Barbara Ladd

by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts

  CHAPTER XV.

  Mistress Mehitable liked Robert, whose bearing and breeding were in allways much to her taste. She had seen him when a babe in arms, justbefore his father and mother had taken him away from Gault House to NewYork. So gracious was she, that Robert was filled with wonder as hethought of the piteous story which Barbara had told him in the canoe.But this wonder was as nothing, compared to the amazement with which heviewed the warm affection between Barbara and her aunt. What could itall mean? It was plain that they two understood each other, trustedeach other, admired each other, loved each other. He had an uneasyfeeling that Barbara had made a fool of him. Then, as his dignity wasbeginning to feel ruffled, and his grave young face to darken, he wouldremember other details of that eventful afternoon which forbade him toquestion the girl's sincerity. At this the cloud would lift. Therewas a mystery behind it all, of course, which he would doubtless, inhis determined fashion, succeed in penetrating. Meanwhile, every oneseemed extremely happy,--Barbara gaily, whimsically gracious, MistressMehitable composedly glad, Doctor Jim as boisterous in his joy as goodmanners would permit, Doctor John quizzically approving, and filledwith mellow mirth. Robert was made to feel himself an honoured guest,for his own sake as well as for the sake of his parents; and in thiscordial atmosphere he soon justified all good opinions. Barbara wasintensely gratified with him. She audaciously claimed credit forhaving discovered him, and rescued him from the barbaric wildernessthat lay beyond Second Westings. She began to plan expeditions andamusements to make his visit memorable; and when he announced hisintention of returning to Gault House on the morrow, there was aunanimous protest. Mistress Mehitable said it was not to be heard of,for one moment. Doctor Jim growled that his hospitality was not to beflouted in any such fashion. Doctor John levelled bushy eyebrows athim, and suggested that no true Gault would run away in the hour oftriumph.

  "You will do nothing of the kind, Robert," decreed Barbara, withfinality. "We want you here. I wonder you are not ashamed, after allthe trouble you made for us so lately, when you were old enough and bigenough to know better!"

  Robert's face flushed with pleasure at all this warmth; and he hugelywanted to stay. But with astonishing discretion he refused to bepersuaded. Some intuition taught him the wisdom of timely reserve.Without at all formulating any theory on the subject, which would havebeen impossible to such inexperience as his, he felt instinctively thatat this moment, when she was most gracious to him, a judicious absencewould best fix him in Barbara's interest. He said there were mattersto be attended to for his grandmother which would not well bear delay.At this unexpected firmness on the part of her cavalier, Barbara was soannoyed that for nearly an hour she seemed to forget his existence; butRobert hid his discomfort under an easy cheerfulness, and no one elseseemed to notice the passing shadow. Mistress Mehitable insisted thatthe guests should stay to sup with her and Barbara; and the boy'scoming was made a little festival. Mistress Mehitable was one of thosenotable housekeepers who seem to accomplish great things with littleeffort by being craftily forehanded. Before anything was said ofsupper she had vanished for a few minutes to the kitchen; and in thosefew minutes she had planned with Abby for a repast worthy the event.The larder of the Ladd homestead was kept victualled beyond peril ofany surprise; and Mistress Mehitable, for all her ethereal mould andmien, believed in the efficacy of good eating and good drinking. Wellregulated lives, she held, should also be well nourished, and herPuritan conscience was not illiberal in regard to the seemly pleasuresof the board.

  Both Doctor John and Doctor Jim, as befitted their stature, werevaliant trenchermen; and Robert was a boy; and the lavish delicacies ofAbby's serving met with that reception which was the best tribute totheir worth. Gaiety made herself handmaid to appetite; and the ale wasnutty-mellow from last October; and Mistress Mehitable's old Madeirawine, of which herself partook but sparingly, was fiery-pungent on thetongue. As she toasted him, and her blue eyes sparkled upon him overthe glass, Robert wondered anew how Barbara could have wanted to runaway from so admirable an aunt. As for Barbara, reduced for a littleto silence by supreme content, she sipped at her Angelica cordial,surveyed Mistress Mehitable with grateful ardour, and took it all aslargess to herself.

