Pippin; A Wandering Flame
Page 23
CHAPTER XXIII
THE CHAPLAIN SPEAKS HIS MIND
When it was over; when the spirit--gladly, one must think, with never abackward glance--left the broken shell on the pillow and went its way,there came to Old Man Blossom his hour of dignity and importance. Thisshell, after all, was what had borne his name, spoken with his voice,thought such thoughts as were his. Washed and combed, dressed in cleanwhite clothes that smelt of lavender, covered with spotless drapery thathung in as comely laps and folds as for any bishop at St. Praxed's, theold man lay in state, and Cyrus Poor Farm, individually andcollectively, came to do him honor, and to pronounce him a "beautifulremains." By and by this was over, too, and Mary sat alone in the littleroom, her capable hands folded in her lap, with a strange, numb feelingthat was part thankfulness, part relief, and all desolation.
To her, thus sitting, appeared Pippin in the doorway, the little Italianboy clinging to his hand. The child (his name was Peppino, a diminutiveof Giuseppe, but Pippin thought it was Pippino and another finger postin the path of his "leading") would hardly leave his adopted daddy foran instant. Through the funeral service he had clung to his knees; andwhen Pippin sang "Abide with me" (sang it like a surrup, Miss Whetstonesaid; she like to bawled right out), the child's eyes glowed with thedelight of a Latin, and he murmured an unconscious alto.
"Miss Mary--" Pippin spoke timidly; "I thought maybe--won't you comeoutdoors a spell? It's a nice day!"
Mary looked up with cold sweet eyes. "No, thank you!" she said. "I amtired."
"Is that so? Well, of course you are, all you've ben through. Would youlike me to bring Pippino in to set with you? He'd admire to, wouldn'tyou, Pippino?"
Mary's white brow contracted. "You must excuse me!" she said. "My headaches. I don't feel like seeing company."
And her arms were aching for the child! She wanted to hold him close,close, to fret him with sallies of her kisses, to twine his curls roundher finger. From the tail of her eye she absorbed his beauty, theroundness of his cheek, the deliciousness of his chin, the dark starsthat were his eyes. But she set her lips, and turned away toward thewindow, and Pippin, with a murmured, "Come, kiddo! Best we go along!"went his sad way out into the sunshine.
Instinctively he turned his steps toward the barn, and there thechaplain found him soon after. He was sitting on the upturned bucket,leaning listlessly against the door jamb. Peppino was playing beside himwith a box of red and white beans, very wonderful. Now and then he heldup a handful of the pretty things with a gleeful shout; and Pippin wouldnod and smile and say, "Some beans, kiddo! They sure are!" His whole airand attitude were so wholly unlike himself that Mr. Hadley saidinvoluntarily,
"What's the matter, Pippin?"
Pippin rose and bowed, with the ghost of his own smile.
"That you, Elder? Well, now! That was a nice funeral, wasn't it? Hecouldn't ask for no nicer, not if he was the President!" He spoke withobvious effort; his eyes, meeting the chaplain's keen glance, dropped.
"What's the matter?" repeated Hadley.
Pippin sat down again, the other beside him. There was a pause; then--
"I've lost my grip!" he said heavily. Hadley waited. The father in him,the son in Pippin, must meet in silence, if they were to meet at all.
Presently the words came in a rush. "I've lost my grip; things has gotaway from me. I don't know what I done--" his eyes, dark with pain andtrouble, roved hither and thither, as if seeking enlightenment--"but Idone something I hadn't ought to. She has no use for me any more!"
Still Hadley waited. The voice rose into a cry. "I thought," Pippinmourned, "I thought when she come to see her Pa, and--and knew how hesent me, and I looked for her--looked for her--I thought she'd feeldifferent, but she doesn't, sir; no, she doesn't. She never give me onelook to-day, just passed me by same as if I was a chair, or like that.And--just now--I see her sittin' all alone there, and I thought--Itried--but 'twas no good. I don't cut no ice with her, that's all thereis to it. I don't know what I'll do, Elder; I don't--know--what I'll do!Nor that ain't all! I've lost my folks!"
