Collected Works of Booth Tarkington

by Booth Tarkington

  Each of the other girls had been escorted by a youth of the place, and, one by one, joining these escorts in the hall outside the door, they descended the stairs, until only Ariel was left. She came down alone after the first dance had begun, and greeted her young hostess’s mother timidly. Mrs. Pike — a small, frightened-looking woman with a prominent ruby necklace — answered her absently, and hurried away to see that the imported waiters did not steal anything.

  Ariel sat in one of the chairs against the wall and watched the dancers with a smile of eager and benevolent interest. In Canaan no parents, no guardians nor aunts, were haled forth o’ nights to duenna the junketings of youth; Mrs. Pike did not reappear, and Ariel sat conspicuously alone; there was nothing else for her to do. It was not an easy matter.

  When the first dance reached an end, Mamie Pike came to her for a moment with a cheery welcome, and was immediately surrounded by a circle of young men and women, flushed with dancing, shouting as was their wont, laughing inexplicably over words and phrases and unintelligible mono-syllables, as if they all belonged to a secret society and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely humorous, which only they understood. Ariel laughed with them more heartily than any other, so that she might seem to be of them and as merry as they were, but almost immediately she found herself outside of the circle, and presently they all whirled away into another dance, and she was left alone again.

  So she sat, no one coming near her, through several dances, trying to maintain the smile of delighted interest upon her face, though she felt the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their fixedness, her eyes growing hot and glazed. All the other girls were provided with partners for every dance, with several young men left over, these latter lounging hilariously together in the doorways. Ariel was careful not to glance towards them, but she could not help hating them. Once or twice between the dances she saw Miss Pike speak appealingly to one of the superfluous, glancing, at the same time, in her own direction, and Ariel could see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until at last Mamie approached her, leading Norbert Flitcroft, partly by the hand, partly by will-power. Norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at the present moment looked as patient as the blind. But he asked Ariel if she was “engaged for the next dance,” and, Mamie having flitted away, stood disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to begin. Ariel was grateful for him.

  “I think you must be very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft,” she said, with an air of raillery.

  “No, I’m not,” he replied, plaintively. “Everybody thinks I am because I’m fat, and they expect me to do things they never dream of asking anybody else to do. I’d like to see ’em even ASK ‘Gene Bantry to go and do some of the things they get me to do! A person isn’t good-natured just because he’s fat,” he concluded, morbidly, “but he might as well be!”

  “Oh, I meant good-natured,” she returned, with a sprightly laugh, “because you’re willing to waltz with me.”

  “Oh, well,” he returned, sighing, “that’s all right.”

  The orchestra flourished into “La Paloma”; he put his arm mournfully about her, and taking her right hand with his left, carried her arm out to a rigid right angle, beginning to pump and balance for time. They made three false starts and then got away. Ariel danced badly; she hopped and lost the step, but they persevered, bumping against other couples continually. Circling breathlessly into the next room, they passed close to a long mirror, in which Ariel saw herself, although in a flash, more bitterly contrasted to the others than in the cheval-glass of the dressing-room. The clump of roses was flopping about her neck, her crimped hair looked frowzy, and there was something terribly wrong about her dress. Suddenly she felt her train to be ominously grotesque, as a thing following her in a nightmare.

  A moment later she caught her partner making a burlesque face of suffering over her shoulder, and, turning her head quickly, saw for whose benefit he had constructed it. Eugene Bantry, flying expertly by with Mamie, was bestowing upon Mr. Flitcroft a condescendingly commiserative wink. The next instant she tripped in her train and fell to the floor at Eugene’s feet, carrying her partner with her.

  There was a shout of laughter. The young hostess stopped Eugene, who would have gone on, and he had no choice but to stoop to Ariel’s assistance.

  “It seems to be a habit of mine,” she said, laughing loudly.

  She did not appear to see the hand he offered, but got to her feet without help and walked quickly away with Norbert, who proceeded to live up to the character he had given himself.

  “Perhaps we had better not try it again,” she laughed.

  “Well, I should think not,” he returned, with the frankest gloom. With the air of conducting her home he took her to the chair against the wall whence he had brought her. There his responsibility for her seemed to cease. “Will you excuse me?” he asked, and there was no doubt that he felt that he had been given more than his share that evening, even though he was fat.

  “Yes, indeed.” Her laughter was continuous. “I should think you WOULD be glad to get rid of me after that. Ha, ha, ha! Poor Mr. Flitcroft, you know you are!”

  It was the deadly truth, and the fat one, saying, “Well, if you’ll just excuse me now,” hurried away with a step which grew lighter as the distance from her increased. Arrived at the haven of a far doorway, he mopped his brow and shook his head grimly in response to frequent rallyings.

  Ariel sat through more dances, interminable dances and intermissions, in that same chair, in which, it began to seem, she was to live out the rest of her life. Now and then, if she thought people were looking at her as they passed, she broke into a laugh and nodded slightly, as if still amused over her mishap.

