CHAPTER XLVI. GORDON'S PRIDE
The years of a man's life that count the most are often those which maybe passed quickest in the story of it. And so I may hurry over the firstyears I spent as Mr. Swain's factor at Gordon's Pride. The task thatcame to my hand was heaven-sent.
That manor-house, I am sure, was the tidiest in all Maryland, thanks toPatty's New England blood. She was astir with the birds of a morning,and near the last to retire at night, and happy as the days were long.She was ever up to her elbows in some dish, and her butter and herbiscuits were the best in the province. Little she cared to worksamplers, or peacocks in pretty wools, tho' in some way she foundthe time to learn the spinet. As the troubles with the mother countrythickened, she took to a foot-wheel, and often in the crisp autumnevenings I would hear the bumping of it as I walked to the house, andturn the knob to come upon her spinning by the twilight. She would haveno English-made linen in that household. "If mine scratch your back,Richard," she would say, "you must grin and bear, and console yourselfwith your virtue." It was I saw to the flax, and learned from IvieRawlinson (who had come to us from Carvel Hall) the best manner toripple and break and swingle it. And Mr. Swain, in imitation of thehigh example set by Mr. Bordley, had buildings put up for wheels and thelooms, and in due time kept his own sheep.
If man or woman, white or black, fell sick on the place, it was Pattyherself who tended them. She knew the virtue of every herb in the bigchest in the storeroom. And at table she presided over her father'sguests with a womanliness that won her more admiration than mine. Nowthat the barrister was become a man of weight, the house was as crowdedas ever was Carvel Hall. Carrolls and Pacas and Dulanys and Johnsons,and Lloyds and Bordleys and Brices and Scotts and Jennings and Ridouts,and Colonel Sharpe, who remained in the province, and many more familiesof prominence which I have not space to mention, all came to Gordon'sPride. Some of these, as their names proclaim, were of the King's side;but the bulk of Mr. Swain's company were stanch patriots, and toastedMiss Patty instead of his Majesty. By this I do not mean that theylacked loyalty, for it is a matter of note that our colony loved KingGeorge.
I must not omit from the list above the name of my good friend, CaptainClapsaddle.
Nor was there lack of younger company. Betty Tayloe, who plied mewith questions concerning Dorothy and London, but especially about thedashing and handsome Lord Comyn; and the Dulany girls, and I know nothow many others. Will Fotheringay, when he was home from college, andArchie Brice, and Francis Willard (whose father was now in the Assembly)and half a dozen more to court Patty, who would not so much as look atthem. And when I twitted her with this she would redden and reply: "Iwas created for a housewife, sir, and not to make eyes from behind afan." Indeed, she was at her prettiest and best in the dimity frock,with the sleeves rolled up.
'Twas a very merry place, the manor of Gordon's Pride. A generous bowlof punch always stood in the cool hall, through which the south windsswept from off the water, and fruit and sangaree and lemonade were onthe table there. The manor had no ball-room, but the negro fiddlersplayed in the big parlour. And the young folks danced till supper time.In three months Patty's suppers grew famous in a colony where there wasno lack of good cooks.
The sweet-natured invalid enjoyed these festivities in her quiet way,and often pressed me to partake. So did Patty beg me, and Mr. Swain.Perhaps a false sense of pride restrained me, but my duties held me allday in the field, and often into the night when there was curing to bedone, or some other matters of necessity. And for the rest, I thought Idetected a change in the tone of Mr. Fotheringay, and some others, tho'it may have been due to sensibility on my part. I would put up with nopatronage.