"What do you mean, Pippin?"
"My folks: my movie folks, that I made up like I told you: Pa and Ma,and the rest. They've gone back on me, Elder."
"Tell me!"
The kind hand on his shoulder, Pippin poured out his tale; how since hefirst saw Mary things had begun to change, little by little, sogradually that it was a long time before he realized it. Then it cameover him, suddenly, that all was not right, that the beloved figureswere less clear, less sharply defined than they had been.
"They'll come when I speak to 'em, yes, and they'll answer, but it'slike I had to make up what I want 'em to say, 'stead of them wantin' tosay it themselves. I know--Elder, I expect you'll think I'm wantin' inmy mind, but--I _know_ they wa'n't real folks, but yet they was real tome. They acted so live, and so good and lovin' and all--why,Ma--why--what'll I do without Ma?" He broke off and stared into vacancy."I see her now, but she's different: more like a shadow, and when I lookat her, she changes into--you know what she changes into, Elder?"
"Yes, Pippin, I think I do!"
"She changes into Mary!" Pippin sprang up, and paced the barn with eagersteps, throwing up his chin at every turn. "And Pa similar. And thelittle gal--but I never see her so plain, some ways, I never--what Imean--she always appeared like she was some person else, and now I knowit was little May, little May Blossom!" He choked. The child, droppinghis beans, came and pulled at him with eager hands.
"Daddi Pippin, what a matter, Daddi?"
Pippin looked down, and patted the brown head tenderly. "Say, kiddo, yourun in and ask Mis' Bailey for a cooky and a mug of milk; what say? It'stime you had a bite!"
The child hesitated. "And bring-a Daddi piece?" he inquired.
"Daddy'll come in directly and get his piece. You cut along now andwait for me in the kitchen. You can play with the kitty till I come."
The child obeyed, only half willingly.
"Say, isn't he a dandy kid?" Pippin turned to the chaplain with awistful look. "I've got him!" he said. "I've got the kiddo, and I've gotmy work to do. Maybe the Lord didn't intend for me to be happy;everybody can't be, it stands to reason."
Mary's own phrase! The chaplain looked at his watch, and stood a momentas if irresolute. Then--"Pippin, wait here for ten minutes, will you?"he said. "I have to see about something. Just wait, will you?"
"Sure!" said Pippin, wondering.
Hadley nodded, and walked back to the house with a quick decided step,his watch still in his hand. Glancing toward the pasture gate, he sawJacob Bailey approaching it, leading the Pilot colt which was, he knew,to take him to the station. He quickened his pace still more, and,entering the house, made his way to the room where Mary Blossom wasstill sitting, her capable hands idle in her lap, her eyes turned towardthe window, seeing nothing.
"Mary!" At the sharp, decided tone, the girl looked up with a start. Thechaplain shut the door, and stood with his back against it, watch inhand. "Mary, you are behaving badly! Yes!"--as the color rushed over thegirl's astonished face. "I mean it! Listen to me, for I have only a fewminutes. Pippin has done you an incalculable service, incalculable! Hehas shown you your duty and has made it possible for you to do it. No!"as Mary made a movement. "You must hear me; I haven't time to hear you.This boy, brought up in a slum cellar, trained for crime and steeped init, has shown himself your master and mine, in practical Christianity.Knowing the danger, knowing that he might meet the ruffians who sonearly killed him, as you know--" Mary winced--"he went back to thecity, because an old dying vagrant asked him to find his child. He foundthat child, you know at what cost; through him, your father died happy,the desire of his heart fulfilled. In return, you treat him like a dog!Instead of gratitude, you give him the cold shoulder. Shame on you, MaryBlossom! your conduct is heartless and wicked. You know Pippin lovesyou. You know there is no one in the world but you--"
He paused involuntarily, for Mary had risen and faced him, white asmarble.
/> "No one but me?" she cried in a voice that shook with the cold passionof a sword. "I don't know what you mean, Mr. Hadley. Hasn't he got hisfamily?"
