hardy Street. + +All the vivid scenes that continually formed and shifted in his mind +gathered about Gerrit Ammidon's wife. He used this phrase in a +contemptuously satirical manner: it was impossible for Ammidon actually +to marry a Manchu. Such racial mating, he told himself, could not be +consummated; there were too many deep antipathies of flesh and spirit; +the man was too--too stupidly normal. Sooner or later he would swing back +to his own. With him, Edward Dunsack, it was different; he always had an +inner kinship with China; at first sight its streets and sounds, odors +and ways, had seemed familiar, admirable. + +The realization of this, when his place with Heard and Company +collapsed, had sent him back to America, in a strange dread. He +remembered how the vague fear had followed him to Derby Wharf. Now he +laughed at it, welcoming every Chinese instinct he had. They seemed to +throw a bridge across enormous difficulties, bringing him finally to +Taou Yuen. + +He lingered at the table after supper, his head sunk on his chest, +revolving the various aspects of his position. One thing was definite--he +must have Taou Yuen; it was unthinkable that she should continue with +Gerrit Ammidon. It needed skillful planning, tortuous execution, but in +the end he'd get his desire. He had no doubt of that. It was necessary. +If she opposed him she would discover that he, too, could be subtle, +Oriental, yes--dangerous. None of the stupid inhibitions that, for +example, bound his father interfered with the free exercise of his +personal wishes. He was beyond primitive morality. + +An ecstasy of contemplation ravished his senses. + +"Goodness, Uncle Edward," Nettie exclaimed, "you scared me, you looked so +like a Chinee." + +"There are no such people," he retorted sharply, exasperated by the +vulgar error. She was undismayed; and when, in reply to the question, she +learned that he had been at the Ammidons' her surprise increased his +irritation. He saw from her manner that his calling there had been at +least unexpected. Nettie interrupted the preparation of the table for +breakfast, and dropped into a chair beyond him, her hands--the sleeves +were rolled back to her elbows--clasped before her. + +"You must tell me everything," she declared eagerly. "What is she like? +Do they seem happy? Did he hold her hand? Do Chinese women kiss? Is she +tall or--" + +"I can't remember a question out of your rattle," he interrupted her. He +was about to give expression to his admiration for Taou Yuen, when he +stopped, with tight lips. Here, perhaps, was the lever by which so much +was to be shifted. + +"She's Chinese," he said indifferently, "and that means yellow." Nettie +made a gesture of distaste. "They seem to get along well enough. Of +course, it's ridiculous to call it a marriage, and it seems to me very +questionable to impose it on the Ammidons as that. The thing is--how +long will it last, how soon will he get tired of her and send her back +to Canton?" + +Nettie Vollar closed her eyes, her hands were rigid. The lamplight, +streaming up over her face, showed him that it was tense and pale and +answered a question. Her feeling for Gerrit Ammidon had been more than a +mere hurt pride. In addition to that he saw beyond any doubt the proof of +its existence still. This complicated his problem: inspired only by a +resentment that he might fan into hatred she would be far more pliable +than in the grip of a genuine affection for Gerrit Ammidon. He understood +the processes of the former, a flexible and useful steel; but no one +could predict the vagaries, the absurd self-sacrifices, of love. Well, +he'd have to work with what offered. That, he realized, was the strength +of his philosophy--he accepted promptly, without vain regret, the means +that lay at his hand. + +"Ammidon seems worn," he said generally; "they were in the garden, and I +had a few words privately with him." Nettie glanced swiftly across the +table; her lips moved; but she repressed the obvious question trembling +on them. "He showed, I think," he continued carefully, "a very improper +interest in you." + +"How?" + +"He asked if you were well and happy. I most certainly told him, for any +number of reasons, for pride alone, that you were." + +"Then you told a lie," she cried in a tone so hard that it surprised him. + +"Of course," he went on smoothly, "I know that you are not, almost all +your circumstances prohibit that. But I don't intend to circulate it in +Salem. Opinion here may have forced you into a long loneliness, but I +shan't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing it. And, after all, you +have your grandfather mostly to blame. You would have been married to +Gerrit Ammidon now if he hadn't interfered; you would have been walking +about the Ammidons' garden with your hand on his arm in place of that +Chinese prostitute." + +"I don't see why you should make me so miserable," she declared. "I don't +care anything about the garden, it isn't that. Why do you suppose he +brought such a woman home?" + +"Pique," he told her; "he couldn't care for her in the way he might for, +well--you. As I said, he'll drop her on his next voyage to the East; he +will leave her and probably never come back to Salem again. I hear that +Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone are planning a new policy--bigger ships, +clippers in the China and California trade; and that means removal to +Boston. Their facilities here are no longer suitable." + +She moved, her chin fell upon her hands, propped up with her elbows on +the table. Apparently Edward Dunsack was gazing at the wall beyond her. +Her breast gave a single sharp heave. When Nettie looked up her face was +flushed. "I wish that I were really a bad woman," she spoke in a low +vibrant voice. + +"What is bad and what is good?" He still seemed to ignore her, +considering a question that had no personal bearing. "In one country a +thing is thought wrong and in another it is the highest virtue. In one +age this or that is condemned, when, turn the calendar, and everyone is +praising it." He became confidential, the image of kindness. "I'll tell +you what I think is wicked," he pronounced, leaning toward her, "and that +is the way you two were kept apart; unchristian is what I call it." + +"Gerrit doesn't care," she said. + +"How do you know?" he demanded. "I cannot agree with you. I don't find a +great deal in him to admire, he is too simple and transparent; but +there's no doubt of this, he is faithful. One idea, one affection, is all +his head will hold." + +"That's a beautiful trait." A palpable wistfulness settled over her. + +"It's greatly admired," he agreed; "although not by me. I believe in +taking what is yours, what you need, from life. I suppose that I have +been away from proprieties so long that they have lost their importance. +They seem to me of no greater weight than barriers of straw. But, of +course, that mightn't suit you; probably, living in Salem as you have, +its opinion is valuable." + +"Salem!" she exclaimed bitterly. "What has it ever been to me but an +unfair judgment? I owe Salem no consideration; I can't see that I owe +any to life." + +"I don't want to insist on that," he proceeded deliberately. "The tragedy +of your position is that married to Ammidon everything in the past would +have been overlooked, forgotten. Even now--" he stopped with a gesture +indicating the presence still of large possibilities. + +God, what a vacillating fool the girl was! He could say no more at +present, and he rose, leaving the room with Nettie staring dully across +the table. He went outside, to the grass fronting on the harbor. Here, +last night, he had thrown the opium into the water. It seemed to him +that he had lived through a complete existence since then: the presence +of Taou Yuen had created a new world. He thought she walked to him +through the gloom; he saw her slender body grow brighter as she +approached; he heard her speak in a low native murmur; their hands +caught in an eager tangle. + +He put aside, momentarily, the problem of the difficulties of going again +to the Ammidons' for an easier one--the bringing of Gerrit Ammidon here. +He was confident that, thrown together on the still rim of the water, at +evening, the emotion born between his niece and the shipmaster and +prematurely choked would revive. He had no means of knowing Ammidon's +present exact feeling for Nettie; he was counting only on a general +theory of men and nature at large. He was already convinced, from very +wide knowledge, experience, that the other could not form a permanent +attachment to the Manchu; and Nettie's great difference, together with +the romance of her unhappy position, must have a potent effect on the +fellow's evident sentimentality. A dank air rose from the water, like the +smell of death; and, with an uncontrollable shiver, he turned back toward +the house. + +In his room Edward Dunsack recalled that he had promised himself to throw +away the remainder of the opium on this and succeeding nights. In view of +that his movements were inexplicable: he got out from a locked chest the +_yen tsiang_, a heavy tube of dark wood inlaid with silver ideograms and +diminutive earthen cup at one end. Then he produced a small brass lamp, +brushes, long needles, and a metal rod. Taking off his clothes, and in +the somber black folds of the silk robe, he made various minutely careful +preparations. Finally, extended on his bed, he dipped the end of the rod +into opium the color of tar, kept it for a bubbling moment near the blaze +of the lamp, and then crowded the drug into the pipe. He held the bowl to +the flame and drew in a long deep inhalation. A second followed and the +pipe was empty. He repeated this until he had smoked a mace. + +A vivacious and brilliant state of being flooded him; he felt capable +of profoundly witty conversation, and laughed at the solemn absurdities +of the Ammidons, at his father attempting to call down a blessing out +of the empty sky upon their food, at his sister's lugubrious +countenance, the childish emotions of Nettie. What a nonsensical +strutting business life was. + +The confines of his room were lost in an amber radiance that filled all +space; it was at once a light and a perfume and charged with a sense of +impending rapture. A sparkling crimson shape floated down from infinite +skies--Taou Yuen. She wore a bridal costume, cunningly embroidered with +the phoenix, a hood of thin gold plate, and a band of red silk about her +brow bore the eight copper figures of the beings who are immortal. Her +hair was ornamented by the pure green jade pins of summer, her hanging +wrists were heavy with virgin silver, while her face was like the +desirous August moon flushed in low vapors. + +He raised his bony arms--the wide silk sleeves falling back--his +emaciated yellow hands. From under his dark eyelids there was a glitter +of vision like the sheen on mica... Taou Yuen floated nearer. + +Edward Dunsack woke suddenly, at the darkest ebb of night, and started +hurriedly to his feet. A sickening vertigo, a whirling head, sent him +lurching across the room. He came in contact with a chest of drawers, and +clung to it with the feeling that his legs were shriveling beneath him. +His consciousness slowly returned, and with it a pain like ruthless +tearing fingers searched his body. The rectangle of the open window, +only less dark than the room, promised a relief from the strangled effort +of his breathing, and he fell across the ledge, lifting his face to a +starless and unstirring heat. Waves of complete physical exhaustion +passed over him. An utter horror fastened on his brain. + +"Oh, God," he said, with numb lips, "we thank Thee for this, Thy daily +blessing--" He broke off with an effort. That was his father pronouncing +a grace. "Oh God--" he said again, when it seemed to him that in the +darkness he saw the blank placidity of a Buddha carved from gray stone. +Tears ran over his sunken cheeks, salt and warm like blood. + + + + +VI + +The night was so oppressive, continuing such an unusually sultry period +for the season, that Sidsall, ordinarily impervious to the effects of +weather, was unable to sleep. Although the door between her room and her +parents' was shut, she heard her father--his step, at once quick and +firm, was easily recognizable moving about beyond. Her restlessness +increased and she got up, crossing the floor to the window open on the +garden, where she knelt, the thick plait of her hair across her cheek and +shoulder, with her arms propped on the ledge. The depths of sky were +hidden in a darkness like night made visible; and, in place of moving +air, there were slow waves of perfume, now from the lilacs and now from +the opening hedge of June roses. + +Her brain was filled by a multitude of minor images and speculations, but +fixed at their back was the presence of Roger Brevard. She approved of +him absolutely. He had exactly the formal manner that gave her a pleasant +sense of delicate importance, and his clothes were beautiful, a sprig of +rose geranium in a buttonhole and his gloves and boots immaculate. She +liked rather slight graceful men, she thought, with the quiet voices of a +polite ancestry. Naturally Olive Wibird preferred less restrained +companions, although Heaven knew that Olive appeared to make all kinds +welcome. Olive's opinion of Roger Brevard would have been very different +if he had asked her to dance. + +Sidsall recalled the quadrille he had led her through at Lacy's party; he +had been a perfect partner, at once light and firm. He had been a +habitual caller at Java Head before that occasion, and had come in the +same manner since. That is, casually viewed, his visits seemed the same; +but in reality there were some small yet significant differences. They +were all held in his attitude of the afternoon when he had stayed talking +exclusively to her on the steps. + +She couldn't say just what the change was; when she attempted to examine +it her thoughts became confused and turned to a hundred absurd +considerations, such as--at present--the loveliness of the night. The +scents of the flowers were overwhelming. He got on, too, better than +almost anyone else with her Uncle Gerrit's Manchu wife. She had watched +them together until it had dawned on her that the two had some important +qualities in common--they both appeared to stand a little aside from the +world, as if they were against the wall at a cotillion. She thought this +in spite of the fact that it was precisely what Roger Brevard never did; +it was true in the mysterious way of so much now that came from ideas +over which she had no control. + +The subject of Uncle Gerrit's wife--she had not yet been told or decided +for herself what to call her--was inexhaustibly enthralling. But, before +she was again fairly launched in it, she paused to wonder at the presence +of the dreadful Dunsack man on their lawn. His hollow yellow cheeks and +staring brown eyes which somehow made her think of pain, his restless +hands and speech, all repelled her violently. Taou--Taou Yuen hadn't +liked him either: when, after the longest time, he had gone, she replied +to a short comment from her, Sidsall's, father: + +"Rotten wood cannot be carved." + +Some one else had mentioned opium. She had intended to ask more +particularly about this, but it slipped from her mind. She remembered +that her grandfather made one of his familiar exclamations peppered with +an appalling word. He was really very embarrassing, and she was glad that +Roger Brevard had left. It was a bad example for Laurel, too, who copied +him, and only that morning said "My God" to Miss Gomes. Her mind swung +back to the consideration of the Manchu: The latter was the fact upon +which Camilla was so insistent, that in this case a Manchu was a noble, +almost a princess. Camilla suffered dreadfully from the endless questions +put to her outside their house about Uncle Gerrit's wife. She had more +than once wept at the public blot laid on them. Laurel was frankly +inquisitive and Janet as puzzling as usual. + +The clothes of course were enchanting, the richness of the materials and +hand embroidery marvellous; her jewelry was never ending. It didn't seem +quite like clothing, in the sense of her own tarlatan and crinoline, her +waist which Hodie wouldn't properly lace and tulle draping; there was a +certain resemblance to the dressing in Van Amburgh's circus; but--in +spite of Camilla's private laments--every inch of it was distinguished. +The layers of paint upset them, but Uncle Gerrit had explained, a little +impatiently, that it was a Manchu custom, adding that the world couldn't +be all measured and judged by Salem. + +Sidsall liked her rather than not, she decided; and determined to make an +effort to know her better. She wanted specially to discover the nature of +the bond that held one to the other, and explore, in safety, the depths +of love. She could not help feeling that her uncle's affair, +extraordinary as it was, must throw light on the whole complicated +business of marriage. ... The clock in the hall struck an indeterminate +half hour, it appeared to grow lighter outside, and there was a +twittering of martins from the stables. From above came the vigorous +harsh cawing of crows. Suddenly sleepy she returned to bed and almost +immediately the room was flooded with sunlight. + +It was an accepted fact now that Taou Yuen, the Garden of Peaches, stayed +in her room until long after breakfast; and when Sidsall, rising from the +table, found a servant taking up a pot of hot water for tea, she secured +it and knocked carefully on the door above. The slurring hesitating voice +said "Come in," and she entered with a diffidence covered by a cheerfully +polite morning greeting. She found the other in crepe de Chine pantaloons +wrapped tightly about her ankles and bound over quilted muslin socks with +gay brocaded ribbons and a short floating gown of gray silk worked with +willow leaves. Her hair was an undisturbed complication of lustrous +black, gold bodkins and flowers massed on either side; and her face, +without paint or powder, was as smooth as ivory and the color of very +pale coffee and cream. + +Sidsall saw that she was at her toilet, and she put down the pot of +steaming water, moving toward the door; but Taou Yuen, with a charmingly +shy gesture, begged her to stay. She swiftly drew a cup of tea from +silvery leaves, filled and lighted the minute bowl of her tobacco pipe, +deeply inhaled the smoke; then returned to a mirror. + +Fascinated, Sidsall followed every motion. + +Taou Yuen polished her face sharply with a hot damp cloth and then dipped +her fingers in a jar that held a sticky amber substance. "Honey," she +said briefly, rubbing it into her cheeks and palms. Next she attacked her +eyebrows, and skillfully wielding a thin silk cord left arches like +pencil markings. At times she interrupted her preparations to turn to +Sidsall with a little smile so engaging that the girl smiled +sympathetically in answer. There were a gilt paper box of rice powder, +with which she drenched her countenance, leaves of carmine transferred to +her cheeks with a wet finger, and a silver pot of rouge from which she +coated her lips. As she gazed approvingly at her reflection Sidsall said: + +"It's very beautiful." + +Her eyes, drawn up toward her temples, shone gayly; and, close to +Sidsall, she touched the latter affectionately on the cheek. The cold +sharp contact of the long curving finger guard gave the girl an +unpleasant shock. It seemed lifeless, or like the scratching of a beetle. +Suddenly the woman's glittering gaze, her expressionless face stiff with +paint, the blaze of her barbaric colors, filled Sidsall with a shrinking +that was almost dread. + +She was even more oppressed by an instinctive feeling of what she could +express to herself only as cruelty hidden under the other's scented +embroidery. At the same time her curiosity persisted, conquered. She was +unable, however, to think of any possible manner of introducing the new +subject of her interest, love, and was forced to be content with an +indifferent opening. + +"We were all quite surprised when Mr. Dunsack called yesterday," she +said. "He isn't in the least a friend of the family. Grandfather went to +sea with his father, but even they didn't speak for years in Salem. The +Dunsacks are a little common." + +"I know," Taou Yuen replied. "Mr. Dunsack--a long time in Canton, at the +American agents. China is bad for men like him. Black spirits get in them +and the ten sins." + +"He stared at you in the rudest way." + +"He never saw a Manchu lady before. In China the dog would not have +passed by the first gate. Here it is nothing to be a Manchu or an +honorable wife; it is all like the tea houses and rice villages. Men walk +up to you with bold eyes. I tell Gerrit and he laughs. I stay in the room +and he brings me shamefully down. This Mr. Dunsack comes and the wise old +man talks to him like a son. He touches your mother's hand. He sees the +young girls like white candles." + +"We wouldn't let him really bother us," Sidsall explained; "probably if +he comes again we'll all be out." + +Taou Yuen made a comment in Chinese. "A bad thought is a secret knife," +she continued; "it is more dangerous than the anger of the Emperor, a +sickness that kills with the stink of bodies already dead." + +This seemed rather absurd to Sidsall. She considered once more the +introduction of the subject of her new concern; but, in spite of Taou +Yuen's extravagant appearance, there was a quality of being which made +impossible any blunt interrogation. She had a decidedly aloof manner. Her +mother, Sidsall recognized, and the older women they knew, had a trace of +this; but in the Manchu it was carried infinitely further, a most +autocratic disdain. Her feeling for the other shifted rapidly from +attitude to attitude. + +She watched, she was certain, these same sensations come over her Aunt +Caroline Saltonstone, Mrs. Clifford and Mrs. Wibird, who called on Gerrit +Ammidon's wife that afternoon. They were sitting with their crinoline +widespread against their chairs, gazing with a concerted battery of +curiosity at Taou Yuen's shimmering figure in the drawing-room screened +against the sun. Mrs. Wibird, Sidsall thought--a woman of fat and faded +prettiness, with wine red splotches beneath her eyes, and a voice that +went on and on in the relating of various petty emotional +disturbances--must have resembled Olive as a girl. It was probable, then, +that Olive would look like her mother when in turn she was middle-aged. +Mrs. Clifford, unseasonably huddled in her perpetual shawl, more than +ever suggested a haggard marble in somberly rich clothes. Aunt Caroline +sat with complacent hands and loud inattentive speech. Taou Yuen smiled +at them placidly. + +"Our men," said Mrs. Clifford, "went out to China for years. It never +occurred to them however to marry a Chinese woman; but I dare say they +didn't see the right sort." + +"Most of the captains like China," Taou Yuen said. "They are so far away +from their families--" she made a brief philosophical gesture, and Madra +Clifford studied her with a narrowed gaze. "It would be the same," she +continued, "if Chinamen came to America." Mrs. Wibird shuddered. "A +yellow skin," she cried impetuously; "I can't bide the thought." + +"I'm sure we'd be tremendously interested," Mrs. Saltonstone hurriedly +put in, "if you'd tell us about your wedding. A Chinese wedding must +be--be very gay, with firecrackers and--" + +"My marriage with Captain Ammidon was not beautiful--I was a widow and he +foreign. The Manchu wedding is very nice. First there is the engagement +ceremony. I sit like this," she sank gracefully to the floor, +cross-legged, "on the bed with my eyes shut, and, if I am noble, two +princesses come and put the _ju yi_, it's jade and means all joy, on my +lap. Two little silk bags hang from the buttons of my gown with gold +coins, and two gold rings on my fingers must be marked with _Ta hsi_, +that's great happiness." + +"I'm told polygamy is an active practice," Mrs. Wibird remarked with a +rising interest. + +"Yes?" Taou Yuen asked. + +"One man--a lot of wives." + +"The Emperor has a great many and some Manchus take a second and third. +You think that is wrong here. Who knows! The Chinese women are very good, +very modest. The Four Books For Girls teach perfect submission; the five +virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity. +Confucius says, 'The root is filial piety.'" + +"Very admirable," Mrs. Wibird nodded, agitating the small dyed ostrich +plumes tipped with marabou of her bonnet; but it was clear to Sidsall +that this was not the revelation for which she had hoped. A momentary +silence, the edge of an uneasiness, enveloped the visitors. + +"What lovely satins," Mrs. Saltonstone commented. + +"Please--I have a box full; you will let me give you some?" + +"Indeed yes, and thank you." + +Mrs. Wibird, growing resentful, said that a cousin of her aunt's had been +a missionary to China, "and did a very blessed work too." + +Taou Yuen smoothly agreed that it was quite possible. "Our poor have a +great many wrong and lustful ideas," she acknowledged; "they tell lies +and beat their wives and gamble. The higher classes too, the mandarins +and princes, use the people for their own security and rob them. +Sometimes the law is not honest, and a man with gold gets free when a +laborer is put in the bamboo cage." + +Mrs. Clifford said very vigorously, "Ha!" + +The silence returned intensified. + +"I remember," the Manchu went on, "this will amuse you. My father-in-law, +who was in the Canton Customs, told me that some boxes of Bibles came out +from America, with other objects, and when they were opened at the +Mission they were the wrong ones and filled with rum." + +There was not, however, any marked appreciation of this on the part of +the Salem women. They rose to leave and Taou Yuen sank on her knee. She +gazed without a trace of emotion at the three flooding the door with +their belled skirts. "They are the same everywhere," she told the girl. +The latter moved out into the garden. There she subconsciously picked a +rose and fastened it in her hair; her thoughts turned to Roger Brevard. +In his place her Uncle Gerrit came out through the drawing-room window. +The usual shadow of the house, lengthening with afternoon, was pleasantly +enveloping, and they walked slowly over the grass. + +"A flower in your hair," he said, "and by yourself. You have been +thinking about true love." She blushed vividly at this unexpected angle +on her mind and found it impossible to meet his keen blue eyes. "Love +must be a remarkable thing." She raised a swift glance to his face and +discovered that he had not spoken to her at all, but, hat in hand, was +looking away with an expression of abstraction. + +"I mean the unreasonable silly divine kind," he specified, now gazing +at her quizzically, as if lost in a mood over which he had no control; +"the sort that is as long as life and stronger. It is entirely +different and ages older than the reasonable logical love, all proper +and suitable and civilized; or the love that is the result of a +determination, the result of a determination," he repeated, frowning +darkly at their feet. Sidsall held her breath, thrilled by the wealth +of what she had heard, fearful of diverting what might be yet revealed. +But he moved away abruptly, in a manner that enforced solitude, and +stood apparently examining the rockery. + +Her brain rang with the splendid phrase, "Love as long as life and +stronger." It seemed to clarify and state so much of her lately confused +being. Hodie, artfully drawn into the consideration of earthly affection, +was far less satisfactory than Gerrit Ammidon. She dwelt on the treasure +beyond moth or rust, lost in an ecstasy of contemplation expressed in her +customary explosive amens. At the same time she admitted that lower +unions were blessed of God, and recommended Sidsall to think on "a man +who has seen the light and by no means a sea captain." Sidsall replied +cuttingly, "I think you must forget where you are." + +"I forget nothing," Hodie stoutly maintained; "I'll witness before +anyone." She settled the flounces of Sidsall's skirt with a deft hand. + +Walking toward the Saltonstones' for tea, with a mulberry silk parasol +casting a shifting glow on her expanse of clear madras, Sidsall +wondered at the sudden change of almost all her interests and +preoccupations. It was very disturbing--she fell into daydreams that +carried her fancy away on a search that was a longing, a soft confusion +of opening her arms to mystery. This varied with a restless melancholy; +the old securities of her life were hidden in a mist of uncertainty in +which her consciousness was troubled by nameless pressures; something +within her held almost desperately back from further adventuring. But +all the time a latent fascination was drawing her on, putting aside the +curtain for her better view. + +The Saltonstones' dwelling on Chestnut Street was one of a pair--a large +solid square of brick--with two identical oval white porticoes and rows +of windows keyed in white stone. Within the staircase swept up to a +slender pillared opening, through which Lacy, calmly dressing, waved a +deliberate hand. Mrs. Saltonstone was seated by the tall gilt framed +mirror on a low marble stand between long front windows. "As usual," she +said, in connection with her daughter, "Lacy's as cool as a water monkey; +gets it from James; they wouldn't hurry if--" She searched in vain for an +expression of her family's composure. "Now I am an impetuous woman." She +promptly exhibited this quality in the vigor with which she met the wrong +canister of tea brought by a servant. She didn't intend to serve Padre +Souchong to a lot of people who apparently confused afternoon tea with an +invitation to dinner. + +In the small press which followed Sidsall stopped in the dining room with +Lacy and Olive Wibird. Olive was still discussing men. "He sat holding my +hand right on that bench by your hedge, Sidsall, and said that nothing +could keep him from coming back for me, but he died of yellow fever in +Batavia." She left in the company of a beau of fifty anyhow, with a +glistening bald head, a silly smirking bow and flood of compliments. Lacy +moved away and Sidsall found herself facing Roger Brevard. + +"That looks remarkably like a garden," he said, waving toward an open +door. The sun had become obscured in a veil of cloud, drooping until it +almost seemed to rest on the bright green foliage; her companion's mood, +too, was shadowed. "I thought you'd be here," he added outside, "and +looked for you at once." + +"There was something special you wanted to say?" + +"My dear child," he replied, "can't you guess how absolutely refreshing +you are? No, I have nothing special. But you'll soon get used to men +around with no more reason than yourself." + +She studied this seriously; and, as its complimentary intent emerged, +a corresponding color stained her cheeks. Her gaze rested on him for +the fleetest moment possible and, to her surprise, she saw that he +was frowning. + +"I came here just to see you. No," he corrected his period, "only to see +you." His manner was surprisingly abrupt and disconcerting. "I can quite +realize," he went on, "that I shouldn't say any of this. Yet, on the +other hand, it is the most natural thing in the world. I have been +listening to the conventional babble of teas and cotillions for so long +that you are like a breath of lost youth. Certainly that is appropriate. +I think," he told her, "that you are the youngest thing alive." Then he +laughed, "So young that I have annoyed you." + +"I feel a great deal older than I did, well--last month," she said. + +"That is a tragedy." She felt that if he were still amused at her she was +furious, but he was even graver than before. "To tell you helps hurry the +charm to an end. That is what might be complained against me. Yet flowers +will open, you know, and it might as well be in an honest sun." + +"I don't understand," she admitted, troubled. + +"Why, it means, Sidsall, that I am offering you an experienced hand, that +I'm certain I can do you more good than harm--" + +"That's silly," she interrupted. "If you mean that we might be friends, +really confidential friends, it would help me awfully. But then it's so +one-sided." + +"You'll have to overlook that," he answered; "probably all that I can +give you, experience, isn't worth the smallest of your feelings. Probably +you won't need me for an instant. Certainly the pleasure will be mine." + +"You didn't understand," she told him, with dignity; "it's the other way +round. I am not a particle interesting and everyone agrees that I'm too +healthy. But I can't help it if my cheeks are red and mother won't let +me have powder." It was obviously impossible to explain about Hodie and +the lacing. + +"I like it," he insisted. "I'll admit that I am unfashionable there. I +think we'll hit on a great deal to share privately." There was a faint +patter among the leaves, and a cold drop of rain fell on Sidsall's arm. +Others struck Roger Brevard but he continued without apparently noticing +them. "You must understand that I am entirely at your service. Sometimes, +although they won't come yet, there are things a--a friend can do better +than one's family. You'll ask me, Sidsall?" + +"Yes," she said solemnly. More rain struck her; she could see it now +plainly, falling between them. Roger Brevard's face was dark, the frown +still scarred his forehead. Personally she was happier than she +remembered ever being before and she wondered at his severity of bearing. +"But you must go in at once," he cried, suddenly energetic, his familiar +self; "you are getting wetter every minute." + +The clouds dissolved into a late sunlight that streamed in long bars +through the canopies of elms on the streets. From her windows Sidsall saw +a world of flashing greenery and limpid sky. Usually when she was happy +she sang unimportant bits of light song, but her present state was +serious and inarticulate. The indeterminate questions, the disturbing +vague moods, of the past days somehow combined and took on the tangible +shape of Roger Brevard. Her curiosity about love was resolved into a +sudden inner shrinking from its possibilities and meaning. + +She was lost in her aloofness from mundane affairs: Taou Yuen in +whispering silk, her grandfather's rotund tones, Laurel and Camilla and +her mother, were distant, immaterial. In the evening she sat on the +front steps, a web of white, dreamily intent on the shimmering sweep of +Washington Square. After a little she was joined by Gerrit Ammidon. He +wore linen trousers and a short blue sea jacket; and the wavering +delicately lavender trail of smoke from his cheroot was like her +floating thoughts. + +"Already," he said, "I am full of getting back on my ship." + +She smiled at him absently. + +"The land doesn't do for a sailor," he continued. "They are always into +trouble on shore. I can't say why it should be so but it is. If there's +not one kind there is another; rum and such varnish for the able seaman, +and--and complications for a master. I suppose that's because there are +so confounded many unexpected currents and slants of wind, as you might +say. On shipboard everything pretty much is charted; a thing will be +followed more or less by a fixed consequence. The waves break so and so +on coral or rocks or sand; there is usually the sun for an observation; +a good man knows his ship, how many points she'll hold on the wind, how +a cargo must be stowed, when to take in the light canvas. You can give +the man at the wheel a course and turn in or stay on deck and beat your +way through hell. It's exact, you know, but on shore--" he made a +hopeless gesture. + +"There are no regulations," he observed moodily; "or else nobody follows +them: collisions all the time, sinkings and derelicts drifting round, +awash and dismasted. But they are everywhere. That fellow, Edward +Dunsack--" he stopped, lost in speculation. Then, "He seems harmless +enough," he resumed, "even pitiful; but he sticks in your head. I wish +I'd never brought his damned chest to Salem. A fool would have known +better. I'm worse--a childish fool. A derelict," he said again. "You are +smashing over a swell at twelve knots or more, everything spread, when, +in a hollow, there it is squarely across your bow. No time to shift the +wheel, and a ship's missing, perhaps in a hundred fathom. It might be the +best ship afloat, the best master and stoutest crew, but in a minute +she's only a salty tangle." + +He laughed uneasily at the vividness of his fancy. "If it's hard for us +what must it be for Taou Yuen?" he demanded. "Married to me! Here! That's +courage for you." He tramped down the steps, across Pleasant Street, with +his bare head sunk, and vanished into the obscurity of the Square. She +caught a last glimmer of white trousers, a faint rapid gleam where his +lighted cheroot described the arc of a passionate gesture on the night. + +The spring, like the full buds of the hedge roses in the Ammidons' +garden, passed swiftly into early summer. The flowers against the house +showed gay perennial colors, the stocks and larkspur and snapdragons +succeeded the retreating flood of the lilacs. The days were still yellow +pools of heat, or else cooled by the faintly salt sea wind drawing down +the elms and chestnuts, followed by purple-green nights of moonlight. +They seemed to Sidsall to hold everything in a pause. She saw less and +less of Taou Yuen who now scarcely came out of her room except for an +occasional ride in the barouche with Mrs. Ammidon or a contemplative hour +in the garden, usually at dusk. Apparently content with the elaborate +rearrangement of her headdress, she sat for long periods, gazing out over +Washington Square, idle except for the regular tap of her pipe emptying +the ashes of the minute bowl. + +Yet Sidsall's first interest in her had almost completely shifted to +Gerrit Ammidon. He evidently preferred her company to that of the other +members of his family, and they often took short largely silent walks, +usually down to the Salem Marine Railway where the _Nautilus_ was +undergoing repairs. His protracted silences were broken by the sudden +vehement protests against the generally muddled aspect of affairs or +longer monologues of inner questioning and search. He almost never +referred to her or made her part of a conversation; she was free to dwell +on her own emotions while he, with a corrugated brow, went on in his +tortuous and solitary course. + +On an afternoon when they had walked to the foot of Briggs Street, and +were gazing out over the tranquil water of Collins Cove, Gerrit Ammidon +asked abruptly: + +"Have you seen Nettie Vollar lately?" + +Sidsall was unable to remember exactly when that had been. She rather +thought she had caught a glimpse of her in Lawrence Place with books +under her arm which she was probably taking from the Athenaeum for her +grandfather. Anyone, she told herself privately, could see that Nettie +Vollar wouldn't care for books. + +Something had occurred, or threatened to occur, between her uncle and +Nettie; what it was she had never been told; but she realized that only +one thing could really happen between a man and a girl--they must have +been in love. In the interest of this she recalled Nettie Vollar's +appearance, but was unable to discover any marked attractions. The elder +had a good figure, rather full for her age, and totally different from +her own square solidity. Her hair was coarse and carelessly arranged, her +clothes noticeable for a love of brightness rather than care in the +spending of a small sum. + +Gerrit Ammidon had the strangest tastes! + +He was standing immobile, looking across the Cove as if he were on a +quarter-deck searching for a hidden land. His legs were slightly spread, +firmly planted in a manner to defeat any sudden lurching. She grew a +little impatient at him staring like a block at nothing at all; she felt +older than he, superior in the knowledge of life; he seemed hardly more +than an absurd boy. Sidsall had a desire to shake him. He was so--so +impracticable. "Don't you think we'd better be going?" she asked finally. +Gerrit Ammidon turned and followed her obediently. + +There were lights in the rope walk on Briggs Street; through a window she +could see a man pacing down the long narrow interior laying a strand of +hemp from the burden on his shoulders. It made her shudder to think of +the monotonous passage forward and back, an eternity of slow-twisting +rope. Yet life was something like that--she took the happenings of each +day and wove them into a strand dark and bright: a strand, she realized, +that grew stronger as it lengthened.... That would be true of +everyone--of her companion and grandfather and Hodie. + +They reached the house as the family were gathering in the dining room, +when Sidsall found Roger Brevard unexpectedly staying for supper. She met +his direct greeting and smile with a warm stir of pleasure and sat in a +happy silence listening to the voices about the table. Her uncle had +brought his wife down and the candles glittering among the lusters on the +walls spread their light over the Manchu's strange vivid figure. +Everything about life was so confusing, Sidsall thought. The night flowed +in at the open windows drenched with magic: here were candles but outside +were stars. The port in its engraved glass decanter seemed to burn with a +ruby flame. "Bah!" her grandfather was exclaiming. "I'll put a thousand +dollars on Gerrit and the _Nautilus_ against any clipper built; but mind, +in all weathers." + +"Voyage by voyage," William Ammidon insisted, "he would be left in the +harbor. The California gold deposits--." + +Later a crowd, slowly collecting, recalled the fact that the Salem Band +was to play that night in the Square. "Oh, mother, look," Laurel cried; +"they've got lamps in their hats." Small wavering flames were being +lighted on the musicians' hats; there were melancholy disconnected hoots +from bassoons and the silver clear scale of a bugle. "Can't I get nearer, +mother?" Laurel implored as usual. "Can't I go and see the little lamps +on their heads?" + +"Sidsall and I will look after her," Roger Brevard put in, and almost +immediately the three were entering Washington Square. The throng was +thickest directly behind the band, radiating in thinning numbers to the +wooden boundary fence. Laurel led them to an advantageous position, where +they could watch the curious effects of the ring of lights above intent +faces drawn hollow-cheeked by the vigorous blowing of instruments. The +leader, in the center of the flickering smoky illumination, now beat with +his arms in one direction, now in another. + +A second selection followed, and a third, during which, in surprising +pauses, the band shouted a concerted "Hurrah!" Sidsall was infinitely +contented. How splendidly erect and calm and distinguished Roger Brevard +was! She hated younger men, they were only boys, who kept up a senseless +talk about college humor. He saw instantly that the people were crushing +her skirts, and firmly conducted them out of the crowd. It was nicer here +beyond the wavering dark mass: a waltz flowed about her so tender and +gracious that her eyes filled with tears. + +But Laurel had to be taken home; and, clasping Mr. Brevard's hand, the +little girl talked volubly as they moved away. "And so," she said, "I +told her to keep her topsails full." + +"What?" he demanded. + +"She was falling off, you know--losing way. Hell's hatches--" + +"Laurel," Sidsall corrected her sharply. "No, you mustn't laugh at her." + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was on the steps, the other men were in the library; +her mother had gone up with Janet. Laurel left them, and, without speech, +they walked through the house to the lawn. The stars had apparently +retreated to new infinities of distance and night, there was a throb of +music so faint that it might be only an echoing memory; Roger Brevard's +face was pale and strained. He asked: + +"Have you forgotten that we are friends?" + +"No," she returned seriously, lifting her look to his. He was very close +to her and her heart beat unsteadily. She had a choking premonition of +what was about to occur, but she stood without the slightest attempt to +prevent his kiss. It affected him even more than herself, for he stepped +back sharply with his hands clenched. Roger was silent for so long that +she said, timidly: + +"I didn't mind, so much." + +"Thank you," he replied almost harshly. "There's no need for you to +regret it. No need, no need. But if it were only a year more--." + +"We all grow older," she told him wisely. + +"So we do, Sidsall, and we change. But you should stay exactly as you are +now, white and young and fragrant. Never the fruit but always the +blossom, and always a night in early summer. The afterwards is an +indifferent performance." + +"I don't understand," her voice was shadowed. + +"Sidsall for a moment. Don't move--opening petals, shy pure +heart...loveliness...." + +"I don't understand," she repeated, but the trouble had vanished. She +even smiled at him: she was filled with an absolute security in her +vision of Roger Brevard. Why, she had no need to question; it was an +instinct beyond search and above knowledge; perhaps, she thought as they +turned toward the house, its name was love. + + + + +VII + +The days, to Nettie Vollar, seemed to be both unutterably dull and +colored by a possibility of excitement like an undercurrent of hardly +perceptible fever. Her mother, it was true, took on herself most of the +duties of Barzil Dunsack's house; but there were still a large number of +little things that returned unvaried with every morning, noon and night +for the girl's attention. The cause of any impending excitement--except +the mere presence of Gerrit Ammidon in Salem, now surely of no moment to +her--she was unable to place. The feeling that pervaded her most was the +heavy conviction that her life was a complete waste, she had the +sensation of being condemned to stay in surroundings, in a service, that +never for a moment represented her desire or true capabilities. Her +family, as she had grown into maturity, seemed strange, her place there +an unhappy accident. + +At her brightest periods she pictured being suddenly, arbitrarily, +removed into happier appropriate regions. For a time that vision had +assumed the tangible shape of Gerrit Ammidon; then this comfortable +figure had abruptly left her to an infinitely more seldom return of her +faint indefinite hope. + +Through the inordinate number of hours when she was potentially alone she +had developed a strain of almost painful thought out of keeping with the +whole of her naturally unreflective being. In moments such as the +present--she was sitting in her room overlooking Hardy Street on its +landward reach--she followed the slow turnings of her mind in the manner +of a child spelling out a sentence. Two things seemed to her of the first +importance--the existence into which she had been forced by the +circumstance of her birth, and her unknown father himself: unknown, that +is, except for vague promptings and desires which, for need of a better +reason, she traced to his personality. That he was superior, in that he +had had a distinct measure of gentle blood, she was assured by her mother +on one of the rare occasions when the subject was touched between them. +To that she credited the greater part of her obscure dissatisfaction with +conditions which she described as mean. + +The latter evidently didn't disturb her mother or grandfather; she +realized that the long-drawn silent severity of the old man had crushed +what spirit her mother may have had. It was clear that the elder woman +had been very pretty, with wide fluttering eyes which made you think of +gray moths, and delicately colored cheeks; but all that had been crushed, +too. She was meek in a way that filled her daughter with determined +resentment and fear. The resentment sprang from the silent assertion that +she wouldn't be worn down like that; the fear followed the realization of +the rigid power of the old man and the weight of all that held her +powerless to escape. Naturally she was rather cheerful than somber, an +involuntary gayety rose from her in the drabbest moments; she even defied +Barzil Dunsack with ribbons and flowers on her bonnet. + +The prospect from her window offered no relief from the interior; it was +true that in the other direction she could catch glimpses of the harbor, +by leaning out she could get the comparatively full sweep at the bottom +of the street; but there were usually things ugly and restraining between +her and the freedom of the horizon. Her favorite place had been at the +edge of the grass above the tide; but, since his return, Edward Dunsack +had hit upon it too, and his proximity made her increasingly uneasy. For +one thing he talked to himself out loud, principally in Chinese, and the +sliding unintelligible tongue, accompanied by the sight of his gaunt +yellow face, his inattentive fixed eyes, gave her an icy shiver. It was +almost worse when he conversed with her in a palpable effort at an effect +of sympathy. + +She rose and wandered finally to the embankment of the garden. The water +shimmered under the full flood of afternoon; she was gazing at the +distance in an aimless manner that had lately fastened on her when she +heard a stirring of the grass behind her and Edward Dunsack approached. +He was livid in the pitiless light, and seemed terribly fragile, a thing +that a mere clap of thunder might crumble to nothing; she felt that she +could sweep him away with a broom; yet at the same time there were +startling gleams of inner violence, a bitter energy, an effect of +deepness, that appalled her. + +"If you should ask me," he declared, "if my opinion is of any value, I'd +say that Ammidon owed you considerable. He led you to expect something +better than his running away without a word; I'd have an explanation out +of him. Of course, if he had come back married--this affair with a +Chinese woman isn't that--it would be all over. But, somehow, with things +as they are, I can't believe that it is." + +"Do you expect me to go to their house, like you did?" she replied +resentfully. + +He turned such a malicious face on her that instinctively she moved back. +For a moment he was silent, his meager leaden lips drawn tight over dark +teeth in a dry grin, his fingers like curved wires; then, relaxing, he +cursed the entire house of Ammidon. "The truth is," he ended, "that you +were a little fool; you had everything, everything, in your hand and +threw it away." His gaze strayed from her to the surface of the water, a +short distance from the land. "Threw it away," he repeated; "it can't be +got in this country either." + +He was, she thought, crazy. However, all that he said about Gerrit +lingered in her mind; it fanned to new life the embers of her rebellion. +If a chance should come she would let Gerrit Ammidon know something of +the wrong he had done her. As her uncle had pointed out, the Chinese +woman was different from an American, a white woman. Their entire +position, Gerrit's and her own, was peculiar, outside ordinary judgments. + +She saw him occasionally from a distance, as she must continue to do +while he was in Salem, since no opportunity had been made for them to +exchange words. That must come from Gerrit. + +Her mother called her, and she went in, finding the elder in the kitchen. +"I can't get enough heat to bake," she worried; "you can bear your hand +right in the oven. Your grandfather won't have his sponge biscuit for +supper." Nettie declared, "I certainly wouldn't let it bother me. Just +tell him and let him say what he likes." Her mother turned palpably +startled. "But--", she began weakly. + +"I know exactly what you're going to say," Nettie cut in, "he has it +every night and he'll expect it. How much, I'd like to ask, have you +been expecting all your life and getting nothing? And now I am the +same. I don't believe we're as wicked as grandfather lets on, and I'm +certain he's not so good as he thinks. I don't admit we are going to +hell, either; if I did I can tell you I'd be different. I'd have a good +time like some other girls I see. I guess it would be good, anyhow, +with silk flounces four yards around. I'm what I am because I don't +listen to him; I don't pay any attention to the pious old women who +make long faces at us." + +"You mustn't talk like that, Nettie," her mother protested anxiously. "It +has a right hard sound. Your grandfather is a very upright religious man. +It's proper for those who sin to suffer in this world that they may be +humble for the next." + +"I don't want to be humble," Nettie told her. "The Ammidons aren't +humble. Mrs. Saltonstone isn't." A pain deepened visibly on the elder's +pale countenance. "You mustn't think it doesn't hurt me, Nettie, to--to +see you away from all the pleasure. It tears at my heart dreadful. That +is part of the punishment." The girl made a vivid gesture, "But you sit +back and take it!" she cried. "You talk of it as punishment. I won't! I +won't! I'm going to do something different." + +"What?" her mother demanded, terrified. + +"I don't know," Nettie admitted. "But if I had it to do over I'd kiss +Gerrit Ammidon as soon as he looked for it." + +"Nettie, do you--do you think he wanted to marry you?" + +"Yes," she answered shortly. "He's like that. Whatever you might say +against him he's honest." + +Her mother began to cry, large slow tears that rolled out of her eyes +without a sound. She sat with lax hopeless hands in her lap of cheap worn +dress stuff. Nettie Vollar felt no impulse toward crying; she was bright +with anger--anger at what Barzil Dunsack had done with her mother, at the +harm he had worked in her. "You are a saint compared to Uncle Edward," +she asserted. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but there is +something." + +"I've noticed it too: times his eyes are glazed like, and then his +staring at you like a cat. It's a fact he doesn't eat right, and he +forgets what's said as soon as a body speaks. Might he have some Chinese +disease, do you think?" + +"It's not like a real sickness...." + +The evening in the dreary sitting room with only the reddish illumination +of one lamp was almost unendurable. Her grandfather sat with broad wasted +hands gripping his shrunken knees, his eyes gazing stonily out above a +nose netted with fine blue veins and harsh mouth almost concealed by the +curtain of beard. Edward rose uneasily and returned, casting a swelling +and diminishing shadow--obscurely unnatural like himself--over the faded +and weather-stained wall paper. Her mother was bowed, speechless. Nettie +wanted to scream, to horrify them all with some outrageous remark. She +would have liked to knock the lamp from the table, send it crashing over +the floor, and see the flames spread out, consume the house, consume... +she stopped, horrified at her thoughts. + +She didn't want things like that in her mind, she continued, but the echo +of dancing, of music, of the Salem Band marching up Essex Street with Mr. +Morse playing his celebrated silvery fanfare on the bugle. She wanted to +laugh, to talk, yes--to love. Why, she was young, barely twenty-one; and +here she was in a house like the old cemetery on Charter Street. Before +they went to bed her grandfather would read out from the Bible, but +always the Old Testament. Finally he rose and secured the volume, bound +in dusty calf, its pages brown along the edges. His voice rang in a slow +emphasized fervor: + +"'Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken +the Lord, thy God, when he led thee by the way? + +"'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters +of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the +waters of the river? + +"'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall +reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, +that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in +thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. + +"'For of old I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou +saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every +green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. + +"'Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art +thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? + +"'For though thou wash thee with nitre--'" + +Nettie was impressed, intimidated, in spite of the contrary resolution in +the kitchen: the words seemed to burn into her mother, herself, like +boiling fat from a pan; and a great relief flooded her when she could +escape again to the temporary relief of her room. It was hot, the windows +were up, and she made no light that might attract mosquitoes or force her +to draw the close shades. She stood undressed luxuriating in the sense of +freedom of body. She was richly white in the gloom: her full young beauty +gave her a feeling of contentment and strength, and, equally, a great +loneliness. It wasn't corrupt, a "degenerate plant," she thought with a +passionate conviction like a cry. + +She determined to say no prayer to such a ruthless Being; yet, soon +after, in her coarse nightgown, she found herself kneeling by the bed +with hard-clasped hands. It was a prayer for which Barzil Dunsack would +have had nothing but condemnation: she implored the dark, the mystery of +Augustness, for carnal and light things, yes--for waltzes and quadrilles +and songs and pleasure, young pleasure, all the aching desires of her +health and spirit and nature and years; but most for love. She said the +last blindly, in an instinct without definition, with the feeling that it +was the key, the door, to everything else; and in her mind rose the image +of Gerrit Ammidon. She saw his firm direct countenance, the frosty blue +eyes and human warmth. He needn't have come at all, she added, if it had +been only to double the dreariness of her existence. + +She wondered a little, her emotion subsiding, at the interest her uncle +showed in her affairs. It wasn't like what else she had gathered of him; +and she searched, but without success, for any hidden reason he might +have. He actively blackened the name of Ammidon while he was lost in too +great an indifference to be moved by any but extraordinary pressures. +Everything left his mind, as her mother had said, almost immediately. +Suddenly weary, she gave up all effort at understanding. + +A wind moved in from the sea, fluttering the light curtains, and brought +her a sense of coolness and release. It came from the immense free sweep +of ocean to which her sinking consciousness turned in peaceful +recognition and surrender. + +Altogether, in the days that followed, she realized a greater degree of +mental freedom than before her revolt. She had removed herself, it +appeared, a little outside the family, almost as if she were studying +them calmly through a window: a large part of the terror her grandfather +had possessed for her had disappeared, leaving for her recognition a +very old and worn man; she was sorry for her mother with a deep +affection mixed with impatience. At first she had tried to put something +of her own revived spirit in the older woman but it was like pouring +water into a cracked glass: her mother was too utterly broken to hold +any resolution whatever. + +Nettie's feeling for Edward Dunsack became an instinctive deep distrust. +It was almost impossible for her to remain when--as he so often did +now--he approached her to talk about the injustice of her mode of life +and the debt Gerrit Ammidon owed her. He would stand with his fingers +twitching, talking in a rapid sharp voice, blinking continuously against +any light brighter than that of a shaded room or dusk. He seldom left the +office or went out through the day; his place at the dinner table was far +more often empty than not. But after their early supper, in the long late +June twilights, he had an inexhaustible desire for her to stroll with +him. She occasionally agreed for the reason that they invariably passed +in the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street, and saw the +impressive block of the Ammidon mansion. However, they never met any of +its inmates. Once they had walked directly by the entrance; some girls, +perhaps a woman, certainly two men, were grouped in the doorway: it was +growing dark and Nettie couldn't be certain. + +Edward Dunsack clearly hesitated before the bricks leading in between the +high white fence posts topped with carved twisting flames; and, in a +sudden agony at the possibility of his stopping, Nettie hurried on, her +cheeks flaming and her heart, she thought, thumping in her throat. + +Her uncle followed her. There was a trail of intimate merriment from the +portico, a man's voice mingling gayly with those of the girls. "That was +the Brevard who's in the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company," Edward +Dunsack informed her. "I hear he's a great hand for leading cotillions +and balls--the balls you ought to take part in." On and on he went with +the familiar recital of her wrongs. It carried them all the way over +Pleasant and Essex and Derby Streets home. The next day, however, he was +forced to go about the town, and returned for dinner in a state of +excitement evident to anyone. + +He ate without attention whatever was before him, and extravagantly +pleasant, related how he had conversed with Mrs. Gerrit Ammidon in the +family carriage in front of the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone on Liberty Street. Nettie was surprised that his concern was +caused by such a commonplace event. "The women of China--." Words failing +him, he waved a thin dry hand. His father frowned heavily. Then, +abruptly, as if he had been snatched out of his chair by an invisible +powerful clutch, he started up and disappeared. + +The afternoon passed the full and Nettie, bound in preparation for supper +for Redmond's, the Virginia Oysterman's at Derby Wharf, stood waiting for +some money. "I can't think where I left my reticule," her mother called, +"unless it's in Edward's room where I cleaned this morning. Just run up +and see.... He'll be at the office." + +Above, Nettie found the door closed, but it opened readily as she turned +the knob: she went in without hesitation. The interior she naturally +thought was empty; and then, with an unreasoning cold fear, she saw that +Edward Dunsack was lying on the bed. Some of his clothes were tumbled on +the floor, and he wore his black Chinese gown. The room was permeated +with a heavy smooth odor; on a stand at her uncle's hand was a curious +collection of strange objects--a little brass lamp with a flickering +bluish flame, a black and silver object like a swollen unnatural pipe, +stained bodkins, a lump of what she took to be tar-- + +Her attention was caught by Edward Dunsack's face: it had fallen back +with his pinched chin pointing toward the ceiling, it was the color of +yellow clay, and through his half-opened eyelids was an empty glimmer of +gray-white. She shrank away involuntarily, and the word "Dead" formed +just audibly on her trembling lips. In an instant she was in the hall, +calling in a panic-stricken voice, her icy hands at her throat; and her +grandfather mounted the stair with surprising agility, followed by his +daughter Kate. + +"Uncle Edward," Nettie articulated, waving toward the room from which she +had fled. The two women followed the rigid advance of Barzil Dunsack. As +he saw the figure of his son there was a stabbing gasp of his breath. He +halted for a moment, and it seemed to Nettie Vollar that suddenly his +determined carriage crumbled, his shoulders sagged; then he went forward. +The bed had high slender posts that at one time supported a canopy, but +now they were bare, and an old hand held to one as he bent over. + +"Is he dead?" the older woman asked. + +Barzil Dunsack made no immediate reply; his gaze turned from his son to +the stand, the fluttering lamp and its accessories. His head moved slowly +in the act of sniffing the pungent haze swimming in the interior. Nettie +could see his face, and she was appalled by an, expression grimmer than +any she remembered; it was both harsh, implacable, and stricken, as empty +of blood as the countenance on the bed. The hand on the post tightened +until it, too, was linen white. She drew close to her mother's side, +putting a supporting arm about the soft shaking shoulders. + +"No," said Barzil Dunsack, in a booming voice, "not dead, and yet dead +forever. Go downstairs," he commanded. They backed confused to the door. +"If Edward is sick--" Kate Vollar began. The old man's face blazed with +intolerable pain and anger. + +"Woman," he demanded, "can you cure what God has smitten?" His eyes +alone, hard and bright in the seamed and hairy face, drove them out into +the hall. Below in the sitting room Nettie exclaimed, "He might have told +us something!" + +"Whatever it is," her mother returned, "it's dreadful bad. I've felt that +all along about Edward; he's never been himself this last time." +Mechanically she found her reticule beside the painted ostrich egg from +Africa. "You'll have to get the oysters anyhow," she told her daughter, +maintaining the inevitable pressure of small necessities that defied all +tragedy and death. + +Nettie escaped with an enormous relief into the sunny normal tranquility +of the afternoon. The house had become too horrible to bear; and even on +the thronged length of Derby Wharf, like a street robbed of its supports +and thrust out into the harbor, she was followed by the vision of Edward +Dunsack's peaked clayey face. + +She got the oysters, and in an overwhelming reluctance to return walked +out to the end of the wharf, where a ship was discharging her +cargo--heavy plaited mats of cassia with a delicate scent, red and blue +slabs of marble, baskets of granular cakes of gray camphor, rough brown +logs of teak, smooth dull yellow rolls of gamboge, bags with sharp +conflicting odors, baled silks and half chests of tea wrapped in bamboos +and matting painted with the ship's name, _Rose and Rosalie_. + +There Nettie found herself beside a little girl clasping the hand of a +bulky old gentleman in pongee and a palm leaf hat and following every +operation with a grave critical regard. "I guess," she said to her +companion, "it's only the cheap sort of tea, a late picking, or it would +be in canisters." She was, Nettie realized, the youngest Ammidon child +with her grand-father. The latter looked round and recognized Nettie +Vollar. "How's Barzil Dunsack?" he asked immediately. + +She was at a loss for an answer, since she could not describe the subject +of the inquiry as all right nor explain their unhappy condition. "Intend +to stop in," Jeremy Ammidon continued; "last time I was there I went up +like a rocket." Laurel--that was the child's name, she remembered--gazed +at her intently. "I was saying to grandfather," she repeated precisely, +"that this wasn't really much of a cargo. Nothing like the one Uncle +Gerrit brought back in the Nautilus. We were having an argument about +Salem too. But, of course, all the big cargoes are going into Boston," +she sturdily confronted the flushed old man. + +"You're William all over again," he asserted, almost annoyed. Both their +expressions grew stubborn in a manner that, in view of their great +difference in age and experience, Nettie thought quite absurd. What a +beautiful dress the child had on--Porto Rico drawn work, with pale yellow +ribbons to her bonnet. "I wish you'd stay here a minute with Nettie +Vollar," Jeremy told her, "while I see the wharfinger." He went unhurried +along the wharf, and Laurel Ammidon drew closer to her. + +"She's not much of a ship either," Laurel said, indicating the _Rose and +Rosalie_. "She's built like--like grandfather. They're different now. I +went to New York to see the _Sea Witch_ launched, and she's the tallest +vessel afloat, with three standing skysail yards and, ringtail and water +sails. She's black and has a gilded dragon for a figurehead; and, +although she went out in a gale, got to Rio in twenty-five days. I talked +to Captain Waterman, too; he commanded the _Natchez_, you know." + +How the child ran on! "You've studied a lot on, ships," Nettie commented. +"I know the main truck from a jewel block," Laurel replied complacently. +"But Camilla's a frightful lubber. I should think she'd make Uncle Gerrit +sick. She does me." Nettie Vollar was seized by the temptation to +question Laurel about Gerrit Ammidon, about his wife--anything that +touched or concerned him. A wave of emotion swept over her, a loneliness +and a desire the cause of which she would not face. She wanted to take +Laurel's hand in hers, and with the old ponderous comfortable gentleman +go up to the serenity of their gardens and wide happy house. She wanted +Gerrit Ammidon to smile at her with his eyes blue like a fair sea... His +father was returning. + +Laurel again grasped the large hand and they turned to leave. Jeremy +Ammidon nodded to Nettie. Nothing remained for her but the place on Hardy +Street; then she saw that the others had stopped and were signaling for +her. "Captain Dunsack... old friend," the elder said abruptly. "Stubborn +as the devil. No worse than me, though, no worse than me. Confounded +proud, too. You let me know if there is anything, that is, if you need--" +he paused, breathing stormily, glaring at her in an assumed angry +impatience. + +"Thank you," she answered, "but there's nothing." + +What most shocked her on the return home was the manner in which their +life callously continued when she felt it should have been shattered by +their suffering in Edward Dunsack's room; yet not so much theirs as her +grandfather's. He took his place at the head of the table, the grace went +up as loudly as ever above their heads; but in spite of that she saw that +the old man suddenly looked infinitely spent. His knife slipped +insecurely and scraped against the plate in fumbling and palsied hands. +All at once she had a feeling of gazing straight into his heart, and +finding--like a burning ruby hidden in earth--such an agony beneath his +schooled exterior that she choked thinking about it. + +Nettie wondered what he would do if she put an affectionate arm about his +neck and told him of their sympathy. She knew now that her Uncle Edward +had been smoking opium, and that it was a worse vice, more hopeless and +destructive, than drink. But she was certain that he'd repel her; he +looked on them all, Edward Dunsack, her mother and herself, as sinful, +"degenerate plants." Even now, she realized, there was no weakening of +his spiritual fibers such as had plainly overtaken his physical being. He +had a blasting contempt for the unrighteous flesh. + +When they had risen from the table, Edward Dunsack appeared and sinking +weakly into a chair demanded a cup of tea. He knew nothing of their +discovery, of the fact that they had stood above his revolting +insensibility. After the tea he seemed to revive; he lighted a cheroot +and said something about going out. It wasn't possible, however; his +knees sagged walking the length of the floor; in the sitting room he fell +into a leaden apathy. Nettie Vollar's gaze rested on the volume of the +life of the missionary who had died at such an early age on the Ile de +France. The lamplight spread over the depressing mustard yellow paint of +the woodwork with its obviously false graining and deepened the blackness +of the fireplace. Throughout the reading of the Scripture Edward Dunsack +never shifted his slumped position; his face, with smudged closed eyes, +seemed fixed in a skeptical smile. The hollows of his temples were green. +The reading finished, old Barzil said: + +"I wish to speak to Edward alone." + +The latter straightened up. "Eh!" he exclaimed. "What?" He resettled his +stock and crossed a knee with a show of ease. Nettie followed her mother +from the room. Her last impression was that of a startling resemblance +between the young man and old--her uncle's face was as ruined as the +other's--between father and son. "I wish he'd go away," her mother +surprisingly asserted; "I won't sleep for thinking of him lying there +like a corpse." + +"He'll not," Nettie replied, musing; "something is holding him we still +don't know of." + +She had lately begun to realize a great many things of which only a month +before she had not been aware--that sudden illuminating grasp of old +Barzil's inner pain, of her mother's wasted spirit, and the sense that +some unguessed potent motive was at the back of her Uncle Edward's +apparently erratic strolling and reiterations. Nettie stopped to wonder a +little at the change in herself: she was more alive, more included. There +were no reasons that she could see why this should be so; never had the +present, the entire future, been darker. With her deeper consciousness, +too, came an increased shrinking from life, a greater capacity for +injury; and there could be no doubt that it was an older Nettie Vollar +who, in her mirror, returned the questioning in the resentful black eyes. + +No further mention was made of the opium, no hint escaped from the two +men of what Barzil Dunsack had said to his son after the evening +reading of the Bible. An evidence of the miserable episode was visible +for a while in the difficulty of any attempted general conversation; +then that died away and everything was seemingly as it had been before. +But the rising gayety and widespread public preparations at the +approach of the Fourth of July made her existence drabber than ever. +There was, too, unusual planning, for later in the month President Polk +was to be in Salem. + +The various military organizations drilled incessantly: the Salem Light +Infantry, the Mechanic Light Infantry, the Salem Cadets and Independents +and a squad of the Salem Artillery might be seen at any hour of the +morning or early evening smartly marching and countermarching, led by +Flag's or the Salem Band. Strange constructions of light wood climbed in +Washington Square--the set pieces of the celebrated pyrotechnist secured +at a "staggering expense." Preliminary strings of firecrackers were +exploded by impatient boys and the dawn of the holiday was greeted with a +sustained uproar of powder. + +All this was communicated to Nettie in the form of a determination to +forget the dreariness of home and for once anyhow be a part of the +careless holiday town. Edward Dunsack opened the day by deprecating what +fireworks Salem could show and recalling the extravagant art of China in +that particular. No one, he said, of the least moment would be abroad in +the rabble; and he intended to spend the day over the invoice of a +schooner returned from Curacao. She was glad of this, for it left her +free to get an uninterrupted pleasure from the morning parade, the floats +and fantasies, the afternoon drilling in Washington Square, and see the +last colored disk of the fireworks. Maybe, she told herself, tying the +becoming ribbon of her bonnet beneath a round chin with a lurking dimple, +maybe she wouldn't come back home once during the entire day! She +ignored, in the rush of her spirits, even her mother's lonely labors: for +once they'd have to do without her. Nettie took a scarlet merino shawl +for the cooler evening, shook forward the little black curls about her +face, and hurried away from Hardy Street. + +She was swept along in the crowd on Essex Street until, before the office +of the Salem _Register_, she found a place that commanded the parade. +There Nettie lost all memory of the dreariness that pressed upon her; she +became one of the throng, applauding the members of the East India Marine +Society carrying the palanquin from the Museum in native dress, or stood +with sentimental tears blurring her vision. The parade ended, and +currents of people swept toward dinner; but she stopped at a baker's and +got a paper of seed cakes, made in the shape of oak leaves and sat +contentedly eating them in the Common. + +The thought of Gerritt Ammidon, with all the other deeper aspects of her +life, was thrust into the back of her consciousness; she was existing as +she breathed--without will; the instinctive lighter qualities had her in +full possession. She felt that her cheeks were glowing and hummed the +refrains of the music she had heard. One by one the military companies +marched into the Square. She was fascinated by the tall leather helmets +and silver straps under severe young lips. The Newburyport men were in a +new scarlet uniform, that was the Boston Brass Band--it was painted on +the bass drum--with the Independents; there were the Beverly Taylor +Guards. The massed onlookers filled the broad plain. + +The drilling and countermarching proceeded and the afternoon waned. At +the disposal of the spectacle, when for an hour or two Washington Square +was comparatively deserted, when the sun sank lower and lower over the +roofs of Brown Street and the gold haze thickened, turning to blue, +Nettie became quieter but no less happy. The time sped; never was she +conscious of being lonely, by herself in a multitude composed of grouped +families and friends. It was all such a beautiful relief to the other +constant dwelling on somber and hopeless facts! Already people were +streaming in under the wooden arched gates for the evening display; +already she could see a star in the clear-shining green east. + +The fireworks, the papers said, were to be in two parts, ending with a +bombardment of Vera Cruz, five hundred feet long, and a series of +triumphant arches with full-length portraits in colored lights of +celebrated Americans. There was a sudden salute of artillery, and a +flight of rockets soared upward in long flaming curves, dissolving in +showers of liquid emerald and ruby and silver against the night. Bengola +lights casting a blue glare over the standing mob and farther house +fronts were followed by a great Peruvian Cross, a silvery fountain of +water and Grand Representation of Bunker Hill Monument. + +With this the first came all too soon to an end, and Nettie was folding +the shawl about her shoulders when almost the entire Ammidon family were +upon her.... In an instinctive confusion she saw William Ammidon and his +wife with their daughters, the old man, Jeremy, and Gerrit. + +They stopped before her in an assured, not unkindly inquisitiveness, the +girls fresh and bright-faced, with crisp lovely clothes; their mother, in +a smart mantle and little bonnet with knots of French flowers, greeted +her with a direct question tempered by a smile. William Ammidon, smoking, +was unconcerned; while Gerrit stayed obscured outside the group. "Whom +are you with, Nettie?" Rhoda Ammidon asked; and when she admitted that +she was alone the elder, with visible disapproval, asserted: + +"That won't do at all in this rough assembly. I must see that you are +taken care of." She hesitated, with a slight frown on her handsome brow. +"But you will want to see the rest of the fireworks. Yes, what you must +do is to come over to our steps, the view from there is fairly good, and +then some one can walk home with you." + +They moved resolutely forward, giving Nettie Vollar no opportunity for +protest, the expression of what she might prefer; and, with so many +determined minds, she dropped silently into their progress. She was +beside Rhoda Ammidon, the girls trooped on before, and the men--Gerrit +Ammidon--followed. Her peace of mind had been broken into a hundred +half-formed doubts and acute questions. She wished that she had declined +to go with them: the invitation, no, command, had been a criticism, +really. Now, after so long, it wasn't necessary for them to become +suddenly responsible for her. + +The happiness of the day sank a little, thoughts of her mother and +grandfather and Uncle Edward returned. But, at the same time, she +realized that she was near Gerrit once more. This made a confusion of her +emotions that hid what she most felt about him. It wasn't a proximity +that meant anything, however; it had been utterly different when he came +to see her before his marriage. Yet, just the fact of his being close +behind her, and that she would be on the steps at the Ammidons' with him, +undoubtedly had a power to stir her heart. + +It brought, like her carefree excursion, a certain momentary glow, a +warmth, without relation to what had gone before or might follow; there +was the same quality of momentary rest, refreshment, complete and +isolated as a jewel in a ring. She didn't analyze it further; but drifted +with the vigorous chattering tide of the Ammidons. + +They arrived at the impressive entrance open on a high dim interior. +Jeremy and William Ammidon went in, Rhoda lingered while a chair was +brought for her, and Sidsall and Camilla, Laurel and Janet ranged +themselves facing the Square. Gerrit hung silent in the doorway. + +"Perhaps Taou Yuen will come down," Rhoda Ammidon suggested, and Nettie's +throat was pinched at the possibility of seeing Gerrit's Chinese wife. +But he answered shortly in the negative. Taou Yuen preferred to stay in +her room; the view from her window was better than this. The latter was +easily possible, for here the set pieces were almost unintelligible: an +impressive beehive could be seen surrounded by swarming golden bees, a +pyramid of Roman candles discharged their rushes of colored balls and +streamers; but the bombardment of Vera Cruz was a cause of bitter +complaint to the children. + +The fireworks had ceased to have the slightest significance for Nettie; +she was luxuriating in the suavity of the Ammidon steps and company. It +seemed to her that an actual air of ease rolled out over her from within. +Seen from her place of vantage the great throng in the Square was without +feature, the passersby on Pleasant Street--as Edward Dunsack and herself +had been--were unimportant. The massive portico and dignified fence, the +sense of spaciousness and gardens and lofty formal ceilings, the feeling +of fine silks and round clear direct voices, of servants for everything, +everyone, transcended in force all her speculations. She was +familiar--who wasn't in Salem?