CHAPTER XXV
AT THE PALMETTO HOTEL
For about four months the persons who made up what might be considered asCaptain Horn's adopted family had resided in the Palmetto Hotel, in SanFrancisco. At the time we look upon them, however, Mrs. Cliff was notwith them, having left San Francisco some weeks previously.
Edna was now a very different being from the young woman she had been.Her face was smoother and fuller, and her eyes seemed to have gained aricher brown. The dark masses of her hair appeared to have wonderfullygrown and thickened, but this was due to the loose fashion in which itwas coiled upon her head, and it would have been impossible for any onewho had known her before not to perceive that she was greatly changed.The lines upon her forehead, which had come, not from age, but fromearnest purpose and necessity of action, together with a certainintensity of expression which would naturally come to a young woman whohad to make her way in the world, not only for herself, but for her youngbrother, and a seriousness born of some doubts, some anxieties, and someambiguous hopes, had all entirely disappeared as if they had beenmorning mists rolling away from a summer landscape. Under the rays of asun of fortune, shining, indeed, but mildly, she had ripened into aphysical beauty which was her own by right of birth, but of which a fewmore years of struggling responsibility would have forever deprived her.
After the receipt of her second remittance, Edna and her party had takenthe best apartments in the hotel. The captain had requested this, for hedid not know how long they might remain there, and he wanted them to haveevery comfort. He had sent them as much money as he could spare from thesale, in Lima, of the gold he had carried with him when lie first leftthe caves, but his expenses in hiring ships and buying guano were heavy.Edna, however, had received frequent remittances while the captain was atthe Rackbirds' cove, through an agent in San Francisco. These, shesupposed, came from further sales of gold, but, in fact, they had comefrom the sale of investments which the captain had made in the course ofhis fairly successful maritime career. In his last letter from Lima hehad urged them all to live well on what he sent them, considering it astheir share of the first division of the treasure in the mound. If hisintended projects should succeed, the fortunes of all of them would bereconstructed upon a new basis as solid and as grand as any of them hadever had reason to hope for. But if he should fail, they, the party inSan Francisco, would be as well off, or, perhaps, better circumstancedthan when they had started for Valparaiso. He did not mention the factthat he himself would be poorer, for he had lost the _Castor_, in whichhe was part-owner, and had invested nearly all his share of the proceedsof the sale of the gold in ship hire, guano purchases, and othernecessary expenses.
Edna was waiting in San Francisco to know what would be the next scene inthe new drama of her life. Captain Horn had written before he sailed fromLima in the Chilian schooner for the guano islands and the Rackbirds'cove, and he had, to some extent, described his plans for carrying awaytreasure from the mound; but since that she had not heard from him untilabout ten days before, when he wrote from Acapulco, where he had arrivedin safety with his bags of guano and their auriferous enrichments. He hadwritten in high spirits, and had sent her a draft on San Francisco solarge in amount that it had fairly startled her, for he wrote that he hadmerely disposed of some of the gold he had brought in his baggage, andhad not yet done anything with that contained in the guano-bags. He hadhired a storehouse, as if he were going regularly into business, and fromwhich he would dispose of his stock of guano after he had restored it toits original condition. To do all this, and to convert the gold intonegotiable bank deposits or money, would require time, prudence, and evendiplomacy. He had already sold in the City of Mexico as much of the goldfrom his trunk as he could offer without giving rise to too manyquestions, and if he had not been known as a California trader, he mighthave found some difficulties even in that comparatively smalltransaction.
The captain had written that to do all he had to do he would be obligedto remain in Acapulco or the City of Mexico--how long he could not tell,for much of the treasure might have to be shipped to the United States,and his plans for all this business were not yet arranged.
Before this letter had been received, Mrs. Cliff had believed it to beundesirable to remain longer in San Francisco, and had gone to her homein a little town in Maine. With Edna and Ralph, she had waited and waitedand waited, but at last had decided that Captain Horn was dead. In hermind, she had allowed him all the time that she thought was necessary togo to the caves, get gold, and come to San Francisco, and as that timehad long elapsed, she had finally given him up as lost. She knew thecaptain was a brave man and an able sailor, but the adventure he hadundertaken was strange and full of unknown perils, and if it should sohappen that she should hear that he had gone to the bottom in a smallboat overloaded with gold, she would not have been at all surprised.
Of course, she said nothing of these suspicions to Edna or Ralph, nor didshe intend ever to mention them to any one. If Edna, who in so strange away had been made a wife, should, in some manner perhaps equallyextraordinary, be made a widow, she would come back to her, she would doeverything she could to comfort her; but now she did not seem to beneeded in San Francisco, and her New England home called to her throughthe many voices of her friends. As to the business which had taken Mrs.Cliff to South America, that must now be postponed, but it could not butbe a satisfaction to her that she was going back with perhaps as muchmoney as she would have had if her affairs in Valparaiso had beensatisfactorily settled.