"His family?" repeated the chaplain.
"His family, that I heard him tell you about; the family that wasn'tjust exactly regular, but yet was as dandy as any--I haven't forgot!"cried Mary with a sob. "Where do I come in, I should like to know? Whydoesn't he go to his dandy family?"
The chaplain's face, that had been set as steel, broke into lines ofexquisite kindness.
"My soul!" he said. "And I've only five minutes. Listen, my dear child!I'm sorry I scolded you!"
Briefly he told her of the family, of Ma and Pa, Little Gal and thebaby; how the lonely boy had fashioned them out of his great longingheart, had warmed himself at the shadow fire of their affection.
"Till you came!" cried the chaplain. "Till love came! Then--he has justbeen telling me, poor boy!--his shadows grew cold and dim. He has lostthem; he gets nothing in return. Mary!"
"But--" Mary pressed her hands to her head, bewildered--"the child! Isaw the child; he calls him--Daddy. I heard him say so; I heard him say,'He is mine!'"
"My soul!" cried Hadley again. "Where were you when he told us? Thechild? A waif like himself, a lost baby whom he found on the road beingcruelly beaten by a brute of an Italian _padrone_. Pippin thrashed thebrute and took the child. What else would he do, being Pippin? Mary!" heopened the door and spoke over his shoulder. "He is out in the barn now.I told him to wait ten minutes. Good-by! Remember, _opportunity comesonce_!"
But even as he left the room, there was a swift movement behind him; heheard a sob; his hand was caught and a swift, shy kiss dropped on it.
* * * * *
"Ain't got any too much time to spare!" said anxious Jacob, gathering upthe reins.
"Thank the Lord! I mean--we'll fetch it!" said the chaplain. The firstwords broke unconsciously from him, for he had seen from the gate alight figure emerge from the house and hasten toward the barn.
"Well," said Bailey, "what d'he say when you put it to him? Saw reason,didn't he? He would! He's real reasonable, Pippin is."
The chaplain hung his head. "I--I forgot!" he said. "I'll come overagain next week!"
* * * * *
Panting, sobbing, so blinded with tears that she could hardly see herway, Mary fled out of the house, across the wide barnyard. The turkeycock, her terror and abomination, ruffled his feathers, spread his tail,and advanced upon her with swelling gobbles of wrath, but she neithersaw nor heard him. There never was such a barnyard; there seemed no endto it, and she kept stumbling, now over the puppy, gamboling to meether, now over the Muscovy duck that _would_ waddle directly in front ofher. At last she reached the barn, but only to pause, for she heardvoices. No! one voice, Pippin's, loud and angry, as she had never heardit before!
"I tell you, _beat it while your shoes are new_! I've got no use foryou, and don't you forget it. I know all you're tellin' me, and I tell_you_ I don't care!"
Wondering much, Mary peeped round the corner of the barn, and saw Pippinstanding in the middle of the doorway. No one else was in sight, but hiseyes, shining with angry light, were bent forward on something that hesaw plain enough. Mary, this is a matter too hard for you. Were thechaplain here, he would know all about it. He might even smile, andmurmur to himself, "Dominic!" or "Francis!" as the notion took him; forhe knows that the mystic did not pass with the Middle Ages, but is to befound in the twentieth century as in the twelfth. Mary, of temperamentwholly non-mystical, could only look and listen in terror as the voicerang out again.
"I know all you've got to say. I know I've lost 'em, Pa and Ma and all.I know I'll never get 'em back. And I know I'll never get my girl;never! never!" His voice broke, but next moment it rang clear again:"And I say to you what I said before, what I'll say while I have atongue to speak. You, Satan, _beat it!_ you hear me!"
Now, Mary! Oh, now, run forward! Clasp his hand, your own true lover;cry to him:
"You can have your girl! She is yours, yours, yours, every inch of her,now and always!"
Her feet were starting forward; her lips were opening to speak, when sheheard something beside her, a breath drawn sharply in with a hissingsound. She turned, and met the eyes of the imbecile girl, gazing at herwith strange and deadly looks.