--with the meaning of the house's name, +Java Head. It was more, quite heaven. + +Thoughts of Gerrit winged in and out of her mind like wayward birds. She +turned with studied caution and glanced swiftly but intently at as much +of his countenance as she could see. Her memory vividly supplied the +rest. There wasn't another like it--one so clear and compelling to +read--in the world. + +The past in which he had had a part seemed like an impossibly happy +dream. She was hardly able to believe that he had been in their sitting +room, walked with her in the evening to the grassy edge of the harbor, +or held her fingers in his hard cool grasp. Now she wondered if he were +contented. She couldn't quite decide from glimpses of his face; but +something that had nothing to do with vision disturbed her with the +certainty that he was troubled. It might mean unhappiness, but she +wasn't sure. + +"Now there go the arches!" a young voice exclaimed, "and I just can't see +anything. You'd never know at all it was a temple of eight columns. Oh, +look--there's a number coming out, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.'" +A tide of hand clapping swept over the dark masses. "No," Laurel +continued, "that's Salem.... It's Washington, no, General Taylor." + +The amazing day, Nettie realized, was over, the people flowed back +through the gates like a lake breaking in streams from its bank; there +was a stir on the steps. Looking up she saw that the stars were obscured, +and a low rumble of thunder sounded from a distance, a flash lit the +horizon. Now she must go back, return to Hardy Street, to her bitter +grandfather like an iron statue eaten by rust and storms, to Edward +Dunsack following her with his dragging feet and thin insinuating voice, +to her hopeless mother. + +"It's the powder," she heard, about what she had no conception. Rhoda +Ammidon turned decidedly to her. "It was nice to have you, Nettie," she +declared; "but we must see about getting you safely home. The carriage +would be best since it's threatening rain." She didn't, she replied, want +to give them so much bother, she often went on errands after supper, +she'd, be all right-- + +"Nonsense," Mrs. Ammidon interrupted impatiently. Then Gerrit advanced +from the doorway. "I'll walk down with her," he said almost roughly. "No +need to take the horses out so late." Nettie Vollar thought that his +sister-in-law's mouth tightened in protest, but he gave them no chance +for further argument. He descended the steps with a quick grinding tread, +and she was forced to hurry through her acknowledgments in order to +overtake him. + +The night at once absorbed them. + +The air, charged with the fumes of gunpowder and rumbling with low +intermittent thunder, was oppressive and disturbing. Gerrit's head was +exactly opposite her own, and she could see his profile, pale and still, +moving on a changing dark background. He walked with the short firm +stride men acquire on the unsteady decks of vessels, swinging his arms +but slightly. Neither spoke. The rain, Nettie saw, was hanging off; +probably it would not reach Salem, Washington Square was already empty +except for a small obscure stir by the scaffolding for the fireworks. A +murmur of young voices came from a door on Bath Street. Such minute +observations filled her mind; beneath their surface she was conscious of +a deep, a fathomless, turmoil. It was a curious sensation, curious +because she couldn't tell whether it was happiness or misery. One now +exactly resembled the other to Nettie Vollar. + +She grasped, however, one difference--it was happiness now, the misery +belonged to tomorrow. But suddenly that last unrealized fact--at once +immaterial and the most leaden reality of all--lost its weight. The +greater freedom she had lately grown into became an absolute +indifference, a half willful and half automatic shutting of her eyes to +everything but the present, the actuality of Gerrit Ammidon walking by +her side. She wanted him to speak, so that she could discover his +thoughts, feelings; yet she was reluctant to have their companionship of +silence broken: words, almost all the possible terms she could imagine, +would only emphasize the distance between them. + +She was thinking of one now--a word he had never pronounced, but which +she felt had been, however obscurely, at the back of the attention he +had paid her: love. It was a queer thing. It seemed to be--everyone +agreed that it was--of the greatest, perhaps the first, importance; and +yet all sorts of other considerations, some insignificant and others +mean and more, yes--cowardly, held it in check, drove it back out of +sight, as you might hurriedly shut some shabby object into a closet at +the arrival of visitors. + +"How have you been?" he demanded in the abrupt voice of the expression of +his determination to see her home. Well enough, she assured him, if he +meant her health. He glanced at her with somber eyes. "Not altogether," +he admitted; "it included your family, things generally." + +"They are as bad as possible," she told him. She admitted this frankly, a +part of her entire surrender to the moment, careless of how it might +affect him. "They would be," he muttered savagely. "It's a habit ... +here." The "here," she knew, referred to life on shore; his gloomy +attitude toward the management and affairs of the land had caused her a +great deal of precious laughter. He had revealed a most astonishing +ignorance of necessities that she had understood instinctively when +hardly more than a child; and this simplicity had, as much as anything, +brought her affection for him to life. At the same time she in particular +had felt the justice of a great many of his charges. But no one could +reasonably hope for the sort of world--a world as orderly and trim as +that of a narrow ship--he thought should be brought about by a mere +command. Nettie wished that it could! She sighed, gazing at him. + +"Then it's no better than before?" he asked, adding, with a descriptive +gesture: "the town and people?" + +"I hardly speak to ten in a year, outside the stores and like that. Of +course they nod going into church, or a lady, I mean really, your +sister-in-law, will say something nice, even do what you saw to-night. +Though it's the first time anything like that has happened." + +She caught a repressed bitter oath. + +"I suppose I'll get used to it," she continued. "No, I won't," she added +differently; "never, never, never." + +"If you were a man now--" he said with an incredible stupidity. + +She wondered angrily if he'd rather have her a man; there had been a +time, Nettie reflected, when such a possibility would have stirred him to +violent protest. And this brought out the reflection that, while at one +time he might have cared for her, now perhaps he was merely sorry for her +unhappiness. Yes, this must be it. She had a momentary fatal impulse to +throw back at him scornfully any such small kindness. She didn't, she +told herself, want condescending sympathy. What silenced her was the +sudden knowledge that she did; she wanted anything whatsoever from Gerrit +Ammidon. The fact that he had a Chinese wife was powerless to alter her +feeling in the smallest degree. On the contrary, she was shocked to find +that it had increased immensely, it was growing with every minute. + +She wondered drearily if her stubborn love--the term took its place +without remark in the procession of her thoughts--for Gerrit didn't, in +spite of her protest to the contrary, stamp her as quite bad. Perhaps +her grandfather was right about them all--her mother and Uncle Edward +and herself, and they were wicked, lost! The energy with which she had +combated this charge now faced by the circumstance of her realized +affection for a man married to some one else, even Chinese, wavered. +All the cheerful influences of the day, rising to the supreme tranquil +hour on the Ammidon porch, sank to dejection; it was like the flight of +the rockets. + +She walked listlessly, her brain was numb; she was terribly tired. Gerrit +Ammidon's head was bent and she was unable to see his expression. He +might even have forgotten, by the token of his self-absorbed progress, +that she was at his side. + +"There's going to be a stir in Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone," he said +presently, "when my father hears of the new program. Everything is +turning to the fastest California runs possible. William and James +Saltonstone want me to take command of a clipper. But I find I'm like my +father, Nettie; all my experience has been in the East and the China +service. I'm used to it. I'd never get on navigating a passenger boat, a +packet ship, from Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Boston. +The other's in my blood, too--running the northeast trades to Brazil and +coming up into the southwest passage winds for the Cape of Good Hope. A +long reach nearly to Australia and then north again to the Indian Ocean +and southeast trades. + +"I'm fit for that, for long voyages, a blue-water sailor and all it +means; but battering back and forward round the Horn with my deck +cluttered up by prospectors and shore crews the mates would have to slam +into the rigging--!" His exclamation refused every face of such a +possibility. She understood his necessity completely; and the brief +account of such far happy journeys, safe from everything that Salem had +come to mean for her, filled her with longing. + +"I'm beginning to see," he took up again the self-examination, "that I am +to blame for a good deal that I've found fault with in others. I mean +that I'm a different variety of animal, and, naturally, no judge of the +kinds of holes they live in or the way their affairs are managed." + +"You are worlds better!" she cried. + +He turned to her, obviously startled, and she held for a long breath his +unguarded intense gaze. "Not very useful, I am afraid," he replied at +last; "not today, anyhow. I belong to a life that is dying, Nettie; mark +my words, dying if not already dead. And I'm newfangled to my father. It +goes as quickly as that." + +This was a fresh mood to all her knowledge of his impatient arrogance, +and one that sent her to him in a passionate unperceived emotion. They +had arrived at her home and were waiting aimless and silent. Beyond, the +gate to the yard was standing open, and Nettie saw that his discovery of +the fact had occurred at the identical moment of her own. She made an +involuntary movement forward and he followed her through to the blurred +tangle of bushes and bare trodden earth. Mutely they turned to the sod +spread at the harbor. + +The thunder had died away, but pale sheets of reflected lightning hovered +at short intervals low in the sky. Directly above them stars shone again. +The window of the sitting room still bore the illumination of the lamp +within; and Nettie could picture her mother, with stained and rough hands +loose on their wrists, opposite Barzil Dunsack's gaunt set countenance. + +"You said something about things as bad as possible." + +In a level voice she told him about her discovery of Edward Dunsack +unconscious in his black wrap on the bed. "I thought he had died," she +repeated almost monotonously; "he had such a yellow gone look." + +"But that can't be allowed!" he cried. "You mustn't see it. Indecent, +worse. The beast will have to be removed. No one will hear of his staying +about with two women and a fanatical old man." She was afraid that he +would go into the house at once and appear with her uncle, very much in +the manner of a dog with a rat. Her sense of a worldly knowledge, a +philosophy of realization, far deeper than his own returned. Things +couldn't be disposed of in that easy manner; it was probable that they +couldn't be disposed of, righted, at all. Her mother, with her help, must +continue to keep Barzil's home: there was no other place for Edward +Dunsack to go. "He won't hurt us," she said vaguely. "It's principally +bad for him. Then, at first, I didn't know. You get used to so much." + +He, Gerrit Ammidon, wouldn't have it, he asserted in a heated return of +his familiar dictatorial manner. The fellow would be out of there +to-morrow. It was a damned unendurable outrage! + +She smiled softly and laid a momentary hand on his sleeve. "That's +nothing, Gerrit; nothing compared to the rest, to me." He frowned down at +her out of the gloom. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +He again cursed Salem and the world with which he had proclaimed himself +out of date and sympathy. This, while it communicated to her a certain +warm comfort, resolved nothing, made no reply to her question. To-morrow +offered precisely the same hopeless outlook of yesterday. No answer from +Gerrit, Gerrit married, was possible. She saw that. + +"I'm not fit to go around on land blubbering and setting tongues to +clapping," he declared. "I ought to be locked in my cabin when the ship's +in port, and let out only after sail's made again." + +She heard a slight movement in the grass; and turning sharply caught the +vague outline of a man, the thin unsubstantial shape of Edward Dunsack. +He vanished immediately; Gerrit, absorbed in bitter thought, had missed +him. Strangely her uncle only filled her mind with the image of China, +the China that had ruined him, and which, too, in the form of a woman, a +Manchu, had destroyed the hope of any acceptable existence of her own. + +"Great pretensions and idiotic results," he went on; "no ballast. Take +what your grandfather said to me--nothing in that unexpected or to drive +a man off. Yet off I go and--" he halted oddly, just as her breath was +suspended at the admittance which she was certain must follow. But he +fell into another glooming silence. + +After all, she couldn't expect him to continue that development. A +different man might; and Nettie wasn't sure of her refusal to +listen...to the end. But she was familiar with Gerrit's unbending +conception of the necessity of truth alone. If he married a woman, +yellow, black, anything, he would perform, the obligation to the entire +boundary of his promise. Good and bad seemed equally united against her. +Little flashes of resentment struck through her leaden, conviction that +all this was useless. + +"I must be of some use to you." + +But, Nettie realized, there was only one way in which he could help her; +only one thing she wanted--could take--from him. She was terrified at the +completeness with which love had possessed her, making every other fact +and consideration of little interest or importance. Suddenly it seemed as +if she were being swept by an overwhelming current farther and farther +out from safety into a bottomless immensity that would claim her life. + +"Yet," he cried, "if I lift a hand, here, in Salem, if I as much as cross +the street to speak to you--the clapping tongues! I can do you nothing +but harm. Though Rhoda might--" + +"I don't want your Rhoda!" she interrupted passionately. "I've managed +without them all up to now." He raised his arms in a hopeless gesture. +"Nothing's to be done," she concluded. "I saw that all along; that is, +this last time." + +"It's late," he muttered absently; "you have had a day." He turned +mechanically and moved away from the indefinite black rim of the harbor. +The lamp in the sitting room had been extinguished, the house was dark. A +brief embarrassment seized her as he stood trying vainly to find +something confident, even adequate, to say for farewell. And as the stir +of his footfalls died away up Hardy Street the memory of his last futile +words mocked her laboring heart. + +She turned and faced Edward Dunsack, advancing from an obscurity deeper +than the rest. He murmured approvingly, she caught words of commendation +and unspeakable reassurance. She hurried away blindly, sick to the inmost +depths of her being. The morning, when she had tied her gay bonnet +ribbons and started out with the scarlet merino shawl on her arm, seemed +to belong to a long, long time ago, to a girl.... The popping of a final +string of firecrackers died outside. + + + + +VIII + +The dejection, the sense of a difference that held from him any +comprehension of the vast maze of shore life, persisted as Gerrit Ammidon +walked toward home. It was such an unusual feeling that he was conscious +of it; he examined and speculated upon his despondency as if it had been +something actually before him. The result of this was a still increased +disturbance. He didn't like such strange qualities arbitrarily forcing +their way into his being--he had the navigator's necessity for a clear +understanding of the combined elements within and without which resulted +in a harmonious, or at least predictable, movement. He distrusted all +fogs. In a manner the course before him was plain--married to Taou Yuen, +shipmaster in his family's firm, he had simple duties to perform, no part +of which included sailing in strange or dangerous waters; yet though this +was beyond argument he was still troubled by a great number of unpleasant +conditions of mind and obscure pressures. + +Gradually, however, his normal indignation returned, the contempt for a +society without perceptible justice, centered principally in what Nettie +Vollar had had from life. This, he assured himself, wasn't because he was +in any way involved with her; but because it was such a flagrant case. +She was a very nice girl. It was entirely allowable that he should admit +that. As a fact, he warmly felt that he was her friend; the past +justified, no, insisted on, that at least. He wondered exactly how fond +he had been of her--in other words, how near he had come to marrying her. +It had been an obvious possibility, decidedly; but the desire had never +become actual. No, his feeling for her had never broken the bounds of a +natural liking and a desire to secure decent treatment for her. The last +had been vain. + +If his mental searching had ended there it would have presented no +difficulties, created no fog; but, unfortunately, there was another +element which he admitted with great reluctance, an inborn discomfort. +Although he had been clear about what had actually happened with Nettie +there was reasonable doubt that the same limitations had operated with +her. Briefly she had missed him more than he had realized. He explained +this to his sense of innate masculine diffidence by the loneliness of her +days. She had missed him....something within whispered that she still +did. Women, he remembered hearing, were like that. + +In the light, the possibility, of this he saw that he had done her a +great wrong. + +It had been his damned headlong ignorance of the dangerous quality of +life, the irresponsibility of a child with gunpowder. With all this in +his mind it seemed doubly imperative that he should do something for her; +he owed her, he was forced to admit, more than a mere impersonal +consideration. His thoughts returned unbidden to the fact that she--she +had liked him. He insisted almost angrily on the past tense, but it +surprised him and gave him a perceptible warm glow. Nettie was very +pleasing: he inferred that she was a creature of deep emotions, +affections. + +At this he shook himself abruptly--such things were not permissible. +Gerrit felt a swift sense of shame; they injured Nettie. His mind shifted +to Taou Yuen. He found her asleep on the day bed she preferred, her +elaborate headdress resting above the narrow pillow of black wicker. He +could distinguish her face, pallid in the blue gloom, and a delicate, +half-shut hand. He was flooded with the intense admiration which +increasingly formed his chief thought of her; this, with the obvious +racial difference, put her, as it were, on an elevation--a beautifully +lacquered vase above his own blundering person. She was calm, serious and +good, in the absolute Western definitions of those terms; she had her +emotions under faultless control. Taou Yuen should be an ideal wife for +any man; she was, he corrected the form sharply. All that he knew of her +was admirable; the part which constantly baffled him didn't touch their +relationship. + +It was reasonable to expect small differences between her and Salem: at +times her calm chilled him by a swift glimpse of utter coldness, at times +he would have liked her gravity to melt into something less than ivory +perfection; even her goodness had oppressed him. The last hadn't the +human quality of, for example, Nettie Vollar's goodness, colored by +rebellion, torn by doubt, and yet triumphing. + +If he only understood the three religions of China, if he were an +intellectual man, Gerrit realized, he could have grasped his wife more +fully. He was completely ignorant of Chinese history, of all the forces +that had united to form Taou Yuen. For instance: he was unable to +reconcile her elevated spirit with the "absurd superstitions" that +influenced almost her every act--the enormous number of lucky and unlucky +days, the coin hung on his bed, the yellow charm against sickness and red +against evil spirits; only yesterday she had burnt a paper form +representing thunder and drunk its ashes in a cup of tea. She was +tremendously in earnest about the evil spirits--they were, she +maintained, lurking everywhere, in all shapes and degrees of harm. Edward +Dunsack was possessed, she declared; but he had pointed out that opium +was a sufficient explanation of anything evil in him, and that it was +unnecessary to look for a more fantastic reason. + +He lay awake for a comparatively long while, as he had several times +lately, divided between his consciousness and the regular breathing of +his wife. If the past had brought Nettie Vollar to depend on him in +some slight degree Taou Yuen did so absolutely: except for him she was +lost in a strange world. Yet Taou Yuen didn't seem helpless in the +manner of Nettie. He had once before thought of the former as finely +tempered metal. Her transcendent resignation, with its consequent lack +of sympathetic contact with the imperfect humanity of--well, Nettie, +gave Taou Yuen a dangerous freedom from all that bound Salem in +comparative safety. + +He dressed first, as usual, in the morning, while she stirred only enough +to get her pipe and tobacco, on the floor at her side. Outside, the elms +were losing their fresh greenness in the dusty film of midsummer; the +Square held an ugly litter from the fireworks of last evening. William, +too, was about, but he was uncommunicative, his brow scored in a frown. +Their father, always down before the others, had returned from the +inspection of his trees, and was tramping back and forth in the library. +The elder seemed unrested by the night, his skin, as Rhoda had pointed +out, was baggy. + +"Now that the _Nautilus_ is afloat again," Jeremy Ammidon said, "you'll +want to be at sea." Examining this natural conclusion, Gerrit was +surprised, startled, to find that it was no longer true. For the first +time in his memory he was not anxious to be under sail. This of course +was caused by a natural perplexity about Taou Yuen's comfort and +happiness. + +"I don't know what the firm's plans are for me," he answered cautiously. +"There is some talk of taking me out of the China trade for the +California runs. I shouldn't like that." + +Jeremy was turning at his secretary, and he stopped to pound his fist on +its narrow ledge. "It's that damned Griffiths again and his cursed +jackknife hull!" he exclaimed. The dark tide suffused his countenance. +Gerrit studied him thoughtfully: he didn't know just how much William had +yet told their father about the sweeping changes taking place in Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. He did see, however, that it was unwise to +excite the old gentleman unduly. + +"I was saying only yesterday," he put in pacifically, "that you and +myself are getting to be old models--" he broke off as William entered +the library. The latter evidently grasped at once the subject of their +discussion, for he went on in a firm voice somewhat contradicted by a +restrained but palpable anxiety: + +"Now, father, this was bound to come up and you must sit down and listen +quietly." The elder, on the verge of a tempestuous reply, constrained +himself to a painful attention. "It's useless to point out to you the +beneficial changes in sea carrying, for you are certain to deny their +good and drag out the past. So I am simply forced to tell you that after +careful consideration we have decided to line the firm with the events of +the day and hold our place in the growing pressure of competition. This +may sound brutal, but it was forced on us by the attitude you have +adopted. Shortly, this is what we intend, in fact are doing: + +"Orders have been placed with George Raynes at Portsmouth and Jackson up +in Boston for clippers of a thousand and twelve hundred tons and another +is almost ready to be launched from Curtis' Chelsea shipyard. It oughtn't +to be necessary to call your attention again to the fact that the _Sea +Witch_ has brought the passage from Hong Kong to something like three +months. The profits of the California trade will be enormous and depend +entirely on speed. + +"I'll admit that this is a big thing, it will cut sharply into our +funds--something like a quarter of a million dollars. But, if you will be +patient for a little only, I can promise that you'll see astonishing +returns. At the same time we have no intention of giving up China and +India, but we'll limit ourselves more closely in the nature of the +cargoes, practically nothing but tea unbroken from Canton to Boston. I'll +be glad to go into all this in detail at the countinghouse, where we have +the statistics and specifications." + +To Gerrit's surprise Jeremy Ammidon sat quietly at the end of William's +speech; he wasn't even looking at them, but had his gaze bent upon the +floor. There was a commanding, even impressive, quality in his silence +that forced the respect of both his sons. More--it made Gerrit +overwhelmingly conscious of his affection, his deep admiration, for his +father. He recalled the latter's memorable voyage in the little _Two +Capes_--the barque of two hundred and nine tons--into the dangers, so +imminent to a master, of uncomprehended waters and thousands of miles +with, for the most part, only the sheerest dead reckoning. Jeremy Ammidon +said finally: + +"If it's done it's done. I used to think there were two Ammidons in the +firm, not to mention Gerrit; but it seems there's only one. A man who has +never been to sea." He rose and marched, slower and more ponderous than +ever before, to the cupboard where he kept the square bottle of Medford +rum; there, with trembling hands, he poured himself out a measure. He +shut the glass door, but stood for an oppressive space with his back to +the room, seeing that old vision of struggle or accomplishment. + +"I suppose I've been a damned nuisance about the countinghouse for a long +time," he pronounced, turning. William rose. "You made it," he said; +"it's you. God forgive me if I have been impatient or forgetful of all we +owe you." There was a stir of skirts in the doorway, and Rhoda entered. +"Breakfast--" she stopped, and with a quick glance at her husband and +Gerrit went at once to Jeremy Ammidon. "They've been bothering you +again," she declared, and turned an expression of bright anger on the +younger men. "Ah, how hard and hateful and blind you are!" she cried. + +William, with a hopeless gesture, walked from the room. Gerrit moved to a +window facing the Square; but he saw nothing of its sultry yellow-green +expanse--he was remembering how as a child, his mother already dead, a +nurse had held him up on Derby Wharf to see his father sweep into port +from the long voyage to the East. He caught again the resonant voice, as +if sounding from a hold of ribbed oak, the tremendous vigor of the arm +that swept him up to a bearded face. He couldn't bring himself to move +now and see an old haggard man clinging with tremulous emotion and tears +to the sympathy, the strength, of a woman. + +Later in the morning, to his immense relief, Jeremy Ammidon regained a +surprising amount of composure. At first determined never to return to +Liberty Street, toward noon Gerrit found him in the hall with his broad +hat and wanghee. "I'll just have a slant at those specifications," he +remarked. "Like as not they've left off the hatch coamings." Gerrit +suggested, "Since it's so hot why don't you have the carriage round?" The +other voiced his customary disparagement of that vehicle. "If I see that +I'm going to be late for dinner," he added, "I'll get one of the young +men to fetch me something. I don't want to give Rhoda any trouble." + +Still, on the steps, he lingered, gazing pridefully up at the bulk of the +house he had built; his eyes rested on the brass plate, engraved with the +words Java Head, on the dignified white door. "A lot of talk when I had +that done," he commented; "people said they'd never heard of it, ought to +have my name there for convenience if nothing else. They didn't know. It +would take a sailor for that. Don't forget to tell Rhoda not to wait if +I'm late. All those girls of hers get hungry. I expect William consulted +Laurel about this new move," he ended with a gleam of humor. "She's a +great hand for a clipper since she talked to Captain Waterman." He was +down the steps, starting deliberately across the street. There was a last +mutter of doubt. The bulky slow figure in yellow Chinese silk moved away +and Gerrit returned to the shadowed tranquillity of the library. + +More than any other place in the house it bore the impression of his +father. He wandered about the room, lost in its associations, stopped +in front of the tall narrow walnut bookcase and took out one of the +small company of Jeremy Ammidon's logs, reading disconnectedly in the +precise script: + +"Tuesday, December 24. 132 days out. All this day gentle breezes and +cloudy. Saw kelp, birds, etc. + +"Tacked ship to the eastward under short sail. At daylight made all sail +to SW. Gentle breezes and clear pleasant weather. Saw huge shoals of +flying fish." + +"May 19, 11 days out. Hainan in sight, bearing from W by N to NNW. At +sunset the breeze died away and hauled off the land. All night light +breezes. Made all possible sail to the SSW. At the same time set the +extremity of Hainan which bore NW by N to N. Past three Chinese +vessels steering NNE. Saw much scum on the water and at 11 A.M. lost +sight of land." + +"November 14, 65 days out. These twenty-four hours commences with +variable breezes at west and smooth sea. Saw brig steering to the +Eastward. The land of Sumatra bearing SW by W to SE by S. Tied rips." + +He returned the log to its resting place with a quiet smile at the last +period. It was all incredibly simple--a lost simplicity of navigation and +a lost innocent wonder at the Mare Atlanticum of old fable. + +Neither William nor Jeremy Ammidon was present for dinner. They were, +Gerrit concluded, submerged in the effort to bring the changing +activities of the firm into the latter's comprehension. His foot was on +the stair leading up to his wife, when there was a violent knocking on +the front door. It sounded with a startling abruptness in the shut hall, +and Gerrit instinctively answered without waiting for a servant. The +flushed and breathless young man before him was evidently perturbed by +his appearance. He stammered: + +"Captain Ammidon, you--you must come down to the countinghouse. At +once, please!" + +His thoughts, directed upon his father, gathered into a chilling +certainty. "Captain Jeremy is sick?" he demanded instantly. The +hesitation of the other seemed to confirm an infinitely greater +calamity. "Dead?" he asked again, in a flooding misery of apprehension. +The clerk nodded: + +"In a second, like," he continued. "All we know they were talking in Mr. +William Ammidon's room--one of the boys was out that minute getting the +old gentleman some lunch--when we heard a fall, it was quite plain, and +Mr. Saltonstone--" + +"That will do," Gerrit cut him short. He turned into the house, rapidly +considering what must follow. He'd go, certainly; but first he must warn +Rhoda, she would have the girls to prepare.... Rhoda had always been +exceptionally considerate and fond of Jeremy Ammidon. He found her at the +entrance to her room, and said, "My father is dead." Her warm color sank +and tears filled her eyes. + +Hurrying over Bath Street to Liberty his grief was held in check by the +pressing actualities of the moment. He had time, however, to feel glad +that he had spent the morning largely in warm thoughts of the dead man. + +He passed rapidly into the entrance of the establishment of Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. Immediately on the right there was an open +railed enclosure of desks in the center of which a group of clerks +watched him with mingled respect and curiosity as he continued to the +inner shut space. It was a large light room with windows on Charter +Street. William's expansive flat-topped desk with its inked green baize +was on the left, and, under a number of framed sere ships' letters and +privateersmen's Bonds of the War of 1812, Gerrit saw the heavy body +extended on a broad wooden bench, a familiar orange Bombay handkerchief +spread over the face. + +Never in all the memory of his brother had William Ammidon been so +stricken. As he entered James Saltonstone left studying a list hastily +scribbled on a half sheet of the firm's writing paper. He nodded silently +to Gerrit, who advanced to the covered face and lifted the handkerchief. +There were still traces of congestion, but a marblelike pallor had taken +the place of the familiar ruddy color. Something of the heaviness of his +old age, the blurring thickness of long inactivity, had vanished, giving +his still countenance an expression of vigor, resolution, contradicted by +an arm trailing like the loose end of a heavy rope on the floor. William, +with a clenched hand on his desk, spoke with difficulty: + +"You must know this, Gerrit; and then I'll ask you never to allude to it +again. It might be argued that--that James and I killed him, but +absolutely without intention, by accident. Gerrit, I loved him more than +I took time to know. Well, you may or may not have heard that we own two +topsail schooners in the opium trade, between India, Ningpo and Amoy, but +you do know how father detested anything to do with the drug. We said +nothing to him about this; it seemed necessary, no--permissible. But +to-day when we were coming to a peaceable understanding about the new +contracts he stumbled over one of the schooner's manifests. Mislaid, you +see--a clerk! It swept him to his feet in a rage, he couldn't speak, +and--and he had walked, it was hot...." + +Gerrit Ammidon made no answer; there was nothing to be said. He was +shaken by a burning anger at the cupidity, the ugly commercial grasping, +to which his father had been sacrificed. A gulf opened between him and +his brother and James Saltonstone; he was as different from them as the +sea was from the land, as the wind-swept deck of the _Nautilus_ was from +this dry building with its stifling papers and greed. He might be in the +service of the firm--Gerrit was not incorporated in the partnership--he +might carry their cargoes for the multiplication of the profit, but his +essential service and responsibility, his life, were addressed to another +and infinitely higher and more difficult consummation than the stowed +kegs of Spanish dollars, the bills of sale. This was composed of the +struggle with the immeasurable elements of the seas and winds, the safety +of lives, the endless trying of his endurance and will and luck. + +"Now," he spoke with a perceptible bitterness, "you can have your way +without interference, without his mixing up your papers or making the +blunders of a slow sort of honesty." + +"I am under no obligation to your judgment or opinion," William +replied stiffly. "There are always complications you will never +penetrate nor carry. At present your assistance is more necessary than +any display of temper." + +The funeral gathered and ebbed in a long procession of carriages through +a sultry noon, the services at the grave concluded by the symbolic +dropping of the earth on Jeremy Ammidon's coffin lowered into the deep +narrow clay pit. The large varied throng lingered for a breath, as if +unable to take their attention from the raw opening that had absorbed the +shipmaster, and then there was a determined and reassuring commonplace +murmur, a hurrying away into the vital warmth of the day. + +The evening was the loveliest summer and the garden of Java Head could +afford: a slow moon disentangled itself from the indigo foliage at the +back of the stable and soared with an increasing brilliancy, bathing the +sod and summerhouse and poplars, the metallic box borders and spiked +flower beds, in a crystal clearness. The Ammidons sat about the willow, +Rhoda with a hand affectionately on her husband's arm, the +children--Laurel and Janet staying without remark long past their +accustomed hours for bed--still and white under the blanching moon. +Gerrit intently studied his wife, Taou Yuen, in a concentrated manner. +She, too, was in white, the Chinese mark of sorrow. + +Suddenly in the face of his suffering and memories she had appeared +startlingly remote, as if, from standing close beside him, she were +moving farther and farther away. The image was made profoundly +disconcerting by the fact that they acted without their own accord; it +took the aspect of a purely arbitrary phenomenon over which they had no +control. At the same time Nettie Vollar was surprisingly near, actual--he +could see every line and shading of her vivid face; he felt the warm +impact of her instant sympathy. He had caught a glimpse of Barzil Dunsack +at the funeral; but the other was immediately hidden by the crowd, and +Gerrit had been unable to discover whether his son and daughter or Nettie +had accompanied him. + +His thoughts turned in a score of associations and questions to Nettie; +but when he found himself trying to picture her exact employment at the +present moment he was angrily aroused. He had, he realized, considered +nothing else for the past hour, and his preoccupation was growing more +intense, personal. He stirred abruptly, and fixed his mind on the +imminent changes from his father's death. First the possibility would +develop of his becoming a member of the firm; but to this, he silently +declared, he would not agree. His gaze rested with a faint underlying +animosity on William, seated upright in a somber absorption, and a +disparagement of the latter's activities and scale of values. Gerrit saw +that there must be a pacific legal knot to untangle; the division of +Jeremy's estate would require time--he had somewhere heard that such +affairs often dragged on for a year; and now he was again in a fever of +impatience to be away, safe, at sea. He added the more portentous word +with the vague self-assurance that it was only the customary expression +of his notable ignorance of land; but it echoed with an ominous special +insistence in his mind. + +The _Nautilus_, he recalled, was once more afloat, repaired; and a plan +occurred to him that seemed to dispose of all his difficulties, even of +the distasteful possibility of the California clipper service. He could +take the ship as part of his inheritance; and, though ostensibly sailing +her in the interest of the firm, make such voyages and ports, carry such +cargoes, as his independence dictated. The _Nautilus_, with a cargo out +of tin and dyes and cotton manufactures, and forty or fifty thousand +trade dollars, would represent a sum of nearly two hundred thousand; but +as a family they were very rich; he'd have more than that; and bank the +remainder intact to the credit of his wife. + +There were many practical aspects of his marriage that he had not stopped +to weigh in its precipitant consummation. The problem, pointed out by +Rhoda, of his absence from Taou Yuen on cruise could not be solved with +the facility he had taken for granted. It was as impossible to leave her +happily here--he was aware of her growing impatience with Western +habit--as it would be for him to become a contented part of Chinese home +life; and not only was she uncomfortably cramped and sick on shipboard, +but he doubted whether he could persuade his crews to sail with her. +Superstitious able seamen balked at the presence of even a normal wife +aft; and a Chinese would be regarded as a sign of certain disaster. + +He would have to establish her somewhere in the East Indies; and he +viewed with a new dislike all such tropical settings. His entire life +threatened to become an affair of damnable palm trees and Oriental +stenches. Gerrit Ammidon broke into a cold sweat at the realization of +the far more direct implication that had taken substance in his mind. The +thing was going entirely too far! He wondered irritably at the obscure +cause for such violent inner agitations. + +Rhoda Ammidon with a dim smile rose, gathering her daughters about her, +and departed in a pale cloud of muslin. Taou Yuen, with her murmuring +formal politeness, moved away too, leaving the brothers together. +Whatever sympathetic intercourse they might otherwise have had, whatever +shared memories of their boyhood and their father, were made impossible +by William's admission of the immediate cause of the elder's death. + +"The Saltonstones are going into Boston this fall," William said +abruptly. "It is necessary for one of us to live there; and Caroline has +always had a hankering for wider society. Rhoda, I was surprised to +learn, wishes to remain here at Java Head for a year or so anyway. She +has a very real affection for the place. But I tell her when the girls +are older Boston, or perhaps New York, will give them far greater +opportunities. Sidsall, stranger still, was in tears at the whole thing; +she seemed ridiculously upset about leaving." + +The vision of Nettie Vollar persisted, bright and disturbing. Once he was +at sea, Gerrit told himself, on the circumscribed freedom of his +quarter-deck, he would lose the unsettling fever burning at that instant +in his veins. But the memory of long solitary passages with nothing to +distract his mind through week upon week after the ship took the trades, +when hour upon hour his thoughts turned inward on themselves and reviewed +every past act and feeling, made doubtful even that old release. The +trouble was that he instinctively avoided any square facing of the +difficulty that had multiplied with such amazing rapidity--like a banyan +tree--about the present and the shadowed future. This he was forced to +admit, but grimly added that there could be only one answer to whatever +he might lay bare--the adherence to the single fundamental duty of which +he never lost sight. No port was gained by changing blindly from course +to course, that way lay the reefs; a man could but keep steadily by the +compass. That, at least, was all he could see, propose, for himself, +being rather limited and lacking the resources which others of greater +knowledge so confidently explored. + +After breakfast on the following morning he mounted the dignified +staircase, with the sweeping railing of red narra wood and high Palladian +window at the turn, to his wife. In their room he was bathed in a cold +sweat of dismay at a sudden detached view of Taou Yuen in her complete +Manchu mourning for his father. An unhemmed garment of coarse white hemp +hung in ravelings about slippers of sackcloth; what had been an elaborate +headdress was hidden under a binding of the bleached hemp; she wore no +paint nor flowers; her pins and earrings were pasted with dough, and her +expression was drugged with the contemplative fervor of what had +evidently been a religious ceremonial. + +"For the wise old man, for your father," she said. She was exhausted and +sank onto the day bed; but almost immediately her hand reached out in the +direction of her pipe, and she smiled faintly at him. He clenched his +sinewy hands, the muscles of his jaw knotted, as he gazed steadily at the +woman, the Manchu woman, he had of his own free accord married. It +sickened him that, for the drawing of a breath, he had regarded Taou Yuen +with such appalling injustice--injustice, the evil he hated and condemned +more than any other. What, in the name of God, was he made of that he +could sink so low! + +"We'll leave here soon," he declared abruptly; "the _Nautilus_ will be +ready for sea almost any time." + +He could recognize, from his slight knowledge of her, that Taou Yuen +welcomed the news. "Shanghai?" she asked. He nodded. It came over him +that he was no longer young. His father had retired from the sea within a +few years of his own present age and built Java Head, the house that was +to be a final harbor of unalloyed happiness. No such prospect awaited +him; he had one of the premonitions that were more certain than the most +solid realities--as long as he lived he must sail in ships, struggling +with winds and calms, with currents and cockling and placid seas. Well, +that was natural, inevitable, what he would have chosen. At the same time +he dwelt, with a sensation of loneliness, on the green garden and +drawing-room filled in June with the scent of lilacs, on Rhoda surrounded +by her girls. + +When the question of the division of Jeremy Amnudon's estate came up, he +was, as he had foreseen, urged to become a partner of the firm; and, when +that failed, told that it was his vested duty to continue in his present +capacity as a shipmaster in all their interests. He was seated with +Saltonstone and William in the countinghouse and he could tell from his +brother's ill-restrained impatience that the other considered him hardly +more than a clumsy-witted, stubborn fool before the mast of the facts of +actual life. + +His gaze, above their heads, rested on the framed pass of the ship +_Mocha_, one of his father's last commands, over the bench where he had +lain dead. It was given by the President, James Monroe, in 1818, its +white paper seal embossed on the stained parchment. It had an engraving +of a lighthouse and spired town on the dark water's edge, and above, a +picture of a ship with everything drawing in a fair wind, the upper +sails torn off on a dotted wavering line for the purpose of +identification with its stub. + +"No," he told them quietly, "I'll go my own way as I said; with the +_Nautilus_, if that can be arranged." He rose with a nod of finality, and +James Saltonstone remarked, "Jeremy to the life." Gerrit replied, "I'd +not ask anything better." + +Through the evening he heard little but the discussion of Mr. Folk's +approaching visit to Salem. The President was to leave the train at the +Beverly Depot at three P.M. and be fetched with Secretary Buchanan and +Marshal Barnes in a barouche with six horses and met at the outskirts of +Salem by the city authorities. + +There would be a Beverly cavalcade, the city guard was ordered to muster +at the armory; while an evening parade at five o'clock and the military +ball in Franklin Hall were to follow. + +But when the day and occasion actually arrived it was spoiled by a +succession of unforeseen mishaps. The train was late and the presidential +party in a fever of haste--the procession, hurrying through the massed +public-school children and throngs of Chestnut Street, gave a perfunctory +attention to the salutes and short address of the mayor. The President's +reply, hardly more than a few introductory phrases, cut short, the +barouche was sent plunging over its route with the Secretary crying, +"Drive on! Drive on!" and Marshal Barnes swearing and expectorating in +callous profusion. + +Some of the crowd, the Ammidons heard, had been knocked down and injured +in the pell-mell of the rush. Gerrit's countenance showed his contempt of +what he held to be a characteristically ludicrous farce. After all, his +wishes in regard to the _Nautilus_ had been easy of execution, the ship +was now his; he was already contracting for a cargo. He had been to see +Mr. Broadrick, his first mate, and the latter was assembling the chief +members of the crew. As always at the prospect of sailing he was +unsettled, concerned with countless details of departure--like a vessel +straining at her last anchor. + +Seated in the library with Taou Yuen--he had called her aside from her +fixed passage to their room from the garden--he was recounting his main +plans for the near future, when he became aware of an arrival on the +steps outside. He heard a servant's voice, and, immediately after, the +woman appeared in the doorway; but she was forced aside by Edward +Dunsack. Gerrit's quick resentment flared at such an unmannered +intrusion, and he moved ungraciously forward. The servant explained +impotently, "I told him I would see--" + +"Yes?" Gerrit Ammidon demanded. + +Dunsack bowed ceremoniously to Taou Yuen, then he faced the other. On the +verge of speech he hesitated, as if an unexpected development made +inadequate whatever he had been prepared to say; then, with a sudden +decision, he hurried into an emotional jumble of words. "I can tell you +in a breath--Nettie was badly hurt in that cursed rabble yesterday. It +looks as if she was actually struck by one of the horses. She was +unconscious, and then delirious; now she is in her right mind but very +weak; and, since she wished to see you, I volunteered to put our pride in +my pocket and carry her message." + +An instant numbing pain compressed Gerrit's heart; he felt that, in an +involuntary exclamation, he had clearly shown the depth of his dismay. +Damn the fellow, why had he burst out in this public indecent manner! The +situation he had plausibly created, the thing he managed to insinuate, +was an insult to them all--to his wife, Taou Yuen, coldly composed +beyond, himself and to Nettie. He stood with his level gaze fixed in an +enraged perplexity on Edward Dunsack's sallow countenance, deep sunk on +its bony structure, conscious that there was no possibility of a +satisfactory or even coherent reply. + +"Something was said about this afternoon," the other added. That period, +Gerrit realized, was nearly over. But above every other consideration +rose the knowledge that he would have to see Nettie Vollar, badly +injured, as she desired. The common humanity of that necessity left him +no choice. + +He turned to Taou Yuen with a brief formal explanation. A friend, their +families had been associated for years, had been hurt and sent for +him.... Return immediately. He paused, in the act of leaving, at the door +of the library, waiting for Edward Dunsack to join him; but the other had +resolutely turned his back upon Gerrit. He showed no indication of +departure. Gerrit Ammidon was at the point of an exasperated direction; +but that, in the light of Dunsack's purpose there, appeared ridiculously +abrupt; and confident of his wife's supreme ability to control any +situation he continued without further hesitation to the street, hurrying +in a mounting anxiety toward the Dunsacks'. + +Dwelling on his conduct in the library, at the sudden announcement of +Nettie's accident, he felt that he had acted in a precipitant if not +actually confused way. As a fact, it had all been largely mechanical; his +oppression, his dread for Nettie, had made everything else dim to see and +faint to hear. Dunsack's grimacing face, the immobile figure of his wife, +the familiar sweep of the room, had been things of no more substance than +a cloud between him and the only other reality existing. He had no +memory, for instance, of having stopped to secure his hat, but he found +it swinging characteristically in a hand. And now even the semblance of +reasonable speech and conduct he had managed to command vanished before a +panic that all but forced him into a run. + +The main door of Barzil Dunsack's house was open on the narrow somber +region within; he knocked sharply against the wood at the side and was +immediately answered by the appearance of Kate Vollar. + +"This is a great kindness, Captain Ammidon," she told him in her negative +voice; "come in here, please." He looked hastily about the formal space +into which she led him, expecting to see Nettie prostrate, but she was +not there. "How is she?" he demanded impatiently. + +"Nettie?" her mother turned as if surprised by an unexpected twist of the +situation. "Oh, why she'll mend all right, the doctor says; but it will +be slow. Her arm had an ugly slithering break, and she suffers with it +all the time." A pause followed, in which she met his interrogation with +a growing mystification. "I suppose Edward told you," she ventured +finally. The sense of being at a loss was swiftly communicated to him. + +"Your brother said Nettie wanted to see me," he returned bluntly. + +"Now, however could Edward do a thing like that!" she cried in deep +distress. "Why, there's no truth to it. I asked him myself to see if +you'd kindly stop and give me some advice. What put it in my head was +that once your father offered--he told Nettie to let him know if there +was anything to be done. Edward Dunsack isn't just right in his head." + +Gerrit was filled with a mingling sense of disappointment, relief that +Nettie was no worse, and the uncomfortable conviction that he had behaved +like an hysterical fool. He, too, but angrily, wondered why Dunsack had +invented such an apparently pointless lie. Probably Kate Vollar was +right, and her brother's wits, soaked in opium, had wandered into a realm +of insane fabrications. He composed himself--the first feeling blotting +out his other emotions--to meet the deprecating interrogation before him. + +"I should be glad to do what I could in my father's place." + +"In a way," she continued, "it's about Edward. When he came back from +China and decided to stay in Salem his father turned all the books over +to him; he was to tend to everything in the way of accounts and +shipments; and, he said, he would make us all rich in a year or so. But, +instead, he has neglected the clerking until we can't tell what's going +or coming. Edward hasn't--hasn't quite been himself lately," she paused +and Gerrit nodded shortly. "Now we're not wealthy, Captain Ammidon, we +never got more than just enough from our West India trade; but in the +last couple of months, with Edward like he is and father too old for +columns of figuring--he's dreadful forgetful now--not a dollar was made. +The schooners are slow, behind the times I guess, we've had to scrape; +yet it's been something.... They're both awful hard to do with," she +stopped hopelessly. + +"You must get a reliable man in charge. Some one who knows the West India +shipping should go over your entire property, decide what is necessary, +then borrow the money. We can find that without trouble. I'll make only +one condition: That is the complete restraint of your brother. It is +known that he has the opium habit, he is a dangerous--" + +He stopped at the echo of a thin persistent tapping from above. "That's +Nettie," Kate Vollar said; "the way she calls me. I'll ask you to excuse +me for a minute." When she returned her face bore an unaccustomed flush. +"Nettie heard you in the hall or through the stovepipe." She spoke +doubtfully: "She'd like to see you, but I don't know if it would be right +with her in bed. Still, I promised I'd tell you." + +He rose promptly. The woman stood aside at the upper door and he at once +saw Nettie lying with her vigorous black hair sprawling in a thick twist +across the pillow. Her face was pinched, it seemed thin, and the +brilliancy and size of her eyes were exaggerated. One arm, clumsy and +inanimate in splints, was extended over the cotton spread; but with the +other hand she was feverishly busy with her appearance. She smiled, a wan +tremulous movement that again shut the pain like a leaden casket about +his heart. + +"Do go away, mother!" Nettie directed Kate Vollar hovering behind them. +"Your fidgeting will make me scream." With an incoherent murmur she +vanished from the room. The girl motioned toward a chair, and Gerrit drew +it forward to a table that bore water and a small glass bowl partly +covered by a sheet of paper, holding a number of symmetrical +reddish-black pills. "Opium," Nettie told him, following his gaze; "I +cried dreadfully with the hurt at first. It's dear, and Edward made those +from some he had. You know, I watched him roll them right here; it was +wonderful how quickly he did it, each exactly alike, two grains." She +told him the circumstances of her accident while he sat with his eyes +steadily on her face, his hands folded. + +He was quiet, without visible emotion or speech; but there was an utter +tumult, a tumult like the spiral of a hurricane, within him. Rebellious +feelings, tyrannical desires and thoughts, swept through him in waves of +heat and cold. Nettie's voice grew weak, the shadows deepened under her +eyes, for a little they closed; and but for the faint stir of the +coverlet over her heart she was so pallid, so still, that she might have +been dead. Moved by an uncontrollable fear he bent toward her and touched +her hand. Her gaze slowly widened, and, turning over her palm, she weakly +grasped his fingers. A great sigh of contentment fluttered from her dry +lips. "Gerrit," she whispered, barely audible. He leaned forward, blinded +by his passion for her. + +He admitted this in an honest self-knowledge that he had refused +recognition until now. Tender and reassuring words, wild declarations and +plans for the future, crowded for expression; nothing else before the +immensity of desire that possessed him was of the slightest concern; but +not a syllable was spoken. A sharp line was ploughed between his brows; +his breath came in short choked gusts, he was utterly the vessel of his +longing, and yet an ultimate basic consideration, lost in the pounding of +his veins, still restrained him. + +"I love you, Gerrit," Nettie said; "I'll never stop till I die." Her face +and voice were almost tranquil; she seemed to speak from a plane above +the ordinary necessities of common existence, as if her pain, burning out +her color and vigor and emotions, had given her the privilege of truth. +Curiously enough when it seemed to him that she had expressed what should +have sent him into a single consuming flame he grew at once completely +calm. He, too, for the moment, reached her state of freedom from earth +and flesh. + +"I love you, Nettie," he replied simply. + +However, he speedily dropped back into the sphere of actual +responsibilities. He saw all the difficulties and hovering insidious +shadows in which they might be lost. This, in turn, was pushed aside by +the incredulous realization that Nettie's life and his had been spoiled +by a thing no more important than a momentary flare of temper. If, as +might have happened, he had overlooked Barzil Dunsack's ridiculous +tirade, if he had turned into the yard where Nettie was standing instead +of tramping away up Hardy Street, everything would have been well. + +It was unjust, he cried inwardly, for such infinite consequences to +proceed from unthinking anger! A great or tragic result should spring +from great or tragic causes, the suffering and price measured by the +error. He could see that Nettie was patiently waiting for him to solve +the whole miserable problem of their future; she had an expression of +relief which seemed to take a happy issue for granted. None was possible. +A baffled rage cut his speech into quick brutal words flung like shot +against her hope. + +"I love you," he repeated, "yes. But what can that do for us now? I had +my chance and I let it go. To-day I'm married, I'll be married to-morrow, +probably till I die. Perhaps that wouldn't stop a man more +intelligent--it might be just that--than I am; perhaps he'd go right +after his love or happiness wherever or however it offered. There are +men, too, who have the habit of a number of women. That is understood to +be a custom with sailors. It has never been with me; as I say, maybe I am +too stupid. + +"What in the name of all the heavens would I do with Taou Yuen?" he +demanded. "I can't desert her here, in America, leave her with William. I +brought her thousands of miles away from her home, from all she knows and +is. If I took her back and dropped her in China it would be murder." + +An expression of unalloyed dreariness overspread Nettie's features. "I +wish I had been killed right out," she said. The starkness of the words, +of the reality they spoke, flowed over him like icy water; he felt that +he was sinking, strangling, in a sea grimmer than any about Cape Horn. He +was continually appalled by the realization that there was no escape, no +smallest glimmer, leading from the pit into which they had stumbled. He +had the sensation of wanting enormously to go with Nettie but was fast in +chains that were locked on him by a power greater than his will. + +"It's no good," his voice was flat. + +"I don't believe I'll see you again," Nettie articulated; "now the +_Nautilus_ is near ready to sail. I can't stand it," she sobbed; "that +last time you went out the harbor just about ended me, but this is worse, +worse, worse. I'll--I'll take all the opium." + +"No, you won't," he asserted, standing, confident that her spirit was too +normal, too vitally healthy, for that. His gaze wandered about the room: +her clothes were neatly piled and covered by a skirt on a chair; the +mirror on her chest of drawers was broken, a corner missing; there was a +total absence of the delicate toilet adjuncts of Rhoda and Taou +Yuen--only a small paper of powder, a comb and brush, and the washstand +with a couple of coarse towels. What dresses she had were hung behind a +ridiculously inadequate drapery. She had so little with which to +accomplish what, for a girl, was so much. + +His emotion had retreated, leaving him dull-eyed, heavy of movement. The +moment had come for his departure. Gerrit stood by the bed. Nettie turned +away from him, her face was buried in the pillow, the uppermost free +shoulder shook. "Good-by," he said. There was no answer and he patiently +repeated the short tragic phrase. Still there was no sound from Nettie. +There would be none. Even the impulse to touch her had died--died, he +thought, with a great many feelings and hopes he once had. A fleet +surprise invaded him at the absence of any impulse now to protest or +indulge in wild passionate terms; he was surprised, too, at the fact that +he was about to leave Nettie. The whole termination of the affair was +bathed in an atmosphere of stale calm, like the air in a ship's hold. + +Gerrit Ammidon gazed steadily at her averted head, at the generous line +of her body under the coverlet; then, neither hasty nor hesitating in his +walk, he left the room. Kate Vollar met him at the foot of the stair. +"You understood," she said, "that I only bothered you because your +father... because I was so put on?" + +"You were quite right," he replied in a measured voice; "it will all be +attended to. With the agreement I mentioned." + +"How they'll take it I don't know." + +"In some positions," he told her, "certain persons are without any +choice. The facts are too great for them. I said nothing to Nettie of +Edward Dunsack's reason for my coming," he added significantly. Out in +the street he stopped, facing toward Java Head and evening; but, with a +quiver of his lips, the vertical bitter line between his drawn brows, +he turned and marched slowly, his head sunk, to where the _Nautilus_ +was berthed. + + + + +IX + +Seated in the library, placidly waiting for Edward Dunsack to go, Taou +Yuen studied him briefly. A long or thoughtful survey was unnecessary: +the opium was rapidly mastering him. That fact absorbed all the rest. She +had an immeasurable contempt for such physical and moral weakness; all +the three religions fused in her overwhelmingly condemned +self-indulgence; her philosophy, the practical side of Lao-tze's +teaching, emphasized the utter futility of surrender to the five senses. +At the same time he was the subject of some interest: he was an American +who had lived in China, and not only on the fringe of the treaty +ports--he had penetrated to some extent into the spirit, the life, of +things Chinese; while she, Taou Yuen, was amazingly married to Gerrit +Ammidon, was a Manchu here, in America. + +Absolutely immobile, her hands folded in her lap, she considered these +facts, each in relation to the other: there was wisdom hidden in them for +her. If Mr. Dunsack had retained the ordinary blustering Western +commercial mind, his knowledge of China confined to the tea houses and +streets, he would probably be prosperous and strong to-day. The wisdom +lay in this--that here she must remain Manchu, Chinese; any attempt to +become a part of this incomprehensible country, any effort to involve +herself in its mysterious acts or thought, would be disastrous. She must +remain calm, unassertive, let the eternal Tao take its way. + +Edward Dunsack looked actually comic: he was staring rudely, with a +foolish air of flattery, and breathing in labored gasps--like a coolie +who had run miles with a heavy palanquin. Then her mind, hardly reacting +from immediate objects, returned to the contemplation of the deeper +significance of her presence here. Bent in on itself her thought twisted +like a moonflower vine about the solid fact of Gerrit. She realized, of +course, that he must have had the past of any healthy honorable man of +his age, and that it would have included at least one woman. However, +when even the present was an almost complete puzzle his past had been so +lost to her that she had not considered it until now. + +"You must overlook my unceremonious speech," Edward Dunsack proceeded in +creditable Chinese. "It was clumsy, but I was deeply affected. It is my +niece, you see, who was hurt, and who has a very sad history. Then there +are some special circumstances. I'd have to explain a great deal before +you could understand why she sent for your husband and why he left so +hurriedly." + +"There is nothing you need tell me," Taou Yuen replied in her slow +careful English. "Manchu eyes can see as well as American." + +"A thousand times better." He, too, returned to his native speech. "It is +delightful to talk to a truly civilized being. All that would have to be +shouted at the women of Salem is unnecessary now. You see--you understand +the heart of a man." + +"I understand you," she said impersonally. + +"I wonder if you do," he speculated. "You ought to see what--how much--I +think of you. My brain holds nothing else," he declared in a low intense +voice, drawing nearer to her. + +She had a momentary, purely feminine shrinking from his emaciated shaking +frame, the burning eyes in a face dead like a citron; then her placidity +returned, the assurance that it was all ordained, that his gestures, the +pumping of his diseased heart, had no more individual significance than +the movements of a mechanical figure operated by strings, here the +strings of supreme Fate. She even smiled slightly, a smile not the mark +of approval or humor, but an expression of absolute composure. It drove +him at once into febrile excitement. + +"At least I understand you," he cried; "far more than you suppose! You +can't impress me with your air of a Gautama. I know the freedom of your +country. It doesn't shock you to realize that your husband has gone to +see a woman he loved, perhaps loves still, and you are not disturbed at +my speaking like this." + +Here, she knew, regarding him no more than a shrilling locust, was the +center about which for a moment blindly her thoughts of Gerrit and +herself had revolved. His past--"a woman he loved." But it didn't in the +least upset her present peace of mind, her confidence in Gerrit. There +was a sharp distinction between the eternal, the divine, Tao, that which +is and must prevail, and the personal Tao, subject to rebellion and all +the evil of Yin; and she felt that her husband's Tao was good. Out of +this she remarked negligently: + +"After all, you are more ignorant of China than I thought. But, of +course, you saw only the common and low side. You have not heard of the +books girls are taught from--'The Sacred Edict' and 'Mirror of the +Heart.' You don't know even the first rule of 'The Book of Rites,' 'Let +your face and attitude be grave and thoughtful,' and the second, 'Let +your steps be deliberate and regular.'" She paused, conveying by her +manner that he was