CHAPTER XIV
THE JOLLY SEND-OFF
The Mrs. Haney who came to Alice Heath's dinner at the Antlers was inoutward seeming an entirely different person from the constrained youngwife who stepped into Lee Congdon's home that night of her first dinner.She was gowned now in that severe good taste which betokens ahigh-priced "ladies' tailor" combined with very judicious criticism. Hercritic she had found in Miss Franklin, a young lady from the universitywho had passed easily and naturally from teaching history and etiquetteup to the higher function of advising as to the cut and color of gowns.Bertha's black velvet was this time a close-clasping sheath whichrevealed her slender figure, and delicately and modestly disclosed thegrowing grace of her bosom. She wore, too, some jewels of diamond andturquoise--not showy (her mentor had taken great pains to warn her ofall that). And she was not merely irreproachable, she was radiant, asshe slowly entered with the Captain, who, having submitted like a martyrto evening dress, was uneasy as a colt in harness, and more than usuallyuncertain of step.
Ben's eyes expanded with surprise and his heart warmed with pride as hegreeted her. "You are beautiful!" he exclaimed to her, and the tone ofhis exclamation as well as the words exalted her. Her brain filled witha mist of gold. She hardly felt the floor beneath her feet. To be calledbeautiful--and by him--had been outside the circle of her most daringhope, and the repetition of this word in her mind was like the clash ofmusical bells--entrancing her. Mechanically she took her place at hisright hand, silently, and with a far-away look, listening to the merryclamor of the table. She hardly knew what she ate or what any onesaid--except when Ben spoke to her. But she was aware of the Captaindown at Alice's right, and wondered vaguely how he was getting on withhis napkin and his fork.
The first words that really roused her and stopped the musing smile onher lips were spoken by Ben in a lower voice--half-laughing, but tenderalso. "You mustn't stay away too long. I'll feel as if I weren't earningmy salary while you're gone."
"I wish you were going too," she said. She had thought this many times,but had not permitted herself to utter it. "Why can't you--andAlice--come with us?"
"I can't afford it, for one thing. The Captain spoke of it, but it's outof the question."
"He'll pay you wages just the same."
"I wouldn't want pay. No, it isn't that; but Alice isn't able to go, andI can't think of going without her."
This was a good reason, and Bertha, looking towards Alice, saw in herface the pain which masks itself in color and movement. The dinner-tablewas exquisite and the company gay, and Bertha felt herself a part of thegreat world of dignity and beauty, where eating is made to seem agraceful art, and wine is only a bit of color and not a lure. Shevaguely comprehended that this little party was of a tone and quality ofthe best the world over--that it was of a part and interfused with thedining customs of London and Paris and New York. "It will be _au fait_,"Miss Franklin had said, sententiously, "for Alice Heath _knows_."
Mrs. Crego, who sat nearly opposite, stared at the girl in stupefaction."She makes me feel dowdy," she had confessed to Lee in thedressing-room. "Why didn't you warn me to come in my best? Who has beencoaching her? Alice Heath, I suppose." She now wondered as sharply overthe girl's manner; for Bertha, carried out of herself by Ben's word ofpraise, felt no desire to drink or to eat, and her reticence and thedelicacy of her appetite conferred a distinction which concealed herlack of small talk, and protected her from the criticism to whichexuberance of manner ordinarily exposed her.
She was deeply impressed, too, with Ben's management of the waiters, andwith the ease and skill with which he supported Alice in carryingforward the courses. It was a revelation of training which instructedher absurdly, for her mind was quick to link and compare. It leaped soswiftly and so subtilely along connecting lines of thought that a hintalone sufficed to set in motion a hundred latent memories and inheritedaptitudes. Her father had been a man of native refinement, and shepossessed unstirred deeps of character, as Alice now well understood.And from her end of the table she glanced often at the sweetly smilinggirl-wife whose beauty abashed Haney. At last she said to him: "Yourwife is very lovely to-night, Captain."
He hesitated a moment; then replied, slowly: "She is. She's as fine asanny queen!" Then after another pause, added: "And the more shame to me,being what I am! She's a good girl, miss, true as steel. Never a word ofcomplaint or a frown. She bears with me like an angel."