  After a long time she rose, and laughing cheerfully to Mr. Flitcroft, who was standing in the doorway and replied with a wan smile, stepped out quickly into the hall, where she almost ran into her great-uncle, Jonas Tabor. He was going towards the big front doors with Judge Pike, having just come out of the latter’s library, down the hall.

  Jonas was breathing heavily and was shockingly pale, though his eyes were very bright. He turned his back upon his grandniece sharply and went out of the door. Ariel turned from him quite as abruptly and re-entered the room whence she had come. She laughed again to her fat friend as she passed him, and, still laughing, went towards the fatal chair, when her eyes caught sight of Eugene Bantry and Mamie coming in through the window from the porch. Still laughing, she went to the window and looked out; the porch seemed deserted and was faintly illuminated by a few Japanese lanterns. She sprang out, dropped upon the divan, and burying her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly. Presently she felt something alive touch her foot, and, her breath catching with alarm, she started to rise. A thin hand, issuing from a shabby sleeve, had stolen out between two of the green tubs and was pressing upon one of her shoes.

  “‘SH!” said Joe. “Don’t make a noise!”

  His warning was not needed; she had recognized the hand and sleeve instantly. She dropped back with a low sound which would have been hysterical if it had been louder, while he raised himself on his arm until she could see his face dimly, as he peered at her between the palms.

  “What were you going on about?” he asked, angrily.

  “Nothing,” she answered. “I wasn’t. You must go away, and quick. It’s too dangerous. If the Judge found you—”

  “He won’t!”

  “Ah, you’d risk anything to see Mamie Pike—”

  “What were you crying about?” he interrupted.

  “Nothing, I tell you!” she repeated, the tears not ceasing to gather in her eyes. “I wasn’t.”

  “I want to know what it was,” he insisted. “Didn’t the fools ask you to dance? Ah! You needn’t tell me. That’s it. I’ve been here for the last three dances and you weren’t in sight till you came to the window. Well, what do you care about that for?”

  “I don’t!” she answered. “I don’t!” Then suddenly, without being able
to prevent it, she sobbed.

  “No,” he said, gently, “I see you don’t. And you let yourself be a fool because there are a lot of fools in there.”

  She gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow and bitterness; she bent far over and caught his hand and laid it against her wet cheek. “Oh, Joe,” she whispered, brokenly, “I think we have such hard lives, you and I! It doesn’t seem right — while we’re so young! Why can’t we be like the others? Why can’t we have some of the fun?”

  He withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment and shame he would have felt had she been a boy. “Get out!” he said, feebly.

  She did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, rested her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. “I try so hard to have fun, to be like the rest, — and it’s always a mistake, always, always, always!” She rocked herself, slightly, from side to side. “I am a fool, it’s the truth, or I wouldn’t have come to-night. I want to be attractive — I want to be in things. I want to laugh like they do—”

  “To laugh just to laugh, and not because there’s something funny?”

  “Yes, I do, I do! And to know how to dress and to wear my hair — there must be some place where you can learn those things. I’ve never had any one to show me! Ah! Grandfather said something like that this afternoon — poor man! We’re in the same case. If we only had some one to show us! It all seems so BLIND, here in Canaan, for him and me! I don’t say it’s not my own fault as much as being poor. I’ve been a hoyden; I don’t feel as if I’d learned how to be a girl yet, Joe. It’s only lately I’ve cared, but I’m seventeen, Joe, and — and to-day — to-day — I was sent home — and to-night—” She faltered, came to a stop, and her whole body was shaken with sobs. “I hate myself so for crying — for everything!”

  “I’ll tell you something,” he whispered, chuckling desperately. “‘Gene made me unpack his trunk, and I don’t believe he’s as great a man at college as he is here. I opened one of his books, and some one had written in it, ‘Prigamaloo Bantry, the Class Try-To-Be’! He’d never noticed, and you ought to have heard him go on! You’d have just died, Ariel — I almost bust wide open! It was a mean trick in me, but I couldn’t help showing it to him.”

  Joe’s object was obtained. She stopped crying, and, wiping her eyes, smiled faintly. Then she became grave. “You’re jealous of Eugene,” she said.

  He considered this for a moment. “Yes,” he answered, thoughtfully, “I am. But I wouldn’t think about him differently on that account. And I wouldn’t talk about him to any one but you.”

  “Not even to—” She left the question unfinished.

  “No,” he said, quietly. “Of course not.”

  “No? Because it wouldn’t be any use?”

  “I don’t know. I never have a chance to talk to her, anyway.”

  “Of course you don’t!” Her voice had grown steady. “You say I’m a fool. What are you?”

  “You needn’t worry about me,” he began. “I can take care—”

  “‘SH!” she whispered, warningly. The music had stopped, a loud clatter of voices and laughter succeeding it.

  “What need to be careful,” Joe assured her, “with all that noise going on?”

  “You must go away,” she said, anxiously. “Oh, please, Joe!”

  “Not yet; I want—”

  She coughed loudly. Eugene and Mamie Pike had come to the window, with the evident intention of occupying the veranda, but perceiving Ariel engaged with threads in her sleeve, they turned away and disappeared. Other couples looked out from time to time, and finding the solitary figure in possession, retreated abruptly to seek stairways and remote corners for the things they were impelled to say.