  At last, with a happy sigh, she cried, "Oh, if only Uncle Bob couldhave come in time for this!" And so electric with sympathy was the airthat on the word every eye turned and glanced at the door, as ifexpecting that a wish so well-timed might bring fruition on theinstant. There was silence for some seconds.

  Then Mistress Mehitable said, "He will be here in a very few days,dear! And then you, Robert, must come to us again without delay. Iagree with Barbara that nothing I can think of except Mr. Glenowen'spresence could add to our happiness to-night!"

  After supper there was music in the candle-lit drawing-room, MistressMehitable having a rare gift for the harpsichord, and Doctor Jim a niceart in the rendering of certain old English ballads of the robustersort. Where they might have seemed to the ladies' ears a trifle morerobust than nice, Doctor Jim had fined them down to a fitting delicacy.But they suited his rolling bass, and he loved them because, beingCavalier-born, they appealed to his king-loving sympathies. Doctor Jimwas an exemplary Congregationalist, but solely by force of environment,Congregationalism being the creed of all the gentry of that region.Episcopalianism he looked upon with a distrust mingled with affection;but in all other respects he was a king's man, through and through, anaristocrat, and a good-natured scorner of the masses. It was astupendous triumph for accident and atmosphere to have succeeded infitting Doctor Jim to his inherited environment of Second Westings.His Congregationalism was a thing that might conceivably be changed tomeet changed conditions; while his Toryism was bred in the bone. WithMistress Mehitable, on the other hand, her Congregationalism wasdeep-rooted, a matter of conscience. It was by conscience, too, noless than by blood, that she was an aristocrat. She was a royalist, aTory, no less unquestioning than Doctor Jim, but this by a chanceelection of that strenuous conscience which, by a different chancetwist, would have made her an equally sincere Whig.

  When Doctor Jim had sung till Doctor John told him he was gettinghoarse and spoiling his voice, Barbara, in a burst of daring, startedup a wild plantation song, patting her accompaniment. To MistressMehitable, as to Robert, this was an undreamed novelty, and their eyesopened wide in wonder. At first they thought it barbarous, but in afew minutes the piquing rhythms and irresponsible cadences caught them,and they listened in rapture. Barbara's store of these songs was arich one, and she had perfected the rendering in many a secretperformance to the audience of Doctor John and Doctor Jim. When shewas quite sure of the effect she was producing, she sprang to her feet,flung her hair loose by a quick movement of both hands, and began todance as she sang. And now, to the ever-growing amazement of MistressMehitable, Doctor Jim took up the patting, while Doctor John, seatinghimself at the harpsichord, began a strange staccato picking of thekeys. Then Barbara stopped singing, and gave herself up wholly to thedance. She danced with arms and hands and head and feet, and everyslender curve of her young body. She moved like flames. Her eyes andlips and teeth were a radiance through the live, streaming darknessesof her hair. Light, swift, unerring, ecstatic, it was like the mostimpassioned of bird-songs translated into terms of pure motion. DoctorJohn played faster and faster his wild, monotonous melody. Doctor Jimpatted harder and harder. Barbara's dance grew madder and stranger,till at last, with a little breathless cry that was half a sob, shestopped, darted across the room, flung herself down, and buried herdishevelled head in Mistress Mehitable's lap.

  On ordinary occasions Mistress Mehitable would have felt inclined tohold that anything so extraordinary, so utterly outside the range ofall conceptions, and at the same time so very beautiful, must be wrong.Now, however, she was under the spell of Barbara and under the spell ofthe whole situation. "I cannot see any possible harm in it!" she saidto herself. And to Barbara she said, tenderly and deftly arrang
ing thedisordered locks:

  "Most beautiful, and most singular, dear. I suppose that is your_dance_ of 'Maryland Memories,' is it not? It seems to me not onlyamazingly beautiful, but as if it might be the most wholesome anddesirable of exercises."

  Barbara gurgled a gasping laugh from the depths of Mistress Mehitable'staffeta. It had never occurred to her that these mad negro dances, inwhich she found expression for so much in herself which she did notunderstand, could be regarded in the light of exercise. But she wasglad indeed if they could be so regarded by Aunt Hitty.

