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Title: The Squirrel Inn
Author: Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Squirrel Inn" ***
[Illustration: THE SQUIRREL INN.]
THE SQUIRREL INN
BY
FRANK R. STOCKTON
_AUTHOR OF "RUDDER GRANGE," "THE LADY, OR THE TIGER?" "THE LATE MRS.
NULL," "THE CASTING AWAY OF MRS. LECKS AND MRS. ALESHINE," "THE MERRY
CHANTER," "THE HUNDREDTH MAN," ETC._
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1891
COPYRIGHT, 1891,
BY FRANK R. STOCKTON.
_All rights reserved._
THE DE VINNE PRESS.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I THE STEAMBOAT PIER 1
II THE BABY, THE MAN, AND THE MASTERY 7
III MATTHEW VASSAR 16
IV LODLOE UNDERTAKES TO NOMINATE HIS
SUCCESSOR 25
V THE LANDLORD AND HIS INN 32
VI THE GREEK SCHOLAR 40
VII ROCKMORES AHEAD 47
VIII MISS MAYBERRY 56
IX THE PRESERVATION OF LITERATURE 61
X ROSE VERSUS MAYBERRY 68
XI LANIGAN BEAM 78
XII LANIGAN CHANGES HIS CRAVAT 90
XIII DECREES OF EXILE 96
XIV BACKING OUT 101
XV THE BABY IS PASSED AROUND 110
XVI MESSRS. BEAM AND LODLOE DECLINE TO WAIT
FOR THE SECOND TABLE 119
XVII BANANAS AND OATS 132
XVIII SWEET PEAS 138
XIX THE AROUSED ROSE 149
XX AN INGENUOUS MAID 157
XXI TWISTED TRYSTS 163
XXII THE BLOSSOM AND THE LITTLE JAR 175
XXIII HAMMERSTEIN 181
XXIV TRANSLATIONS 197
XXV MR. TIPPENGRAY MOUNTS HIGH 204
XXVI ANOTHER SQUIRREL IN THE TAP-ROOM 213
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
THE SQUIRREL INN FRONTISPIECE
ON DECK 11
A WAGON-LOAD OF NURSE-MAIDS 28
STEPHEN PETTER 33
THE SIGN 38
A GREEK IN AN OUTHOUSE 42
MR. TIPPENGRAY 44
"I SUPPOSE THIS IS MRS. CRISTIE" 49
LODLOE IS INTRODUCED TO STEPHEN PETTER 53
"PASSING NEARER, MR. TIPPENGRAY STOPPED" 65
"TEACH THE OLD HENS GOOD MANNERS" 76
"DON'T GET EXCITED" 80
"HAVE YOU HAPPENED TO HEAR ANYBODY SPEAK
OF ME?" 83
"I AM HERE FOR A PURPOSE" 92
IDA MAKES HERSELF COMFORTABLE 102
"BACK!" 108
"HE BEGAN SLOWLY TO PUSH IT TOWARDS
THE SQUIRREL INN" 112
"I WILL WHEEL IT DOWN TO MY SUMMER-HOUSE
WHERE IT IS COOL AND SHADY" 113
"HE LEANED OVER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CARRIAGE" 118
"CALTHY, THIS IS TRULY LIKE OLD TIMES" 129
"WILL YOU NOT TAKE THESE INSTEAD?" 143
"I HAVE DISSECTED ONE" 147
MRS. CRISTIE CONSIDERS 153
A MATRIMONIAL CONVERSATION 160
CALTHEA HOLDS HIM WITH HER LISTENING EAR 165
THE BABY AND THE SWEET-PEA BLOSSOM 179
MISS CALTHEA STEPS OUT 187
"WHAT SKEERED HIM?" 191
MR. TIPPENGRAY STOPPED AND LISTENED 192
THE TRANSLATION 198
THE PROPOSAL 206
MR. PETTER TAKES OFF HIS HAT 209
LANIGAN BEAM WANTS HIS LADDER 210
THE SQUIRREL INN
I
THE STEAMBOAT PIER
The steamboat _Manasquan_ was advertised to leave her pier on the east
side of the city at half-past nine on a July morning. At nine o'clock
Walter Lodloe was on the forward upper deck, watching the early
passengers come on board, and occasionally smiling as his glance fell
upon a tall man in a blue flannel shirt, who, with a number of other
deck-hands, was hard at work transferring from the pier to the steamer
the boxes, barrels, and bales of merchandise the discouraging mass of
which was on the point of being increased by the unloading of a newly
arrived two-horse truck.
Lodloe had good reason to allow himself his smiles of satisfaction, for
he had just achieved a victory over the man in the blue shirt, and a
victory over a busy deck-hand on a hot day is rare enough to be
valuable. As soon as he had stepped on board, he had deposited his
hand-baggage in a place of safety, and walked forward to see the men run
on the freight. It was a lively scene, and being a student of incident,
character, and all that sort of thing, it greatly interested him.
Standing by a strangely marked cask which had excited his curiosity, he
found himself in the way of the deck-hand in the blue shirt, who, with
red face and sparkling forehead, had just wheeled two heavy boxes up the
incline of the gang-plank, and was about to roll them with easy rapidity
to the other side of the deck; but Lodloe, with his back turned and
directly in front of him, made it necessary for him to make a violent
swerve to the right or to break the legs of a passenger. He made the
swerve, missed Lodloe, and then, dumping his load, turned and swore at
the young man with the promptness and accuracy of a cow-boy's revolver.
It was quite natural that a high-spirited young fellow should object to
be sworn at, no matter what provocation he had given, and Lodloe not
only objected but grew very angry. The thing which instantly suggested
itself to him, and which to most people would seem the proper thing to
do, was to knock down the man. But this knocking-down business is a
matter which should be approached with great caution. Walter was a
strong young fellow and had had some practice in boxing, but it was not
impossible that, even with the backing of justifiable indignation, the
conventional blow straight from the shoulder might have failed to fell
the tall deck-hand.
But even had Lodloe succeeded in stretching the insulting man upon the
dirty deck, it is not at all probable that he would have staid there. In
five seconds there would have been a great fight, and it would not have
been long before the young gentleman would have found himself in the
custody of a policeman.
Lodloe's common sense was capable of considerable tension without giving
way, even under a strain like this, and, although pale with anger, he
would not engage in a personal contest with a deck-hand on a crowded
steamboat; but to bear the insult was almost impossible. Never before
had he been subjected to such violent abuse.
But in a flash he remembered something, and the man had scarcely turned
his empty truck to go back to the pier, when Lodloe stepped in front of
him, and with a wave of the hand stopped him.
Two nights before Lodloe had been sitting up late reading some papers on
modern Italian history, and in the course of said reading had met with
the text of the _anathema maranatha_ pronounced by Pius IX. against
disbelievers in his infallibility. The directness, force, and
comprehensiveness of the expressions used in this composition made a
deep impression upon Lodloe, and as it was not very long he had
committed it to memory, thinking that he might some time care to use it
in quotation. Now it flashed upon him that the time had come to quote
this _anathema maranatha_, without hesitation he delivered the whole of
it, and square, straight into the face of the petrified deck-hand.
Petrified immediately he was not. As first he flushed furiously, but
after a few phrases he began to pale and to turn to living stone; enough
mobility, however, remained to allow him presently to raise his hand
imploringly, but Lodloe had now nearly finished his discourse, and with
a few words more he turned and walked away. The deck-hand wiped his
brow, took in a long breath, and went to work. If another passenger had
got in his way, he would not have sworn at him.
Therefore it was that, gently pleased by the sensations of victory,
Walter Lodloe sat on the upper deck and watched the busy scene. He soon
noted that passengers were beginning to come down the pier in
considerable numbers, and among these his eye was caught by a young
woman wheeling a baby-carriage.
When this little equipage had been pushed down nearly to the end of that
side of the pier from which the passengers were going on board, it
stopped, and its motive power looked behind her. Presently she turned
her head towards the steamer and eagerly scanned every part of it on
which she could see human beings. In doing this she exhibited to Lodloe
a very attractive face. It was young enough, it was round enough, and
the brown eyes were large enough, to suit almost any one whose taste was
not restricted to the lines of the old sculptors.
When she completed her survey of the steamboat, the young woman turned
the carriage around and wheeled it up the pier. Very soon, however, she
returned, walking rapidly, and ran the little vehicle over the broad
gang-plank on to the steamboat. Now Lodloe lost sight of her, but in
about five minutes she appeared on the forward upper deck without the
baby-carriage, and looking eagerly here and there. Not finding what she
sought, she hastily descended.
The next act in this performance was the appearance of the
baby-carriage, borne by the blue-shirted deck-hand, and followed by the
young woman carrying the baby. The carriage was humbly set down by its
bearer, who departed without looking to the right or left, and the baby
was quickly deposited in it. Then the young woman stepped to the rail
and looked anxiously upon the pier. As Lodloe gazed upon her it was easy
to see that she was greatly troubled. She was expecting some one who did
not come. Now she went to the head of the stairway and went down a few
steps, then she came up again and stood undecided. Her eyes now fell
upon Lodloe, who was looking at her, and she immediately approached him.
"Can you tell me, sir," she said, "exactly how long it will be before
this boat starts?"
Lodloe drew out his watch.
"In eight minutes," he answered.
If Lodloe had allowed himself to suppose that because the young woman
who addressed him was in sole charge of a baby-carriage she was a nurse
or superior maid-servant, that notion would have instantly vanished when
he heard her speak.
The lady turned a quick glance towards the pier, and then moved to the
head of the stairway, but stopped before reaching it. It was plain that
she was in much perplexity. Lodloe stepped quickly towards her.
"Madam," said he, "you are looking for some one. Can I help you?"
"I am," she said; "I am looking for my nurse-maid. She promised to meet
me on the pier. I cannot imagine what has become of her."
"Let me go and find her," said Lodloe. "What sort of person is she?"
"She isn't any sort of person in particular," answered the lady. "I
couldn't describe her. I will run down and look for her myself, and if
you will kindly see that nobody knocks over my baby I shall be much
obliged to you."
Lodloe instantly undertook the charge, and the lady disappeared below.
II
THE BABY, THE MAN, AND THE MASTERY
The young man drew the baby-carriage to the bench by the rail and,
seating himself, gazed with interest upon its youthful occupant. This
individual appeared to be about two years of age, with its mother's eyes
and a combative disposition. The latter was indicated by the manner in
which it banged its own legs and the sides of its carriage with a wicker
bludgeon that had once been a rattle. It looked earnestly at the young
man, and gave the edges of its carriage a whack which knocked the
bludgeon out of its hand. Lodloe picked up the weapon, and, restoring it
to its owner, began to commune with himself.
"It is the same old story," he thought. "The mother desires to be rid of
the infant; she leaves it for a moment in the charge of a stranger; she
is never seen again. However, I accept the situation. If she doesn't
come back this baby is mine. It seems like a good sort of baby, and I
think I shall like it. Yes, youngster, if your mother doesn't come back
you are mine. I shall not pass you over to the police or to any one
else; I shall run you myself."
It was now half-past nine. Lodloe arose and looked out over the pier. He
could see nothing of the young mother. The freight was all on board, and
they were hauling up the forward gang-plank. One or two belated
passengers were hurrying along the pier; the bell was ringing; now the
passengers were on board, the aft gang-plank was hauled in, the hawsers
were cast off from the posts, the pilot's bell jingled, the wheels began
to revolve, and the great steamboat slowly moved from its pier.
"I knew it," said Lodloe, unconsciously speaking aloud; "she hadn't the
slightest idea of coming back. Now, then," said he, "I own a baby, and I
must consider what I am to do with it. One thing is certain, I intend to
keep it. I believe I can get more solid comfort and fun out of a baby
than I could possibly get out of a dog or even a horse."
Walter Lodloe was a young man who had adopted literature as a
profession. Earlier in life he had worked at journalism, but for the
last two years he had devoted himself almost entirely to literature pure
and simple. His rewards, so far, had been slight, but he was not in the
least discouraged, and hoped bravely for better things. He was now on
his way to spend some months at a quiet country place of which he had
heard, not for a summer holiday, but to work where he could live cheaply
and enjoy outdoor life. His profession made him more independent than an
artist--all he needed were writing materials, and a post-office within a
reasonable distance.
Lodloe gazed with much satisfaction at his new acquisition. He was no
stickler for conventionalities, and did not in the least object to
appear at his destination--where he knew no one--with a baby and a
carriage.
"I'll get some country girl to take care of it when I am busy," he said,
"and the rest of the time I'll attend to it myself. I'll teach it a lot
of things, and from what I have seen of youngster-culture I shouldn't
wonder if I should beat the record."
At this moment the baby gave a great wave with its empty rattle, and,
losing its hold upon it, the wicker weapon went overboard. Then, after
feeling about in its lap, and peering over the side of the carriage, the
baby began to whimper.
"Now then," thought the young man, "here's my chance. I must begin
instantly to teach it that I am its master."
Leaning forward, he looked sternly into the child's face, and in a
sharp, quick tone said:
"Whoa!"
The baby stopped instantly, and stared at its new guardian.
"There," thought Lodloe, "it is just the same with a baby as with a
horse. Be firm, be decided; it knows what you want, and it will do it."
At this instant the baby opened its mouth, uttered a wild wail, and
continued wailing.
Lodloe laughed. "That didn't seem to work," said he; and to quiet the
little creature he agitated the vehicle, shook before the child his
keys, and showed it his watch, but the wails went on with persistent
violence. The baby's face became red, its eyes dropped tears.
The young man looked around him for assistance. The forward upper deck
was without an awning, and was occupied only by a few men, the majority
of the passengers preferring the spacious and shaded after deck. Two of
the men were laughing at Lodloe.
"That's a new way," one of them called out to him, "to shut up a young
one. Did it ever work?"
"It didn't this time," answered Lodloe. "Have you any young ones?"
"Five," answered the man.
"And how do you stop them when they howl like that?"
"I leave that to the old woman," was the answer, "and when she's heard
enough of it she spanks 'em."
Lodloe shook his head. That method did not suit him.
"If you'd run its wagon round the deck," said another man, "perhaps that
would stop it. I guess you was never left alone with it before."
Lodloe made no reply to this supposition, but began to wheel the
carriage around the deck. Still the baby yelled and kicked. An elderly
gentleman who had been reading a book went below.
"If you could feed it," said one of the men who had spoken before, "that
might stop it, but the best thing you can do is to take it down to its
mother."
[Illustration: ON DECK.]
Lodloe was annoyed. He had not yet arranged in his mind how he should
account for his possession of the baby, and he did not want an
explanation forced upon him before he was ready to make it. These men
had come on board after the departure of the young woman, and could know
nothing of the facts, and therefore Lodloe, speaking from a high,
figurative standpoint, settled the matter by shaking his head and
saying:
"That can't be done. The little thing has lost its mother."
The man who had last spoken looked compassionately at Lodloe.
"That's a hard case," he said; "I know all about it, for I've been in
that boat myself. My wife died just as I was going to sail for this
country, and I had to bring over the two babies. I was as seasick as
blazes, and had to take care of 'em night and day. I tell you, sir,
you've got a hard time ahead of you; but feedin' 's the only thing. I'll
get you something. Is it on milk yet, or can it eat biscuit?"
Lodloe looked at the open mouth of the vociferous infant and saw teeth.
"Biscuit will do," he said, "or perhaps a banana. If you can get me
something of the sort I shall be much obliged"; and he gave the man some
money.
The messenger soon returned with an assortment of refreshments, among
which, happily, was not a banana, and the baby soon stopped wailing to
suck an enormous stick of striped candy. Quiet having been restored to
this part of the vessel, Lodloe sat down to reconsider the situation.
"It may be," he said to himself, "that I shall have to take it to an
asylum, but I shall let it stay there only during the period of
unintelligent howling. When it is old enough to understand that I am its
master, then I shall take it in hand again. It is ridiculous to suppose
that a human being cannot be as easily trained as a horse."
The more he considered the situation the better he liked it. The
possession of a healthy and vigorous youngster without encumbrances was
to him a novel and delightful sensation.
"I hope," he said to himself, "that when the country girl dresses it she
will find no label on its clothes, nor any sign which might enable one
to discover the original owners. I don't want anybody coming up to claim
it after we've got to be regular chums."
When the boat made its first landing the two men who had given advice
and assistance to Lodloe got off, and as the sun rose higher the forward
deck became so unpleasantly warm that nearly everybody left it; but
Lodloe concluded to remain. The little carriage had a top, which
sufficiently shaded the baby, and as for himself he was used to the sun.
If he went among the other passengers they might ask him questions, and
he was not prepared for these. What he wanted was to be let alone until
he reached his landing-place, and then he would run his baby-carriage
ashore, and when the steamboat had passed on he would be master of the
situation, and could assume what position he chose towards his new
possession.
"When I get the little bouncer to Squirrel Inn I shall be all right, but
I must have the relationship defined before I arrive there." And to the
planning and determination of that he now gave his mind.
He had not decided whether he should create an imaginary mother who had
died young, consider himself the uncle of the child, whose parents had
been lost at sea, or adopt the little creature as a brother or a
sister, as the case might be, when the subject of his reflections laid
down its stick of candy and began a violent outcry against circumstances
in general.
Lodloe's first impulse was to throw it overboard. Repressing this
natural instinct, he endeavored to quiet the infantile turbulence with
offers of biscuit, fresh candy, gingercakes, and apples, but without
effect. The young bewailer would have nothing to do with any of these
enticements.
Lodloe was puzzled. "I have got to keep the thing quiet until we land,"
he thought; "then I will immediately hire some one to go with me and
take charge of it, but I can't stand this uproar for two hours longer."
The crying attracted the attention of other people, and presently a
country woman appeared from below.
"What is the matter with it?" she asked. "I thought it was some child
left here all by itself."
"What would you do with it?" asked Lodloe, helplessly.
"You ought to take it up and walk it about until its mother comes," said
the woman; and having given this advice she returned below to quiet one
of her own offspring who had been started off by the sounds of woe.
Lodloe smiled at the idea of carrying the baby about until its mother
came; but he was willing to do the thing in moderation, and taking up
the child resolutely, if not skilfully, he began to stride up and down
the deck with it.
This suited the youngster perfectly, and it ceased crying and began to
look about with great interest. It actually smiled into the young man's
face, and taking hold of his mustache began to use it as a doorbell.
"This is capital," said Lodloe; "we are chums already." And as he strode
he whistled, talked baby-talk, and snapped his fingers in the face of
the admiring youngster, who slapped at him, and laughed, and did its
best to kick off the bosom of his shirt.
III
MATTHEW VASSAR
In the course of this sociable promenade the steamboat stopped at a
small town, and it had scarcely started again when the baby gave a
squirm which nearly threw it out of its bearer's arms. At the same
instant he heard quick steps behind him, and, turning, he beheld the
mother of the child. At the sight his heart fell. Gone were his plans,
his hopes, his little chum.
The young woman was flushed and panting.
"Upon my word!" was all she could say as she clasped the child, whose
little arms stretched out towards her. She seated herself upon the
nearest bench. In a few moments she looked from her baby to Lodloe; she
had not quite recovered her breath, and her face was flushed, but in her
eyes and on her mouth and dimpled cheeks there was an expression of
intense delight mingled with amusement.
"Will you tell me, sir," she said, "how long you have been carrying this
baby about? And did you have to take care of it?"
Lodloe did not feel in a very good humor. By not imposing upon him, as
he thought she had done, she had deceived and disappointed him.
"Of course I took care of it," he said, "as you left it in my charge;
and it gave me a lot of trouble, I assure you. For a time it kicked up a
dreadful row. I had the advice of professionals, but I did all the work
myself."
"I am very sorry," she said, "but it does seem extremely funny that it
should have happened so. What did you think had become of me?"
"I supposed you had gone off to whatever place you wanted to go to,"
said Lodloe.
She looked at him in amazement.
"Do you mean to say," she exclaimed, "that you thought I wanted to get
rid of my baby, and to palm him off on you--an utter stranger?"
"That is exactly what I thought," he answered. "Of course, people who
want to get rid of babies don't palm them off on friends and
acquaintances. I am very sorry if I misjudged you, but I think you will
admit that, under the circumstances, my supposition was a very natural
one."
"Tell me one more thing," she said; "what did you intend to do with this
child?"
"I intended to bring it up as my own," said Lodloe; "I had already
formed plans for its education."
The lady looked at him in speechless amazement. If she had known him she
would have burst out laughing.