"You're doing a great deal for her."
His face lightened. "So she says. I mean to do more. I mean to show herthe world. That's the only comfort I have; my money is giving her niceclothes and a home as good as anny, and to-night I feel 'tis giving herfriends."
"But she is worth while, even without the money."
"True," he quickly said. "But I take comfort in the consideration thathad I not carried her away she'd be in Sibley Junction this night."
"Sibley Junction! Can this radiant young creature sitting there at thehead of my table be the clerk of the Golden Eagle Hotel?" thought Alice."Money is magical! No wonder we all work for it--and worship it!"
The dinner was both early and short, in order that Bertha and theCaptain might take the train at ten o'clock. And as they were to havethe drawing-room in the sleeping-car (Ben's suggestion), they wentdirectly to the coach in their party clothes. And so it happened thatthis little woman, who had never occupied a berth in a Pullman, enteredher compartment in the robes of a princess.
Alice had suggested a maid, but Bertha would not hear to that; but shewas willing that their coachman should go along to help the Captain. Benhad interposed here, and said: "You need some one used to travelling. Iknow a colored fellow who is out of service just now, and would like tocome to you. He's a good, reliable man, and a fine nurse." So she hadengaged him. He was on the platform as they drove up--a slight, quietman, of gentle speech and indeterminable age, who took charge of theCaptain at once, as if he had been his servant for years.
Alice said good-bye at the carriage door, but Ben went with them intothe coach. And in the excitement of getting to the train and into thecar Bertha had been able to forget the sick feeling about her heart. Butnow, as he turned and said, "It's nearly time to start," and held outhis hand in parting, a desolation, a loneliness, a helpless hunger sweptover her, the like of which had never anguished her before.
"I wish you were going too!" she faltered, her speech broken and full ofsad cadences.
He, too, was tense with emotion as he answered: "I wish I were, but Ican't--I must not!" Then, with the gesture of a brother, he bent andkissed her and turned away, blind to everything else but his pain, and,so stumbling and shaken, vanished from her sight.
For a moment she remained standing in the aisle, the touch of his lipsstill clinging to her cheek, surprised, full of bewildered defence;then, as reckless of on-lookers as he had been, she rushed to the windowin swift attempt to catch a final glimpse of him. But in vain; he hadhurried away without looking back, her look of wonder and surprise stilldazzling him with its significance. A kiss with him, as with her, hadnever been a thing lightly given or received, and this caress, so simpleto others, sprang from an impulse that was elemental. That he had bothshocked and angered her he fully believed; but the arch of her brows,the wistful curve of her lips, and the pretty, almost childish, push ofher hands against his breast were still so appealingly vivid that heentered the carriage and took his seat beside Alice with a kind ofrebellious joy hot in his blood.
However, as his passion ebbed his uneasiness deepened, and he went tohis room that night with a feeling that his connection with the Haneys,so profitable and so pleasant, was in danger of being irremediablybroken off. "She will be justified in refusing ever to see me again," hegroaned. And in this spirit of self-condemnation and loneliness he tookup his work next day.
Bertha's self-revelation was slower. She was so young and so innatelyhonest and good that no sense of guilt attached to the pleasure she feltin the sudden revelation that this splendid young man
loved her--apleasure which grew as the first shock of the parting, the pain, and thesurprise wore away. "He likes me! He said I was beautiful! He kissedme!" These were the rounds in the ladder of her ascent, and she wascarried high, only to fall into despair. For was she not leaving him andall the pleasant people she had come so recently to know--hurrying awayinto darkness with a crippled man, old before his time, out into a worldof which she knew little--for which, at this moment, she cared nothing?
She went back, a few moments later, with this sorrow written on herface, to find Lucius, the colored man, deftly preparing the Captain forbed. The old borderer looked up with a smile, in which shame and sadnessmingled. "Well, Bertie, I didn't think I'd come to this--me, that couldonce sit in me saddle and pick a dollar out o' the dust. But so it is."
"I'll take care of you!" she cried, in swift contrition. Turning almostfiercely to the valet, she said: "You can go, I'll 'tend to him!"