Edna and Ralph had come to be looked upon at the Palmetto Hotel aspersons of distinction. They lived quietly, but they lived well, andtheir payments were always prompt. They were the wife and brother-in-lawof Captain Philip Horn, who was known to be a successful man, and whomight be a rich one. But what seemed more than anything else todistinguish them from the ordinary hotel guests was the fact that theywere attended by two personal servants, who, although, of course, theycould not be slaves, seemed to be bound to them as if they had been borninto their service.
Cheditafa, in a highly respectable suit of clothes which might have beena cross between the habiliments of a Methodist minister and those of abutler, was a person of imposing aspect. Mrs. Cliff had insisted, whenhis new clothes were ordered, that there should be something in themwhich should indicate the clergyman, for the time might come when itwould be necessary that he should be known in this character; and thebutler element was added because it would harmonize in a degree with hisduties as Edna's private attendant. The old negro, with his sober face,and woolly hair slightly touched with gray, was fully aware of theimportance of his position as body-servant to Mrs. Horn, but his sense ofthe responsibility of that position far exceeded any other sentiments ofwhich his mind was capable. Perhaps it was the fact that he had made EdnaMrs. Horn which gave him the feeling that he must never cease to watchover her and to serve her in every possible way. Had the hotel takenfire, he would have rushed through the flames to save her. Had robbersattacked her, they must have taken his life before they took her purse.When she drove out in the city or suburbs, he always sat by the side ofthe driver, and when she walked in the streets, he followed her at arespectful distance.
Proud as he was of the fact that he had been the officiating clergyman atthe wedding of Captain Horn and this grand lady, he had never mentionedthe matter to any one, for many times, and particularly just before sheleft San Francisco, Mrs. Cliff had told him, in her most impressivemanner, that if he informed any one that he had married Captain Horn andMiss Markham, great trouble would come of it. What sort of trouble, itwas not necessary to explain to him, but she was very earnest in assuringhim that the marriage of a Christian by a heathen was something which waslooked upon with great disfavor in this country, and unless Cheditafacould prove that he had a perfect right to perform the ceremony, it mightbe bad for him. When Captain Horn had settled his business affairs andshould come back, everything would be made all right, and nobody needfeel any more fear, but unt
il then he must not speak of what he had done.
If Captain Horn should never come back, Mrs. Cliff thought that Ednawould then be truly his widow, and his letters would prove it, but thatshe was really his wife until the two had marched off together to aregular clergyman, the good lady could not entirely admit. Her positionwas not logical, but she rested herself firmly upon it.
The other negro, Mok, could speak no more English than when we first methim, but he could understand some things which were said to him, and wasvery quick, indeed, to catch the meanings of signs, motions, andexpressions of countenance. At first Edna did not know what to do withthis negro, but Ralph solved the question by taking him as a valet, andday by day he became more useful to the youth, who often declared that hedid not know how he used to get along without a valet. Mok was very fondof fine clothes, and Ralph liked to see him smartly dressed, and hefrequently appeared of more importance than Cheditafa. He was devoted tohis young master, and was so willing to serve him that Ralph often foundgreat difficulty in finding him something to do.
Edna and Ralph had a private table, at which Cheditafa and Mok assistedin waiting, and Mrs. Cliff had taught both of them how to dust and keeprooms in order. Sometimes Ralph sent Mok to a circulating library. Havingonce been shown the place, and made to understand that he must deliverthere the piece of paper and the books to be returned, he attended to thebusiness as intelligently as if he had been a trained dog, and broughtback the new books with a pride as great as if he had selected them. Thefact that Mok was an absolute foreigner, having no knowledge whatever ofEnglish, and that he was possessed of an extraordinary activity, whichenabled him, if the gate of the back yard of the hotel happened to belocked, to go over the eight-foot fence with the agility of a monkey, hada great effect in protecting him from impositions by other servants.When a black negro cannot speak English, but can bound like anindia-rubber ball, it may not be safe to trifle with him. As for triflingwith Cheditafa, no one would think of such a thing; his grave andreverend aspect was his most effectual protection.
As to Ralph, he had altered in appearance almost as much as his sister.His apparel no longer indicated the boy, and as he was tall and large forhis years, the fashionable suit he wore, his gay scarf with its sparklingpin, and his brightly polished boots, did not appear out of place uponhim. But Edna often declared that she had thought him a great dealbetter-looking in the scanty, well-worn, but more graceful garments inwhich he had disported himself on the sands of Peru.
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