"The way of it was this," she said presently. "I ran off the steamboat
to look for my nurse-maid, and if I hadn't thought of first searching
through the other parts of the boat to see if she was on board I should
have had plenty of time. I found her waiting for me at the entrance of
the pier, and when I ran towards her all she had to say was that she had
made up her mind not to go into the country. I was so excited, and so
angry at her for playing such a trick on me at the last moment, that I
forgot how time was passing, and that is why I was left behind. But it
never entered my mind that any one would think that I intended to desert
my baby, and I didn't feel afraid either that he wouldn't be taken care
of. I had seen ever so many women on board, and some with babies of
their own, and I did not doubt that some of these would take charge of
him.
"As soon as I saw that the steamboat had gone, I jumped into a cab, and
went to the West Bank Railroad, and took the first train for Scurry,
where I knew the steamboat stopped. The ticket agent told me he thought
the train would get there about forty minutes before the boat; but it
didn't, and I had to run every inch of the way from the station to the
wharf, and then barely got there in time."
"You managed matters very well," said Lodloe.
"I should have managed better," said she, "if I had taken my baby ashore
with me. In that case, I should have remained in the city until I
secured another maid. But why did you trouble yourself with the child,
especially when he cried?"
"Madam," said Lodloe, "you left that little creature in my charge, and
it never entered my mind to hand it over to anybody else. I took advice,
as I told you, but that was all I wanted of any one until I went
ashore, and then I intended to hire a country girl to act as its nurse."
"And you really and positively intended to keep it for your own?" she
asked.
"I did," he answered.
At this the lady could not help laughing. "In all my life," she said, "I
never heard of anything like that. But I am just as much obliged to you,
sir, as if I were acquainted with you; in fact, more so."
Lodloe took out his card and handed it to her. She read it, and then
said:
"I am Mrs. Robert Cristie of Philadelphia. And now I will take my baby
to the other end of the boat, where it is more sheltered, but not
without thanking you most heartily for your very great kindness."
"If you are going aft," said Lodloe, "let me help you. If you will take
the baby, I will bring its carriage."
In a few minutes the mother and child were ensconced in a shady spot on
the lower deck, and then Lodloe, lifting his hat, remarked:
"As I suppose two people cannot become conventionally acquainted without
the intervention of a third person, no matter how little each may know
of said third party, I must take my leave; but allow me to say that, if
you require any further assistance, I shall be most happy to give it. I
shall be on the boat until we reach Romney."
"That is where I get off," she said.
"Indeed," said he; "then perhaps you will engage the country girl whom I
intended to hire."
"Do you know any one living there," she asked, "who would come to me as
nurse-maid?"
"I don't know a soul in Romney," said Lodloe; "I never was in the place
in my life. I merely supposed that in a little town like that there were
girls to be hired. I don't intend to remain in Romney, to be sure, but I
thought it would be much safer to engage a girl there than to trust to
getting one in the country place to which I am going."
"And you thought out all that, and about my baby?" said Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes, I did," said Lodloe, laughing.
"Very well," said she; "I shall avail myself of your forethought, and
shall try to get a girl in Romney. Where do you go when you leave
there?"
"Oh, I am going some five or six miles from the town, to a place called
the 'Squirrel Inn.'"
"The Squirrel Inn!" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie, dropping her hands into her
lap and leaning forward.
"Yes," said Lodloe; "are you going there?"
"I am," she answered.
Now in his heart Walter Lodloe blessed his guardian angel that she had
prompted him to make the announcement of his destination before he knew
where this lady was going.
"I am very glad to hear that," he said. "It seems odd that we should
happen to be going to the same place, and yet it is not so very odd,
after all, for people going to the Squirrel Inn must take this boat and
land at Romney, which is not on the railroad."
"The odd part of it is that so few people go to the Squirrel Inn," said
the lady.
"I did not know that," remarked Lodloe; "in fact I know very little
about the place. I have heard it spoken of, and it seems to be just the
quiet, restful place in which I can work. I am a literary man, and like
to work in the country."
"Do you know the Rockmores of Germantown?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"I never heard of them," he answered.
"Well, then, you may as well stay on board this steamboat and go back
home in her," said Mrs. Cristie; "if you do not know the Rockmores of
Germantown Stephen Petter will not take you into his inn. I know all
about the place. I was there with my husband three years ago. Mr. Petter
is very particular about the guests he entertains. Several years ago,
when he opened the inn, the Rockmores of Germantown spent the summer
with him, and he was so impressed with them that he will not take
anybody unless they know the Rockmores of Germantown."
"He must be a ridiculous old crank," said Lodloe, drawing a camp-chair
near to the lady, and seating himself thereon.
"In one way he is not a crank," said Mrs. Cristie; "you can't turn him.
When he has made up his mind about anything, that matter is settled and
fixed just as if it were screwed down to the floor."
"From what I had been told," said the young man, "I supposed the
Squirrel Inn to be a free and easy place."
"It is, after you get there," said Mrs. Cristie, "and the situation and
the surroundings are beautiful, and the air is very healthful. My
husband was Captain Cristie of the navy. He was in bad health when he
went to the Squirrel Inn, but the air did him good, and if we had staid
all winter, as Stephen Petter wanted us to, it would have been a great
advantage to him. But when the weather grew cool we went to New York,
where my husband died early in the following December."
"I will take my chances with Stephen Petter," said Lodloe, after a
suitable pause. "I am going to the Squirrel Inn, and I am bound to stay
there. There must be some road not through Germantown by which a fellow
can get into the favor of Mr. Petter. Perhaps you will say a good word
for me, madam?"
"I don't know any good word to say," she answered, "except that you take
excellent care of babies, and I am not at all sure that that would have
any weight with Stephen Petter. Since you are going to the inn, and
since we have already talked together so much, I wish I did properly
know you. Did you ever have a sister at Vassar?"
"I am sorry to say," said Lodloe, "that I never had a sister at that
college, though I have one who wanted very much to go there; but instead
of that she went with an aunt to Europe, where she married."
"An American?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes," said Lodloe.
"What was his name?"
"Tredwell."
"I never heard of him," said the lady. "There don't seem to be any
threads to take hold of."
"Perhaps you had a brother at Princeton," remarked Lodloe.
"I have no brother," said she.
There was now a pause in the dialogue. The young man was well pleased
that this very interesting young woman wished to know him properly, as
she put it, and if there could be found the least bit of foundation on
which might be built a conventional acquaintance he was determined to
find it.
"Were you a Vassar girl?" he asked.
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Cristie; "I was there four years."
"Perhaps you know something of old Matthew Vassar, the founder?"
Mrs. Cristie laughed. "I've heard enough about him, you may be sure; but
what has he to do with anything?"
"I once slept in his room," said Lodloe; "in the Founder's Room, with
all his stiff old furniture, and his books, and his portrait."
"You!" cried Mrs. Cristie. "When did you do that?"
"It was two years ago this spring," said Lodloe. "I was up there getting
material for an article on the college which I wrote for the 'Bayside
Magazine.'"
"Did you write that?" said Mrs. Cristie. "I read it, and it was just as
full of mistakes as it could be."
"That may be, and I don't wonder at it," said the young man. "I kept on
taking in material until I had a good deal more than I could properly
stow away in my mind, and it got to be too late for me to go back to the
town, and they had to put me into the Founder's Room, because the house
was a good deal crowded. Before I went to bed I examined all the things
in the room. I didn't sleep well at all, for during the night the old
gentleman got down out of his frame, and sat on the side of my bed, and
told me a lot of things about that college which nobody else ever knew,
I am sure."
"And I suppose you mixed up all that information with what the college
people gave you," she said.
"That may be the case," answered Lodloe, laughing, "for some of the old
gentleman's points were very interesting and made a deep impression upon
me."
"Well," said Mrs. Cristie, speaking very emphatically, "when I had
finished reading that article I very much wished to meet the person who
had written it, so that I might tell him what I thought of it; but of
course I had no idea that the founder had anything to do with its
inaccuracies."
"Madam," said Lodloe, "if it had not been for the mistakes in it you
never would have thought of the man who wrote the paper, but you did
think of him, and wanted to meet him. Now it seems to me that we have
been quite properly introduced to each other, and it was old Matthew
Vassar who did it. I am sure I am very much obliged to him."
Mrs. Cristie laughed. "I don't know what the social authorities would
say to such an introduction," she answered, "but as baby is asleep I
shall take him into the saloon."
IV
LODLOE UNDERTAKES TO NOMINATE HIS SUCCESSOR
It was late in the afternoon when the Romney passengers were landed, and
Mrs. Cristie and Lodloe, with a few other persons, repaired to the
village hotel.
"There is a sort of stage-wagon," said the lady, "which takes people
from this house to the Squirrel Inn, and it starts when the driver is
ready; but before I leave Romney I must try to find some one who will go
with me as nurse-maid."
"Madam," said Lodloe, "don't think of it. I have made inquiries of the
landlord, and he says the roads are rough, and that it will take more
than an hour to reach the Squirrel Inn, so that if you do not start now
I fear you and the baby will not get there before dark. I prefer to stay
here to-night, and it will be no trouble at all for me to look up a
suitable person for you, and to take her with me to-morrow. It will be a
good plan to take four or five of them, and when you have selected the
one you like best the others can come back here in the wagon. It will be
a lark for them."
Mrs. Cristie drew a long breath. "Truly," she said, "your proposition is
phenomenal. Half a dozen nurse-maids in a wagon, from whom I am to pick
and choose! The thing is so startling and novel that I am inclined to
accept. I should very much dislike to be on the road after dark, and if
you have planned to stay here to-night, and if it will not be much
trouble--"
"Say not another word," cried Lodloe; "project your mind into to-morrow
morning, and behold a wagon-load of willing maidens at the door of the
inn."
When Mrs. Cristie and the baby and an elderly woman who lived in
Lethbury, a village two miles beyond the Squirrel Inn, had started on
their journey, Walter Lodloe set about the task he had undertaken. It
was still hot, and the Romney streets were dusty, and after an hour or
two of inquiry, walking, and waiting for people who had been sent for,
Lodloe found that in the whole village there was not a female from
thirteen to seventy-three who would think of such a thing as leaving her
home to become nurse-maid to a city lady. He went to bed that night a
good deal chagrined, and not in the least knowing what he was going to
do about it.
In the morning, however, the thing to do rose clear and plain before
him.
"I can't go to her and tell her I've failed," he said to himself. "A
maid must be got, and I have undertaken to get one. As there is nobody
to be had here, I must go back to the city for one. There are plenty of
them there."
So when the early morning boat came along he took passage for the
nearest railroad station on the river, for he wished to lose no time on
that trip.
The elderly lady who was going to Lethbury took a great interest in Mrs.
Cristie, who was to be her only fellow-passenger. She was at the hotel
with her carpet-bag and her paper bundle some time before the big
spring-wagon was ready to start, and she gave earnest attention to the
loading thereon of Mrs. Cristie's trunk and the baby-carriage. When they
were on their way the elderly woman promptly began the conversation:
"I think," said she to Mrs. Cristie, "that I've seed you before."
"Perhaps so," said the other; "I was in this region three years ago."
"Yes, yes," said the elder woman; "I thought I was right. Then you had a
husband and no child. It now looks as if you had a child and no
husband."
Mrs. Cristie informed her that her surmise was correct.
"Well, well," said the elderly woman; "I've had 'em both, and it's hard
to say which can be spared best, but as we've got nothin' to do with the
sparin' of 'em, we've got ter rest satisfied. After all, they're a good
deal like lilock bushes, both of 'em. They may be cut down, and grubbed
up, and a parsley bed made on the spot, but some day they sprout up
ag'in, and before you know it you've got just as big a bush as ever.
Does Stephen Petter know you're comin'?"
[Illustration: A WAGON-LOAD OF NURSE-MAIDS.]
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Cristie, quite willing to change the subject; "all
that is arranged. I was so pleased with the place when I was here
before, and Mrs. Petter was so good to me, that I quite long to spend a
summer there with my child."
"Well, I'm glad he knows you are comin', but if he didn't, I was goin'
ter say to you that you'd better go on to Lethbury, and then see what
you could do with Stephen to-morrow. It's no use stoppin' at his house
without givin' notice, and like as not it ain't no use then."
"Is Mr. Petter's house filled?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"Filled!" said the elderly woman. "There's nobody on the place but his
own family and the Greek."
"Greek!" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes," said the other; "he keeps a Greek in an outhouse, but what for
nobody knows. I think Stephen Petter is gettin' more oncommon than he
was. If he wants to get custom for his house the best thing he can do is
to die. There ain't no other way, for Stephen's not goin' to do no
changin' of himself. My niece, Calthea Rose, the daughter of Daniel
Rose, who used to keep the store,--she keeps it now herself,--goes over
there a good deal, for she's wonderful partial to Susan Petter, and
there's a good reason for it too, for a better woman never lived, and
the walk over there is mostly shady, or through the fields, to both of
which Calthea is partial, and so she knows most things that's goin' on
at the Squirrel Inn, which latterly has not been much, except the comin'
of the Greek; an' as nobody has been able to get at the bottom of that
business, that isn't much, neither."
"I think I remember Miss Calthea Rose," said Mrs. Cristie. "She was
tall, wasn't she, with a very fair complexion?"
"Yes," said the elderly woman; "and it's just as fair now as it was
then. Some of it's owin' to sun-bonnet, and some of it to cold cream.
Calthea isn't as young as she was, but she's wonderful lively on her
feet yit, and there ain't many that could get ahead of her walkin' or
bargainin'."
"And she keeps the store?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes," said the other; "she keeps it, and in more ways than one. You
see, when Dan'el died--and that was two years ago last March--he left
everything to Calthea, and the store with the rest. Before he died he
told her what he had done, and advised her to sell out the stock, and
put the money into somethin' that would pay good interest, and this she
agreed to do, and this she is doing now. She wouldn't consent to no
auction, for she knew well enough the things wouldn't bring more 'n half
they cost, so she undertook herself to sell 'em all out at retail, just
as her father intended they should be sold when he bought 'em. Well,
it's took her a long while, and, in the opinion of most folks, it'll
take her a long while yit. You see she don't lay in no new goods, but
just keeps on sellin' or tryin' to sell what she's got on hand.
"It was purty easy to get rid of the groceries, and the iron and wooden
things got themselves sold some way or other; but old dry-goods, with
never any new ones to lighten 'em up, is about as humdrum as old people
without youngsters in the family. Now it stands to reason that when a
person goes into a store and sees nothin' but old calicoes, and some
other odds and ends, gettin' mustier and dustier and a little more
fly-specked every time, and never a new thing, even so much as a spool
of cotton thread, then persons isn't likely to go often into that store,
specially when there's a new one in the village that keeps up to the
times.
"Now that's Calthea Rose's way of doin' business. She undertook to sell
out them goods, and she's goin' to keep on till she does it. She is
willin' to sell some of the worst-lookin' things at cost, but not a cent
below that, for if she does, she loses money, and that isn't Calthea
Rose. I guess, all put together, she hasn't sold more 'n ten dollars'
worth of goods this year, and most of them was took by the Greek, though
what he wants with 'em is more 'n I know."
"I am sorry to hear that there are no guests at the Squirrel Inn," was
Mrs. Cristie's only reply to this information.
"Oh, you needn't give yourself no trouble about loneliness and that sort
of thing," said the elderly woman; "before to-morrow night the whole
house may be crowded from cockloft to potato-cellar. It never has been
yit, but there's no tellin' what Stephen Petter has a-brewin' in his
mind."
V
THE LANDLORD AND HIS INN
Stephen Petter was a man of middle age, who had been born on a farm, and
who, apparently, had been destined to farm a farm. But at the age of
thirty, having come into a moderate inheritance, he devoted himself more
to the business of cultivating himself and less to that of cultivating
his fields.
He was a man who had built himself up out of books. His regular
education had been limited, but he was an industrious reader, and from
the characters of this and that author he had conceived an idea of a
sort of man which pleased his fancy, and to make himself this sort of
man he had given a great deal of study and a great deal of hard labor.
The result was that he had shaped himself into something like an
old-fashioned country clergyman, without his education, his manners, his
religion, or his clothes. Imperfect similitudes of these Stephen Petter
had acquired, but this was as far as he had gone. A well-read man who
happened also to be a good judge of human nature could have traced back
every obvious point of Stephen Petter's character to some English
author of the last century or the first half of this one.
[Illustration: STEPHEN PETTER.]
It was rather odd that a man like this should be the landlord of an inn.
But everything about Stephen Petter was odd, so ten years before he had
conceived the notion that such a man as he would like to be would be
entirely unwilling to live in the little village of Lethbury, where he
had no opportunity of exercising an influence upon his fellow-beings.
Such an influence he thought it fit to exercise, and as he was not
qualified to be a clergyman, or a physician, or a lawyer, he resolved to
keep a tavern. This vocation would bring him into contact with
fellow-beings; it would give him opportunities to control, impel, and
retard.
Stephen Petter did not for a moment think of buying the Lethbury
"Hotel," nor of establishing such a house as was demanded by the
village. What he had read about houses of entertainment gave him no such
motives as these. Fortunately he had an opportunity of carrying out his
plan according to the notions he had imbibed from his books.
Some years before Stephen Petter had decided upon his vocation, a rich
gentleman had built himself a country-seat about two miles out of
Lethbury. This house and its handsome grounds were the talk and the
admiration of the neighborhood. But the owner had not occupied his
country-home a whole summer before he determined to make a still more
attractive home of it by lighting it with a new-fashioned gas of
domestic manufacture. He succeeded in lighting not only his house but
the whole country-side, for one moonless night his mansion was burned to
the ground. Nothing was left of the house but the foundations, and on
these the owner felt no desire to build again. He departed from the
Lethbury neighborhood and never came back.
When Mr. Petter became impressed with the belief that it would be a good
thing for him to be an innkeeper, he also became impressed with the
belief that the situation which the rich man had chosen for his
country-home would be an admirable one for his purposes. He accordingly
bought the property at a very reasonable price, and on the stone
foundations of the house which had been burned he built his inn.
This edifice was constructed very much as he had endeavored to construct
himself. His plans for one part of it were made up from the
descriptions in one of his books, and those of another part from the
descriptions or pictures in some other book. Portions of the structure
were colonial, others were old English, and others again suggested the
Swiss chalet or a château in Normandy. There was a tall tower and there
were some little towers. There were peaks here and there, and different
kinds of slopes to the various roofs, some of which were thatched, some
shingled in fanciful ways, and some covered with long strips or slabs.
There were a good many doors and a good many windows, and these were of
different forms, sizes, and periods, some of them jutting boldly
outward, and some appearing anxious to shrink out of sight.
It took a great deal of thought and a good deal of labor to build this
house; which was also true of Mr. Petter's character. But the
first-named work was the more difficult of the two, for in building up
himself he consulted with no one, while in planning his inn he met with
all sorts of opposition from the village workmen and builders.
But at the cost of all the time that was needed and all the money he
could spare, he had his house built as he wanted it; and when it was
finished it seemed to exhibit a trace of nearly everything a house
should possess excepting chronology and paint. Mr. Petter had selected
with a great deal of care the various woods of which his house was
built, and he decidedly objected to conceal their hues and texture by
monotonous paint. The descriptions that he had read of houses seldom
mentioned paint.
The interior was not in the least monotonous. The floors of the rooms,
even in the same story, were seldom upon the same level; sometimes one
entered a room from a hallway by an ascent of two or three steps, while
access to others was obtained by going down some steps. The inside was
subordinated in a great degree to the outside: if there happened to be a
pretty window like something Mr. Petter had seen in an engraving, a room
of suitable shape and size was constructed behind the window. Stairways
were placed where they were needed, but they were not allowed to
interfere with the shapes of rooms or hallways; if there happened to be
no other good place for them they were put on the outside of the house.
Some of these stairways were wide, some narrow, and some winding; and as
those on the outside were generally covered they increased the
opportunities for queer windows and perplexing projections. The upper
room of the tower was reached by a staircase from the outside, which
opened into a little garden fenced off from the rest of the grounds, so
that a person might occupy this room without having any communication
with the other people in the house.
In one of the back wings of the building there was a room which was more
peculiar than any other, from the fact that there was no entrance to it
whatever, unless one climbed into it by means of a ladder placed at one
of its windows. This room, which was of fair size and well lighted, was
in the second story, but it appeared to be of greater height on account
of the descent of the ground at the back of the inn. It had been
constructed because the shape of that part of the building called for a
room, and a stairway to it had been omitted for the reason that if one
had been built in the inside of the house it would have spoiled the
shape of the room below, and there seemed no good way of putting one on
the outside. So when the room was finished and floored the workmen came
out of it through one of the windows, and Stephen Petter reserved his
decision in regard to a door and stairway until the apartment should be
needed. The grounds around the Squirrel Inn were interesting and
attractive, and with them Stephen Petter had interfered very little. The
rich man had planned beautiful surroundings for his country-home, and
during many years nature had labored steadily to carry out his plans.
