“The way you spoke about — your bayman’s daughter.”
He said, smilingly cool on the surface, but in a chaotic, almost idiotic inward condition: “I’ve sat here for days, wishing all the while that I might really know you. Would you care to let me, Miss Herold?”
“Know me?” she repeated. “I don’t think I understand.”
“Could you and your father and brother regard me as a guest — as a friend visiting the family?”
“Why?”
“Because,” he said, “I’m the same kind of a man that you are a girl and that your brother is a boy. Why, you know it, don’t you? I know it. I knew it as soon as I heard you speak, and when your brother came into the room that first night with his Latin book, and when I saw your mother’s picture. So I know what your father must be. Am I not right?”
She lifted her proud little head and looked at him. “We are what you think us,” she said.
“Then let us stand in that relation, Miss Herold. Will you?”
She looked at him, perplexed, gray eyes clear and thoughtful. “Do you mean that you really want me for a friend?” she asked calmly, but her sensitive lip quivered a little.
“Yes.”
“Do men make personal friends among their employees? Do they? I ask because I don’t know.”
“What was your father before he came here?” he inquired bluntly.
She looked up, startled, then the color came slowly back to her cheeks. “Isn’t that a little impertinent, Mr. Marche?”
“Good heavens! Yes, of course it is!” he exclaimed, turning very red. “Will you forgive me? I didn’t mean to be rude or anything like it! I merely meant that whatever reverses have happened to bring such a girl as you down into this God-forsaken place have not altered what you were and what you are. Can you forgive me?”
“Yes. I’ll tell you something. I wanted to be a little more significant to you than merely a paid guide. So did Jim. We — it is rather lonely for us. You are the first real man who has come into our lives in five years. Do you understand, Mr. Marche?”
“Of course I do.”
“Are you sure you do? We would like to feel that we could talk to you — Jim would. It is pleasant to hear a man from the real world speaking. Not that the people here are unkind, only” — she looked up at him almost wistfully— “we are like you, Mr. Marche — and we feel starved, sometimes.”
He did not trust himself to speak, even to look at her, just at the moment. Not heretofore sentimental, but always impressionable, he was young enough to understand, wise enough not to misunderstand.
After a while, leaning back in the blind, he began, almost casually, talking about things in that Northern world which had once been hers, assuming their common interest in matters purely local, in details, of metropolitan affairs, in the changing physiognomy of the monstrous city, its superficial aspects, its complex phases.
Timidly, at first, she ventured a question now and then, and after a while, as her reserve melted, she asked more boldly, and even offered her own comments on men and things, so that, for the first time, he had a glimpse of her mind at work — brief, charming surprises, momentary views of a young girl’s eager intelligence, visions of her sad and solitary self, more guessed at than revealed in anything she said or left unsaid.
And now they were talking together with free and unfeigned interest and pleasure, scarcely turning for a glance at the water or sky, save when old Uncle Dudley made insulting remarks to some slow-drifting gull or soaring bird of prey.
All the pent-up and natural enthusiasm of years was fairly bubbling to her lips; all the long-suppressed necessity of speech with one of her own kind who was not of her own kin.
It seemed as though they conversed and exchanged views on every topic which concerned heaven and earth, flashing from one subject to another which had nothing at all to do with anything yet discussed.
Out around them the flat leagues of water turned glassy and calm as a millpond; the ducks and geese were asleep on their stools; even old Uncle Dudley stood sentinel, with one leg buried in the downy plumage of his belly, but his weather eye remained brilliantly open to any stir in the blue vault above.
They ate their luncheon there together, he serving her with hot coffee from the vacuum bottle, she plying him with sandwiches.
And now, to her beauty was added an adorable friendliness and confidence, free from the slightest taint of self-consciousness or the least blemish of coquetry. Intelligent, yet modest to the verge of shyness, eager yet reserved, warm hearted yet charmingly impersonal with him, he realized that she was finding, with him, only the happiness of speech with mankind in the abstract. And so she poured out to him her heart, long stifled in the abyss of her isolation; and, gazing into his eyes, she was gazing merely toward all that was bright and happy and youthful and responsive, and he was its symbol, God-sent from those busy haunts of men which already, to her, had become only memories of a blessed vision.
“They ate their luncheon there together.”
And all the while the undercurrent of his own thoughts ran on unceasingly: “What can I do for her? I am falling in love — in love, surely, hopelessly. What can I do for her — for her brother — her father? I am falling in love — in love — in love.”
The long, still, sunny afternoon slipped away. Gradually the water turned to pearl, inlaid with gold, then with glowing rose. And now, far to the north, the first thrilling clangor of wild geese, high in the blue, came to their ears, and they shrank apart and lay back, staring upward. Nearer, nearer, came the sky trumpets, answering faintly each to each — nearer, nearer, till high over the blind swept the misty wedge; and old Uncle Dudley flapped his wings and stretched his neck, calling up to his wild comrades of earthly delights unnumbered here under the shadow of death. And every wild goose answered him, and the decoys flapped and clamored a siren welcome; but the flying wedge glided onward through the blue.