already vanishing and that she was relieved. + +"That would do well enough if you were a scholar, or a bonze," he +retorted; "but such innocence in a fashionable woman is a pretense. If +you are so pure how can you explain your gold and bracelets and pins, +all the marks of your worldly rank? Lao-tze taught, 'Rich and high but +proud brings about its own misfortune.'" He was so close to her now that +she caught a faint sickly reek from his body. It seemed to her that she +could see his identity, his reason, vanish, replaced by madness in his +staring eyes. + +"I worship you," he murmured. + +"Opium," she spoke disdainfully. + +"Your own tobacco is drugged," he asserted. "But that's not important. I +tell you I worship you, the most beautiful person in the world. These +fools in Salem, even your husband, can't realize one-tenth of your +perfection; they can't venerate you as I do. And now that Ammidon has +gone back to the first, we are free too." + +"You are a liar," she said with an unexpected colloquial ease. + +A darker color stained his dry cheeks. "You saw him," he replied. "Did +he get pale or didn't he? And did he or not rush from the room like a +man in a fever? I tell you it's no use pretending with me; say what you +please I know how delicate your senses are. I'll tell you this too: It's +written in our progression that we should meet here, yes, and be a great +deal to each other. It was written in the beginning, and we had been +drawing together through a million cycles before Gerrit Ammidon stumbled +across you." + +Taou Yuen was surprised by a sudden conviction that a part of this, at +least, was so. No living thing, however minute, escaped from the +weariness of movement, either ending in final and blessed suspension or +condemned to struggle on and on through countless lives of tormenting +passion. All had this dignity of hope or despair; all she encountered +were humble, impressive or debased in the working of the mighty law. She +had been guilty, as this American had pointed out, of dangerous and wrong +pride, and she accepted her lesson willingly. There was, however, an +annoying conflict between Edward Dunsack, the example, the impersonal, +and Edward Dunsack making violent profession of his unspeakable desire +for her. Even the word seemed to soil her; but there was no other. He +went recklessly on, trying to increase his advantage: + +"We're made to be together." + +"If we are it is because of some great wickedness of mine. If we are, +then perhaps I am lost. But it is allowed to resist evil, at least, as +far as staying out of its touch is resistance." + +"Nothing can keep you from me," he declared. Another short step and his +knees would be brushing her gown. A stronger wave of dislike, shrinking, +anger, drowned her logical and higher resignation. "It is time for you to +go," she said, her voice still even. + +"Never." + +It seemed to her that she could feel his hot quivering touch and, all her +philosophy dropping from her, she rose quickly. "If this were China," she +told him, in a cold fury, "you'd be cut up with knives, in the court-yard +where I could look on. But even here I can ring for a servant; and when +Captain Ammidon comes back he'll know what to say to you." + +She could see that the last affected him; he hesitated, drew back, his +hanging fingers clasping and unclasping. That, she thought, relieved, +would dispose of him. Then it was clear that his insanity persisted +even in the face of the considerable threat of Gerrit's hot pride and +violent tempers. + +"It's our destiny," he repeated firmly in his borrowed faith, at once a +little terrifying and a little ridiculous in the alien mold. His lips +twitched and his bony forehead glistened in a fine sweat. Now, thoroughly +roused, she laughed at him in open contempt. + +"Diseased," she cried, "take your sores away! Dog licked by dogs. Bowl +of filth," she was speaking in Chinese, in words of one syllable like +the biting of a hair whip. Edward Dunsack gasped, as if actual blows +cut him; he stood with one hand half raised, appalled at the sudden +vicious rush of her anger. A leaden pallor took the place of his normal +sallow coloring, and it was evident that he had difficulty in +withstanding the pressure of his laboring heart. He stood between her +and the door and she had a premonition that it would be useless to +attempt to avoid him or escape. She could, however, call, and some one, +there were a score of people about the house, must certainly appear. At +that moment she saw a deep change sweep over his countenance, taking +place in his every fiber. There was an inner wrenching of Edward +Dunsack's being, a blurring and infusion of blood in his eyes, a breath +longer and more agonized than any before, and she was looking closely +into the face of an overwhelming hatred. + +For a moment, she realized, he had even considered killing her with his +flickering hands. Then that impulse subsided before a sidelong expression +of cunning. "With all your Manchu attitudes," he mocked her, "yes, your +aristocratic pretense of mourning and marks of rank, you are no different +from the little pleasure girls. Your vocabulary and mind are the same. I +was a fool for a while; I saw nothing but your satins and painted face. I +forgot you were yellow, I had forgotten that all China's yellow. It's +yellow, yellow, yellow and never can be white. I shut my eyes to it and +it dragged me down into its slime." His voice was hysterical with an +agony of rending spiritual torment and hopeless grief. "It poisoned me +little by little, with the smell of its rivers and the cursed smell of +its pleasures. Then the opium. A year after I had lost my position, +everything; and when I came over here it followed me ... in my own blood. +Even then I might have broken away, I almost had, when Gerrit Ammidon +brought you to Salem. You came at a time when I was fighting hardest to +throw it all off. You see--you fascinated me. You were all that was most +alluring of China, and I wanted you so badly, it all came back so, that I +went to the opium to find you." + +"Progression," she said ironically. + +"Perhaps," he muttered. "Who knows? I'm finished for this life anyhow. +You did that. I can't even keep the books for my father's penny trade." + +His hands crept rigidly toward her. If they touched her she would be +degraded for ever. Yet she was incapable of flight, her throat refused +the cry which she had been debating; alternate waves of revulsion and +stoical resignation passed over her with chills of acute terror. Yet she +managed to preserve an unstirred exterior; and that, she observed, began +to influence him. His loathing was as great as ever; but his vision, that +had been fixed in a blaze of fury, broke, avoided her direct scrutiny, +her appearance of statue-like unconcern. + +There was a sound of quick light feet in the hall, the bright voice of +one of Gerrit's nieces. Edward Dunsack fell into a profound abstraction: +he turned and walked away from her, standing with his back to the room at +a window that opened upon the broad green park. He was so weak that he +was forced to support himself with a hand on the wall. + +Taou Yuen was motionless for a perceptible space, and then moved toward +the door in a dignified composure. All this had come from the utter +impropriety of the life in America. Dunsack glanced at her as she +withdrew, and for a moment she saw his fine profile sharp and dark +against the light-flooded window. His lips stirred but she heard no +sound. Then she was on the stair mounting to her room. + +There mechanically she filled her pipe; but doing this she noticed that +her hands were trembling. How lamentably she had failed in the +preservation, the assertion, of her superiority, not as a Manchu, but in +the deeper, the only true sense of the word--in submission. + +"Requite hatred with virtue." + +She spoke Lao-tze's admonition aloud and, in the customary devious +channel of her mental processes, her thoughts returned to her early life, +her girlhood, so marred by sickness that the Emperor had surrendered his +customary proprietary right in the daughters of Manchu nobles. + +Surrounding the fact of her early suffering, which had kept her out of +the active gayety of brothers and sisters, she remembered in the clearest +detail her father's house in the north; the later residences in Canton +and Shanghai, even the delightful river gardens of the summer place at +Soochow, were less vivid. Inside the massive tiled stone wall the +rooms--there were a hundred at least--faced in squares on the inner +courtyard, and were connected by glass enclosed verandas. The reception +houses of the front court, the deeply carved wooden platform with its +scarlet covering, were of the greatest elegance; they were always astir +with the numerous secretaries, the Chinese writers and messengers, the +_mafoos_ and chair coolies, the servants and blind musicians with the old +songs, _The Millet's in Flower_ and _Kuan Kuan Go to the Ospreys_. The +side door to the women's apartments, however, opened into a retreat, +where her father's concubine, he had but one, trailed like a bird of +paradise, and there was the constant musical drip of a fountain in an old +granite basin. There, during the years when she was lame, Taou Yuen +mostly stayed. + +She had been dropped from a palanquin in her sixth year; sharp +pains soon after burned in her hip, and the corresponding leg had +perceptibly shortened. A great many remedies were tried in vain--burning +with charcoal, the application of black plasters, sweating, +acupuncture--sticking long needles into the afflicted part. The doctors +declared that the five elements of her body--the metal, wood, water, fire +and earth, were hopelessly out of equilibrium. Her mother had then called +necromancers and devil charmers; lucky and unlucky days were explored; +strange rites were conducted before her terrified eyes screwed into the +determination to show no alarm. + +A year, perhaps, after they had become resigned to her injury, her +father, always a man of the most liberal ideas, had suddenly brought into +the garden to see her an English doctor passing through China. Against +the wailing protests of the women the Englishman had been given authority +to treat her; and he had caused to be made a thin steel brace, clasping +Taou Yuen's waist and extending in a rigid band down the length of her +injured leg. After putting a high shoe on her other foot he had commanded +them to keep the brace on her for two years. + +It was through that period of comparative inactivity that she acquired a +habit of reading and thought, a certain grasp of philosophical attitude, +common to the higher masculine Chinese mind but rare among their women. +She had, for instance, later, read Laotze's Tao-teh-king, and been +impressed by his tranquil elevation above the petty ills and concerns of +life and the flesh. Her father, like all the ruling class, regarded +Taoism--which had, indeed, degenerated into a mass of nonsense about the +transmutation of base metals into gold and the elixir of life--with +contempt. But this seemed to her no depreciation of the Greatly Eminent +One or his philosophy of the two Taoes. + +The household, or at least the family, worshipped in the form of +Confucius; his precepts and admonitions, the sacred _hiao_ or filial +submission, the tablets and ancestral piety, were a part of her blood; as +was the infinitely fainter infusion of Buddhism; yet in her intellectual +brooding it was to the Tao-teh-king that she returned. She paused to +recall that, the brace at last removed, she was practically completely +recovered; but the bent, the bracing, given her mind had remained. + +The colorful pageant of her first marriage, the smaller but splendidly +appointed house of her husband--he was extremely intelligent and had +honorably passed the examination for licentiate, one of only two hundred +successful bachelors out of twenty thousand--and the period following his +accidental drowning wheeled quickly through her brain.... + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was left. + +She loved him, Taou Yuen realized, for a quality entirely independent of +race: he had more than anyone else she knew the virtues of simplicity and +purity announced by Chwang-Tze as the marks of the True Man. "We must +become like little children," the Old Master had written. She had seen +this at once in the amazing interview sanctioned by her father-in-law. +Most women of her class, even widows, would have perished with shame at +being exposed to a foreigner. But Lu Kikwang had expressed her difference +from them in the terms of his proposal. His words had been "finely +better" although the truth was that her curiosity had always mastered the +other and more prudent instincts. Yet that alone would not have +prostrated her before Gerrit Ammidon--death was not unthinkable--nor +carried her into his strange terrifying ship and stranger life. The love +had been born almost simultaneously with her first recognition of his +character. Now her passion for him was close and jealous. A constant +shifting between such humanity and the calm detachment which prefigured +heaven was what most convinced her of the truths of Lao-tze. + +All this took body at the announcement of Edward Dunsack about Gerrit and +his niece. Certainly he might have had an affair; that she dismissed; but +the insinuated permanence of this other affection was serious. She would +not have believed Mr. Dunsack for an instant, but, as he had pointed out, +Gerrit had undoubtedly been upset; he had turned pale and hurried away +impolitely. It was by such apparently slight indications that the great +inner currents of life were discovered. The fact that Chinese officials +had more than one wife, or, to speak correctly, concubines in addition, +had no bearing with Gerrit; such was not the custom with American men. It +represented for him, yes--dishonor. + +She laboriously recalled his every attitude since they had landed in +America, and was obliged to admit that he had changed--he was less gay +and though his manner was always considerate she recognized a growing +impatience beneath his darker calm. Her philosophy was again torn in +shreds by sharp feminine emotions. She was filled with jealousy and +hatred and hurt pride. The clearest expression of his possible discontent +had marked his face when he had suddenly come into their room and saw her +rising from a prayer for his father. Gerrit's lips had been compressed, +almost disdainful; at that moment, she knew unerringly, he found her +ugly. Of course it had been the hideous garments of mourning. + +She must wear the unhemmed sackcloth and dull slippers, bind her +headdress and cover her pins with paste, for a hundred days; and then +a second mourning of black or dark blue, and no flowers, for three +years. It might well be that by then Gerrit, blind to these +proprieties, would find her unendurable. Suddenly, in the tremendous +difficulty of holding him against an entire world, his own and of +which she was supremely ignorant, it seemed to her that she needed +every possible means, every coral blossom and gold filament and finger +of paint, the cunning intoxication of subtle dress and color and +perfume. With a leaden sense of guilt, but in a fever of impatience, +of haste, she stripped off the coarse hemp for her most elaborate +satins, her santal and clover and carmine. + +When Gerrit came in it had grown dark with night, and he explained that +he had been busy inspecting the _Nautilus'_ spars. She lighted a lamp, +then another, all she could find, and studied him unobtrusively. She was +shocked at the worn expression of his face; it seemed as if he had aged +in the few hours since he had left the library. He was uneasy, silent; +and, secretly dismayed, she saw that he was indifferent to her changed +appearance, too. Taou Yuen debated the wisdom of telling him about the +painful scene with Edward Dunsack; against her original intent she +decided in the negative. She informed herself that the reason for this +was a wish to preserve him, now that they were practically at the day of +departure, from an unpleasant duty. But there was an underlying dimly +apprehended and far different motive: she was afraid that it would blow +into flame a situation that might otherwise be avoided, bring to life a +past naturally dying or dead. + +She saw that he was scarcely aware of her presence in the room, perhaps +in his life. A period of resentment followed. "You are dull," she +declared, "and I am going down to the garden for entertainment." Gerrit +nodded. He would, he told her, be along shortly. Below she found Roger +Brevard, with the oldest Ammidon girl and her mother. + +Roger Brevard, she had discovered, was in love with Sidsall. The latter, +it developed, was to leave shortly for a party; Mr. Brevard was not +going; and, when Gerrit's sister-in-law walked across the grass with her +daughter the man dropped into an easy conversation with Taou Yuen. She +had a feeling, which she had tried in vain to lose, of the vulgarity, the +impropriety of this. Yet she recognized that there was none of the former +in Roger Brevard; he resembled quite a little her dead husband, +Sie-Ngan-kwan; and for that reason she was more at ease with him--in +spite of such unaccustomed familiarity--than with anyone else in Salem +but Gerrit. + +He was, she admitted condescendingly, almost as cultivated as the +ordinary Chinese gentleman. Many of his thoughts, where she could +understand their expression, might have come from a study of the sacred +kings. At the same time her feminine perception realized that he had a +genuine liking for her. + +"You'll be delighted to leave Salem," he said, leaning forward and +studying her. + +"That would not be polite," she answered formally. "You have been so +good. But it will give me pleasure to see Shanghai again. Anyone is +happier with customs he understands." + +"And prefers," he added. "Indeed, I'd choose some of your manners rather +than ours. You see, you have been at the business of civilization so much +longer than the rest of us." + +"Our history begins two thousand years before your Christ," she told him; +"our language has been spoken without change for thirty-three centuries, +as you call them. But such facts are nothing. I would rather hear your +non--nonsense," she stumbled over the word. + +"Do you mean that what we call nonsense is really the most important?" + +"Perhaps," she replied. "Devotion to the old and dead is greatly +necessary yet you smile at it. I didn't mean that, but moons and lovers +and music." He cried in protest, "We're terribly serious about those!" + +"I hear nothing but talk about cargoes and sales and money." + +"We keep the other under our hats," he instructed her. She was completely +mystified, and he explained. + +"In China," she remarked tentatively, "it is possible for a man to love +two women at once, maybe one a little more than the other, but he can be +kind and just and affectionate to them both. Tell me, is--is that +possible with an American?" + +"No!" he spoke emphatically. "We can love, in the way you mean, only one, +perhaps only once. I wouldn't swear to that, but there are simply no +exceptions to the first. Men are unfaithful, yes; but at a cost to +themselves, or because they are incapable of restraint. To be unfaithful +in anything is to fail, isn't it? You can lie to yourself as effectively +as to anybody else." + +She fixed a painful attention upon him, but lost at least a half of his +meaning. However, one fact was clearer than ever--that Edward Dunsack had +said an evil thing about her husband. "It seems," he went on, "that even +spiritual concerns can be the result of long custom." If he was trying to +find an excuse for Chinese habit she immediately disposed of it. "No," +she said, "you are upside down. The spirit is first, the eternal Tao, +everywhere alike, but the personal spirit is different in you and in us." + +A sudden dejection seized her--now the difference seemed vaster than +anything she had in common with Gerrit. A wave of oppressive nostalgia, +of confusion and dread, submerged her in a faintly thunderous darkness. +She felt everywhere about her the presence of evil and threatening +shades. The approach of her husband, his heavy settling into a chair, did +nothing to lighten her apprehension. + +"How soon do we go?" she asked faintly. + +"In two weeks, with nothing unexpected," he responded without interest or +pleasure. It flashed through her mind that he was depressed at leaving +Salem, that other woman. His present indifference was very far from the +manner in which he had first discussed their leaving. Yet, even that, she +recalled in the light of her present sensitiveness, had been unnaturally +abrupt and clothed in a great many loud-sounding words. She told herself +arbitrarily that Edward Dunsack had lied--for the purpose which his +conduct afterward made clear--but her very feeling was proof that she +believed he had spoken the truth. + +She was a victim of an uneasy curiosity to see... she made a violent +mental effort and recaptured the name--Nettie Vollar. Of course the +latter had been the deliberate cause of whatever wickedness had +threatened at the return of Gerrit with her, Taou Yuen. She had however +no doubt of the extent of this: Gerrit was upright, faithful to the +necessity Roger Brevard had explained; all that assaulted her happiness +was on an incorporate plane, or, anyhow, in a procession of consequences +extending far back and forward of their present lives. + +But, she recognized, she had no excuse nor opportunity to see Nettie +Vollar. Mrs. Ammidon, when she heard of the accident, had at once +declared her intention of going to the Dunsacks' house; still that +promised no chance of satisfying her own desire. The least politeness in +the world prohibited her from going baldly in and demanding to see the +woman. She couldn't, all at once, make convincing a sympathy or +impersonal interest entirely contradictory to her insistent indifference. +The best she could hope was for them to sail away as quickly as possible; +when on the other side of the seas Gerrit would probably return to the +simplicity of being she had adored. + +Then a trivial and yet serious fear occurred to her--perhaps here, among +all these dead-white women, he no longer held her beautiful. The word was +his own, or it had been his; he had not repeated it, she realized, twice +since they had been in Salem. Personally, she found the American women +entirely undistinguished and dressed in grotesquely ugly and cheap +clothes--not unlike paper lanterns bobbing along the ground. Their faces +were shamelessly bare of paint and their manners would have disgraced the +lowest servant in a Chinese courtyard. This was natural, from any +consideration of the hideous or inappropriate things that surrounded +them, and from the complete lack of what she could distinguish as either +discipline or reverence. Yet Gerrit, a part of this, would be unable to +share her attitude; she had heard him praise the appearance of women so +insipid that she had turned expecting vainly an ironic smile. + +Roger Brevard rose and made his bow, the only satisfactory approach to a +courteous gesture she had met outside Gerrit's occasional half-humorous +effort since leaving Shanghai. He stirred, muttered a perfunctory phrase, +and sank back into obscurity. + +Little quirks of unfamiliar disturbing feeling ran through Taou Yuen; her +mind, it seemed, had become a thing of no importance; all that at one +time had so largely ordered her life was superseded by these illogical +emotions spreading apparently from her heart. The truth was, she told +herself, that--with all her reading and philosophy--she had had little or +no experience of actuality: the injury to her hip and quiet life in the +gray garden at Canton, her protected existence in the women's apartments, +whatever she might have learned from them neglected because of the +general silliness of their chatter, the formal early marriage, had all +combined for the preservation of her ignorance. + +She regarded herself now with distrust; nothing could have been more +unpleasant than the failure of her will, this swamping of her equanimity. +She never lost for a moment the image of superiority that should be her +perfect example, the non-assertion that was the way of heaven; but her +comprehension was like a figure ruthlessly dragged about by an +overpowering unreflective force. A sharp hatred of Nettie Vollar seared +her mind and perished in a miserable sense of weakness. + +Against the dark, charged with a confusion of the ten thousand things, +she stared wearily and wakeful. She reminded herself again that Gerrit +would soon be gone from Salem, alone with her on the long voyage to +China; but he'd return to America, come back to Salem; and she knew that +he would never bring her westward again. A period of depression followed +which seemed to have no immediate connection with Gerrit; she had an +indefinable feeling of struggling in vain against adversity, of +opposition to an implacable power. + +For a short while after she rose in the morning it appeared that she had +regained her self-control, her reason; and a consequent happy relief +irradiated her. But when Gerrit came up after she had finished her toilet +and she saw, from his haggard face, that he too must have been awake, +tormented, through the night, a passion of bitterness enveloped her at +which all that had gone before turned pale. She could scarcely restrain +herself from a noisy wailing accusation, and stood regarding him with a +tense unnatural grimace, the result of her effort to preserve propriety. +She told herself, at the tempest of vulgar phrases storming through her +consciousness, that what Edward Dunsack had said about her being no +better than the tea house girls was true, and she was aghast at the inner +treachery capable of such self-betrayal. Not a quivering word, however, +escaped; she managed a commonplace phrase and turned aside in a trivial +pretext of occupation. + +"I am going into Boston with Captain Dunsack on business connected with +his schooners." The girl's grandfather! "Very well." She spoke placidly, +and with a tempestuous heart watched him stride quickly about the park. + +She settled herself in a long motionless contemplation, fastening her +mind upon the most elevated and revered ideas conceivable. She saw the +eternal Tao flowing like a great green river of souls, smooth and mighty +and resistless; and she willed that she too might become a part of that +desirable self-effacement, safe in surrender. Men striving to create a +Tao for personal ends beat out their lives in vain. It was the figure of +the river developing, like floating on a deliberate all-powerful tide or +struggling impotently against it. + +Later a message came up from Mrs. Ammidon--she hoped that Taou Yuen would +drive with her that afternoon. She dressed with the most particular care, +in blue and dark greens, her shoulders thick with embroidered garlands +and silver _shou_, her piled hair ornamented in glittering silver leaves +and garnets. + +She went down when she heard the horses on the street below but the +barouche was empty except for the coachman. "Mrs. Ammidon left a half +hour ago," a servant told her; "and sent the carriage back for you." They +moved forward, going, she saw, into a part of the town where they seldom +drove--the narrow crowded way by the wharves--and, turning shortly into a +street that ended abruptly at the water, drew up before a dingy house on +her right. + +The door was open, and they waited, confident that Mrs. Ammidon would +hear the clatter of hoofs and come out; but a far different appeared. She +gazed for a silent space at Taou Yuen seated above her, as if confused by +the glittering magnificence. It was probable that Gerrit's brother's wife +had come there on an errand of charity for the woman was poor, dingy like +the house, with a face drawn by suffering and material struggle. + +"Of course you're Captain Ammidon's wife," she said; "and you are here +after Mrs. William Ammidon. Well, she's gone; but she left a message for +you. She will be at Henry Whipple's, the bookseller. After she saw Nettie +she went right off to send her some things; wouldn't wait for the +carriage. A kind-hearted determined body." + +Taou Yuen leaned out to command the coachman to drive on; but the other, +plainly bent on making the most of a rare opportunity for such a +conversation, continued talking in her low resigned way. + +"I was glad to have her too; Nettie gets pretty fretful up there with +nobody but me, really. She hasn't been so well, either, since--" here she +stopped abruptly, recommenced. "I like to see a person myself of Mrs. +Ammidon's kind. I've been alone all day; father's gone to Boston and +Edward away I don't know where." + +Taou Yuen's curiosity to see Nettie Vollar returned infinitely +multiplied; here, miraculously, was an opportunity for her to study the +woman who was beyond any doubt an important part of Gerrit's past, +present--it might be, his future. The men were gone. ... She got +resolutely down from the barouche. "Take me up to your daughter," she +directed quietly. + +"Why, that's very kind, but I don't know--Yes, certainly. Mind +these stairs with your satin skirt; I don't always get around to +the whole house." + +Taou Yuen saw at once that Nettie Vollar was far sicker than she had +realized: her head lay on the pillow absolutely spent, her brow damply +plastered with hair and her eyes enlarged and dull. Taou Yuen drew a +chair forward and sat beside a table with a glass bowl of small dark +pills which from a just perceptible odor she recognized as opium. She +looked intently, coldly, at the prostrate figure. A flush like match +flames burned in Nettie Vollar's cheeks, and she said in a voice at once +weak and sharp: + +"You're her!" + +Taou Yuen nodded slowly, disdainfully. + +"Oh, how could he!" the other exclaimed in what sounded like the thin +echo of a passionate cry. "I knew you were Chinese, but I never realized +it till this minute." + +As Gerrit Ammidon's wife had feared she was totally unable to judge a +single quality or feature of the girl before her. She looked exactly like +all the others she had seen in Salem: in order to realize her she needed +Gerrit's eyes, Gerrit's birth. Then one fact crept insidiously into her +consciousness--here, in a way, was another being who had Gerrit Ammidon's +childlike simplicity. That was the most terrifying discovery she could +have made. Taou Yuen felt the return of the hateful irresistible emotions +which had destroyed her self-control. She wanted to hurt Nettie Vollar in +every possible way, to mock her with the fact that she had lost Gerrit +perhaps never to see him again; she wanted to tell her that she, Taou +Yuen, entirely understood her hopes, efforts, and that they were vain. + +An utter self-loathing possessed her at the same time, a feeling of +imminent danger as if she were walking with willfully shut eyes on the +edge of a precipice above a black fatal void. Not a trace of this +appeared on her schooled countenance; and once more she completely +restrained any defiling speech. She deliberately shifted her point of +view to another possible aspect of all that confronted her--it might be +that this woman was a specter, a _kwei_, bent on Gerrit's destruction. +Such a thing often happened. How much better if Nettie Vollar had been +killed! She studied her with a renewed interest--a fresh question. +Perhaps the other would die as it was. She was extremely weak; her +spirit, Taou Yuen saw, lay listlessly in a listless body. Nettie Vollar +slightly moved her injured arm, and that little effort exhausted her for +a moment; her eyes closed, her face was as white as salt. + +A further, almost philosophical, consideration engaged Taou Yuen's +mind--this extraordinary occasion, her being with the other alone, Nettie +Vollar's fragility, were, it might be, all a part of the working of the +righteous _Yang_. In the light of this, then, she had been brought here +for a purpose ... the ending of a menace to her husband. She hesitated +for a breath--if it were the opposite malignant _Yin_ there was no bottom +to the infamy into which she might fall. It was a tremendous question. + +The actual execution of the practical suggestion, from either source, was +extremely easy; she had but to lean forward, draw her heavy sleeve across +the strained face, hold it there for a little, and Nettie Vollar would +have died of--of any one of a number of reasonable causes. She, Taou +Yuen, would call, politely distressed, for the mother ... very +regrettable. + +Gerrit free-- + +Perhaps. + +She had no shrinking from the act itself, nothing that might have been +called pity, a few more or less years in a single life were beneath +serious consideration; it was the lives to come, the lingering doubt of +which power led her on, which restrained and filled her mind. A flicker +of rage darted through her calm questioning; her mental processes again +faded. With her right arm across the supine body and enveloping the face +in her left sleeve a single twist and Nettie Vollar would choke in a +cloud of thick satin made gay with unfading flowers and the embroidered +symbol of long life. She felt her body grow rigid with purpose when the +sound of a footfall below held her motionless in an unreasoning dread. + +It was not heavy, yet she was certain that it was not the woman's. A blur +of voices drifted up to her, the dejected feminine tone and a thin +querulous demand, surprise. Taou Yuen turned cold as stone: the sensation +of oppressive danger increased until it seemed as if she, and not Nettie +Vollar, were strangling. There was a profound stillness, then a shuffling +tread on the stair, and Edward Dunsack entered, entered but stood without +advancing, his back against a closed door. + +Even since yesterday he had noticeably wasted, there were muscles of his +face that twitched continuously; his hands, it seemed to her, writhed +like worms. He said nothing, but stared at her with a fixed glittering +vision; all his one time worship--it had been so much--was devoured in +the hatred born in the Ammidon library. Frozen with apprehension she sat +without movement; her face, she felt, as still as a lacquered mask. + +To her astonishment--she had forgotten Nettie Vollar's existence--a +shaken voice from the bed demanded: + +"Uncle Edward, what's come over you! Don't you see Mrs. Ammidon! Oh--" +her speech rose in a choked exclamation. Edward Dunsack had turned the +key and was crossing the room with a dark twisted face, his eyes stark +and demented. Taou Yuen, swung round toward the advancing figure, heard a +long fluttering breath behind her. Perhaps Nettie Vollar had died of +fright. The terror in her own brain dried up before an overwhelming +realization--she had betrayed herself to the principle of evil. She was +lost. Her thoughts were at once incredibly rapid and entirely vivid, +logical: Edward Dunsack, ruined, in China; herself blinded, confused, +destroyed in America. Yesterday she had held him powerless with the mere +potency of her righteousness; but now she had no strength. + +There was a loathsome murmur from his dusty lips. He intended to kill +her, to mar and spoil her throat, a degradation forbidden by Confucius, +an eternal disfigurement. This filled her with a renewed energy of +horror.... Here there was none but a feeble woman to hear her if she +called. She rose mechanically, a hand on the table; Taou Yuen saw Nettie +Vollar's deathly pallid face rolled awkwardly from the pillow, and the +bowl of opium. There were twenty or more pills. Without hesitation, even +with a sense of relief, she swept the contents of the bowl into her palm. +The effort of swallowing so many hard particles was almost convulsive and +followed with a nauseous spasm. + +Exhausted by mental effort she sank into a chair and a dullness like +smoke settled over her. The figure of Edward Dunsack retreated to an +infinite distance. The smoke moved in a great steady volume--the eternal +and changeless Tao, without labor or desires, without.... Hatred requited +with virtue ... attracting all honor--mounting higher and higher from the +consuming passions, the seething black lives of her immeasurable fall. + + + + +X + +Although the late afternoon was at an hour when Derby Street should have +been filled by a half-idle throng in the slackening of the day's +waterside employments Roger Brevard found it noticeably empty. In this he +suddenly recognized that the street was like the countingroom of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, the heart of Salem's greatness--they +were weaker, stilled in a decline that yet was not evident in the +impressive body of the town. + +When he had first taken charge of this branch both Salem and it had been +of sufficient moment to attract him from New York; the company was +insuring Boston and New York vessels; the captains had thronged its broad +window commanding St. Peters and Essex Streets. Now only an occasional +shipmaster, holding the old traditions and habits or else retired, sat in +the comfortable armchairs with leather cushions drawn up at the coal +hearth or expansive in white through the summer. + +His mind shifted to a consideration of these facts in relation to +himself--whether the same thing overtaking the place and marine insurance +had not settled upon him too--as he made his way from Central Wharf, +where he had vainly gone for prospective business. His inquiry was +reaching a depressing certainty when, passing and gazing down Hardy +Street, he saw the Ammidon barouche standing in front of the Dunsacks'. + +Roger Brevard stopped: the Ammidon men, he knew, seldom drove about +Salem. He had heard of Nettie Vollar's accident and came to the +conclusion that Rhoda was within. If this were so, her visit, limited to +a charitable impulse, would be short; and thinking of the pleasure of +driving with her he turned into the side way. As he approached, the +coachman met him with an evident impatience. + +"No, sir," he replied to Brevard's inquiry. "But we were to get Mrs. +Ammidon at the bookstore. Mrs. Captain Gerrit called here for her, but +she went inside unexpected. All of an hour ago. I don't like to ask for +the lady, but what may be said later I can't think." + +He had scarcely finished speaking when a woman whom Brevard recognized +as Kate Vollar appeared at the door. "Oh, Mr. Brevard!" she exclaimed +with an unnaturally pallid and apprehensive face. "I'm glad to find +you. Please come upstairs with me. Why I don't know but I'm all in a +tremble. Mrs. Ammidon went to see Nettie, then Edward came in, and when +he heard who was there he acted as if he were struck dumb and went up +like a person afflicted. I waited the longest while and then followed +them and knocked. Why the door was shut I'd never tell you. But they +didn't answer, any of them," she declared with clasped straining hands. +"Three in the room and not a sound. Please--" her voice was suddenly +suffocated by dread. + +"Certainly. Quarles," he addressed the coachman, "I'll get you to come +along. If there is a lock to break it will need a heavier shoulder +than mine." + +Mounting the narrow somber stair, followed by the man and Kate Vollar, he +wondered vainly what might have happened. Obscurely some of the woman's +fear was communicated to him. Brevard knocked abruptly on the door +indicated but there was no answering voice or movement. He tried the +latch: as Nettie's mother had found, it was fastened. + +"Quarles," Roger Brevard said curtly. + +The coachman stepped forward, braced himself for the shove he directed +against the wooden barrier, and the door swept splintering inward. Roger +advanced first and a grim confusion touched him with cold horror. Taou +Yuen was half seated and half lying across a table beside the bed; he +couldn't see her face, but her body was utterly lax. Nettie Vollar, too, +was in a dreadful waxen similitude of death, with lead colored lips and +fixed sightless eyes. A slight extraordinary sound rose behind him, and +whirling, Brevard discovered that it was Edward Dunsack giggling. He was +silent immediately under the other's scrutiny, and an expression of +stubborn and malicious caution pinched his wasted sardonic countenance. + +Brevard turned to the greater necessity of the women, and moved Taou Yuen +so that he could see her features. It was evident that she was not, as he +had first thought, dead; her breathing was slow and deep and harsh, her +pulse deliberate and full; she was warm, too, but her face was suffused +by an unnatural blueness and the pupils of her inert eyes were barely +discernible. He shook her with an unceremonious vigor, but there was no +answering energy; she fell across his arm in a sheer weight of +satin-covered body. He moved back in a momentary uncontrollable repulsion +when Kate Vollar threw herself past him onto the bed. "Nettie!" she +cried, "Nettie! Nettie!" Brevard was chilled by the possibility of an +unutterable tragedy, when with a faint suffusion of color the girl gave a +gasping sigh. Her voice stirred in a terror shaken whisper: + +"Uncle Edward, don't! Why--don't. Oh!" She pressed her face with a long +shudder into the pillow. "Whatever was it--?" her mother began wildly. +Brevard caught her shoulder. "Not now," he directed; "you'll come +downstairs with me. We must have help at once and your daughter quiet." + +However he was in a quandary--he couldn't trust the woman here, he would +have to go immediately for assistance, and yet it was impossible to leave +Nettie Vollar and Gerrit's wife alone. "You will have to wait in the +room," he decided, turning to Quarles. + +Edward Dunsack was wavering against a wall; Brevard went swiftly up to +him. "We'll need you," he said shortly. Dunsack maintained his silence +and air of stubborn cunning; but, when the other man clasped his +incredibly thin arm, he went willingly followed by Kate Vollar below. +There he sat obediently, his judicious detachment broken by a repetition +of the thin shocking snigger. + +"You must be responsible for your brother," Roger Brevard told the +quivering woman. "I'll be back immediately. Now that you know Nettie's +safe you must control yourself. No one should go up--keep everybody +out--till you hear from me or the doctor or Captain Ammidon." + +What an inexplicable accident or crime, he thought, hurriedly approaching +the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone, the first and +nearest of the places to which he must go. He could remember no mark of +what had overcome Taou Yuen. How was Dunsack, who was now clearly +demented, implicated? What racking thing had Nettie Vollar seen? + +In the subsequent exclamatory rush, even on the following morning when +Roger Brevard learned that--poisoned by opium undoubtedly taken by +herself--Gerrit Ammidon's wife had died without regaining consciousness, +the greater part of the tragedy became little clearer. No statement could +be had from Edward Dunsack other than a meaningless array of +precautionary phrases; and returning in a sliding gait toward Hardy +Street he was put under a temporary restraint. + +Nettie Vollar, Brevard heard, had relapsed from her injury into a second +critical collapse. Yet, he told himself, entering the room that was his +home in Mrs. Cane's large square house on Chestnut Street, that the +Manchu still absorbed his speculations. + +It was a pleasant room and a pleasant house with a dignified portico; and +his tall windows, back on the right of the second floor, opened on the +length of the Napiers' garden. Brevard sat looking out over a dim +leafiness of evening and tried to discipline his thoughts into order and +coherence. Any dignity of death had been soiled by the ugly mystery of +the aspects surrounding the end of Taou Yuen. + +He had liked her extremely well, agreeing with Rhoda Ammidon that, +probably, they had never been permitted to know a more aristocratic +breeding or greater degrees of purely worldly and mental and personal +charm than those of Gerrit's wife. + +His mind grew more philosophical and a perception, yet without base in +facts, convinced him that Taou Yuen had been killed by America. It was a +fantastic thought, and he attempted to dismiss it, waiting for more +secure knowledge, but it persisted. She had been killed by unfamiliar +circumstances, tradition, emotions. In some manner, but how he was unable +to disentangle from the pressures of mere curiosity and conjecture, +Nettie Vollar--or rather Gerrit's old passing affair with Nettie--had +entered into the unhappy occurrence. After an hour's vain search he gave +up all effort to pierce the darkness until he had actual knowledge--if he +ever had, he was forced to add silently. It was possible that the secret +might be entirely guarded from the public, even from the closer part he +had played and his familiarity with the Ammidon family. + +He was an inmate of their inner garden with its lilac trees and hedged +roses in season, the pungent beds of flowers and box, the moonshade of +the poplars. Roger Brevard turned from the consideration of Taou Yuen to +the even more insistent claim of his increasing affection for Sidsall. He +stopped again both to lament and delight in her youth--another year and +he would have unhesitatingly announced his feeling as love to them all. +It was that, he admitted to himself almost shyly. The obvious thing was +for him to wait through the year or more until the Ammidons would hear of +a proposal and then urge his desire.... He could see her quite often +meanwhile. + +Yes, that was the sensible course, even in the face of his own +multiplying years. They were twenty-five more than Sidsall's; yet, he +added in self-extenuation, he was not definitely snared in middle age; he +was still elastic in body and youthful, but for graying hair, in +appearance. His birth was eligible from every social consideration; and, +though he was not rich, he had enough independently to assure the safety +of his wife's future. This did not come entirely, or now even in the +larger part, from the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, but took the +form of a comparatively small but secure private income. + +He paused to wonder if it had not been that latter fact which had +prevented his being successful--successful, that was, in William +Ammidon's meaning of the word. He had not made money nor a position of +importance among men of affairs. Such safety, he decided, was a dangerous +possession judged by the standards he was now considering. A few thousand +a year for life struck at the root of activity. It induced a critical +detached attitude toward life, overemphasized the importance of the cut +of a trouser and the validity of pedigree. It was a mistake to dance +noticeably well. + +Drifting, together with almost everyone else, he had reached his +present position, past forty, by imperceptible degrees, obscurely +influenced by the play of what he intrinsically was on circumstances or +accident or fate. + +Although he had never done so before, he compared himself with Gerrit +Ammidon. The other's refusal to accept a partnership in the family firm +or command a California clipper was known. Gerrit and himself were +alike in that they apprehended the values of life more clearly than did +the ordinary mind or heart. But, in retaliation, the world they +differed from curtly brushed them aside. Roger Brevard could not see +that they had made the least mark on the callous normal cruelty or the +aesthetic and spiritual blindness of the existence they shared. But it +was always possible that something bigger than their grasp of justice +or beauty was afoot. + +He turned from the darkened prospect of the window and his thoughts to +the room. Without a light he removed his formal street clothes, hanging +the coat and waistcoat, folding the trousers in a drawer, with exact +care; changing his light boots for fiber slippers he set the former in +the row of footgear drawn up like a military review against the wall. +Though it was quite obscure now, and no one would see him, he paused to +brush his slightly disarranged hair, before--tying the cord of his +chamber robe--he resumed his seat. + +The year, he reverted to Sidsall, would pass; but, try as he might, he +had no feeling of security in the future, however near. It was the +present, this Sidsall, that filled him with a tyrannical and bitter +longing. She was unbelievably beautiful now. Against the faintness of his +hope, his patience, he saw the whole slow process of the disintegration +of marine insurance, and with it his own fatuous insensibility to the +decline: that decline with its exact counterpart in himself. Salem and he +were getting dusty together. + +He straightened up vigorously in his chair--this would never do. He must +wind up his affairs here and return to New York. The tranquil backwater +had overpowered him for a time; but, again awake, he would strike out +strongly... with Sidsall. Endless doubt and hope fluctuated within him. +Voices rose from the Napier garden, and from a tree sounded the whirring +of the first locust he had noticed that summer. + +On a noon following he saw the passage of the three or four carriages +that constituted the funeral cortege of Taou Yuen's entirely private +interment. She would be buried of course by Christian service: here were +none of the elaborate Confucian rites and ceremonial; yet--from what Taou +Yuen had occasionally indicated--Confucius, Lao-tze, the Buddha, were all +more alike than different; they all vainly preached humility, purity, the +subjugation of the flesh. He stopped later in the Charter Street cemetery +and found her grave, the headstone marked: + +TAOU YUEN +A MANCHURIAN LADY +THE WIFE +OF +GERRIT AMMIDON, ESQ. +and the dates. + +He saw, naturally, but little of the Ammidons--a glimpse of Rhoda in the +carriage and William on Charter Street; the _Nautilus_, ready for sea, +continued in her berth at Phillips' Wharf. Fragments of news came to him +quoted and re-quoted, grotesquely exaggerated and even malicious reports +of the tragedy at the Dunsacks'. Standing at his high desk in the +countingroom of the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, Taou Yuen's +glittering passage through Salem already seemed to him a fable, a dream. +Even Sidsall, robustly near by, had an aspect of unreality in the tender +fabric of his visions. Captain Rendell, his spade beard at the verge of +filmed old eyes, who was seated at the window, rose with difficulty. For +a moment he swayed on insecure legs, then, barely gathering the necessary +power, moved out into the street. + +Later, when Roger Brevard was turning the key on the insurance company +for the day, Lacy Saltonstone stopped to speak in her charming slow +manner: "Mother of course is in a whirl, with Captain Ammidon about to +marry that Nettie Vollar, since she is recovering after all, and our +moving to Boston.... You see I'm there so often it will make really very +little difference to me. Sidsall is the lucky one, though you'd never +know it from seeing her.... I thought you'd have heard--why, to Lausanne, +a tremendously impressive school for a year. They have promised her +London afterward. I would call that a promise, but actually, Sidsall--." + +"Doesn't she want to go?" he asked mechanically, all the emotions that +had chimed through his being suddenly clashing in a discordant misery. He +bowed absently, and hastening to his room softly closed the door and sat +without supper, late into the evening, lost in a bitterness that +continually poisoned the resolutions formed out of his overwhelming need. +He was aghast at the inner violence that destroyed the long tranquility +of his existence, the clenched hands and spoken words lost in the shadows +over the Napiers' garden. He wanted Sidsall with a breathless tyranny +infinitely sharper than any pang of youth: she was life itself. + +She didn't want to go, Lacy had made that clear; and he told himself that +her reluctance could only, must, proceed from one cause--that she cared +for him. As he dwelt on this, the one alleviating possibility, he became +certain of its truth. He would find her at once and in spite of Rhoda and +William Ammidon explain that his whole hope lay in marrying her. With an +utter contempt at all the small orderly habits which, he now saw, were +the expression of a confirmed dry preciseness, he left his clothes in a +disorderly heap. Such a feeling as Sidsall's and his, he repeated from +the oppressive expanse of his black walnut bed, was above ordinary +precautions and observance. Then, unable to dismiss the thought of how +crumpled his trousers would be in the morning, oppressed by the picture +of the tumbled garments, he finally rose and, in the dark, relaid them in +the familiar smooth array. + +In the morning his disturbance resolved into what seemed a very decided +and reasonable attitude: He would see Rhoda that day and explain his +feeling and establish what rights and agreement he could. He was willing +to admit that Sidsall was, perhaps, too young for an immediate decision +so wide in results. The ache, the hunger for happiness sharpened by vague +premonitions of mischance, began again to pound in his heart. + +At the Ammidons' it was clear immediately that Rhoda's manner toward him +had changed: it had become more social, even voluble, and restrained. She +conversed brightly about trivial happenings, while he sat listening, +gravely silent. But it was evident that she soon became aware of his +difference, and her voice grew sharper, almost antagonistic. They were in +the formal parlor, a significant detail in itself, and Roger Brevard saw +William pass the door. Well, he would soon have to go, he must speak +about Sidsall now. It promised to be unexpectedly difficult; but the +words were forming when she came into the room. + +There were faint shadows under her eyes, the unmistakable marks of tears. +An overwhelming passion for her choked at his throat. She came directly +up to him, ignoring her mother. "Did you hear that they want me to go +away?" she asked. He nodded, "It's that I came to see your mother about." + +"They know I don't want to," she continued; "I've explained it to them +very carefully." + +"My dear Sidsall," Rhoda Ammidon cut in; "we can't have this. What Roger +has to say must be for me and your father." The girl smiled at her and +turned again to Roger Brevard. "Do you want me to go?" + +"No!" he cried, all his planning lost in uncontrollable rebellion. + +"Then I don't think I shall." + +William entered and stood at his wife's shoulder. "You won't insist," +Sidsall faced them quietly. "Ridiculous," her father replied. Brevard +realized that he must support the girl's bravery of spirit. How +adorable she was! But, before the overwhelming superior position of the +elder Ammidons, their weight of propriety and authority, his +determination wavered. + +"To be quite frank," the other man proceeded, "since it has been forced +on us, Sidsall imagines herself in love with you, Brevard. I don't need +to remind you how unsuitable and preposterous that is. She's too young to +know the meaning of love. Besides, my dear fellow, you're a quarter +century her elder. We want Sidsall to go to London like her mother, have +her cotillions, before she settles into marriage." + +"They can't understand, Roger," Sidsall touched his hand. "We're sorry to +disappoint them--" + +"You ought to be made to leave the room," William fumed. + +"That isn't necessary," Rhoda told him. "I am sure Roger understands +perfectly how impossible it is. You mustn't be hurt," she turned to him, +"if I admit that we have very different plans... at least a man nearer +Sidsall's age." + +The girl lifted a confident face to him. "You want to marry me, don't +you?" she asked. More than any other conceivable joy. But he said this +silently. His courage slowly ebbed before the parental displeasure +viewing him coldly. "Then--" Sidsall paused expectantly, a touch of +impatience even invaded her manner. "Please tell them, Roger." + +"Why I have to put up with this is beyond me," William Ammidon +expostulated with his wife. "It's shameless." + +Roger Brevard winced. He tried to say something about hope and the +future, but it was so weak, a palpable retreat, leaving Sidsall alone and +unsupported, that the words perished unfinished. The girl studied him, +suddenly startled, and her confidence ebbed. He turned away, crushed by +convention, filled with shame and a sense of self-betrayal. + +A stillness followed of unendurable length, in which he found his +attention resting on the diversified shapes of the East India money in a +corner cabinet. It was Sidsall who finally spoke, slowly and clearly: + +"Forgive me." + +He recognized that she was addressing her mother and father. From a +whisper of skirts he realized that she was leaving the room. Without the +will necessary for a last glimpse he stood with his head bowed by an +appalling sensation of weariness and years. + +In a flash of self-comprehension, Roger Brevard knew that he would never, +as he had hoped, leave Salem. He was an abstemious man, one of a family +of long lives, and he would linger here, increasingly unimportant, for a +great while, an old man in new epochs, isolated among strange people and +prejudices. Whatever the cause--the small safety or an inward flaw--he +had never been part of the corporate sweating humanity where, in the war +of spirit and flesh, the vital rewards and accomplishments were found. + +Soon after he passed Gerrit and Nettie Vollar driving in the direction of +the harbor; she was lying back wanly in the Ammidon barouche, but her +companion's face was set directly ahead, his expression of general +disdain strongly marked. A vigorous hand, Roger noted, was clasped about +Nettie's supine palm. She saw him standing on the sidewalk and bowed +slightly, but the shipmaster plainly overlooked him together with the +rest of Salem. + +The end of summer was imminent in a whirl of yellow leaves and chill gray +wind. There was a ringing of bugles through the morning, the strains of +military quicksteps, rhythmic tramping feet and the irregular fulmination +of salutes. That it was already the day of the annual Fall Review seemed +incredible to Roger Brevard. He was indifferent to the activities of the +Common; but when he heard that the _Nautilus_ was sailing in the middle +of the afternoon he left his inconsequential affairs for Phillips' Wharf. + +A small number were waiting on the solid rock-filled reach, the +wharfinger's office at its head and a stone warehouse blocking the end, +where the _Nautilus_ lay with her high-steeved bowsprit pointing outward. +The harbor was slaty, cold, and there was a continuous slapping of small +waves on the shore. Darkening clouds hung low in the west, out of which +the wind cut in flaws across the open. The town, so lately folded in lush +greenery, showed a dun lift of roofs and stripping branches tossing +against an ashy sky. + +Close beside Roger stood Barzil Dunsack, his beard blowing, with Kate +Vollar in a bright red shawl, her skirts whipping uneasily against her +father's legs. Beyond were the Ammidons--William, and Rhoda in a deep +furred wrap, and their daughters. Rhoda waved for him to join them, but +he declined with a gesture of acknowledgment. + +The deck of the _Nautilus_ was above his vision but he could see most of +the stir of departure. The peremptory voice of the mate rose from the +bow, minor directions were issued by the second mate aft, a seaman was +aloft on the main-royal yard and another stood at the stage rising +sharply from the wharf. Gerrit and his wife had not yet arrived, and the +pilot, making a leisurely appearance, stopped to exchange remarks with +the Ammidons. He climbed on board the ship and Roger could see his head +and shoulders moving toward the poop and mounting the ladder. + +The wind grew higher, shriller, every moment; it was thrashing among the +stays and braces; the man aloft, a small movement against the clouds, +swayed in its force. There was a faint clatter of hoofs from Derby +Street, Brevard had a fleeting glimpse of an arriving carriage, and +Gerrit, supporting Nettie Ammidon, advanced over the wharf. The +shipmaster walked slowly, the woman clinging, almost dragging, at his +erect strength. They went close by Roger: Nettie's pale face, her large +shining dark eyes, were filled with placid surrender. Her companion spoke +in a low grave tone, and she looked up at him in a tired and happy +acquiescence. + +The two families joined, and there was a confused determined gayety of +farewell and good wishes. Out of it finally emerged the captain of the +_Nautilus_ and the slight figure upon his arm. He wore a beaver hat, and, +as they mounted the stage, he was forced to hold it on with his free +hand. When the quarter-deck was reached they disappeared into the cabin. + +"Mr. Broadrick," the pilot called, "you can get in those bow fasts. Send +a hawser to the end of the wharf; I'm going to warp out." There was a +harsh answering clatter as the mooring chain that held the bow of the +_Nautilus_ was secured, and a group of sailors went smartly forward with +a hemp cable to the end of the wharf's seaward thrust. The _Nautilus_ lay +on the eastern side, with the wind beating over the starboard quarter, +and there was little difficulty in getting under way. Strain was kept on +the stern and breast fasts while the mate directed: + +"Ship your capstan bars." + +The capstan turned and the _Nautilus_ moved forward to the beat of song. + +"Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +I thought I heard the old man say. +Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +We'll get some rum ... +... Hurrah, my John. +Then shake her--" + +"Vast heaving," Mr. Broadrick shouted. + +The intimate spectators on Phillips' Wharf moved +out with the ship. Gerrit Ammidon was now visible on the quarter-deck +with the pilot. He walked to the port railing aft and stood gazing +somberly back at Salem. The stovepipe hat was not yet discarded, and the +hand firmly holding its brim resembled a final gesture of contempt. The +pilot approached him, there was a brief exchange of words, and the former +sharply ordered: + +"Stand by to run up your jib and fore-topmast staysail, Mr. Broadrick. +Put two good men at the sheets and see that those sails don't slat to +pieces. + +"On the wharf there--take that stern fast out to the last ringbolt. Mr. +Second Mate... get your fenders aboard." The wind increased in a violence +tipped with stinging rain. "Give her the jib and stay-sail." She heeled +slightly and gathered steerage way. Roger Brevard involuntarily waved a +parting salutation. An extraordinary emotion swept over him: a ship bound +to the East always stirred his imagination and sense of beauty, but the +departure of the _Nautilus_ had a special significance. It was the +beginning, yes, and the end, of almost the whole sweep of human suffering +and despair, of longing and hope and passion, and a reward. + +"Let go the stern fast. Steady your helm there." + +"Steady, sir." + +A mere gust of song was distinguishable against the blast of storm. Under +the lee of the stone warehouse, on the solidity of the wharf, the land, +Roger Brevard watched the _Nautilus_ while one by one the topsails were +sheeted home and the yards mastheaded. "A gale by night," somebody +said. The ship, driving with surprising speed toward the open sea, was +now apparently no more than a fragile shell on the immensity of the stark +horizon. + +The light faded: the days were growing shorter. Alone Brevard followed +the others moving away. Kate Vollar's red shawl suddenly streamed out and +was secured by a wasted hand. Just that way, he thought, the color and +vividness of his existence had been withdrawn. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + +This file should be named 7java10.txt or 7java10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7java11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7java10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Java Head + +Author: Joseph Hergesheimer + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9865] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 25, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + JAVA HEAD + + By Joseph Hergesheimer + + 1918 + + + + +It is only the path of pure simplicity which guards and preserves the +spirit. _CHWANG-TZE_ + + + + +TO HAZLETON MIRKIL, JR. + +_from Dorothy and Joseph Hergesheimer_ + + + + +I + +Very late indeed in May, but early in the morning, Laurel Ammidon lay in +bed considering two widely different aspects of chairs. The day before +she had been eleven, and the comparative maturity of that age had filled +her with a moving disdain for certain fanciful thoughts which had given +her extreme youth a decidedly novel if not an actually adventurous +setting. Until yesterday, almost, she had regarded the various chairs of +the house as beings endowed with life and character; she had held +conversations with some, and, with a careless exterior not warranted by +an inner dread, avoided others in gloomy dusks. All this, now, she +contemptuously discarded. Chairs were--chairs, things to sit on, wood and +stuffed cushions. + +Yet she was slightly melancholy at losing such a satisfactory lot of +reliable familiars: unlike older people, victims of the most +disconcerting moods and mysterious changes, chairs could always be +counted on to remain secure in their individual peculiarities. + +She could see by her fireplace the elaborately carved teakwood chair +that her grandfather had brought home from China, which had never varied +from the state of a brown and rather benevolent dragon; its claws were +always claws, the grinning fretted mouth was perpetually fixed for a +cloud of smoke and a mild rumble of complaint. The severe waxed hickory +beyond with the broad arm for writing, a source of special pride, had +been an accommodating and precise old gentleman. The spindling gold +chairs in the drawingroom were supercilious creatures at a king's ball; +the graceful impressive formality of the Heppelwhites in the dining room +belonged to the loveliest of Boston ladies. Those with difficult +haircloth seats in the parlor were deacons; others in the breakfast room +talkative and unpretentious; while the deep easy-chair before the library +fire was a ship. There were mahogany stools, dwarfs of dark tricks; angry +high-backed things in the hall below; and a terrifying shape of gleaming +red that, without question, stirred hatefully and reached out curved and +dripping hands. + +Anyhow, such they had all seemed. But lately she had felt a growing +secrecy about it, an increasing dread of being laughed at; and now, +definitely eleven, she recognized the necessity of dropping such pretense +even with herself. They were just chairs, she rerepeated; there was an +end of that. + +The tall clock with the brass face outside her door, after a +premonitory whirring, loudly and firmly struck seven, and Laurel +wondered whether her sisters, in the room open from hers, were awake. +She listened attentively but there was no sound of movement. She made a +noise in her throat, that might at once have appeared accidental and +been successful in its purpose of arousing them; but there was no +response. She would have gone in and frankly waked Janet, who was not +yet thirteen and reasonable; but experience had shown her that Camilla, +reposing in the eminence and security of two years more, would permit no +such light freedom with her slumbers. + +Sidsall, who had been given a big room for herself on the other side of +their parents, would greet anyone cheerfully no matter how tightly she +might have been asleep. And Sidsall, the oldest of them all, was nearly +sixteen and had stayed for part of their cousin Lucy Saltonstone's dance, +where no less a person than Roger Brevard had asked her for a quadrille. + +Laurel's thoughts grew so active that she was unable to remain any +longer in bed; she freed herself from the enveloping linen and crossed +the room to a window through which the sun was pouring in a sharp bright +angle. She had never known the world to smell so delightful--it was one +of the notable Mays in which the lilacs blossomed--and she stood +responding with a sparkling life to the brilliant scented morning, the +honey-sweet perfume of the lilacs mingled with the faintly pungent odor +of box wet with dew. + +She could see, looking back across a smooth green corner of the Wibirds' +lawn next door, the enclosure of their own back yard, divided from the +garden by a white lattice fence and row of prim grayish poplars. At the +farther wall her grandfather, in a wide palm leaf hat, was stirring about +his pear trees, tapping the ground and poking among the branches with his +ivory headed cane. + +Laurel exuberantly performed her morning toilet, half careless, in her +soaring spirits, of the possible effect of numerous small ringings of +pitcher on basin, the clatter of drawers, upon Camilla. Yesterday she had +worn a dress of light wool delaine; but this morning, she decided +largely, summer had practically come; and, on her own authority, she got +an affair of thin pineapple cloth out of the yellow camphorwood chest. +She hurriedly finished weaving her heavy chestnut hair into two gleaming +plaits, fastened a muslin guimpe at the back, and slipped into her dress. +Here, however, she twisted her face into an expression of annoyance--her +years were affronted by the length of pantalets that hung below her +skirt. Such a show of their narrow ruffles might do for a very small +girl, but not for one of eleven; and she caught them up until only the +merest fulled edge was visible. Then she made a buoyant descent to the +lower hall, left the house by a side door to the bricked walk and an +arched gate into the yard, and joined her grandfather. + +"Six bells in the morning watch," he announced, consulting a thick gold +timepiece. "Head pump rigged and deck swabbed down?" Secure in her +knowledge of the correct answers for these sudden interrogations Laurel +impatiently replied, "Yes, sir." + +"Scuttle butt filled?" + +"Yes, sir." She frowned and dug a heel in the soft ground. + +"Then splice the keel and heave the galley overboard." + +This last she recognized as a sally of humor, and contrived a fleeting +perfunctory smile. Her grandfather turned once more to the pears. "See +the buds on those Ashton Towns," he commented. Laurel gazed critically: +the varnished red buds were bursting with white blossom, the new leaves +unrolling, tender green and sticky. "But the jargonelles--" he drew in +his lips doubtfully. She studied him with the profound interest his sheer +being always invoked: she was absorbed in his surprising large roundness +of body, like an enormous pudding; in the deliberate care with which he +moved and planted his feet; but most of all by the fact that when he was +angry his face got quite purple, the color of her mother's paletot or a +Hamburg grape. + +They crossed the yard to where the vines of the latter, and of white +Chasselas--Laurel was familiar with these names from frequent +horticultural questionings--had been laid down in cold frames for later +transplanting; and from them the old man, her palm tightly held in his, +trod ponderously to the currant bushes massed against the closed arcade +of the stables, the wood and coal and store houses, across the rear of +the place. + +At last, with frequent disconcerting mutterings and explosive breaths, +he finished his inspection and turned toward the house. Laurel, +conscious of her own superiority of apparel, surveyed her companion in a +frowning attitude exactly caught from her mother. He had on that mussy +suit of yellow Chinese silk, and there was a spot on the waistcoat +straining at its pearl buttons. She wondered, maintaining the silent +mimicry of elder remonstrance, why he would wear those untidy old things +when his chests were heaped with snowy white linen and English +broadcloths. It was very improper in an Ammidon, particularly in one who +had been captain of so many big ships, and in court dress with a cocked +hat met the Emperor of Russia. + +They did not retrace Laurel's steps, but passed through a narrow wicket +to the garden that lay directly behind the house. The enclosure was full +of robin-song and pouring sunlight; the lilac trees on either side of the +summer-house against the gallery of the stable were blurred with their +new lavender flowering; the thorned glossy foliage of the hedge of June +roses on Briggs Street glittered with diamonds of water; and the rockery +in the far corner showed a quiver of arbutus among its strange and lacy +ferns and mosses. + +Laurel sniffed the fragrant air, filled with a tumult of energy; every +instinct longed to skip; she thought of jouncing as high as the poplars, +right over the house and into Washington Square beyond. "Miss Fidget!" +her grandfather exclaimed, exasperated, releasing her hand. "You're like +holding on to a stormy petrel." + +"I don't think that's very nice," she replied. + +"God bless me," he said, turning upon her his steady blue gaze; "what +have we got here, all dressed up to go ashore?" She sharply elevated a +shoulder and retorted, "Well, I'm eleven." His look, which had seemed +quite fierce, grew kindly again. "Eleven," he echoed with a satisfactory +amazement; "that will need some cumshaws and kisses." The first, she +knew, was a word of pleasant import, brought from the East, and meant +gifts; and, realizing that the second was unavoidably connected with it, +she philosophically held up her face. Lifting her over his expanse of +stomach he kissed her loudly. She didn't object, really, or rather she +wouldn't at all but for a strong odor of Manilla cheroots and the Medford +rum he took at stated periods. + +After this they moved on, through the bay window of the drawing-room that +opened on the garden, where a woman was brushing with a nodding feather +duster, under the white arch that framed the main stairway, and turned +aside to where breakfast was being laid. Laurel saw that her father was +already seated at the table, intent upon the tall, thickly printed sheet +of the Salem _Register_. He paused to meet her dutiful lips; then with a +"Good morning, father," returned to his reading. Camilla entered at +Laurel's heels; and the latter, in a delight slightly tempered by doubt, +saw that she had been before her sister in a suitable dress for such a +warm day. Camilla still wore her dark merino; and she gazed with mingled +surprise and annoyance at Laurel's airy garb. + +"Did mother say you might put that on?" she demanded. "Because if she +didn't I expect you will have to go right up from breakfast and change. +It isn't a dress at all for so early in the morning. Why, I believe it's +one of your very best." The look of critical disapproval suddenly became +doubly accusing. + +"Laurel Ammidon, wherever are your pantalets?" + +"I'm too big to have pantalets hanging down over my shoetops," she +replied defiantly, "and so I just hitched them up. You can still see the +frill." Janet had come into the room, and stood behind her. "Don't you +notice Camilla," she advised; "she's not really grown up." They turned at +the appearance of their mother. "Dear me, Camilla," the latter observed, +"you are getting too particular