There were grassy stretches and slopes, great trees, and terraces
covered with tangled masses of vines and flowers. The house stood on a
bluff, and on one side could be seen a wide view of a lovely valley,
with the two steeples of Lethbury showing above the treetops.
Back of the house, and sweeping around between it and the public road,
was a far-reaching extent of woodland; and through this, for the
distance of half a mile, wound the shaded lane which led from the
highway to the Squirrel Inn.
At the point at which this lane was entered from the highroad was the
sign of the inn. This was a tall post with a small square frame hanging
from a transverse beam, and seated on the lower strip of the frame was a
large stuffed gray squirrel. Every spring Stephen Petter took down this
squirrel and put up a new one. The old squirrels were fastened up side
by side on a ledge in the taproom, and by counting them one could find
out how many years the inn had been kept.
[Illustration: THE SIGN.]
Directly below the bluff on which the house stood were Stephen Petter's
grassy meadows and his fields of grain and corn, and in the rich
pastures, or in the shade of the trees standing by the bank of the rapid
little stream that ran down from the woodlands, might be seen his flocks
and his herds. By nature he was a very good farmer, and his agricultural
method he had not derived from his books. There were people who
said--and among these Calthea Rose expressed herself rather better than
the others--that Mr. Petter's farm kept him, while he kept the Squirrel
Inn.
When it had become known that the Squirrel Inn was ready to receive
guests, people came from here and there; not very many of them, but
among them were the Rockmores of Germantown. This large family, so it
appeared to Stephen Petter, was composed of the kind of fellow-beings
with whom he wished to associate. Their manners and ways seemed to him
the manners and ways of the people he liked to read about, and he
regarded them with admiration and respect. He soon discovered from their
conversation that they were connected or acquainted with leading
families in our principal Eastern cities, and it became his hope that he
and his Squirrel Inn might become connected with these leading families
by means of the Rockmores of Germantown.
As this high-classed family liked variety in their summer outings, they
did not come again to the Squirrel Inn, but the effect of their
influence remained strong upon its landlord. He made up his mind that
those persons who did not know the Rockmores of Germantown did not move
in those circles of society from which he wished to obtain his guests,
and therefore he drew a line which excluded all persons who did not
possess this acquaintanceship.
This rule was very effectual in preventing the crowding of his house,
and, indeed, there were summers when he had no guests at all; but this
did not move Stephen Petter. Better an empty house than people outside
the pale of good society.
VI
THE GREEK SCHOLAR
Mrs. Cristie and her baby were warmly welcomed by Stephen Petter and his
wife. They had learned during her former visit to like this lady for
herself, and now that she came to them a widow their sentiments towards
her were warmer than ever.
Mrs. Petter wondered very much why she had come without a maid, but
fearing that perhaps the poor lady's circumstances were not what they
had been she forbore to ask any immediate questions. But in her heart
she resolved that, if she kept her health and strength, Mrs. Cristie
should not be worn out by that child.
The young widow was charmed to find herself once more at the Squirrel
Inn, for it had been more like a home to her than any place in which she
had lived since her marriage, but when she went to her room that night
there was a certain depression on her spirits. This was caused by the
expected advent on the next day of Mr. Lodloe and a wagon-load of
candidates for the nurse-maidship.
The whole affair annoyed her. In the first place it was very awkward to
have this young man engaged in this service for her; and now that he was
engaged in it, it would be, in a manner, under her auspices that he
would arrive at the Squirrel Inn. The more she thought of the matter the
more it annoyed her. She now saw that she must announce the coming of
this gentleman. It would not do for him to make a totally unexpected
appearance as her agent in the nurse-maid business.
But no worry of this sort could keep her awake very long, and after a
night of sound and healthful sleep she told her host and hostess, the
next morning at breakfast, of the Mr. Lodloe who had kindly undertaken
to bring her a nurse-maid.
"Lodloe," repeated Mr. Petter. "It strikes me that I have heard the
Rockmores mention that name. Is it a Germantown family?"
"I really do not know," answered Mrs. Cristie; "he is from New York."
Here she stopped. She was of a frank and truthful nature, and very much
wished to say that she knew nothing whatever of Mr. Lodloe, but she was
also of a kindly and grateful disposition, and she very well knew that
such a remark would be an extremely detrimental one to the young man;
so, being in doubt, she resolved to play trumps, and in cases like this
silence is generally trumps.
Mrs. Petter had a mind which could project itself with the rapidity of
light into the regions of possibilities, and if the possibilities
appeared to her desirable her mind moved at even greater velocity. It
was plain to her that there must be something between this young widow
and the young man who was going to bring her a nurse-maid; and if this
were the case, nothing must be allowed to interfere with the admission
of said young man as a guest at the Squirrel Inn.
[Illustration: A GREEK IN AN OUTHOUSE.]
Mrs. Cristie did not want to talk any more on this subject. Nothing
would have pleased her better at that moment than to hear that Mr.
Lodloe had been unable to find her a suitable girl and that business had
called him to New York.
"Mr. Petter," she exclaimed, "I was told yesterday that you kept a Greek
in an outhouse. What on earth does that mean?"
Here Mrs. Petter laughed abruptly, and Mr. Petter slightly lifted his
brow.
"Who could have told you such nonsense?" he said. "There is no Greek
here. It is true that a Greek scholar lives in my summer-house, but that
is very different from keeping a Greek in an outhouse."
"And he's always late to breakfast," said Mrs. Petter; "I believe if we
sat down at the table at nine o'clock he would come in just as we were
finishing."
"How does it happen," said Mrs. Cristie, "that he lives in the
summer-house?"
"He does not know the Rockmores of Germantown," said Mrs. Petter.
"He is a man of learning," remarked Stephen Petter, "with a fine mind;
and although I have made a rule which is intended to keep up the
reputation of this house to a desirable level, I do not intend, if I can
help it, that my rules shall press pinchingly, oppressively, or
irritatively upon estimable persons. Such a person is Mr. Tippengray,
our Greek scholar; and although his social relations are not exactly up
to the mark, he is not a man who should be denied the privileges of this
house, so far as they can be conscientiously given him. So you see, Mrs.
Cristie, that, although I could not take him into the inn, there was no
reason why I should not fit up the summer-house for him, which I did,
and I believe he likes it better than living in the house with us."
"Like it!" exclaimed Mrs. Petter; "I should say he did like it. I
believe it would drive him crazy if he had to keep regular hours like
other people; but here he is now. Hester, bring in some hot cakes. Mrs.
Cristie, allow me to introduce Mr. Tippengray."
[Illustration: MR. TIPPENGRAY.]
The appearance of the Greek scholar surprised Mrs. Cristie. She had
expected to see a man in threadbare black, with a reserved and bowed
demeanor. Instead of this, she saw a bright little gentleman in neat
summer clothes, with a large blue cravat tied sailor fashion. He was not
a young man, although his hair being light the few portions of it which
had turned gray were not conspicuous. He was a man who was inclined to
listen and to observe rather than to talk, but when he had anything to
say he popped it out very briskly.
Mr. Petter, having finished his breakfast, excused himself and retired,
and Mrs. Petter remarked to Mr. Tippengray that she was sorry he had not
taken his evening meal with them the day before.
"I took such a long walk," said the Greek scholar, "that I concluded to
sup in Lethbury."
"Those Lethbury people usually take tea at five," said his hostess.
"But I'm not a Lethbury person," said he, "and I took my tea at seven."
Mrs. Petter looked at him with twinkles in her eyes.
"Of course you went to the hotel," she said.
Mr. Tippengray looked at her with twinkles in his eyes.
"Madam," said he, "have you noticed that those large blue-jays that were
here in the spring have almost entirely disappeared. I remember you used
to object to their shrill pipes."
"Which is as much as to say," said Mrs. Petter, "you don't care to
mention where you took tea yesterday."
"Madam," said Mr. Tippengray, "the pleasure of taking breakfast here
to-day effaces the memory of all former meals."
"The truth of it is," said Mrs. Petter to Mrs. Cristie, when they had
left the table, "Calthea Rose gave him his tea, and he don't want to say
so. She's mightily taken with him, for he is a fine-minded man, and it
isn't often she gets the chance of keeping company with that kind of a
man. I don't know whether he likes her liking or not, but he don't care
to talk about it."
Her first day at the Squirrel Inn was not altogether a pleasant one for
Bertha Cristie. In spite of the much-proffered service of Mrs. Petter
the care of her baby hampered her a good deal; and notwithstanding the
delights of her surroundings her mind was entirely too much occupied
with wondering when Mr. Lodloe would arrive with his wagon-load of
girls, and what she would have to say to him and about him when he did
arrive.
[Illustration]
VII
ROCKMORES AHEAD
It was late in the afternoon of the day after Mrs. Cristie reached the
Squirrel Inn that she slowly trundled the little carriage containing the
baby towards the end of the bluff beneath which stretched the fair
pastures where were feeding Mr. Petter's flocks and herds. All day she
had been looking for the arrival of the young man who had promised to
bring her some candidates for the position of child's nurse, and now she
was beginning to believe that she might as well cease to expect him. It
was an odd sort of service for a comparative stranger voluntarily to
undertake, and it would not be at all surprising if he had failed in his
efforts or had given up his idea of coming to the Squirrel Inn.
Having philosophized a little on the subject, and having succeeded in
assuring herself that after all the matter was of no great importance,
and that she should have attended to it herself, and must do it the next
day, she was surprised to find how glad she was when, turning, she saw
emerging from the woodland road a one-horse wagon with Mr. Lodloe
sitting by the driver, and a female figure on the back seat.
The latter proved to be a young person who at a considerable distance
looked about fourteen years old, although on a nearer and more careful
view she would pass for twenty, or thereabouts. She wore a round straw
hat with a white ribbon, and a light-colored summer suit with a broad
belt, which held a large bunch of yellow flowers with brown centers. She
had a cheerful, pleasant countenance, and large brown eyes which seemed
to observe everything.
As the wagon approached, Mrs. Cristie rapidly pushed her baby-carriage
towards the house. Before she reached it the young girl had jumped to
the ground, and was advancing towards her.
"I suppose this is Mrs. Cristie," said the newcomer. "I am Ida
Mayberry"; and she held out her hand. Without a word Mrs. Cristie shook
hands with the nurse-maid.
"I think," said the latter, "before we have any talk I would better go
to my room and freshen myself up a little. I am covered with dust"; and
then she turned to the driver of the wagon and gave him directions in
regard to a medium-sized trunk, a large flat box, and several long
packages tied up in brown muslin, which had been strapped to the back of
the wagon. When these had been taken into the inn, she followed them.
As Mr. Lodloe approached Mrs. Cristie, hat in hand, she exclaimed in a
tone which she was not in the habit of using to comparative strangers,
in which category sober reflection would certainly have placed the
gentleman:
[Illustration: "I SUPPOSE THIS IS MRS. CRISTIE."]
"Will you please to tell me what is the meaning of this? Who is that
girl, and where did she come from?"
"Madam," said Lodloe, in a deprecatory tone, "I can scarcely pick up the
courage to say so, but that is the nurse-maid."
"And you brought her to me?" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie.
"I did," he answered.
"Did you get her in Romney?"
"No," said Lodloe; "there wasn't a girl of any sort or kind to be had
there. I was obliged to go to New York for one."
"To New York!" cried the astonished Mrs. Cristie.
"Madam," said Lodloe, "let me propose that we retire a little from the
house. Perhaps her room may be somewhere above us."
And the two having walked a short distance over the lawn, he continued:
"I really believe that I have done a very foolish thing, but having
promised to do you a service I greatly disliked not to keep my word. I
could find no one in Romney, and of course the only way to get you a
girl was to go to New York; and so I went there. My idea was to apply to
one of those establishments where there are always lots of maids of all
grades, and bring one to you. That was the way the matter appeared to
me, and it seemed simple enough. On the ferryboat I met Mrs. Waltham, a
lady I know very well, who is a member of the Monday Morning Club, and a
great promoter of college annexes for girls, and all that sort of thing;
and when I asked her advice about the best intelligence office, she told
me to keep away from all of them, and to go instead to a teachers'
agency, of which she gave me the address, where she said I would be
almost sure to find some teacher who wanted occupation during the
holidays."
"A teacher!" cried Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes," said Lodloe; "and you may be sure that I was as much surprised as
you are. But Mrs. Waltham assured me that a great many women teachers
found it necessary to make money during the summer, and were glad to do
anything, just as college students wait at hotels. The more she talked
about it the more she got interested in it, and the matter resulted in
her going to the agency with me. Mrs. Waltham is a heavy swell in
educational circles, and as she selected this girl herself I said not a
word about it, except to hurry up matters so that the girl and I could
start on an early afternoon train."
"Never in my life!" ejaculated Mrs. Cristie.
"Madam," interrupted Lodloe, "I beg you not to say what you intended. It
is impossible for you to feel as badly about it as I do. Just to think
of it stuns me. Did you see her baggage? She has come to stay all
summer. There is no earthly reason to think she will suit you. I don't
suppose she ever saw a baby."
Mrs. Cristie's mind was still filled with surprise and vexation, but she
could not help laughing at Mr. Lodloe's comical contrition.
"I will see her presently," she said; "but in the mean time what are you
going to do? There is Mr. Petter standing in the doorway waiting for
your approach, and he will ask you a lot of questions."
"About the Germantown family, I suppose," said Lodloe.
"Yes," said Mrs. Cristie; "that will be one of them."
"Well, I don't know them," said Lodloe, "and that's the end of it."
"By no means," said the lady, quickly; "Mr. Petter has on his most
impressive air. You must go and talk to him, and it will not do to sneer
at the Rockmores."
"If it is absolutely necessary to have credentials in order to secure
quarters here," said Lodloe, "I don't see what is to be done about it."
"Come with me," said Mrs. Cristie, quickly; "you have put yourself to a
great deal of trouble for me, and I will see what I can do for you."
When Walter Lodloe and Mr. Petter had been formally introduced to each
other, the brow of the latter bore marks of increased trouble and
uncertainty. From the confidential aspect of the interview between Mrs.
Cristie and the young man, the landlord of the inn had begun to suspect
what his wife had suspected, and it galled his spirit to think of
putting his usual test question to this friend of Mrs. Cristie. But he
was a man of principle, and he did not flinch.
"Are you from Philadelphia, sir," he asked, "or its vicinity?"
"No," said Lodloe; "I am from New York."
[Illustration: LODLOE IS INTRODUCED TO STEPHEN PETTER.]
"A great many Philadelphia people," continued the landlord, "or those
from its vicinity, are well known in New York, and in fact move in
leading circles there. Are you acquainted, sir, with the Rockmores of
Germantown?"
Mrs. Petter now appeared in the doorway, her face clouded. If Mrs.
Cristie had known the Rockmores she would have hastened to give Mr.
Lodloe such advantages as an acquaintance in the second degree might
afford. But she had never met any member of that family, the valuable
connection being entirely on the side of her late husband.
"I did not know," said Lodloe, "that you required credentials of
respectability, or I might have brought a lot of letters."
"One from Matthew Vassar?" said Mrs. Cristie, unable to resist her
opportunity.
"Were you acquainted with Matthew Vassar?" interpolated Mrs. Petter with
energetic interest. "He was a great and good man, and his friends ought
to be good enough for anybody. Now put it to yourself, Stephen. Don't
you think that the friends of Matthew Vassar, the founder of that
celebrated college, known all over the world, a man who even after his
day and generation is doing so much good, are worthy to be accommodated
in this house?"
Mr. Petter contracted his brows, looked upon the ground, and interlaced
his fingers in front of him.
"The late Mr. Matthew Vassar," said he, "was truly a benefactor to his
kind, and a man worthy of all respect; but when we come to consider the
way in which the leading circles of society are made up--"
"Don't consider it at all," cried Mrs. Petter. "If this gentleman is a
friend of Mrs. Cristie, and is backed up by Matthew Vassar, you cannot
turn him away. If you want to get round the Rockmores you can treat him
just as you treat Mr. Tippengray. Let him have the top room of the
tower, which, I am sure, is as pleasant as can be, especially in warm
weather, and then he will have his own stairs to himself, and can come
in and go out just as Mr. Tippengray does, without ever considering
whether the Squirrel Inn is open or shut. As for eating, that's a
different matter. People can eat in a place without living there. That
was all settled when we took Mr. Tippengray."
An expression of decided relief passed over the face of Mr. Petter.
"It is true," he said, "that in the case of Mr. Tippengray we made an
exception to our rule--"
"That's so," interrupted Mrs. Petter; "and as I have heard that
exceptions prove a rule, the more of them we have the better. And if the
top room suits Mr. Lodloe, I'll have it made ready for him without
waiting another minute."
Mr. Lodloe declared that any room into which the good lady might choose
to put him would suit him perfectly; and that matter was settled.
VIII
MISS MAYBERRY
About five minutes after Walter Lodloe had departed for his loft chamber
Miss Ida Mayberry made her appearance in the front doorway. She had
changed her dress, and looked very bright and fresh.
"Isn't this a pretty place?" she said, approaching Mrs. Cristie. "I
think I shall like it ever so much. And that is your baby? Is it a boy
or a girl?"
"A boy," was the answer.
"And his name?"
"Douglas."
"I like that sort of name," remarked Miss Mayberry; "it is sensible and
distinctive. And now I wish you would tell me exactly what you want me
to do."
Mrs. Cristie spoke nervously.
"Really," said she, "I am afraid that there has been a mistake. I want
an ordinary nurse-maid, and Mr. Lodloe could not have understood--"
"Oh, don't trouble yourself about that," said the other. "I understand
perfectly. You will find me quite practical. What I don't know I can
learn. My mental powers need a change of channel, and if I can give them
this change, and at the same time make some money, I am sure I ought to
be satisfied."
"But it seems to me," said Mrs. Cristie, "that one who is by profession
a teacher would scarcely--"
"Perhaps not, years ago," interrupted the other; "but things are
different now. Look at all the young college fellows who work during
vacation, and we are beginning to do it, too. Now you will find me just
as practical as anybody. Nine months in the year I teach,--moral and
mental philosophy are my special branches,--and during vacation I am not
going to wear out my brain in a summer school, nor empty my purse by
lounging about in idleness. Now what could be better than for me to come
to a perfectly lovely place like this, which I fancy more and more every
minute, and take care of a nice little child, which, I am sure, will be
a pleasure in itself, and give me a lot of time to read besides?
However, I wish you to understand, Mrs. Cristie, that I am never going
to neglect the baby for the sake of study or reading."
"But have you thought seriously of the position in which this would
place you?"
"Oh, yes," was the answer; "but that is a disadvantage that has to be
accepted, and I don't mind it. Of course I wouldn't go to anybody and
everybody, but when a lady is recommended by a friend of Mrs. Waltham's,
I wouldn't hesitate to make an engagement with her. As to salary, I will
take whatever you would pay to another nurse-maid, and I beg you will
not make the slightest difference because I am a teacher. Is that bell
for supper?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Cristie; "and perhaps you have not yet reflected that
my nurse-maid must take care of my baby while I am at my meals."
"That is precisely and exactly what she is going to do. Go in to your
supper, and I will push him about until you come out again. Then you can
show me how to put him to bed."
"Isn't she coming in?" asked Mrs. Petter, looking out of the window as
she took her seat at the table.
"Of course not," said Mrs. Cristie, in a tone which was intended to make
an impression on Mr. Lodloe; "my maids do not eat with me."
"But, goodnessfulme!" said Mrs. Petter, "you can't look upon that sort
of a young woman as a servant. Why, I put her in one of the best rooms;
though of course that doesn't make any difference so long as there is
nobody else to take it. I wonder if we couldn't find some sort of a girl
to take care of the baby while she comes to her meals."
At this even Stephen Petter smiled. He was pleased that one of his
guests should have a servant of such high degree. It was like a noble
lady in waiting upon a queen.
"She shall be entertained," he said, "according to her station. There
need be no fear about that."
"Upon my word," exclaimed Mrs. Petter, "if here isn't Mr. Tippengray!
Well, sir, I don't know when I've seen you on hand at regular
meal-time."
"Perhaps it is a little out of the common," said the Greek scholar;
"but, after all," he continued, looking out of the window, "it appears
I am not the last one to come in." And then, glancing around the table,
he asked, "Am I taking her place?"