  "Oh, yes, honey," she agreed, in haste. "I'm _sure_ it's wholesome;and I _know_ it's _desirable_,--isn't it?"

  This appeal was to every one, but it was Robert, at last awaking fromhis rapture and finding breath, who answered:

  "There was never anything else so wonderful in all the world," he said,solemnly.

  Doctor John and Doctor Jim, with one impulse, jumped up, each seizedone of Barbara's hands, and plucked her to her feet. They then stoodhand in hand in a row before Mistress Mehitable and Robert, bowingtheir thanks for such appreciation of their poor efforts to please.

  "We are going to London to perform before the king!" declared DoctorJim.

  Mistress Mehitable gravely took a shilling from her purse, and bestowedit upon Doctor John because he was the tallest. He pretended to spiton it, for luck, but kissed it instead, and slipped it into the bosomof his ruffled shirt. When the approving laughter had subsided,Mistress Mehitable said, musingly:

  "I see now how you have been teaching Barbara her Latin. It was thatpeculiar dialect of Latin that prevails in Maryland!"

  After this a sack posset was mixed by Mistress Mehitable, with theeager assistance of every one but Robert, who was still too muchpossessed by Barbara's dancing to do more than stand about and get inthe way, and smile a gravely fatuous smile whenever spoken to.

  When the posset began to go around, calling forth encomiums at everysip, Doctor Jim demanded the cards. There was silence. To Robert,just from the Tory circles of New York, it seemed the most naturalthing in the world. To Barbara it seemed natural, but foreign toMistress Mehitable and Second Westings. To Doctor John it seemed rightand desirable, but he chuckled and said nothing, being aware ofMistress Mehitable's views. And this time Mistress Mehitable was firm.

  "No, Jim," said she, "we won't play. I know good people doplay,--people who know just as well as I do what is right and what iswrong. But for some reason card-playing does not seem right to me.You know Doctor Sawyer would strongly disapprove!"

  "Officially, that's all, dear lady!" corrected Doctor John.

  "But you have them in the house,--yonder in that very drawer, mostgracious mistress!" persisted Doctor Jim.

  "My dear father used them," confessed Mistress Mehitable. "Therefore Iwould not for a moment think of refusing to have them in my house. ButI think it is better not to play, Jim."

  And though Mistress Mehitable spoke with appeal and apology rather thanwith decision, the matter was plainly settled. There was nothing to dobut tell riddles and drink up the rest of the posset. The pervadingsatisfaction was in no way checked by Doctor Jim's failure, for allagreed that cards were stupid anyway. Barbara, in spite of herexcitement, and to her intense self-disgust, began to grow sleepy. Shewas horribly afraid she might show it, which, for one but forty-eighthours grown-up, would have been humiliating beyond words. She feltherself divided between a fear lest so perfect an evening should endtoo soon, and an equally harassing fear lest it should end not soonenough. At length the keen and loving eyes of Doctor John discernedher trouble; and at the dissolute hour of half-past ten he broke up theparty. Adieux were made with a warmth, an abandon of homage held infetters of elaborate courtliness, which might have seemed excessive ata less propitious conjunction of time and sentiment. At last thethree, Doctor John, Doctor Jim, and Robert, found themselves arm-in-armon the street, and all talking at once, overbrimming with happiness andreciprocal congratulations, as they took their discreet way homeward.

  Barbara and Mistress Mehitable, left alone, silently put out thelights. Then, each lighting her candle, they paused at the head of thestairs to say good night. Each set down her candle on the littlemahogany table under the clock, and looked into the other's eyes.Barbara was first to break the sweet but too searching scrutiny. Sheflung both arms around Mistress Mehitable's neck, and kissed her with atremulous fervour that told much. Mistress Mehitable, whose eyes werebrighter than Barbara had ever guessed that they could be, pressed herin a close embrace which concealed much, even from Mistress Mehitableherself. Then Barbara, after whispering something to the kittens, wentstraight to bed, and straight to sleep. But Mistress Mehitable satlooking out of her window.