for any comfort. What has upset you now?" + +"Look at Laurel," Camilla replied; "that's all you need to do. You'd +think she went to dances instead of Sidsall" + +Laurel painfully avoided her mother's comprehensive glance. "Very +beautiful," the elder said in a tone of palpable pleasure. Laurel +advanced her lower lip ever so slightly in the direction of Camilla. +"But you have taken a great deal into your own hands." She shifted +apparently to another topic. "There will be no lessons to-day for I +have to send Miss Gomes into Boston." At this announcement Laurel was +flooded with a joy that obviously belonged to her former, less +dignified state. "However," her mother continued addressing her, "since +you have dressed yourself like a lady I shall expect you to behave +appropriately; no soiled or torn skirts, and an hour at your piano +scales instead of a half." + +Laurel's anticipation of pleasure ebbed as quickly as it had come--she +would have to move with the greatest caution all day, and spend a whole +hour at the piano. It was the room to which she objected rather than the +practicing; a depressing sort of place where she was careful not to move +anything out of the stiff and threatening order in which it belonged. The +chairdeacons in particular were severely watchful; but that, now, she had +determined to ignore. + +She turned to johnnycakes, honey and milk, only half hearing, in her +preoccupation with the injustice that had overtaken her, the conversation +about the table. Her gaze strayed over the walls of the breakfast room, +where water color drawings of vessels, half models of ships on teakwood +or Spanish mahogany boards, filled every possible space. Some her +grandfather had sailed in as second and then first mate, of others he had +been master, and the rest, she knew, were owned by Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone, her grandfather, father and uncle. + +Just opposite her was the _Two Capes_ at anchor in Table Bay, the sails +all furled except the fore-topsail which hung in the gear. A gig manned +by six sailors in tarpaulin hats with an officer in the stern sheets +swung with dripping oars across the dark water of the foreground; on the +left an inky ship was standing in close hauled on the port tack with all +her canvas set. It was lighter about the _Two Capes_, and at the back a +mountain with a flat top--showing at once why it was called Table +Bay--rose against an overcast sky. Laurel knew a great deal about the +_Two Capes_--for instance that she had been a barque of two hundred and +nine tons--because it had been her grandfather's first command, and he +never tired of narrating every detail of that memorable voyage. + +Laurel could repeat most of these particulars: They sailed on the tenth +of April in 'ninety-three, and were four and a half months to the Cape of +Good Hope; twenty days later, on the rocky island of St. Paul, +grandfather had a fight with a monster seal; a sailor took the scurvy, +and, dosed with niter and vinegar, was stowed in the longboat, but he +died and was buried at sea in the Doldrums. Then, with a cargo of Sumatra +pepper, they made Corregidor Island and Manilla Bay where the old Spanish +fort stood at the mouth of the Pasig. The barque, the final cargo of hemp +and indigo and sugar in the hold, set sail again for the Cape of Good +Hope, and returned, by way of Falmouth in England and Rotterdam, home. + +The other drawings were hardly less familiar; ships, barques, brigs and +topsail schooners, the skillful work of Salmon, Anton Roux and Chinnery. +There was the _Celestina_ becalmed off Marseilles, her sails hanging idly +from the yards and stays, her hull with painted ports and carved bow and +stern mirrored in the level sea. There was the _Albacore_ running through +the northeast trades with royals and all her weather studding sails set. +Farther along the _Pallas Athena_, in heavy weather off the Cape of Good +Hope, was being driven hard across the Agulhas Bank under double-reefed +topsails, reefed courses, the fore-topmast staysail and spanker, with the +westerly current breaking in an ugly cross sea, but, as her grandfather +always explained, setting the ship thirty or forty miles to windward in a +day. She lingered, finally, over the _Metacom_, running her easting down +far to the southward with square yards under a close-reefed maintop sail, +double-reefed foresail and forestaysail, dead before a gale and gigantic +long seas hurling the ship on in the bleak watery desolation. + +Laurel was closely concerned in all these. One cause for this was the +fact that her grandfather so often selected her as the audience for his +memories and stories, during which his manner was completely that of one +navigator to another; and a second flourished in the knowledge that +Camilla affected to disdain the sea and any of its connections. + +Sidsall appeared and took her place with a collective greeting; while +Laurel, coming out of her abstraction, realized that they were discussing +the subject in which nearly every conversation now began or ended--the +solemn speculation of why her Uncle Gerrit Ammidon, master of the ship +_Nautilus_, was so long overdue from China. Laurel heard this from two +angles, or, otherwise, when her grandfather was or was not present, the +tone of the first far more encouraging than that of the latter. Her +father was speaking: + +"My opinion is that he was unexpectedly held up at Shanghai. It's a new +port for us, and, Captain Verney tells me, very difficult to make: after +Woosung you have to get hold of two bamboo poles stuck up on the bank a +hundred feet apart as a leading mark, and, with these in range, steer for +the bar. The channel is very narrow, and he says the _Nautilus_ would +have to wait for high water, perhaps for the spring tide. She may have +got ashore, strained and sprung a leak, and had to discharge her cargo +for repairs." + +"That's never Gerrit," the elder replied positively. "There isn't a +better master afloat. He can smell shoal water. I was certain we'd hear +from him when the _Sorsogon_ was back from Calcutta. Do you suppose, +William, that he took the _Nautilus_ about the Horn and--?" Laurel +wondered at the unmannerly way in which he gulped his coffee. "He might +have driven into the Antarctic winter," he proceeded. "My deck was swept +and all the boats stove off the Falklands in April." + +"Gerrit's got a ship," the other asserted, "not a hermaphrodite brig +built like a butter box. You'll find that I am right and that he has been +tied up in port." + +"I made eight hundred per cent on a first cargo for my owners," the elder +retorted. "Then there was trading, yes, and sailing, too. No chronometers +with confounded rates of variation and other fancy parlor instruments to +read your position from. When I first navigated it was with an astrolabe +and the moon. A master knew his lead, latitude and lookout then. + +"Eight hundred barrels of flour and pine boards to Rio and back with +coffee and hides for Salem," he continued; "then out to Gibraltar and +Brazil with wine and on in ballast for Calcutta. Tahiti and Morea, the +Sandwich Islands and the Feejees. Sandalwood and tortoise shell and beche +de mer; sea horses' teeth, and saltpeter for the Chinese Government. I +don't want to hear about your bills of exchange and kegs of Spanish +dollars and solid cargoes of tea run back direct. Why, with your Canton +and India agents and sight drafts the China service is like dealing with +a Boston store." + +Laurel saw that her father was assuming the expression of restrained +annoyance habitual when the elder contrasted old shipping ways with new. +"Unfortunately," he said, "the patient Chinaman will no longer exchange +silks and lacquer and teas for boiled sea slugs. He has learned to demand +something of value." + +"Why, damn it, William," the other exploded, "nothing's more valuable to +a Chinese than his belly. They'll give eighteen hundred dollars a pecul +for birds' nests any day. As for your insinuation that we used to diddle +them--I never ran opium up from India to rot their souls. And when the +Chinese Government tried to stop it there's the British commercial +interests forcing it on them with cannon in 'forty-two. + +"Look at the pepper we brought into Salem--" he was, Laurel realized with +intense interest, growing beautifully empurpled; "--lay right off the +beach at Mukka and did business with the Dato himself. We forded the bags +on the crew's backs across a river with muskets served in case the bloody +heathen drew their creeses. When we made sail everything was running over +with pepper--the boats and forecastle and cabins and between decks." + +"Well, father, the heroic times are done, of course; I can't say that I'm +sorry. I shouldn't like to finance a voyage that reached out to three +years and depended on the captain's picking up six or seven cargoes." + +The old man rose; and, muttering a plainly uncomplimentary period about +the resemblance of modern ship owners to clerks, walked with his heavy +careful tread from the room. + +"You are so foolish to argue and excite him," William's wife told him. + +Laurel regarded her with a passionate admiration for the shining hair +turning smoothly about her brow and drawn over her ears to the low coil +in the back, for her brown barége dress with velvet leaves and blue +forget-me-nots and tightest of long sleeves and high collar, and because +generally she was a mother to be owned and viewed with pride. She met +Laurel's gaze with a little friendly nod and said: + +"Don't forget about your clothes, and I think you ought to finish the +practicing before dinner, so you'll be free for a walk with your +grandfather in the afternoon." + +Soon after, Laurel stood in the hall viewing with disfavor the light +dress she had put on so gayly at rising. In spite of her sense of +increasing age she had a strong desire to play in the yard and climb +about in the woodhouse. Already the business of being grown up began to +pall upon her, the outlook dreary that included nothing but a whole hour +at the piano, an endless care of her skirts, and the slowest kind of walk +through Washington Square and down to Derby Wharf, where--no matter in +which direction and for what purpose they started forth--her +grandfather's way invariably led. + +Janet joined her, and they stood irresolutely balancing on alternate +slippers. "Did you notice," the former volunteered, "mother is letting +Camilla have lots of starch in her petticoats, so that they stand right +out like crinoline? Wasn't she hateful this morning!" Laurel heard a +slight sound at her back, and, wheeling, saw her grandfather looking out +from the library door. A swift premonition of possible additional +misfortune seized her. Moving toward the side entrance she said to Janet, +"We'd better be going right away." + +It was, however, too late. "Well, little girls," he remarked +benevolently, "since Miss Gomes has left for the day it would be as well +if I heard your geography lesson." + +"I don't think mother intended for us to study today," Laurel replied, +making a face of appeal for Janet's support. But the latter remained +solidly and silently neutral. + +"What, what," the elder mildly exploded; "mutiny in the forecastle! Get +right up here in the break of the quarter-deck or I'll harry you." He +stood aside while Laurel and Janet filed into the library. Geography was +the only subject their grandfather proposed for his instruction, and the +lesson, she knew, might take any one of several directions. He sometimes +heard it with the precision of Miss Gomes herself; he might substitute +for the regular questions such queries, drawn from his wide voyages, as +he thought to be of infinitely greater use and interest; or, better +still, he frequently gave them the benefit of long reminiscences, +through which they sat blinking in a mechanical attention or slightly +wriggling with minds far away from the old man's periods, full of +outlandish names and places, and, when he got excited, shocking swears. + +He turned the easy-chair--the one which Laurel had thought of as a +ship--away from the fireplace, now covered with a green slatted blind for +the summer; and they drew forward two of the heavy chairs with shining +claw feet that stood against the wall. Smiley's Geography, a book no +larger than the shipmaster's hand, was found and opened to Hindoostan, or +India within the Ganges. There was a dark surprising picture of Hindoos +doing Penance under the Banyan tree, and a confusing view of the Himaleh +Mountains. + +"Stuff," he proceeded, gazing with disfavor at the illustrations. "This +ought to be written by men who have seen the world and know its tides and +landmarks. Do you suppose," he demanded heatedly of Janet, "that the +fellow who put this together ever took a ship through the Formosa Channel +against the northeast monsoon?" + +"No, sir," Janet replied hastily. + +"Here are Climate and Face of the country and Religion," he located these +items with a blunt finger, "but I can't find exports. I'll lay he won't +know a Bengal chintz from a bundle handkerchief." + +"I don't think it says anything about exports," Laurel volunteered. "We +have the boundaries and--" + +"Bilge," he interrupted sharply. "I didn't fetch boundaries back in the +_Two Capes_, did I?" He thrust the offending volume into a crevice of his +chair. "Laurel," he added, "what is the outport of St. Petersburg?" + +"Cronstadt," she answered, after a violent searching of her memory. + +"And for Manilla?" he turned to Janet. + +"I can't think," she admitted. + +"Laurel?" + +"Cavite," the latter pronounced out of a racking mental effort. + +"Just so, and--" he looked up at the ceiling, "the port for Boston?" + +"I don't believe we've had that," she said firmly. His gaze fastened on +her so intently that she blushed into her lap. "Don't believe we've had +it," he echoed. + +"Why, confound it--" he paused and regarded her with a new doubt. +"Laurel," he demanded, "what is an outport?" + +She had a distinct feeling of justifiable injury. A recognized part of +the present system of examination was its strict limitation to questions +made familiar by constant repetition; and this last was entirely new. +She was sure of several kinds of ports--one they had after dinner, +another indicated a certain side of a vessel, and still a third was +Salem. But an outport--Cronstadt, Cavite, what it really meant, what they +were, had escaped her. She decided to risk an opinion. + +"An outport," she said slowly, "is a--a part of a ship," that much +seemed safe--"I expect it's the place where they throw things like +potato peels through." + +"You suppose what!" he cried, breathing quite hard. "A place where +they--" he broke off. "And you're Jeremy Ammidon's granddaughter! By +heaven, it would make a coolie laugh. It's like William, who never would +go to sea, to have four daughters in place of a son. I'm done with you; +go tinker on the piano." They got down from their chairs and departed +with an only half concealed eagerness. "Do you think he means it," Janet +asked hopefully, "and he'll never have any geography again?" + +"No, I don't," Laurel told her shortly. She was inwardly ruffled, and +further annoyed at Janet's placid acceptance of whatever the day brought +along. Janet was a stick! She turned away and found herself facing the +parlor and the memory of the impending hour of practice. Well, it had to +be done before dinner, and she went forward with dragging feet. + +Within the formal shaded space of the chamber she stopped to speculate +on the varied and colorful pictures of the wall paper reaching from the +white paneling above her waist to the deep white carving at the ceiling. +The scene which absorbed her most showed, elevated above a smooth stream, +a marble pavilion with sweeping steps and a polite company about a +reclining gentleman with bare arms and a wreath on his head and a lady in +flowing robes playing pipes. To the right, in deep green shadow, a +charmer was swinging from ropes of flowers, lovers hid behind a brown +mossy trunk; while on the left, against a weeping willow and frowning +rock, four serene creatures gathered about a barge with a gilded prow. + +Still on her reluctant progress to the piano she stopped to examine the +East India money on the lowest shelf of a locked corner cupboard. There +was a tiresome string of cash with a rattan twisted through their square +holes; silver customs taels, and mace and candareen; Chinese gold leaf +and Fukien dollars; coins from Cochin China in the shape of India ink, +with raised edges and characters; old Carolus hooked dollars; Sycee +silver ingots, smooth and flat above, but roughly oval on the lower +surface, not unlike shoes; Japanese obangs, their gold stamped and beaten +out almost as broad as a hand's palm; mohurs and pieces from Singapore; +Dutch guilders from Java; and the small silver and gold drops of Siam +called tical. + +She arrived finally at the harplike stool of the piano; but there she had +to wait until the clock in the hall above struck some division of the +hour for her guidance, and she rattled the brass rings that formed the +handles of drawers on either side of the keyboard. Later, her fingers +picking a precarious way through bass and treble, she heard Sidsall's +voice at the door; the latter was joined by their mother, and they went +out to the clatter of hoofs, the thin jingle of harness chains, where the +barouche waited for them in the street. Once Camilla obtruded into the +room. "I wonder you don't give yourself a headache," she remarked; "I +never heard more nerve-racking sounds." + +Laurel gathered that Camilla was proud of this expression, which she must +have newly caught from some grown person. She considered a reply, but, +nothing sufficiently crushing occurring, she ignored the other in a +difficult transposition of her hands. Camilla left; the clock above +struck a second quarter; the third, while she honestly continued her +efforts up until the first actual note of the hour. + +"Thank God that's over," she said in the liberal manner of a shipmaster. +Now only the walk with her grandfather remained of the actively tiresome +duties of the day. After dinner the sun blazed down with almost the heat +of midsummer, and Laurel felt unexpectedly indifferent, content to linger +in the house. Only too soon she heard inquiries for her; and in her +gaiter boots, a silk bonnet with a blue scarf tied under her chin and +flowing over a shoulder and palm leaf cashmere shawl, she accompanied the +old man across Pleasant Street and over the wide green Square to the +arched west gate with its gilt eagle and Essex Street. + +"Will we be going on Central Street?" she asked. + +"No reason for turning down there," he replied, forgetful of the +gingerbread shop with the shaky little bell inside the door, the buttered +gingerbread on the upper shelf for three cents and that without on the +lower for two. She gathered her hopes now about Webb's Drugstore, where +her grandfather sometimes stopped for a talk, and bought her rock candy, +Gibraltars or blackjacks. It was too hot for blackjacks, she decided, +and, with opportunity, would choose the cooling peppermint flavor of the +Gibraltars. + +The elms on Essex Street were far enough in leaf to cast a flickering +shade in the faintly salt air drifting from the sea; and they progressed +so slowly that Laurel was able to study the contents of most of the store +windows they passed. Some held crewels and crimped white cakes of wax, +gayly colored reticule beads with a wooden spoon for a penny measure, and +"strawberry" emery balls. There was a West India store and a place where +they sold oil and candles, another had charts for mariners; while across +the way stood the East India Marine Hall. + +Here her grandfather hesitated, and for a moment it seemed as if he would +go over and join the masters always to be found about the Museum. But in +the end he continued beyond the Essex House with its iron bow and lamp +over the entrance, past Cheapside to Webb's Drugstore, where he purchased +a bag of Peristaltic lozenges, and--after pretending to start away as if +nothing more were to be secured there--the Gibraltars. + +They were returning, in the general direction of Derby Wharf, when Jeremy +Ammidon met a companion of past days at sea, and stopped for the +inevitable conversational exchange. The latter, who had such a great +spreading beard that Laurel couldn't determine whether or not he wore a +neck scarf, said: + +"Barzil Dunsack all but died." + +"Ha!" the other exclaimed. Laurel wondered at the indelicacy in speaking +about old Captain Dunsack to her grandfather, when everyone in Salem knew +they had quarreled years ago and not spoken to each other since. + +"He was bad off," he persisted; "a cold grappled in his chest and went +into lung fever. Barzil's looking wasted, what with sickness and the +trouble about Edward." At a nod, half encouraging, he added, "It appears +Edward left Heard and Company in Canton and took ship back to Boston. +He's there now for what I know. Never sent any word to Salem or his +father. Looks a little as if he had been turned out of his berth. Then +one of Barzil's schooners caught the edge of the last hurricane off the +Great Bank and went ashore on Green Turtle Key. Used him near all up." + +Laurel saw that her grandfather was frowning heavily and silently moving +his lips. The other left them standing and her companion brought his cane +down sharply. "Boy and boy," he said. "Barzil was a good man... looking +old. So am I, so am I. Feet almost useless. Laurel," he addressed her, "I +want you to go right on home. I've got to stop around and see an old +friend who has been sick." She left obediently, but paused once to gaze +back incredulously at the bulky shape of her grandfather moving toward +Barzil Dunsack's. That quarrel was part of their family history, she had +been aware of it as long as she had of the solemn clock in the second +hall; and not very far back, perhaps when she was eight, it had taken a +fresh activity of discussion around the person of her Uncle Gerrit, who, +it was feared, might now be drowned at sea. What it had all been about +neither she nor her sisters knew, for not only was the subject dropped at +the approach of any of them but they were forbidden to mention it. + +At home she was unable to communicate her surprising news at once because +of the flood of talk that met her from the drawing-room. Olive Wibird and +Lacy, her cousin, were engaged with Sidsall in a conversation often a +duet and sometimes a trio. Laurel took a seat at the edge of the chatter +and followed it comprehensively. She didn't like Olive Wibird who would +greet her in a sugary voice; but elsewhere Olive was tremendously +admired, there were always men about her, serenades rising from the lawn +beneath her window, and Laurel herself had seen Olive's dressing table +laden with bouquets in frilly lace paper. She had one now, in a holder of +mother-of-pearl, with a gilt chain and ring. Her wide skirt was a mass of +over-drapery, knots of moss roses and green gauze ribbons; while a silver +cord ending in a tassel fell forward among her curls. + +Lacy Saltonstone, almost as plainly dressed as Sidsall, was as usual +sitting straighter than anyone else Laurel ever saw; she had a brown +face with a finely curved nose and brown eyes, and her voice was cool +and decided. + +"For me," she said, "he is the most fascinating person in Salem." + +Olive Wibird made a swift face of dissent. "He's too stiff and there is +gray in his hair. I like my men more like sparkling hock. Dancing with +him he holds you as if you were glass." + +"I don't seem to remember you and Mr. Brevard together," Lacy commented. + +"He hasn't asked me for centuries," the other admitted. "He did Sidsall, +though, as we all remember; didn't he, love?" + +Sidsall's cheeks turned bright pink. Laurel dispassionately wished that +her sister wouldn't make such a show of herself. It was too bad that +Sidsall was so--so broad and well looking; she was not in the least pale +or interesting, and had neither Lacy's Saltonstone's thin gracefulness +nor Olive's popular manner. + +"It was very noble of him," Sidsall agreed. + +"But he was extremely engaged," Lacy assured her with her wide slow +stare. "He told me that you were like apple blossoms." + +That might please Sidsall, thought Laurel, but she personally held apple +blossoms to be a very common sort of flower. Evidently something of the +kind had occurred to Olive, too, for she said: "Heaven only knows what +men will admire. It's clear they don't like a prude. I intend to have a +good time until I get married--" + +"But what if you love in vain?" Sidsall interrupted. + +"There isn't any need for that," Olive told her. "When I see a man I +want I'm going to get him. It's easy if you know how and make +opportunities. I always have one garter a little loose." + +"Laurel," her sister turned, "I'm certain your supper is ready. Go along +like a nice child." + +In her room a woman with a flat worn face and a dusty wisp of hair across +her neck was spreading underlinen, ironed into beautiful narrow wisps of +pleating, in a drawer. It was Hodie, a Methodist, the only one Laurel +knew, and the latter was always entranced by the servant's religious +exclamations, doubts and audible prayers. She was saying something now +about pits, gauds and vanities; and she ended a short profession of faith +with an amen so loud and sudden that Laurel, although she was waiting for +it, jumped. + +It was past seven, the air was so sweet with lilacs that they seemed to +be blooming in her room, and the sunlight died slowly from still space. +By leaning out of her window she could see over the Square. The +lamplighter was moving along its wooden fence, leaving faint twinkling +yellow lights, and there were little gleams from the windows on Bath +Street beyond. + +The gayety of her morning mood was replaced by a dim kind of wondering, +her thoughts became uncertain like the objects in the quivering light +outside. The palest possible star shone in the yellow sky; she had to +look hard or it was lost. Janet, stirring in the next room, seemed so far +away that she might not hear her, Laurel, no matter how loudly she +called. "Janet!" she cried, prompted by unreasoning dread. "You needn't +to yell," Janet complained, at the door. But already Laurel was oblivious +of her: she had seen a familiar figure slowly crossing Washington Square +--her grandfather coming home from Captain Dunsack's. + +Gracious, how poky he was; she was glad that she wasn't dragging along at +his side. He seemed bigger and rounder than usual. She heard the tap of +his cane as he left the Common for Pleasant Street; then his feet moved +and stopped, moved and stopped, up the steps of their house. + +She was sorry now that she hadn't known what an outport was, and +determined to ask him to-morrow. She liked his stories, that Camilla +disdained, about crews and Hong Kong and the stormy Cape. The thought of +Cape Horn brought back the memory of her Uncle Gerrit, absent in the +ship _Nautilus_. Her mental pictures of him were not clear--he was +almost always at sea--but she remembered his eyes, which were very +confusing to encounter, and his hair parted and carelessly brushing the +bottoms of his ears. + +Laurel recalled hearing that Gerrit was his father's favorite, and she +suddenly understood something of the unhappiness that weighed upon the +old man. She hoped desperately that Janet or Camilla wouldn't come in and +laugh at her for crying. In bed she saw that the room was rapidly filling +with dusk. Only yesterday she would have told herself that the dragon in +the teakwood chair was stirring; but now Laurel could see that it never +moved. She rocked like the little boats that crossed the harbor or came +in from the ships anchored beyond the wharves, and settled into a sleep +like a great placid sea flooding the world of her home and the +lamplighter and her grandfather sorrowing for Uncle Gerrit. + + + + +II + +When Jeremy Ammidon sent his granddaughter home alone, and turned toward +Captain Dunsack's, on Hardy Street, he stopped for a moment to approve +the diminishing sturdy figure. All William's children, though they were +girls, were remarkably handsome, with glowing red cheeks and clear eyes, +tumbling masses of hair and a generous vigor of body. He sighed at +Laurel's superabundant youth, and moved carefully forward; he was very +heavy, and his progress was uncertain. His thoughts were divided between +the present and the past--Barzil Dunsack, aged and ill and unfortunate, +and the happening long ago that had resulted in a separation of years +after a close youthful companionship. + +It had occurred while Barzil was master of the brig _Luna,_ owned by +Billy Gray, and he, Jeremy, was first mate. In the exactness with which +he recalled every detail of his life in ships he remembered that at the +time they were off Bourbon Island, about a hundred and ten miles +southwest of the lie de France. The _Luna_ was close hauled, and, while +Barzil was giving an order at the wheel, she fetched a bad lee lurch +and sent him in a heap across the deck, striking his head against the +bumkin bitts. He had got up dazed but not apparently seriously injured; +and after his head had been swabbed and bound by the steward he +returned to the poop. There, however, his conduct had been so +peculiar--among other things sending down the watch to put on Sunday +rig against a possible hail by the Lord--that, after a long +consultation with Mr. Patterson, the second mate and the boatswain, and +a brief announcement to the crew, he, Jeremy Ammidon, had taken command +in their interest and that of the owner. + +Barzil had made difficulties: Mr. Patterson struck up a leveled pistol in +the master's hand just as it exploded. They had confined him, in charge +of the unhappy steward, to his cabin; where, after he had completely +recovered from the effects of the blow, and Jeremy had been upheld by the +authorities at Table Bay, he stubbornly remained until the _Luna_ had +been warped into Salem. + +From the moment of their landing they had not exchanged a word. Jeremy +was surprised to find himself at present bound toward the other's house. +He was not certain that Barzil would even see him; but, he muttered, the +thing had lasted long enough, they were too old for such foolishness; and +the other had come into adverse winds, now, when he should be lying +quietly in a snug harbor. + +He had never paid serious attention to the threatened complication two or +three years before, when Gerrit had been seen repeatedly with Kate +Dunsack's irregularly born daughter. He was sorry for the two women. It +was his opinion that the man had been shipped drunk by some boarding +house runner; anyhow, only the second day out Vollar had been lost +overboard from the main-royal yard, and Kate's child born outside the +law. It was hard, he told himself again, walking down Orange Street, past +the Custom House to Derby. + +The girl, Nettie Vollar--they had adopted the father's name--was +attractive in a decided French way, with crisp black hair, a pert nose +and dimple, and, why, good heavens, twenty-one or two years old if she +was a week! How time did run. It was nothing extraordinary if Gerrit had +been seen a time or two with her on the street, or even if he had called +at the Dunsacks'. Barzil's and his quarrel didn't extend to all the +members of their families; and as for the Dunsacks being common--that was +nonsense. Barzil was as good as he any day; only where he had prospered, +and moved up into a showy place on the Common, the other had had the +head winds. Through no fault of his own the reputation had fastened on +him of being unlucky in his cargoes: if he carried tea and colonial +exports to, say, Antwerp, they would have been declared contraband while +he was at sea, and seized on the docks; he had been blown, in an +impenetrable fog, ashore on Tierra del Fuego, and, barely making Cape +Pembroke, had been obliged to beach his ship, a total loss. Then there +was Kate's trouble. Barzil was a rigorously moral and religious man and +his pain at that last must have been heavy. + +Jeremy Ammidon's mind turned to Gerrit, his son; this interest in Nettie +Vollar, if it had existed, was characteristic of the boy, who had a quick +heart and an honest disdain for the muddling narrow ways of the land. He +would have sought her out simply from the instinct to protest against the +smugness of Salem opinion. A fine sailor, and a master at twenty-two. A +great one to carry sail; yet in the sixteen years of his commands he had +had no more serious accident than the loss of a fore-topgallant mast or +splitting a couple of courses. It was Gerrit's ability, the splendid +qualities of his ship, that made Jeremy hope he would still come sailing +into the harbor with some narration of delay and danger overcome. + +He was now on Derby Street, in a region of rigging and sail lofts, block +and pump makers, ships' stores, spar yards, gilders, carvers and workers +in metal. There was a strong smell of tar and new canvas and the flat +odor that rose at low water. Sailors passed, yellow powerful +Scandinavians and dark men with earrings from southern latitudes, in red +or checked shirts, blue dungarees and glazed black hats with trailing +ribbons, or in cheap and clumsy shore clothes. There was a scraping of +fiddle from an upper window, the sound of heavy capering feet and the +stale laughter of harborside women. + +On Hardy Street he continued to the last house at the right, the farther +side of which gave across a yard of uneven bricks, straggling bushes and +aged splitting apple trees and an expanse of lush grass ending abruptly +in a wooden embankment and the water. A short fence turned in from the +sidewalk to the front door, where Jeremy knocked. A long pause followed, +in which he became first impatient and then irritable; and he was lifting +his hand for a second summons when the door suddenly opened and he was +facing Kate Vollar. There was only a faint trace of surprise on her +apathetic--Jeremy Ammidon called it moonlike--countenance; as if her +overwhelming mischance had robbed her features of all further expressions +of interest or concern. + +"I heard," Jeremy said in a voice pitched loud enough to conceal any +inward uncertainty, "that your father had been sick. Met Captain Rendell +on Essex Street and he said Barzil had lung fever. Thought I'd see if +there was any truth in it." + +"He just managed to stay alive," Kate Vollar replied, gazing at him with +her stilled gray eyes. "But he's better now, though he's not up and about +yet. Shall I tell him that--that you are here?" + +"Yes. Just say Jeremy Ammidon's below, and would like to pass a greeting +with him." + +He followed the woman in, and entered a large gloomy chamber while she +mounted the stair leading directly from the front. The blackened +fireplace gaping uncovered for the summer, the woodwork, painted yellow +with an artificial graining, and a stiff set of ebonized chairs, their +dingy crimson plush backs protected by elaborate thread antimacassars, +seemed to hold and reflect the misfortunes of their owner. Jeremy picked +up an ostrich egg, painted with a clump of viciously green coconut palms +and a cottony surf; he put it down with an absent smile and impatiently +fingered a volume of "The Life of Harriet Atwood Newell." She was one of +the missionaries who had gone out on the _Caravan_, with Augustine Heard, +to India, but forbidden to land there had died not long after on the Île +de France. + +"Houqua was a damned good heathen," he said aloud: "and so was +Nasservanjee." He left the table and proceeded to a window opening upon +the harbor, here fretted with wharves. A barque was fast in a small +stone-bound dock, newly in, his practiced glance saw, from a blue water +voyage, Africa probably. Her standing gear was in a perfection and beauty +of order that spoke of long tranquil days in the trades, and that no mere +harbor riggers could hope to accomplish. The deck was burdened with the +ugly confusion of unloading. Jeremy studied the jibs stowed in harbor +covers, the raking masts and tapering royal poles over the stolid roofs. +Ordinarily seeing no more he could not only name a vessel trading out of +Salem, but from her rig recognize anyone of a score of masters who, +otherwise unheralded, might be in command. + +However, here he was at a loss, and he thought again of the change, the +decline, that had overtaken Salem shipping, the celebrated merchants; the +pennants of William Gray, he reflected, had flown from the main truck of +fifteen ships, seven barques, thirteen brigs and schooners. Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone, in spite of his vehement protests, the counsel +of the oldest member of the firm, were moving shipment by shipment all +their business to Boston, listening to the promptings of State Street and +Central Wharf. + +To the right was the sagging landing from which Barzil's schooners +sailed trading with the West Indies; and back of it, and of his +house, stood the small office. His mind had turned to this +inconsiderable commerce when Kate Vollar entered and told him that +her father would see him. + +Barzil Dunsack was propped up in bed in a room above that in which Jeremy +had been waiting. He, totally different from the other, showed his age in +sunken dry cheeks, a forehead like an arch of bone, and a thick short +gray beard. A long faded lock of hair had been hastily brushed forward +and an incongruously bright knitted scarf drawn about his shoulders. + +Jeremy Ammidon concealed his dismay not only at Barzil's wrecked being +but at the dismal aspect of the interior, the worn rugs with their pieces +of once bright material frayed and loose, the splitting veneer of an old +chest of drawers and blistered mirror above a dusty iron grate. "You have +got in among the rocks!" he exclaimed. "Still they tell me you've +weathered the worst. Copper bound and oak ribs. Don't build them like +that to-day." + +Barzil Dunsack's eyes were bright and searching behind steel-rimmed +spectacles, and he studied Jeremy without replying. "Well, isn't there a +salute in you?" the latter demanded, incensed. "I'm not a Malay proa." + +The grim shadow of a smile dawned on Barzil's countenance. "I mind one +hanging on our quarter by Formosa," he returned; "I trained a cannon aft +and fired a shot, when she sheered off. That was in the _Flora_ in +'ninety-seven." + +A long silence enveloped them. Jeremy's mind was thronged with memories +of ports and storms, mates and ships and logged days. "Remember Oahu like +it was when we first made it," he queried, "and the Kanaka girls swimming +out to the ship with hybiscus flowers in their hair? Yes, and the +anchorage at Tahiti with the swells pounding on the coral reef and +Papeete under the mountain? It was nice there in the afternoon, lying off +the beach with the white cottages among the palms and orange trees and +the band playing in the grove by Government House." + +Captain Dunsack frowned at the trivial character of these memories. He +muttered something about the weight of the Lord, and the carnal hearts of +the men in ships. Jeremy declared, "Stuff! He'll wink at a sailor man +with hardly a free day on shore. It wasn't bad at Calcutta, either, with +an awning on the quarter-deck, watching the carriages and syces in the +Maidan and maybe a corpse or two floating about the gangway from the +burning ghauts." + +"A mean entrance," Barzil Dunsack asserted. "I don't know a worse with +the southwest monsoon in the Bay of Bengal and the pilot brigs gone +from the Sand Heads. That's where Heard got pounded with the _Emerald_ +drawing nineteen feet, and eighteen on the bar. Shook the reefs out of +his topsails, laid her on her beam ends, and with some inches saved +scraped in." + +"Pick up the three Juggernaut Pagodas of Ganjam," Jeremy remarked +absently. + +"'Thou shalt have no other God--'" + +Jeremy, with a glint in his eye, asked, "Wasn't your last consignment of +West India molasses marked Medford?" + +"You always were a scoffer," the other replied, unmoved. + +"How's Nettie?" Jeremy Ammidon inquired with a deliberate show of +interest. + +Barzil's lips tightened. "I haven't seen her for a little," he replied. +"She's been visiting at Ipswich." Jeremy added, "A good girl," but the +man in bed made no further comment. His undimmed gaze was fastened upon a +wall, his mouth folded in a hard line on a harsh and deeply seamed +countenance. An able man pursued by bad luck. + +"Nothing's been heard from Gerrit," Jeremy said after a little. Still the +other kept silent. His face darkened: by God, if Barzil hadn't a decent +word for the fact that Gerrit was seven months overdue, perhaps lost, +this was not a house for him. "I say that we've had nothing from my son +since he lay in the Lye-ee-Moon Pass off Hong Kong," he repeated sharply. + +A spasm of suffering, instantly controlled, passed over Barzil's face. +"Gerrit called once and again before he last sailed for Montevideo," he +finally pronounced. "I stopped it and he left in a temper. I--I won't +have another mortal sin here like Kate's." + +"Do you mean that Gerrit's loose?" Jeremy hotly demanded, rising. "A +more honorable boy never breathed." Barzil was cold. "I told him not to +come back," he repeated; "it would only lead to--to shamefulness." +Jeremy shook his cane toward the bed. "I may be a scoffer," he cried, +"but I wouldn't hold a judgment over a child of mine! I'm not so damned +holy that I can look down on a misfortunate girl. If Gerrit did come to +see Nettie and the boy had a liking for her, why you drove away a cursed +good husband. And if you think for a minute I wouldn't welcome her +because that Vollar fell off a yard before he could find a preacher +you're an old fool!" + +"Nettie must bear her burden: far better be dead than a stumbling block." + +"Well, I'd rather be a drunken pierhead jumper on the Waterloo Road than +any such pious blue nose. I'll tell you this, too--I'd hate to ship afore +the mast under you for all you'd have the ensign on the booby hatch with +prayers read Sunday morning. I don't wonder you got into weather; I'd +have no word for a Creator who didn't blow in your eye." + +"I'll listen to no blasphemy, Captain Ammidon," Barzil Dunsack +said sternly. + +"And I'll speak my mind, Captain Dunsack; it's this--your girls are a +long sight too good for you or for any other judgmatical, psalm-singing +devil dodger." He stood fuming at the door. "Good afternoon to you." + +Barzil Dunsack reclined with his gaunt bearded head sunk forward on his +thin chest swathed in the gay worsted wrap, his wasted hands, the tendons +corded with pale violet veins, clenched outside the checkered quilt +beneath which his body made scarcely a mark. + +Outside, in the soft glow of beginning dusk, Jeremy blamed himself +bitterly for his anger at the sick man. He had gone to see him in a +spirit friendly with old memories, forgetful of their long quarrel in the +stirred emotions of the past days of youth and first manhood; and he had +shouted at Barzil as if he were a lubber at the masthead. + +He realized that in order to be in time for supper he must turn toward +the Common and home; but his gaze caught the spars of the strange +barque; and, mechanically, he made his way over a narrow grassy passage +to the wharf. She was the _Cora Sellers_ of Marblehead, and he recognized +from a glance at the cargo that she had been out to the East Coast of +Africa--Mozambique and Zanzibar, Aden and Muscat. A matted frail of dates +swung ponderously in air, there were baled goatskins and sacks of Mocha +coffee, sagging baskets of reddish unwashed gum copal carried in bulk, +and a sun-blackened mate smoking a rat-tail Dutch cigar was supervising +the moving of elephant tusks in a milky glimmer of ivory ashore. + +There was a vague murmur of the rising tide, beyond the wharves and +warehouses the water was faintly rippled in silver and rose, and a ship +was standing into the harbor with all her canvas spread to the light +wind. He turned away with a sigh and walked slowly up toward the elms of +Pleasant Street. At his front door he stopped to regard the polished +brass plate where in place of his name he had caused to be engraved the +words Java Head. They held for him, coming into this pleasant dwelling +after so many tumultuous years at sea, the symbol of the safe and happy +end of an arduous voyage; just as the high black rock of Java Head +thrusting up over the horizon promised the placidity and accomplishment +of the Sunda Strait. Whenever he noticed the plate he felt again the +relief of coasting that northerly shore: + +He saw the mate forward with the crew passing the chains through the +hawse pipes and shackling them to the anchors. The island rose from level +groves of shore palms to lofty blue peaks terraced with rice and +red-massed kina plantations, with shining streams and green kananga +flowers and tamarinds. The land breeze, fragrant with clove buds and +cinnamon, came off to the ship in the vaporous dusk; and, in the blazing +sunlight of morning, the Anjer sampans swarmed out with a shrill chatter +of brilliant birds, monkeys and naked brown humanity, piled with dark +green oranges and limes and purple mangosteen. + +In the last few years, particularly with Gerrit away, he had turned more +and more from the surroundings of his house--rather it had become +William's house--to an inner life of memories. His own active life seemed +to him to have been infinitely fuller, more purposeful and various, than +that of present existence at Java Head. All Salem had been different: he +had a certain contempt for the existence of his son William and the +latter's associates and friends. He had said that the trading now done in +ships was like dealing at a Boston store, and the merchants reminded him +of storekeepers. The old days, when a voyage was a public affair, and a +ship's manifest posted in the Custom House on which anyone might write +himself down for a varying part of the responsibility and profit, had +given place to closed capital; the passages from port to port with the +captain, as often as not, his own supercargo and a figure of importance, +had become scheduled affairs in which a master was subjected to any +countinghouse clerk with an order from the firm: the ships themselves +were fast being ruined. + +He was in his room, after supper, seated momentarily on a day bed with a +covering of white Siberian fox skins, and he pronounced aloud, in a tone +of satirical contempt, the single word, "Clipper." Nearly everyone in the +shipping business seemed to have been touched by this madness for the +ridiculous ideas of an experimental Griffiths and his model of a ship +with the bows turned inside out, the greatest beam aft and a dead rise +like an inverted roof. That the _Rainbow_, the initial result of this +insanity, hadn't capsized at her launching had been due to some freak of +chance; just as her miraculous preservation through a voyage or so to +China could have been made possible only by continuously mild weather. + +Even if the _Rainbow_ had been fast--her run was called ninety-two days +out to Canton and home in eighty-eight--it was absurd to suppose that +there had been the usual monsoon. And if she did come in a little ahead +of vessels built on a solid full-bodied model, why her hold had no cargo +capacity worth the name. + +Things on the seas were going to the devil! He moved down to the library, +where he lighted a cheroot and addressed himself to the _Gazette_; but +his restlessness increased: the paper drooped and his thoughts turned to +Gerrit as a small boy. He saw him leaving home, for the first time, to go +to the school at Andover, in a cloth cap with a glazed peak, striped long +pantaloons and blue coat and waistcoat; later at the high desk in the +counting-rooms of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone; then sailing as +supercargo on one of the Company's ships to Russia and Liverpool. He had +soon dropped such clerking for seamen's duties, and his rise to +mastership had been rapid. + +Rhoda, William's wife, entered and stood before him accusingly. "You are +worrying again," she declared; "in here all by yourself. It really seems +as if you didn't believe in our interest or affection. I have a feeling, +and you know they are always right, that Gerrit will sail into the harbor +any day now." + +He had always liked Rhoda, a large handsome woman with rich coloring--her +countenance somehow reminded him of an apricot--and fine clothes. She +paused, studied him for a moment, and then asked, "Was your call on +Captain Dunsack pleasant?" + +"It ought to have been," he confided, "but I got mad and talked like a +Dutch uncle, and Barzil went off on a holy tack." + +"About Nettie Vollar?" + +Jeremy nodded. "Look here, Rhoda," he demanded, "did Gerrit ever say +anything to you about her?" + +"Yes," she told him; "Gerrit was very frank." + +"Did he like the girl?" + +"I couldn't make that out. But if there hadn't been, well--something +unusual in her circumstances I think he would never have noticed her. +Gerrit is a curious mixture, a very impressionable heart and a contrary +stubborn will. He was sorry for Nettie, and, at the way a great many +people treated her, threw himself into opposition. Nettie's father made +him very mad, and Gerrit pretty well damned all Salem before he left in +the _Nautilus_. He was excruciatingly funny: you know Gerrit can be, +particularly when he imitates anybody. I think being away at sea a great +deal, and having absolute command of everything, give men a different +view of things from ours. What is terribly important to Salem hardly +touches Gerrit; it's all silly pretense, or worse, to him. + +"I wouldn't mind that if it weren't for the sense of humor that leads him +into the wildest extravagances, and the fact that he'll act on his +feelings. You know I'm devoted to him but I give a sigh of relief +whenever he gets away on his ship without doing any one of the hundred +insanities he threatens." + +"Gerrit's like me," he said. + +"More than William," she agreed. "William is never impetuous, and he's +often impatient with his brother. He's a splendid husband, but Gerrit +would make a wonderful lover. I'm thankful I never fell into his +affections ... too wearing for an indolent woman." + +"You've been a great comfort and pleasure, Rhoda," he told her. "I only +wish Gerrit could marry someone like you--" + +"But who would give him sons," she interrupted. + +"It's just as you say about him, and I've always been uneasy. God knows +what he won't do--on land. William's a great deal happier, for all his +brother's humor. I joke William, but he's very satisfactory and solid. +He'll make port if he doesn't get tied up with newfangled notions. Why, +it stands to reason that a ship built like a knife would double up in the +seas off the Falklands." + +"He has a lot of confidence in Mr. McKay." + +"McKay is a good man unsettled. The _May Broughton_ is a fine barque, +and his packet ships are as seaworthy as any, but--" his indignation +increased so that he sputtered, and Rhoda laughed. "Now your girls," +he added, "fine models, all of them, plenty of beam, work in any kind +of weather." + +"That's very complimentary," she assured him, rising. "You mustn't worry +about Gerrit. Remember, my predictions never fail." + +When she had gone his mind returned to storms he had safely +weathered--the gray gales of Cape Horn, black hurricanes and the +explosive tempests in eastern straits and seas. He took from the drawer +of a bookcase with glass doors set in geometrical pattern a thin volume +bound in black boards. A paper label was inscribed in a small, carefully +formed script, "Journal of my intended voyage from Salem to the East +Indies in the Ship _Woodbine_." He opened at random: + +"Comes in with strong wind from SSE with rain squalls. Very ugly sea on. +Double reefed the Topsails, reefed the courses and furled the mainsail. +At six p.m. shipped a very heavy sea that carried away the bulwarks on +the larboard quarter and stove those on the starboard quarter and +amidships ... upper cabin filled with water. Through the night strong +gales.... Lightning at all points of the compass." + +The memory of this night, six days out from Manilla to Hong Kong, was +clearer than the actuality of the room in which he sat, an old man with +his activity, his strength, his manhood, far behind him, a hulk. + +"At ten split the mainsail in pieces. Close reefed the fore and +double reefed the main-topsails. Rising gales and heavy head sea. +Shipping a great quantity of water and leaking considerable. Bent a +new mainsail and set it. Reefed and set the jib. Pumping near two +thousand strokes an hour. + +"October seventh, Sunday. Comes in with strong gales and a heavy head +sea. Both officers crippled and man laid up. Through the night the same. +Leaking badly. A great number of junks in sight ... and so at five p.m. +come to anchor." + +He had been a good man then, sixteen days on the quarter-deck without +going below; insensible to ice or fever or weariness. He had been +autocratic, too; and had his boy servant carrying areca nuts, chunam +and tobacco in two silk bags, another with a fan and a third holding +an umbrella. Such things were all over now, he understood, in this +driving age. + +His mind continually returned to Gerrit, to dwell on the vast number of +perils held in store by the sea; there was always the possibility of +scurvy, an entire crew rotting alive in the forecastle and the ship +broached to, dismasted; of mutiny; the sheer smothering finality of +volcanic waves. He had never realized until now, in the misery of +uncertainty, the hellish loneliness of a shipmaster at sea; the pride of +duty, the necessity of discipline, that put him beyond all counsel, all +assistance and human interdependence. Jeremy, who had arrogantly accepted +this responsibility without a question, through so many long years and +voyages, now dreaded it, found it an inhuman burden, for his son. + +William couldn't be expected to appreciate the difficulties of his +brother's position: all the former's experience had been got when, with +James Saltonstone and a party of Salem merchants, he ventured to the +lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor, had a cold collation, and +returned with the pilot or in the Custom House sloop. These occasions of +huzzas and salutes and speeches were supplemented with a hasty +inspection, now and then, of a vessel lying still at the wharf with sails +harbor furled. William guessed little of the long effort through which a +ship won from the first of those moments to the last. He was solely +concerned with the returns of the cargo. + +However, Rhoda was right, and this mooning wouldn't bring Gerrit into +port. He turned to the bookcase, where a squat bottle of Medford rum +rested beside a tumbler; after a drink he lighted a cheroot and smoking +vigorously, with hands clasped behind him, paced back and forth in an +undeviating line between the door to the hall and a dark polished +secretary he had bought in London. + +While he was walking Camilla came into the room and sedately took a seat +on one of the formal chairs against the wall. "I guess you think that's +the deck of a ship," she said conversationally. He regarded her with a +faint threatening glint of humor. Camilla's dignity was stupendous; +particularly now, when, he observed, her skirts stood out in a thoroughly +grown manner. He liked Laurel best of William's children; she had, in +spite of her confusion in regard to outports, a surprising grasp upon +many of the details of life on shipboard, and a largeness of manner and +expression entertaining in a little girl. Sidsall was the most +ingratiating--she had Gerrit's direct kindling gaze; Janet showed no +individuality yet beyond an entire willingness to conform to outward +circumstance while pursuing deeply secret speculations within. But +Camilla impressed the entire family by the rigidity of her correctness in +personal and social niceties. At times, he felt, she would be a nuisance +but for the firm hand of her mother and his own contribution to their +well-being by an occasional sly sally. + +"It might be that," he admitted; "if it weren't for the facts that it's a +house and library, and I'm an old man, and you're not at all like the +second mate." + +"I should hope not," she replied decidedly. "A second mate isn't +anything, and I am a--a young lady anyhow." + +"You'll soon be out at dances." + +"I go to parties now; that is, mother let me stay at the Coggswells' on +Thursday until the men came at nine for sangaree. And I'm at all the +Ballad Soirées." + +He made a gesture of pretended surprise and admiration. "I don't suppose +they ever have a good chantey with the stuff they play?" he queried. +"Dear me, no. Mr. Dempster sings The Indian's Lament, and The May Queen: +that's a cantata and it's in three parts." + +Jeremy began to hum, and in a moment was intoning in a loud monotonous +voice, sweeping a hand up and down: + +_"To my hero, Bangedero, +Singing hey for a gay Hash girl."_ + +"I don't think that's very nice," she said primly. + +"What do you mean--not very nice?" he demanded, incensed. "There's +nothing finer with a rousing chanteyman leading it and the watch hauling +on the braces. You'd never hear the like at any Ballad Soirée. And: + +_"Sweet William, he married a wife, +'Gentle Jenny,' cried Rose Marie, +To be the sweet comfort of his life, +As the dew flies over the mulberry tree."_ + +"There isn't much sense to it," she observed. + +For a little, indignant at her disparagement of such noble fragments, he +tramped silently back and forth, followed by a cloud of smoke from the +cheroot. No one on land could understand the absorbing significance of +every detail of a ship's life.... Only Gerrit, of all his family, knew +the chanteys and watches, the anxiety and beauty of landfalls--the blue +Falklands or Teneriffe rising above the clouds, the hurried making and +taking of sail in the squalls of the Doldrums. + +"In India," he told her, stopping in his measured course, "female +children are given to the crocodiles." + +Her mouth parted at this, her eyes became dilated, and she slipped from +the chair. "That's perfectly awfully appalling," she breathed. "The +little brown girl babies. Oh, father," she cried, as William Ammidon came +into the library, "what do you suppose grandfather says, that in India +female children are...crocodiles." Words failed her. + +"What's the sense in frightening the child, father?" William +remonstrated. "I wish you would keep those horrors for the old heathen of +the Marine Society." + +Jeremy had a lively sense of guilt; he had been betrayed by Camilla's +confounded airs and pretensions. He ought to be ashamed of himself, +telling the girl such things. "The British Government is putting a stop +to that," he added hastily, "and to suttees--" + +"What are they?" she inquired. + +"Never mind, Camilla," her father interposed; "go up with your mother +and sisters. + +"I suppose it's no good speaking to you," William continued; "but my +family is not a crew and this house isn't the _Two Capes_. You might make +some effort to realize you're on land." + +"I know I'm on land, William; tell that any day from a sight of you. You +can afford to listen a little now and then about the sea. That's where +all you have came from; it's the same with near everybody in Salem. +Vessels brought them and vessels kept them going; and, with the wharves +as empty as they were this afternoon, soon there won't be any Salem to +talk about." + +"The tide's turned from here," the other replied; "with the increase in +tonnage and the importance of time we need the railway and docking +facility of the larger cities--Boston and New York." + +"It's running out fast enough," Jeremy agreed; "and there's a lot going +out with it you'll never see again--like the men who put a reef in +England in 'twelve." + +"You are always sounding the same strings; we're at peace with the world +now, and a good thing for shipping." + +"Peace!" the elder declared hotly; "you and the Democrats may call it +that, but it's a damned swindle, with the British to windward of you and +hardly a sail now drawing in your ropes. What did Edmund Burke tell +Parliament in 'seventy-five about our whalers, hey! Why, that from Davis +Strait to the Antipodes, from the Falklands to Africa, we outdrove +Holland, France and England. After the laws and bounties Congress passed +in 'eighty-nine what could you see--something like a half million tonnage +gained in three years or so. In the war of 'twelve your land soldiers +were a pretty show, with the Capitol burning; but when it was finished +the privateers had sunk over nine million dollars of British shipping to +their sixty thousand. The Chesapeake luggers have gone out with the tide, +too. And then, by God, by God, what then: the treaty of Ghent, with +England impressing our seamen and tying our ships up in what ports she +chose under a right of search! On top of this your commissioners repeal +the ship laws and the British allow you to carry only native cargoes to +the United Kingdom with a part of the customs and harbor dues off. + +"But in spite of Congress and political sharks we went out to India +and China direct, with _The George_ home from Calcutta in ninety-five +days, and the East Indiamen six or seven months on the shorter run to +England. I can show you what the London _Times_ said about that, it's in +my desk: 'Twelve years of peace, and...the shipping interest...is half +ruined...thousands of our manufactures are seeking redemption in foreign +lands.' It goes on to tell that American seamen already controlled an +important part of the British carrying trade to the East Indies. Yet your +precious lawmakers open our West India trade to Great Britain, but they +wouldn't ask the privilege to carry a cargo from British India to +Liverpool or Canada." + +"Now, father," William put in, "you are getting excited again. It isn't +good for you. We are not all such fools to-day as you make out." + +"Look at the masters themselves," Jeremy continued explosively; +"gentlemen like Gerrit, from Harvard University, and not lime-juicers +beating their way aft with a belaying pin. They could sail a ship with +two-thirds the crew of a Britisher with her clumsy yellow hemp sails and +belly you could lose a dinghy in. Mind, I don't say the English aren't +handy in a ship and that they wouldn't clew up a topsail clean at the +edge of hell. What we are on the seas came over from them. But we +bettered it, William, and they knew it; and, naturally enough, laid out +to sail around us. I don't blame England, but I do our God damn--" + +"Father," the other firmly interrupted, "you are shouting as if you were +on the quarter-deck in a gale. I must insist on your quieting down; +you'll burst a blood vessel." + +"Maybe I am," Jeremy muttered; "and it wouldn't matter much if I did. +When I see a nation with shipmasters who would set their royals when +others hove too, and get there, all snarled up with shore lines and +political duffel, I'm nigh ready to burst something." + +"Rhoda said that you were at the Dunsacks' this afternoon; I saw Edward +in Boston yesterday." + +"I don't care if you saw the Flying Dutchman," the other asserted, +breathing stormily. + +"It's curious about the China service," William went on; "anyone out +there for a number of years gets to look Chinese. Edward is as yellow as +a lemon, but nothing like as pleasant a color. Thin, too, and nervous; +hands crawling all over themselves, never still for a moment. He didn't +say why he had left Heard and Company, and I didn't quite like to ask. +Edward came on from England in the _Queen of the West,_ the Swallow Tail +Line. I did ask him if he were going to settle in Salem, but he couldn't +say; there was something about a Boston house. It seems that Gerrit +carried his chest and things from Canton in the _Nautilus_ as an +accommodation." + +Suddenly Jeremy felt very insecure, his body heavy and knees weak, +failing. He stumbled back into the chair by the fireplace, William at his +side. "You must pay some attention to what you're told, father," the +latter said anxiously. "How are you now?" + +"I'm all right," he declared testily, trying to brush away the dimness +floating before his eyes. + +"Shall I help you up to bed?" + +"I'll go to bed when I've a mind to," Jeremy retorted. "I am not under +cover yet by a long reach." To establish his well-being he rose and moved +to the secretary, where he got a fresh cheroot, and lighted it with +slightly trembling fingers. He grumbled inarticulately, remembering his +own exploits in the carrying of sail and record runs under the bluff bows +of the Honorable John Company itself. The ebb tide, he thought, returning +to William's figure and its amplification by himself. So much that had +been good sweeping out to sea never to return....Gerrit long overdue. + +Once more he shook himself free of numbing dread; automatically he had +fallen back into the passage from the secretary to the hall door. He saw +that he had worn threadbare a narrow strip where his feet had so often +pressed. It would be necessary for him to see about a fresh case of +cheroots soon, primes, too; they needn't try to put him off with the +second quality. He was put off a great deal lately; people pretended to +be listening to him, and all the time their thoughts were somewhere else, +either that or they were merely politely concealing the opinion that he +was out of date, of no importance. + +His family were always providing against his fatigue or excitement; at +the countinghouse the gravest problems, he was certain, were withheld +from him. At the occurrence of this possibility a fresh indignation +poured through his brain. Fuming and tramping up and down he determined +that to-morrow he would show any of the clerks who didn't attend to his +wishes or counsel that he was still senior partner of Ammidon, Ammidon +and Saltonstone. + + + + +III + +The evening was surprisingly warm and still, with an intermittent +falling of rain, and the windows were open in the room where Rhoda +Ammidon sat regarding half dismayed her reflection in the mirror of a +dressing table. A few minutes before she had discovered her first gray +hair. It was not only the mere assault upon her vanity, but, too, a +realization far deeper--here was the stamp of time, the mark of a +considerable progress toward the end itself. Her emotions were +various; but, curiously enough, almost the first had been a wave of +passionate tenderness for William and her little girls. The shock of +finding that arresting sign was now giving place to a purely feminine +reaction. She considered for a moment the purchase of a bottle of hair +coloring, then with a disdainful gesture dismissed such a temporary +and troublesome measure. + +She kept an undiminishing pride in her appearance and a relentless care +and choice in the details of her dress, pleased by the knowledge that +the attention men paid her showed no indication yet of growing +perfunctory. She had been much admired both in Boston and London +through her youth, and she recalled her early doubts at the prospect of +life in Salem; but she realized now that, as her years and children +multiplied, she was by imperceptible degrees returning to a traditional +New England heritage. + +She was glad, however, that William's wide connections lifted him above a +purely local view; William was really a splendid husband. Rhoda was +conscious of this together with a clear recognition of his faults, and +quite aside from both existed her unreasoning affection. The latter +vividly dominated her, shut out, on any occasion of stress, all else; but +for the most part she held him in an attitude of mildly amused +comprehension. + +Gerrit Ammidon she hadn't seen until after her engagement to William, and +she sometimes thought of the former in connection with marriage. Gerrit, +she admitted to herself, was a far more romantic figure than William; not +handsomer--William Ammidon was very good looking--but more arresting, +with his hair swinging about his ears and intense blue gaze. An exciting +man, she decided again, for whom one would eternally put on the loveliest +clothes possible; a man to make you almost as ravishingly happy as +miserable, and, therefore, disturbing as a husband. + +At this her mind returned to her gray hair and the fact that the metal +backlog of the kitchen fire, which supplied the house with hot water, had +been leaking over the hearth. A feeling of melancholy possessed her at +the turning of younger visions into commonplace necessities, but she +dismissed it with the shadow of a smile--it was absurd for a woman of her +age to dwell on such frivolous things. Yet she still lingered to wonder +if men too kept intact among their memories the radiant image of their +youth, if they ever thought of it with tenderness and extenuation. She +decided in the negative, convinced that men, even at the end of many +years, never definitely lost connection with their early selves, there +was always a trace of hopefulness, of jaunty vanity--sometimes winning +and sometimes merely ridiculous--attached to their decline. + +Rhoda stirred and moved to a window, gazing vaguely out into the moist +blue obscurity. Sidsall, she realized, was maturing with a disconcerting +rapidity. Depths were opening in the girl's being at which she, her +mother, could only guess. It was exactly as if a crystal through and +through which she had gazed had suddenly been veiled by rosy clouds. +Sidsall had a charming nature, direct and unsuspicious and generously +courageous. + +There was a sound at the door, and William entered, patently ruffled. It +was clear that he had had another disagreement with his father. "It's +shameful how you disturb him," she declared. + +"Look here, Rhoda," he replied vigorously. "I won't continually be put in +the wrong. It seems as if I had no affection for the old gentleman. I +always have the difficult thing to do, and he has been slightly +contemptuous ever since I was a boy because I didn't go to sea. The truth +is--while I wouldn't think of letting him know--he's a tremendous +nuisance pottering about the countingrooms with his stories of +antediluvian trading voyages. And worse is to come--these new clipper +ships and passages have knocked the wind out of the old slow +full-bottomed vessels. We have about determined to reorganize our fleet +entirely, and are in treaty with Donald McKay for an extreme clipper type +of twelve hundred tons. + +"Of course, he's my parent; but I wonder at Saltonstone's patience. +Father won't hear of the opium trade and it's turning over thousand per +cent profits. We are privately operating two fast topsail schooners in +India now, but it's both inconvenient and a risk. They ought to be put +right under our house flag for credit alone. It is all bound to come up, +and then he'll go off like a cannon." + +"Couldn't you wait till he's dead, William?" she asked. "It won't be a +great while now. I can see that he has failed dreadfully from this worry +about Gerrit." + +"Five years will make all the difference. We are losing tea cargoes every +month to these ships making sensational runs. I don't talk much, Rhoda, +about, well--my family; but I am as upset over Gerrit as anyone else. +Except for a tendency to carry too much sail there's not a better +shipmaster out of New England. Not only that ... he's my brother. It's +easy to like Gerrit; his opinions are a little wild, and an exaggerated +sense of justice gets him into absurd situations; yet his motives are the +purest possible. Perhaps that word pure describes him better than any +other, however people who didn't know might smile. As a man, Rhoda, I can +assert that he is surprisingly clean-hearted." + +"That's a wonderful quality," she agreed; "why anyone should smile is +beyond me. William, would you know that my hair is turning gray, do I +look a lot older than I did five years ago?" + +He studied her complacently. "You've hardly changed since I married you," +he asserted; "a great deal prettier than these young cramped figgers I +see about. The girls, too, are just like you--good armfuls all of them." + +The next day was flawlessly sunny, the slightly stirring air reminiscent +of the sea, and the lilacs everywhere were masses of purple and white +bloom. Stepping down from her carriage on the morning round of shopping +Rhoda encountered Nettie Vollar leaving one of the stores of Cheapside. + +"Why, Nettie," she exclaimed kindly, "it's been the longest time since +I've seen you. It is just no use asking you to the house, and it seems, +with nothing to do, I never have a minute for the visits I'd like to +make." Nettie, she thought, was a striking girl, no--woman, with her +stack of black hair, dark sparkling eyes and red spot on either cheek. +More fetching in profile than full face, her nose had a pert angle and +her cleft chin was enticingly rounded. Later she would be too fat but now +her body was ripely perfect. + +"I don't go anywhere much," she responded, in a voice faintly and +instinctively antagonistic. "I don't like kindness in people; but I +suppose I ought to be contented--that's all I'll probably ever get from +anybody who is a thing in the world. Mrs. Ammidon," she hesitated, then +continued more rapidly, her gaze lowered, "have you had any word about +Captain Ammidon yet? Have they given up hope of the _Nautilus_?" + +"We've had no news," Rhoda told her, and then she added her conviction +that Gerrit would return safely. + +"He was better than kind," Nettie Vollar said. "I'm sure he liked me, +Mrs. Ammidon, or he would have if everything hadn't been spoiled by +grandfather. He thinks I'm a dreadful sin, you know, a punishment on +mother. But inside of me I don't feel different from others. Sometimes +I--I wonder that I don't actually go sinful, I've had opportunities, and +being good hasn't offered me much, has it?" + +"You are naturally a good girl, Nettie," Rhoda answered simply; "but you +must be braver than ordinary. If we think differently from Salem still it +is in Salem we must live; I keep many of my beliefs secret just as you +must control most of your feelings." + +The other responded with a hard little laugh. "Thank you, though. You are +more like Gerrit, Captain Ammidon, than Mrs. Saltonstone, his own sister. +I hate her," she declared. "I hate all the Salem women, so superior and +condescending and Christian. They always have a silly look of wonder at +their charity in speaking to me... when they do. They act as if it's just +a privilege for me to be in their church. I'd rather go to a cotillion at +Hamilton Hall any day." + +"Of course you would," Rhoda agreed. There seemed to be so little for her +to offer or say that she was relieved when they parted. The afternoon +grew really sultry, but, when the shadows had lengthened, she encountered +Jeremy Ammidon wandering aimlessly about the hall and, his fine palmetto +hat and wanghee in her hand, urged him out to the East India Marine +Society. "It's much too beautiful a day for the house," she insisted. + +"There's nothing remarkable about it," he returned; "wind's too light and +variable, hardly enough to hold way on a ship." There were the stirring +strains of