“They’ve begun to move,” whispered the girl. “But, oh, dear! It is blue-bird weather. Hark! Do you hear the swans? I can hear swans coming out of the north!”
Marche could not yet hear them, but the tethered swans and geese heard, and a magnificent chorus rose from the water. Then, far away as fairyland, faintly out of the sky, came a new murmur — not the martial clangor of wild geese, but something wilder, more exquisitely unearthly — nearer, nearer, enrapturing its weird, celestial beauty. And now, through the blue, with great, snowy wings slowly beating, the swans passed over like angels; and like angels passing, hailing each other as they winged their way, drifting on broad, white pinions, they called, each to the other in their sweet, unreal voices, gossiping, garrulous, high in the sky. And far away they floated on until they became only a silver ribbon undulating against the azure; and even then Marche could hear the soft tumult of their calling: Heu! Heu! Hiou! Hiou-oo! until sound and snowy flecks vanished together in mid-heaven.
Again, coming from the far north, the trumpets of the sky squadron were sounding; they passed, wedge after wedge, sometimes in steady formation, sometimes like a wavering band of witches, and again in shifting battalions, sternly officered, passing through intricate aërial maneuvers, and greeted by Uncle Dudley and the other decoys with wild beseeching mixed with applause.
Snowy, angelic companies of swans came alternately with the geese; then a whimpering, whispering flight of wild ducks, water-fowl in thousands and tens of thousands, rushing onward through the aërial lanes.
But none came to the blind. Occasionally a wedge of geese wavered, irresolute at the frantic persuasions of Uncle Dudley, but their leader always dragged them back to their course, and the sagging, hesitating ranks passed on.
Sometimes, in a nearer flight of swans, some long-necked, snowy creature would bend its head to look curiously down at the tethered swans on the water, but always they continued on, settling some two miles south of Foaming Shoals, until there was half a mile of wild swans afloat there, looking like a long, low bank of snow, touche
d with faintest pink by the glow of the westering sun.
IV
Marche, pacing the shabby sitting room after supper, an unlighted cigarette between his fingers, listened to Jim recite his Latin lesson.
“Atque ea qui ad efeminandos animos pertinent important,” repeated the boy; and Marche nodded absently.
“Do you understand what that means, Jim?”
“Not exactly, sir.”
Marche explained, then added smilingly: “But there is nothing luxurious to corrupt manhood among the coast marshes down here. Barring fever and moccasins, Jim, you ought to emerge, some day, into the larger world equipped for trouble.”
“I shall go out some day,” said the boy.
Marche glanced up at the portrait of the boy’s mother in its pale-gilt oval. Near it, another nail had been driven, and on the faded wall paper was an oval discoloration, as though another picture had once hung there.
“I wish I might see your father before I go North,” said Marche, half to himself. “Isn’t he well enough to let me talk to him for a few minutes?”
“I will ask him,” said the boy.
Marche paced the ragged carpet until the return of Jimmy.
“Father is sorry, and asks you to please excuse him,” he said.
Marche had picked up the boy’s schoolbook and was looking at the writing on the flyleaf again. Then he raised his head, eyes narrowing on the boy as though searching for some elusive memory connected with him — with his name in the Latin book — perhaps with the writing, which, somehow, had stirred in him, once more, the same odd and uncomfortable sensation which he had experienced when he first saw it.
“Jim,” he said, “where did you live when you lived in New York?”
“In Eighty-seventh Street.”
“West?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you remember the house — the number?”
“No, sir.”
“‘Jim,’ he said, ‘where did you live?’”
“Was it a private house?”
“I don’t know. It was very tall. We lived on one floor and used an elevator.”
“I see. It was an apartment house.”
The boy stood, with blonde head lowered, silently turning over the leaves of an old magazine.
Marche walked out to the porch; his brows were bent slightly inward, and he bit the end of his unlighted cigarette until the thing became useless. Then he flung it away. A few stars watched him above the black ramparts of the pines; a gentle wind was abroad, bringing inland the restless voice of the sea.
In Marche’s mind a persistent thought was groping in darkness, vainly striving to touch and awaken memories of things forgotten. What was it he was trying to remember? What manner of episode, and how connected with this place, with the boy’s book, with the portrait of his mother in its oval frame? Had he seen that portrait before? Perhaps he had seen it here, five years ago; yet that could not be, because Herold had not been here then.
Was it the writing on the flyleaf that had stirred some forgotten memory? It had seemed to him familiar, somehow — yet not like the handwriting in Herold’s business letters to him. Yet it was Herold’s writing— “Jim, from Daddy” — that was the inscription. And that inscription had riveted his attention from the first moment he saw it.
Who was Herold? Who was this man whose undoubtable breeding and personal cultivation had stamped his children with the same unmistakable distinction?
Somehow or other there had been a great fall in the world for him — a terrible tumble from higher estate to land him here in this desolation of swamp-bound silence — here where only the dark pines broke the vast sky line, where the only sound was the far rumor of the sea. Sick, probably with coast fever, poor, dependent, no doubt, on the salary Marche paid him, isolated from all in the world that made the world endurable to intelligence, responsible for two growing children — one already a woman — what must be the thoughts of such a man on a night like this, for instance?