The Captain stopped her gently. "No, darlin', Ben's right; I'm tooclumsy and heavy for you. I need just such a handy man. Now, now! Letbe!... Go ahead, Lucius, strip off these monkey-fixens, and dom the manthat gets me into them again."
Efficient as she was, the girl could not but admit that Lucius wasbetter able to serve her husband than herself. He was both deft andstrong; and though the swaying of the car troubled his master, hesteadied him and guided him and stowed him away as featly as if it werethe fiftieth instead of the first time; then, with a few words ofexplanation to the wife, he quietly withdrew, and shut the door with afinal touch of considerate care which was new to her.
She would have been less troubled by him had he been a black man, but hewas not. He seemed more like a Spaniard, and his grizzled mustache,yellowish skin, and big dreamy black eyes lent him a curiousdistinction, and the thought that he was to take her place as crutch andcane to the Captain gave her a sense of uselessness which she had not,up to this moment, confessed.
His suggestions, combined to the minute instructions of Miss Franklin,enabled her to get to her bunk in fair order, but no sleep came to herfor hours. She longed for her mother more childishly than at any timesince her marriage. She reproached herself for not bringing MissFranklin. "Why did I come at all?" she wailed, in final accusation.
There had been a time when the thought of this trip--of Chicago, NewYork, and Washington--was big in her mind, but it was so no longer.These great cities were but names--empty sounds compared to therealities she was leaving: her splendid house, her horses and dogs--andher daily joy in Ben Fordyce. She did not put these visits in theirhighest place, not even when remembering his parting kiss, but she dweltupon the inspiriting morning drives, the talks in the mellow-tinted,sunshine-lighted office. She recalled the lunches they took together andthe occasional wild gallops up the canon--these she treasured as thegolden realities, for the loss of which she was even now heart-sick.
One thought alone steadied her--gave her a kind of resignation: theCaptain wanted to find his sisters, to revisit the scenes of his youth,and it was her duty to go with him. And in this somewhat dreary comfortshe fell asleep at last.
She was awakened next morning by a pleasant voice saying: "The firstcall for breakfast has been made, Mrs. Haney." And she looked up to findLucius peering in at the door with serious, kindly eyes. He added,formally: "If I can assist you in any way call me, and please let meknow when you are ready to have me come in."
His speech was so precise and his manner so perfect that Bertha waspuzzled and a little embarrassed by them. It seemed abnormal to have ahired servant so polished, so thoughtful. She dressed hurriedly, whilethe Captain yawned and talked between his yawning. "That yellow chap issure handy. I wish I'd had him before; 'twould have saved you a power o'work and worry. Did ye sleep last night?"
"Not very well. I hope you did. You can't complain of the bunk."
"'Tis luxurious--'tis so! But there's nothing like the west side ofColorado Avenue, after all, or a bed of pine boughs beside a roaringmountain stream. 'Twas a fine little supper Ben gave us last night."
The level lands awed and depressed the mountain girl. They seemed totype the flat and desolate spiritual world into which she was entering,and the ride seemed interminable, carrying her every hour farther fromthe scenes and sounds to which her love clung. She was bitterlyhomesick, and nothing seemed to promise comfort. She gazed withlack-lustre eyes on the towns and rivers along the way, and she enteredthe great inland metropolis by the lake with dread and a deepening senseof her inexperience and youth.
On the neighboring track stood the return sleepers headed for the hills,and she acknowledged a wild desire to take her place among the jocundfolk who stood on the observation-platform exchanging good-byes withfriends. Thunderous, smothering, and vast the city seemed as they drovethrough it on their way to the hotel, and upon reaching her room sheflung herself down on her bed and sobbed in a frenzy of homesickness.
Haney, who had never before perceived a tear on her face, was startled,and stood in puzzled pain looking down at her, while the tactful Luciuswent about the unpacking of the trunks, confident that the shower wouldsoon be over.
"What's the ail of it?" asked the Captain. "Tell me, darlin'. Are yesick?"
She shook her head from side to side, like a suffering and weary child,and made no further answer.
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