a quickstep without; at the door they saw the Salem Cadets, +preceded by Flag's Band, marching in columns of fours into Washington +Square. The white breeches with scarlet coats and brass buttons made a +gay showing on the green Common, the sunlight glittered on silver braid +and tassels, gilt and pompons, scaled chin straps and varnished leather. + +The old man's face grew dark at the brilliant line drawn up for +inspection, and he muttered a period about cursed young Whigs. "Wouldn't +have one of the scoundrels in my house if I could help it. Don't +understand William; he's too damned mild for my idea of a good citizen. + +"Why, it's only reasonable that a country's got to be run like a ship, +from the quarter-deck. How far do you suppose a vessel would get if the +crew hung about aft and chose representatives from the port and starboard +watches and galley for a body to lay the course and make sail?" + +"Please, father," she protested, laughing. "Do go along into the sun." +She gently pushed him toward the door. Rhoda realized the fact that +William was more than half Whig already. That threatened still another +point of difference, of departure, from all that his father held to be +sacred necessities. Jeremy, like most of the older shipmasters, was a +bitter Federalist, an upholder of a strongly centralized autocratic +government. He left, grumbling, and the staccato commands of the military +evolutions on the Common rang through the slumberous afternoon. + +She lingered in the doorway and Laurel appeared, jigging with excitement. + +"Can't I get nearer," she begged; "there's nothing to see from here." Her +mother replied, "Ask Camilla to take you over to the Square." Camilla +appeared indifferently. "I don't know why anyone should be flustered," +she observed; "it isn't like the Fourth of July with a concert and +fireworks." + +As they were going, Sidsall came out in a white tarlatan dress worked +with sprays of yellow barley, her face glowing with color, and sat on +the steps. "Positively," her mother said, looking down on the mass of +bright chestnut hair in a chenille net, "we'll soon have to have you up +in braids." + +"I wish I might," she responded. "And Hodie is too silly--I can't +get her to lace me tightly enough. She says such things are engines +of the devil." + +"It's still a little soon for that--" Rhoda broke off as a slight erect +man at the verge of middle age turned in from Pleasant Street upon them. +"Roger," she said cordially as he came quickly up the steps. He greeted +her lightly and bent over Sidsall with an extended hand: + +"The apple blossoms, I see, are here." + +Rhoda wondered what nonsense Roger Brevard was repeating; Sidsall's face +was hidden from view. But then Roger was always like that, his manner was +never at a loss for the appropriate gesture. He had a great many points +in common with her, she thought; neither had been born in Salem, and his +rightful setting was in the best metropolitan drawing-rooms. He had been +here for a dozen years, now, in charge of the local affairs of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company; and she often wondered why, a member +of a family socially notable in New York, he continued in a city, a +position, of comparative unimportance. + +She was, she said, going back to the lawn, the glare of Pleasant Street +was fatiguing; and she proceeded through the house with the surety of his +following. But on the close-cut emerald sod there was no sign of him, and +she found a seat in a basket chair by the willow tree beyond. She waited +for Roger with a small but growing impatience; he must be done +immediately with whatever he might say to Sidsall, and she wished to +discuss the possibilities of a rumor that President Polk intended to +visit Salem. There would be a collation, perhaps a military ball, to +arrange; Franklin Hall would be the better place for the latter. She +heard a faint silvery echo of laughter--Sidsall. It was extremely nice, +of course, in Roger Brevard to entertain her daughter, though she didn't +care to have the child give the effect of receiving men yet. + +It was, finally, Sidsall who appeared, unaccompanied, in the drawing-room +window. She came forward to where Rhoda sat, her face still stirred with +amusement. "Mr. Brevard went on," she said in response to her mother's +look of inquiry. "That's rather odd," the latter commented almost +sharply. "He had only a few minutes," the girl explained. She sank into a +seat and mood of abstraction. Rhoda studied her with a veiled glance. +Hers were exceptional children, they had given her scarcely an hour's +concern; and she must see that in the unsettling period which Sidsall was +now entering she was not spoiled. + +Perhaps Laurel entertained her more than the others. She was a very +normal little girl, not thoughtful like Janet, and without Camilla's +exaggerated poise; but she had a picturesque imagination; and her +companionship with her grandfather was delightful. The latter addressed +her quite as if she were a fellow shipmaster; and she had acquired some +remarkable sea expressions, some deplorable and others enigmatic: only +to-day, questioned about the order of her room, she had said that it was +"all square by the lifts and braces." For this her grandfather had given +her a gold piece. + +There was, she knew, an excellent school for older girls at Lausanne; +and, revolving the possibility of obtaining for Sidsall some of the +European advantages she, Rhoda, had enjoyed, the following afternoon she +drove to the Cliffords' on Marlboro Street for a consultation with Madra, +who had spent a number of seasons on Lake Leman. In a cool parlor with +yellow Tibet rugs and maroon hangings she had tea while Madra Clifford, +thin and imperious, with a settled ill health like white powder and a +priceless Risajii shawl, conversed in a shrill key. + +"Caroline has been in bed for a week. That vulgar Dr. Fisk, with his +elbow in her bosom, tried five times to extract her tooth, and then broke +it to the roots. I hear there is a galvanic ring for rheumatism. The pain +in my joints is excruciating; I have an idea my bones are changing into +chalk; the right knee will hardly bend." The darkly colored shawl with +its border of cypress intensified her sunken blue-traced temples and the +pallid lips. She developed the subject of her indisposition, sparing no +detail; while Rhoda Ammidon, from her superabundance of well-being, half +pitied the other and was half revolted at the mind touched, too, by +bodily ill. The fortune accumulated by the hardy Clifford men, flogged +out of crews and stained by the blood of primitive and dull savages--the +Cliffords were notorious for their brutal driving--now served only to +support Madra's debility and a horde of unscrupulous panderers to her +obsession. + +"Edward Dunsack is in Salem," she continued; "and I've heard he has the +most peculiar appearance. Very probably the result of the unmentionable +practices of the Orient. Father liked the Chinese though; so many of our +shipmasters have, and not always the merchants.... What was I saying? Oh, +yes, Edward Dunsack. I understand you had a distinct alarm in that +quarter, about the girl and Gerrit Ammidon. But I forgot to say how glad +I am about Gerrit. You must have been horribly worried--" + +"What do you mean?" Rhoda demanded. + +"Why, haven't you heard! The Nautilus was sighted. News came from Boston. +She ought to be into-day, I believe. I suppose William has been too +concerned to get you word at home." + +Rhoda Ammidon rose immediately, surprised at the force of the emotion +that blurred her eyes with tears. Gerrit was safe! Possibly they had +been told at Java Head now, but she must be there with Jeremy Ammidon; +surprises, even as joyful as this, were a great strain on him. +Neglecting the object of her visit she returned at once to Pleasant +Street, urging the coachman to an undignified haste, and keeping the +carriage at the door. + +Her father-in-law was at his secretary in the library, and it was evident +that he had heard nothing of his son's return. "Well, Rhoda," he said, +swinging about; "what a bright cheek you have--like Laurel's." + +"I feel bright, father," she replied with a nod and smile. "After this +none of you will be able to laugh at my predictions. You see, a woman's +feeling is often more correct than masculine judgment." His momentary +bewilderment gave place to a painfully strained interrogation. "Yes," she +told him, "but we are none of us surprised--Gerrit is almost in Salem +harbor." She moved near him and, with a veiled anxiety, laid her hand +upon his shoulder. + +"A splendid sailor," he muttered. It seemed as if Rhoda could really hear +the dull rising pounding of his shaken heart. But his excitement +subsided, gave way to a normal concern, a flood of vain questions and +preparation to go down to the wharf. In the midst of this a message came +from the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone that the +_Nautilus_ would dock within an hour. + +A small crowd had already gathered on Derby Wharf when Rhoda and her +companion made their way past the warehouses built at intervals along the +wharf to the place where the _Nautilus_ would be warped in. The +wharfinger saluted them, William Ammidon joined his wife, and beyond she +could see James Saltonstone conversing with the Surveyor of the Port. + +The afternoon was serene, a faint air drew in from the sea; and with it, +sweeping slowly inside Peach's Point, was the tall ship with her canvas +towering gold in the western sun against the distance of sea and sky. As +Rhoda watched she saw their house flag--a white field checkered in +blue--fluttering from the main royal truck. + +"The royals are coming in!" Jeremy Ammidon exclaimed, gripping Rhoda's +arm. "He is lowering his top-gallant yards and hauling up the courses! My +dear, there's nothing on God's earth finer than a ship." + +The _Nautilus_ slipped along surprisingly fast. Rhoda could now see the +crew moving about and coiling the gear. + +"Look, father, there's Gerrit on the quarter-deck." + +The shipmaster, shorter than common, with broad assertive shoulders in +formal black, was easily recognizable. A woman with a worn flushed face +pressed by Jeremy. "Andrew's there, too," she told them, "Mr. Broadrick, +the mate." + +The ship moved more slowly, under her topsails and jibs, in a soundless +progress with the ripples falling away in water like dark green glass, +liquid and still. She was now but a short distance from the end of the +wharf. Mr. Broadrick was forward between the knightheads with the crew +ranged to the starboard and at the braces, while Gerrit Ammidon stood +with one hand on the quarter-deck railing and the other holding a brass +speaking trumpet to his lips: + +"Let go your port fore and after braces, Mr. Broadrick; brace the fore +and mizzen yards sharp up, leave the main braces fast, and lay the main +topsail to the mast. As she comes to the wind let the jibs run down." He +turned to the man at the wheel, "Helm hard a starboard." + +"Hard a starboard, sir." + +The ship answered quickly and rounded to while her weather fore and +mizzen yards flew forward until they touched the starboard backstays +and the men hauled in the slack of the braces. With the main yard +square to check her way the jibs drooped down along the stays. "Mr. +Broadrick, you may let go the starboard anchor and furl sails." The +mate grasped a top maul and struck the trigger of the ring stopper a +clean blow, the anchor splashed into the water with a rumbling cable, +and the _Nautilus_ was home. + +Gerrit Ammidon walked hurriedly to the companionway and went below, while +the mate continued, "Stand by to let go your topsail halliards and man +the gear. Sharper with the mizzen sheets and unbend those clew lines and +garnets... stow the clews in a harbor furl." At a rhythmic shout the +bunts of the three topsails came up together. + +The wind had died away and the flags hung listlessly from the main truck +and spanker gaff. The water of the harbor was unstirred except for the +swirls at the oar blades of an incoming quarter boat and the warp paying +out at her stern. The voice of the mate, the chantey of the crew heaving +at the capstan bars, came to Rhoda subdued: + +_"The times are hard and wages low, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I guess it's time for us to go, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +I thought I heard the old man say, + Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her. +To-morrow we will get our pay + .......leave her"_ + +Rhoda Ammidon discovered herself leaning forward tensely, her hands shut +in excitement and emotion; and she relaxed with a happy laugh as the +_Nautilus_, with her yards exactly square and rigging taut, her sides and +figurehead and ports bright with newly laid on paint, moved to the wharf. + +It seemed to her that Gerrit, descending a short stage from the deck, +looked markedly older than when he had last sailed. Yet he had a +surprisingly youthful air still; partly, she thought, from the manner in +which he wore his hair, falling in a waving thick line about his cheeks. +His mouth was at once fresh and severe, his face clean shaven, and his +eyes--if possible--more directly blue than ever. + +"I'll take the ship's manifest to the Collector," he said, greeting them +and impatiently waving aside the vendors after the cook's slush, the +excited women and runners and human miscellany crowding forward. "Then +Java Head." He paused, speaking over his shoulder: "I'd be thankful if +you would send the barouche down in an hour or so." + +Driving back, her hand on Jeremy Ammidon's knee, Rhoda wondered at +Gerrit's request. It was entirely unlike him to ride in the barouche; +rather he had always derided it in the terms of his calling. However, +unable to find a solution for her surprise, she listened to the other's +comments and speculations: + +"I suppose William's first question will be about the cargo, and, of +course, I hope the ship has done well. But I'm just glad to have Gerrit +back; I am for a fact, Rhoda." + +"We all are," she assured him, "and William as happy as any. You mustn't +be misled by his manner, father. I hope the supper will be good and +please you." + +"Gerrit will be satisfied with anything," he chuckled. "Probably he's +been out of beans even for a month. Did you notice that fore-royal mast +and yard? They were rigged at sea: Gerrit carried them away. It hurts him +to take in a sail. Some day I tell him he'll drag the spars out of his +ship. His confounded pride will founder him." He made these charges +lightly, with a palpable underlying pride; and, Rhoda knew, would permit +no one else to criticize his son. + +She found her daughters in a state of gala excitement on the front steps. +"Uncle Gerrit in the _Nautilus,_" Laurel chanted; and it was evident that +Camilla herself was thrilled. They all went up to put on holiday dress. +Rhoda turned to the coachman, "Have the barouche at the head of Derby +Wharf in an hour." + +Gerrit's unusual demand again puzzled her. A fantastic possibility lodged +in her brain--perhaps he was not alone. She pulled the bell rope for her +maid, changed into black moiré with cut steel bretelles, and selected +the peacock coloring of a Peri-taus shawl. She found her husband with his +father in the library. "I understand it's a splendid cargo," William +remarked. Jeremy nodded triumphantly at her, and she expressed a half +humorous resentment at this mercenary display. "He ought to be here," the +younger man declared, consulting his watch. As he spoke Rhoda saw the +barouche draw up before the house. She had a glimpse of a figure at +Gerrit Ammidon's side in extravagantly brilliant satins; there was a +sibilant whisper of rich materials in the hall, and the master entered +the library with a pale set face. + +"Father," he said, "Rhoda and William, allow me--my wife, Taou Yuen." + +Rhoda Ammidon gave an uncontrollable gasp as the Chinese woman sank in a +fluttering prostration of color at Jeremy's feet. He ejaculated, "God +bless me," and started back. William's face was inscrutable, unguessed +lines appeared about his severe mouth. Her own sensation was one of +incredulity touched with mounting anger and feeling of outrage. The woman +rose, but only to sink again before William: she was on her knees and, +supported by her hands, bent forward and touched her forehead to the +floor three times. Gerrit laughed shortly. "She was to shake your hands; +we went over and over it on shipboard. But anything less than the +_Kûl'on_ was too casual for her." + +She was now erect with a freer murmur of greeting to Rhoda. The latter +was instantly aware of one certainty--Chinese she might be, she was, but +no less absolutely aristocratic. Her face, oval and slightly flat, was +plastered with paint on paint, but her gesture, the calm scrutiny of +enigmatic black eyes under delicately arched brows, exquisite quiet +hands, were all under the most admirable instinctive command. Rhoda said: + +"I see that I am to welcome you for Gerrit's family." The other, in slow +lisping English replied: + +"Thank you greatly. I am humbled to the earth before your goodness." + +"You will want to go to your room," Rhoda continued mechanically. "It was +only prepared for one, but I'll send a servant up at once." She was +enraged at the silent stupidity of the three men and flashed a silent +command at her husband. + +"This is a decided surprise," the latter at last addressed his brother; +"nor can I pretend that it is pleasant." Jeremy Ammidon's gaze wandered +blankly from Gerrit to the woman, then back to his son. + +Never before had Rhoda seen such lovely clothes: A long gown with wide +sleeves of blue-black satin, embroidered in peach-colored flower petals +and innumerable minute sapphire and orange butterflies, a short +sleeveless jacket of sage green caught with looped red jade buttons and +threaded with silver and indigo high-soled slippers crusted and tasseled +with pearls. Her hair rose from the back in a smooth burnished loop. +There were long pins of pink jade carved into blossoms, a quivering +decoration of paper-thin gold leaves with moonstones in glistening +drops, and a band of coral lotus buds. Pierced stone bracelets hung +about her delicate wrists, fretted crystal balls swung from the lobes of +her ears; and clasped on the ends of several fingers were long pointed +filagrees of ivory. + +"Taou Yuen," Gerrit repeated shortly, with his challenging bright gaze. +"That means Peach Garden. My wife is a Manchu," he asserted in a more +biting tone; "a Manchu and the daughter of a noble. Thank you, Rhoda, +particularly. But I have always counted on you. Will you go up with her? +That is if--if my father has a room, a place, for us." + +"This will always be your home, Gerrit," Jeremy said slowly, with the +long breath of a diver in deep waters. + + + + +IV + +In the room that had been his since early maturity Gerrit Ammidon gave +an involuntary sigh of relief. Taou Yuen, his wife, was standing in the +middle of the floor, gazing about with a faint and polite smile. Her eyes +rested on a yellow camphor chest--one of the set brought home by his +father--on a severe high range of drawers made of sycamore with six legs, +on her brilliant reflection in the eagle-crowned mirror above the mantel, +and the sleigh bed with low heavily curved ends. + +The situation below, however brief and, on the whole, reasonably +conducted, had been surprisingly difficult. At the same time that he had +felt no necessity to apologize for his marriage he had known that Taou +Yuen must surprise, yes--shock, his family. She was Chinese, to them a +heathen: they would be unable to comprehend any mitigating dignity of +rank. Where they'd actually suffer, he realized, would be in the +attitude of Salem, the stupid gabble, the censure and cold pity caused +by his wife. + +Personally he regarded these with the contempt he felt for so many of the +qualities that on shore bound the interests of everyone into a single +common concern. It gave him pleasure to assault the authority and +importance of such public prejudice and self-opinion; but, unavoidably +implicating his family, at once a part of himself and Salem, he was +conscious of the fact that he had laid them all open to disagreeable +moments. He was sorry for this, and his regret, principally materialized +by his father's hurt confusion, had unexpectedly cast a shadow on a scene +to which he had looked forward with a distinct sense of comedy. Where the +realities were concerned he had no fear of Taou Yuen's ability to justify +herself completely. He possessed a stupendous admiration for her. + +He watched her now with the mingled understanding and mystification that +gave his life with her such a decided charm. Her gaze had fastened on the +mirror-stand above the drawers: she must be wondering if she would have +to paint and prepare herself for him here, openly. He knew that she +considered it a great impropriety for her face to be seen bare; all the +elaborate processes of her morning toilet must be privately conducted. He +recognized this, but had no idea what she actually thought of the room, +of his family, of the astonishing situation into which her heart had +betrayed her. + +One and then another early hope he saw at once were vain. It had seemed +to him that in America, in Salem, she might become less evidently +Chinese; not in the incongruous horror of Western clothes, but in her +attitude, in a surrender to superficial customs; he had pictured her as +merging distinctively into the local scene. In China he had hoped that in +the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street she would appear +less Eastern; but, beyond all doubt, here she was enormously more so. The +strange repressed surrounding accentuated every detail of her Manchu pomp +and color. The frank splendor of her satins and carved jades and +embroidery, her immobile striking face loaded with carmine and glinting +headdress, the flawless loveliness of hands with the pointed nail +protectors, were, in his room, infinitely dramatized. + +The other, less secure possibility that she might essentially change +perished silently. In a way his wish had been a presumption--that a +member of the oldest and most subtle civilization existing would, if she +were able, adopt such comparatively crude habits of life and thought. + +She moved slowly up to the bed, examining it curiously; and again he +understood her look of doubt--in China beds were called _kang_, or +stoves, from the fact that they were more often than not a platform of +brick with an opening beneath for hot coals. She fingered the ball fringe +of the coverlet, and then turned with amazement to the soft pillow. A +hand with the stone bracelet falling back from her smooth wrist rose to +the complicated edifice of her headdress. + +"Your pillow is coming along from the ship," he told her; "the women here +do up their hair every morning." + +She considered this with geranium lips slightly parted on flawless teeth, +and nodded slowly. The westering sun striking through the window +overlooking the Common illuminated her with a flat gold unreality. + +"I'll have a day bed brought for you," he continued, realizing that, as +the result of fortunate chance, she understood most of what he said +without an actual command of the individual words. In reply she sank +before him in the deep Manchu gesture with one knee sweeping the floor, +the humility of her posture dignified by grace. He touched the crystal +globe of an earring, pinched her chin, in the half light manner by which +he instinctively expressed his affection for her. She was calm and +pleased. "Taou Yuen," he continued, "you miss Shanghai, with the wall of +ten gates and the river Woosung stuck full of masts. You'll never think +Salem is a paradise like Soochow." + +"This is your city," she replied, slowly choosing the words. "Your +ancestors are here." There was not a shade of regret in her voice or +manner. He tried once more, and as vainly as ever, to penetrate the veil +of her perfect serenity. She never, it became apparent, descended from +the most inflexible self-control; small emotions--surface gayety of +mood, curiosity, the faintest possible indication of contempt, he had +learned to distinguish; the fact that she cared enough for him to desert +every familiar circumstance was evident; but beyond these he was +powerless to reach. + +His own emotions were hardly less obscured: the dominating feeling was +his admiration for her exquisite worldly wisdom, the perfection of her +bodily beauty, and the philosophy which bore her above the countless +trivialities that destroyed the dignity of western minds. He realized +that her paint and embroidery covered a spirit as cold and tempered as +fine metal. She was totally without the social sentiment of his own +world; but she was equally innocent of its nauseous hypocrisy, the +pretensions of a piety covering commercial dishonesty, obscenity of +thought and spreading scandal. The injustice he saw practiced on shore +had always turned him with a sense of relief to the cleansing challenge +of the sea; always, brought in contact with cunning and self-seeking men +and heartless schemes, with women cheapened by a conviction of the +indecency of life, he was in a state of hot indignation. From all this +Taou Yuen offered a complete escape. + +On the purely feminine side she was a constant delight, the last possible +refinement, he told himself, of instinct and effect. She was incapable of +the least vulgarity; never for an instant did she flag from the necessity +of beauty, never had he seen her too weary for an adornment laborious in +a hundred difficult conventions. She was, too, a continuous source of +entertainment, even as his wife she never ceased to be a spectacle; his +consciousness of her as a being outside himself persisted. + +"I must go down and see where our things are," he said, rising. In the +hall he stopped before the tall clock whose striking was a part of his +early memories. Below, the house seemed empty; and, instead of turning to +the front door and his purpose, he went into the drawing-room. + +The long glass doors to the garden were open, and the interior was filled +with the scent of lilacs. The room itself had always reminded him of +them--it was pale in color, cool gilt and lavender brocade and white +panels. Nothing had been moved or changed: the inlaid cylinder fall desk +with its garlands of painted flowers on the light waxed wood stood at the +left, the pole screen with the embroidered bouquet was before the fire +blind, the girandoles, scrolled in ormolu and hung with crystal lusters, +held the shimmer of golden reflections on the walls. + +He had remembered the drawing-room at Java Head as a place of enchanted +perfection; in his childhood its still serenity had seemed a presentment +of what might be hoped for in heaven. The thought of the room as it was +now, open but a little dim to the lilacs and warm afternoon, had haunted +him as the measure of all peace and serenity in moments of extreme +danger, his ship laboring in elemental catastrophes and in remote seas. +Its fragrance had touched him through the miasma of Whampoa Reach, +waiting for the lighters of tea to float down from Canton; standing off +in the thunder squalls of the night for the morning sea breeze to take +him into Rio; over a cognac in the coffee stalls of the French market at +New Orleans, the chanteys ringing from the cotton gangs along the levees: + +_"Were you ever down in Mobile Bay? +Aye, aye, pump away."_ + +As he left the room he saw Laurel, William's youngest child, and he +imprisoned her in an arm. "You haven't asked what I've got for you in my +sea chest," he said. Gerrit was very fond of all four of the rosy-cheeked +vigorous girls, and a sense of injury touched him at Laurel's reserved +manner. She studied him with a wondering uneasy concern. This he realized +was the result of bring home Taou Yuen; and an aggravated impatience, a +growing rebellion, seized him. He wouldn't stay with his wife at Java +Head a day longer than necessary; and if anyone, in his family or +outside, showed the slightest disdain he could retaliate with his +knowledge of local pettiness, the backbiting enmities and secret lapses. + +God knew he didn't want trouble, all he asked was a reasonable liberty, +the semblance, anyhow, of a courtesy toward his wife. Whatever might be +said would be of no moment to her--except in the attitude of his +father--and Taou Yuen's indifference furnished a splendid example for +himself. He wondered why the devil he was continually putting his fingers +in affairs that couldn't concern him. No one thanked him for his trouble, +they considered him something of a fool--a good sailor but peculiar. The +damned unexpected twists of his sense of the absurd, too, got him into +constant difficulty. + +His father was standing outside the principal entrance; and, as he joined +him on the steps, he saw two men from the _Nautilus_ carrying his ship's +desk by the beckets let in the ends. The wind was blowing gently up +Pleasant Street; the men, at his gesture, lifted their burden up the +steps, between the direction of the wind and Jeremy Ammidon. The latter +rose instantly into one of his dark rages: + +"What do you mean, you damned packetrats--coming up a companionway to the +windward of me! I'll have no whalers' habits here." He repeated +discontentedly that everything on sea and land had fallen into a decline. +Others followed with a number of Korean boxes, strapped and locked with +copper, and wicker baskets. A man in charge said to Gerrit Ammidon: + +"The chest was left for Mr. Dunsack at the foot of Hardy Street, sir, as +you ordered. The inspector sent it off complimentary with your personal +things." Gerrit asked, "He didn't stop to get a whiff of it then?" The +other shook his head. "Edward Dunsack asked me to ship it here and +explained that it was only junk he was bringing home, but what it amounts +to is about a case of Patna opium. He's lucky." + +They turned inside, William was in the library, and Gerrit instinctively +followed his father into the room. William surveyed him with a moody +discontent. "What I can't understand," he proceeded; "is why you call it +a marriage, why you brought your woman here to us, to Rhoda and the +children." + +"It's simple enough," Gerrit replied; "Taou Yuen is my wife, we are +married exactly as Rhoda and you are. She is not my woman in the sense +you mean. I won't allow that, William." + +"How can it matter what you will or will not allow when everyone'll think +the other? Shipmasters have had Chinese mistresses before, yes, and +smuggled them into Salem; but this conduct of yours is beyond speech." + +Gerrit Ammidon said: + +"Don't carry this too far." Anger like a hot cloud oppressed him. "I am +married legally and, if anything, by a ceremony less preposterous than +your own. Taou Yuen is not open to any man or woman's suspicions. I am +overwhelmingly indebted to her." + +"But she's not your race," William Ammidon muttered; "she is a Confucian +or Taoist, or some such thing." + +"You're Unitarian one day a week, and father is Congregational, Hodie's +a Methodist, and no one knows what I am," Gerrit cried. "Good God, what +does all that matter! Isn't a religion a religion? Do you suppose a +Lord worth the name would be anything but entertained by such spiteful +little dogmas. A sincere greased nigger with his voodoo must be as good +as any of us." + +"That is too strong, Gerrit," Jeremy objected. "You'll get nowhere crying +down Christianity." + +"If I could find it," the younger declared bitterly, "I'd feel +differently. It's right enough in the Bible. ...Well, we'll go on to +Boston to-morrow." + +"This is your home," his father repeated. "Naturally William, all of us +have been disturbed; but nothing beyond that. I trust we are a loyal +family. What you've done can't be mended with hard words." + +"She may become very fashionable," Gerrit mockingly told his +brother. "It'll be a blow to Camilla," Jeremy chuckled. "Some rice +must be cooked." + +"Manchus don't live on rice," Gerrit replied. "They don't bind the +feet either nor wear the common Chinese clothes. Rhoda will +understand better." + +Again in his room he found his wife bending over a gorgeous heap of +satins, bright mazarines and ornaments. "We'll go down to supper soon," +he told her. Already there were signs of her presence about the room: +the chest of drawers was covered with gold and jade and green amber, +painted paper fans set on ivory and tortoise shell, and lacquer fan +boxes; coral hairpins, sandalwood combs, silver rouge pots and rose +quartz perfume bottles with canary silk cords and tassels. On a familiar +table was her pipe, wound in gilt wire, and the flowered satin tobacco +case. An old coin was hanging at the head of the bed, a charm against +evil spirits; and on a stand was the amethyst image of Kuan-Yin _pu +tze_, the Goddess of Mercy. + +Taou Yuen sank on the floor with a little embarrassed laugh at the +confusion in which he had surprised her. "Let your attitude be grave," he +quoted from the Book of Rites with a pretended severity. Her amusement +rose in a ripple of mirth. He opened his desk, rearranging the disorder +brought about by its transportation; and, when he turned, she was +prostrate in the last rays of the sun. "_O-me-to-Fuh_," she breathed; +"_O-me-to-Fuh_," the invocation to Buddha. This at an end she announced, +"Now I am grave and respectful for your family." + +Supper, Gerrit admitted to himself, promised to be a painful occasion; +conversation rose sporadically and quickly died in glances of +irrepressible curiosity directed at his wife. She, on the contrary, +showed no pointed interest in her surroundings; and, in her hesitating +slurred English, answered Rhoda's few questions without putting any in +return. Camilla preserved a frozen silence; Sidsall was pleasantly +conciliating in her attitude toward the novel situation; Janet, her lips +moving noiselessly, was rapt in amazement; and Laurel smiled, abashed at +meeting Taou Yuen's eyes. + +The recounting of his delayed return offered Gerrit a welcome relief from +the pervading strain: "There's no tea to speak of at Shanghai, and I took +on a mixed cargo--pongees and porcelain and matting. I got camphor and +cassia and seven hundred peculs of ginger; then I decided to lay a course +to Manilla for some of the cheroots father likes. The weather was fine, I +had a good cargo, and, well--we pleasured out to Honolulu. I was riding +the island horses and shipping oil when the schooner _Kahemameha_ arrived +from the coast with the news of the gold discovery in California. Every +boat in the harbor was loaded to the trucks, crowded with passengers at +their weight in ginseng, and laid for San Francisco.... Well, I was +caught with the rest. + +"Five thousand dollars was offered me to carry a gentleman and his +attendant. Two others would pay three for the same purpose. Stowage was +worth what you asked.... The _Nautilus_ made a good run; then, about a +day from land, Mr. Broadrick told me that there wouldn't be a seaman on +the ship an hour after we anchored. They were all crazy with gold fever, +he said. I could see, too, that they were excited; the watch hung under +the weather rail jabbering like parrots; an uglier crew of sea lawyers +never developed. + +"There was one thing to do and I did it--called them aft and gave them +some hot scouse. They'd shipped for Salem and there they must go. I +didn't anchor, but stood off--the harbor was crowded with deserted +vessels like some hell for ships--and sent the jolly boat in with the +passengers and a couple of men. They didn't come back, you may be sure. +The consignment for San Francisco I carried out that evening, for I made +sail at once." + +"You had a pretty time getting a way on her," Jeremy Ammidon remarked. + +"I did," Gerrit acknowledged shortly. "The second mate's ear was taken +loose by a belaying pin that flew out of the dark like a gull. Mr. +Broadrick had a bad minute in the port forecastle after he had ordered +all hands on deck a third time. The fine weather left us, though, and +that kept the crew busy; we carried away the fore-royal mast and yard +before we were within a thousand miles of the latitude of the Horn. That +hit us like a cannon ball of ice. You know what it is at its worst," he +told his father; "weeks of snow and hail and fog and gales; and not for +anything can you keep an easting. God knows how a ship lives through the +seas; but she does, she does, and you lose the Magellan clouds astern." + +The old man nodded. + +Gerrit was relieved, however, when supper ended and his wife formally +departed for her room. Immediately slipping a hand inside Rhoda's arm he +conducted her to the drawing-room. "I'd like you to know more about it," +he said directly. + +"It was very extraordinary. A Lú Kikwáng was a high official of the +Canton Customs, and when Shanghai was declared an open port in forty-two +they made him hoppo there. I remembered him at Canton, a dignified old +duck with eighty or a hundred servants to keep anyone from possibly +speaking to him of business, but there had been some trouble about +foreign vessels selling saltpeter illegally and--he knew some English--we +had quite a friendly little consultation. Yet it hadn't prepared me for +his coming off to the _Nautilus_ at Shanghai with a linguist and an air +of the greatest mystery. His manner was beautiful, of course, absolutely +tranquil and that made what they said, what he hoped, seem even wilder +than it was. + +"His son, it appeared, had married and was accidentally drowned in the +Great Canal hardly a month after the ceremony. His widow belonged, then, +to the husband's family, and from that moment her father-in-law had had +nothing but bad luck. He had been robbed, his best stallion died, there +had been a flood in his tea which not only spoiled the crop but filled +the ground with silt--it was impossible to relate his calamities. He +consulted a necromancer at last and learned that it was all caused by the +presence of Taou Yuen. + +"This, you see, made the difficulty, as it's a frightful disgrace to +return a married daughter to her own father's home, and Lú had grown very +fond of her. She was extremely clever and virtuous, he said. The other +thing was to kill her or force her to commit suicide. He told me very +calmly that he would like to avoid this. + +"Then, in the linguist's most flowery manner, they went on with what Lú +Kikwáng proposed. He had recognized that I was a man of 'superior +propriety' and he wondered if I would take Taou Yuen away to America with +me. Very secretly though--there would be an uproar if it were known that +a Manchu woman had been married to a foreigner. I could see her first in +his garden without her knowing anything about it. + +"It's needless to tell you that I went with them that afternoon. A +meeting was arranged for the next day--" he broke off, sitting forward +with elbows on knees, gazing fixedly at his clasped hands. + +"You make that very clear, Gerrit," his sister-in-law replied; "I now +understand the past almost as well as yourself; but it's the future I'm +in doubt about. I saw immediately that your wife was not an ordinary +woman; it would be much easier if she were. Certainly you don't intend to +stay here, at Java Head; but that is immaterial. Wherever you go in +America it will not be suitable for her. She'll be no more at home with +your friends than you with hers. I feel terribly sad about it, Gerrit; +you were as selfish as only a man can be." + +"You are unjust, Rhoda," he protested. "Taou Yuen was willing to come. +She had read about other countries and saw a great deal of the English +wife of a rich Dutch factor at Shanghai; as Lú Kikwáng said, she's +wonderfully intelligent. I think she is happy, too." + +"Rubbish! Of course she loves you; I am not talking about that. How will +she get along while you are away on your long voyages? She couldn't +possibly live in the cabin of a ship, and do you suppose she'd be +contented in Salem with you absent for a year!" + +"We have as many chances of success as any other marriage," he asserted. +"The whole business is foolish enough." + +"That opinion might do for a single shipmaster, with only a month or two +out of the year on land. When you were free, Gerrit, your impatience with +convention was refreshing and possible. But can't you see that you have +given up your liberty! You have tied your hands. However loudly you may +cry out against society now you are a part of us, foolish or not. You'll +find that your wife has anchored you in Salem, Boston or Singapore, no +matter where you go: people will reach and hurt you through her. + +"She is very gorgeous and placid, superior on the surface; but the heart, +Gerrit--that isn't made of jade and ivory and silk." + +"I'll bring down your presents to-morrow," he told her, avoiding any +further present discussion of his marriage. "Has father failed, do you +think? His tempers are vigorous as ever." + +"He seems baggier about the eyes and throat. He is just as quick, but it +exhausts him more. Things would be much better if he were only content to +let William manage at the countinghouse. Times are shifting so quickly +with these new clipper ships and direct passages and political changes." + +"There's no longer any doubt about the clippers," Gerrit declared; "the +California gold rush will attend to that." + +In his room he found Taou Yuen, in soft white silk worked with bamboo +leaves, on the day bed, smoking. She rose immediately as he entered; and, +coming close to him, ran her cool fingers through his hair. He stood +gazing out at the dim oil flares that marked the confines of Washington +Square, considering all that Rhoda had said. Strangely enough it led his +thoughts away from his wife; they reverted to Nettie Vollar. + +He had been, he realized, very nearly in love with her: what he meant by +that inaccurate term was that if the affair had continued a little longer +he would have insisted on marrying her. Nettie was not indifferent to +him. An impersonal feeling had attracted him to her--a resentment of her +treatment by the larger part of Salem, particularly the oblique +admiration of the men. His supersensitiveness to any form of injustice +had driven him into the protest of calling and accompanying her, with an +exaggerated politeness, about the streets. It had not been difficult; she +was warm-blooded, luxurious, a very vivid woman. Gerrit, however, had +made a point of repressing any response to that aspect of their +intercourse--the sheerest necessity for the preservation of his disdain. + +She had cried on his shoulder, in his arms, practically; he had acted in +the purely fraternal manner. But the thing was reaching a natural +conclusion when her grandfather, Barzil Dunsack, had interfered with his +unsupportably frank accusations and command. The _Nautilus_ had been +ready for sea, and his, Gerrit's, imperious resentment had carried him +out of the Dunsacks' house--to Shanghai and Taou Yuen--without another +word to Nettie. + +How strangely life progressed, without chart or intelligent observations +or papers! He heard the tap of his wife's pipe; there was a faint +sweetish odor of drugged tobacco and the scent of cloves in which she +saturated herself. Outside was Salem, dim and without perceptible +movement; the clock in the hall struck ten. Taou Yuen didn't approach him +again nor speak; her perceptions were wonderfully acute. + +The sense of loneliness that sometimes overtook him on shore deepened, a +feeling of impotence, as if he had suddenly waked, lost and helpless, in +an unfamiliar planet. There was the soft whisper of his wife's passage +across the room. In the lamplight the paint on her cheeks made startling +unnatural patches of--paint. The reflections slid over the liquid black +mass of her hair, died in the lustrous creamy folds of her garment. She +was at once grotesque and impressive, like a figure in a Chinese +pantomime watched from the western auditorium of his inheritance. His +fondness for her, his admiration, had not lessened. He surveyed his +position, the presence here, in his room at Java Head, of Taou Yuen, with +amazement; all the small culminating episodes lost, the result was beyond +credence. His thoughts returned to Rhoda's accusation of selfishness, the +disaster implied in her pity for his wife. He tried again to analyze his +marriage, discover whatever justification, security, it possessed. Was +his admiration for Taou Yuen sufficient provision for his part of their +future together? It was founded largely on her superiority to the world +he had known; and here it was necessary for him to convince himself that +his wedding had not been merely the result of romantic accident. He knew +that the sensual had had almost no part in it, it had been mental; an act +of pity crystallizing his revolt against what he felt to be the impotence +of "Christian" ethics. Yet this was not sufficient; for he, like Rhoda, +had found under his wife's immobility the flux of immemorial woman. + +No, it wasn't enough; but more existed, he was certain of that. No one +could expect him, now, to experience the thrill of idealized passion that +was the sole property of youth. What feeling he had had for Nettie--he +was obliged to return to her from the fact that it was the only possible +comparison--had come from very much the same source as the other. The +old impersonal motives! + +The danger, Rhoda pointed out, had been admitted when his marriage made +impossible the continuation of that aloof position. He doubted that it +could change him so utterly. The thought of the entertainment his wife +would afford him in Salem expanded. He regretted that the best, the +calling and comments of the women, was necessarily lost to him, but Taou +Yuen would repeat a great deal: she, too, had a sly sense of the +ridiculous. He hoped that his sister-in-law didn't suppose her helpless; +the impenetrable Manchu control gave her a pitiless advantage over any +less absolute civilization. In the darkness before sleep the heavy exotic +scents in the room oppressed him strangely. + +He rose early, and quietly dressing went out into the garden: buds on +the June roses against the high blank fence on the street were swelling +into visible crimson; there were the stamping of horses' feet on the +cobbles of the stable inclosure, the heavy breathing and admonitions of +the coachman wielding a currycomb. The sunlight streamed down through +pale green willow and tall lilac bushes, through the octagonal latticed +summerhouse and across the vivid sod to the drawing-room door. Gerrit +turned, and entered the farther yard, where his father was inspecting the +pear trees. + +"The _Nautilus_ will need new copper sheathing," Gerrit said: "she's +pretty well stripped forward." + +"Take her around to the Salem Marine Railway at the foot of English +Street. A fine ship, Gerrit, with a proper hull. I tell you they'll never +improve on the French lines." + +"She won't go into the wind with a clipper," he admitted; "but I'll sail +her on a fair breeze with anything afloat." + +"If you come to that," his father asserted; "nothing handsomer will +ever be seen than an East India-man in the northeast trades with the +captain on the quarter-deck in a cocked hat and sword, the shoals of +flying fish and albacore skittering about a transom as high and carved +and gilded as a church, the royal pennant at the mainmast head. Maybe +it would be the _Earl of Balcarras_ with her cannons shining and the +midshipmen running about." + +"Yes," the younger man returned, "and taking in her light sails at +sunset, dropping astern like an island. The John Company's ruining +British shipping." + +Jeremy Ammidon muttered one of his favorite pessimistic complaints. "What +did you say her name was?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Taou Yuen." + +"Taou Yuen Ammidon," the elder pronounced experimentally. "It doesn't +sound right, the two won't go together." + +"But they have," Gerrit declared. He thought impatiently that he must +listen to a repetition of Rhoda's assertions. + +"I don't know much about 'em," Jeremy proceeded. "All I saw, when I was +younger, was the little singing-girls playing mora and wailing over their +infernal three-stringed fiddles something about the moon and a bowl of +water lilies." + +Taou Yuen did not come down to breakfast, and Gerrit stayed away from +their room until her toilet must be finished. It was Sunday; and with the +customary preparation for church under way William said: + +"I suppose you will go down to the ship?" + +The hidden question, the purpose of the inquiry, at once stirred into +being all Gerrit's perversity. "No," he replied carelessly; "we'll go +with you this morning." + +"That's unheard of," William exclaimed heatedly; "a woman in all her +paint and perfume and outrageous clothes in North Church, with--with my +family! I won't have it, do you understand." + +"No worse than what you see there every week," Gerrit retorted calmly; +"corsets and feathers and female gimcracks. Plenty of rouge and cologne +too. It will give them something new to stare at and whisper about." + +William Ammidon choked on his anger, and his wife laid a gloved hand on +his arm. "You must make up your mind to it," she told him. "It can't hurt +anyone. She is Gerrit's wife, you see." + +Above, the shipmaster said to Taou Yuen: "We are going to church with the +family." He surveyed her clothes with a faint glimmer of amusement. She +had, he saw, made herself especially resplendent as a Manchu. The long +gown was straw-colored satin with black bats--a symbol of +happiness--whirling on thickly embroidered silver clouds, over which she +wore a sleeve coat fastened with white jade and glittering with spangles +of beaten copper. Her slippers were pale rose, and fresh apple blossoms, +which she had had brought from the yard, made a headdress fixed with +long silver and dull red ivory pins. + +She smiled obediently at his announcement, and, with a fan of peacock +silks and betel nuts in a pouch like a tea rose hanging by a cord from a +jade button, she signified her readiness to proceed. + +William had gone on foot with his girls, Jeremy was seldom in church, and +Rhoda, Taou Yuen beside her with Gerrit facing them, followed in the +barouche. It seemed to the latter that they were almost immediately at +the door of North Church. The leisurely congregation filling the walk +stiffened in incredulous amazement as Gerrit handed his wife to the +pavement. Rhoda went promptly forward, nodding in response to countless +stupefied greetings; while Gerrit Ammidon moved on at Taou Yuen's side. + +Prepared, he restrained the latter from a prostration in the hall of the +church. Nothing had changed: the umbrella trough still bore the numbers +of the pews, the stair wound gloomily up to the organ loft. He again +found the subdued interior, the maroon upholstery, the flat Gothic +squares of the ceiling and dark red stone walls, a place of reposeful +charm. The Ammidons had two of the box pews against the right wall: his +brother and children were in the second, and, inside the other small +inclosure, he shut the gate and took his place on a contracted corner +bench. Taou Yuen sat with Rhoda against the back of the pew. The former, +blazing like a gorgeous flower on the shadowed surface of a pool, smiled +serenely at him. + +He could hear the hum of subdued comment running like ignited powder +through the church, familiar faces turned blankly toward him or nodded in +patent confusion. The men, he noted, expressed a single rigid +condemnation. The women, in crisp light dresses and ribboned bonnets, +were franker in their curiosity. Taou Yuen was a loadstone for their +glances. As the service progressed her face grew expressionless. Fretted +sandalwood bracelets drooped over her folded hands, and miniature dragon +flies quivered on the gold wires of her earrings; the sharp perfumes of +the East drifted out and mingled with the Western scents of extracts and +powders. He only saw that she was politely chewing betel nut. It wasn't, +he told himself, reverting to his critical attitude toward Salem, that he +was lacking in charity toward his neighbors, or that he felt any +superiority; but the quality that signally roused his antagonism was +precisely the men's present aspect of heavy censure and boundless +propriety, their stolid attitude of justifying the spiritual consummation +promised by the sermon and hymns. + +The long night watches, the anxiety of the sea, the profound mysteries of +the wheeling stars and the silence of the ocean at dawns, had given him, +he dimly realized, an inarticulate reverence for the supreme mystery of +creation. He was unable to put it into words or facile prayer but it was +the guarded foundation of most that he was, and it bred in him a contempt +for lesser signs. The religion of his birth, the faith of Taou Yuen, the +fetishism of the Zanzibar Coast, he had regarded as equally important, or +futile--the mere wash of the immensity of beauty, the inexorable destiny, +that had seemed to breathe on him alone at the stern of his ship. + +He lost himself now in the keenness of his remembered emotion: the +church faded into a far horizon, he felt the slight heave of the ship +and heard the creaking of the wheel as the steersman shifted his hands; +from aloft came the faint slapping of the bunt lines on rigid canvas, +the loose hemp slippers of the crew sounded across the deck, the water +whispered alongside, the ship's bell was struck and repeated in a +diminished note on the topgallant forecastle. The morning rose from +below the edge of the sea and the pure air freshened.... His thoughts +were recalled to the present by the dogmatic insistence of the +clergyman's voice, promising heaven, threatening hell. His gaze rested +on the chalky debility of Madra Clifford. + +The service over, the aisle past the Ammidon pews was filled with a +slow-moving inquisitive throng. Rhoda chose to wait until the greater +part was past, and then she followed with the unmoved Taou Yuen and +Gerrit. "This is my brother's wife," he heard the former say. "Mrs. +Saltonstone, Gerrit's sister, Mrs. Clifford and Miss Vermeil. Yes... from +Shanghai. Overdue. We were worried, of course." Taou Yuen smiled +vigorously and flapped the vivid fan. Against her brilliant colors, the +carved jade and embroideries, silver and apple blossoms, the other women +looked colorless in wide book muslin and barége, with short veils of +tulle illusion hanging from bonnets of rice straw and glazed crêpe. +Palpably shocked by her Oriental face masked in paint, her Chinese +"heathen" origin, yet they fingered the amazing needlework and wondered +over the weight of her satins. + +The men he knew gave him, for the most part, a curt greeting. They +glanced more covertly at his wife; he understood exactly what thoughts +brought out this condemnation soiled by private speculation; and his +disdain mounted at their sleek backs and glossy tile, hats supported on +stiffly bent arms. + +After dinner he walked through the warm sunny emptiness of the afternoon +to Derby Wharf and the _Nautilus_. Standing on the wharf, smoking a +cheroot, he leaned back upon his cane, studying the ship with a gaze that +missed no detail. There was not a sound from the water; across the harbor +Peach's Point seemed about to dissolve in a faint green haze; a strong +scent of mingled spices came from the warehouses. There was the splash of +oars in the Basin beyond, and the more distant peal of a church bell. + +At the sound of footfalls behind him he turned and saw Nettie Vollar and +her uncle, Edward Dunsack. A dark color rose in the girl's cheek, and her +hand pulled involuntarily at Dunsack's arm, as if she wished to retreat. +Gerrit thought that she had aged since he had latest met her: Nettie's +mouth, with its full, slightly drooping lower lip, had lost something of +its fresh arch; her eyes, though they still preserved their black +sparkle, were plainly resentful. Edward Dunsack, medium tall but thin +almost to emaciation, had a riven sallow face with close-cut silvery hair +and agate-brown eyes with contracted pupils. + +"Well, Nettie," Gerrit said, moving forward promptly, "it's pleasant to +see you again." Her hand was cold and still. "Dunsack, too." + +"I am obliged to you for my chest," the latter told him, unmoved by +Gerrit's quizzical gaze. + +"Glad to do it for you," the other replied; "it came ashore with my +personal things, and so, perhaps, saved you something." + +"Perhaps," Dunsack agreed levelly. + +Looking down at the cob filling of the wharf, Nettie Vollar said, "You +came home married, I hear, and to a Chinese lady." + +Gerrit assented. "You'll certainly know her, and like her, too. Taou +Yuen is very wise and without the prejudices--" he stopped, conscious of +the stupidity of his attempted kindness. Nettie looked up defiantly, +biting her lip--a familiar trick, he recalled. Dunsack interposed: + +"You will find that the Chinese have none of your little sympathetic +tricks. No foreigner could ever grasp the depth of their indifference to +what you might call humanity. They are born wise, as you say, but weary. +I suppose your wife plays the guitar skillfully and sings the Soochow +Love Song." + +Gerrit Ammidon studied him with somber eyes and a gathering temper: it +was, however, impossible to decide whether the implication was +deliberately insulting. He wouldn't have any Canton clerk, probably +saturated with opium, insinuate that his affair was on the plane of +that of a drunken sailor! "My wife," he said deliberately, "is a +Manchu lady. You may know that they don't learn dialect songs nor +ornament tea houses." + +"Very remarkable," Dunsack returned imperturbably. "We never see them. +How did you manage a go-between, and did you send the hour of your birth +to the Calculator of Destinies? Then there is so much to remember in a +Chinese wedding--the catties of tea and four silver ingots, the earrings +and red and green silk and Tao priest to consult the gods." Gerrit heard +this with a frowning countenance. If Nettie were not there he would put +Dunsack forward with the hypothetical crew to which he belonged. He felt +as sorry for Nettie, he discovered, as ever. It moved him to see her +vivacity of life, her appealingly warm color, slowly dulled by Salem and +the adventitious circumstance of her birth. What a dreary existence she +led in the harsh atmosphere of her grandfather and the solemn house on +Hardy Street! At one time he had fancied that he might change it... when +now here was Taou Yuen, detached and superior, waiting in his room at +Java Head. + +"I stopped for a moment to look at the ship," he said, with the trace of +an ungracious bow, "and must get back." The sunlight flung a warm moted +veil over Nettie Vollar. She gave him a startled uncalculated glance of +almost desperate appeal and his heart responded with a quickened thud. +Edward Dunsack was sallow and enigmatic, with thin pinched lips. + + + + +V + +"The stupid bruiser," Edward Dunsack declared in a thin bitterness that +startled the girl at his side. "The low sea bully!" He was gazing at the +resolute back of Captain Ammidon. A surprising hatred filled him at the +memory of the other's intolerant gaze, the careless contempt of his +words. He thought, oddly enough, of the delicate and ingenious tortures +practiced on offenders in China; the pleasant mental picture followed of +Ammidon bowed in a wooden collar, of Gerrit Ammidon bambooed, sliced, +slowly choking.... With an intense sense of horror he caught himself +dwelling on these dripping visions. His hands clasped rigidly, a sweat +stood out on his brow, in a realization that was at once dread and a +self-loathing. + +About him lay the tranquil Salem water, the still wharves, the familiar +roofs and green tree tops. This wasn't Canton, he told himself, but +America: there was Nettie; only a few streets away was his father's +house, his own home, all solid and safe and reassuring. China was a +thing of the past, its insidious secret hold broken. It was now only a +dream of evil fascination from which he had waked to the reality, the +saving substance, of Derby Wharf. "It's his domineering manner," he +explained the outburst to Nettie; "all shipmasters have it--as if the +world were a vessel they damned from a quarter-deck in the sky. I never +could put up with them." + +"He is very kind, really," she replied, looking away over the harbor. "It +is so queer--marrying a Chinese woman like that. How will he ever get +along with her or be happy?" + +"He won't," Edward Dunsack asserted. "Leave that to time." He studied her +attentively. "Was it anything to you?" he asked. + +"It might have been," she acknowledged listlessly, her gaze still on the +horizon. "He came to see me two or three times, quite differently from +other nice men, and took me to a concert at the Philharmonic Society. He +was getting to like me, I could tell that, when grandfather interfered--" + +"I see," Dunsack interrupted, "with the immorality of the supermoral." + +"Whatever it was he was past bearing. No one could blame Gerrit for +getting into a fury. The next day I stood almost in this spot, it was +late afternoon too, and watched the _Nautilus_ sail away. All the canvas +was set and I could see her for a long time. When the last trace had +gone it seemed to me that my life had sunk too ... out there." + +"The old man's a fool," he said bluntly of his father. "How do you +suppose he got hold of a Manchu?" he shifted his thought, addressing the +stillness about them rather than his companion. "Don't imagine for a +minute that you are superior to her," he told Nettie more directly. +"There is nothing more remarkable. They must be gorgeous," a faint color +stained his long cheeks. "What incredible luck," he murmured. + +He was thinking avidly of the women of China--the little gay girls like +toys, the momentary glimpses of enameled faces in hurrying red-flowered +sedan chairs, faces of ivory stained with carmine, in gold-crusted +headdresses. A sudden impatience at Nettie Vollar's obvious person and +clothes expanded to a detestation of an atmosphere he had but a minute or +so before welcomed as an escape from something infinitely worse than +death. Now it seemed impossible to spend a life in Salem. It would have +been better, when he had been released by Heard and Company, to have +taken the position open in the Dutch Hong. + +He was in a continual state of such vacillation, as if he were the seat +of two separate and antagonistic personalities; rather, he changed the +figure, in him the East struggled with the West. It was necessary for the +latter to triumph. The difficulty lay in the fact that the first was +represented by an actual circumstance while the other was only a dim +apprehension, a weakened allegiance to ties never strong. + +He cursed the extraordinary chance that, against every probability, had +brought the chest of opium safely to him here. Its purchase had been the +result of habit evading his will, he had despatched it--in that seesawing +contest--by a precarious route, half hoping that it would be lost or +seized; and, when he had seen the chest carried down Hardy Street to his +door, a species of terror had fastened upon him, a premonition of an evil +spirit flickering above him in a turning of oily smoke. Why hadn't he +pitched the thing into the water at the foot of their yard! There was +time still: he would take the balls of opium and dispose of them +secretly. A sudden energy, a renewed sense of strength, flooded him. This +distaste for Nettie changed into a pity at the ill luck that had followed +her: she didn't deserve it. Generous emotions expanded his heart. He +dreamed of taking hold of his father's small commerce in rum and sugar +with the West Indies and turning it into a concern as rich and powerful +as Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. + +Why not! + +They, too, would have a big white house on Washington Square or Chestnut +Street, with servants--Chinese servants--and horses and great ships +sailing in, laden with the East. Why not indeed! He, Edward Dunsack, had +more brains than Jeremy Ammidon, that stiff old man with a face the color +of a damask plum. His niece would go to all the balls at Franklin and +Hamilton Halls, the injustice of her position overcome by an impressively +increasing fortune. Abstractly he patted her shoulder with a hand as long +and gaunt and yellow as his face. All this would come as a result of +throwing the opium into the harbor. It was as good as accomplished. + +In the face of his prospective well-being he felt already the equal of +anyone in Salem. If Gerrit Ammidon had married a Manchu lady it was his +privilege, no, duty, to call and put his experience in things Chinese at +their command. She would speak only a little if any English; no one here +understood the preparation of her food--her delicate necessity for dishes +not the property of an entire household; a hundred such details of which +the infinitely cruder West must be ignorant. He thought complacently that +he would understand her better than anyone else in Salem, in Boston, in +America; far better than her husband. She would without doubt learn to +depend on him: they would laugh together at the manners and people about +them. Ammidon would be away for long periods on the China service.