“I want to see that man,” he kept repeating to himself. “I want to see him; and I’m going to.”
Restless, but now always listening for the sound of a light tread which he had come to know so well — alas! — he began to walk to and fro, with keen glances toward the illuminated kitchen window every time he passed it. Sometimes his mind was chaotic; sometimes clear. The emotions which had awakened in him within the week were complex enough to stagger a more intelligent man. And Marche was not a fool; he was the typical product of his environment — the result of school and college, and a New York business life carried on in keenest competition with men as remorseless in business as the social code permitted. Also, he went to church on Sundays, read a Republican newspaper, and belonged to several unexceptionable clubs.
That was the kind of a man he had been only a week ago — a good fellow in the usual sense among men, acceptable to women, kind hearted, not too cynical, and every idea in his head modeled upon the opinions he heard expressed in that limited area wherein he had been born and bred.
That was the kind of a man he had been a week ago. What was he now — to-night — here in this waste corner of the world with the light from a kitchen window blazing on him as though it were the flashing splendor streaming through the barred portals of paradise? Was it possible that he, John Benton Marche, could be actually in love — in love with the daughter of his own game warden — with a girl who served him at supper in apron and gingham, who served him further in hip boots and ragged jacket — this modern Rosalind of the marshes, as fresh and innocent, as modest and ardent, as she of the Arden glades?
The kitchen door opened, and Molly Herold came down the steps and straight toward him, unthinkingly, almost instinctively, laying her hands in his as he met her under the leafless China tree in the yard.
“I was longer than usual to-night,” she said, “trying to soften my hands with that cold cream you so kindly sent for.” She lifted them in the starlight with a little laugh. “They’re a trifle better, I think,” she said, “but they’re always in water, you know, either there,” she glanced around at the kitchen, “or yonder with the decoys. But thank you all the same,” she added brightly. “Are you going to have another delightful talk, now?”
“Do you care to?”
“Of course. The idea of my not caring to talk to you,” she said, laughing at the absurdity. “Shall we go into the sitting room, or walk in the starlight? There are no snakes out, yet,” she assured him, “though if this weather holds, the moccasins will come out.”
“We’ll walk down to the shore,” he said.
“One moment, then.” She turned and sped to the house, reappearing, after a few minutes, wearing her ragged shooting coat.
“Is your father comfortable?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Do you think he might want you?”
“No. Jim sleeps next to him, and he is preparing for bed, now.” She smiled. “What a darling my brother is, isn’t he, Mr. Marche?”
“He’s a fine boy.”
They moved on together, down the rutted lane, between dismantled fences and ragged, leafless hedges. She was lithe and light and sure footed, but once or twice, as they skirted puddles, he supported her; and the touch of his hand on her body almost unnerved him. Never had he dreamed that contact with any woman could so thrill, so exquisitely shock. And every instant he was falling deeper and deeper in love with her. He knew it — realized it — made no effort to avoid it, fight it off, control it. It was only his speech and manner that he held desperately under bit and curb, letting his heart go to everlasting smash and his reason run riot. And what on earth would be the end he could not imagine, for he was leaving for the North in the morning, and he had not yet told her.
As they came out upon the shore, the dory loomed up, beached, a dark silhouette against the starlit water. She laid her hands on the stern and vaulted lightly to her perch, sliding along to make room for Marche.
From far away
in the sound came the confused murmur of wild fowl feeding. Except for that, and the ceaseless monotone of the outer sea, there was no sound, not even the lap of water against the bow.
Marche, who had been leaning forward, head bent as though watching the water, turned to the girl abruptly. “I want to do something for — Jim,” he said.
The girl looked up at him, not understanding.
“Will your father let me?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean that I want to send him to a good school — a good boys’ school in the North.”
She caught her breath, was silent for a moment, then, amazed: “Would you do that? Oh, I’ve wished for it — dreamed of it! But — how can you? You are so kind — so good to us — but how could we — accept?”
“That’s why I want to see your father.”
“For that! Was it really for that, Mr. Marche?”
“Yes — partly.” He swallowed and looked the other way, for the girl’s excited face was very near his own as she bent forward to search his eyes for the least change of expression — bent nearer as though to reassure herself that he meant it seriously. For an instant her soft breath made the night air fragrant; he felt it, faint and fresh on his cheek, and turned sharply, biting his lips lest he lose all self-control.
“Could you and your father spare him?” he asked carelessly.
“Oh, if you only would give him that chance!” she cried. “But — tell me — how can we accept such a thing of you? Is it possible?”
“Would you accept it?” he asked, turning toward her.
The question startled her. She looked at him, striving to think clearly, trying to see this offered miracle through calm, impartial eyes.
“I — I would do anything — almost — for Jim,” she said. “I’d have no pride left, if his chances lay in the balance. But men — my father — may be different.”
He said slowly: “Suppose I offered the same chance to you?”
“What!” she said crisply.
“Suppose I offered you a college finishing, Miss Herold. Would you accept?”
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 579