"Oh, no, sir," said Mrs. Cristie; "that is my maid."
Mr. Tippengray again looked out of the window; then he helped himself to
butter, and said:
"Have you ever noticed, Mrs. Petter, that the prevailing style in wild
flowers seems to vary every year? It changes just like our fashions,
though of course there are always a few old fogies among blossoming
weeds, as well as among clothes-wearers."
The next morning Walter Lodloe came to Mrs. Cristie on the lawn.
"I have been waiting for some time," he said, "in order to tell you that
I am ready at any moment to repair the unpardonable blunder that I made
yesterday, and to escort back to New York the very unsuitable young
woman whom I forced upon you."
"Oh, you need not think of doing anything of that kind," said Mrs.
Cristie; "the young person is perfectly satisfied with the situation,
and intends to stay. She gives me no possible excuse to tell her that
she will not suit me, for she takes hold of things exactly as if she
remembered what people did for her when she was a baby. She doesn't know
everything, but she intends to; that is plain enough. At present she is
washing one of baby's frocks with my _savon de rose_, because she
declares that the soap they gave her in the kitchen contains enough lye
to corrode the fibers of the fabric."
"Then you think she may suit you?" said Lodloe.
"Oh, she will suit; she intends to suit; and I have nothing to say
except that I feel very much as I suppose you would feel if you had a
college president to brush your coat."
"My spirits rise," said Lodloe; "I begin to believe that I have not made
so much of a blunder after all. When you can get it, there is nothing
like blooded service."
"But you do not want too much blood," said Mrs. Cristie. "I wish she had
not studied at Bryn Mawr, for I think she pities me for having graduated
at Vassar. But still she says I must call her Ida, and that gives me
courage."
There then followed a contention in which Lodloe was worsted about his
expenses in the nurse-maid affair, and, this matter being settled, the
young man declared that having shown what an extremely undesirable
person he was to work for others, he must go and attend to his own work.
"What sort of work do you do?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"I write," he answered--"novels, stories, fiction in general."
"I know that," said she, "having read your Vassar article; but I do not
think I have met with any of your avowed stories."
"Madam," said Walter Lodloe, "there are so many people in this world,
and so few of them have read my stories, it is no wonder that you belong
to the larger class. But, satirize my Vassar article as you please, I
shall never cease to be grateful to it for my tower room in the Squirrel
Inn."
IX
THE PRESERVATION OF LITERATURE
Walter Lodloe set out to go to his work, and on his way to the little
garden at the foot of the staircase which led to his room in the tower
he saw the Greek scholar sitting on a bench outside his summer-house
smoking a large cigar.
"Good morning, sir," said Mr. Tippengray; "do you smoke?"
The tone of these words implied not only a question but an invitation,
in case the young man did smoke, to sit down on that bench and do it.
Lodloe understood the force of the remark, and, drawing out a cigar,
took a seat by Mr. Tippengray.
"Before I go to my work," said the latter, "it is my habit to sit here
and enjoy the scenery and a few puffs. I suppose when you come to a
place like this you throw work to the winds."
"Oh, no!" said Lodloe; "I am a literary man, and I came here to write."
"Very glad to hear it," said the other; "very glad that that tower room
is to have the right sort of occupant. If I had not this summer-house, I
should want that room; but I am afraid, however, if I had it, I should
look out of the window a great deal and translate a very little."
"What do you translate?" asked Lodloe, with interest.
"At present," said Mr. Tippengray, "I am engaged in translating into
Greek some of the standard works of our modern literature. There is no
knowing what may happen to our modern languages. In the course of a few
centuries they may become as useless to the readers of that day as the
English of Chaucer is to the ordinary reader of our time; but Greek will
stand, sir, and the sooner we get the good things of the present day
into solid Greek the better it will be for them and the literature of
the future."
"What work are you translating?" asked Lodloe.
"I am now at work on the 'Pickwick Papers,'" said the scholar, "and I
assure you that it is not an easy job. When I get through with it I
shall translate it back into English, after the fashion of Sir William
Jones--the only way to do that sort of thing. Same as a telegraphic
message--if it isn't repeated, you can't depend on it. If I then find
that my English is like that of Dickens, I shall feel greatly
encouraged, and probably shall take up the works of Thackeray."
Walter Lodloe was somewhat stunned at this announcement, and he
involuntarily glanced at the gray streaks in the locks of the Greek
scholar. The latter perceived the glance, and, knocking the ashes from
his cigar, remarked:
"Did you ever notice, sir, that an ordinary robin is perfectly aware
that while squirrels and cats are able to ascend the perpendicular
trunk of a tree, they cannot climb the painted pillar of a piazza; and
consequently it is perfectly safe to build a nest at the top of such a
pillar?"
Lodloe had noticed this, and a good many other intelligent traits of
animals, and the two conversed on this interesting subject until the sun
came round to the bench on which they were sitting, when they moved to a
shady spot and continued the conversation.
At last Lodloe arose. "It must be nearly dinnertime," said he. "I think
I shall take a walk this afternoon, and see some of the country."
"You ought to do it," said Mr. Tippengray. "It is a beautiful country.
If you like I will go with you. I'm not a bad guide; I know every road,
path, and short cut."
Walter Lodloe expressed his satisfaction at the proposed companionship,
and suggested that the first walk be to the village of Lethbury, peeping
up among the trees in the distance.
"Lethbury!" exclaimed the Greek scholar. "Well, sir, if it's all the
same to you, I prefer walking in any direction to that of Lethbury. It's
a good enough place, but to-day I don't feel drawn to it."
"Very good," said Lodloe; "we will walk anywhere but in the direction of
Lethbury."
About half an hour afterward, Mrs. Petter, having finished carving a
pair of fowls, paused for a moment's rest in serving the little company,
and looked out of the dining-room window.
"Upon my word!" she exclaimed, "this is too bad. When other boarders
came, I thought Mr. Tippengray would begin to behave like other
Christians, and come to his meals at the proper time. At supper last
night and breakfast this morning he was at the table as soon as anybody,
and I was beginning to feel real heartened up, as if things were going
to run on regular and proper. But now look at that? Isn't that enough to
make a housekeeper give up in despair?"
Mrs. Cristie, Lodloe, and Mr. Petter all looked out of the window, and
beheld the Greek scholar engaged in pushing the baby carriage backward
and forward under the shade of a large tree; while, on a seat near by,
the maid Ida sat reading a book. Now passing nearer, Mr. Tippengray
stopped, and with sparkling eyes spoke to her. Then she looked up, and
with sparkling eyes answered him. Then together, with sparkling eyes,
they conversed for a few minutes, evidently about the book. After a few
more turns of the carriage Mr. Tippengray returned to the maid; the
sparkling eyes were raised again from the book, and the scene was
repeated.
"He has lent her a book," said Mrs. Cristie. "She did not take that one
out with her."
"There's a time for books, and there's a time for meals," said Mrs.
Petter. "Why didn't he keep his book until he had eaten his dinner?"
"I think Mr. Tippengray must be something of a philosopher," said
Lodloe, "and that he prefers to take his books to a pretty maid when
other people are at dinner."
"My wife does not altogether understand the ways of scholars," said Mr.
Petter. "A gentleman giving most of his time to Greek cannot be expected
to give much of his mind to the passage of modern times."
[Illustration: "PASSING NEARER, MR. TIPPENGRAY STOPPED."]
"If he gives some of his time to the passage of a good dinner into cold
victuals it would help his dyspepsia. But I suppose he will come when he
is ready, and all I have to say is that I would like to see Calthea Rose
if she could catch sight of them this minute."
Mr. Petter sat at the end of the table where he had a view of his flocks
and his herds in the pasture below.
"Well," said he, "if that estimable young woman wants to catch a sight
of them, all she has to do is to step along lively, for at this present
moment she is walking over the field-path straight to this house, and
what is more, she is wearing her bonnet and carrying a parasol."
"Bonnet and parasol!" ejaculated Mrs. Petter. "Fire in the mountains,
run, boys, run! Debby, step out as quick as you can to Mr. Tippengray,
and you needn't say anything but just ask if Miss Calthea Rose told him
she was coming to dinner to-day, and tell him she's coming over the
field."
In about one minute the Greek scholar was in his place at the table and
beginning his meal.
"Now, Mr. Tippengray," said Mrs. Petter, "I don't suppose you feel any
coals of fire on your head at this present moment."
"Madame," said the scholar, "did you ever notice that when squirrels
strip the bark from the limbs of trees they are very apt to despoil
those branches which project in such a manner as to interfere with a
view?"
"No, I didn't," said Mrs. Petter; "and I don't believe they do it,
either. Debby, put a knife, fork, and napkin for Calthea Rose. If she is
coming to dinner it is just as well to let her think that nobody forgot
to bring the message she sent. She never comes to meals without sending
word beforehand."
But Miss Calthea had not come to dinner. She sent word by Debby, who met
her at the front door, that she had had her dinner, and that she would
wait for the family on the piazza.
"Bonnet and parasol," said Mrs. Petter. "She has come to make a call,
and it's on you, Mrs. Cristie. Don't eat too fast, Mr. Tippengray; she's
good for the rest of the afternoon."
X
ROSE VERSUS MAYBERRY
Miss Calthea Rose was a person of good height, originally slender, but
gathering an appreciable plumpness as the years went on, and with good
taste in dress when she chose to exert it, which on the present occasion
she did. She possessed acute perceptions and a decided method of action.
But whether or not the relation of her perceptions to her actions was
always influenced by good judgment was a question with her neighbors. It
never was, however, a question with herself.
When everybody but Mr. Tippengray had finished dinner, and he had
desired the others not to wait for him as he would probably be occupied
some time longer, the host and hostess went out to greet the visitor,
followed by Mrs. Cristie and Lodloe. When Miss Calthea Rose turned to
greet the latter lady her expression was cold, not to say hard; but when
her eyes fell upon the gentleman by the side of the young widow, a
softening warmth spread over her face, and she came forward with
outstretched hands.
"Did you see that?" said Mrs. Petter, aside to her husband. "Jealous as
she can be of Mrs. Cristie till she sees that she's got a young man of
her own; then as sweet as sugar."
When Miss Calthea Rose set about to be as sweet as sugar, it was very
good sugar that she took for her model. She liked to talk, but was not a
mistress of words, and although her remarks were not always to the
point, they were generally pointed. At last Mr. Tippengray came out on
the piazza. He walked slowly, and he did not wear his usual ease of
demeanor; but nothing could have been more cordial and reassuring than
the greeting given him by Miss Calthea. If this were intended in any way
to inspirit him, it failed of its effect. The Greek scholar stood apart,
and did not look like a man who had made up his mind as to what he was
going to do next; but Miss Calthea took no notice of his unusual
demeanor. She talked with great graciousness to the company in general,
and frequently directed remarks to Mr. Tippengray which indicated a high
degree of good comradeship.
Under this general warmth Mr. Tippengray was forced to melt a little,
and in a manner to accept the position thus publicly tendered him; but
suddenly the maid Ida popped up the steps of the piazza. She had an open
book in her hand, and she went directly and quickly to Mr. Tippengray.
She held the book up towards him, and put her finger on a page.
"You were just here," she said, "when you had to go to your dinner. Now
if you will finish the explanation I can go on nicely. You don't know
how you help me. Every word you say seems to take root"; and she looked
up into his face with sparkling eyes.
But not a sparkle sparkled from the eyes of the Greek scholar. He stood
silently looking at the book, his face a little flushed, his eyes
blinking as if the sunlight were too strong for him.
"Suppose you walk out on the lawn with me," said the nurse-maid, "and
then we shall not disturb the others. I will not keep you more than five
minutes."
She went down the steps of the piazza, and Mr. Tippengray, having
apparently lost the power of making up his mind what he should do, did
what she wanted him to do, and followed her. They did not walk very far,
but stood barely out of hearing of the persons on the piazza; her eyes
sparkling up into his face, as his helpful words took root in her
understanding.
At the instant of the appearance of the maid Ida Miss Calthea Rose
stopped talking. Her subsequent glances towards this young woman and Mr.
Tippengray might have made one think of steel chilled to zero. Mrs.
Cristie looked at Lodloe, and he at her, and both slightly smiled. "She
understands that sort of thing," he thought, and "He understands that
sort of thing," she thought.
At this moment Mrs. Petter glanced at her two guests and saw the smile
which passed between them. She understood that sort of thing.
"Who is that?" said Miss Calthea Rose, presently.
Mrs. Cristie, full of the humor of the situation, hastened to answer.
"It is my nurse-maid," she said, "Ida Mayberry."
"A child's nurse!" ejaculated Miss Calthea Rose.
"Yes," said Mrs. Cristie; "that is what she is."
"I expect," said Mrs. Petter, "that he is teaching her Greek, and of
course it's hard for her at the beginning. Mr. Tippengray's such a kind
man that he would do anything for anybody, so far as he could; but I
must admit that I can't see how Greek can help anybody to nurse
children, unless there is some book on the subject in that language."
"Greek!" scornfully ejaculated Miss Calthea, and, turning her steely
glance from the couple on the lawn, she began to talk to Mr. Petter
about one of his cows which had broken its leg.
Ida Mayberry was a young woman who meant what she said, and in less than
five minutes, with a sparkling glance of thanks, she released Mr.
Tippengray. That gentleman returned to the piazza, but his appearance
elicited no more attention from the lady who had so recently brought
into view their friendly relationship than if he had been the head of a
nail in the floor beneath her. From Mr. Petter she turned to speak to
some of the others, and if her words and manner did not make Mr.
Tippengray understand that, so far as she was concerned, he had ceased
to exist, her success was not what she expected it to be.
Although he had been amused and interested, Walter Lodloe now thought
that he had had enough of Miss Calthea Rose, and wandered away to the
little garden at the foot of his staircase. He had not reached it before
he was joined by Mr. Tippengray.
"Look here," said the latter, with something of his usual briskness;
"if you are still in the humor, suppose we walk over to Lethbury."
Lodloe looked at him in surprise. "I thought you didn't want to go
there," he said.
"I've changed my mind," replied the other. "I think this is a very good
day to go to Lethbury. It is a pretty village, and you ought to have
some one with you to show you its best points."
As soon as she thought etiquette would permit, Mrs. Cristie withdrew,
pleading the interests of her baby as an excuse.
"Do you mean to tell me," said Miss Calthea Rose, the moment the young
mother was out of hearing, "that she leaves her baby in the care of that
thing with a book?"
"Oh, yes," was the answer; "Mrs. Cristie tells me she is a very good
nurse-maid."
"Well," said Miss Calthea, "babies are troublesome, and it's often
convenient to get rid of them, but I must say that I never heard of this
new style of infanticide. I suppose there isn't any law against it yet."
Mr. Petter looked uneasy. He did not like fault found with Mrs. Cristie,
who was a great favorite with him.
"I am inclined to think, Miss Calthea," he said, "that you judge that
young person too harshly. I have formed a very good opinion of her. Not
only does she attend to her duties, but she has a good mind. It may not
be a fine mind, but it is a good mind. Her desire to learn from Mr.
Tippengray is a great point in her favor."
Here Mrs. Petter, who sat near her husband, pressed violently upon his
foot; but she was too late, the words had been said. Mrs. Petter
prepared herself for a blaze, but none came. There was a momentary flash
in the Calthean eyes, and then the lids came down and shut out
everything but a line of steely light. Then she gazed out over the
landscape, and presently again turned her face towards her companions,
with nothing more upon it than her usual expression when in a bad humor.
"Do you know," she said abruptly, "that Lanigan Beam is coming back?"
"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Petter, "I thought he was settled in
Patagonia."
"It was not Patagonia," said Mr. Petter; "it was Nicaragua."
"Well, I knew it was the little end of some place," said she; "and now
he's coming back. Well, that is unfortunate."
"Unfortunate!" said Miss Calthea; "it's criminal. There ought to be a
law against such things."
Again the host of the Squirrel Inn moved uneasily on his chair and
crossed and recrossed his legs. He liked Lanigan Beam.
"I cannot see," he said, "why it is wrong for a man to return to the
place where he was born."
"Born!" scornfully exclaimed Miss Calthea; "it's the greatest pity that
there is any place where he was born; but there's no use talking about
him. He has written to them at the hotel at Lethbury that he will be
there the day after to-morrow, and he wants them to have a room ready
for him. If he'd asked them to have a grave ready for him it would have
been much more considerate."
Mr. Petter now rose to his feet; his manner was very dignified.
"Excuse me, Miss Calthea," he said, "but I must go and look after my men
in the cornfield."
Miss Calthea Rose sat up very straight in her chair.
"If there's anything you want to do, Mrs. Petter, I beg you won't let me
keep you."
"Now, Calthea," said Mrs. Petter, "don't work yourself into such a
terrible stew. You know Stephen doesn't like to have Lanigan pitched
into; I'm sorry for even what I said. But that about his grave was
enough to rouse a saint."
Miss Calthea was on the point of retorting that that was something which
Stephen Petter was not, by any means, but she restrained herself. If she
quarreled with the Petters, and cut herself off from visiting the
Squirrel Inn, a great part of the pleasure of her life would be gone.
"Well," she said, "we all know Lanigan Beam, and if there's anybody who
wants the peace of the community to vanish entirely out of sight, the
responsibility's on him, and not on me."
"Mrs. Petter," said Ida Mayberry, appearing so suddenly before that good
woman that she seemed to have dropped through the roof of the piazza,
"do you know where Mr. Tippengray is? I've been looking all over for
him, and can't find him. He isn't in his little house, for I knocked at
the door."
"Does Mrs. Cristie want him?" asked Mrs. Petter, making this wild grasp
at a straw.
"Oh, no," said Ida. "It is I who want him. There's a Greek sentence in
this book he lent me which I am sure I have not translated properly; and
as the baby is asleep now, there couldn't be a better time for him to
help me, if only I could find him."
Self-restraint was no longer possible with Miss Calthea Rose. A red
blaze shot into her face, and without deigning to look in the direction
of the creature who had just spoken, she said in the sharpest tones of
contemptuous anger:
"Greek to a child's nurse! I expect next he'll teach French to the
pigs."
The maid Ida lifted up her eyes from the book and fixed them on Miss
Calthea.
"The best thing he could do," she quietly remarked, "would be to teach
the old hens good manners"; and then she walked away with her book.
Miss Calthea sprang to her feet, and looked as if she was going to do
something; but there was nothing to do, and she sat down again. Her brow
was dark, her eyes flashed, and her lips were parted, as if she was
about to say something; but there was nothing to say, and she sat
silent, breathing hard. It was bad enough to be as jealous as Miss
Calthea was at that moment, but to be so flagrantly insulted by the
object of her jealousy created in her a rage that could not be expressed
in words. It was fortunate that she did not look at Mrs. Petter, for
that good lady was doing her best to keep from laughing.
"Well!" she exclaimed, as soon as she could speak composedly, "this is
too much. I think I must speak to Mrs. Cristie about this. Of course she
can't prevent the young woman from answering back, but I think I can
make her see that it isn't seemly and becoming for nurse-maids to be
associating with boarders in this way."
[Illustration: "TEACH THE OLD HENS GOOD MANNERS."]
"If you take my advice, Susan Petter," said Miss Calthea, in a voice
thickened by her emotions, "you will keep your mouth shut on that
subject. If your boarders choose to associate with servants, let them
alone. It simply shows what sort of people they are."
Calthea Rose did not like to hear herself speak in a voice which might
show how she was feeling, and as there was no use of staying there if
she could not talk, she rose to leave, and, in spite of Mrs. Petter's
hospitable entreaty to make a longer stay, she departed.
When her visitor was well out of sight, Mrs. Petter allowed herself to
lean back in her chair and laugh quietly.
"Leave them alone indeed," she said to herself. "You may want me to do
it, but I know well enough that you are not going to leave them alone,
Miss Calthea Rose, and I can't say that I wonder at your state of mind,
for it seems to me that this is your last chance. If you don't get Mr.
Tippengray, I can't see where you are going to find another man properly
older than you are."
XI
LANIGAN BEAM
That evening about eleven o'clock Walter Lodloe was sitting in his room
in the tower, his feet upon the sill of the large window which looked
out over the valley. He had come up to his room an hour or two before,
determined not to allow the whole day to pass without his having done
any work; and now, having written several pages of the story on which he
was engaged, he was enjoying the approbation of his conscience, the
flavor of a good cigar, and the beautiful moonlighted scene which he
beheld from his window.