-- + +His dreams broke off with a sardonic laugh, a repetition of the tone in +which he had objurgated the ship-master. Such visions were the property +of youth, and he was forty-two, forty-two and nothing more than a +discredited clerk who had fled across the world from a shadow. But he was +right--he had seen white men who had caught the breath of China accepting +just such opportunities as the one offered to him after his dismissal by +Augustine Heard. At the Dutch Hong he'd be expected to talk about his +late employer. Such situations, he had realized in a rarely illuminating +flash, were only temporary, a descending flight. + +These men resembled the fate of, say, a brig sailing into the China +Sea in all the perfection of order of the British Marine: at, perhaps, +Hong Kong, sold to a native firm, she would be refitted under an +extravagant flag, and slowly the order would depart until, in a +slovenly tangle of rigging and defilement, she'd be seen yawing on +secret and nauseous errands. + +A homely chime of bells was repeated from the town; a ship's fast +strained resinously with the changing tide. "It will be getting on toward +supper," Nettie told him. They walked slowly from the wharf, turned +silently into Derby Street and Hardy on their way home. Beyond the inner +fence of the garden the thick uneven sod reaching to the water was dark +and cool against the luminous flush of evening. A sound of frying and +heavy odor came from the kitchen, and Kate Vollar's voice informed them +that the meal was ready. + +Barzil Dunsack bowed his head over the table and pronounced a grace in +startlingly resonant tones, the reverent humility of his words oddly +emphasized by a sort of angry impatience. It seemed as if he at once +subjected himself to his God and expressed a certain dissatisfaction with +His forbearance. Edward Dunsack was plunged in the thought of the +resolution he intended to fulfill that evening. + +The throwing away of the opium had lost a part of its symbolic meaning. +It now seemed even a little rash when he could find an immediate highly +profitable market--the opium had cost him seven hundred dollars in China. +But he must, he realized, be firm. Afterwards, in his room facing away +from the street over darkening yards and gables and foliage, he stood +gazing at the chest of mango wood that held the drug. Edward Dunsack +unlocked and lifted the lid. On the tray before him were twenty balls, +each the size of his two fists, wrapped in a hard skin of poppy leaves, +and there was a similar number beneath. It was obvious that he couldn't +carry a tray through the house, and he took out two balls, after which he +secured the remainder. + +He walked quickly down the stair and through the close turning of the +lower hall that led through a side door to the yard. A pale rectangle of +lamplight fell from the sitting room window over a brick path and ground +tramped bare of grass; a clinking of dishes sounded in the kitchen. The +sod was damp, and perhaps eight feet below the wooden buttress of the +land the water showed impenetrably black. + +Safely there he passed a tense hand over a brow suddenly wet; he was +shaking as if in the grip of a chill. His condition needed drastic +measures. The cold heavy opium gave out its tantalizing odor. In a minute +it would be disposed of and he would go for more. He calculated that this +necessitated twenty trips at the present rate--a bag might serve his +purpose better. He raised an arm with an opium ball, but his hand +remained suspended in air. An inarticulate protest seized him, a +suffocating sense of impending loss. He would never be able to get Patna +opium here; it was a valuable medical property. His nerves shook at the +thought of its delights. Then as if without his volition and against +every intention, his arm described a short arc and his hand was empty. +There was the impact of a solid object striking the water, a faint ripple +on the motionless expanse, and then absolute silence. + +He was aghast at his wanton act, the irreparable waste of a precious +substance, and cursed in a low audible Cantonese. Whose concern was it if +he did, very occasionally, smoke a "pistol"? How could it possibly +matter! The dreams about a great foreign commerce, a white house like the +Ammidons', were futile; it was too late. He could expect nothing from +life but the unspeakable monotony of his father's dwelling, the bare +office. He had worked hard, been as full of splendid early resolutions as +anyone, and he wasn't blamable if chance balked his ambition. A soul was +nothing more than a twisting leaf in the wind of fate. There remained +only to take what escape was offered--golden visions, luxury, beauty +beyond all earth. + +His contrary determination seemed of less actuality than the imagined +echoing of the splash that still hung in his brain. It was a thing far +away, belonging to another time, another man; like the memory of a period +of charming ignorance. The thought of it wove a strand of melancholy into +his present mature realization like the delicate scent of blossoming +trees borne to him on the evening air, barely perceptible and then lost +in the pungency of the opium. The latter became, mystically, all China, +the irresistible fascination that had gradually possessed his +imagination, dulling the associations of his heredity and birth, calling +him further and further into its secretive heart. + +He returned to his room, where he put back the second ball in the tray of +its chest. An extraordinary weariness hung over him, there was a sense +of leaden weight in his arms and feet. Flashes of a different perception +pierced his apathy; a voice, seemingly outside his being, whispered of +danger, evil and danger.... A twisting leaf, he told himself again with +his deep fatalism. + +The memory of Gerrit Ammidon's crisp blue gaze, his vigorous gestures and +speech, became an intolerable affront, representing the far lost point of +his own departure. His contrary feelings met and grappled in his mind; +but in the end the past, Salem, was always defeated, weaker, more faintly +perceived. In a great many essentials, he told himself, he had become +Chinese in sympathy and fiber. + +The lamp threw a smooth gleam over the mango wood chest, and he bent, +turning the key in the ornamental brass lock. He could reconsider the +disposal of the opium to-morrow; there was no hurry; he had no intention +of becoming a victim to the drug. That would be an inconceivable +stupidity, the negation of all the philosophy he had gained. Very +occasionally-- + +His thoughts swung to the surprising fact of Ammidon's Chinese wife: if, +as he had first suspected, she were a common woman of the port who had +made a fool of the dull sailor he perceived the making of a very +entertaining comedy. There would be the keenest irony in exposing her to +himself before the complacent ignorance of her husband. He knew such +women: convicted in Chinese, perhaps before the entire Ammidon family, +not a muscle of her face would betray surprise or concern. She might try +to murder him, very ingeniously, but never descend to the intrigue, the +lies, of a Western woman placed in the same position. She'd stoically +accept the situation. These visions ran rapidly, vividly, through his +brain; he was accustomed to them; a greater part of his waking life was +filled with such pictures, infinitely more alluring, persuasive, than the +disappointing actuality. He got out of his clothes, and, in a loose gown +of black silk, sat at his open window, his chin sunk in the palm of a +hand, his face set against the night. + +The next morning, at the breakfast table, he listened with a fleering +mouth to his father's long dogmatic grace before meat. His sister sat +opposite their parent, her gaze lowered in a perpetual amazement, her +entire person stamped with a stupid humility. There was nothing humble, +however, in Nettie; the crisp French coloring positively crackled with an +electric energy; her mouth was set in a rebellious red blot. Studying +her, Edward Dunsack saw that she was prettier than he had first realized +on his return to Salem. He speculated over the story she had told him +yesterday about Gerrit Ammidon's attachment. What an incredible idiot +their father had been: Edward would have relished Gerrit as a +brother-in-law; good would have come to them all from such a connection. + +If he had been in America at the time no such error would have been +permitted. With his counsel Nettie would have caught Ammidon beyond any +escape. He wondered if the girl had actually cared for the shipmaster or +if the affair had been nothing more than a sop to her wounded pride and +isolation. In a way beyond his present understanding this seemed to be +considerably important. If she had loved him no one could predict what +her attitude might be in any future development of their contact; but if +her pride only had been involved, injured, she might readily be an +instrument for his own obscure purposes. + +The office where Barzil Dunsack conducted the limited affairs of his +West India trading was a small one-room building back of the dwelling. +There was a high desk at which a clerk stood, or balanced on a +long-legged stool, a more formal secretary against the length of the +wall, with a careful model of a full ship, the spars and standing +rigging slack and the whole gray with dust, a built-in cupboard +opposite, a dilapidated chair or so and a ten-plate iron stove for wood. +A window looked out across the grass to the harbor and another opened +blankly against a board fence. + +There Edward Dunsack made a column of entries in a script fine and +regular but occasionally showing an uncontrollably tremulous line. He +was conscious of this tendency, growing through the past year; and he +surveyed his writing with a feeling of angry dismay. Try as he might, +with a frowning concentration, to pen the words and numerals firmly, +presently his attention would slip, his hand waver ever so slightly, and +a sudden stricken appearance of old age fasten on the characters.... By +heaven, to-night he'd throw all that stinking stuff away! + +Outside the day was immaculate, the expanse of the water was like +celestial silk, such sails as he saw resembled white clouds. The early +morning bird song had subsided, but a persistent robin was whistling from +the grass by the open door. The curd-like petals of a magnolia were +slowly shifting obliquely to the ground, he could hear the stir of Derby +Street. He was inexpressibly weary of the struggle always racking his +being: it seemed to him that in the midst of a serene world he was +tormented by some inimicable and fatal power. + +He fastened his thoughts on commonplace happier objects, on the page +under his hand, the entries of Medford rum and sugar cane and molasses, +and the infinitely larger affairs of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone. +There was no reason why he shouldn't call on Jeremy Ammidon's family. The +latter had signified by his visit the desire to end the misunderstanding +between them. He was as well born as Gerrit Ammidon; only ill chance had +made them seem differently situated. Anyhow, unlike Canton, mere exterior +position had comparatively little weight in Salem. The shipmasters, the +more important merchants, arrogated a certain superiority to themselves: +but it broke down before the inborn democracy of the local spirit. + +That afternoon, he decided, he'd be in Pleasant Street; and later he +dressed with the most meticulous care. A growing doubt seized him as he +mounted the outside steps of the Ammidons' impressive house; but he +crushed it down and firmly rapped with the polished knocker on the +opened door. + +The family, a servant told him, was in the garden; and he followed +through a large white-paneled hall into a formal drawing-room and green +space beyond. He was again uncertain before the number of people grouped +about a summerhouse and apparently watching his approach with cold +surprise. But Gerrit Ammidon stepped forward and greeted him with an +adequately level civility. + +"You know my father," he said, and Jeremy Ammidon, his heavy body in +linen above which his face was dusky, put out an abrupt hand. There was a +Mr. Brevard, a slender unconcerned person in very fashionable but +restrained clothes; William Ammidon's wife, a large woman in India +muslin, handsome enough, Edward Dunsack conceded, in the obvious +American sense; a daughter of William's, a girl blooming into womanhood, +far too vigorous and brightly colored for his taste; and Gerrit's wife. + +The latter had been hidden from him at first, and he saw her suddenly, +completely: his surprise caused him to stand in an awkward +suspense--never had he imagined that a woman, even a Manchu, could be so +beautiful! He recognized, in a score of unmistakable details, that she +was of irreproachably high birth; her satins were embroidered with the +symbols of nobility and matrimonial felicity; the gold fingernail guards, +the jade and flowering pearls, her earrings and tasseled tobacco pouch +and ivory fan, were all in the most superlative manner. + +A deep pleasurable excitement filled him as he made his greeting in +correct Chinese. The long delicate oval of her face showed no emotion at +the sound of her native speech and she returned his periods in a slowly +chosen mechanical English. Edward Dunsack thought that as he spoke an +expression of distaste stamped Gerrit's features. However, he was left in +no doubt: "My wife," the other instructed him, "prefers to speak English. +That is the only way she has of picking it up." + +A contempt filled Dunsack which he was barely able to keep from his voice +and manner. He nodded shortly, and subsided into a study of Taou Yuen so +open that she must have become aware of his interest. Seated on the bench +that circled the interior of the latticed summerhouse she moved so that +he could no longer see her face. Brevard was beside her, talking in a low +amused voice: there was a ringing peal of laughter from Sidsall Ammidon +and a faint infinitely well-bred ripple from Taou Yuen. The brilliant +patch of her gown made an extraordinary effect in the Salem garden. +Edward Dunsack recognized the scents that stirred from her, more Eastern +and disturbing even than opium: there was a subtle natural odor of musk, +the perfumes of henna and clove blossoms and santal. + +A curious double feeling possessed him in the split consciousness of +which he was capable--he had the sensation of having come, in the suave +afternoon garden, on overwhelming disaster, and at the same time he was +enraged by the play of Fate that had given such a woman to Gerrit Ammidon +and denied him, with his special appreciation of Oriental charm, the +slightest satisfaction. A more general hatred of Gerrit tightened to a +consuming resentment of the other's blind fortune. + +One thing was unmistakably borne upon him--in spite of the courtesy he +was meeting it was clear that he could not hope to become a customary +visitor at the Ammidons'. He was put definitely outside the community of +interests in which Brevard easily entered. William Ammidon joined them, +and something like astonishment at Dunsack's presence was visible on his +complacent face. + +He remained, however, in a stubborn resistance to small adverse signs in +the hope of gaining some additional facts about Taou Yuen. She had been, +he learned, a widow and Gerrit had married her with her father-in-law's +consent although the latter was a rich official. He wanted to ask a +thousand questions, but he knew that even if the Ammidons were too dense +to grasp his curiosity, Taou Yuen herself would comprehend his +impoliteness. Nowhere else could be found the wisdom and poise of a +Manchu lady. + +Jeremy Ammidon, in a lawn chair, a smoking cheroot in his fingers, asked +him about affairs of Chinese government and commerce. As the old man +talked he flushed darkly with quick indignation. "The English have made +our political diplomats look like stuffed gulls!" he declared. "Look at +their Orders in Council and the British Prize Courts," he proceeded, +waving his cheroot; "stop an American vessel anywhere and pretend to find +a deserting English sailor. With the Treaty of Ghent and cod-headed +commissioners and a Congress that wouldn't know a ship from a bread barge +the country's going to hell on greased ways! I've said it a thousand +times and any man not a complete ass knows that you can't run a +government without a strong head. Locofocos," he muttered. + +Edward Dunsack listened to this tirade with an air of polite attention +which hid completely the fact that he heard or comprehended scarcely a +word. His thoughts were filled by the fragrant vision of Taou Yuen; +already he was deep in the problem of how to see her again, to-morrow. It +would be excessively difficult. Eastern women never, if they could avoid +it, walked; and they were, he knew, entirely without the necessity that +drove the women of Salem into a ceaseless round of calling and gossip. It +was probable that, except to ride, she wouldn't leave the house and +grounds. He cursed the chance quarrel that had set a customary void +between the houses of Dunsack and Ammidon, the unfortunate affair of his +sister and Vollar inescapably adding to the permanency of the breach; he +particularly cursed Nettie. There, however, his mind took up the twisted +thread of the vague possibility that the latter might be useful to him: +he was amazed at the way in which his premonitions fitted into the +pattern of situations yet to be materialized. + +Edward Dunsack turned from his contemplation of Taou Yuen to a careful +consideration of Gerrit Ammidon. The latter had a countenance which +showed strong, easily summoned emotions. It was an intolerant face, +Dunsack judged, and yet sentimental; and it was surprisingly young, +guileless. At the same time it was unusually determined--an affair of +uncomplicated surfaces, direct gaze, marked bone. + +He questioned sharply, irritably, the length to which his projections had +reached. What were they all about? The answer was presented by the +glittering figure of the Manchu; she had risen and was standing in the +entrance of the summerhouse. He thought, with a jerking pulse, of +Oriental similes; she was a lotus-woman, a green slip of willow, an +ambrosial moon, a mustard flower. Her teeth were white buds, her breasts +blanched almonds. + +His entire life in China had been a preparation for the realization of +the present moment. The sense of danger, of anger at Gerrit Ammidon, +perished before the supreme emotion called up by Taou Yuen. He wanted +to embrace her satin-shod feet, to cling to her odorous hands, such +hands as were never formed out of China, like petals of coral. Not only +her bodily charm intoxicated him, but the thought of her subtle mind +added its attraction, its shadows never to be pierced by the blunted +Western instinct, the knowledge of pleasures like perfumes, the calm +blend of the eight diagrams of Confucius, the stoicism of the +Buddhistic soul revolving perpetually in the urn of Fate, and of the +aloof Tao of Lao-tze. + +Brevard left with an easy familiarity, already planning a return, that +filled Edward Dunsack with resentful envy. The sun had disappeared behind +the house; long cool shadows swept down the garden; it was past time for +him to go. A reluctance to move from the magic of Taou Yuen possessed +him: he was unable to think how, when, he would next see her. He raged at +the prohibition against speaking Chinese; that ability should give him an +overwhelming advantage of Gerrit Ammidon. This was, of course, the reason +that he had been virtually commanded to limit himself to English. Many of +the forms of extreme Chinese courtesy were impossible to express in +another language. + +Finally he rose; in departing he emphasized the importance of Jeremy +Ammidon--Taou Yuen should recognize and applaud that. He saw that she was +watching him obliquely, her lips in repose, her hands still among the +satin draperies. An American would have betrayed something of her +reaction to him, he could have discovered a trace, an indication, of her +thoughts; but the Manchu's face was as inscrutable as porcelain. William +Ammidon nodded, the old man responded to his leave-taking with a degree +of warmness, Gerrit at least smiled in a not unfriendly manner. Edward +Dunsack bowed to Taou Yuen, and she gravely inclined her head. He had a +last glimpse of her glowing in the green light of the inclosure of +rose-bushes and poplars, emerald sod and tangled lilac trees. + +At the supper table his sister's appearance in somber untidy black +barége, Nettie's unrestrained gestures and speech, the coarse red cloth +and plain boiled fare, all added to a discontent that he could scarcely +restrain. With the utmost discrimination in delicate shades of beauty and +luxury he was yet condemned to spend his days in surroundings hardly +raised above poverty-stricken squalor. Incongruous as it was he could yet +imagine Taou Yuen moving with a certain appropriateness about the +Ammidons' spacious grounds and house; but he was absolutely unable to +picture her here, on Hardy Street. + +All the vivid scenes that continually formed and shifted in his mind +gathered about Gerrit Ammidon's wife. He used this phrase in a +contemptuously satirical manner: it was impossible for Ammidon actually +to marry a Manchu. Such racial mating, he told himself, could not be +consummated; there were too many deep antipathies of flesh and spirit; +the man was too--too stupidly normal. Sooner or later he would swing back +to his own. With him, Edward Dunsack, it was different; he always had an +inner kinship with China; at first sight its streets and sounds, odors +and ways, had seemed familiar, admirable. + +The realization of this, when his place with Heard and Company +collapsed, had sent him back to America, in a strange dread. He +remembered how the vague fear had followed him to Derby Wharf. Now he +laughed at it, welcoming every Chinese instinct he had. They seemed to +throw a bridge across enormous difficulties, bringing him finally to +Taou Yuen. + +He lingered at the table after supper, his head sunk on his chest, +revolving the various aspects of his position. One thing was definite--he +must have Taou Yuen; it was unthinkable that she should continue with +Gerrit Ammidon. It needed skillful planning, tortuous execution, but in +the end he'd get his desire. He had no doubt of that. It was necessary. +If she opposed him she would discover that he, too, could be subtle, +Oriental, yes--dangerous. None of the stupid inhibitions that, for +example, bound his father interfered with the free exercise of his +personal wishes. He was beyond primitive morality. + +An ecstasy of contemplation ravished his senses. + +"Goodness, Uncle Edward," Nettie exclaimed, "you scared me, you looked so +like a Chinee." + +"There are no such people," he retorted sharply, exasperated by the +vulgar error. She was undismayed; and when, in reply to the question, she +learned that he had been at the Ammidons' her surprise increased his +irritation. He saw from her manner that his calling there had been at +least unexpected. Nettie interrupted the preparation of the table for +breakfast, and dropped into a chair beyond him, her hands--the sleeves +were rolled back to her elbows--clasped before her. + +"You must tell me everything," she declared eagerly. "What is she like? +Do they seem happy? Did he hold her hand? Do Chinese women kiss? Is she +tall or--" + +"I can't remember a question out of your rattle," he interrupted her. He +was about to give expression to his admiration for Taou Yuen, when he +stopped, with tight lips. Here, perhaps, was the lever by which so much +was to be shifted. + +"She's Chinese," he said indifferently, "and that means yellow." Nettie +made a gesture of distaste. "They seem to get along well enough. Of +course, it's ridiculous to call it a marriage, and it seems to me very +questionable to impose it on the Ammidons as that. The thing is--how +long will it last, how soon will he get tired of her and send her back +to Canton?" + +Nettie Vollar closed her eyes, her hands were rigid. The lamplight, +streaming up over her face, showed him that it was tense and pale and +answered a question. Her feeling for Gerrit Ammidon had been more than a +mere hurt pride. In addition to that he saw beyond any doubt the proof of +its existence still. This complicated his problem: inspired only by a +resentment that he might fan into hatred she would be far more pliable +than in the grip of a genuine affection for Gerrit Ammidon. He understood +the processes of the former, a flexible and useful steel; but no one +could predict the vagaries, the absurd self-sacrifices, of love. Well, +he'd have to work with what offered. That, he realized, was the strength +of his philosophy--he accepted promptly, without vain regret, the means +that lay at his hand. + +"Ammidon seems worn," he said generally; "they were in the garden, and I +had a few words privately with him." Nettie glanced swiftly across the +table; her lips moved; but she repressed the obvious question trembling +on them. "He showed, I think," he continued carefully, "a very improper +interest in you." + +"How?" + +"He asked if you were well and happy. I most certainly told him, for any +number of reasons, for pride alone, that you were." + +"Then you told a lie," she cried in a tone so hard that it surprised him. + +"Of course," he went on smoothly, "I know that you are not, almost all +your circumstances prohibit that. But I don't intend to circulate it in +Salem. Opinion here may have forced you into a long loneliness, but I +shan't give anyone the satisfaction of knowing it. And, after all, you +have your grandfather mostly to blame. You would have been married to +Gerrit Ammidon now if he hadn't interfered; you would have been walking +about the Ammidons' garden with your hand on his arm in place of that +Chinese prostitute." + +"I don't see why you should make me so miserable," she declared. "I don't +care anything about the garden, it isn't that. Why do you suppose he +brought such a woman home?" + +"Pique," he told her; "he couldn't care for her in the way he might for, +well--you. As I said, he'll drop her on his next voyage to the East; he +will leave her and probably never come back to Salem again. I hear that +Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone are planning a new policy--bigger ships, +clippers in the China and California trade; and that means removal to +Boston. Their facilities here are no longer suitable." + +She moved, her chin fell upon her hands, propped up with her elbows on +the table. Apparently Edward Dunsack was gazing at the wall beyond her. +Her breast gave a single sharp heave. When Nettie looked up her face was +flushed. "I wish that I were really a bad woman," she spoke in a low +vibrant voice. + +"What is bad and what is good?" He still seemed to ignore her, +considering a question that had no personal bearing. "In one country a +thing is thought wrong and in another it is the highest virtue. In one +age this or that is condemned, when, turn the calendar, and everyone is +praising it." He became confidential, the image of kindness. "I'll tell +you what I think is wicked," he pronounced, leaning toward her, "and that +is the way you two were kept apart; unchristian is what I call it." + +"Gerrit doesn't care," she said. + +"How do you know?" he demanded. "I cannot agree with you. I don't find a +great deal in him to admire, he is too simple and transparent; but +there's no doubt of this, he is faithful. One idea, one affection, is all +his head will hold." + +"That's a beautiful trait." A palpable wistfulness settled over her. + +"It's greatly admired," he agreed; "although not by me. I believe in +taking what is yours, what you need, from life. I suppose that I have +been away from proprieties so long that they have lost their importance. +They seem to me of no greater weight than barriers of straw. But, of +course, that mightn't suit you; probably, living in Salem as you have, +its opinion is valuable." + +"Salem!" she exclaimed bitterly. "What has it ever been to me but an +unfair judgment? I owe Salem no consideration; I can't see that I owe +any to life." + +"I don't want to insist on that," he proceeded deliberately. "The tragedy +of your position is that married to Ammidon everything in the past would +have been overlooked, forgotten. Even now--" he stopped with a gesture +indicating the presence still of large possibilities. + +God, what a vacillating fool the girl was! He could say no more at +present, and he rose, leaving the room with Nettie staring dully across +the table. He went outside, to the grass fronting on the harbor. Here, +last night, he had thrown the opium into the water. It seemed to him +that he had lived through a complete existence since then: the presence +of Taou Yuen had created a new world. He thought she walked to him +through the gloom; he saw her slender body grow brighter as she +approached; he heard her speak in a low native murmur; their hands +caught in an eager tangle. + +He put aside, momentarily, the problem of the difficulties of going again +to the Ammidons' for an easier one--the bringing of Gerrit Ammidon here. +He was confident that, thrown together on the still rim of the water, at +evening, the emotion born between his niece and the shipmaster and +prematurely choked would revive. He had no means of knowing Ammidon's +present exact feeling for Nettie; he was counting only on a general +theory of men and nature at large. He was already convinced, from very +wide knowledge, experience, that the other could not form a permanent +attachment to the Manchu; and Nettie's great difference, together with +the romance of her unhappy position, must have a potent effect on the +fellow's evident sentimentality. A dank air rose from the water, like the +smell of death; and, with an uncontrollable shiver, he turned back toward +the house. + +In his room Edward Dunsack recalled that he had promised himself to throw +away the remainder of the opium on this and succeeding nights. In view of +that his movements were inexplicable: he got out from a locked chest the +_yen tsiang_, a heavy tube of dark wood inlaid with silver ideograms and +diminutive earthen cup at one end. Then he produced a small brass lamp, +brushes, long needles, and a metal rod. Taking off his clothes, and in +the somber black folds of the silk robe, he made various minutely careful +preparations. Finally, extended on his bed, he dipped the end of the rod +into opium the color of tar, kept it for a bubbling moment near the blaze +of the lamp, and then crowded the drug into the pipe. He held the bowl to +the flame and drew in a long deep inhalation. A second followed and the +pipe was empty. He repeated this until he had smoked a mace. + +A vivacious and brilliant state of being flooded him; he felt capable +of profoundly witty conversation, and laughed at the solemn absurdities +of the Ammidons, at his father attempting to call down a blessing out +of the empty sky upon their food, at his sister's lugubrious +countenance, the childish emotions of Nettie. What a nonsensical +strutting business life was. + +The confines of his room were lost in an amber radiance that filled all +space; it was at once a light and a perfume and charged with a sense of +impending rapture. A sparkling crimson shape floated down from infinite +skies--Taou Yuen. She wore a bridal costume, cunningly embroidered with +the phoenix, a hood of thin gold plate, and a band of red silk about her +brow bore the eight copper figures of the beings who are immortal. Her +hair was ornamented by the pure green jade pins of summer, her hanging +wrists were heavy with virgin silver, while her face was like the +desirous August moon flushed in low vapors. + +He raised his bony arms--the wide silk sleeves falling back--his +emaciated yellow hands. From under his dark eyelids there was a glitter +of vision like the sheen on mica... Taou Yuen floated nearer. + +Edward Dunsack woke suddenly, at the darkest ebb of night, and started +hurriedly to his feet. A sickening vertigo, a whirling head, sent him +lurching across the room. He came in contact with a chest of drawers, and +clung to it with the feeling that his legs were shriveling beneath him. +His consciousness slowly returned, and with it a pain like ruthless +tearing fingers searched his body. The rectangle of the open window, +only less dark than the room, promised a relief from the strangled effort +of his breathing, and he fell across the ledge, lifting his face to a +starless and unstirring heat. Waves of complete physical exhaustion +passed over him. An utter horror fastened on his brain. + +"Oh, God," he said, with numb lips, "we thank Thee for this, Thy daily +blessing--" He broke off with an effort. That was his father pronouncing +a grace. "Oh God--" he said again, when it seemed to him that in the +darkness he saw the blank placidity of a Buddha carved from gray stone. +Tears ran over his sunken cheeks, salt and warm like blood. + + + + +VI + +The night was so oppressive, continuing such an unusually sultry period +for the season, that Sidsall, ordinarily impervious to the effects of +weather, was unable to sleep. Although the door between her room and her +parents' was shut, she heard her father--his step, at once quick and +firm, was easily recognizable moving about beyond. Her restlessness +increased and she got up, crossing the floor to the window open on the +garden, where she knelt, the thick plait of her hair across her cheek and +shoulder, with her arms propped on the ledge. The depths of sky were +hidden in a darkness like night made visible; and, in place of moving +air, there were slow waves of perfume, now from the lilacs and now from +the opening hedge of June roses. + +Her brain was filled by a multitude of minor images and speculations, but +fixed at their back was the presence of Roger Brevard. She approved of +him absolutely. He had exactly the formal manner that gave her a pleasant +sense of delicate importance, and his clothes were beautiful, a sprig of +rose geranium in a buttonhole and his gloves and boots immaculate. She +liked rather slight graceful men, she thought, with the quiet voices of a +polite ancestry. Naturally Olive Wibird preferred less restrained +companions, although Heaven knew that Olive appeared to make all kinds +welcome. Olive's opinion of Roger Brevard would have been very different +if he had asked her to dance. + +Sidsall recalled the quadrille he had led her through at Lacy's party; he +had been a perfect partner, at once light and firm. He had been a +habitual caller at Java Head before that occasion, and had come in the +same manner since. That is, casually viewed, his visits seemed the same; +but in reality there were some small yet significant differences. They +were all held in his attitude of the afternoon when he had stayed talking +exclusively to her on the steps. + +She couldn't say just what the change was; when she attempted to examine +it her thoughts became confused and turned to a hundred absurd +considerations, such as--at present--the loveliness of the night. The +scents of the flowers were overwhelming. He got on, too, better than +almost anyone else with her Uncle Gerrit's Manchu wife. She had watched +them together until it had dawned on her that the two had some important +qualities in common--they both appeared to stand a little aside from the +world, as if they were against the wall at a cotillion. She thought this +in spite of the fact that it was precisely what Roger Brevard never did; +it was true in the mysterious way of so much now that came from ideas +over which she had no control. + +The subject of Uncle Gerrit's wife--she had not yet been told or decided +for herself what to call her--was inexhaustibly enthralling. But, before +she was again fairly launched in it, she paused to wonder at the presence +of the dreadful Dunsack man on their lawn. His hollow yellow cheeks and +staring brown eyes which somehow made her think of pain, his restless +hands and speech, all repelled her violently. Taou--Taou Yuen hadn't +liked him either: when, after the longest time, he had gone, she replied +to a short comment from her, Sidsall's, father: + +"Rotten wood cannot be carved." + +Some one else had mentioned opium. She had intended to ask more +particularly about this, but it slipped from her mind. She remembered +that her grandfather made one of his familiar exclamations peppered with +an appalling word. He was really very embarrassing, and she was glad that +Roger Brevard had left. It was a bad example for Laurel, too, who copied +him, and only that morning said "My God" to Miss Gomes. Her mind swung +back to the consideration of the Manchu: The latter was the fact upon +which Camilla was so insistent, that in this case a Manchu was a noble, +almost a princess. Camilla suffered dreadfully from the endless questions +put to her outside their house about Uncle Gerrit's wife. She had more +than once wept at the public blot laid on them. Laurel was frankly +inquisitive and Janet as puzzling as usual. + +The clothes of course were enchanting, the richness of the materials and +hand embroidery marvellous; her jewelry was never ending. It didn't seem +quite like clothing, in the sense of her own tarlatan and crinoline, her +waist which Hodie wouldn't properly lace and tulle draping; there was a +certain resemblance to the dressing in Van Amburgh's circus; but--in +spite of Camilla's private laments--every inch of it was distinguished. +The layers of paint upset them, but Uncle Gerrit had explained, a little +impatiently, that it was a Manchu custom, adding that the world couldn't +be all measured and judged by Salem. + +Sidsall liked her rather than not, she decided; and determined to make an +effort to know her better. She wanted specially to discover the nature of +the bond that held one to the other, and explore, in safety, the depths +of love. She could not help feeling that her uncle's affair, +extraordinary as it was, must throw light on the whole complicated +business of marriage. ... The clock in the hall struck an indeterminate +half hour, it appeared to grow lighter outside, and there was a +twittering of martins from the stables. From above came the vigorous +harsh cawing of crows. Suddenly sleepy she returned to bed and almost +immediately the room was flooded with sunlight. + +It was an accepted fact now that Taou Yuen, the Garden of Peaches, stayed +in her room until long after breakfast; and when Sidsall, rising from the +table, found a servant taking up a pot of hot water for tea, she secured +it and knocked carefully on the door above. The slurring hesitating voice +said "Come in," and she entered with a diffidence covered by a cheerfully +polite morning greeting. She found the other in crêpe de Chine pantaloons +wrapped tightly about her ankles and bound over quilted muslin socks with +gay brocaded ribbons and a short floating gown of gray silk worked with +willow leaves. Her hair was an undisturbed complication of lustrous +black, gold bodkins and flowers massed on either side; and her face, +without paint or powder, was as smooth as ivory and the color of very +pale coffee and cream. + +Sidsall saw that she was at her toilet, and she put down the pot of +steaming water, moving toward the door; but Taou Yuen, with a charmingly +shy gesture, begged her to stay. She swiftly drew a cup of tea from +silvery leaves, filled and lighted the minute bowl of her tobacco pipe, +deeply inhaled the smoke; then returned to a mirror. + +Fascinated, Sidsall followed every motion. + +Taou Yuen polished her face sharply with a hot damp cloth and then dipped +her fingers in a jar that held a sticky amber substance. "Honey," she +said briefly, rubbing it into her cheeks and palms. Next she attacked her +eyebrows, and skillfully wielding a thin silk cord left arches like +pencil markings. At times she interrupted her preparations to turn to +Sidsall with a little smile so engaging that the girl smiled +sympathetically in answer. There were a gilt paper box of rice powder, +with which she drenched her countenance, leaves of carmine transferred to +her cheeks with a wet finger, and a silver pot of rouge from which she +coated her lips. As she gazed approvingly at her reflection Sidsall said: + +"It's very beautiful." + +Her eyes, drawn up toward her temples, shone gayly; and, close to +Sidsall, she touched the latter affectionately on the cheek. The cold +sharp contact of the long curving finger guard gave the girl an +unpleasant shock. It seemed lifeless, or like the scratching of a beetle. +Suddenly the woman's glittering gaze, her expressionless face stiff with +paint, the blaze of her barbaric colors, filled Sidsall with a shrinking +that was almost dread. + +She was even more oppressed by an instinctive feeling of what she could +express to herself only as cruelty hidden under the other's scented +embroidery. At the same time her curiosity persisted, conquered. She was +unable, however, to think of any possible manner of introducing the new +subject of her interest, love, and was forced to be content with an +indifferent opening. + +"We were all quite surprised when Mr. Dunsack called yesterday," she +said. "He isn't in the least a friend of the family. Grandfather went to +sea with his father, but even they didn't speak for years in Salem. The +Dunsacks are a little common." + +"I know," Taou Yuen replied. "Mr. Dunsack--a long time in Canton, at the +American agents. China is bad for men like him. Black spirits get in them +and the ten sins." + +"He stared at you in the rudest way." + +"He never saw a Manchu lady before. In China the dog would not have +passed by the first gate. Here it is nothing to be a Manchu or an +honorable wife; it is all like the tea houses and rice villages. Men walk +up to you with bold eyes. I tell Gerrit and he laughs. I stay in the room +and he brings me shamefully down. This Mr. Dunsack comes and the wise old +man talks to him like a son. He touches your mother's hand. He sees the +young girls like white candles." + +"We wouldn't let him really bother us," Sidsall explained; "probably if +he comes again we'll all be out." + +Taou Yuen made a comment in Chinese. "A bad thought is a secret knife," +she continued; "it is more dangerous than the anger of the Emperor, a +sickness that kills with the stink of bodies already dead." + +This seemed rather absurd to Sidsall. She considered once more the +introduction of the subject of her new concern; but, in spite of Taou +Yuen's extravagant appearance, there was a quality of being which made +impossible any blunt interrogation. She had a decidedly aloof manner. Her +mother, Sidsall recognized, and the older women they knew, had a trace of +this; but in the Manchu it was carried infinitely further, a most +autocratic disdain. Her feeling for the other shifted rapidly from +attitude to attitude. + +She watched, she was certain, these same sensations come over her Aunt +Caroline Saltonstone, Mrs. Clifford and Mrs. Wibird, who called on Gerrit +Ammidon's wife that afternoon. They were sitting with their crinoline +widespread against their chairs, gazing with a concerted battery of +curiosity at Taou Yuen's shimmering figure in the drawing-room screened +against the sun. Mrs. Wibird, Sidsall thought--a woman of fat and faded +prettiness, with wine red splotches beneath her eyes, and a voice that +went on and on in the relating of various petty emotional +disturbances--must have resembled Olive as a girl. It was probable, then, +that Olive would look like her mother when in turn she was middle-aged. +Mrs. Clifford, unseasonably huddled in her perpetual shawl, more than +ever suggested a haggard marble in somberly rich clothes. Aunt Caroline +sat with complacent hands and loud inattentive speech. Taou Yuen smiled +at them placidly. + +"Our men," said Mrs. Clifford, "went out to China for years. It never +occurred to them however to marry a Chinese woman; but I dare say they +didn't see the right sort." + +"Most of the captains like China," Taou Yuen said. "They are so far away +from their families--" she made a brief philosophical gesture, and Madra +Clifford studied her with a narrowed gaze. "It would be the same," she +continued, "if Chinamen came to America." Mrs. Wibird shuddered. "A +yellow skin," she cried impetuously; "I can't bide the thought." + +"I'm sure we'd be tremendously interested," Mrs. Saltonstone hurriedly +put in, "if you'd tell us about your wedding. A Chinese wedding must +be--be very gay, with firecrackers and--" + +"My marriage with Captain Ammidon was not beautiful--I was a widow and he +foreign. The Manchu wedding is very nice. First there is the engagement +ceremony. I sit like this," she sank gracefully to the floor, +cross-legged, "on the bed with my eyes shut, and, if I am noble, two +princesses come and put the _ju yi_, it's jade and means all joy, on my +lap. Two little silk bags hang from the buttons of my gown with gold +coins, and two gold rings on my fingers must be marked with _Ta hsi_, +that's great happiness." + +"I'm told polygamy is an active practice," Mrs. Wibird remarked with a +rising interest. + +"Yes?" Taou Yuen asked. + +"One man--a lot of wives." + +"The Emperor has a great many and some Manchus take a second and third. +You think that is wrong here. Who knows! The Chinese women are very good, +very modest. The Four Books For Girls teach perfect submission; the five +virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, sincerity. +Confucius says, 'The root is filial piety.'" + +"Very admirable," Mrs. Wibird nodded, agitating the small dyed ostrich +plumes tipped with marabou of her bonnet; but it was clear to Sidsall +that this was not the revelation for which she had hoped. A momentary +silence, the edge of an uneasiness, enveloped the visitors. + +"What lovely satins," Mrs. Saltonstone commented. + +"Please--I have a box full; you will let me give you some?" + +"Indeed yes, and thank you." + +Mrs. Wibird, growing resentful, said that a cousin of her aunt's had been +a missionary to China, "and did a very blessed work too." + +Taou Yuen smoothly agreed that it was quite possible. "Our poor have a +great many wrong and lustful ideas," she acknowledged; "they tell lies +and beat their wives and gamble. The higher classes too, the mandarins +and princes, use the people for their own security and rob them. +Sometimes the law is not honest, and a man with gold gets free when a +laborer is put in the bamboo cage." + +Mrs. Clifford said very vigorously, "Ha!" + +The silence returned intensified. + +"I remember," the Manchu went on, "this will amuse you. My father-in-law, +who was in the Canton Customs, told me that some boxes of Bibles came out +from America, with other objects, and when they were opened at the +Mission they were the wrong ones and filled with rum." + +There was not, however, any marked appreciation of this on the part of +the Salem women. They rose to leave and Taou Yuen sank on her knee. She +gazed without a trace of emotion at the three flooding the door with +their belled skirts. "They are the same everywhere," she told the girl. +The latter moved out into the garden. There she subconsciously picked a +rose and fastened it in her hair; her thoughts turned to Roger Brevard. +In his place her Uncle Gerrit came out through the drawing-room window. +The usual shadow of the house, lengthening with afternoon, was pleasantly +enveloping, and they walked slowly over the grass. + +"A flower in your hair," he said, "and by yourself. You have been +thinking about true love." She blushed vividly at this unexpected angle +on her mind and found it impossible to meet his keen blue eyes. "Love +must be a remarkable thing." She raised a swift glance to his face and +discovered that he had not spoken to her at all, but, hat in hand, was +looking away with an expression of abstraction. + +"I mean the unreasonable silly divine kind," he specified, now gazing +at her quizzically, as if lost in a mood over which he had no control; +"the sort that is as long as life and stronger. It is entirely +different and ages older than the reasonable logical love, all proper +and suitable and civilized; or the love that is the result of a +determination, the result of a determination," he repeated, frowning +darkly at their feet. Sidsall held her breath, thrilled by the wealth +of what she had heard, fearful of diverting what might be yet revealed. +But he moved away abruptly, in a manner that enforced solitude, and +stood apparently examining the rockery. + +Her brain rang with the splendid phrase, "Love as long as life and +stronger." It seemed to clarify and state so much of her lately confused +being. Hodie, artfully drawn into the consideration of earthly affection, +was far less satisfactory than Gerrit Ammidon. She dwelt on the treasure +beyond moth or rust, lost in an ecstasy of contemplation expressed in her +customary explosive amens. At the same time she admitted that lower +unions were blessed of God, and recommended Sidsall to think on "a man +who has seen the light and by no means a sea captain." Sidsall replied +cuttingly, "I think you must forget where you are." + +"I forget nothing," Hodie stoutly maintained; "I'll witness before +anyone." She settled the flounces of Sidsall's skirt with a deft hand. + +Walking toward the Saltonstones' for tea, with a mulberry silk parasol +casting a shifting glow on her expanse of clear madras, Sidsall +wondered at the sudden change of almost all her interests and +preoccupations. It was very disturbing--she fell into daydreams that +carried her fancy away on a search that was a longing, a soft confusion +of opening her arms to mystery. This varied with a restless melancholy; +the old securities of her life were hidden in a mist of uncertainty in +which her consciousness was troubled by nameless pressures; something +within her held almost desperately back from further adventuring. But +all the time a latent fascination was drawing her on, putting aside the +curtain for her better view. + +The Saltonstones' dwelling on Chestnut Street was one of a pair--a large +solid square of brick--with two identical oval white porticoes and rows +of windows keyed in white stone. Within the staircase swept up to a +slender pillared opening, through which Lacy, calmly dressing, waved a +deliberate hand. Mrs. Saltonstone was seated by the tall gilt framed +mirror on a low marble stand between long front windows. "As usual," she +said, in connection with her daughter, "Lacy's as cool as a water monkey; +gets it from James; they wouldn't hurry if--" She searched in vain for an +expression of her family's composure. "Now I am an impetuous woman." She +promptly exhibited this quality in the vigor with which she met the wrong +canister of tea brought by a servant. She didn't intend to serve Padre +Souchong to a lot of people who apparently confused afternoon tea with an +invitation to dinner. + +In the small press which followed Sidsall stopped in the dining room with +Lacy and Olive Wibird. Olive was still discussing men. "He sat holding my +hand right on that bench by your hedge, Sidsall, and said that nothing +could keep him from coming back for me, but he died of yellow fever in +Batavia." She left in the company of a beau of fifty anyhow, with a +glistening bald head, a silly smirking bow and flood of compliments. Lacy +moved away and Sidsall found herself facing Roger Brevard. + +"That looks remarkably like a garden," he said, waving toward an open +door. The sun had become obscured in a veil of cloud, drooping until it +almost seemed to rest on the bright green foliage; her companion's mood, +too, was shadowed. "I thought you'd be here," he added outside, "and +looked for you at once." + +"There was something special you wanted to say?" + +"My dear child," he replied, "can't you guess how absolutely refreshing +you are? No, I have nothing special. But you'll soon get used to men +around with no more reason than yourself." + +She studied this seriously; and, as its complimentary intent emerged, +a corresponding color stained her cheeks. Her gaze rested on him for +the fleetest moment possible and, to her surprise, she saw that he +was frowning. + +"I came here just to see you. No," he corrected his period, "only to see +you." His manner was surprisingly abrupt and disconcerting. "I can quite +realize," he went on, "that I shouldn't say any of this. Yet, on the +other hand, it is the most natural thing in the world. I have been +listening to the conventional babble of teas and cotillions for so long +that you are like a breath of lost youth. Certainly that is appropriate. +I think," he told her, "that you are the youngest thing alive." Then he +laughed, "So young that I have annoyed you." + +"I feel a great deal older than I did, well--last month," she said. + +"That is a tragedy." She felt that if he were still amused at her she was +furious, but he was even graver than before. "To tell you helps hurry the +charm to an end. That is what might be complained against me. Yet flowers +will open, you know, and it might as well be in an honest sun." + +"I don't understand," she admitted, troubled. + +"Why, it means, Sidsall, that I am offering you an experienced hand, that +I'm certain I can do you more good than harm--" + +"That's silly," she interrupted. "If you mean that we might be friends, +really confidential friends, it would help me awfully. But then it's so +one-sided." + +"You'll have to overlook that," he answered; "probably all that I can +give you, experience, isn't worth the smallest of your feelings. Probably +you won't need me for an instant. Certainly the pleasure will be mine." + +"You didn't understand," she told him, with dignity; "it's the other way +round. I am not a particle interesting and everyone agrees that I'm too +healthy. But I can't help it if my cheeks are red and mother won't let +me have powder." It was obviously impossible to explain about Hodie and +the lacing. + +"I like it," he insisted. "I'll admit that I am unfashionable there. I +think we'll hit on a great deal to share privately." There was a faint +patter among the leaves, and a cold drop of rain fell on Sidsall's arm. +Others struck Roger Brevard but he continued without apparently noticing +them. "You must understand that I am entirely at your service. Sometimes, +although they won't come yet, there are things a--a friend can do better +than one's family. You'll ask me, Sidsall?" + +"Yes," she said solemnly. More rain struck her; she could see it now +plainly, falling between them. Roger Brevard's face was dark, the frown +still scarred his forehead. Personally she was happier than she +remembered ever being before and she wondered at his severity of bearing. +"But you must go in at once," he cried, suddenly energetic, his familiar +self; "you are getting wetter every minute." + +The clouds dissolved into a late sunlight that streamed in long bars +through the canopies of elms on the streets. From her windows Sidsall saw +a world of flashing greenery and limpid sky. Usually when she was happy +she sang unimportant bits of light song, but her present state was +serious and inarticulate. The indeterminate questions, the disturbing +vague moods, of the past days somehow combined and took on the tangible +shape of Roger Brevard. Her curiosity about love was resolved into a +sudden inner shrinking from its possibilities and meaning. + +She was lost in her aloofness from mundane affairs: Taou Yuen in +whispering silk, her grandfather's rotund tones, Laurel and Camilla and +her mother, were distant, immaterial. In the evening she sat on the +front steps, a web of white, dreamily intent on the shimmering sweep of +Washington Square. After a little she was joined by Gerrit Ammidon. He +wore linen trousers and a short blue sea jacket; and the wavering +delicately lavender trail of smoke from his cheroot was like her +floating thoughts. + +"Already," he said, "I am full of getting back on my ship." + +She smiled at him absently. + +"The land doesn't do for a sailor," he continued. "They are always into +trouble on shore. I can't say why it should be so but it is. If there's +not one kind there is another; rum and such varnish for the able seaman, +and--and complications for a master. I suppose that's because there are +so confounded many unexpected currents and slants of wind, as you might +say. On shipboard everything pretty much is charted; a thing will be +followed more or less by a fixed consequence. The waves break so and so +on coral or rocks or sand; there is usually the sun for an observation; +a good man knows his ship, how many points she'll hold on the wind, how +a cargo must be stowed, when to take in the light canvas. You can give +the man at the wheel a course and turn in or stay on deck and beat your +way through hell. It's exact, you know, but on shore--" he made a +hopeless gesture. + +"There are no regulations," he observed moodily; "or else nobody follows +them: collisions all the time, sinkings and derelicts drifting round, +awash and dismasted. But they are everywhere. That fellow, Edward +Dunsack--" he stopped, lost in speculation. Then, "He seems harmless +enough," he resumed, "even pitiful; but he sticks in your head. I wish +I'd never brought his damned chest to Salem. A fool would have known +better. I'm worse--a childish fool. A derelict," he said again. "You are +smashing over a swell at twelve knots or more, everything spread, when, +in a hollow, there it is squarely across your bow. No time to shift the +wheel, and a ship's missing, perhaps in a hundred fathom. It might be the +best ship afloat, the best master and stoutest crew, but in a minute +she's only a salty tangle." + +He laughed uneasily at the vividness of his fancy. "If it's hard for us +what must it be for Taou Yuen?" he demanded. "Married to me! Here! That's +courage for you." He tramped down the steps, across Pleasant Street, with +his bare head sunk, and vanished into the obscurity of the Square. She +caught a last glimmer of white trousers, a faint rapid gleam where his +lighted cheroot described the arc of a passionate gesture on the night. + +The spring, like the full buds of the hedge roses in the Ammidons' +garden, passed swiftly into early summer. The flowers against the house +showed gay perennial colors, the stocks and larkspur and snapdragons +succeeded the retreating flood of the lilacs. The days were still yellow +pools of heat, or else cooled by the faintly salt sea wind drawing down +the elms and chestnuts, followed by purple-green nights of moonlight. +They seemed to Sidsall to hold everything in a pause. She saw less and +less of Taou Yuen who now scarcely came out of her room except for an +occasional ride in the barouche with Mrs. Ammidon or a contemplative hour +in the garden, usually at dusk. Apparently content with the elaborate +rearrangement of her headdress, she sat for long periods, gazing out over +Washington Square, idle except for the regular tap of her pipe emptying +the ashes of the minute bowl. + +Yet Sidsall's first interest in her had almost completely shifted to +Gerrit Ammidon. He evidently preferred her company to that of the other +members of his family, and they often took short largely silent walks, +usually down to the Salem Marine Railway where the _Nautilus_ was +undergoing repairs. His protracted silences were broken by the sudden +vehement protests against the generally muddled aspect of affairs or +longer monologues of inner questioning and search. He almost never +referred to her or made her part of a conversation; she was free to dwell +on her own emotions while he, with a corrugated brow, went on in his +tortuous and solitary course. + +On an afternoon when they had walked to the foot of Briggs Street, and +were gazing out over the tranquil water of Collins Cove, Gerrit Ammidon +asked abruptly: + +"Have you seen Nettie Vollar lately?" + +Sidsall was unable to remember exactly when that had been. She rather +thought she had caught a glimpse of her in Lawrence Place with books +under her arm which she was probably taking from the Athenaeum for her +grandfather. Anyone, she told herself privately, could see that Nettie +Vollar wouldn't care for books. + +Something had occurred, or threatened to occur, between her uncle and +Nettie; what it was she had never been told; but she realized that only +one thing could really happen between a man and a girl--they must have +been in love. In the interest of this she recalled Nettie Vollar's +appearance, but was unable to discover any marked attractions. The elder +had a good figure, rather full for her age, and totally different from +her own square solidity. Her hair was coarse and carelessly arranged, her +clothes noticeable for a love of brightness rather than care in the +spending of a small sum. + +Gerrit Ammidon had the strangest tastes! + +He was standing immobile, looking across the Cove as if he were on a +quarter-deck searching for a hidden land. His legs were slightly spread, +firmly planted in a manner to defeat any sudden lurching. She grew a +little impatient at him staring like a block at nothing at all; she felt +older than he, superior in the knowledge of life; he seemed hardly more +than an absurd boy. Sidsall had a desire to shake him. He was so--so +impracticable. "Don't you think we'd better be going?" she asked finally. +Gerrit Ammidon turned and followed her obediently. + +There were lights in the rope walk on Briggs Street; through a window she +could see a man pacing down the long narrow interior laying a strand of +hemp from the burden on his shoulders. It made her shudder to think of +the monotonous passage forward and back, an eternity of slow-twisting +rope. Yet life was something like that--she took the happenings of each +day and wove them into a strand dark and bright: a strand, she realized, +that grew stronger as it lengthened.... That would be true of +everyone--of her companion and grandfather and Hodie. + +They reached the house as the family were gathering in the dining room, +when Sidsall found Roger Brevard unexpectedly staying for supper. She met +his direct greeting and smile with a warm stir of pleasure and sat in a +happy silence listening to the voices about the table. Her uncle had +brought his wife down and the candles glittering among the lusters on the +walls spread their light over the Manchu's strange vivid figure. +Everything about life was so confusing, Sidsall thought. The night flowed +in at the open windows drenched with magic: here were candles but outside +were stars. The port in its engraved glass decanter seemed to burn with a +ruby flame. "Bah!" her grandfather was exclaiming. "I'll put a thousand +dollars on Gerrit and the _Nautilus_ against any clipper built; but mind, +in all weathers." + +"Voyage by voyage," William Ammidon insisted, "he would be left in the +harbor. The California gold deposits--." + +Later a crowd, slowly collecting, recalled the fact that the Salem Band +was to play that night in the Square. "Oh, mother, look," Laurel cried; +"they've got lamps in their hats." Small wavering flames were being +lighted on the musicians' hats; there were melancholy disconnected hoots +from bassoons and the silver clear scale of a bugle. "Can't I get nearer, +mother?" Laurel implored as usual. "Can't I go and see the little lamps +on their heads?" + +"Sidsall and I will look after her," Roger Brevard put in, and almost +immediately the three were entering Washington Square. The throng was +thickest directly behind the band, radiating in thinning numbers to the +wooden boundary fence. Laurel led them to an advantageous position, where +they could watch the curious effects of the ring of lights above intent +faces drawn hollow-cheeked by the vigorous blowing of instruments. The +leader, in the center of the flickering smoky illumination, now beat with +his arms in one direction, now in another. + +A second selection followed, and a third, during which, in surprising +pauses, the band shouted a concerted "Hurrah!" Sidsall was infinitely +contented. How splendidly erect and calm and distinguished Roger Brevard +was! She hated younger men, they were only boys, who kept up a senseless +talk about college humor. He saw instantly that the people were crushing +her skirts, and firmly conducted them out of the crowd. It was nicer here +beyond the wavering dark mass: a waltz flowed about her so tender and +gracious that her eyes filled with tears. + +But Laurel had to be taken home; and, clasping Mr. Brevard's hand, the +little girl talked volubly as they moved away. "And so," she said, "I +told her to keep her topsails full." + +"What?" he demanded. + +"She was falling off, you know--losing way. Hell's hatches--" + +"Laurel," Sidsall corrected her sharply. "No, you mustn't laugh at her." + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was on the steps, the other men were in the library; +her mother had gone up with Janet. Laurel left them, and, without speech, +they walked through the house to the lawn. The stars had apparently +retreated to new infinities of distance and night, there was a throb of +music so faint that it might be only an echoing memory; Roger Brevard's +face was pale and strained. He asked: + +"Have you forgotten that we are friends?" + +"No," she returned seriously, lifting her look to his. He was very close +to her and her heart beat unsteadily. She had a choking premonition of +what was about to occur, but she stood without the slightest attempt to +prevent his kiss. It affected him even more than herself, for he stepped +back sharply with his hands clenched. Roger was silent for so long that +she said, timidly: + +"I didn't mind, so much." + +"Thank you," he replied almost harshly. "There's no need for you to +regret it. No need, no need. But if it were only a year more--." + +"We all grow older," she told him wisely. + +"So we do, Sidsall, and we change. But you should stay exactly as you are +now, white and young and fragrant. Never the fruit but always the +blossom, and always a night in early summer. The afterwards is an +indifferent performance." + +"I don't understand," her voice was shadowed. + +"Sidsall for a moment. Don't move--opening petals, shy pure +heart...loveliness...." + +"I don't understand," she repeated, but the trouble had vanished. She +even smiled at him: she was filled with an absolute security in her +vision of Roger Brevard. Why, she had no need to question; it was an +instinct beyond search and above knowledge; perhaps, she thought as they +turned toward the house, its name was love. + + + + +VII + +The days, to Nettie Vollar, seemed to be both unutterably dull and +colored by a possibility of excitement like an undercurrent of hardly +perceptible fever. Her mother, it was true, took on herself most of the +duties of Barzil Dunsack's house; but there were still a large number of +little things that returned unvaried with every morning, noon and night +for the girl's attention. The cause of any impending excitement--except +the mere presence of Gerrit Ammidon in Salem, now surely of no moment to +her--she was unable to place. The feeling that pervaded her most was the +heavy conviction that her life was a complete waste, she had the +sensation of being condemned to stay in surroundings, in a service, that +never for a moment represented her desire or true capabilities. Her +family, as she had grown into maturity, seemed strange, her place there +an unhappy accident. + +At her brightest periods she pictured being suddenly, arbitrarily, +removed into happier appropriate regions. For a time that vision had +assumed the tangible shape of Gerrit Ammidon; then this comfortable +figure had abruptly left her to an infinitely more seldom return of her +faint indefinite hope. + +Through the inordinate number of hours when she was potentially alone she +had developed a strain of almost painful thought out of keeping with the +whole of her naturally unreflective being. In moments such as the +present--she was sitting in her room overlooking Hardy Street on its +landward reach--she followed the slow turnings of her mind in the manner +of a child spelling out a sentence. Two things seemed to her of the first +importance--the existence into which she had been forced by the +circumstance of her birth, and her unknown father himself: unknown, that +is, except for vague promptings and desires which, for need of a better +reason, she traced to his personality. That he was superior, in that he +had had a distinct measure of gentle blood, she was assured by her mother +on one of the rare occasions when the subject was touched between them. +To that she credited the greater part of her obscure dissatisfaction with +conditions which she described as mean. + +The latter evidently didn't disturb her mother or grandfather; she +realized that the long-drawn silent severity of the old man had crushed +what spirit her mother may have had. It was clear that the elder woman +had been very pretty, with wide fluttering eyes which made you think of +gray moths, and delicately colored cheeks; but all that had been crushed, +too. She was meek in a way that filled her daughter with determined +resentment and fear. The resentment sprang from the silent assertion that +she wouldn't be worn down like that; the fear followed the realization of +the rigid power of the old man and the weight of all that held her +powerless to escape. Naturally she was rather cheerful than somber, an +involuntary gayety rose from her in the drabbest moments; she even defied +Barzil Dunsack with ribbons and flowers on her bonnet. + +The prospect from her window offered no relief from the interior; it was +true that in the other direction she could catch glimpses of the harbor, +by leaning out she could get the comparatively full sweep at the bottom +of the street; but there were usually things ugly and restraining between +her and the freedom of the horizon. Her favorite place had been at the +edge of the grass above the tide; but, since his return, Edward Dunsack +had hit upon it too, and his proximity made her increasingly uneasy. For +one thing he talked to himself out loud, principally in Chinese, and the +sliding unintelligible tongue, accompanied by the sight of his gaunt +yellow face, his inattentive fixed eyes, gave her an icy shiver. It was +almost worse when he conversed with her in a palpable effort at an effect +of sympathy. + +She rose and wandered finally to the embankment of the garden. The water +shimmered under the full flood of afternoon; she was gazing at the +distance in an aimless manner that had lately fastened on her when she +heard a stirring of the grass behind her and Edward Dunsack approached. +He was livid in the pitiless light, and seemed terribly fragile, a thing +that a mere clap of thunder might crumble to nothing; she felt that she +could sweep him away with a broom; yet at the same time there were +startling gleams of inner violence, a bitter energy, an effect of +deepness, that appalled her. + +"If you should ask me," he declared, "if my opinion is of any value, I'd +say that Ammidon owed you considerable. He led you to expect something +better than his running away without a word; I'd have an explanation out +of him. Of course, if he had come back married--this affair with a +Chinese woman isn't that--it would be all over. But, somehow, with things +as they are, I can't believe that it is." + +"Do you expect me to go to their house, like you did?" she replied +resentfully. + +He turned such a malicious face on her that instinctively she moved back. +For a moment he was silent, his meager leaden lips drawn tight over dark +teeth in a dry grin, his fingers like curved wires; then, relaxing, he +cursed the entire house of Ammidon. "The truth is," he ended, "that you +were a little fool; you had everything, everything, in your hand and +threw it away." His gaze strayed from her to the surface of the water, a +short distance from the land. "Threw it away," he repeated; "it can't be +got in this country either." + +He was, she thought, crazy. However, all that he said about Gerrit +lingered in her mind; it fanned to new life the embers of her rebellion. +If a chance should come she would let Gerrit Ammidon know something of +the wrong he had done her. As her uncle had pointed out, the Chinese +woman was different from an American, a white woman. Their entire +position, Gerrit's and her own, was peculiar, outside ordinary judgments. + +She saw him occasionally from a distance, as she must continue to do +while he was in Salem, since no opportunity had been made for them to +exchange words. That must come from Gerrit. + +Her mother called her, and she went in, finding the elder in the kitchen. +"I can't get enough heat to bake," she worried; "you can bear your hand +right in the oven. Your grandfather won't have his sponge biscuit for +supper." Nettie declared, "I certainly wouldn't let it bother me. Just +tell him and let him say what he likes." Her mother turned palpably +startled. "But--", she began weakly. + +"I know exactly what you're going to say," Nettie cut in, "he has it +every night and he'll expect it. How much, I'd like to ask, have you +been expecting all your life and getting nothing? And now I am the +same. I don't believe we're as wicked as grandfather lets on, and I'm +certain he's not so good as he thinks. I don't admit we are going to +hell, either; if I did I can tell you I'd be different. I'd have a good +time like some other girls I see. I guess it would be good, anyhow, +with silk flounces four yards around. I'm what I am because I don't +listen to him; I don't pay any attention to the pious old women who +make long faces at us." + +"You mustn't talk like that, Nettie," her mother protested anxiously. "It +has a right hard sound. Your grandfather is a very upright religious man. +It's proper for those who sin to suffer in this world that they may be +humble for the next." + +"I don't want to be humble," Nettie told her. "The Ammidons aren't +humble. Mrs. Saltonstone isn't." A pain deepened visibly on the elder's +pale countenance. "You mustn't think it doesn't hurt me, Nettie, to--to +see you away from all the pleasure. It tears at my heart dreadful. That +is part of the punishment." The girl made a vivid gesture, "But you sit +back and take it!" she cried. "You talk of it as punishment. I won't! I +won't! I'm going to do something different." + +"What?" her mother demanded, terrified. + +"I don't know," Nettie admitted. "But if I had it to do over I'd kiss +Gerrit Ammidon as soon as he looked for it." + +"Nettie, do you--do you think he wanted to marry you?" + +"Yes," she answered shortly. "He's like that. Whatever you might say +against him he's honest." + +Her mother began to cry, large slow tears that rolled out of her eyes +without a sound. She sat with lax hopeless hands in her lap of cheap worn +dress stuff. Nettie Vollar felt no impulse toward crying; she was bright +with anger--anger at what Barzil Dunsack had done with her mother, at the +harm he had worked in her. "You are a saint compared to Uncle Edward," +she asserted. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but there is +something." + +"I've noticed it too: times his eyes are glazed like, and then his +staring at you like a cat. It's a fact he doesn't eat right, and he +forgets what's said as soon as a body speaks. Might he have some Chinese +disease, do you think?" + +"It's not like a real sickness...." + +The evening in the dreary sitting room with only the reddish illumination +of one lamp was almost unendurable. Her grandfather sat with broad wasted +hands gripping his shrunken knees, his eyes gazing stonily out above a +nose netted with fine blue veins and harsh mouth almost concealed by the +curtain of beard. Edward rose uneasily and returned, casting a swelling +and diminishing shadow--obscurely unnatural like himself--over the faded +and weather-stained wall paper. Her mother was bowed, speechless. Nettie +wanted to scream, to horrify them all with some outrageous remark. She +would have liked to knock the lamp from the table, send it crashing over +the floor, and see the flames spread out, consume the house, consume... +she stopped, horrified at her thoughts. + +She didn't want things like that in her mind, she continued, but the echo +of dancing, of music, of the Salem Band marching up Essex Street with Mr. +Morse playing his celebrated silvery fanfare on the bugle. She wanted to +laugh, to talk, yes--to love. Why, she was young, barely twenty-one; and +here she was in a house like the old cemetery on Charter Street. Before +they went to bed her grandfather would read out from the Bible, but +always the Old Testament. Finally he rose and secured the volume, bound +in dusty calf, its pages brown along the edges. His voice rang in a slow +emphasized fervor: + +"'Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken +the Lord, thy God, when he led thee by the way? + +"'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters +of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the +waters of the river? + +"'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall +reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, +that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in +thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. + +"'For of old I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou +saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every +green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. + +"'Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art +thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? + +"'For though thou wash thee with nitre--'" + +Nettie was impressed, intimidated, in spite of the contrary resolution in +the kitchen: the words seemed to burn into her mother, herself, like +boiling fat from a pan; and a great relief flooded her when she could +escape again to the temporary relief of her room. It was hot, the windows +were up, and she made no light that might attract mosquitoes or force her +to draw the close shades. She stood undressed luxuriating in the sense of +freedom of body. She was richly white in the gloom: her full young beauty +gave her a feeling of contentment and strength, and, equally, a great +loneliness. It wasn't corrupt, a "degenerate plant," she thought with a +passionate conviction like a cry. + +She determined to say no prayer to such a ruthless Being; yet, soon +after, in her coarse nightgown, she found herself kneeling by the bed +with hard-clasped hands. It was a prayer for which Barzil Dunsack would +have had nothing but condemnation: she implored the dark, the mystery of +Augustness, for carnal and light things, yes--for waltzes and quadrilles +and songs and pleasure, young pleasure, all the aching desires of her +health and spirit and nature and years; but most for love. She said the +last blindly, in an instinct without definition, with the feeling that it +was the key, the door, to everything else; and in her mind rose the image +of Gerrit Ammidon. She saw his firm direct countenance, the frosty blue +eyes and human warmth. He needn't have come at all, she added, if it had +been only to double the dreariness of her existence. + +She wondered a little, her emotion subsiding, at the interest her uncle +showed in her affairs. It wasn't like what else she had gathered of him; +and she searched, but without success, for any hidden reason he might +have. He actively blackened the name of Ammidon while he was lost in too +great an indifference to be moved by any but extraordinary pressures. +Everything left his mind, as her mother had said, almost immediately. +Suddenly weary, she gave up all effort at understanding. + +A wind moved in from the sea, fluttering the light curtains, and brought +her a sense of coolness and release. It came from the immense free sweep +of ocean to which her sinking consciousness turned in peaceful +recognition and surrender. + +Altogether, in the days that followed, she realized a greater degree of +mental freedom than before her revolt. She had removed herself, it +appeared, a little outside the family, almost as if she were studying +them calmly through a window: a large part of the terror her grandfather +had possessed for her had disappeared, leaving for her recognition a +very old and worn man; she was sorry for her mother with a deep +affection mixed with impatience. At first she had tried to put something +of her own revived spirit in the older woman but it was like pouring +water into a cracked glass: her mother was too utterly broken to hold +any resolution whatever. + +Nettie's feeling for Edward Dunsack became an instinctive deep distrust. +It was almost impossible for her to remain when--as he so often did +now--he approached her to talk about the injustice of her mode of life +and the debt Gerrit Ammidon owed her. He would stand with his fingers +twitching, talking in a rapid sharp voice, blinking continuously against +any light brighter than that of a shaded room or dusk. He seldom left the +office or went out through the day; his place at the dinner table was far +more often empty than not. But after their early supper, in the long late +June twilights, he had an inexhaustible desire for her to stroll with +him. She occasionally agreed for the reason that they invariably passed +in the vicinity of Washington Square and Pleasant Street, and saw the +impressive block of the Ammidon mansion. However, they never met any of +its inmates. Once they had walked directly by the entrance; some girls, +perhaps a woman, certainly two men, were grouped in the doorway: it was +growing dark and Nettie couldn't be certain. + +Edward Dunsack clearly hesitated before the bricks leading in between the +high white fence posts topped with carved twisting flames; and, in a +sudden agony at the possibility of his stopping, Nettie hurried on, her +cheeks flaming and her heart, she thought, thumping in her throat. + +Her uncle followed her. There was a trail of intimate merriment from the +portico, a man's voice mingling gayly with those of the girls. "That was +the Brevard who's in the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company," Edward +Dunsack informed her. "I hear he's a great hand for leading cotillions +and balls--the balls you ought to take part in." On and on he went with +the familiar recital of her wrongs. It carried them all the way over +Pleasant and Essex and Derby Streets home. The next day, however, he was +forced to go about the town, and returned for dinner in a state of +excitement evident to anyone. + +He ate without attention whatever was before him, and extravagantly +pleasant, related how he had conversed with Mrs. Gerrit Ammidon in the +family carriage in front of the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and +Saltonstone on Liberty Street. Nettie was surprised that his concern was +caused by such a commonplace event. "The women of China--." Words failing +him, he waved a thin dry hand. His father frowned heavily. Then, +abruptly, as if he had been snatched out of his chair by an invisible +powerful clutch, he started up and disappeared. + +The afternoon passed the full and Nettie, bound in preparation for supper +for Redmond's, the Virginia Oysterman's at Derby Wharf, stood waiting for +some money. "I can't think where I left my reticule," her mother called, +"unless it's in Edward's room where I cleaned this morning. Just run up +and see.... He'll be at the office." + +Above, Nettie found the door closed, but it opened readily as she turned +the knob: she went in without hesitation. The interior she naturally +thought was empty; and then, with an unreasoning cold fear, she saw that +Edward Dunsack was lying on the bed. Some of his clothes were tumbled on +the floor, and he wore his black Chinese gown. The room was permeated +with a heavy smooth odor; on a stand at her uncle's hand was a curious +collection of strange objects--a little brass lamp with a flickering +bluish flame, a black and silver object like a swollen unnatural pipe, +stained bodkins, a lump of what she took to be tar-- + +Her attention was caught by Edward Dunsack's face: it had fallen back +with his pinched chin pointing toward the ceiling, it was the color of +yellow clay, and through his half-opened eyelids was an empty glimmer of +gray-white. She shrank away involuntarily, and the word "Dead" formed +just audibly on her trembling lips. In an instant she was in the hall, +calling in a panic-stricken voice, her icy hands at her throat; and her +grandfather mounted the stair with surprising agility, followed by his +daughter Kate. + +"Uncle Edward," Nettie articulated, waving toward the room from which she +had fled. The two women followed the rigid advance of Barzil Dunsack. As +he saw the figure of his son there was a stabbing gasp of his breath. He +halted for a moment, and it seemed to Nettie Vollar that suddenly his +determined carriage crumbled, his shoulders sagged; then he went forward. +The bed had high slender posts that at one time supported a canopy, but +now they were bare, and an old hand held to one as he bent over. + +"Is he dead?" the older woman asked. + +Barzil Dunsack made no immediate reply; his gaze turned from his son to +the stand, the fluttering lamp and its accessories. His head moved slowly +in the act of sniffing the pungent haze swimming in the interior. Nettie +could see his face, and she was appalled by an, expression grimmer than +any she remembered; it was both harsh, implacable, and stricken, as empty +of blood as the countenance on the bed. The hand on the post tightened +until it, too, was linen white. She drew close to her mother's side, +putting a supporting arm about the soft shaking shoulders. + +"No," said Barzil Dunsack, in a booming voice, "not dead, and yet dead +forever. Go downstairs," he commanded. They backed confused to the door. +"If Edward is sick--" Kate Vollar began. The old man's face blazed with +intolerable pain and anger. + +"Woman," he demanded, "can you cure what God has smitten?" His eyes +alone, hard and bright in the seamed and hairy face, drove them out into +the hall. Below in the sitting room Nettie exclaimed, "He might have told +us something!" + +"Whatever it is," her mother returned, "it's dreadful bad. I've felt that +all along about Edward; he's never been himself this last time." +Mechanically she found her reticule beside the painted ostrich egg from +Africa. "You'll have to get the oysters anyhow," she told her daughter, +maintaining the inevitable pressure of small necessities that defied all +tragedy and death. + +Nettie escaped with an enormous relief into the sunny normal tranquility +of the afternoon. The house had become too horrible to bear; and even on +the thronged length of Derby Wharf, like a street robbed of its supports +and thrust out into the harbor, she was followed by the vision of Edward +Dunsack's peaked clayey face. + +She got the oysters, and in an overwhelming reluctance to return walked +out to the end of the wharf, where a ship was discharging her +cargo--heavy plaited mats of cassia with a delicate scent, red and blue +slabs of marble, baskets of granular cakes of gray camphor, rough brown +logs of teak, smooth dull yellow rolls of gamboge, bags with sharp +conflicting odors, baled silks and half chests of tea wrapped in bamboos +and matting painted with the ship's name, _Rose and Rosalie_. + +There Nettie found herself beside a little girl clasping the hand of a +bulky old gentleman in pongee and a palm leaf hat and following every +operation with a grave critical regard. "I guess," she said to her +companion, "it's only the cheap sort of tea, a late picking, or it would +be in canisters." She was, Nettie realized, the youngest Ammidon child +with her grand-father. The latter looked round and recognized Nettie +Vollar. "How's Barzil Dunsack?" he asked immediately. + +She was at a loss for an answer, since she could not describe the subject +of the inquiry as all right nor explain their unhappy condition. "Intend +to stop in," Jeremy Ammidon continued; "last time I was there I went up +like a rocket." Laurel--that was the child's name, she remembered--gazed +at her intently. "I was saying to grandfather," she repeated precisely, +"that this wasn't really much of a cargo. Nothing like the one Uncle +Gerrit brought back in the Nautilus. We were having an argument about +Salem too. But, of course, all the big cargoes are going into Boston," +she sturdily confronted the flushed old man. + +"You're William all over again," he asserted, almost annoyed. Both their +expressions grew stubborn in a manner that, in view of their great +difference in age and experience, Nettie thought quite absurd. What a +beautiful dress the child had on--Porto Rico drawn work, with pale yellow +ribbons to her bonnet. "I wish you'd stay here a minute with Nettie +Vollar," Jeremy told her, "while I see the wharfinger." He went unhurried +along the wharf, and Laurel Ammidon drew closer to her. + +"She's not much of a ship either," Laurel said, indicating the _Rose and +Rosalie_. "She's built like--like grandfather. They're different now. I +went to New York to see the _Sea Witch_ launched, and she's the tallest +vessel afloat, with three standing skysail yards and, ringtail and water +sails. She's black and has a gilded dragon for a figurehead; and, +although she went out in a gale, got to Rio in twenty-five days. I talked +to Captain Waterman, too; he commanded the _Natchez_, you know." + +How the child ran on! "You've studied a lot on, ships," Nettie commented. +"I know the main truck from a jewel block," Laurel replied complacently. +"But Camilla's a frightful lubber. I should think she'd make Uncle Gerrit +sick. She does me." Nettie Vollar was seized by the temptation to +question Laurel about Gerrit Ammidon, about his wife--anything that +touched or concerned him. A wave of emotion swept over her, a loneliness +and a desire the cause of which she would not face. She wanted to take +Laurel's hand in hers, and with the old ponderous comfortable gentleman +go up to the serenity of their gardens and wide happy house. She wanted +Gerrit Ammidon to smile at her with his eyes blue like a fair sea... His +father was returning. + +Laurel again grasped the large hand and they turned to leave. Jeremy +Ammidon nodded to Nettie. Nothing remained for her but the place on Hardy +Street; then she saw that the others had stopped and were signaling for +her. "Captain Dunsack... old friend," the elder said abruptly. "Stubborn +as the devil. No worse than me, though, no worse than me. Confounded +proud, too. You let me know if there is anything, that is, if you need--" +he paused, breathing stormily, glaring at her in an assumed angry +impatience. + +"Thank you," she answered, "but there's nothing." + +What most shocked her on the return home was the manner in which their +life callously continued when she felt it should have been shattered by +their suffering in Edward Dunsack's room; yet not so much theirs as her +grandfather's. He took his place at the head of the table, the grace went +up as loudly as ever above their heads; but in spite of that she saw that +the old man suddenly looked infinitely spent. His knife slipped +insecurely and scraped against the plate in fumbling and palsied hands. +All at once she had a feeling of gazing straight into his heart, and +finding--like a burning ruby hidden in earth--such an agony beneath his +schooled exterior that she choked thinking about it. + +Nettie wondered what he would do if she put an affectionate arm about his +neck and told him of their sympathy. She knew now that her Uncle Edward +had been smoking opium, and that it was a worse vice, more hopeless and +destructive, than drink. But she was certain that he'd repel her; he +looked on them all, Edward Dunsack, her mother and herself, as sinful, +"degenerate plants." Even now, she realized, there was no weakening of +his spiritual fibers such as had plainly overtaken his physical being. He +had a blasting contempt for the unrighteous flesh. + +When they had risen from the table, Edward Dunsack appeared and sinking +weakly into a chair demanded a cup of tea. He knew nothing of their +discovery, of the fact that they had stood above his revolting +insensibility. After the tea he seemed to revive; he lighted a cheroot +and said something about going out. It wasn't possible, however; his +knees sagged walking the length of the floor; in the sitting room he fell +into a leaden apathy. Nettie Vollar's gaze rested on the volume of the +life of the missionary who had died at such an early age on the Île de +France. The lamplight spread over the depressing mustard yellow paint of +the woodwork with its obviously false graining and deepened the blackness +of the fireplace. Throughout the reading of the Scripture Edward Dunsack +never shifted his slumped position; his face, with smudged closed eyes, +seemed fixed in a skeptical smile. The hollows of his temples were green. +The reading finished, old Barzil said: + +"I wish to speak to Edward alone." + +The latter straightened up. "Eh!" he exclaimed. "What?" He resettled his +stock and crossed a knee with a show of ease. Nettie followed her mother +from the room. Her last impression was that of a startling resemblance +between the young man and old--her uncle's face was as ruined as the +other's--between father and son. "I wish he'd go away," her mother +surprisingly asserted; "I won't sleep for thinking of him lying there +like a corpse." + +"He'll not," Nettie replied, musing; "something is holding him we still +don't know of." + +She had lately begun to realize a great many things of which only a month +before she had not been aware--that sudden illuminating grasp of old +Barzil's inner pain, of her mother's wasted spirit, and the sense that +some unguessed potent motive was at the back of her Uncle Edward's +apparently erratic strolling and reiterations. Nettie stopped to wonder a +little at the change in herself: she was more alive, more included. There +were no reasons that she could see why this should be so; never had the +present, the entire future, been darker. With her deeper consciousness, +too, came an increased shrinking from life, a greater capacity for +injury; and there could be no doubt that it was an older Nettie Vollar +who, in her mirror, returned the questioning in the resentful black eyes. + +No further mention was made of the opium, no hint escaped from the two +men of what Barzil Dunsack had said to his son after the evening +reading of the Bible. An evidence of the miserable episode was visible +for a while in the difficulty of any attempted general conversation; +then that died away and everything was seemingly as it had been before. +But the rising gayety and widespread public preparations at the +approach of the Fourth of July made her existence drabber than ever. +There was, too, unusual planning, for later in the month President Polk +was to be in Salem. + +The various military organizations drilled incessantly: the Salem Light +Infantry, the Mechanic Light Infantry, the Salem Cadets and Independents +and a squad of the Salem Artillery might be seen at any hour of the +morning or early evening smartly marching and countermarching, led by +Flag's or the Salem Band. Strange constructions of light wood climbed in +Washington Square--the set pieces of the celebrated pyrotechnist secured +at a "staggering expense." Preliminary strings of firecrackers were +exploded by impatient boys and the dawn of the holiday was greeted with a +sustained uproar of powder. + +All this was communicated to Nettie in the form of a determination to +forget the dreariness of home and for once anyhow be a part of the +careless holiday town. Edward Dunsack opened the day by deprecating what +fireworks Salem could show and recalling the extravagant art of China in +that particular. No one, he said, of the least moment would be abroad in +the rabble; and he intended to spend the day over the invoice of a +schooner returned from Curaçao. She was glad of this, for it left her +free to get an uninterrupted pleasure from the morning parade, the floats +and fantasies, the afternoon drilling in Washington Square, and see the +last colored disk of the fireworks. Maybe, she told herself, tying the +becoming ribbon of her bonnet beneath a round chin with a lurking dimple, +maybe she wouldn't come back home once during the entire day! She +ignored, in the rush of her spirits, even her mother's lonely labors: for +once they'd have to do without her. Nettie took a scarlet merino shawl +for the cooler evening, shook forward the little black curls about her +face, and hurried away from Hardy Street. + +She was swept along in the crowd on Essex Street until, before the office +of the Salem _Register_, she found a place that commanded the parade. +There Nettie lost all memory of the dreariness that pressed upon her; she +became one of the throng, applauding the members of the East India Marine +Society carrying the palanquin from the Museum in native dress, or stood +with sentimental tears blurring her vision. The parade ended, and +currents of people swept toward dinner; but she stopped at a baker's and +got a paper of seed cakes, made in the shape of oak leaves and sat +contentedly eating them in the Common. + +The thought of Gerritt Ammidon, with all the other deeper aspects of her +life, was thrust into the back of her consciousness; she was existing as +she breathed--without will; the instinctive lighter qualities had her in +full possession. She felt that her cheeks were glowing and hummed the +refrains of the music she had heard. One by one the military companies +marched into the Square. She was fascinated by the tall leather helmets +and silver straps under severe young lips. The Newburyport men were in a +new scarlet uniform, that was the Boston Brass Band--it was painted on +the bass drum--with the Independents; there were the Beverly Taylor +Guards. The massed onlookers filled the broad plain. + +The drilling and countermarching proceeded and the afternoon waned. At +the disposal of the spectacle, when for an hour or two Washington Square +was comparatively deserted, when the sun sank lower and lower over the +roofs of Brown Street and the gold haze thickened, turning to blue, +Nettie became quieter but no less happy. The time sped; never was she +conscious of being lonely, by herself in a multitude composed of grouped +families and friends. It was all such a beautiful relief to the other +constant dwelling on somber and hopeless facts! Already people were +streaming in under the wooden arched gates for the evening display; +already she could see a star in the clear-shining green east. + +The fireworks, the papers said, were to be in two parts, ending with a +bombardment of Vera Cruz, five hundred feet long, and a series of +triumphant arches with full-length portraits in colored lights of +celebrated Americans. There was a sudden salute of artillery, and a +flight of rockets soared upward in long flaming curves, dissolving in +showers of liquid emerald and ruby and silver against the night. Bengola +lights casting a blue glare over the standing mob and farther house +fronts were followed by a great Peruvian Cross, a silvery fountain of +water and Grand Representation of Bunker Hill Monument. + +With this the first came all too soon to an end, and Nettie was folding +the shawl about her shoulders when almost the entire Ammidon family were +upon her.... In an instinctive confusion she saw William Ammidon and his +wife with their daughters, the old man, Jeremy, and Gerrit. + +They stopped before her in an assured, not unkindly inquisitiveness, the +girls fresh and bright-faced, with crisp lovely clothes; their mother, in +a smart mantle and little bonnet with knots of French flowers, greeted +her with a direct question tempered by a smile. William Ammidon, smoking, +was unconcerned; while Gerrit stayed obscured outside the group. "Whom +are you with, Nettie?" Rhoda Ammidon asked; and when she admitted that +she was alone the elder, with visible disapproval, asserted: + +"That won't do at all in this rough assembly. I must see that you are +taken care of." She hesitated, with a slight frown on her handsome brow. +"But you will want to see the rest of the fireworks. Yes, what you must +do is to come over to our steps, the view from there is fairly good, and +then some one can walk home with you." + +They moved resolutely forward, giving Nettie Vollar no opportunity for +protest, the expression of what she might prefer; and, with so many +determined minds, she dropped silently into their progress. She was +beside Rhoda Ammidon, the girls trooped on before, and the men--Gerrit +Ammidon--followed. Her peace of mind had been broken into a hundred +half-formed doubts and acute questions. She wished that she had declined +to go with them: the invitation, no, command, had been a criticism, +really. Now, after so long, it wasn't necessary for them to become +suddenly responsible for her. + +The happiness of the day sank a little, thoughts of her mother and +grandfather and Uncle Edward returned. But, at the same time, she +realized that she was near Gerrit once more. This made a confusion of her +emotions that hid what she most felt about him. It wasn't a proximity +that meant anything, however; it had been utterly different when he came +to see her before his marriage. Yet, just the fact of his being close +behind her, and that she would be on the steps at the Ammidons' with him, +undoubtedly had a power to stir her heart. + +It brought, like her carefree excursion, a certain momentary glow, a +warmth, without relation to what had gone before or might follow; there +was the same quality of momentary rest, refreshment, complete and +isolated as a jewel in a ring. She didn't analyze it further; but drifted +with the vigorous chattering tide of the Ammidons. + +They arrived at the impressive entrance open on a high dim interior. +Jeremy and William Ammidon went in, Rhoda lingered while a chair was +brought for her, and Sidsall and Camilla, Laurel and Janet ranged +themselves facing the Square. Gerrit hung silent in the doorway. + +"Perhaps Taou Yuen will come down," Rhoda Ammidon suggested, and Nettie's +throat was pinched at the possibility of seeing Gerrit's Chinese wife. +But he answered shortly in the negative. Taou Yuen preferred to stay in +her room; the view from her window was better than this. The latter was +easily possible, for here the set pieces were almost unintelligible: an +impressive beehive could be seen surrounded by swarming golden bees, a +pyramid of Roman candles discharged their rushes of colored balls and +streamers; but the bombardment of Vera Cruz was a cause of bitter +complaint to the children. + +The fireworks had ceased to have the slightest significance for Nettie; +she was luxuriating in the suavity of the Ammidon steps and company. It +seemed to her that an actual air of ease rolled out over her from within. +Seen from her place of vantage the great throng in the Square was without +feature, the passersby on Pleasant Street--as Edward Dunsack and herself +had been--were unimportant. The massive portico and dignified fence, the +sense of spaciousness and gardens and lofty formal ceilings, the feeling +of fine silks and round clear direct voices, of servants for everything, +everyone, transcended in force all her speculations. She was +familiar--who wasn't in Salem?--with the meaning of the house's name, +Java Head. It was more, quite heaven. + +Thoughts of Gerrit winged in and out of her mind like wayward birds. She +turned with studied caution and glanced swiftly but intently at as much +of his countenance as she could see. Her memory vividly supplied the +rest. There wasn't another like it--one so clear and compelling to +read--in the world. + +The past in which he had had a part seemed like an impossibly happy +dream. She was hardly able to believe that he had been in their sitting +room, walked with her in the evening to the grassy edge of the harbor, +or held her fingers in his hard cool grasp. Now she wondered if he were +contented. She couldn't quite decide from glimpses of his face; but +something that had nothing to do with vision disturbed her with the +certainty that he was troubled. It might mean unhappiness, but she +wasn't sure. + +"Now there go the arches!" a young voice exclaimed, "and I just can't see +anything. You'd never know at all it was a temple of eight columns. Oh, +look--there's a number coming out, 'July fourth, seventeen seventy-six.'" +A tide of hand clapping swept over the dark masses. "No," Laurel +continued, "that's Salem.... It's Washington, no, General Taylor." + +The amazing day, Nettie realized, was over, the people flowed back +through the gates like a lake breaking in streams from its bank; there +was a stir on the steps. Looking up she saw that the stars were obscured, +and a low rumble of thunder sounded from a distance, a flash lit the +horizon. Now she must go back, return to Hardy Street, to her bitter +grandfather like an iron statue eaten by rust and storms, to Edward +Dunsack following her with his dragging feet and thin insinuating voice, +to her hopeless mother. + +"It's the powder," she heard, about what she had no conception. Rhoda +Ammidon turned decidedly to her. "It was nice to have you, Nettie," she +declared; "but we must see about getting you safely home. The carriage +would be best since it's threatening rain." She didn't, she replied, want +to give them so much bother, she often went on errands after supper, +she'd, be all right-- + +"Nonsense," Mrs. Ammidon interrupted impatiently. Then Gerrit advanced +from the doorway. "I'll walk down with her," he said almost roughly. "No +need to take the horses out so late." Nettie Vollar thought that his +sister-in-law's mouth tightened in protest, but he gave them no chance +for further argument. He descended the steps with a quick grinding tread, +and she was forced to hurry through her acknowledgments in order to +overtake him. + +The night at once absorbed them. + +The air, charged with the fumes of gunpowder and rumbling with low +intermittent thunder, was oppressive and disturbing. Gerrit's head was +exactly opposite her own, and she could see his profile, pale and still, +moving on a changing dark background. He walked with the short firm +stride men acquire on the unsteady decks of vessels, swinging his arms +but slightly. Neither spoke. The rain, Nettie saw, was hanging off; +probably it would not reach Salem, Washington Square was already empty +except for a small obscure stir by the scaffolding for the fireworks. A +murmur of young voices came from a door on Bath Street. Such minute +observations filled her mind; beneath their surface she was conscious of +a deep, a fathomless, turmoil. It was a curious sensation, curious +because she couldn't tell whether it was happiness or misery. One now +exactly resembled the other to Nettie Vollar. + +She grasped, however, one difference--it was happiness now, the misery +belonged to tomorrow. But suddenly that last unrealized fact--at once +immaterial and the most leaden reality of all--lost its weight. The +greater freedom she had lately grown into became an absolute +indifference, a half willful and half automatic shutting of her eyes to +everything but the present, the actuality of Gerrit Ammidon walking by +her side. She wanted him to speak, so that she could discover his +thoughts, feelings; yet she was reluctant to have their companionship of +silence broken: words, almost all the possible terms she could imagine, +would only emphasize the distance between them. + +She was thinking of one now--a word he had never pronounced, but which +she felt had been, however obscurely, at the back of the attention he +had paid her: love. It was a queer thing. It seemed to be--everyone +agreed that it was--of the greatest, perhaps the first, importance; and +yet all sorts of other considerations, some insignificant and others +mean and more, yes--cowardly, held it in check, drove it back out of +sight, as you might hurriedly shut some shabby object into a closet at +the arrival of visitors. + +"How have you been?" he demanded in the abrupt voice of the expression of +his determination to see her home. Well enough, she assured him, if he +meant her health. He glanced at her with somber eyes. "Not altogether," +he admitted; "it included your family, things generally." + +"They are as bad as possible," she told him. She admitted this frankly, a +part of her entire surrender to the moment, careless of how it might +affect him. "They would be," he muttered savagely. "It's a habit ... +here." The "here," she knew, referred to life on shore; his gloomy +attitude toward the management and affairs of the land had caused her a +great deal of precious laughter. He had revealed a most astonishing +ignorance of necessities that she had understood instinctively when +hardly more than a child; and this simplicity had, as much as anything, +brought her affection for him to life. At the same time she in particular +had felt the justice of a great many of his charges. But no one could +reasonably hope for the sort of world--a world as orderly and trim as +that of a narrow ship--he thought should be brought about by a mere +command. Nettie wished that it could! She sighed, gazing at him. + +"Then it's no better than before?" he asked, adding, with a descriptive +gesture: "the town and people?" + +"I hardly speak to ten in a year, outside the stores and like that. Of +course they nod going into church, or a lady, I mean really, your +sister-in-law, will say something nice, even do what you saw to-night. +Though it's the first time anything like that has happened." + +She caught a repressed bitter oath. + +"I suppose I'll get used to it," she continued. "No, I won't," she added +differently; "never, never, never." + +"If you were a man now--" he said with an incredible stupidity. + +She wondered angrily if he'd rather have her a man; there had been a +time, Nettie reflected, when such a possibility would have stirred him to +violent protest. And this brought out the reflection that, while at one +time he might have cared for her, now perhaps he was merely sorry for her +unhappiness. Yes, this must be it. She had a momentary fatal impulse to +throw back at him scornfully any such small kindness. She didn't, she +told herself, want condescending sympathy. What silenced her was the +sudden knowledge that she did; she wanted anything whatsoever from Gerrit +Ammidon. The fact that he had a Chinese wife was powerless to alter her +feeling in the smallest degree. On the contrary, she was shocked to find +that it had increased immensely, it was growing with every minute. + +She wondered drearily if her stubborn love--the term took its place +without remark in the procession of her thoughts--for Gerrit didn't, in +spite of her protest to the contrary, stamp her as quite bad. Perhaps +her grandfather was right about them all--her mother and Uncle Edward +and herself, and they were wicked, lost! The energy with which she had +combated this charge now faced by the circumstance of her realized +affection for a man married to some one else, even Chinese, wavered. +All the cheerful influences of the day, rising to the supreme tranquil +hour on the Ammidon porch, sank to dejection; it was like the flight of +the rockets. + +She walked listlessly, her brain was numb; she was terribly tired. Gerrit +Ammidon's head was bent and she was unable to see his expression. He +might even have forgotten, by the token of his self-absorbed progress, +that she was at his side. + +"There's going to be a stir in Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone," he said +presently, "when my father hears of the new program. Everything is +turning to the fastest California runs possible. William and James +Saltonstone want me to take command of a clipper. But I find I'm like my +father, Nettie; all my experience has been in the East and the China +service. I'm used to it. I'd never get on navigating a passenger boat, a +packet ship, from Boston to San Francisco and San Francisco to Boston. +The other's in my blood, too--running the northeast trades to Brazil and +coming up into the southwest passage winds for the Cape of Good Hope. A +long reach nearly to Australia and then north again to the Indian Ocean +and southeast trades. + +"I'm fit for that, for long voyages, a blue-water sailor and all it +means; but battering back and forward round the Horn with my deck +cluttered up by prospectors and shore crews the mates would have to slam +into the rigging--!" His exclamation refused every face of such a +possibility. She understood his necessity completely; and the brief +account of such far happy journeys, safe from everything that Salem had +come to mean for her, filled her with longing. + +"I'm beginning to see," he took up again the self-examination, "that I am +to blame for a good deal that I've found fault with in others. I mean +that I'm a different variety of animal, and, naturally, no judge of the +kinds of holes they live in or the way their affairs are managed." + +"You are worlds better!" she cried. + +He turned to her, obviously startled, and she held for a long breath his +unguarded intense gaze. "Not very useful, I am afraid," he replied at +last; "not today, anyhow. I belong to a life that is dying, Nettie; mark +my words, dying if not already dead. And I'm newfangled to my father. It +goes as quickly as that." + +This was a fresh mood to all her knowledge of his impatient arrogance, +and one that sent her to him in a passionate unperceived emotion. They +had arrived at her home and were waiting aimless and silent. Beyond, the +gate to the yard was standing open, and Nettie saw that his discovery of +the fact had occurred at the identical moment of her own. She made an +involuntary movement forward and he followed her through to the blurred +tangle of bushes and bare trodden earth. Mutely they turned to the sod +spread at the harbor. + +The thunder had died away, but pale sheets of reflected lightning hovered +at short intervals low in the sky. Directly above them stars shone again. +The window of the sitting room still bore the illumination of the lamp +within; and Nettie could picture her mother, with stained and rough hands +loose on their wrists, opposite Barzil Dunsack's gaunt set countenance. + +"You said something about things as bad as possible." + +In a level voice she told him about her discovery of Edward Dunsack +unconscious in his black wrap on the bed. "I thought he had died," she +repeated almost monotonously; "he had such a yellow gone look." + +"But that can't be allowed!" he cried. "You mustn't see it. Indecent, +worse. The beast will have to be removed. No one will hear of his staying +about with two women and a fanatical old man." She was afraid that he +would go into the house at once and appear with her uncle, very much in +the manner of a dog with a rat. Her sense of a worldly knowledge, a +philosophy of realization, far deeper than his own returned. Things +couldn't be disposed of in that easy manner; it was probable that they +couldn't be disposed of, righted, at all. Her mother, with her help, must +continue to keep Barzil's home: there was no other place for Edward +Dunsack to go. "He won't hurt us," she said vaguely. "It's principally +bad for him. Then, at first, I didn't know. You get used to so much." + +He, Gerrit Ammidon, wouldn't have it, he asserted in a heated return of +his familiar dictatorial manner. The fellow would be out of there +to-morrow. It was a damned unendurable outrage! + +She smiled softly and laid a momentary hand on his sleeve. "That's +nothing, Gerrit; nothing compared to the rest, to me." He frowned down at +her out of the gloom. + +"What am I to do?" she asked. + +He again cursed Salem and the world with which he had proclaimed himself +out of date and sympathy. This, while it communicated to her a certain +warm comfort, resolved nothing, made no reply to her question. To-morrow +offered precisely the same hopeless outlook of yesterday. No answer from +Gerrit, Gerrit married, was possible. She saw that. + +"I'm not fit to go around on land blubbering and setting tongues to +clapping," he declared. "I ought to be locked in my cabin when the ship's +in port, and let out only after sail's made again." + +She heard a slight movement in the grass; and turning sharply caught the +vague outline of a man, the thin unsubstantial shape of Edward Dunsack. +He vanished immediately; Gerrit, absorbed in bitter thought, had missed +him. Strangely her uncle only filled her mind with the image of China, +the China that had ruined him, and which, too, in the form of a woman, a +Manchu, had destroyed the hope of any acceptable existence of her own. + +"Great pretensions and idiotic results," he went on; "no ballast. Take +what your grandfather said to me--nothing in that unexpected or to drive +a man off. Yet off I go and--" he halted oddly, just as her breath was +suspended at the admittance which she was certain must follow. But he +fell into another glooming silence. + +After all, she couldn't expect him to continue that development. A +different man might; and Nettie wasn't sure of her refusal to +listen...to the end. But she was familiar with Gerrit's unbending +conception of the necessity of truth alone. If he married a woman, +yellow, black, anything, he would perform, the obligation to the entire +boundary of his promise. Good and bad seemed equally united against her. +Little flashes of resentment struck through her leaden, conviction that +all this was useless. + +"I must be of some use to you." + +But, Nettie realized, there was only one way in which he could help her; +only one thing she wanted--could take--from him. She was terrified at the +completeness with which love had possessed her, making every other fact +and consideration of little interest or importance. Suddenly it seemed as +if she were being swept by an overwhelming current farther and farther +out from safety into a bottomless immensity that would claim her life. + +"Yet," he cried, "if I lift a hand, here, in Salem, if I as much as cross +the street to speak to you--the clapping tongues! I can do you nothing +but harm. Though Rhoda might--" + +"I don't want your Rhoda!" she interrupted passionately. "I've managed +without them all up to now." He raised his arms in a hopeless gesture. +"Nothing's to be done," she concluded. "I saw that all along; that is, +this last time." + +"It's late," he muttered absently; "you have had a day." He turned +mechanically and moved away from the indefinite black rim of the harbor. +The lamp in the sitting room had been extinguished, the house was dark. A +brief embarrassment seized her as he stood trying vainly to find +something confident, even adequate, to say for farewell. And as the stir +of his footfalls died away up Hardy Street the memory of his last futile +words mocked her laboring heart. + +She turned and faced Edward Dunsack, advancing from an obscurity deeper +than the rest. He murmured approvingly, she caught words of commendation +and unspeakable reassurance. She hurried away blindly, sick to the inmost +depths of her being. The morning, when she had tied her gay bonnet +ribbons and started out with the scarlet merino shawl on her arm, seemed +to belong to a long, long time ago, to a girl.... The popping of a final +string of firecrackers died outside. + + + + +VIII + +The dejection, the sense of a difference that held from him any +comprehension of the vast maze of shore life, persisted as Gerrit Ammidon +walked toward home. It was such an unusual feeling that he was conscious +of it; he examined and speculated upon his despondency as if it had been +something actually before him. The result of this was a still increased +disturbance. He didn't like such strange qualities arbitrarily forcing +their way into his being--he had the navigator's necessity for a clear +understanding of the combined elements within and without which resulted +in a harmonious, or at least predictable, movement. He distrusted all +fogs. In a manner the course before him was plain--married to Taou Yuen, +shipmaster in his family's firm, he had simple duties to perform, no part +of which included sailing in strange or dangerous waters; yet though this +was beyond argument he was still troubled by a great number of unpleasant +conditions of mind and obscure pressures. + +Gradually, however, his normal indignation returned, the contempt for a +society without perceptible justice, centered principally in what Nettie +Vollar had had from life. This, he assured himself, wasn't because he was +in any way involved with her; but because it was such a flagrant case. +She was a very nice girl. It was entirely allowable that he should admit +that. As a fact, he warmly felt that he was her friend; the past +justified, no, insisted on, that at least. He wondered exactly how fond +he had been of her--in other words, how near he had come to marrying her. +It had been an obvious possibility, decidedly; but the desire had never +become actual. No, his feeling for her had never broken the bounds of a +natural liking and a desire to secure decent treatment for her. The last +had been vain. + +If his mental searching had ended there it would have presented no +difficulties, created no fog; but, unfortunately, there was another +element which he admitted with great reluctance, an inborn discomfort. +Although he had been clear about what had actually happened with Nettie +there was reasonable doubt that the same limitations had operated with +her. Briefly she had missed him more than he had realized. He explained +this to his sense of innate masculine diffidence by the loneliness of her +days. She had missed him....something within whispered that she still +did. Women, he remembered hearing, were like that. + +In the light, the possibility, of this he saw that he had done her a +great wrong. + +It had been his damned headlong ignorance of the dangerous quality of +life, the irresponsibility of a child with gunpowder. With all this in +his mind it seemed doubly imperative that he should do something for her; +he owed her, he was forced to admit, more than a mere impersonal +consideration. His thoughts returned unbidden to the fact that she--she +had liked him. He insisted almost angrily on the past tense, but it +surprised him and gave him a perceptible warm glow. Nettie was very +pleasing: he inferred that she was a creature of deep emotions, +affections. + +At this he shook himself abruptly--such things were not permissible. +Gerrit felt a swift sense of shame; they injured Nettie. His mind shifted +to Taou Yuen. He found her asleep on the day bed she preferred, her +elaborate headdress resting above the narrow pillow of black wicker. He +could distinguish her face, pallid in the blue gloom, and a delicate, +half-shut hand. He was flooded with the intense admiration which +increasingly formed his chief thought of her; this, with the obvious +racial difference, put her, as it were, on an elevation--a beautifully +lacquered vase above his own blundering person. She was calm, serious and +good, in the absolute Western definitions of those terms; she had her +emotions under faultless control. Taou Yuen should be an ideal wife for +any man; she was, he corrected the form sharply. All that he knew of her +was admirable; the part which constantly baffled him didn't touch their +relationship. + +It was reasonable to expect small differences between her and Salem: at +times her calm chilled him by a swift glimpse of utter coldness, at times +he would have liked her gravity to melt into something less than ivory +perfection; even her goodness had oppressed him. The last hadn't the +human quality of, for example, Nettie Vollar's goodness, colored by +rebellion, torn by doubt, and yet triumphing. + +If he only understood the three religions of China, if he were an +intellectual man, Gerrit realized, he could have grasped his wife more +fully. He was completely ignorant of Chinese history, of all the forces +that had united to form Taou Yuen. For instance: he was unable to +reconcile her elevated spirit with the "absurd superstitions" that +influenced almost her every act--the enormous number of lucky and unlucky +days, the coin hung on his bed, the yellow charm against sickness and red +against evil spirits; only yesterday she had burnt a paper form +representing thunder and drunk its ashes in a cup of tea. She was +tremendously in earnest about the evil spirits--they were, she +maintained, lurking everywhere, in all shapes and degrees of harm. Edward +Dunsack was possessed, she declared; but he had pointed out that opium +was a sufficient explanation of anything evil in him, and that it was +unnecessary to look for a more fantastic reason. + +He lay awake for a comparatively long while, as he had several times +lately, divided between his consciousness and the regular breathing of +his wife. If the past had brought Nettie Vollar to depend on him in +some slight degree Taou Yuen did so absolutely: except for him she was +lost in a strange world. Yet Taou Yuen didn't seem helpless in the +manner of Nettie. He had once before thought of the former as finely +tempered metal. Her transcendent resignation, with its consequent lack +of sympathetic contact with the imperfect humanity of--well, Nettie, +gave Taou Yuen a dangerous freedom from all that bound Salem in +comparative safety. + +He dressed first, as usual, in the morning, while she stirred only enough +to get her pipe and tobacco, on the floor at her side. Outside, the elms +were losing their fresh greenness in the dusty film of midsummer; the +Square held an ugly litter from the fireworks of last evening. William, +too, was about, but he was uncommunicative, his brow scored in a frown. +Their father, always down before the others, had returned from the +inspection of his trees, and was tramping back and forth in the library. +The elder seemed unrested by the night, his skin, as Rhoda had pointed +out, was baggy. + +"Now that the _Nautilus_ is afloat again," Jeremy Ammidon said, "you'll +want to be at sea." Examining this natural conclusion, Gerrit was +surprised, startled, to find that it was no longer true. For the first +time in his memory he was not anxious to be under sail. This of course +was caused by a natural perplexity about Taou Yuen's comfort and +happiness. + +"I don't know what the firm's plans are for me," he answered cautiously. +"There is some talk of taking me out of the China trade for the +California runs. I shouldn't like that." + +Jeremy was turning at his secretary, and he stopped to pound his fist on +its narrow ledge. "It's that damned Griffiths again and his cursed +jackknife hull!" he exclaimed. The dark tide suffused his countenance. +Gerrit studied him thoughtfully: he didn't know just how much William had +yet told their father about the sweeping changes taking place in Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. He did see, however, that it was unwise to +excite the old gentleman unduly. + +"I was saying only yesterday," he put in pacifically, "that you and +myself are getting to be old models--" he broke off as William entered +the library. The latter evidently grasped at once the subject of their +discussion, for he went on in a firm voice somewhat contradicted by a +restrained but palpable anxiety: + +"Now, father, this was bound to come up and you must sit down and listen +quietly." The elder, on the verge of a tempestuous reply, constrained +himself to a painful attention. "It's useless to point out to you the +beneficial changes in sea carrying, for you are certain to deny their +good and drag out the past. So I am simply forced to tell you that after +careful consideration we have decided to line the firm with the events of +the day and hold our place in the growing pressure of competition. This +may sound brutal, but it was forced on us by the attitude you have +adopted. Shortly, this is what we intend, in fact are doing: + +"Orders have been placed with George Raynes at Portsmouth and Jackson up +in Boston for clippers of a thousand and twelve hundred tons and another +is almost ready to be launched from Curtis' Chelsea shipyard. It oughtn't +to be necessary to call your attention again to the fact that the _Sea +Witch_ has brought the passage from Hong Kong to something like three +months. The profits of the California trade will be enormous and depend +entirely on speed. + +"I'll admit that this is a big thing, it will cut sharply into our +funds--something like a quarter of a million dollars. But, if you will be +patient for a little only, I can promise that you'll see astonishing +returns. At the same time we have no intention of giving up China and +India, but we'll limit ourselves more closely in the nature of the +cargoes, practically nothing but tea unbroken from Canton to Boston. I'll +be glad to go into all this in detail at the countinghouse, where we have +the statistics and specifications." + +To Gerrit's surprise Jeremy Ammidon sat quietly at the end of William's +speech; he wasn't even looking at them, but had his gaze bent upon the +floor. There was a commanding, even impressive, quality in his silence +that forced the respect of both his sons. More--it made Gerrit +overwhelmingly conscious of his affection, his deep admiration, for his +father. He recalled the latter's memorable voyage in the little _Two +Capes_--the barque of two hundred and nine tons--into the dangers, so +imminent to a master, of uncomprehended waters and thousands of miles +with, for the most part, only the sheerest dead reckoning. Jeremy Ammidon +said finally: + +"If it's done it's done. I used to think there were two Ammidons in the +firm, not to mention Gerrit; but it seems there's only one. A man who has +never been to sea." He rose and marched, slower and more ponderous than +ever before, to the cupboard where he kept the square bottle of Medford +rum; there, with trembling hands, he poured himself out a measure. He +shut the glass door, but stood for an oppressive space with his back to +the room, seeing that old vision of struggle or accomplishment. + +"I suppose I've been a damned nuisance about the countinghouse for a long +time," he pronounced, turning. William rose. "You made it," he said; +"it's you. God forgive me if I have been impatient or forgetful of all we +owe you." There was a stir of skirts in the doorway, and Rhoda entered. +"Breakfast--" she stopped, and with a quick glance at her husband and +Gerrit went at once to Jeremy Ammidon. "They've been bothering you +again," she declared, and turned an expression of bright anger on the +younger men. "Ah, how hard and hateful and blind you are!" she cried. + +William, with a hopeless gesture, walked from the room. Gerrit moved to a +window facing the Square; but he saw nothing of its sultry yellow-green +expanse--he was remembering how as a child, his mother already dead, a +nurse had held him up on Derby Wharf to see his father sweep into port +from the long voyage to the East. He caught again the resonant voice, as +if sounding from a hold of ribbed oak, the tremendous vigor of the arm +that swept him up to a bearded face. He couldn't bring himself to move +now and see an old haggard man clinging with tremulous emotion and tears +to the sympathy, the strength, of a woman. + +Later in the morning, to his immense relief, Jeremy Ammidon regained a +surprising amount of composure. At first determined never to return to +Liberty Street, toward noon Gerrit found him in the hall with his broad +hat and wanghee. "I'll just have a slant at those specifications," he +remarked. "Like as not they've left off the hatch coamings." Gerrit +suggested, "Since it's so hot why don't you have the carriage round?" The +other voiced his customary disparagement of that vehicle. "If I see that +I'm going to be late for dinner," he added, "I'll get one of the young +men to fetch me something. I don't want to give Rhoda any trouble." + +Still, on the steps, he lingered, gazing pridefully up at the bulk of the +house he had built; his eyes rested on the brass plate, engraved with the +words Java Head, on the dignified white door. "A lot of talk when I had +that done," he commented; "people said they'd never heard of it, ought to +have my name there for convenience if nothing else. They didn't know. It +would take a sailor for that. Don't forget to tell Rhoda not to wait if +I'm late. All those girls of hers get hungry. I expect William consulted +Laurel about this new move," he ended with a gleam of humor. "She's a +great hand for a clipper since she talked to Captain Waterman." He was +down the steps, starting deliberately across the street. There was a last +mutter of doubt. The bulky slow figure in yellow Chinese silk moved away +and Gerrit returned to the shadowed tranquillity of the library. + +More than any other place in the house it bore the impression of his +father. He wandered about the room, lost in its associations, stopped +in front of the tall narrow walnut bookcase and took out one of the +small company of Jeremy Ammidon's logs, reading disconnectedly in the +precise script: + +"Tuesday, December 24. 132 days out. All this day gentle breezes and +cloudy. Saw kelp, birds, etc. + +"Tacked ship to the eastward under short sail. At daylight made all sail +to SW. Gentle breezes and clear pleasant weather. Saw huge shoals of +flying fish." + +"May 19, 11 days out. Hainan in sight, bearing from W by N to NNW. At +sunset the breeze died away and hauled off the land. All night light +breezes. Made all possible sail to the SSW. At the same time set the +extremity of Hainan which bore NW by N to N. Past three Chinese +vessels steering NNE. Saw much scum on the water and at 11 A.M. lost +sight of land." + +"November 14, 65 days out. These twenty-four hours commences with +variable breezes at west and smooth sea. Saw brig steering to the +Eastward. The land of Sumatra bearing SW by W to SE by S. Tied rips." + +He returned the log to its resting place with a quiet smile at the last +period. It was all incredibly simple--a lost simplicity of navigation and +a lost innocent wonder at the Mare Atlanticum of old fable. + +Neither William nor Jeremy Ammidon was present for dinner. They were, +Gerrit concluded, submerged in the effort to bring the changing +activities of the firm into the latter's comprehension. His foot was on +the stair leading up to his wife, when there was a violent knocking on +the front door. It sounded with a startling abruptness in the shut hall, +and Gerrit instinctively answered without waiting for a servant. The +flushed and breathless young man before him was evidently perturbed by +his appearance. He stammered: + +"Captain Ammidon, you--you must come down to the countinghouse. At +once, please!" + +His thoughts, directed upon his father, gathered into a chilling +certainty. "Captain Jeremy is sick?" he demanded instantly. The +hesitation of the other seemed to confirm an infinitely greater +calamity. "Dead?" he asked again, in a flooding misery of apprehension. +The clerk nodded: + +"In a second, like," he continued. "All we know they were talking in Mr. +William Ammidon's room--one of the boys was out that minute getting the +old gentleman some lunch--when we heard a fall, it was quite plain, and +Mr. Saltonstone--" + +"That will do," Gerrit cut him short. He turned into the house, rapidly +considering what must follow. He'd go, certainly; but first he must warn +Rhoda, she would have the girls to prepare.... Rhoda had always been +exceptionally considerate and fond of Jeremy Ammidon. He found her at the +entrance to her room, and said, "My father is dead." Her warm color sank +and tears filled her eyes. + +Hurrying over Bath Street to Liberty his grief was held in check by the +pressing actualities of the moment. He had time, however, to feel glad +that he had spent the morning largely in warm thoughts of the dead man. + +He passed rapidly into the entrance of the establishment of Ammidon, +Ammidon and Saltonstone. Immediately on the right there was an open +railed enclosure of desks in the center of which a group of clerks +watched him with mingled respect and curiosity as he continued to the +inner shut space. It was a large light room with windows on Charter +Street. William's expansive flat-topped desk with its inked green baize +was on the left, and, under a number of framed sere ships' letters and +privateersmen's Bonds of the War of 1812, Gerrit saw the heavy body +extended on a broad wooden bench, a familiar orange Bombay handkerchief +spread over the face. + +Never in all the memory of his brother had William Ammidon been so +stricken. As he entered James Saltonstone left studying a list hastily +scribbled on a half sheet of the firm's writing paper. He nodded silently +to Gerrit, who advanced to the covered face and lifted the handkerchief. +There were still traces of congestion, but a marblelike pallor had taken +the place of the familiar ruddy color. Something of the heaviness of his +old age, the blurring thickness of long inactivity, had vanished, giving +his still countenance an expression of vigor, resolution, contradicted by +an arm trailing like the loose end of a heavy rope on the floor. William, +with a clenched hand on his desk, spoke with difficulty: + +"You must know this, Gerrit; and then I'll ask you never to allude to it +again. It might be argued that--that James and I killed him, but +absolutely without intention, by accident. Gerrit, I loved him more than +I took time to know. Well, you may or may not have heard that we own two +topsail schooners in the opium trade, between India, Ningpo and Amoy, but +you do know how father detested anything to do with the drug. We said +nothing to him about this; it seemed necessary, no--permissible. But +to-day when we were coming to a peaceable understanding about the new +contracts he stumbled over one of the schooner's manifests. Mislaid, you +see--a clerk! It swept him to his feet in a rage, he couldn't speak, +and--and he had walked, it was hot...." + +Gerrit Ammidon made no answer; there was nothing to be said. He was +shaken by a burning anger at the cupidity, the ugly commercial grasping, +to which his father had been sacrificed. A gulf opened between him and +his brother and James Saltonstone; he was as different from them as the +sea was from the land, as the wind-swept deck of the _Nautilus_ was from +this dry building with its stifling papers and greed. He might be in the +service of the firm--Gerrit was not incorporated in the partnership--he +might carry their cargoes for the multiplication of the profit, but his +essential service and responsibility, his life, were addressed to another +and infinitely higher and more difficult consummation than the stowed +kegs of Spanish dollars, the bills of sale. This was composed of the +struggle with the immeasurable elements of the seas and winds, the safety +of lives, the endless trying of his endurance and will and luck. + +"Now," he spoke with a perceptible bitterness, "you can have your way +without interference, without his mixing up your papers or making the +blunders of a slow sort of honesty." + +"I am under no obligation to your judgment or opinion," William +replied stiffly. "There are always complications you will never +penetrate nor carry. At present your assistance is more necessary than +any display of temper." + +The funeral gathered and ebbed in a long procession of carriages through +a sultry noon, the services at the grave concluded by the symbolic +dropping of the earth on Jeremy Ammidon's coffin lowered into the deep +narrow clay pit. The large varied throng lingered for a breath, as if +unable to take their attention from the raw opening that had absorbed the +shipmaster, and then there was a determined and reassuring commonplace +murmur, a hurrying away into the vital warmth of the day. + +The evening was the loveliest summer and the garden of Java Head could +afford: a slow moon disentangled itself from the indigo foliage at the +back of the stable and soared with an increasing brilliancy, bathing the +sod and summerhouse and poplars, the metallic box borders and spiked +flower beds, in a crystal clearness. The Ammidons sat about the willow, +Rhoda with a hand affectionately on her husband's arm, the +children--Laurel and Janet staying without remark long past their +accustomed hours for bed--still and white under the blanching moon. +Gerrit intently studied his wife, Taou Yuen, in a concentrated manner. +She, too, was in white, the Chinese mark of sorrow. + +Suddenly in the face of his suffering and memories she had appeared +startlingly remote, as if, from standing close beside him, she were +moving farther and farther away. The image was made profoundly +disconcerting by the fact that they acted without their own accord; it +took the aspect of a purely arbitrary phenomenon over which they had no +control. At the same time Nettie Vollar was surprisingly near, actual--he +could see every line and shading of her vivid face; he felt the warm +impact of her instant sympathy. He had caught a glimpse of Barzil Dunsack +at the funeral; but the other was immediately hidden by the crowd, and +Gerrit had been unable to discover whether his son and daughter or Nettie +had accompanied him. + +His thoughts turned in a score of associations and questions to Nettie; +but when he found himself trying to picture her exact employment at the +present moment he was angrily aroused. He had, he realized, considered +nothing else for the past hour, and his preoccupation was growing more +intense, personal. He stirred abruptly, and fixed his mind on the +imminent changes from his father's death. First the possibility would +develop of his becoming a member of the firm; but to this, he silently +declared, he would not agree. His gaze rested with a faint underlying +animosity on William, seated upright in a somber absorption, and a +disparagement of the latter's activities and scale of values. Gerrit saw +that there must be a pacific legal knot to untangle; the division of +Jeremy's estate would require time--he had somewhere heard that such +affairs often dragged on for a year; and now he was again in a fever of +impatience to be away, safe, at sea. He added the more portentous word +with the vague self-assurance that it was only the customary expression +of his notable ignorance of land; but it echoed with an ominous special +insistence in his mind. + +The _Nautilus_, he recalled, was once more afloat, repaired; and a plan +occurred to him that seemed to dispose of all his difficulties, even of +the distasteful possibility of the California clipper service. He could +take the ship as part of his inheritance; and, though ostensibly sailing +her in the interest of the firm, make such voyages and ports, carry such +cargoes, as his independence dictated. The _Nautilus_, with a cargo out +of tin and dyes and cotton manufactures, and forty or fifty thousand +trade dollars, would represent a sum of nearly two hundred thousand; but +as a family they were very rich; he'd have more than that; and bank the +remainder intact to the credit of his wife. + +There were many practical aspects of his marriage that he had not stopped +to weigh in its precipitant consummation. The problem, pointed out by +Rhoda, of his absence from Taou Yuen on cruise could not be solved with +the facility he had taken for granted. It was as impossible to leave her +happily here--he was aware of her growing impatience with Western +habit--as it would be for him to become a contented part of Chinese home +life; and not only was she uncomfortably cramped and sick on shipboard, +but he doubted whether he could persuade his crews to sail with her. +Superstitious able seamen balked at the presence of even a normal wife +aft; and a Chinese would be regarded as a sign of certain disaster. + +He would have to establish her somewhere in the East Indies; and he +viewed with a new dislike all such tropical settings. His entire life +threatened to become an affair of damnable palm trees and Oriental +stenches. Gerrit Ammidon broke into a cold sweat at the realization of +the far more direct implication that had taken substance in his mind. The +thing was going entirely too far! He wondered irritably at the obscure +cause for such violent inner agitations. + +Rhoda Ammidon with a dim smile rose, gathering her daughters about her, +and departed in a pale cloud of muslin. Taou Yuen, with her murmuring +formal politeness, moved away too, leaving the brothers together. +Whatever sympathetic intercourse they might otherwise have had, whatever +shared memories of their boyhood and their father, were made impossible +by William's admission of the immediate cause of the elder's death. + +"The Saltonstones are going into Boston this fall," William said +abruptly. "It is necessary for one of us to live there; and Caroline has +always had a hankering for wider society. Rhoda, I was surprised to +learn, wishes to remain here at Java Head for a year or so anyway. She +has a very real affection for the place. But I tell her when the girls +are older Boston, or perhaps New York, will give them far greater +opportunities. Sidsall, stranger still, was in tears at the whole thing; +she seemed ridiculously upset about leaving." + +The vision of Nettie Vollar persisted, bright and disturbing. Once he was +at sea, Gerrit told himself, on the circumscribed freedom of his +quarter-deck, he would lose the unsettling fever burning at that instant +in his veins. But the memory of long solitary passages with nothing to +distract his mind through week upon week after the ship took the trades, +when hour upon hour his thoughts turned inward on themselves and reviewed +every past act and feeling, made doubtful even that old release. The +trouble was that he instinctively avoided any square facing of the +difficulty that had multiplied with such amazing rapidity--like a banyan +tree--about the present and the shadowed future. This he was forced to +admit, but grimly added that there could be only one answer to whatever +he might lay bare--the adherence to the single fundamental duty of which +he never lost sight. No port was gained by changing blindly from course +to course, that way lay the reefs; a man could but keep steadily by the +compass. That, at least, was all he could see, propose, for himself, +being rather limited and lacking the resources which others of greater +knowledge so confidently explored. + +After breakfast on the following morning he mounted the dignified +staircase, with the sweeping railing of red narra wood and high Palladian +window at the turn, to his wife. In their room he was bathed in a cold +sweat of dismay at a sudden detached view of Taou Yuen in her complete +Manchu mourning for his father. An unhemmed garment of coarse white hemp +hung in ravelings about slippers of sackcloth; what had been an elaborate +headdress was hidden under a binding of the bleached hemp; she wore no +paint nor flowers; her pins and earrings were pasted with dough, and her +expression was drugged with the contemplative fervor of what had +evidently been a religious ceremonial. + +"For the wise old man, for your father," she said. She was exhausted and +sank onto the day bed; but almost immediately her hand reached out in the +direction of her pipe, and she smiled faintly at him. He clenched his +sinewy hands, the muscles of his jaw knotted, as he gazed steadily at the +woman, the Manchu woman, he had of his own free accord married. It +sickened him that, for the drawing of a breath, he had regarded Taou Yuen +with such appalling injustice--injustice, the evil he hated and condemned +more than any other. What, in the name of God, was he made of that he +could sink so low! + +"We'll leave here soon," he declared abruptly; "the _Nautilus_ will be +ready for sea almost any time." + +He could recognize, from his slight knowledge of her, that Taou Yuen +welcomed the news. "Shanghai?" she asked. He nodded. It came over him +that he was no longer young. His father had retired from the sea within a +few years of his own present age and built Java Head, the house that was +to be a final harbor of unalloyed happiness. No such prospect awaited +him; he had one of the premonitions that were more certain than the most +solid realities--as long as he lived he must sail in ships, struggling +with winds and calms, with currents and cockling and placid seas. Well, +that was natural, inevitable, what he would have chosen. At the same time +he dwelt, with a sensation of loneliness, on the green garden and +drawing-room filled in June with the scent of lilacs, on Rhoda surrounded +by her girls. + +When the question of the division of Jeremy Amnudon's estate came up, he +was, as he had foreseen, urged to become a partner of the firm; and, when +that failed, told that it was his vested duty to continue in his present +capacity as a shipmaster in all their interests. He was seated with +Saltonstone and William in the countinghouse and he could tell from his +brother's ill-restrained impatience that the other considered him hardly +more than a clumsy-witted, stubborn fool before the mast of the facts of +actual life. + +His gaze, above their heads, rested on the framed pass of the ship +_Mocha_, one of his father's last commands, over the bench where he had +lain dead. It was given by the President, James Monroe, in 1818, its +white paper seal embossed on the stained parchment. It had an engraving +of a lighthouse and spired town on the dark water's edge, and above, a +picture of a ship with everything drawing in a fair wind, the upper +sails torn off on a dotted wavering line for the purpose of +identification with its stub. + +"No," he told them quietly, "I'll go my own way as I said; with the +_Nautilus_, if that can be arranged." He rose with a nod of finality, and +James Saltonstone remarked, "Jeremy to the life." Gerrit replied, "I'd +not ask anything better." + +Through the evening he heard little but the discussion of Mr. Folk's +approaching visit to Salem. The President was to leave the train at the +Beverly Depot at three P.M. and be fetched with Secretary Buchanan and +Marshal Barnes in a barouche with six horses and met at the outskirts of +Salem by the city authorities. + +There would be a Beverly cavalcade, the city guard was ordered to muster +at the armory; while an evening parade at five o'clock and the military +ball in Franklin Hall were to follow. + +But when the day and occasion actually arrived it was spoiled by a +succession of unforeseen mishaps. The train was late and the presidential +party in a fever of haste--the procession, hurrying through the massed +public-school children and throngs of Chestnut Street, gave a perfunctory +attention to the salutes and short address of the mayor. The President's +reply, hardly more than a few introductory phrases, cut short, the +barouche was sent plunging over its route with the Secretary crying, +"Drive on! Drive on!" and Marshal Barnes swearing and expectorating in +callous profusion. + +Some of the crowd, the Ammidons heard, had been knocked down and injured +in the pell-mell of the rush. Gerrit's countenance showed his contempt of +what he held to be a characteristically ludicrous farce. After all, his +wishes in regard to the _Nautilus_ had been easy of execution, the ship +was now his; he was already contracting for a cargo. He had been to see +Mr. Broadrick, his first mate, and the latter was assembling the chief +members of the crew. As always at the prospect of sailing he was +unsettled, concerned with countless details of departure--like a vessel +straining at her last anchor. + +Seated in the library with Taou Yuen--he had called her aside from her +fixed passage to their room from the garden--he was recounting his main +plans for the near future, when he became aware of an arrival on the +steps outside. He heard a servant's voice, and, immediately after, the +woman appeared in the doorway; but she was forced aside by Edward +Dunsack. Gerrit's quick resentment flared at such an unmannered +intrusion, and he moved ungraciously forward. The servant explained +impotently, "I told him I would see--" + +"Yes?" Gerrit Ammidon demanded. + +Dunsack bowed ceremoniously to Taou Yuen, then he faced the other. On the +verge of speech he hesitated, as if an unexpected development made +inadequate whatever he had been prepared to say; then, with a sudden +decision, he hurried into an emotional jumble of words. "I can tell you +in a breath--Nettie was badly hurt in that cursed rabble yesterday. It +looks as if she was actually struck by one of the horses. She was +unconscious, and then delirious; now she is in her right mind but very +weak; and, since she wished to see you, I volunteered to put our pride in +my pocket and carry her message." + +An instant numbing pain compressed Gerrit's heart; he felt that, in an +involuntary exclamation, he had clearly shown the depth of his dismay. +Damn the fellow, why had he burst out in this public indecent manner! The +situation he had plausibly created, the thing he managed to insinuate, +was an insult to them all--to his wife, Taou Yuen, coldly composed +beyond, himself and to Nettie. He stood with his level gaze fixed in an +enraged perplexity on Edward Dunsack's sallow countenance, deep sunk on +its bony structure, conscious that there was no possibility of a +satisfactory or even coherent reply. + +"Something was said about this afternoon," the other added. That period, +Gerrit realized, was nearly over. But above every other consideration +rose the knowledge that he would have to see Nettie Vollar, badly +injured, as she desired. The common humanity of that necessity left him +no choice. + +He turned to Taou Yuen with a brief formal explanation. A friend, their +families had been associated for years, had been hurt and sent for +him.... Return immediately. He paused, in the act of leaving, at the door +of the library, waiting for Edward Dunsack to join him; but the other had +resolutely turned his back upon Gerrit. He showed no indication of +departure. Gerrit Ammidon was at the point of an exasperated direction; +but that, in the light of Dunsack's purpose there, appeared ridiculously +abrupt; and confident of his wife's supreme ability to control any +situation he continued without further hesitation to the street, hurrying +in a mounting anxiety toward the Dunsacks'. + +Dwelling on his conduct in the library, at the sudden announcement of +Nettie's accident, he felt that he had acted in a precipitant if not +actually confused way. As a fact, it had all been largely mechanical; his +oppression, his dread for Nettie, had made everything else dim to see and +faint to hear. Dunsack's grimacing face, the immobile figure of his wife, +the familiar sweep of the room, had been things of no more substance than +a cloud between him and the only other reality existing. He had no +memory, for instance, of having stopped to secure his hat, but he found +it swinging characteristically in a hand. And now even the semblance of +reasonable speech and conduct he had managed to command vanished before a +panic that all but forced him into a run. + +The main door of Barzil Dunsack's house was open on the narrow somber +region within; he knocked sharply against the wood at the side and was +immediately answered by the appearance of Kate Vollar. + +"This is a great kindness, Captain Ammidon," she told him in her negative +voice; "come in here, please." He looked hastily about the formal space +into which she led him, expecting to see Nettie prostrate, but she was +not there. "How is she?" he demanded impatiently. + +"Nettie?" her mother turned as if surprised by an unexpected twist of the +situation. "Oh, why she'll mend all right, the doctor says; but it will +be slow. Her arm had an ugly slithering break, and she suffers with it +all the time." A pause followed, in which she met his interrogation with +a growing mystification. "I suppose Edward told you," she ventured +finally. The sense of being at a loss was swiftly communicated to him. + +"Your brother said Nettie wanted to see me," he returned bluntly. + +"Now, however could Edward do a thing like that!" she cried in deep +distress. "Why, there's no truth to it. I asked him myself to see if +you'd kindly stop and give me some advice. What put it in my head was +that once your father offered--he told Nettie to let him know if there +was anything to be done. Edward Dunsack isn't just right in his head." + +Gerrit was filled with a mingling sense of disappointment, relief that +Nettie was no worse, and the uncomfortable conviction that he had behaved +like an hysterical fool. He, too, but angrily, wondered why Dunsack had +invented such an apparently pointless lie. Probably Kate Vollar was +right, and her brother's wits, soaked in opium, had wandered into a realm +of insane fabrications. He composed himself--the first feeling blotting +out his other emotions--to meet the deprecating interrogation before him. + +"I should be glad to do what I could in my father's place." + +"In a way," she continued, "it's about Edward. When he came back from +China and decided to stay in Salem his father turned all the books over +to him; he was to tend to everything in the way of accounts and +shipments; and, he said, he would make us all rich in a year or so. But, +instead, he has neglected the clerking until we can't tell what's going +or coming. Edward hasn't--hasn't quite been himself lately," she paused +and Gerrit nodded shortly. "Now we're not wealthy, Captain Ammidon, we +never got more than just enough from our West India trade; but in the +last couple of months, with Edward like he is and father too old for +columns of figuring--he's dreadful forgetful now--not a dollar was made. +The schooners are slow, behind the times I guess, we've had to scrape; +yet it's been something.... They're both awful hard to do with," she +stopped hopelessly. + +"You must get a reliable man in charge. Some one who knows the West India +shipping should go over your entire property, decide what is necessary, +then borrow the money. We can find that without trouble. I'll make only +one condition: That is the complete restraint of your brother. It is +known that he has the opium habit, he is a dangerous--" + +He stopped at the echo of a thin persistent tapping from above. "That's +Nettie," Kate Vollar said; "the way she calls me. I'll ask you to excuse +me for a minute." When she returned her face bore an unaccustomed flush. +"Nettie heard you in the hall or through the stovepipe." She spoke +doubtfully: "She'd like to see you, but I don't know if it would be right +with her in bed. Still, I promised I'd tell you." + +He rose promptly. The woman stood aside at the upper door and he at once +saw Nettie lying with her vigorous black hair sprawling in a thick twist +across the pillow. Her face was pinched, it seemed thin, and the +brilliancy and size of her eyes were exaggerated. One arm, clumsy and +inanimate in splints, was extended over the cotton spread; but with the +other hand she was feverishly busy with her appearance. She smiled, a wan +tremulous movement that again shut the pain like a leaden casket about +his heart. + +"Do go away, mother!" Nettie directed Kate Vollar hovering behind them. +"Your fidgeting will make me scream." With an incoherent murmur she +vanished from the room. The girl motioned toward a chair, and Gerrit drew +it forward to a table that bore water and a small glass bowl partly +covered by a sheet of paper, holding a number of symmetrical +reddish-black pills. "Opium," Nettie told him, following his gaze; "I +cried dreadfully with the hurt at first. It's dear, and Edward made those +from some he had. You know, I watched him roll them right here; it was +wonderful how quickly he did it, each exactly alike, two grains." She +told him the circumstances of her accident while he sat with his eyes +steadily on her face, his hands folded. + +He was quiet, without visible emotion or speech; but there was an utter +tumult, a tumult like the spiral of a hurricane, within him. Rebellious +feelings, tyrannical desires and thoughts, swept through him in waves of +heat and cold. Nettie's voice grew weak, the shadows deepened under her +eyes, for a little they closed; and but for the faint stir of the +coverlet over her heart she was so pallid, so still, that she might have +been dead. Moved by an uncontrollable fear he bent toward her and touched +her hand. Her gaze slowly widened, and, turning over her palm, she weakly +grasped his fingers. A great sigh of contentment fluttered from her dry +lips. "Gerrit," she whispered, barely