There was no change of tone, at least, with the elder gentlemen. Theyplainly showed me an added respect. And so I fell into the habit, aftermy work was over, of joining them in their suppers rather than the sonsand daughters. There I was made right welcome. The serious conversationspiced with the wit of trained barristers and men of affairs bettersuited my changed condition of life. The times were sober, and for thosewho could see, a black cloud was on each horizon. 'Twas only a matterof months when the thunder-clap was to come-indeed, enough was going onwithin our own province to forebode a revolution. The Assembly to whichmany of these gentlemen belonged was in a righteous state of oppositionto the Proprietary and the Council concerning the emoluments of colonialofficers and of clergymen. Honest Governor Eden had the misfortune tosee the justice of our side, and was driven into a seventh state by hisattempts to square his conscience. Bitter controversies were wagingin the Gazette, and names were called and duels fought weekly. Forour cause "The First Citizen" led the van, and the able arguments andmoderate language of his letters soon identified him as Mr. CharlesCarroll of Carrollton, one of the greatest men Maryland has ever known.But even at Mr. Swain's, amongst his few intimate friends, Mr. Carrollcould never be got to admit his 'nom de guerre' until long after'Antilon' had been beaten.
I write it with pride, that at these suppers I was sometimes asked tospeak; and, having been but lately to England, to give my opinion uponthe state of affairs there. Mr. Carroll honoured me upon two occasionswith his confidence, and I was made clerk to a little club they had, andkept the minutes in my own hand.
I went about in homespun, which, if good enough for Mr. Bordley, wasgood enough for me. I rode with him over the estate. This gentlemanwas the most accomplished and scientific farmer we had in the province.Having inherited his plantation on Wye Island, near Carvel Hall, heresigned his duties as judge, and a lucrative practice, to turn all hisenergies to the cultivation of the soil. His wheat was as eagerly soughtafter as was Colonel Washington's tobacco.
It was to Mr. Bordley's counsel that the greater part of my successwas due. He taught me the folly of ploughing with a fluke,--a custom towhich the Eastern Shore was wedded, pointing out that a double surfacewas thus exposed to the sun's rays; and explained at length why therewas more profit in small grain in that district than heavy tobacco. Hegave me Dr. Eliot's "Essays on Field Husbandry," and Mill's "Husby,"which I read from cover to cover. And I went from time to time to visithim at Wye Island, when he would canter with me over that magnificentplantation, and show me with pride the finished outcome of hisexperiments.
Mr. Swain's affairs kept him in town the greater part of the twelvemonths, and Mrs. Swain and Patty moved to Annapolis in the autumn. Butfor three years I was at Cordon's Pride winter and summer alike. Atthe end of that time I was fortunate enough to show my employer suchsubstantial results as to earn his commendation--ay, and his confidence,which was the highest token of that man's esteem. The moneys of theestate he left entirely at my order. And in the spring of '73, when theopportunity was suddenly offered to buy a thousand acres of excellentwheat land adjoining, I made the purchase for him while he was atWilliamsburg, and upon my own responsibility.
This connected the plantation on the east with Singleton's. It had beenmy secret hope that the two estates might one day be joined in marriage.For of all those who came a-courting Patty, Percy was by far the best.He was but a diffident suitor; he would sit with me on the lawn eveningafter evening, when company was there, while Fotheringay and FrancisWillard made their compliments within,--silly flatteries, at which Pattylaughed.
Percy kept his hounds, and many a run we had together' in the sparklingdays that followed the busy summer, when the crops were safe in thebottoms; or a quiet pipe and bottle in his bachelor's hall, after asoaking on the duck points.
And this brings me to a subject on which I am loth to write. Where Mr.Singleton was concerned, Patty, the kindest of creatures, was crueltyitself. Once, when I had the effrontery to venture a word in his behalf,I had been silenced so effectively as to make my ears tingle. A thousandlittle signs led me to a conclusion which pained me more than I canexpress. Heaven is my witness that no baser feeling leads me to hint ofit here. Every day while the garden lasted flowers were in my room, andit was Banks who told me that she would allow no other hands than hero
wn to place them by my bed. He got a round rating from me for violatingthe pledge of secrecy he had given her. It was Patty who made my shirts,and on Christmas knitted me something of comfort; who stood on thehorse-block in the early morning waving after me as I rode away, and atmy coming her eyes would kindle with a light not to be mistaken.
None of these things were lost upon Percy Singleton, and I oftenwondered why he did not hate me. He was of the kind that never shows ahurt. Force of habit still sent him to Gordon's Pride, but for days hewould have nothing to say to the mistress of it, or she to him.
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