More than this, he was thinking over the events of the day with a good
deal of interest and amusement, particularly of his afternoon walk with
Mr. Tippengray. He had taken a great fancy to that gentleman, who,
without making any direct confidences, had given him a very fair idea of
his relations with Calthea Rose. It was plain enough that he liked that
very estimable person, and that he had passed many pleasant hours in her
society, but that he did not at all agree with what he called her
bigoted notions in regard to proprietorship in fellow-beings.
On the other hand, Lodloe was greatly delighted with Miss Calthea's
manner of showing her state of mind. Quite unexpectedly they had met her
in Lethbury,--to which village Mr. Tippengray had not thought she would
return so soon,--and Lodloe almost laughed as he called to mind the
beaming and even genial recognition that she gave to him, and which, at
the same time, included effacement and extinction of his companion to
the extent of being an admirable piece of dramatic art. The effect upon
Lodloe had been such, that when the lady had passed he involuntarily
turned to see if the Greek scholar had not slipped away just before the
moment of meeting.
"When a woman tries so hard to show how little she thinks of a man,"
thought Lodloe, "it is a proof that she thinks a great deal of him, and
I shall not be surprised--" Just then there came a tap at the window
opposite the one at which he was sitting.
Now when a man in the upper room of a fairly tall tower, access to which
is gained by a covered staircase the door at the bottom of which he
knows he has locked, hears a tap at the window, he is likely to be
startled. Lodloe was so startled that his chair nearly tipped over
backward. Turning quickly, he saw a man's head and shoulders at the
opposite window, the sash of which was raised. With an exclamation,
Lodloe sprang to his feet. His lamp had been turned down in order that
he might better enjoy the moonlight, but he could plainly see the man at
the window, who now spoke:
"Hold hard," said he; "don't get excited. There's nothing out of the
way. My name is Beam--Lanigan Beam. I tapped because I thought if I
spoke first you might jump out of the window, being turned in that
direction. May I come in?"
[Illustration: "DON'T GET EXCITED."]
Lodloe made no answer; his mind did not comprehend the situation; he
went to the window and looked out. The man was standing on the sharp
ridge of a roof which stretched from the tower to the rear portion of
the building. By reaching upward he was able to look into the window.
"Give me a hand," said the man, "and we'll consider matters inside. This
is a mighty ticklish place to stand on."
Lodloe had heard a good deal that evening about Lanigan Beam, and
although he was amazed at the appearance of that individual at this time
and place, he was ready and willing to make his acquaintance. Bracing
himself against the window-frame, he reached out his hand, and in a few
moments Mr. Beam had scrambled into the room. Lodloe turned up the wick
of his lamp, and by the bright light he looked at his visitor.
He saw a man rather long as to legs, and thin as to face, and dressed in
an easy-fitting suit of summer clothes.
"Take a seat," said Lodloe, "and tell me to what I owe this call."
"To your lamp," said the other, taking a chair; "it wasn't burning very
brightly, but still it was a light, and the only one about. I was on my
way to Lethbury, but I couldn't get any sort of conveyance at Romney, so
I footed it, thinking I would like a moonlight walk. But by the time I
got to the squirrel on the post I thought I would turn in here and stay
with Stephen Petter for the night; but the house was all shut up and
dark except this room, and as I knew that if I woke Stephen out of a
sound sleep he'd bang me over the head with his everlasting Rockmores of
Germantown, I determined to take a night's lodging without saying a word
to him about it.
"There's a room back here that you can only get into by a ladder put up
on the outside. I knew all about it, so I went to the ice-house and got
a ladder and climbed into the room. I put my valise under my head, and
prepared to take a good sleep on the floor, but in three minutes I found
the place was full of wasps. I couldn't stay there, you know, and I was
just getting ready to go down the ladder again when I happened to look
out of a window that opened on the roof, and saw you in here. I could
see only the back of your head, but although it was pretty well lighted,
I couldn't judge very well by that what sort of a person you were. But I
saw you were smoking, and it struck me that a man who smokes is
generally a pretty good fellow, and so I came over."
"Glad to see you," said Lodloe; "and what can I do for you?"
"Well, in the first place," said Beam, "have you any liquid ammonia? The
first notice I had of the wasps in that room was this sting on my
finger."
Lodloe was sorry that he did not possess anything of the kind.
"If I'm not mistaken," said the visitor, "there is a bottle of it on the
top shelf of that closet. I have frequently occupied this room, and I
remember putting some there myself. May I look for it?"
Permission being given, Mr. Beam speedily found the bottle, and assuaged
the pains of his sting.
"Now then," said he, resuming his seat, "the next favor I'll ask will be
to allow me to fill my pipe, and put to you a few questions as to the
way the land lies about here at present. I've been away for a year and a
half, and don't know what's going on, or who's dead or alive. By the
way, have you happened to hear anybody speak of me?"
"I should think so," said Lodloe, laughing. "The greater part of this
evening was occupied in a discussion on your life, adventures, moral
character, disposition, and mental bias. There may have been some other
points touched upon, but I don't recall them just now."
"Upon my word," said Lanigan Beam, putting his arms on the table, and
leaning forward, "this is interesting. Who discussed me?"
[Illustration: "HAVE YOU HAPPENED TO HEAR ANYBODY SPEAK OF ME?"]
"Mr. and Mrs. Petter had the most to say," answered Lodloe.
"I'm glad to hear they're alive," interpolated the other.
"And Mrs. Cristie, who knew you when her husband was alive."
"Dead, is he?" said Beam. "Very sorry to hear that. A mighty pretty
woman is Mrs. Cristie."
"Miss Calthea Rose was not present," continued Lodloe, "but her opinions
were quoted very freely by the others, and sometimes combated."
"Calthea alive, is she?" ejaculated Beam. "Well, well, I ought to be
glad to hear it, and I suppose I am. Anybody else?"
"Yes; there was Mr. Tippengray, one of the guests at the inn. There are
only three of us in all. He had heard a great deal about you from Miss
Rose. She seems to have been very communicative to him."
"Chums, are they?" cried Lanigan Beam. "Well, bless his soul, I say,
whatever sort of man he is. Now what did they say about me?"
"It's my opinion," answered Lodloe, smiling, "that it is a very unsafe
thing to tell a man what other people say about him."
Lanigan sprang to his feet, and stood, pipe in hand, before the other.
"Now, sir," said he, "I have not heard your name yet--Lodloe; thank you.
Now, Mr. Lodloe, I have before me the greatest chance of my life. It
almost never happens that a man has an opportunity of hearing a
straightforward account of what people say about him. Now if you want to
do the biggest kind of favor to a fellow-being, just tell me what you
heard of me to-night. You are a perfect stranger to me, and you can
speak out plainly about it without having the least feeling one way or
the other."
Lodloe looked at him.
"Here's a chance," he said to himself, "that seldom comes to a man; an
opportunity to tell a man exactly what his friends and neighbors think
about him. It's a rare experience, and I like it. I'll do it."
"Very good," said he, aloud; "if you want to see yourself as others see
you, I'll turn on the lights and act as showman; but remember I have
nothing to do with the painting. I have no prejudices one way or the
other."
"All right," said Lanigan, reseating himself; "let the panorama move."
"About the first thing I was told," said Lodloe, "was that you were a
good-hearted fellow, but the fact that your father was an Irishman had
deprived your character of ballast."
"Umph," said Lanigan; "there are some people who are all ballast. I
don't mind that."
"And then I heard that, although you were a wild and irresponsible
youth, people generally expected that as you grew older you would
gradually accumulate ballast; but instead of that you had steadily gone
downhill from the moment of your birth."
"Now, then," said Lanigan, "I suppose I have no right to ask you, but I
would like very much to know who said that."
"I don't object in the least to telling you," said Lodloe; "it is fitter
that you should know it than that I should know it. That was a quoted
opinion of Miss Calthea Rose."
"Good for you," said Lanigan; "you'd be death to the members of a
scandal-monger society. You would break up the business utterly."
"To this Mr. Petter remarked," said Lodloe, "that he thought in many
ways you had improved very much, but he was obliged to admit that he
could never think of anything that you had done which was of the least
benefit to yourself or anybody else."
"Upon my word," cried Lanigan, "that's a pretty wide sweep for old
Petter. I shall have to rub up his memory. He forgets that I helped him
to make the plans for this house. And what did Mrs. Cristie say about
me?"
"She said she thought it was a great pity that you did not apply
yourself to something or other."
"She is right there," said Beam, "and, by George! I'll apply myself to
her. However, I don't know about that," he continued. "What else did
Calthea say?"
"One remark was that having proved false to every friend you had here
you had no right to return."
"That means," said Mr. Beam, "that having promised at least five times
to marry her, I never did it once."
"Were you really engaged to her?" asked Lodloe.
"Oh, yes," said the other; "it seems to me as if I had always been
engaged to her. Born that way. Sort of an ailment you get used to, like
squinting. When I was a youngster, Calthea was a mighty pretty girl, a
good deal my senior, of course, or I wouldn't have cared for her. As
she grew older she grew prettier, and I was more and more in love with
her. We used to have quarrels, but they didn't make much difference, for
after every one of them we engaged ourselves again, and all went on as
before. But the time came when Calthea kept on being older than I was,
and didn't keep on being pretty and agreeable. Then I began to weaken
about the marriage altar and all that sort of thing, but for all that I
would have been perfectly willing to stay engaged to her for the rest of
my life if she had wished it, but one day she got jealous, kicked up a
tremendous row, and away I went."
"Well," said Lodloe, "she must have considered that the best thing you
could do for her, for Mrs. Petter said that she had heard her declare
dozens of times that from her very youth you had hung like a millstone
about her neck, and blighted her every prospect, and that your return
here was like one of the seven plagues of Egypt."
"Mixed, but severe," said Mr. Beam. "Did anybody say any good of me?"
"Yes," answered Lodloe; "Mrs. Cristie said you were an obliging fellow,
although very apt to forget what you had promised to do. Mr. Petter said
that you had a very friendly disposition, although he was obliged to
admit the truth of his wife's remark that said disposition would have
been more agreeable to your friends, if you had been as willing to do
things for them as you were to have them do things for you. And Mrs.
Petter on her own motion summed up your character by saying, that if you
had not been so regardless of the welfare and wishes of others; so
totally given up to self-gratification; so ignorant of all kinds of
business, and so unwilling to learn; so extravagant in your habits, and
so utterly conscienceless in regard to your debts; so neglectful of your
promises and your duty; so heretical in your opinions, political and
religious, and such a dreadful backslider from everything that you had
promised to be when a baby, you would be a very nice sort of fellow,
whom she would like to see come into the house."
"Well," said Lanigan Beam, leaning back in his chair, "that's all of my
bright side, is it?"
"Not quite," said Lodloe; "Mr. Tippengray declared that you are the
first man he ever heard of who did not possess a single good point; that
you must be very interesting, and that he would like to know you."
"Noble Tippengray!" said Mr. Beam. "And he's the man who is chumming it
with Calthea?"
"Not at present," said Lodloe; "she is jealous, and doesn't speak to
him."
Mr. Beam let his head drop on his breast, his arms hung down by his
side, and he sank into his chair, as if his spine had come unhinged.
"There goes the last prop from under me," he said. "If Calthea had a man
in tow I wouldn't be afraid of her, but now--well, no matter. If you
will let me take that bottle of ammonia with me,--I suppose by rights it
now belongs to the house,--I'll go back to that room and fight it out
with the wasps. As I haven't any good points, they'll be able to put
some into me, I'll wager."
Lodloe laughed. "You shall not go there," he said; "I have more
bed-covering than I want, and an extra pillow, and if you can make
yourself comfortable on that lounge you are welcome to stay here."
"Sir," said Lanigan Beam, rising, "I accept your offer, and if it were
not that by so doing I would destroy the rare symmetry of my character,
I would express my gratitude. And now I will go down your stairs, and up
my ladder, and get my valise."
XII
LANIGAN CHANGES HIS CRAVAT
Early the next morning, without disturbing the sleep of Walter Lodloe,
Lanigan Beam descended from the tower, carrying his valise. His face
wore that air of gravity which sometimes follows an early morning hour
of earnest reflection, and he had substituted a black cravat for the
blue one with white spots that he had worn on his arrival.
Walking out towards the barn he met Mr. Petter, who was one of the
earliest risers on the place.
The greeting given him by the landlord of the Squirrel Inn was a mixture
of surprise, cordiality, and annoyance.
"Lanigan Beam!" he exclaimed. "Why, I thought--"
"Of course you did; I understand," said the other, extending his hand
with a dignified superiority to momentary excitement in others. "You
thought I would arrive at Lethbury in a day or two, and had no idea of
seeing me here. You have reason, but I have changed my plans. I left New
York earlier than I intended, and I am not going to Lethbury at all. At
least not to the hotel there. I greatly prefer this house."
A shade of decided trouble came over Mr. Petter's face.
"Now, Lanigan," he said, "that will not do at all; of course I don't
want to be hard on you, and I never was, but my season is commenced, I
have my guests, my rules are in full force, and I cannot permit you to
come here and disarrange my arrangements. If for once, Lanigan, you will
take the trouble to think, you will see that for yourself."
"Mr. Petter," said the younger man, setting his valise upon the ground,
"I have no desire to disarrange them; on the contrary, I would stamp
them with fixity. And before we go any further I beg that you be kind
enough not to call me by my Christian name, and to endeavor to produce
in yourself the conviction that since you last saw me I have been
entirely rearranged and reconstructed. In order to do this, you have
only to think of me as you used to think, and then exactly reverse your
opinion. In this way you will get a true view of my present character.
It does not suit me to do things partially, or by degrees, and I am now
exactly the opposite of what I used to be. By keeping this in mind any
one who knew me before may consider himself or herself perfectly
acquainted with me now."
Stephen Petter looked at him doubtfully.
"Of course," he said, "I shall be very glad--and so will Mrs. Petter--to
find that you have reformed, but as to your coming here--"
"Now, then," said Mr. Beam, "I know you are not the man to allow
trifles to stand in the way of important movements. I am here for a
purpose, a great purpose, with which you will be in entire sympathy. I
will say at once, frankly and openly, that my object is the improvement
of Lethbury. I have a project which--"
[Illustration: "I AM HERE FOR A PURPOSE."]
"Now, now, now!" exclaimed Mr. Petter, with much irritation, "I don't
want to hear anything more of any of your projects; I know all about
them. They all begin with a demand for money from your friends, and
that is the end of the project and the money."
"Stephen Petter," said the other, "you are not looking at my character
as I told you to look at it. Every cent of the capital required for my
operations I will contribute myself. No one will be allowed to subscribe
any money whatever. This, you see, is exactly the opposite of what used
to be the case; and when I tell you that the success of my plan will
improve the business of Lethbury, elevate its moral and intellectual
standard, exercise an ennobling and purifying influence upon the tone of
its society, and give an almost incredible impetus to faith, hope, and
charity in its moral atmosphere,--and all that without anybody's being
asked to give a copper,--I know you will agree with me that a mere
matter of residence should not be allowed to block this great work."
Since he had been assured that he was not to be asked to contribute
money, Mr. Petter's face had shown relief and interest; but now he shook
his head.
"This is my season," he said, "and I have my rules."
Lanigan Beam laid his hand upon the shoulder of his companion.
"Petter," said he, "I don't ask you to infract your rules. That would be
against my every principle. I do not know the Rockmores of Germantown,
but if it were necessary I would immediately go and find them, and make
their acquaintance--I should have no difficulty in doing it, I assure
you, but it is not necessary. I staid last night with Mr. Lodloe, who
occupies the top room of your tower. Don't jump out of your boots. I
went to him because there was a light in his room and the rest of the
house was dark, and he explained to me the Rockmorial reason why he
occupies that room while the rest of your house is nearly empty. Now you
can do the same thing for me. Let me have that upper room with no
stairway to it; give me the use of a ladder, and I shall be perfectly
satisfied."
"But the room's not furnished," said Mr. Petter.
"Oh, we can easily get over that little difficulty," replied Mr. Beam;
"whatever furniture may be needed can easily be put in through the
window. If there are any wasps up there I can fumigate them out. Now we
call that settled, don't we? None of your rules broken, Lethbury
regenerated, and nothing for you to do but look on and profit."
Mr. Petter gazed reflectively upon the ground.
"There can be no doubt," said he, "that Lethbury is in a stagnant
condition, and if that condition could be improved, it would be for the
benefit of us all; and considering, furthermore, that if your
project--which you have not yet explained to me--should be unsuccessful,
no one but yourself will lose any money, I see no reason why I should
interfere with your showing the people of this neighborhood that your
character has been reconstructed. But if you should lodge in that room,
it would make a very odd condition of things. I should then have but
three male guests, and not one of them literally living in my house."
"Ah, my good friend Petter," said Lanigan, taking up his valise, "you
should know there is luck in odd conditions, as well as in odd numbers,
and everything will turn out right, you may bet on that. Hello," he
continued, stepping back a little, "who is that very pretty girl with a
book in her hand? That cannot be Mrs. Cristie."
"Oh, no," said Mr. Petter, "that is her maid, who takes care of her
child. I think the young woman has come out to study before beginning
her daily duties."
"Upon my word," said Lanigan Beam, attentively regarding Miss Ida
Mayberry as she daintily made her way across the dewy lawn to a rustic
seat under a tree. And then, suddenly turning to Mr. Petter, he said:
"Look you, my good Stephen, can't you let me go in somewhere and furbish
myself up a little before breakfast?"
And having been shown into a room on the ground floor, Mr. Beam
immediately proceeded to take off his black cravat and to replace it by
the blue one with white spots.
[Illustration]
XIII
DECREES OF EXILE
Towards the end of the afternoon of the day after Mr. Lanigan Beam had
been installed as an outside guest of the Squirrel Inn, Miss Calthea
Rose sat by the window at the back of her shop. This shop was a small
one, but it differed from most other places of business in that it
contained very few goods and was often locked up. When there is reason
to suppose that if you go to a shop you will not be able to get in, and
that, should it be open, you will not be apt to find therein anything
you want, it is not likely that such a shop will have a very good run of
custom.
This was the case with Miss Calthea's establishment. It had become rare
for any one even to propose custom, but she did not in the least waver
in regard to her plan of closing up the business left to her by her
father. As has been said, she did not wish to continue this business, so
she laid in no new stock, and as she had gradually sold off a great
deal, she expected to be able in time to sell off everything. She did
not adopt the usual methods of clearing out a stock of goods, because
these would involve sacrifices, and, as Miss Calthea very freely said
to those who spoke to her on the subject, there was no need whatever for
her to make sacrifices. She was good at waiting, and she could wait.
When she sold the few things which remained on the shelves--and she, as
well as nearly every one in the village, knew exactly what these things
were without the trouble of looking--she would retire from business, and
have the shop altered into a front parlor. Until then the articles which
remained on hand were for sale.
Miss Calthea was busily sewing, but she was much more busily engaged in
thinking. So earnestly was her mind set upon the latter occupation that
she never raised her head to look out at the special varieties of
hollyhocks, dahlias, and marigolds which had lately begun to show their
beauties in the beds beneath her window, nor did she glance towards the
door to see if any one was coming in. She had much more important things
to think about than flowers or customers.
Mrs. Petter had driven over to Lethbury that morning, and had told
Calthea all the news of the Squirrel Inn. She had told her of the
unexpected arrival of Lanigan Beam; of his unwillingness to go to
Lethbury, as he had originally intended, and of the quarters that had
been assigned to him in the ladder-room. She also told how Lanigan, who
now wished to be called Mr. Beam, had a wonderful plan in his mind for
the improvement of Lethbury, but whether it was electric lights, or gas,
or water, or street railroads, or a public library, he would not tell
anybody. He was going to work in his own way, and all he would say about
the scheme was that he did not want anybody to give him money for it.
And this, Mrs. Petter had remarked, had helped Mr. Petter and herself to
believe what Lanigan had said about his amendment, for if anything could
show a change in him it would be his not wanting people to give him
money.
Mrs. Petter had said a great deal about the newcomer, and had declared
that whatever alterations had gone on in his mind, soul, and character,
he certainly had improved in appearance, and was a very good-looking
young man, with becoming clothes. In one way, however, he had not
changed, for in a surprisingly short time he had made friends with
everybody on the place. He talked to Mr. Lodloe as if he had been an old
chum; he had renewed his acquaintance with Mrs. Cristie, and was very
gallant to her; he was hand-in-glove with Mr. Tippengray, both of them
laughing together and making jokes as if they had always known each
other; and, more than that, it wasn't an hour after breakfast when he
and Mrs. Cristie's nurse-maid were sitting on a bench under the trees,
reading out of the same book, while Mr. Tippengray was pushing the
baby-carriage up and down on the grass, and Mrs. Cristie and Mr. Lodloe
were putting up the lawn-tennis net.