audible. He leaned forward, blinded +by his passion for her. + +He admitted this in an honest self-knowledge that he had refused +recognition until now. Tender and reassuring words, wild declarations and +plans for the future, crowded for expression; nothing else before the +immensity of desire that possessed him was of the slightest concern; but +not a syllable was spoken. A sharp line was ploughed between his brows; +his breath came in short choked gusts, he was utterly the vessel of his +longing, and yet an ultimate basic consideration, lost in the pounding of +his veins, still restrained him. + +"I love you, Gerrit," Nettie said; "I'll never stop till I die." Her face +and voice were almost tranquil; she seemed to speak from a plane above +the ordinary necessities of common existence, as if her pain, burning out +her color and vigor and emotions, had given her the privilege of truth. +Curiously enough when it seemed to him that she had expressed what should +have sent him into a single consuming flame he grew at once completely +calm. He, too, for the moment, reached her state of freedom from earth +and flesh. + +"I love you, Nettie," he replied simply. + +However, he speedily dropped back into the sphere of actual +responsibilities. He saw all the difficulties and hovering insidious +shadows in which they might be lost. This, in turn, was pushed aside by +the incredulous realization that Nettie's life and his had been spoiled +by a thing no more important than a momentary flare of temper. If, as +might have happened, he had overlooked Barzil Dunsack's ridiculous +tirade, if he had turned into the yard where Nettie was standing instead +of tramping away up Hardy Street, everything would have been well. + +It was unjust, he cried inwardly, for such infinite consequences to +proceed from unthinking anger! A great or tragic result should spring +from great or tragic causes, the suffering and price measured by the +error. He could see that Nettie was patiently waiting for him to solve +the whole miserable problem of their future; she had an expression of +relief which seemed to take a happy issue for granted. None was possible. +A baffled rage cut his speech into quick brutal words flung like shot +against her hope. + +"I love you," he repeated, "yes. But what can that do for us now? I had +my chance and I let it go. To-day I'm married, I'll be married to-morrow, +probably till I die. Perhaps that wouldn't stop a man more +intelligent--it might be just that--than I am; perhaps he'd go right +after his love or happiness wherever or however it offered. There are +men, too, who have the habit of a number of women. That is understood to +be a custom with sailors. It has never been with me; as I say, maybe I am +too stupid. + +"What in the name of all the heavens would I do with Taou Yuen?" he +demanded. "I can't desert her here, in America, leave her with William. I +brought her thousands of miles away from her home, from all she knows and +is. If I took her back and dropped her in China it would be murder." + +An expression of unalloyed dreariness overspread Nettie's features. "I +wish I had been killed right out," she said. The starkness of the words, +of the reality they spoke, flowed over him like icy water; he felt that +he was sinking, strangling, in a sea grimmer than any about Cape Horn. He +was continually appalled by the realization that there was no escape, no +smallest glimmer, leading from the pit into which they had stumbled. He +had the sensation of wanting enormously to go with Nettie but was fast in +chains that were locked on him by a power greater than his will. + +"It's no good," his voice was flat. + +"I don't believe I'll see you again," Nettie articulated; "now the +_Nautilus_ is near ready to sail. I can't stand it," she sobbed; "that +last time you went out the harbor just about ended me, but this is worse, +worse, worse. I'll--I'll take all the opium." + +"No, you won't," he asserted, standing, confident that her spirit was too +normal, too vitally healthy, for that. His gaze wandered about the room: +her clothes were neatly piled and covered by a skirt on a chair; the +mirror on her chest of drawers was broken, a corner missing; there was a +total absence of the delicate toilet adjuncts of Rhoda and Taou +Yuen--only a small paper of powder, a comb and brush, and the washstand +with a couple of coarse towels. What dresses she had were hung behind a +ridiculously inadequate drapery. She had so little with which to +accomplish what, for a girl, was so much. + +His emotion had retreated, leaving him dull-eyed, heavy of movement. The +moment had come for his departure. Gerrit stood by the bed. Nettie turned +away from him, her face was buried in the pillow, the uppermost free +shoulder shook. "Good-by," he said. There was no answer and he patiently +repeated the short tragic phrase. Still there was no sound from Nettie. +There would be none. Even the impulse to touch her had died--died, he +thought, with a great many feelings and hopes he once had. A fleet +surprise invaded him at the absence of any impulse now to protest or +indulge in wild passionate terms; he was surprised, too, at the fact that +he was about to leave Nettie. The whole termination of the affair was +bathed in an atmosphere of stale calm, like the air in a ship's hold. + +Gerrit Ammidon gazed steadily at her averted head, at the generous line +of her body under the coverlet; then, neither hasty nor hesitating in his +walk, he left the room. Kate Vollar met him at the foot of the stair. +"You understood," she said, "that I only bothered you because your +father... because I was so put on?" + +"You were quite right," he replied in a measured voice; "it will all be +attended to. With the agreement I mentioned." + +"How they'll take it I don't know." + +"In some positions," he told her, "certain persons are without any +choice. The facts are too great for them. I said nothing to Nettie of +Edward Dunsack's reason for my coming," he added significantly. Out in +the street he stopped, facing toward Java Head and evening; but, with a +quiver of his lips, the vertical bitter line between his drawn brows, +he turned and marched slowly, his head sunk, to where the _Nautilus_ +was berthed. + + + + +IX + +Seated in the library, placidly waiting for Edward Dunsack to go, Taou +Yuen studied him briefly. A long or thoughtful survey was unnecessary: +the opium was rapidly mastering him. That fact absorbed all the rest. She +had an immeasurable contempt for such physical and moral weakness; all +the three religions fused in her overwhelmingly condemned +self-indulgence; her philosophy, the practical side of Lao-tze's +teaching, emphasized the utter futility of surrender to the five senses. +At the same time he was the subject of some interest: he was an American +who had lived in China, and not only on the fringe of the treaty +ports--he had penetrated to some extent into the spirit, the life, of +things Chinese; while she, Taou Yuen, was amazingly married to Gerrit +Ammidon, was a Manchu here, in America. + +Absolutely immobile, her hands folded in her lap, she considered these +facts, each in relation to the other: there was wisdom hidden in them for +her. If Mr. Dunsack had retained the ordinary blustering Western +commercial mind, his knowledge of China confined to the tea houses and +streets, he would probably be prosperous and strong to-day. The wisdom +lay in this--that here she must remain Manchu, Chinese; any attempt to +become a part of this incomprehensible country, any effort to involve +herself in its mysterious acts or thought, would be disastrous. She must +remain calm, unassertive, let the eternal Tao take its way. + +Edward Dunsack looked actually comic: he was staring rudely, with a +foolish air of flattery, and breathing in labored gasps--like a coolie +who had run miles with a heavy palanquin. Then her mind, hardly reacting +from immediate objects, returned to the contemplation of the deeper +significance of her presence here. Bent in on itself her thought twisted +like a moonflower vine about the solid fact of Gerrit. She realized, of +course, that he must have had the past of any healthy honorable man of +his age, and that it would have included at least one woman. However, +when even the present was an almost complete puzzle his past had been so +lost to her that she had not considered it until now. + +"You must overlook my unceremonious speech," Edward Dunsack proceeded in +creditable Chinese. "It was clumsy, but I was deeply affected. It is my +niece, you see, who was hurt, and who has a very sad history. Then there +are some special circumstances. I'd have to explain a great deal before +you could understand why she sent for your husband and why he left so +hurriedly." + +"There is nothing you need tell me," Taou Yuen replied in her slow +careful English. "Manchu eyes can see as well as American." + +"A thousand times better." He, too, returned to his native speech. "It is +delightful to talk to a truly civilized being. All that would have to be +shouted at the women of Salem is unnecessary now. You see--you understand +the heart of a man." + +"I understand you," she said impersonally. + +"I wonder if you do," he speculated. "You ought to see what--how much--I +think of you. My brain holds nothing else," he declared in a low intense +voice, drawing nearer to her. + +She had a momentary, purely feminine shrinking from his emaciated shaking +frame, the burning eyes in a face dead like a citron; then her placidity +returned, the assurance that it was all ordained, that his gestures, the +pumping of his diseased heart, had no more individual significance than +the movements of a mechanical figure operated by strings, here the +strings of supreme Fate. She even smiled slightly, a smile not the mark +of approval or humor, but an expression of absolute composure. It drove +him at once into febrile excitement. + +"At least I understand you," he cried; "far more than you suppose! You +can't impress me with your air of a Gautama. I know the freedom of your +country. It doesn't shock you to realize that your husband has gone to +see a woman he loved, perhaps loves still, and you are not disturbed at +my speaking like this." + +Here, she knew, regarding him no more than a shrilling locust, was the +center about which for a moment blindly her thoughts of Gerrit and +herself had revolved. His past--"a woman he loved." But it didn't in the +least upset her present peace of mind, her confidence in Gerrit. There +was a sharp distinction between the eternal, the divine, Tao, that which +is and must prevail, and the personal Tao, subject to rebellion and all +the evil of Yin; and she felt that her husband's Tao was good. Out of +this she remarked negligently: + +"After all, you are more ignorant of China than I thought. But, of +course, you saw only the common and low side. You have not heard of the +books girls are taught from--'The Sacred Edict' and 'Mirror of the +Heart.' You don't know even the first rule of 'The Book of Rites,' 'Let +your face and attitude be grave and thoughtful,' and the second, 'Let +your steps be deliberate and regular.'" She paused, conveying by her +manner that he was already vanishing and that she was relieved. + +"That would do well enough if you were a scholar, or a bonze," he +retorted; "but such innocence in a fashionable woman is a pretense. If +you are so pure how can you explain your gold and bracelets and pins, +all the marks of your worldly rank? Lao-tze taught, 'Rich and high but +proud brings about its own misfortune.'" He was so close to her now that +she caught a faint sickly reek from his body. It seemed to her that she +could see his identity, his reason, vanish, replaced by madness in his +staring eyes. + +"I worship you," he murmured. + +"Opium," she spoke disdainfully. + +"Your own tobacco is drugged," he asserted. "But that's not important. I +tell you I worship you, the most beautiful person in the world. These +fools in Salem, even your husband, can't realize one-tenth of your +perfection; they can't venerate you as I do. And now that Ammidon has +gone back to the first, we are free too." + +"You are a liar," she said with an unexpected colloquial ease. + +A darker color stained his dry cheeks. "You saw him," he replied. "Did +he get pale or didn't he? And did he or not rush from the room like a +man in a fever? I tell you it's no use pretending with me; say what you +please I know how delicate your senses are. I'll tell you this too: It's +written in our progression that we should meet here, yes, and be a great +deal to each other. It was written in the beginning, and we had been +drawing together through a million cycles before Gerrit Ammidon stumbled +across you." + +Taou Yuen was surprised by a sudden conviction that a part of this, at +least, was so. No living thing, however minute, escaped from the +weariness of movement, either ending in final and blessed suspension or +condemned to struggle on and on through countless lives of tormenting +passion. All had this dignity of hope or despair; all she encountered +were humble, impressive or debased in the working of the mighty law. She +had been guilty, as this American had pointed out, of dangerous and wrong +pride, and she accepted her lesson willingly. There was, however, an +annoying conflict between Edward Dunsack, the example, the impersonal, +and Edward Dunsack making violent profession of his unspeakable desire +for her. Even the word seemed to soil her; but there was no other. He +went recklessly on, trying to increase his advantage: + +"We're made to be together." + +"If we are it is because of some great wickedness of mine. If we are, +then perhaps I am lost. But it is allowed to resist evil, at least, as +far as staying out of its touch is resistance." + +"Nothing can keep you from me," he declared. Another short step and his +knees would be brushing her gown. A stronger wave of dislike, shrinking, +anger, drowned her logical and higher resignation. "It is time for you to +go," she said, her voice still even. + +"Never." + +It seemed to her that she could feel his hot quivering touch and, all her +philosophy dropping from her, she rose quickly. "If this were China," she +told him, in a cold fury, "you'd be cut up with knives, in the court-yard +where I could look on. But even here I can ring for a servant; and when +Captain Ammidon comes back he'll know what to say to you." + +She could see that the last affected him; he hesitated, drew back, his +hanging fingers clasping and unclasping. That, she thought, relieved, +would dispose of him. Then it was clear that his insanity persisted +even in the face of the considerable threat of Gerrit's hot pride and +violent tempers. + +"It's our destiny," he repeated firmly in his borrowed faith, at once a +little terrifying and a little ridiculous in the alien mold. His lips +twitched and his bony forehead glistened in a fine sweat. Now, thoroughly +roused, she laughed at him in open contempt. + +"Diseased," she cried, "take your sores away! Dog licked by dogs. Bowl +of filth," she was speaking in Chinese, in words of one syllable like +the biting of a hair whip. Edward Dunsack gasped, as if actual blows +cut him; he stood with one hand half raised, appalled at the sudden +vicious rush of her anger. A leaden pallor took the place of his normal +sallow coloring, and it was evident that he had difficulty in +withstanding the pressure of his laboring heart. He stood between her +and the door and she had a premonition that it would be useless to +attempt to avoid him or escape. She could, however, call, and some one, +there were a score of people about the house, must certainly appear. At +that moment she saw a deep change sweep over his countenance, taking +place in his every fiber. There was an inner wrenching of Edward +Dunsack's being, a blurring and infusion of blood in his eyes, a breath +longer and more agonized than any before, and she was looking closely +into the face of an overwhelming hatred. + +For a moment, she realized, he had even considered killing her with his +flickering hands. Then that impulse subsided before a sidelong expression +of cunning. "With all your Manchu attitudes," he mocked her, "yes, your +aristocratic pretense of mourning and marks of rank, you are no different +from the little pleasure girls. Your vocabulary and mind are the same. I +was a fool for a while; I saw nothing but your satins and painted face. I +forgot you were yellow, I had forgotten that all China's yellow. It's +yellow, yellow, yellow and never can be white. I shut my eyes to it and +it dragged me down into its slime." His voice was hysterical with an +agony of rending spiritual torment and hopeless grief. "It poisoned me +little by little, with the smell of its rivers and the cursed smell of +its pleasures. Then the opium. A year after I had lost my position, +everything; and when I came over here it followed me ... in my own blood. +Even then I might have broken away, I almost had, when Gerrit Ammidon +brought you to Salem. You came at a time when I was fighting hardest to +throw it all off. You see--you fascinated me. You were all that was most +alluring of China, and I wanted you so badly, it all came back so, that I +went to the opium to find you." + +"Progression," she said ironically. + +"Perhaps," he muttered. "Who knows? I'm finished for this life anyhow. +You did that. I can't even keep the books for my father's penny trade." + +His hands crept rigidly toward her. If they touched her she would be +degraded for ever. Yet she was incapable of flight, her throat refused +the cry which she had been debating; alternate waves of revulsion and +stoical resignation passed over her with chills of acute terror. Yet she +managed to preserve an unstirred exterior; and that, she observed, began +to influence him. His loathing was as great as ever; but his vision, that +had been fixed in a blaze of fury, broke, avoided her direct scrutiny, +her appearance of statue-like unconcern. + +There was a sound of quick light feet in the hall, the bright voice of +one of Gerrit's nieces. Edward Dunsack fell into a profound abstraction: +he turned and walked away from her, standing with his back to the room at +a window that opened upon the broad green park. He was so weak that he +was forced to support himself with a hand on the wall. + +Taou Yuen was motionless for a perceptible space, and then moved toward +the door in a dignified composure. All this had come from the utter +impropriety of the life in America. Dunsack glanced at her as she +withdrew, and for a moment she saw his fine profile sharp and dark +against the light-flooded window. His lips stirred but she heard no +sound. Then she was on the stair mounting to her room. + +There mechanically she filled her pipe; but doing this she noticed that +her hands were trembling. How lamentably she had failed in the +preservation, the assertion, of her superiority, not as a Manchu, but in +the deeper, the only true sense of the word--in submission. + +"Requite hatred with virtue." + +She spoke Lao-tze's admonition aloud and, in the customary devious +channel of her mental processes, her thoughts returned to her early life, +her girlhood, so marred by sickness that the Emperor had surrendered his +customary proprietary right in the daughters of Manchu nobles. + +Surrounding the fact of her early suffering, which had kept her out of +the active gayety of brothers and sisters, she remembered in the clearest +detail her father's house in the north; the later residences in Canton +and Shanghai, even the delightful river gardens of the summer place at +Soochow, were less vivid. Inside the massive tiled stone wall the +rooms--there were a hundred at least--faced in squares on the inner +courtyard, and were connected by glass enclosed verandas. The reception +houses of the front court, the deeply carved wooden platform with its +scarlet covering, were of the greatest elegance; they were always astir +with the numerous secretaries, the Chinese writers and messengers, the +_mafoos_ and chair coolies, the servants and blind musicians with the old +songs, _The Millet's in Flower_ and _Kuan Kuan Go to the Ospreys_. The +side door to the women's apartments, however, opened into a retreat, +where her father's concubine, he had but one, trailed like a bird of +paradise, and there was the constant musical drip of a fountain in an old +granite basin. There, during the years when she was lame, Taou Yuen +mostly stayed. + +She had been dropped from a palanquin in her sixth year; sharp +pains soon after burned in her hip, and the corresponding leg had +perceptibly shortened. A great many remedies were tried in vain--burning +with charcoal, the application of black plasters, sweating, +acupuncture--sticking long needles into the afflicted part. The doctors +declared that the five elements of her body--the metal, wood, water, fire +and earth, were hopelessly out of equilibrium. Her mother had then called +necromancers and devil charmers; lucky and unlucky days were explored; +strange rites were conducted before her terrified eyes screwed into the +determination to show no alarm. + +A year, perhaps, after they had become resigned to her injury, her +father, always a man of the most liberal ideas, had suddenly brought into +the garden to see her an English doctor passing through China. Against +the wailing protests of the women the Englishman had been given authority +to treat her; and he had caused to be made a thin steel brace, clasping +Taou Yuen's waist and extending in a rigid band down the length of her +injured leg. After putting a high shoe on her other foot he had commanded +them to keep the brace on her for two years. + +It was through that period of comparative inactivity that she acquired a +habit of reading and thought, a certain grasp of philosophical attitude, +common to the higher masculine Chinese mind but rare among their women. +She had, for instance, later, read Laotze's Tao-teh-king, and been +impressed by his tranquil elevation above the petty ills and concerns of +life and the flesh. Her father, like all the ruling class, regarded +Taoism--which had, indeed, degenerated into a mass of nonsense about the +transmutation of base metals into gold and the elixir of life--with +contempt. But this seemed to her no depreciation of the Greatly Eminent +One or his philosophy of the two Taoes. + +The household, or at least the family, worshipped in the form of +Confucius; his precepts and admonitions, the sacred _hiao_ or filial +submission, the tablets and ancestral piety, were a part of her blood; as +was the infinitely fainter infusion of Buddhism; yet in her intellectual +brooding it was to the Tao-teh-king that she returned. She paused to +recall that, the brace at last removed, she was practically completely +recovered; but the bent, the bracing, given her mind had remained. + +The colorful pageant of her first marriage, the smaller but splendidly +appointed house of her husband--he was extremely intelligent and had +honorably passed the examination for licentiate, one of only two hundred +successful bachelors out of twenty thousand--and the period following his +accidental drowning wheeled quickly through her brain.... + +Only Gerrit Ammidon was left. + +She loved him, Taou Yuen realized, for a quality entirely independent of +race: he had more than anyone else she knew the virtues of simplicity and +purity announced by Chwang-Tze as the marks of the True Man. "We must +become like little children," the Old Master had written. She had seen +this at once in the amazing interview sanctioned by her father-in-law. +Most women of her class, even widows, would have perished with shame at +being exposed to a foreigner. But Lu Kikwang had expressed her difference +from them in the terms of his proposal. His words had been "finely +better" although the truth was that her curiosity had always mastered the +other and more prudent instincts. Yet that alone would not have +prostrated her before Gerrit Ammidon--death was not unthinkable--nor +carried her into his strange terrifying ship and stranger life. The love +had been born almost simultaneously with her first recognition of his +character. Now her passion for him was close and jealous. A constant +shifting between such humanity and the calm detachment which prefigured +heaven was what most convinced her of the truths of Lao-tze. + +All this took body at the announcement of Edward Dunsack about Gerrit and +his niece. Certainly he might have had an affair; that she dismissed; but +the insinuated permanence of this other affection was serious. She would +not have believed Mr. Dunsack for an instant, but, as he had pointed out, +Gerrit had undoubtedly been upset; he had turned pale and hurried away +impolitely. It was by such apparently slight indications that the great +inner currents of life were discovered. The fact that Chinese officials +had more than one wife, or, to speak correctly, concubines in addition, +had no bearing with Gerrit; such was not the custom with American men. It +represented for him, yes--dishonor. + +She laboriously recalled his every attitude since they had landed in +America, and was obliged to admit that he had changed--he was less gay +and though his manner was always considerate she recognized a growing +impatience beneath his darker calm. Her philosophy was again torn in +shreds by sharp feminine emotions. She was filled with jealousy and +hatred and hurt pride. The clearest expression of his possible discontent +had marked his face when he had suddenly come into their room and saw her +rising from a prayer for his father. Gerrit's lips had been compressed, +almost disdainful; at that moment, she knew unerringly, he found her +ugly. Of course it had been the hideous garments of mourning. + +She must wear the unhemmed sackcloth and dull slippers, bind her +headdress and cover her pins with paste, for a hundred days; and then +a second mourning of black or dark blue, and no flowers, for three +years. It might well be that by then Gerrit, blind to these +proprieties, would find her unendurable. Suddenly, in the tremendous +difficulty of holding him against an entire world, his own and of +which she was supremely ignorant, it seemed to her that she needed +every possible means, every coral blossom and gold filament and finger +of paint, the cunning intoxication of subtle dress and color and +perfume. With a leaden sense of guilt, but in a fever of impatience, +of haste, she stripped off the coarse hemp for her most elaborate +satins, her santal and clover and carmine. + +When Gerrit came in it had grown dark with night, and he explained that +he had been busy inspecting the _Nautilus'_ spars. She lighted a lamp, +then another, all she could find, and studied him unobtrusively. She was +shocked at the worn expression of his face; it seemed as if he had aged +in the few hours since he had left the library. He was uneasy, silent; +and, secretly dismayed, she saw that he was indifferent to her changed +appearance, too. Taou Yuen debated the wisdom of telling him about the +painful scene with Edward Dunsack; against her original intent she +decided in the negative. She informed herself that the reason for this +was a wish to preserve him, now that they were practically at the day of +departure, from an unpleasant duty. But there was an underlying dimly +apprehended and far different motive: she was afraid that it would blow +into flame a situation that might otherwise be avoided, bring to life a +past naturally dying or dead. + +She saw that he was scarcely aware of her presence in the room, perhaps +in his life. A period of resentment followed. "You are dull," she +declared, "and I am going down to the garden for entertainment." Gerrit +nodded. He would, he told her, be along shortly. Below she found Roger +Brevard, with the oldest Ammidon girl and her mother. + +Roger Brevard, she had discovered, was in love with Sidsall. The latter, +it developed, was to leave shortly for a party; Mr. Brevard was not +going; and, when Gerrit's sister-in-law walked across the grass with her +daughter the man dropped into an easy conversation with Taou Yuen. She +had a feeling, which she had tried in vain to lose, of the vulgarity, the +impropriety of this. Yet she recognized that there was none of the former +in Roger Brevard; he resembled quite a little her dead husband, +Sié-Ngan-kwán; and for that reason she was more at ease with him--in +spite of such unaccustomed familiarity--than with anyone else in Salem +but Gerrit. + +He was, she admitted condescendingly, almost as cultivated as the +ordinary Chinese gentleman. Many of his thoughts, where she could +understand their expression, might have come from a study of the sacred +kings. At the same time her feminine perception realized that he had a +genuine liking for her. + +"You'll be delighted to leave Salem," he said, leaning forward and +studying her. + +"That would not be polite," she answered formally. "You have been so +good. But it will give me pleasure to see Shanghai again. Anyone is +happier with customs he understands." + +"And prefers," he added. "Indeed, I'd choose some of your manners rather +than ours. You see, you have been at the business of civilization so much +longer than the rest of us." + +"Our history begins two thousand years before your Christ," she told him; +"our language has been spoken without change for thirty-three centuries, +as you call them. But such facts are nothing. I would rather hear your +non--nonsense," she stumbled over the word. + +"Do you mean that what we call nonsense is really the most important?" + +"Perhaps," she replied. "Devotion to the old and dead is greatly +necessary yet you smile at it. I didn't mean that, but moons and lovers +and music." He cried in protest, "We're terribly serious about those!" + +"I hear nothing but talk about cargoes and sales and money." + +"We keep the other under our hats," he instructed her. She was completely +mystified, and he explained. + +"In China," she remarked tentatively, "it is possible for a man to love +two women at once, maybe one a little more than the other, but he can be +kind and just and affectionate to them both. Tell me, is--is that +possible with an American?" + +"No!" he spoke emphatically. "We can love, in the way you mean, only one, +perhaps only once. I wouldn't swear to that, but there are simply no +exceptions to the first. Men are unfaithful, yes; but at a cost to +themselves, or because they are incapable of restraint. To be unfaithful +in anything is to fail, isn't it? You can lie to yourself as effectively +as to anybody else." + +She fixed a painful attention upon him, but lost at least a half of his +meaning. However, one fact was clearer than ever--that Edward Dunsack had +said an evil thing about her husband. "It seems," he went on, "that even +spiritual concerns can be the result of long custom." If he was trying to +find an excuse for Chinese habit she immediately disposed of it. "No," +she said, "you are upside down. The spirit is first, the eternal Tao, +everywhere alike, but the personal spirit is different in you and in us." + +A sudden dejection seized her--now the difference seemed vaster than +anything she had in common with Gerrit. A wave of oppressive nostalgia, +of confusion and dread, submerged her in a faintly thunderous darkness. +She felt everywhere about her the presence of evil and threatening +shades. The approach of her husband, his heavy settling into a chair, did +nothing to lighten her apprehension. + +"How soon do we go?" she asked faintly. + +"In two weeks, with nothing unexpected," he responded without interest or +pleasure. It flashed through her mind that he was depressed at leaving +Salem, that other woman. His present indifference was very far from the +manner in which he had first discussed their leaving. Yet, even that, she +recalled in the light of her present sensitiveness, had been unnaturally +abrupt and clothed in a great many loud-sounding words. She told herself +arbitrarily that Edward Dunsack had lied--for the purpose which his +conduct afterward made clear--but her very feeling was proof that she +believed he had spoken the truth. + +She was a victim of an uneasy curiosity to see... she made a violent +mental effort and recaptured the name--Nettie Vollar. Of course the +latter had been the deliberate cause of whatever wickedness had +threatened at the return of Gerrit with her, Taou Yuen. She had however +no doubt of the extent of this: Gerrit was upright, faithful to the +necessity Roger Brevard had explained; all that assaulted her happiness +was on an incorporate plane, or, anyhow, in a procession of consequences +extending far back and forward of their present lives. + +But, she recognized, she had no excuse nor opportunity to see Nettie +Vollar. Mrs. Ammidon, when she heard of the accident, had at once +declared her intention of going to the Dunsacks' house; still that +promised no chance of satisfying her own desire. The least politeness in +the world prohibited her from going baldly in and demanding to see the +woman. She couldn't, all at once, make convincing a sympathy or +impersonal interest entirely contradictory to her insistent indifference. +The best she could hope was for them to sail away as quickly as possible; +when on the other side of the seas Gerrit would probably return to the +simplicity of being she had adored. + +Then a trivial and yet serious fear occurred to her--perhaps here, among +all these dead-white women, he no longer held her beautiful. The word was +his own, or it had been his; he had not repeated it, she realized, twice +since they had been in Salem. Personally, she found the American women +entirely undistinguished and dressed in grotesquely ugly and cheap +clothes--not unlike paper lanterns bobbing along the ground. Their faces +were shamelessly bare of paint and their manners would have disgraced the +lowest servant in a Chinese courtyard. This was natural, from any +consideration of the hideous or inappropriate things that surrounded +them, and from the complete lack of what she could distinguish as either +discipline or reverence. Yet Gerrit, a part of this, would be unable to +share her attitude; she had heard him praise the appearance of women so +insipid that she had turned expecting vainly an ironic smile. + +Roger Brevard rose and made his bow, the only satisfactory approach to a +courteous gesture she had met outside Gerrit's occasional half-humorous +effort since leaving Shanghai. He stirred, muttered a perfunctory phrase, +and sank back into obscurity. + +Little quirks of unfamiliar disturbing feeling ran through Taou Yuen; her +mind, it seemed, had become a thing of no importance; all that at one +time had so largely ordered her life was superseded by these illogical +emotions spreading apparently from her heart. The truth was, she told +herself, that--with all her reading and philosophy--she had had little or +no experience of actuality: the injury to her hip and quiet life in the +gray garden at Canton, her protected existence in the women's apartments, +whatever she might have learned from them neglected because of the +general silliness of their chatter, the formal early marriage, had all +combined for the preservation of her ignorance. + +She regarded herself now with distrust; nothing could have been more +unpleasant than the failure of her will, this swamping of her equanimity. +She never lost for a moment the image of superiority that should be her +perfect example, the non-assertion that was the way of heaven; but her +comprehension was like a figure ruthlessly dragged about by an +overpowering unreflective force. A sharp hatred of Nettie Vollar seared +her mind and perished in a miserable sense of weakness. + +Against the dark, charged with a confusion of the ten thousand things, +she stared wearily and wakeful. She reminded herself again that Gerrit +would soon be gone from Salem, alone with her on the long voyage to +China; but he'd return to America, come back to Salem; and she knew that +he would never bring her westward again. A period of depression followed +which seemed to have no immediate connection with Gerrit; she had an +indefinable feeling of struggling in vain against adversity, of +opposition to an implacable power. + +For a short while after she rose in the morning it appeared that she had +regained her self-control, her reason; and a consequent happy relief +irradiated her. But when Gerrit came up after she had finished her toilet +and she saw, from his haggard face, that he too must have been awake, +tormented, through the night, a passion of bitterness enveloped her at +which all that had gone before turned pale. She could scarcely restrain +herself from a noisy wailing accusation, and stood regarding him with a +tense unnatural grimace, the result of her effort to preserve propriety. +She told herself, at the tempest of vulgar phrases storming through her +consciousness, that what Edward Dunsack had said about her being no +better than the tea house girls was true, and she was aghast at the inner +treachery capable of such self-betrayal. Not a quivering word, however, +escaped; she managed a commonplace phrase and turned aside in a trivial +pretext of occupation. + +"I am going into Boston with Captain Dunsack on business connected with +his schooners." The girl's grandfather! "Very well." She spoke placidly, +and with a tempestuous heart watched him stride quickly about the park. + +She settled herself in a long motionless contemplation, fastening her +mind upon the most elevated and revered ideas conceivable. She saw the +eternal Tao flowing like a great green river of souls, smooth and mighty +and resistless; and she willed that she too might become a part of that +desirable self-effacement, safe in surrender. Men striving to create a +Tao for personal ends beat out their lives in vain. It was the figure of +the river developing, like floating on a deliberate all-powerful tide or +struggling impotently against it. + +Later a message came up from Mrs. Ammidon--she hoped that Taou Yuen would +drive with her that afternoon. She dressed with the most particular care, +in blue and dark greens, her shoulders thick with embroidered garlands +and silver _shou_, her piled hair ornamented in glittering silver leaves +and garnets. + +She went down when she heard the horses on the street below but the +barouche was empty except for the coachman. "Mrs. Ammidon left a half +hour ago," a servant told her; "and sent the carriage back for you." They +moved forward, going, she saw, into a part of the town where they seldom +drove--the narrow crowded way by the wharves--and, turning shortly into a +street that ended abruptly at the water, drew up before a dingy house on +her right. + +The door was open, and they waited, confident that Mrs. Ammidon would +hear the clatter of hoofs and come out; but a far different appeared. She +gazed for a silent space at Taou Yuen seated above her, as if confused by +the glittering magnificence. It was probable that Gerrit's brother's wife +had come there on an errand of charity for the woman was poor, dingy like +the house, with a face drawn by suffering and material struggle. + +"Of course you're Captain Ammidon's wife," she said; "and you are here +after Mrs. William Ammidon. Well, she's gone; but she left a message for +you. She will be at Henry Whipple's, the bookseller. After she saw Nettie +she went right off to send her some things; wouldn't wait for the +carriage. A kind-hearted determined body." + +Taou Yuen leaned out to command the coachman to drive on; but the other, +plainly bent on making the most of a rare opportunity for such a +conversation, continued talking in her low resigned way. + +"I was glad to have her too; Nettie gets pretty fretful up there with +nobody but me, really. She hasn't been so well, either, since--" here she +stopped abruptly, recommenced. "I like to see a person myself of Mrs. +Ammidon's kind. I've been alone all day; father's gone to Boston and +Edward away I don't know where." + +Taou Yuen's curiosity to see Nettie Vollar returned infinitely +multiplied; here, miraculously, was an opportunity for her to study the +woman who was beyond any doubt an important part of Gerrit's past, +present--it might be, his future. The men were gone. ... She got +resolutely down from the barouche. "Take me up to your daughter," she +directed quietly. + +"Why, that's very kind, but I don't know--Yes, certainly. Mind +these stairs with your satin skirt; I don't always get around to +the whole house." + +Taou Yuen saw at once that Nettie Vollar was far sicker than she had +realized: her head lay on the pillow absolutely spent, her brow damply +plastered with hair and her eyes enlarged and dull. Taou Yuen drew a +chair forward and sat beside a table with a glass bowl of small dark +pills which from a just perceptible odor she recognized as opium. She +looked intently, coldly, at the prostrate figure. A flush like match +flames burned in Nettie Vollar's cheeks, and she said in a voice at once +weak and sharp: + +"You're her!" + +Taou Yuen nodded slowly, disdainfully. + +"Oh, how could he!" the other exclaimed in what sounded like the thin +echo of a passionate cry. "I knew you were Chinese, but I never realized +it till this minute." + +As Gerrit Ammidon's wife had feared she was totally unable to judge a +single quality or feature of the girl before her. She looked exactly like +all the others she had seen in Salem: in order to realize her she needed +Gerrit's eyes, Gerrit's birth. Then one fact crept insidiously into her +consciousness--here, in a way, was another being who had Gerrit Ammidon's +childlike simplicity. That was the most terrifying discovery she could +have made. Taou Yuen felt the return of the hateful irresistible emotions +which had destroyed her self-control. She wanted to hurt Nettie Vollar in +every possible way, to mock her with the fact that she had lost Gerrit +perhaps never to see him again; she wanted to tell her that she, Taou +Yuen, entirely understood her hopes, efforts, and that they were vain. + +An utter self-loathing possessed her at the same time, a feeling of +imminent danger as if she were walking with willfully shut eyes on the +edge of a precipice above a black fatal void. Not a trace of this +appeared on her schooled countenance; and once more she completely +restrained any defiling speech. She deliberately shifted her point of +view to another possible aspect of all that confronted her--it might be +that this woman was a specter, a _kwei_, bent on Gerrit's destruction. +Such a thing often happened. How much better if Nettie Vollar had been +killed! She studied her with a renewed interest--a fresh question. +Perhaps the other would die as it was. She was extremely weak; her +spirit, Taou Yuen saw, lay listlessly in a listless body. Nettie Vollar +slightly moved her injured arm, and that little effort exhausted her for +a moment; her eyes closed, her face was as white as salt. + +A further, almost philosophical, consideration engaged Taou Yuen's +mind--this extraordinary occasion, her being with the other alone, Nettie +Vollar's fragility, were, it might be, all a part of the working of the +righteous _Yang_. In the light of this, then, she had been brought here +for a purpose ... the ending of a menace to her husband. She hesitated +for a breath--if it were the opposite malignant _Yin_ there was no bottom +to the infamy into which she might fall. It was a tremendous question. + +The actual execution of the practical suggestion, from either source, was +extremely easy; she had but to lean forward, draw her heavy sleeve across +the strained face, hold it there for a little, and Nettie Vollar would +have died of--of any one of a number of reasonable causes. She, Taou +Yuen, would call, politely distressed, for the mother ... very +regrettable. + +Gerrit free-- + +Perhaps. + +She had no shrinking from the act itself, nothing that might have been +called pity, a few more or less years in a single life were beneath +serious consideration; it was the lives to come, the lingering doubt of +which power led her on, which restrained and filled her mind. A flicker +of rage darted through her calm questioning; her mental processes again +faded. With her right arm across the supine body and enveloping the face +in her left sleeve a single twist and Nettie Vollar would choke in a +cloud of thick satin made gay with unfading flowers and the embroidered +symbol of long life. She felt her body grow rigid with purpose when the +sound of a footfall below held her motionless in an unreasoning dread. + +It was not heavy, yet she was certain that it was not the woman's. A blur +of voices drifted up to her, the dejected feminine tone and a thin +querulous demand, surprise. Taou Yuen turned cold as stone: the sensation +of oppressive danger increased until it seemed as if she, and not Nettie +Vollar, were strangling. There was a profound stillness, then a shuffling +tread on the stair, and Edward Dunsack entered, entered but stood without +advancing, his back against a closed door. + +Even since yesterday he had noticeably wasted, there were muscles of his +face that twitched continuously; his hands, it seemed to her, writhed +like worms. He said nothing, but stared at her with a fixed glittering +vision; all his one time worship--it had been so much--was devoured in +the hatred born in the Ammidon library. Frozen with apprehension she sat +without movement; her face, she felt, as still as a lacquered mask. + +To her astonishment--she had forgotten Nettie Vollar's existence--a +shaken voice from the bed demanded: + +"Uncle Edward, what's come over you! Don't you see Mrs. Ammidon! Oh--" +her speech rose in a choked exclamation. Edward Dunsack had turned the +key and was crossing the room with a dark twisted face, his eyes stark +and demented. Taou Yuen, swung round toward the advancing figure, heard a +long fluttering breath behind her. Perhaps Nettie Vollar had died of +fright. The terror in her own brain dried up before an overwhelming +realization--she had betrayed herself to the principle of evil. She was +lost. Her thoughts were at once incredibly rapid and entirely vivid, +logical: Edward Dunsack, ruined, in China; herself blinded, confused, +destroyed in America. Yesterday she had held him powerless with the mere +potency of her righteousness; but now she had no strength. + +There was a loathsome murmur from his dusty lips. He intended to kill +her, to mar and spoil her throat, a degradation forbidden by Confucius, +an eternal disfigurement. This filled her with a renewed energy of +horror.... Here there was none but a feeble woman to hear her if she +called. She rose mechanically, a hand on the table; Taou Yuen saw Nettie +Vollar's deathly pallid face rolled awkwardly from the pillow, and the +bowl of opium. There were twenty or more pills. Without hesitation, even +with a sense of relief, she swept the contents of the bowl into her palm. +The effort of swallowing so many hard particles was almost convulsive and +followed with a nauseous spasm. + +Exhausted by mental effort she sank into a chair and a dullness like +smoke settled over her. The figure of Edward Dunsack retreated to an +infinite distance. The smoke moved in a great steady volume--the eternal +and changeless Tao, without labor or desires, without.... Hatred requited +with virtue ... attracting all honor--mounting higher and higher from the +consuming passions, the seething black lives of her immeasurable fall. + + + + +X + +Although the late afternoon was at an hour when Derby Street should have +been filled by a half-idle throng in the slackening of the day's +waterside employments Roger Brevard found it noticeably empty. In this he +suddenly recognized that the street was like the countingroom of the +Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, the heart of Salem's greatness--they +were weaker, stilled in a decline that yet was not evident in the +impressive body of the town. + +When he had first taken charge of this branch both Salem and it had been +of sufficient moment to attract him from New York; the company was +insuring Boston and New York vessels; the captains had thronged its broad +window commanding St. Peters and Essex Streets. Now only an occasional +shipmaster, holding the old traditions and habits or else retired, sat in +the comfortable armchairs with leather cushions drawn up at the coal +hearth or expansive in white through the summer. + +His mind shifted to a consideration of these facts in relation to +himself--whether the same thing overtaking the place and marine insurance +had not settled upon him too--as he made his way from Central Wharf, +where he had vainly gone for prospective business. His inquiry was +reaching a depressing certainty when, passing and gazing down Hardy +Street, he saw the Ammidon barouche standing in front of the Dunsacks'. + +Roger Brevard stopped: the Ammidon men, he knew, seldom drove about +Salem. He had heard of Nettie Vollar's accident and came to the +conclusion that Rhoda was within. If this were so, her visit, limited to +a charitable impulse, would be short; and thinking of the pleasure of +driving with her he turned into the side way. As he approached, the +coachman met him with an evident impatience. + +"No, sir," he replied to Brevard's inquiry. "But we were to get Mrs. +Ammidon at the bookstore. Mrs. Captain Gerrit called here for her, but +she went inside unexpected. All of an hour ago. I don't like to ask for +the lady, but what may be said later I can't think." + +He had scarcely finished speaking when a woman whom Brevard recognized +as Kate Vollar appeared at the door. "Oh, Mr. Brevard!" she exclaimed +with an unnaturally pallid and apprehensive face. "I'm glad to find +you. Please come upstairs with me. Why I don't know but I'm all in a +tremble. Mrs. Ammidon went to see Nettie, then Edward came in, and when +he heard who was there he acted as if he were struck dumb and went up +like a person afflicted. I waited the longest while and then followed +them and knocked. Why the door was shut I'd never tell you. But they +didn't answer, any of them," she declared with clasped straining hands. +"Three in the room and not a sound. Please--" her voice was suddenly +suffocated by dread. + +"Certainly. Quarles," he addressed the coachman, "I'll get you to come +along. If there is a lock to break it will need a heavier shoulder +than mine." + +Mounting the narrow somber stair, followed by the man and Kate Vollar, he +wondered vainly what might have happened. Obscurely some of the woman's +fear was communicated to him. Brevard knocked abruptly on the door +indicated but there was no answering voice or movement. He tried the +latch: as Nettie's mother had found, it was fastened. + +"Quarles," Roger Brevard said curtly. + +The coachman stepped forward, braced himself for the shove he directed +against the wooden barrier, and the door swept splintering inward. Roger +advanced first and a grim confusion touched him with cold horror. Taou +Yuen was half seated and half lying across a table beside the bed; he +couldn't see her face, but her body was utterly lax. Nettie Vollar, too, +was in a dreadful waxen similitude of death, with lead colored lips and +fixed sightless eyes. A slight extraordinary sound rose behind him, and +whirling, Brevard discovered that it was Edward Dunsack giggling. He was +silent immediately under the other's scrutiny, and an expression of +stubborn and malicious caution pinched his wasted sardonic countenance. + +Brevard turned to the greater necessity of the women, and moved Taou Yuen +so that he could see her features. It was evident that she was not, as he +had first thought, dead; her breathing was slow and deep and harsh, her +pulse deliberate and full; she was warm, too, but her face was suffused +by an unnatural blueness and the pupils of her inert eyes were barely +discernible. He shook her with an unceremonious vigor, but there was no +answering energy; she fell across his arm in a sheer weight of +satin-covered body. He moved back in a momentary uncontrollable repulsion +when Kate Vollar threw herself past him onto the bed. "Nettie!" she +cried, "Nettie! Nettie!" Brevard was chilled by the possibility of an +unutterable tragedy, when with a faint suffusion of color the girl gave a +gasping sigh. Her voice stirred in a terror shaken whisper: + +"Uncle Edward, don't! Why--don't. Oh!" She pressed her face with a long +shudder into the pillow. "Whatever was it--?" her mother began wildly. +Brevard caught her shoulder. "Not now," he directed; "you'll come +downstairs with me. We must have help at once and your daughter quiet." + +However he was in a quandary--he couldn't trust the woman here, he would +have to go immediately for assistance, and yet it was impossible to leave +Nettie Vollar and Gerrit's wife alone. "You will have to wait in the +room," he decided, turning to Quarles. + +Edward Dunsack was wavering against a wall; Brevard went swiftly up to +him. "We'll need you," he said shortly. Dunsack maintained his silence +and air of stubborn cunning; but, when the other man clasped his +incredibly thin arm, he went willingly followed by Kate Vollar below. +There he sat obediently, his judicious detachment broken by a repetition +of the thin shocking snigger. + +"You must be responsible for your brother," Roger Brevard told the +quivering woman. "I'll be back immediately. Now that you know Nettie's +safe you must control yourself. No one should go up--keep everybody +out--till you hear from me or the doctor or Captain Ammidon." + +What an inexplicable accident or crime, he thought, hurriedly approaching +the countinghouse of Ammidon, Ammidon and Saltonstone, the first and +nearest of the places to which he must go. He could remember no mark of +what had overcome Taou Yuen. How was Dunsack, who was now clearly +demented, implicated? What racking thing had Nettie Vollar seen? + +In the subsequent exclamatory rush, even on the following morning when +Roger Brevard learned that--poisoned by opium undoubtedly taken by +herself--Gerrit Ammidon's wife had died without regaining consciousness, +the greater part of the tragedy became little clearer. No statement could +be had from Edward Dunsack other than a meaningless array of +precautionary phrases; and returning in a sliding gait toward Hardy +Street he was put under a temporary restraint. + +Nettie Vollar, Brevard heard, had relapsed from her injury into a second +critical collapse. Yet, he told himself, entering the room that was his +home in Mrs. Cane's large square house on Chestnut Street, that the +Manchu still absorbed his speculations. + +It was a pleasant room and a pleasant house with a dignified portico; and +his tall windows, back on the right of the second floor, opened on the +length of the Napiers' garden. Brevard sat looking out over a dim +leafiness of evening and tried to discipline his thoughts into order and +coherence. Any dignity of death had been soiled by the ugly mystery of +the aspects surrounding the end of Taou Yuen. + +He had liked her extremely well, agreeing with Rhoda Ammidon that, +probably, they had never been permitted to know a more aristocratic +breeding or greater degrees of purely worldly and mental and personal +charm than those of Gerrit's wife. + +His mind grew more philosophical and a perception, yet without base in +facts, convinced him that Taou Yuen had been killed by America. It was a +fantastic thought, and he attempted to dismiss it, waiting for more +secure knowledge, but it persisted. She had been killed by unfamiliar +circumstances, tradition, emotions. In some manner, but how he was unable +to disentangle from the pressures of mere curiosity and conjecture, +Nettie Vollar--or rather Gerrit's old passing affair with Nettie--had +entered into the unhappy occurrence. After an hour's vain search he gave +up all effort to pierce the darkness until he had actual knowledge--if he +ever had, he was forced to add silently. It was possible that the secret +might be entirely guarded from the public, even from the closer part he +had played and his familiarity with the Ammidon family. + +He was an inmate of their inner garden with its lilac trees and hedged +roses in season, the pungent beds of flowers and box, the moonshade of +the poplars. Roger Brevard turned from the consideration of Taou Yuen to +the even more insistent claim of his increasing affection for Sidsall. He +stopped again both to lament and delight in her youth--another year and +he would have unhesitatingly announced his feeling as love to them all. +It was that, he admitted to himself almost shyly. The obvious thing was +for him to wait through the year or more until the Ammidons would hear of +a proposal and then urge his desire.... He could see her quite often +meanwhile. + +Yes, that was the sensible course, even in the face of his own +multiplying years. They were twenty-five more than Sidsall's; yet, he +added in self-extenuation, he was not definitely snared in middle age; he +was still elastic in body and youthful, but for graying hair, in +appearance. His birth was eligible from every social consideration; and, +though he was not rich, he had enough independently to assure the safety +of his wife's future. This did not come entirely, or now even in the +larger part, from the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, but took the +form of a comparatively small but secure private income. + +He paused to wonder if it had not been that latter fact which had +prevented his being successful--successful, that was, in William +Ammidon's meaning of the word. He had not made money nor a position of +importance among men of affairs. Such safety, he decided, was a dangerous +possession judged by the standards he was now considering. A few thousand +a year for life struck at the root of activity. It induced a critical +detached attitude toward life, overemphasized the importance of the cut +of a trouser and the validity of pedigree. It was a mistake to dance +noticeably well. + +Drifting, together with almost everyone else, he had reached his +present position, past forty, by imperceptible degrees, obscurely +influenced by the play of what he intrinsically was on circumstances or +accident or fate. + +Although he had never done so before, he compared himself with Gerrit +Ammidon. The other's refusal to accept a partnership in the family firm +or command a California clipper was known. Gerrit and himself were +alike in that they apprehended the values of life more clearly than did +the ordinary mind or heart. But, in retaliation, the world they +differed from curtly brushed them aside. Roger Brevard could not see +that they had made the least mark on the callous normal cruelty or the +aesthetic and spiritual blindness of the existence they shared. But it +was always possible that something bigger than their grasp of justice +or beauty was afoot. + +He turned from the darkened prospect of the window and his thoughts to +the room. Without a light he removed his formal street clothes, hanging +the coat and waistcoat, folding the trousers in a drawer, with exact +care; changing his light boots for fiber slippers he set the former in +the row of footgear drawn up like a military review against the wall. +Though it was quite obscure now, and no one would see him, he paused to +brush his slightly disarranged hair, before--tying the cord of his +chamber robe--he resumed his seat. + +The year, he reverted to Sidsall, would pass; but, try as he might, he +had no feeling of security in the future, however near. It was the +present, this Sidsall, that filled him with a tyrannical and bitter +longing. She was unbelievably beautiful now. Against the faintness of his +hope, his patience, he saw the whole slow process of the disintegration +of marine insurance, and with it his own fatuous insensibility to the +decline: that decline with its exact counterpart in himself. Salem and he +were getting dusty together. + +He straightened up vigorously in his chair--this would never do. He must +wind up his affairs here and return to New York. The tranquil backwater +had overpowered him for a time; but, again awake, he would strike out +strongly... with Sidsall. Endless doubt and hope fluctuated within him. +Voices rose from the Napier garden, and from a tree sounded the whirring +of the first locust he had noticed that summer. + +On a noon following he saw the passage of the three or four carriages +that constituted the funeral cortège of Taou Yuen's entirely private +interment. She would be buried of course by Christian service: here were +none of the elaborate Confucian rites and ceremonial; yet--from what Taou +Yuen had occasionally indicated--Confucius, Lao-tze, the Buddha, were all +more alike than different; they all vainly preached humility, purity, the +subjugation of the flesh. He stopped later in the Charter Street cemetery +and found her grave, the headstone marked: + +TAOU YUEN +A MANCHURIAN LADY +THE WIFE +OF +GERRIT AMMIDON, ESQ. +and the dates. + +He saw, naturally, but little of the Ammidons--a glimpse of Rhoda in the +carriage and William on Charter Street; the _Nautilus_, ready for sea, +continued in her berth at Phillips' Wharf. Fragments of news came to him +quoted and re-quoted, grotesquely exaggerated and even malicious reports +of the tragedy at the Dunsacks'. Standing at his high desk in the +countingroom of the Mongolian Marine Insurance Company, Taou Yuen's +glittering passage through Salem already seemed to him a fable, a dream. +Even Sidsall, robustly near by, had an aspect of unreality in the tender +fabric of his visions. Captain Rendell, his spade beard at the verge of +filmed old eyes, who was seated at the window, rose with difficulty. For +a moment he swayed on insecure legs, then, barely gathering the necessary +power, moved out into the street. + +Later, when Roger Brevard was turning the key on the insurance company +for the day, Lacy Saltonstone stopped to speak in her charming slow +manner: "Mother of course is in a whirl, with Captain Ammidon about to +marry that Nettie Vollar, since she is recovering after all, and our +moving to Boston.... You see I'm there so often it will make really very +little difference to me. Sidsall is the lucky one, though you'd never +know it from seeing her.... I thought you'd have heard--why, to Lausanne, +a tremendously impressive school for a year. They have promised her +London afterward. I would call that a promise, but actually, Sidsall--." + +"Doesn't she want to go?" he asked mechanically, all the emotions that +had chimed through his being suddenly clashing in a discordant misery. He +bowed absently, and hastening to his room softly closed the door and sat +without supper, late into the evening, lost in a bitterness that +continually poisoned the resolutions formed out of his overwhelming need. +He was aghast at the inner violence that destroyed the long tranquility +of his existence, the clenched hands and spoken words lost in the shadows +over the Napiers' garden. He wanted Sidsall with a breathless tyranny +infinitely sharper than any pang of youth: she was life itself. + +She didn't want to go, Lacy had made that clear; and he told himself that +her reluctance could only, must, proceed from one cause--that she cared +for him. As he dwelt on this, the one alleviating possibility, he became +certain of its truth. He would find her at once and in spite of Rhoda and +William Ammidon explain that his whole hope lay in marrying her. With an +utter contempt at all the small orderly habits which, he now saw, were +the expression of a confirmed dry preciseness, he left his clothes in a +disorderly heap. Such a feeling as Sidsall's and his, he repeated from +the oppressive expanse of his black walnut bed, was above ordinary +precautions and observance. Then, unable to dismiss the thought of how +crumpled his trousers would be in the morning, oppressed by the picture +of the tumbled garments, he finally rose and, in the dark, relaid them in +the familiar smooth array. + +In the morning his disturbance resolved into what seemed a very decided +and reasonable attitude: He would see Rhoda that day and explain his +feeling and establish what rights and agreement he could. He was willing +to admit that Sidsall was, perhaps, too young for an immediate decision +so wide in results. The ache, the hunger for happiness sharpened by vague +premonitions of mischance, began again to pound in his heart. + +At the Ammidons' it was clear immediately that Rhoda's manner toward him +had changed: it had become more social, even voluble, and restrained. She +conversed brightly about trivial happenings, while he sat listening, +gravely silent. But it was evident that she soon became aware of his +difference, and her voice grew sharper, almost antagonistic. They were in +the formal parlor, a significant detail in itself, and Roger Brevard saw +William pass the door. Well, he would soon have to go, he must speak +about Sidsall now. It promised to be unexpectedly difficult; but the +words were forming when she came into the room. + +There were faint shadows under her eyes, the unmistakable marks of tears. +An overwhelming passion for her choked at his throat. She came directly +up to him, ignoring her mother. "Did you hear that they want me to go +away?" she asked. He nodded, "It's that I came to see your mother about." + +"They know I don't want to," she continued; "I've explained it to them +very carefully." + +"My dear Sidsall," Rhoda Ammidon cut in; "we can't have this. What Roger +has to say must be for me and your father." The girl smiled at her and +turned again to Roger Brevard. "Do you want me to go?" + +"No!" he cried, all his planning lost in uncontrollable rebellion. + +"Then I don't think I shall." + +William entered and stood at his wife's shoulder. "You won't insist," +Sidsall faced them quietly. "Ridiculous," her father replied. Brevard +realized that he must support the girl's bravery of spirit. How +adorable she was! But, before the overwhelming superior position of the +elder Ammidons, their weight of propriety and authority, his +determination wavered. + +"To be quite frank," the other man proceeded, "since it has been forced +on us, Sidsall imagines herself in love with you, Brevard. I don't need +to remind you how unsuitable and preposterous that is. She's too young to +know the meaning of love. Besides, my dear fellow, you're a quarter +century her elder. We want Sidsall to go to London like her mother, have +her cotillions, before she settles into marriage." + +"They can't understand, Roger," Sidsall touched his hand. "We're sorry to +disappoint them--" + +"You ought to be made to leave the room," William fumed. + +"That isn't necessary," Rhoda told him. "I am sure Roger understands +perfectly how impossible it is. You mustn't be hurt," she turned to him, +"if I admit that we have very different plans... at least a man nearer +Sidsall's age." + +The girl lifted a confident face to him. "You want to marry me, don't +you?" she asked. More than any other conceivable joy. But he said this +silently. His courage slowly ebbed before the parental displeasure +viewing him coldly. "Then--" Sidsall paused expectantly, a touch of +impatience even invaded her manner. "Please tell them, Roger." + +"Why I have to put up with this is beyond me," William Ammidon +expostulated with his wife. "It's shameless." + +Roger Brevard winced. He tried to say something about hope and the +future, but it was so weak, a palpable retreat, leaving Sidsall alone and +unsupported, that the words perished unfinished. The girl studied him, +suddenly startled, and her confidence ebbed. He turned away, crushed by +convention, filled with shame and a sense of self-betrayal. + +A stillness followed of unendurable length, in which he found his +attention resting on the diversified shapes of the East India money in a +corner cabinet. It was Sidsall who finally spoke, slowly and clearly: + +"Forgive me." + +He recognized that she was addressing her mother and father. From a +whisper of skirts he realized that she was leaving the room. Without the +will necessary for a last glimpse he stood with his head bowed by an +appalling sensation of weariness and years. + +In a flash of self-comprehension, Roger Brevard knew that he would never, +as he had hoped, leave Salem. He was an abstemious man, one of a family +of long lives, and he would linger here, increasingly unimportant, for a +great while, an old man in new epochs, isolated among strange people and +prejudices. Whatever the cause--the small safety or an inward flaw--he +had never been part of the corporate sweating humanity where, in the war +of spirit and flesh, the vital rewards and accomplishments were found. + +Soon after he passed Gerrit and Nettie Vollar driving in the direction of +the harbor; she was lying back wanly in the Ammidon barouche, but her +companion's face was set directly ahead, his expression of general +disdain strongly marked. A vigorous hand, Roger noted, was clasped about +Nettie's supine palm. She saw him standing on the sidewalk and bowed +slightly, but the shipmaster plainly overlooked him together with the +rest of Salem. + +The end of summer was imminent in a whirl of yellow leaves and chill gray +wind. There was a ringing of bugles through the morning, the strains of +military quicksteps, rhythmic tramping feet and the irregular fulmination +of salutes. That it was already the day of the annual Fall Review seemed +incredible to Roger Brevard. He was indifferent to the activities of the +Common; but when he heard that the _Nautilus_ was sailing in the middle +of the afternoon he left his inconsequential affairs for Phillips' Wharf. + +A small number were waiting on the solid rock-filled reach, the +wharfinger's office at its head and a stone warehouse blocking the end, +where the _Nautilus_ lay with her high-steeved bowsprit pointing outward. +The harbor was slaty, cold, and there was a continuous slapping of small +waves on the shore. Darkening clouds hung low in the west, out of which +the wind cut in flaws across the open. The town, so lately folded in lush +greenery, showed a dun lift of roofs and stripping branches tossing +against an ashy sky. + +Close beside Roger stood Barzil Dunsack, his beard blowing, with Kate +Vollar in a bright red shawl, her skirts whipping uneasily against her +father's legs. Beyond were the Ammidons--William, and Rhoda in a deep +furred wrap, and their daughters. Rhoda waved for him to join them, but +he declined with a gesture of acknowledgment. + +The deck of the _Nautilus_ was above his vision but he could see most of +the stir of departure. The peremptory voice of the mate rose from the +bow, minor directions were issued by the second mate aft, a seaman was +aloft on the main-royal yard and another stood at the stage rising +sharply from the wharf. Gerrit and his wife had not yet arrived, and the +pilot, making a leisurely appearance, stopped to exchange remarks with +the Ammidons. He climbed on board the ship and Roger could see his head +and shoulders moving toward the poop and mounting the ladder. + +The wind grew higher, shriller, every moment; it was thrashing among the +stays and braces; the man aloft, a small movement against the clouds, +swayed in its force. There was a faint clatter of hoofs from Derby +Street, Brevard had a fleeting glimpse of an arriving carriage, and +Gerrit, supporting Nettie Ammidon, advanced over the wharf. The +shipmaster walked slowly, the woman clinging, almost dragging, at his +erect strength. They went close by Roger: Nettie's pale face, her large +shining dark eyes, were filled with placid surrender. Her companion spoke +in a low grave tone, and she looked up at him in a tired and happy +acquiescence. + +The two families joined, and there was a confused determined gayety of +farewell and good wishes. Out of it finally emerged the captain of the +_Nautilus_ and the slight figure upon his arm. He wore a beaver hat, and, +as they mounted the stage, he was forced to hold it on with his free +hand. When the quarter-deck was reached they disappeared into the cabin. + +"Mr. Broadrick," the pilot called, "you can get in those bow fasts. Send +a hawser to the end of the wharf; I'm going to warp out." There was a +harsh answering clatter as the mooring chain that held the bow of the +_Nautilus_ was secured, and a group of sailors went smartly forward with +a hemp cable to the end of the wharf's seaward thrust. The _Nautilus_ lay +on the eastern side, with the wind beating over the starboard quarter, +and there was little difficulty in getting under way. Strain was kept on +the stern and breast fasts while the mate directed: + +"Ship your capstan bars." + +The capstan turned and the _Nautilus_ moved forward to the beat of song. + +"Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +I thought I heard the old man say. +Low lands, low lands, hurrah, my John, +We'll get some rum ... +... Hurrah, my John. +Then shake her--" + +"Vast heaving," Mr. Broadrick shouted. + +The intimate spectators on Phillips' Wharf moved +out with the ship. Gerrit Ammidon was now visible on the quarter-deck +with the pilot. He walked to the port railing aft and stood gazing +somberly back at Salem. The stovepipe hat was not yet discarded, and the +hand firmly holding its brim resembled a final gesture of contempt. The +pilot approached him, there was a brief exchange of words, and the former +sharply ordered: + +"Stand by to run up your jib and fore-topmast staysail, Mr. Broadrick. +Put two good men at the sheets and see that those sails don't slat to +pieces. + +"On the wharf there--take that stern fast out to the last ringbolt. Mr. +Second Mate... get your fenders aboard." The wind increased in a violence +tipped with stinging rain. "Give her the jib and stay-sail." She heeled +slightly and gathered steerage way. Roger Brevard involuntarily waved a +parting salutation. An extraordinary emotion swept over him: a ship bound +to the East always stirred his imagination and sense of beauty, but the +departure of the _Nautilus_ had a special significance. It was the +beginning, yes, and the end, of almost the whole sweep of human suffering +and despair, of longing and hope and passion, and a reward. + +"Let go the stern fast. Steady your helm there." + +"Steady, sir." + +A mere gust of song was distinguishable against the blast of storm. Under +the lee of the stone warehouse, on the solidity of the wharf, the land, +Roger Brevard watched the _Nautilus_ while one by one the topsails were +sheeted home and the yards mastheaded. "A gale by night," somebody +said. The ship, driving with surprising speed toward the open sea, was +now apparently no more than a fragile shell on the immensity of the stark +horizon. + +The light faded: the days were growing shorter. Alone Brevard followed +the others moving away. Kate Vollar's red shawl suddenly streamed out and +was secured by a wasted hand. Just that way, he thought, the color and +vividness of his existence had been withdrawn. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Java Head, by Joseph Hergesheimer + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAVA HEAD *** + +This file should be named 8java10.txt or 8java10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8java11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8java10a.txt + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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