  And so Ariel held the porch for three dances and three intermissions, occupying a great part of the time with entreaties that her obdurate and reckless companion should go. When, for the fourth time, the music sounded, her agitation had so increased that she was visibly trembling. “I can’t stand it, Joe,” she said, bending over him.

  “I don’t know what would happen if they found you. You’ve GOT to go!”

  “No, I haven’t,” he chuckled. “They haven’t even distributed the supper yet!”

  “And you take all the chances,” she said, slowly, “just to see her pass that window a few times.”

  “What chances?”

  “Of what the Judge will do if any one sees you.”

  “Nothing; because if any one saw me I’d leave.”

  “Please go.”

  “Not till—”

  “‘SH!”

  A colored waiter, smiling graciously, came out upon the porch bearing a tray of salad, hot oysters, and coffee. Ariel shook her head.

  “I don’t want any,” she murmured.

  The waiter turned away in pity and was re-entering the window, when a passionate whisper fell upon his ear as well as upon Ariel’s.

  “TAKE IT!”

  “Ma’am?” said the waiter.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” she replied, quickly. The waiter, his elation restored, gave of his viands with the superfluous bounty loved by his race when distributing the product of the wealthy.

  When he had gone, “Give me everything that’s hot,” said Joe. “You can keep the salad.”

  “I couldn’t eat it or anything else,” she answered, thrusting the plate between the palms.

  For a time there was silence. From within the house came the continuous babble of voices and laughter, the clink of cutlery on china. The young people spent a long time over their supper. By-and-by the waiter returned to the veranda, deposited a plate of colored ices upon Ariel’s knees with a noble gesture, and departed.

  “No ice for me,” said Joe.

  “Won’t you please go now?” she entreated!

  “It wouldn’t be good manners,” he responded. “They might think I only came for supper—”

  “Hand me back the things. The waiter might come for them any minute.”

  “Not yet. I haven’t quite finished. I eat with contemplation, Ariel, because there’s more than the mere food and the warmth of it to consider. There’s the pleasure of being entertained by the great Martin Pike. Think what a real kindness I’m doing him, too. I increase his good deeds and his hospitality without his knowing it or being able to help it. Don’t you see how I boost his standing with the Recording Angel? If Lazarus had behaved the way I do, Dives needn’t have had those worries that came to him in the after-life.”

  “Give me the dish and coffee-cup,” she whispered, impatiently. “Suppose the waiter came and had to look for them? Quick!”

  “Take them, then. You’ll see that jealousy hasn’t spoiled my appetite—”

  A bottle-shaped figure appeared in the window and she had no time to take the plate and cup which were being pushed through the palm-leaves. She whispered a syllable of warning, and the dishes were hurriedly withdrawn as Norbert Flitcroft, wearing a solemn expression of injury, came out upon the veranda.

  He halted suddenly. “What’s that?” he asked, with suspicion.

  “Nothing,” answered Ariel, sharply. “Where?”

  “Behind those palms.”

  “Probably your own shadow,” she laughed; “or it might have been a draught moving the leaves.”

  He did not seem satisfied, but stared hard at the spot where the dishes had disappeared, meantime edging back cautiously nearer the window.

  “They want you,” he said, after a pause. “Some one’s come for you.”

  “Oh, is grandfather waiting?” She rose, at the same time letting her handkerchief fall. She stooped to pick it up, with her face away from Norbert and towards the palms, whispering tremulously, but with passionate urgency, “Please GO!”

  “It isn’t your grandfather that has come for you,” said the fat one, slowly. “It is old Eskew Arp. Something’s happened.”

  She looked at him for a moment, beginning to tremble violently, her eyes growing wide with fright.

  “Is my grandfa
ther — is he sick?”

  “You better go and see. Old Eskew’s waiting in the hall. He’ll tell you.”

  She was by him and through the window instantly. Norbert did not follow her; he remained for several moments looking earnestly at the palms; then he stepped through the window and beckoned to a youth who was lounging in the doorway across the room.

  “There’s somebody hiding behind those plants,” he whispered, when his friend reached him. “Go and tell Judge Pike to send some of the niggers to watch outside the porch, so that he doesn’t get away. Then tell him to get his revolver and come here.”

  Meanwhile Ariel had found Mr. Arp waiting in the hall, talking in a low voice to Mrs. Pike.

  “Your grandfather’s all right,” he told the frightened girl, quickly. “He sent me for you, that’s all. Just hurry and get your things.”

  She was with him again in a moment, and seizing the old man’s arm, hurried him down the steps and toward the street almost at a run.

  “You’re not telling me the truth,” she said. “You’re not telling me the truth!”

  “Nothing has happened to Roger,” panted Mr. Arp. “Nothing to mind, I mean. Here! We’re going this way, not that.” They had come to the gate, and as she turned to the right he pulled her round sharply to the left. “We’re not going to your house.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to your uncle Jonas’s.”

  “Why?” she cried, in supreme astonishment. “What do you want to take me there for? Don’t you know that he’s stopped speaking to me?”