"I could see for myself," Mrs. Petter had remarked at this point, "that
you were right in saying that there was no use in my talking about the
boarders associating with servants, for when they made up the
lawn-tennis game it turned out that Mr. Tippengray didn't play, and so
that girl Ida had to take a hand while he kept on neglecting his Greek
for the baby."
At last Miss Calthea let her sewing drop into her lap, and sat looking
at an empty shelf opposite to her.
"Yes," she said to herself, her lips moving, although no sound was
audible, "the first thing to do is to get Lanigan away. As long as he is
here I might as well not lift a finger, and it looks as if that
impertinent minx of a child's nurse would be my best help. If he doesn't
have one of his changeable fits, he will be ready in three days to
follow her anywhere, but I must look sharp, for at this very minute he
may be making love to the widow. Of course he hasn't any chance with
her, but it would be just like Lanigan to go in strongest where he knew
he hadn't any chance. However, I shall see for myself how matters stand,
and one thing is certain--Lanigan has got to go."
About this time Mr. Lanigan Beam, finding himself with a solitary
quarter of an hour on his hands, was reflecting on a bench upon the lawn
of the Squirrel Inn. "Yes," he thought, "it is a great plan. It will
elevate the social tone of Lethbury, it will purify the moral atmosphere
of the surrounding country, and, above all, it will make it possible for
me to live here. It will give me an opportunity to become a man among
men in the place where I was born. Until this thing is done, I can have
no chance to better myself here, and, more than that, the community has
no chance to better itself. Yes, it must be done; Calthea Rose must go."
At this moment Mr. Petter came along, on his way to supper.
"Well, Lanigan," said he, "are you thinking about your great
enterprise?"
"Yes," said the other, rising and walking with him; "that is exactly
what my mind was working on."
"And you are going to do it all yourself?" said Mr. Petter.
"Not exactly," said Beam. "I shall not require any pecuniary assistance,
but I shall want some one to help me."
"Is there anybody about here who can do it?"
"Yes; I hope so," said Lanigan. "At present I am thinking of Mr.
Tippengray."
"A very good choice," said Mr. Petter; "he is a man of fine mind, and it
will certainly be to your advantage if you can get him to work with
you."
"Indeed it will be," said Lanigan Beam, with much earnestness.
XIV
BACKING OUT
Ida Mayberry was walking on the narrow road which led through the woods
from the Squirrel Inn to the public highway. She had been much
interested in the road when she had been driven through it on the day of
her arrival, and had availed herself of the opportunity given her this
pleasant afternoon, by the prolonged slumbers of Master Douglas Cristie,
to make a close acquaintance with its attractions.
It was indeed a pleasant road, where there were tall trees that often
met overhead, and on each side there were bushes, and vines, and wild
flowers, and little vistas opening into the woods, and rabbits running
across the roadway; a shallow stream tumbling along its stony bed,
sometimes to be seen and sometimes only heard; yellow butterflies in the
air; and glimpses above, that afternoon, of blue sky and white clouds.
When she had walked about half the length of the road Miss Mayberry came
to a tree with a large branch running horizontally about three feet from
the ground and then turning up again, so as to make a very good seat for
young people who like that sort of thing. Ida was a young person who
liked that sort of thing, and she speedily clambered upon the broad,
horizontal branch and bestowed herself quite comfortably there. Taking
off her hat and leaning her head against the upright portion of the
branch, she continued the reflections she had been making while walking.
[Illustration: IDA MAKES HERSELF COMFORTABLE.]
"Yes," she said to herself, "it will be wise in me not only to make up
my mind that I will not grow to be an old maid, but to prevent people
from thinking I am going to grow to be one. I believe that people are
very apt to think that way about teachers. Perhaps it is because they
are always contrasted with younger persons. There is no reason why girl
teachers should be different from other girls. Marriage should be as
practically advantageous to them as to any others, only they should be
more than usually circumspect in regard to their partners; that is, if
they care for careers, which I am sure I do.
"Now the situation in this place seems to me to be one which I ought
seriously to consider. It is generally agreed that propinquity is the
cause of most marriages, but I think that a girl ought to be very
careful not to let propinquity get the better of her. She should
regulate and control propinquities.
"Here, now, is Mr. Lodloe. He seems to be a very suitable sort of a man,
young and good-looking, and, I think, endowed with brains; but I have
read two of his stories, and I see no promise in them, and I doubt if he
would sympathize with good, hard study; besides, he is devoting himself
to Mrs. Cristie, and he is out of the question. Mr. Tippengray is an
exceedingly agreeable man and a true student. To marry him would be in
itself a higher education; but he is not a bit young. I think he is at
least fifty, perhaps more, and then, supposing that he should retain his
mental vigor until he is seventy, that would give only twenty years of
satisfactory intellectual companionship. That is a point that ought to
be very carefully weighed.
"As to Mr. Beam, he is older than I am, but he is young enough. Upon the
probable duration of his life one might predicate forty years of mental
activity, and from what I have seen of him he appears to have a good
intellect. They talk about an aqueduct and waterworks he is about to
construct. That indicates the study of geology, and engineering
capacity, and such a bias of mind would suit me very well. Mrs. Petter
tells me that he is really and truly engaged to that old thing from
Lethbury; but as she also said that he is heartily tired of the
engagement, I don't see why it should be considered. He is as likely to
correct his errors of matrimonial inclination as he is those of
mathematical computation, and as for her, I should not let her stand in
my way for one minute. Any woman who is as jealous about a man as she is
about Mr. Tippengray has waived her right in all other men."
About this time a phaeton, drawn by a stout sorrel horse, and containing
Miss Calthea Rose, was turning from the highroad into this lane. As a
rule, Miss Calthea greatly preferred walking to driving, and although
her father had left her a horse and several vehicles, she seldom made
personal use of them; but to-day she was going to Romney, which was too
far away for walking, and she had planned to stop at the Squirrel Inn
and ask Mrs. Cristie to go with her.
It was necessary, for the furtherance of Miss Calthea's plans, that she
should be on good terms with Mrs. Cristie. She ought, in fact, to be
intimate with her, so that when the time came she could talk to her
freely and plainly. It was desirable, indeed, that she should maintain
a friendly connection with everybody at the Squirrel Inn. She had not
yet met Lanigan Beam, and it would be well if he should be made to feel
that she looked upon him merely as an old companion, and cared for him
neither more nor less than one cares for ordinary old companions. Thus
he would feel perfectly free to carry out his own impulses and her
desires.
Towards Mr. Tippengray she had decided to soften. She was still very
angry with him, but it would not do to repel him from herself, for that
might impel him towards another, and spoil two of her plans. Even to
that impertinent child's nurse she would be civil. She need have but
little to do with the creature, but she must not let any one suppose
that she harbored ill feeling towards her, and, with the exception of
Mrs. Petter, no one would suppose she had any reason for such feelings.
In fact, as Miss Calthea's mind dwelt upon this subject, she came to
think that it would be a very good thing if she could do some kindness
or service to this girl. This would give effect to what she might
afterward be obliged to say about her.
Having reached this point in her cogitations, she also reached the point
in the road where Ida Mayberry still sat making her plans, and concealed
from the view of those coming from the direction of the highroad by a
mass of projecting elderberry bushes. Hearing an approaching vehicle,
the young woman on the horizontal limb, not wishing to be seen perched
upon this elevated seat, sprang to the ground, which she touched about
four feet from the nose of the sorrel horse.
This animal, which was trotting along in a quiet and reflective way, as
if he also was making plans, was greatly startled by this sudden flash
of a light-colored mass, this rustle, this waving, this thud upon the
ground, and he bounded sidewise entirely across the road, stopping with
his head in the bushes on the other side.
Miss Calthea, who was nearly thrown from her seat, could not repress a
scream, and, turning, perceived Ida Mayberry.
"Did you do that?" she cried.
"I am sorry that I made your horse shy," said Ida, approaching the
vehicle; "but he seems to be perfectly quiet now, and I hope nothing is
broken. Horses ought to be taught not to shy, but I suppose that would
be difficult, considering the small size of their brain cavities."
"If some people had as much brains as a horse," muttered Miss Calthea,
"it would be better for them. Back, Sultan! Do you hear me! Back!" And
she tugged with all her strength upon the reins.
But the sorrel horse did not move; he had two reasons for refusing to
obey his mistress. In the first place, on general principles he disliked
to back, and was fully conscious that Miss Calthea could not make him do
it, and in the second place, he wanted a drink, and did not intend to
move until he got it. Just here the brook was at its widest and deepest,
and it came so near the road that in shying Sultan had entered it so far
that the front wheels of the phaeton nearly touched the water. Standing
more than fetlock deep in this cool stream, it is no wonder that Sultan
wanted some one to loosen his check-rein and let him drink.
"I am afraid you are not strong enough to back him out of that," said
Ida; "and if there were not so much water all around him I would go and
take him by the head."
"Let him alone," cried Miss Calthea. "Back, Sultan! Back, I say!" And
she pulled and pulled, tiring herself greatly, but making no impression
upon the horse.
Now appeared upon the scene Mrs. Cristie, pushing her baby-carriage. She
had come to look for Ida. She was full of sympathy when she heard what
had happened, and, pushing Douglas into a safe place behind a tree, came
forward and proposed that some one go for a man. But Calthea Rose did
not want a man. She was very proud of her abilities as a horsewoman, and
she did not wish a man to behold her inferiority in emergencies of this
sort. She therefore opposed the suggestion, and continued to pull and
tug.
"That will never do," said Ida Mayberry, who had been earnestly
regarding the situation. "You cannot make him move, and even if we did
go into the water, he might jump about and tread on us; but I have
thought of a way in which I think we can make him back. You are pretty
heavy, Miss Rose, and Mrs. Cristie is lighter than I am, so she ought to
get into the phaeton and take the reins, and you and I ought to help
back the phaeton. I have seen it done, and I can tell you how to do
it."
[Illustration: "BACK!"]
To this Miss Calthea paid no immediate attention; but as Mrs. Cristie
urged that if Ida knew about such things it would be well to let her try
what she could do, and as Miss Calthea found that tugging at Sultan's
bit amounted to nothing, she stepped out of the low vehicle and demanded
to know what the child's nurse proposed to do.
"Now jump in, Mrs. Cristie," said Ida, "and when I give the word you
pull the reins with all your might, and shout 'Back!' at him. Miss Rose,
you go to that hind wheel, and I will go to this one. Now put one foot
on a spoke, so, and take hold of the wheel, and when I say 'Now!' we
will both raise ourselves up and put our whole weight on the spoke, and
Mrs. Cristie will pull on him at the same instant."
Somewhat doggedly, but anxious to get out of her predicament, Miss
Calthea took her position at the wheel and put one foot upon an almost
horizontal spoke. Ida did the same, and then giving the word, both women
raised themselves from the ground; Mrs. Cristie gave a great pull, and
shouted, "Back!" and as the hind wheels began slowly to revolve, the
astonished horse, involuntarily obeying the double impulse thus given
him, backed a step or two.
"Now! Again!" cried Ida, and the process was repeated, this time the
horse backing himself out of the water.
"Bravo!" cried Lanigan Beam, who, with Walter Lodloe, had arrived on the
scene just as Calthea Rose and Ida Mayberry had made their second
graceful descent from an elevated spoke to the ground.
XV
THE BABY IS PASSED AROUND
"Good for you, Calthy," cried Lanigan Beam, advancing with outstretched
hands. "How do you do? Old Sultan is at his tricks again, is he,
declining to back? But you got the better of him that time, and did it
well, too."
In his admiration of the feat he had witnessed, the credit of which he
gave entirely to his old and well-tried fiancée, Lanigan forgot for the
moment his plan for the benefit of Lethbury.
Irritated and embarrassed as she was, Miss Calthea did not forget her
intention of treating Lanigan Beam as a person between whom and herself
there could be nothing of a connecting order which could be set up as
something of an obstructing order between herself and any one else. She
therefore took his hand, made a few commonplace remarks about his
return, and then, excusing herself, approached Mrs. Cristie, who was
just about to alight from the phaeton, and gave her the invitation to
drive to Romney. That lady hesitated a few moments, and then,
remembering some shopping she would like to do, accepted; and the
attention of Miss Mayberry having been called to the baby-carriage
behind the tree, the two ladies drove off.
Ida Mayberry gazed for a moment at the parting vehicle, and then,
turning to Mr. Beam, she said:
"She might at least have thanked me for getting her out of that scrape."
"Was that your idea?" said Lanigan.
"Of course it was," said the young woman: "if I hadn't shown her how to
make the horse back, she would have pulled her arms out for nothing. It
is easy to see that she does not know anything about managing horses."
Lanigan laughed outright.
"I would advise you not to say that to her," he said.
"I would as soon say it to her as not," said Ida; "somebody ought to do
it. Why, if that horse had shied towards me instead of away from me when
I jumped from that tree, I might have been very much hurt."
Lanigan laughed again, but this time inwardly.
"Do you like yellow flowers, Miss Mayberry?" said he. "The largest wild
coreopsis I ever saw grows in this region. I noticed some in a field we
just passed. Shall I gather a few for you?"
"I am very fond of that flower," said Ida; and Mr. Beam declaring that
if she would step a little way with him he would show her a whole field
of them, the two walked up the road.
Walter Lodloe had been gazing with some dissatisfaction at the departing
phaeton. His mind was getting into a condition which made it unpleasant
for him to see people take Mrs. Cristie away from him. He now turned
and looked at the baby-carriage, in which the infant Douglas was sitting
up, endeavoring by various noises to attract attention to himself.
Lodloe pulled the vehicle into the road, and, finding that the motion
quieted its occupant, he began slowly to push it towards the Squirrel
Inn. When Walter Lodloe turned into the open space about the inn he met
Mr. Tippengray with a book in his hand.
[Illustration: "HE BEGAN SLOWLY TO PUSH IT TOWARDS THE SQUIRREL INN."]
"Really," said the latter, elevating his eyebrows, "I heard the creaking
of those little wheels, and I--"
"Thought Miss Mayberry was making them creak," said Lodloe. "But she is
not, and you may as well postpone the lesson I suppose you want to give
her. She is at present taking lessons in botany from another professor";
and he hereupon stated in brief the facts of the desertion of the infant
Douglas. "Now what am I going to do with the little chap?" he continued;
"I must search for Mrs. Petter."
"Don't do that," said the Greek scholar, quickly; "it would look badly
for the young woman. Let me have the child; I will take care of it until
she comes. I will wheel it down to my summer-house, where it is cool and
shady."
"And an excellent spot to teach Greek," said Lodloe, laughing.
"A capital place," gaily replied Mr. Tippengray, putting his book into
his pocket, and taking hold of the handle of the little carriage, elated
by the feeling that in so doing he was also, for a time, getting a hold
upon Miss Mayberry.
[Illustration: "I WILL WHEEL IT DOWN TO MY SUMMER-HOUSE, WHERE IT IS
COOL AND SHADY."]
"Yes," he continued, "it is just the place for me; it suits me in all
sorts of ways, and I have a mind to tell you of a most capital joke
connected with it. It is too good a thing to keep to myself any longer,
and now that I know you so well, I am perfectly willing to trust you.
Would you believe it? I know the Rockmores of Germantown. I know them
very well, and hate them for a lot of prigs. But I never told Stephen
Petter. Not I. In some way or other he took it for granted that I did
not possess the valuable acquaintanceship, and I let him think so. Ha!
ha! That's the way I got the summer-house, don't you see? Ha! ha! ha!"
Lodloe laughed. "Your secret is safe with me," said he; and the two
having reached the little garden, he left the Greek scholar and went to
his room.
When Ida Mayberry had her arms full of the great yellow flowers she
suddenly appreciated the fact that she must be a long way from the baby,
and ought immediately to return to it. She thereupon hastened back
across the uneven surface of the field. When she reached the spot where
the baby had been left, no baby was there.
"My goodness!" she exclaimed, "Mr. Lodloe has taken the child away, and
there is no knowing which way he has gone."
"Oh, the youngster's all right," said Lanigan. "Sit down and rest
yourself, and we will walk to the inn."
"Not a bit of it!" exclaimed Ida. "You go that way, and I will go this,
and if you see him, call out as loud as you can."
Very reluctantly Mr. Beam obeyed orders, and hurried in the direction of
the highroad.
As he sat down by his open window Walter Lodloe looked out and saw Ida
Mayberry running. Instantly there was a shout from the summer-house and
the wave of a handkerchief. Then the nurse-maid ceased to run, but
walked rapidly in the direction of the handkerchief-waver, who stood
triumphantly pointing to the baby-carriage. After a glance at the baby
to see that he was all right, Miss Mayberry seated herself on a bench in
the shade, and took off her hat. In a few moments the Greek scholar was
seated by her, the book was opened, and two heads were together in
earnest study.
About ten minutes later Lodloe saw Lanigan Beam appear upon the lawn,
walking rapidly. In a moment he caught sight of the group at the
summer-house, and stopped short. He clenched his fists and slightly
stamped one foot.
Lodloe now gave a low whistle, and Lanigan glancing upward at the sound,
he beckoned to him to come to his tower-room. The young man at first
hesitated, and then walked slowly towards the little garden, and
ascended the outside stairway.
Lodloe greeted him with a smile.
"As you seem doubtful about joining the little company down there, I
thought I would ask you up here," he said.
Lanigan walked to the window and gazed out at the summer-house.
"They are having a good, cozy time of it," said he, "but that won't do.
That sort of thing has got to be stopped."
"Why won't it do?" asked Lodloe. "What is the matter with it, and who is
going to stop it?"
"It's sheer nonsense," said Beam, turning away from the window and
throwing himself into a chair; "why should an old fellow like Tippengray
take up all the spare time of that girl? She doesn't need to learn
anything. From what she has said to me I judge that she knows too much
already."
"It strikes me," said Lodloe, "that if he likes to teach her, and she
likes to learn, it is nobody's business but their own, unless Mrs.
Cristie should think that her interests were being neglected." He spoke
quietly, although he was a little provoked at the tone of his companion.
"Well," said Mr. Beam, stretching his legs upon a neighboring chair, "I
object to that intimacy for two reasons. In the first place, it keeps
me away from Miss Mayberry, and I am the sort of person she ought to
associate with, especially in her vacation; and in the second place, it
keeps old Tippengray away from Calthea Rose. That is bad, very bad. Mrs.
Petter tells me that before Miss Mayberry arrived Calthea and the Greek
were as chummy and as happy together as any two people could be. It is
easy to see that Calthea is dead in love with him, and if she had been
let alone I am confident she would have married him before the summer
was over."
"And you think that desirable?" asked Lodloe.
"Of course I do," cried Lanigan, sitting up straight in his chair and
speaking earnestly; "it would be the best thing in the world. Calthea
has had a hard time with her various engagements,--all of them with
me,--and now that she has found the man she likes she ought to have him.
It would be a splendid match; he might travel where he pleased, and
Calthea would be an honor to him. She could hold her own with the
nobility and gentry, and the crowned heads, for that matter. By George!
it would make him two inches taller to walk through a swell crowd with
Calthea on his arm, dressed as she would dress, and carrying her head as
she would carry it."
"You seem to be a matchmaker," said Lodloe; "but I don't meddle in that
sort of thing. I greatly prefer to let people take care of their own
affairs; but I feel bound to say to you that after Ida Mayberry
neglected her duty to go off with you, I determined to advise Mrs.
Cristie to dispense with the services of such a very untrustworthy
nurse-maid."
Lanigan Beam sprang to his feet. "Don't you do that!" he cried. "I beg
of you not to do that."
"Why not?" said Lodloe. "That would aid your philanthropic plan in
regard to Miss Rose and Mr. Tippengray. The maid away, there is no
reason why they should not come together again."
"Now I am a straightforward, honest man," said Lanigan, "and I tell you
plainly that that would be very hard on me. I've come here to my native
place to settle down, and if I settle I've got to marry, and I have
never seen a girl whom I would rather marry and settle with than Miss
Mayberry. She may be a little slack about taking care of the baby, but
I'll talk to her about that, and I know she will keep a closer eye on
him. Now if you want to see everybody happy, don't prejudice Mrs.
Cristie against that girl. Give me a chance, and I'll win her into the
right way, and I'll do it easily and naturally, without making hard
blood or hurting anybody. Then old Tip and Calthea will come together
again, and everything will be jolly. Now don't you go and blast the
happiness of all of us, and get that poor girl turned off like a drunken
cook. And as for taking good care of the baby, just look at her now."
Lodloe looked out of the window. Ida Mayberry was leaning forward on the
bench, twirling a great yellow flower before the child, who was laughing
and making snatches at it. In a moment appeared Mr. Tippengray with a
large white daisy; he leaned over the other side of the carriage and
twirled his flower in front of the baby. The little fellow was in great
glee, first clutching at one blossom and then at the other, and Mr.
Tippengray laughed, and Miss Mayberry laughed, and the three laughed
together.
"Confound it!" said Lanigan Beam, with a frown, "this thing must be
stopped."
Lodloe smiled. "Work matters your own way," he said; "I shall not
interfere."
An hour later when Calthea Rose and Mrs. Cristie returned from Romney,
Ida Mayberry was walking by the side of the baby-carriage, which Lanigan
Beam was pushing towards the spot from which there was the best view of
the western sky.
[Illustration: "HE LEANED OVER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CARRIAGE."]
Mrs. Cristie looked at them, and said to herself:
"I don't altogether like that sort of thing, and I think it must be
stopped."
Calthea Rose appeared to have recovered her good humor. She looked about
her apparently satisfied with the world and its ways, and readily
accepted Mrs. Petter's invitation to stay to tea.
XVI
MESSRS. BEAM AND LODLOE DECLINE TO WAIT FOR THE SECOND TABLE
As has been before mentioned, Walter Lodloe had grown into a condition
of mind which made it unpleasant for him when people took Mrs. Cristie
away or occupied her time and attention to the exclusion of his
occupancy of the same. As a literary man he had taken an interest in
studying the character of Mrs. Cristie, and he had now come to like the
character even better than he liked the study.
A pretty woman, of a lively and independent disposition, and quick wit,
and yet with certain matronly and practical points in her character
which always surprised as well as pleased him when they showed
themselves, Mrs. Cristie could not fail to charm such a man as Lodloe,
if the two remained long enough together. She had charmed him, and he
knew it and liked it, and was naturally anxious to know whether, in the
slightest degree, she thought of him as he thought of her. But he had
never been able to perceive any indication of this. The young widow was
kind, gracious, and at times delightfully intimate with him, but he
knew enough of the world to understand that this sort of thing in this
sort of place might not in the least indicate that what was growing up
in him was growing up in her.
On the afternoon of the day after Miss Calthea Rose had taken tea at the
Squirrel Inn Walter Lodloe came down from his room in the tower with no
other object in life than to find Mrs. Cristie. It was about the hour
that she usually appeared on the lawn, and if there should follow
tennis, or talking, or walking, or anything else, one thing would be the
same as another to Lodloe, provided he and she took part. But when he
saw Mrs. Cristie her avocation was one in which he could not take part.
She was sitting on a bench by Mr. Tippengray, Ida Mayberry was sitting
at his other side, and the everlasting baby-carriage was standing near
by. The Greek scholar and the nurse-maid each had a book, but these were
closed, and Mr. Tippengray was talking with great earnestness and
animation, while the young women appeared to be listening with eager
interest. It was plain that the two were taking a lesson in something or
other.
As Lodloe walked slowly from the gate of the little garden Mrs. Cristie
looked up for a moment, saw him, but instantly resumed her attentive
listening. This was enough; he perceived that for the present, at least,
he was not wanted. He strolled on towards the field, and just below the
edge of the bluff he saw Lanigan Beam sitting under a tree.
"Hello!" said the latter, looking up, "are they at that stupid business
yet?"
Lodloe smiled. "Are you waiting for Miss Mayberry to get through with
her lesson?" he asked.
"Yes, I am," said Lanigan. "I have been hanging around here for half an
hour. I never saw such a selfish old codger as that Tippengray. I
suppose he will stick there with them the whole afternoon."
"And you want him!" said Lodloe.
"Want him!" exclaimed Lanigan; "not much. But I want her. If there were
only two together I would do as I did yesterday. I would join them, take
a part, and before long carry her off; but I can't do that with Mrs.
Cristie there. I haven't the cheek to break up her studies."
Lodloe laughed. "Don't let us wait for the second table," he said; "come
and take a walk to Lethbury."
It was now Lanigan's turn to smile.
"You think you would better not wait for the second table," he said;
"very well, then; come on."
The lesson on the bench had been deliberately planned by Mrs. Cristie.
She had been considering the subject of her nurse-maid and Lanigan Beam,
and had decided that it was her duty to interfere with the growth of
that intimacy. She felt that it was her duty to exercise some personal
supervision over the interests of the young person in her service, and
had given her some guarded advice in regard to country-resort
intimacies.
Having given this advice to Ida Mayberry, it struck Mrs. Cristie that it
would apply very well to herself. She remembered that she was also a
young person, and she resolved to take to herself all the advice she had
given to her nurse-maid, and thus it was that she was sitting on the
bench by Mr. Tippengray, listening to his very interesting discourse
upon some of the domestic manners and customs of the ancients, and their
surprising resemblance in many points to those of the present day.
Therefore it was, also, that she allowed Walter Lodloe to pass on his
way without inviting him to join the party.
When Lodloe and Beam reached Lethbury, the latter proposed that they
should go and worry Calthea Rose; and to his companion's surprised
exclamation at being asked to join in this diversion Lanigan answered,
that having been used to that sort of thing all his life, it seemed the
most natural sport in which to indulge now that he found himself in
Lethbury again.
"Very good," said Lodloe, as they approached Miss Rose's place of
business; "I shall not interfere with your native sports, but I do not
care to join them. I shall continue my walk, and stop for you on my way
back."
When Lanigan Beam entered Miss Rose's shop she was sitting, as was her
custom, by the back window, sewing. A neighbor had dropped in to chat
with her a half-hour before, but had gone away very soon. The people of
Lethbury had learned to understand when Calthea Rose did not wish to
chat.
Miss Calthea was not happy; she was disappointed. Things had not gone as
she hoped they would go, and as she had believed they would go when she
accepted Mrs. Petter's invitation to tea. That meal had been a very
pleasant one; even the presence of Ida Mayberry, who came to table with
the family when the baby happened to be asleep, did not disturb her. On
the contrary, it gratified her, for Lanigan Beam sat by that young
person and was very attentive to her. She carefully watched Mr.
Tippengray, and perceived that this attention, and the interest of the
child's nurse in Lanigan's remarks, did not appear to give him the least
uneasiness. Thereupon she began gradually, and she hoped imperceptibly,
to resume her former method of intercourse with the Greek scholar, and
to do so without any show of restoring him to favor. She did this so
deftly that Mrs. Cristie was greatly interested in the performance, and
an outside observer could have had no reason to suppose that there had
been any break in the friendly intercourse between Miss Rose and Mr.
Tippengray.
But this unsatisfactory state of things soon came to an end. When the
daylight began to wane, and Miss Calthea's phaeton had been brought to
the door, she went to it with her plans fully formed. As Mr. Tippengray
assisted her into the vehicle, she intended to accept his proposition to
drive her to Lethbury. She had slightly deferred her departure in order
that the growing duskness might give greater reason for the proposition.
There would be a moon about nine o'clock, and his walk back would be
pleasant.
But when she reached the phaeton Mr. Tippengray was not there. Ida
Mayberry, eager to submit to his critical eye two lines of Browning
which she had put into a sort of Greek resembling the partly cremated
corpse of a dead language, and who for the past ten minutes had been
nervously waiting for Master Douglas to close his eyes in sleep that she
might rush down to Mr. Tippengray while he was yet strolling on the
lawn by himself, had rushed down to him, and had made him forget
everything else in the world in his instinctive effort to conceal from
his pupil the shock given him by the sight of her lines. He had been
waiting for Miss Calthea to come out, had been intending to hand her to
her vehicle, and had thought of proposing to accompany her to the
village; but he had not heard the phaeton roll to the door, the
leave-taking on the porch did not reach his ear, and his mind took no
note whatever of the fact that Miss Rose was on the point of departure.
As that lady, stepping out upon the piazza, swept her eyes over the
scene and beheld the couple on the lawn, she gave a jerk to the glove
she was drawing on her hand that tore in it a slit three inches long.
She then turned her eyes upon her phaeton, declined the offer of Mr.
Petter to see her home, and, after a leave-taking which was a little
more effusive than was usual with her, drove herself to Lethbury. If the
sorrel horse had behaved badly in the early part of that afternoon, he
was punished for it in the early part of that evening, for he completely
broke all previous records of time made between the Squirrel Inn and
Lethbury.
Thus the hopes of Miss Calthea had been doubly darkened; the pariah with
the brimstone blossoms had not only treacherously deserted Lanigan, but
had made Mr. Tippengray treacherously desert her. She had been furiously
angry; now she was low-spirited and cross. But one thing in the world
could have then cheered her spirits, and that would have been the sight
of her bitterest enemy and Lanigan Beam driving or walking together past
her shop door; but when Lanigan alone entered that shop door she was not
cheered at all.
Mr. Beam's greeting was very free and unceremonious, and without being
asked to do so he took a seat near the proprietress of the
establishment.
"Well, well," he said, "this looks like old times. Why, Calthy, I don't
believe you have sold a thing since I was here last."
"If you had any eyes in your head," said Miss Calthea, severely, "you
would see that I have sold a great deal. Nearly everything, in fact."
"That proves my point," said Lanigan; "for nearly everything was gone
when I left."
"And some of the things that are gone," said she, "you still owe me
for."
"Well put, Calthy," said Lanigan, laughing; "and after that, let's drop
the business. What's new and what's stale in Lethbury?"
"You are about the newest as well as the stalest thing here," said she.
Lanigan whistled. "Calthy," said he, "would you mind my smoking a cigar
here! There will be no customers coming in."
"You know very well you cannot smoke here," she said; "what is the
matter with you? Has that pincushion-faced child's nurse driven you from
the inn?"
A pang went through Lanigan. Was Calthea jealous of Miss Mayberry on his
account? The thought frightened him. If he could have said anything
which would have convinced Calthea that he was on the point of marrying
Miss Mayberry, and that therefore she might as well consider everything
at an end between herself and him, he would have said it. But he merely
replied:
"She is a nice girl, and very much given to learning."
Now Miss Calthea could restrain herself no longer.
"Learning!" she exclaimed. "Stuff and deception! Impudent flirting is
what she is fond of, as long as she can get a good-for-naught like you,
or an old numskull like that Tippengray, to play her tricks on."
Now Lanigan Beam braced himself for action. This sort of thing would not
do; whatever she might say or think about the rest of the world, Calthea
must not look with disfavor on the Greek scholar.
"Numskull!" said he. "You're off the track there, Calthy, I never knew a
man with a better skull than Mr. Tippengray, and as to his being
old--there is a little gray in his hair to be sure, but it's my opinion
that that comes more from study than from years."
"Nonsense!" said Calthea; "I don't believe he cares a snap for study
unless he can do it with some girl. I expect he has been at that all his
life."
Now Lanigan's spirits rose; he saw that it was not on his account that
Calthea was jealous of Ida Mayberry. His face put on an expression of
serious interest, and he strove to speak impressively, but not so much
so as to excite suspicion.
"Calthea," said he, "I think you are not treating Mr. Tippengray with
your usual impartiality and fairness. From what I have seen of him, I am
sure that the great object of his life is to teach, and when he gets a
chance to do that he does it, and for the moment forgets everything
else. You may be right in thinking that he prefers to teach young
persons, and this is natural enough, for young people are much more
likely than older ones to want to learn. Now, to prove that he doesn't
care to teach young girls just because they are girls, I will tell you
that I saw him, this very afternoon, hard at work teaching Mrs. Cristie
and Ida Mayberry at the same time, and he looked twice as happy as when
he was instructing only one of them. If there were enough people here so
that he could make up a class, and could have a sort of summer school, I
expect he would be the happiest man on earth.
"I am afraid that is Mr. Tippengray's fault," continued Lanigan, folding
his hands in his lap and gazing reflectively at his outstretched legs.
"I am afraid that he gives too much of his mind to teaching, and
neglects other things. He is carried away by his love of teaching, and
when he finds one person, or a dozen persons who want to learn, he
neglects his best friends for that one person, or those dozen persons.
He oughtn't to do it; it isn't right--but then, after all, no man is
perfect, and I suppose the easiest way for us to get along is to stop
looking for perfection."
Miss Calthea made no answer. She gazed out of the window as if she was
mildly impressed with a solicitude for the welfare of her garden. There
flitted into her mind a wavering, indeterminate sort of notion that
perhaps Lanigan was a better fellow than he used to be, and that if she
should succeed in her great purpose it might not be necessary that he
should go away. But still,--and here prudence stepped in front of
kindliness,--if that child's nurse remained in the neighborhood, it
would be safer if Lanigan kept up his interest in her; and if she
ultimately carried him off, that was his affair.
Leaning forward, Miss Calthea took a match from a box on a shelf, and
handed it to Lanigan.
"You may as well smoke if you want to," she said; "it's not likely any
one will be coming in, and I don't object when the window is open."
Gratefully Lanigan lighted his cigar.
"Calthy, this is truly like old times," he said. "And to finish up with
Tippengray, I'll say that if Lodloe and I had not our mind so filled
with our own businesses and projects, I'd get him to go in with me, and
help make up a class; but if I were to do that, perhaps people might say
that all I wanted was to get in with the girls."
Here was a chance for Calthea to give her schemes a little push.
"There is only one girl," she said, "who would be likely to take part in
that sort of thing, and that is the child's nurse at the Squirrel Inn;
but if she really is given to study, I suppose she might help you to
improve your mind, and if you are what you used to be, it will stand a
good deal of improving."
"That's so, Calthy," said Lanigan; "that's so." He was in high good
humor at the turn the conversation had taken, but did his best to
repress his inclination to show it. "It might be well to go in for
improvement. I'll do that, anyway." Lanigan blew out a long whiff of
purple smoke. "Calthy is a deep one," he said to himself; "she wants me
to draw off that girl from the old man. But all right, my lady; you
tackle him and I will tackle her. That suits me beautifully."
At this moment Lodloe entered the shop, and Miss Calthea Rose greeted
him with much graciousness.
[Illustration: "CALTHY, THIS IS TRULY LIKE OLD TIMES."]
"You must have taken a short walk," said Lanigan. "Don't you want to
wait until I finish my cigar? It's so much pleasanter to smoke here than
in the open air. Perhaps Miss Calthea will let you join me."
Lodloe was perfectly willing to wait, but did not wish to smoke. He was
interested in what he had heard of the stock of goods which was being
sold off about as fast as a glacier moves, and was glad to have the
opportunity to look about him.
"Do you know, Calthy," said Lanigan, "that you ought to sell Mr. Lodloe
a bill of goods?" He said this partly because of his own love of
teasing, but partly in earnest. To help Calthea sell off her stock was
an important feature of his project.
"Mr. Lodloe shall not buy a thing," said Calthea Rose. "If he is ever in
want of anything, and stops in here to see if I have it in stock, I
shall be glad to sell it to him if it is here, for I am still in
business; but I know very well that Mr. Lodloe came in now as an
acquaintance and not as a customer."
"Beg your pardons, both of you," cried Lanigan, springing to his feet,
and throwing the end of his cigar out of the window; "but I say, Calthy,
have you any of that fire-blaze calico with the rocket sparks that's
been on hand ever since I can remember?"
"Your memory is pretty short sometimes," said Calthea, "but I think I
know the goods you mean, and I have seven yards of it left. Why do you
ask about it?"
"I want to see it," said Lanigan. "There it is on that shelf; it's the
same-sized parcel that it used to be. Would you mind handing it down to
me?"
Lanigan unrolled the calico upon the counter, and gazed upon it with
delight. "Isn't that glorious!" he cried to Lodloe; "isn't that like a
town on fire! By George! Calthea, I will take the whole seven yards."
"Now, Lanigan," said Miss Calthea, "you know you haven't the least use
in the world for this calico."
"I know nothing of the sort," said Lanigan; "I have a use for it. I want
to make Mrs. Petter a present, and I have been thinking of a
fire-screen, and this is just the thing for it. I'll build the frame
myself, and I'll nail on this calico, front and back the same. It'll
want a piece of binding, or gimp, tacked around the edges. Have you any
binding, or gimp, Calthy, that would suit?"
Miss Calthea laughed. "You'd better wait until you are ready for it,"
she said, "and then come and see."
"Anyway, I want the calico," said he. "Please put it aside for me, and
I'll come in to-morrow and settle for it. And now it seems to me that if
we want any supper we had better be getting back to the inn."
"It's not a bad idea," said Miss Calthea Rose, when she was left to
herself; "but it shall not be in a class. No, indeed! I will take good
care that it shall not be in a class."
XVII
BANANAS AND OATS
When Walter Lodloe walked to Lethbury because he could not talk to Mrs.
Cristie, it could not have been reasonably supposed that his walk would
have had more practical influence on his feelings towards that lady than
a conversation with her would have had; but such was the case.
It would have been very pleasant to talk, or walk, or chat, or stroll,
or play tennis, with her, but when he reached the quiet little village,
and wandered by himself along the shaded streets, and looked into the
pretty yards and gardens, on the profusion of old-fashioned flowers and
the cool green grass under the trees, and here and there a stone
well-curb with a great sweep and an oaken bucket, and the air of quaint
comfort which seemed to invade the interiors of those houses that were
partly opened to his view, it struck him, as no idea of the sort had
ever struck him before, what a charming and all-satisfying thing it
would be to marry Mrs. Cristie and live in Lethbury in one of these
cool, quaint houses with the quiet and shade and the flowers--at least
for a few years until his fortunes should improve.
He had a notion that Mrs. Cristie would like that sort of thing. She
seemed so fond of country life. He would write and she would help him.
He would work in the vegetable garden, and she among the flowers. It
would be Arcadia, and it would be cheap. Even with his present income
every rural want could be satisfied.
An infusion of feasibility--or what he looked upon as such--into the
sentimentality of such a man as Walter Lodloe generally acts as a
stiffener to his purposes. He was no more in love with Mrs. Cristie than
he had been when he left the Squirrel Inn, but he now determined, if he
saw any reason to suppose that she would accept them, to offer himself
and a Lethbury cottage to Mrs. Cristie.
He had a good opportunity to think over this matter and come to
decisions, for his companion walked half the way home without saying a
word.
Suddenly Lanigan spoke.
"Do you know," said he, "that I have about made up my mind to marry the
governess?"
"She isn't a governess," said Lodloe; "she is a nurse-maid."
"I prefer to invest her with a higher grade," said Lanigan; "and it is
pretty much the same thing, after all. Anyway, I want to marry her, and
I believe I can do it if nobody steps in to interfere."
"Who do you suppose would do that?" asked Lodloe.
"Well," said Lanigan, "if the Lethbury people knew about it, and had a
chance, every man jack of them, and every woman jack, too, would
interfere, and under ordinary circumstances Calthea Rose would take the
lead; but just now I think she intends to lend me a hand--not for my
good, but for her own. If she does that, I am not afraid of all Lethbury
and the Petters besides. The only person I am afraid of is Mrs.
Cristie."
"Why do you fear her?" asked Lodloe.
"Well," said Lanigan, "when she was at the inn some years ago I was at
my wildest, and her husband did not like me. He was in bad health, very
touchy, and I suppose I gave him reason enough to consider me an
extremely black sheep. Of course Mrs. Cristie naturally thought pretty
much as he did, and from what you told me of the conference over my
advent, I suppose her opinions haven't changed much. She has treated me
very well since I have been here, but I have no doubt that she would
consider it her duty to let Miss Mayberry know just the sort of fellow
she thinks I am."
"Of course she would do that," said Lodloe; "and she ought to do it."
"No, sir," said Lanigan; "you are wrong, and I am going to prove it to
you, and you shall see that I trust you as if I had known you years
instead of days. I want you to understand that I am not the same sort of
fellow that I used to be, not by any means. I told old Petter that, so
that he might have a little practice in treating me with respect, but I
didn't give him any reasons for it, because Calthea Rose would be sure
to suspect that he knew something, and she'd worm it out of him; but I
don't believe she could worm anything out of you. When I left this
place some eighteen months ago I went down to Central America and bought
a banana farm, paying very little money down. In less than three months
I sold my land to a company, and made a very good thing out of it. Then,
thinking the company after a while might want more land, I bought
another large tract, and before the end of the year I sold that to them,
doubling my money. Then I left the tropics, fearing I might go too deep
into that sort of speculation and lose every cent I had. I traveled
around, and at last landed in Chicago, and here the money-making fever
seized me again. It is a new thing to me, and a lot more intoxicating, I
can tell you. I invested in oats, and before I knew it that blessed
grain went up until, if its stalks had been as high as its price, it
would have been over my head. I sold out, and then I said to myself:
'Now, Lanigan, my boy, if you don't want to be a beastly pauper for the
rest of your life, you had better go home.' Honestly, I was frightened,
and it seemed to me I should never be safe until I was back in Lethbury.
Look here," he said, taking from a pocket a wallet filled with a mass of
papers and a bank-book; "look at those certificates, and here is my New
York bank-book, so you can see that I am not telling you lies.
"Now you may say that the fact of my having money doesn't prove that I
am any better than I used to be, but if you think that, you are wrong.
There is no better way to reform a fellow than to give him something to
take care of and take an interest in. That's my case now, and all I've
got I've given myself, which makes it better, of course. I'm not rich,
but I've got enough to buy out any business in Lethbury. And to go into
business and to live here are what will suit me better than anything
else, and that's not counting in Ida Mayberry at all. To live here with
her would be better luck than the biggest rise in oats the world ever
saw. Now you see where I stand. If Mrs. Cristie goes against me, she
does a cruel thing to me, and to Ida Mayberry besides."
"Why don't you tell her the facts?" said Lodloe. "That would be the
straightforward and sensible thing to do."
"My dear boy," said Lanigan, "I cannot put the facts into the hands of a
woman. No matter how noble or honorable she may be, without the least
intention on her part they would leak out, and if Calthea Rose should
get hold of them I should be lost. She'd drop old Tippengray like a hot
potato and stick to me like one of those adhesive plasters that have
holes in them. No, sir; I don't want Calthea Rose to think well of me. I
want her to keep on considering me as a good-for-nothing scapegrace,
and, by George! it's easy enough to make her do that. It's all in her
line of business. But I want other people to think well of me in a
general way, and when Calthea and Tippengray have settled things between
them, and are traveling on the Continent, which they certainly ought to
do, I'll start in business, and take my place as one of the leading
citizens of Lethbury; and, as things look now, all will be plain sailing
if Mrs. Cristie thinks well enough of me not to interfere between me
and Ida Mayberry. Now all I ask of you is to say a good word for me if
you can get a chance."
"After what you have told me," said Lodloe, "I think I shall say it."
"Good for you!" cried Lanigan. "And if I go to Calthy and ask her to
lend me the money to get a frame made for Mrs. Petter's fire-screen,
don't you be surprised. What I'm doing is just as much for her good as
for mine. In this whole world there couldn't be a better match for her
than old Tippengray, and she knows it, and wants him."
"If there was a society for the prevention of cruelty to Greek scholars,
I don't know but that it might interfere in this case," said Lodloe.
XVIII.
SWEET PEAS.
Walter Lodloe was now as much flushed with the fever of love-making as
Lanigan Beam had been flushed with the fever of money-making, but he did
not have the other man's luck. Mrs. Cristie gave him few opportunities
of making her know him as he wished her to know him. He had sense enough
to see that this was intentional, and that if he made any efforts to
improve his opportunities he might drive her away.
As he sat at his tower window, his fingers in his hair and his mind
trying to formulate the prudent but bold thing he ought to do, a voice
came up from below. It was that of Ida Mayberry.
"Mr. Lodloe! Mr. Lodloe!" she cried; and when he had put his head out of
the window she called to him:
"Don't you want to come down and help us teach Mr. Tippengray to play
tennis? He has taught us so much that we are going to teach him
something."
"Who are going to teach?" asked Lodloe.
"Mrs. Cristie and I," said Ida. "Will you come?"
Instantly consenting, Lodloe drew in his head, his love fever rising.
The Greek scholar was one of the worst tennis-players in the world. He
knew nothing of the game, and did not appear capable of learning it. And
yet when Lanigan Beam appeared, having just arrived on horseback from
Romney, Mrs. Cristie would not allow the Greek scholar to give up his
place to the younger man. She insisted on his finishing the game, and
when it was over she declared the morning too warm to play any more.
As she and Lodloe stood together for a moment, their rackets still in
their hands, Mrs. Cristie smiled, but at the same time frowned.
"It is too provoking," she said; "I wish Douglas would wake up and
scream his very loudest. I was just on the point of asking Ida to go
with me into the garden to pick sweet peas, when Mr. Beam hands her that
horrible bunch of wild flowers, crammed full of botany, I've no doubt.
And now just look at them! Before one could say a word, there they are
on that bench, heads together, and pulling the weeds to pieces. Think of
it! Studying botany with _him_, and Mr. Tippengray on the same lawn with
her!"
"Oh, he's too hot to teach anything," said Lodloe. "You don't seem to
approve of Mr. Beam's attentions to that young woman."
"I do not," said she. "You know what he is as well as I do."
"Better," said Lodloe. For a moment he paused, and then continued: "Mrs.
Cristie, I wish you would let me go into the garden with you to pick
sweet peas and to talk about Mr. Beam."
"Mr. Beam!" she repeated.
"Yes," said Lodloe; "I wish very much to speak to you in regard to him,
and I cannot do it here where we may be interrupted at any moment."
As a young and pretty woman who knew her attractions, and who had made
resolutions in regard to the preponderance of social intercourse in a
particular direction, Mrs. Cristie hesitated before answering. But as a
matron who should know all about a young man who was paying very special
attention to a younger woman in her charge, she accepted the invitation,
and went into the garden with Lodloe.
The sweet pea-blossoms crowded the tall vines which lined one side of a
path, and as she picked them he talked to her.
He began by saying that he had noticed, and he had no doubt that she had
noticed, that in all the plain talk they had heard about Mr. Beam there
had been nothing said against his moral character except that he did not
pay his debts nor keep his promises. To this Mrs. Cristie assented, but
said that she thought these were very bad things. Lodloe agreed to this,
but said he thought that when a young man of whom even professional
slanderers did not say that he was cruel, or that he gambled, or drank,
or was addicted to low company and pursuits, had determined to reform
his careless and thoughtless life, he ought to be encouraged and helped
in every possible way. And then when she asked him what reason he had to
suppose that Mr. Beam had determined to reform, he straightway told her
everything about Lanigan, Chicago oats and all, adding that the young
man did not wish him to say anything about this matter, but he had taken
it upon himself to do so because Mrs. Cristie ought to know it, and
because he was sure that she would not mention it to any one. When Mrs.
Cristie exclaimed at this, and said that she thought that the sooner
everybody knew it the better, Lodloe told her of the state of affairs
between Calthea Rose and Lanigan Beam, and why the latter did not wish
his reform to be known at present.
Mrs. Cristie dropped upon the ground every sweet-pea blossom she had
gathered.
"I cannot imagine," she said, "how you can take the part of a man who
would deliberately attempt to lower himself in the eyes of one woman in
order that he might have a better chance to win another woman."
"Mrs. Cristie," said Lodloe, "I am a young man, and I have lived much
among young men. I have seen many of them in dangerous and troubled
waters, floating down to ruin and destruction, and now and then I have
seen one who had turned and was trying to strike out for the shore. In
every case of this kind I have tried to give the poor fellow a hand and
help him get his feet on firm ground. Sometimes he jumped in again, and
sometimes he didn't, but all that was not my affair; I was bound to help
him when I saw him facing the right way, and that is just the way I feel
about young Beam. I do not approve of all his methods, but if he wants
moral support I say he ought to have it."
Mrs. Cristie looked at the pink, blue, and purple blossoms on the
ground. "His sentiments are good and generous ones," she thought, "and I
shall not say one word against them, but Ida Mayberry shall not marry
that exceedingly slippery young man, and the good Mr. Tippengray shall
not be caught by Calthea Rose." She came to this resolution with much
firmness of purpose, but as she was not prepared to say anything on the
subject just then, she looked up very sweetly at Lodloe, and said:
"Suppose we drop Mr. Beam."
He looked for an instant into her eyes.
"Gladly," he exclaimed, with an impulse like a lightning-flash, "and
speak of Walter Lodloe."
"Of you?" she said.
"Yes, of me," he replied; "of myself, of a man who has no scheme, no
plan, no concealments, and who only wishes you to know that he loves you
with all his heart."
She looked at him steadfastly for a moment.
"Was it for this," she said, "that you asked me to come with you and
pick sweet-pea blossoms?"
"Not at all," he exclaimed; "I meant no more than I said, and thought of
no more. But the flowers we came to gather you have dropped upon the
ground."
"They can easily be picked up again," she said.
"Not at all," he cried, and, stepping forward, put his foot upon the
fragrant blossoms. Then with a few rapid dashes he gathered a bunch of
sweet peas and extended them towards Mrs. Cristie.
"Will you not take these instead?" he said.
She put her hands behind her back.
[Illustration: "WILL YOU NOT TAKE THESE INSTEAD?"]
"I do not mean," he said, speaking low but strongly, "that in accepting
them you accept me. I only want to know that you will talk to me of what
I said, or at any rate think of it."
But still she kept her hands behind her back. In her heart she knew that
she wanted those flowers, but the knowledge had come so suddenly, so
unexpectedly, and so unreasonably, that she did not even look at them,
and clasped her fingers together more tightly.
"Some one is coming," said Lodloe. "Tell me quickly, must these flowers
be dropped?"
Steps could plainly be heard not far away. Mrs. Cristie looked up.
"I will take one," she said; "the very smallest."
He thrust the bunch of flowers towards her, and she hastily drew from it
one which happened to be the largest of them all.
The person who now appeared in the garden walk was Calthea Rose. She
experienced no emotions but those of mild amusement at seeing these two
together. At present she did not care very much about either of them,
although, when she had heard of the expected coming of the young widow,
she had been afraid of her, and was prepared to dislike her. But finding
her, as she supposed, already provided with a lover, Calthea was quite
satisfied with Mrs. Cristie. She liked Lodloe on general principles,
because he was a man. Her greeting was very pleasant. It often happened
that the people whom Calthea Rose neither liked nor disliked were those
who found her the most pleasant.
She was inclined to walk on and leave them among the sweet-pea blossoms,
but Mrs. Cristie would not allow this. She joined Calthea, and the three
went on together. When they stepped upon the open lawn, Calthea gave a
quick glance around, and the result was very satisfactory. Ida Mayberry
and Lanigan were still sitting together under a tree, and she saw Mr.
Tippengray talking to Mrs. Petter not far from the summer-house. Nothing
could be better arranged. Lanigan was on the right road, and it would be
quite as natural for her immediately to join Mrs. Petter as it would be
easy to get rid of her.
The party separated, Lodloe going to his room and Calthea walking
towards the summer-house. She had come that day to the Squirrel Inn with
a purpose; she was going to be taught by Mr. Tippengray. In this world
we must adapt ourselves to circumstances, and she was going to adapt
herself to the Greek scholar's hobby. She was a sensible woman, and did
not for a moment purpose to ask him to teach her the dead languages,
philosophy, or science, things in which he knew she took no interest.
Indeed, she would not ask him to teach her anything, but she was going
to give him the opportunity to do so, and she was quite sure that that
would be sufficient for her purpose.
She intended to make herself an audience of one, and to listen in a way
she knew would please him to the recital of his travels and experiences.
Of these he had often essayed to talk to her, but she had not encouraged
him. She never liked to talk upon subjects of which other people knew
more than she did, and she always endeavored to bring the conversation
into a channel where she could take an equal part. If she could lead, so
much the better. But now she was going to let Mr. Tippengray talk to her
just as much as he pleased, and tell her all he wanted to tell her. She
now knew him better than she had done before, and she had strong hopes
that by this new string she would be able to lead him from the Squirrel
Inn to Lethbury whenever she chose.
Mrs. Petter had long been accustomed to look upon Calthea Rose as a
person whose anger would blaze up very suddenly, but would go out quite
as promptly--which was true, when Miss Calthea chose to put it out--but
she was a little surprised that Calthea, after so recently going away in
a huff, should treat Mr. Tippengray with such easy friendliness. If the
Greek scholar himself felt surprised, he did not show it, for he was
always ready to meet a cordial overture.
Miss Calthea had just accepted an invitation to be seated in the
shade,--which she knew would very soon be followed by Mrs. Petter's
going into the house, for that good woman was seldom content to sit long
out of doors,--when up stepped Ida Mayberry.
"Mr. Tippengray," said she in the clear, distinct way in which she
always spoke, "here is something which I have been trying to explain to
Mr. Beam, but I am afraid I haven't a quite correct idea about it
myself. Will you please read it, and tell me how it strikes you!"
[Illustration: "I HAVE DISSECTED ONE."]
This was too much for the patience of Calthea Rose. Her resolutions of
geniality and good nature could not stand for a moment against such an
interruption at such a time. She turned sharply upon the nurse-maid,
and, without attempting to disguise her feelings, said it seemed to her
that a person so anxious to learn would be much better employed in
attending to her business and in trying to learn something about babies
than in interrupting conversation in this impertinent way.
"Learn something about babies!" exclaimed Miss Mayberry. "Nobody knows
more about babies than I do--I have dissected one."
At this Mrs. Petter gave a cry of horror, and Miss Calthea stepped back,
speechless with amazement. As for the Greek scholar, he suddenly retired
to a little distance and leaned over a bench, his back to the company.
He was greatly agitated.
Without further remark Miss Mayberry closed her book, and, with dignity,
walked back to Lanigan Beam.
XIX
THE AROUSED ROSE
The soul of Miss Calthea Rose was now filled with one burning purpose,
and that was to banish from the Squirrel Inn that obtrusive and utterly
obnoxious collegiate nurse-maid who had so shamelessly admitted a desire
for surgical research in connection with the care of an infant. It was
of no use for Miss Calthea to think at this moment of her plans in
regard to Mr. Tippengray, nor indeed of anything but this one absorbing
object. Until she had rid herself of Ida Mayberry she could expect to do
nothing that she wished to do. Leaving Mr. Tippengray to the quiet
enjoyment of his agitations, Miss Calthea and Mrs. Petter immediately
set off to find Mrs. Cristie.
"She must instantly know," said the former, "what sort of a serpent she
has in her service. If I were in her place I would never let that
creature touch my baby again."
"Touch the baby!" exclaimed Mrs. Petter, "I wouldn't let her touch me.
When a person with such a disposition begins on infants there is no
knowing where she will stop. Of course I don't mean that she is
dangerous to human life, but it seems to me horrible to have any one
about us who would be looking at our muscles, and thinking about our
bones, and wondering if they worked together properly, and if they would
come apart easily. Ugh! It's like having a bat in the room."
Mrs. Cristie was not in the mood to give proper attention to the
alarming facts which were laid before her by the two women, who found
her sitting by the window in her room. It had been so short a time since
she had come from the garden, and the blossom of the sweet pea, which
she still held in her hand, had been so recently picked from its vine,
that it was not easy for her to fix her mind upon the disqualifications
of nurse-maids. Even the tale that was told her, intensified by the
bitter feeling of Miss Rose, and embellished by the imagination of Mrs.
Petter, did not have the effect upon her that was expected by the
narrators. She herself had been a student of anatomy, and was still fond
of it, and if she had been able properly to consider the subject at that
moment, she might not have considered it a bad thing for Ida Mayberry to
have the experience of which she had boasted.
But the young widow did not wish at that moment to think of her
nurse-maid or even of her baby, and certainly not to give her attention
to the tales of her landlady and the spinster from Lethbury.
"I must admit," she said, "that I cannot see that what you tell me is so
very, very dreadful, but I will speak to Ida about it. I think she is
apt to talk very forcibly, and perhaps imprudently, and does not always
make herself understood."
This was said with an air of abstraction and want of interest which
greatly irritated Miss Calthea. She had not even been thanked for what
she had done. Mrs. Cristie had been very civil, and was evidently trying
to be more so, but this was not enough for Miss Calthea.
"We considered it our duty," she said, with a decided rigidity of
countenance, "to tell you what we know of that girl, and now we leave
the matter with you"; which was a falsehood, if Miss Calthea was capable
of telling one.
Then with much dignity she moved towards the door, and Mrs. Petter
prepared to follow; but before going she turned with moist eyes towards
Mrs. Cristie, and said:
"Indeed, indeed, you ought to be very careful; and no matter how you
look at it, she is not fit for a nurse, as everybody can see. Make up
your mind to send her away, and I'll go myself and get you a good one."
Glancing out of the door to see that the Lethbury lady was out of
hearing, Mrs. Cristie said:
"You are very good, Mrs. Petter, and I know you wish me well, but tell
me one thing; wasn't it Miss Rose who proposed that you should come to
me with this story about Ida!"
"Of course I should have told you myself," said Mrs. Petter, "though I
might have taken my time about it; but Calthea did not want to lose a
minute, and said we must go right off and look for you. She was as mad
as hops any way, for we were talking to Mr. Tippengray at the time, and
Calthea does hate to be interrupted when she is talking to him. But
don't you worry yourself any more than you can help, and remember my
promise. I'll stick to it, you may count on that."
When Mrs. Cristie had been left to herself she gave enough time to the
consideration of what had been told her to come to the following
conclusion: "She shall not have him; I have made up my mind to that.
Interrupted by Ida! Of course that is at the bottom of it." And having
settled this matter, she relapsed into her former mood, and fell to
thinking what she should do about the sweet-pea blossom.
She thought until the supper-bell rang, and then she rose and with a
pretty smile and flush upon her face, which showed that her thoughts had
not in the least worried her, she put the sweet-pea blossom into a
little jar which she had brought from Florence, and which was just big
enough for one small flower.
At supper Walter Lodloe was very quiet and very polite, and Mrs.
Cristie, who was opposite to him, though not at all quiet, was also very
polite, but bestowed her attention almost entirely upon Mr. Tippengray,
who sat beside her. The Greek scholar liked this, and his conversation
sparkled.
Miss Calthea Rose, who had accepted Mrs. Petter's invitation to spend
the night,--for if ever she was going to do anything at the Squirrel
Inn, this was the time to do it,--did not like Mrs. Cristie's
politeness, and her conversation did not sparkle. In fact she was
quieter than Mr. Lodloe, and paid little heed to the chatter of her
neighbor, Lanigan Beam. This young man was dissatisfied. There was a
place at the table that was sometimes filled and sometimes not filled.
At present it was empty.
[Illustration: MRS. CRISTIE CONSIDERS.]
"I cannot see," said he, speaking to the company in general, "why babies
are not brought to the table. I think they ought to be taught from the
very beginning how to behave themselves at meals."
Mr. Petter fixed his eyes upon him, and, speaking through the young man,
also addressed the company.
"I'm not altogether in favor of having small children at the table,"
said he. "Their food is different from ours, and their ways are often
unpleasant; but I do think--"
"No, you don't," interrupted Mrs. Petter from the other end of the
table--"you don't think anything of the kind. That has all been fixed
and settled, and there's no use in bringing it up again."
Mr. Petter looked at his wife with a little flash in his eye, but he
spoke quietly.
"There are some things," he said, "that can be unfixed and unsettled."
Mrs. Cristie hastened to stop this discussion.
"As I own the only baby in the house," she said, with a smile, "I may as
well say that it is not coming to the table either by itself or in any
other way."
A thought now tickled Mr. Tippengray. Without any adequate reason
whatever, there came before him the vision of an opossum which he once
had seen served at a Virginia dinner-table, plump and white, upon a
china dish. And he felt almost irresistibly impelled to lean forward and
ask Mr. Lodloe if he had ever read any of the works of Mr. Jonathan
Carver, that noted American traveler of the last century; but he knew it
wouldn't do, and he restrained himself. If he had thought Lodloe would
understand him he would have made his observation in Greek, but even
that would have been impolite to the rest of the company. So he kept his
joke to himself, and, for fear that any one should perceive his
amusement, he asked Mrs. Petter if she had ever noticed how much finer
was the fur of a cat which slept out of doors than that of one which had
been in the house. She had noticed it, but thought that the cat would
prefer a snug rug by the fire to fine fur.
Calthea Rose said little and thought much. It was necessary that she
should take in every possible point in the situation, and she was doing
it. She did not like Mrs. Cristie's attention to Mr. Tippengray, because
it gave him pleasure, and she did not wish that other women should give
him pleasure; but she was not jealous, for that would have been absurd
in this case.
But the apparent state of feeling at the table had given her an idea.
She was thinking very bitterly of Mrs. Cristie, and would gladly do
anything which would cause that lady discomfort. There seemed to be
something wrong between her and Mr. Lodloe, otherwise the two lovers
would be talking to each other, as was their custom. Perhaps she might
find an opportunity to do something here. If, for instance, she could
get the piqued gentleman to flirt a little with her,--and she had no
doubt of her abilities in this line,--it might cause Mrs. Cristie
uneasiness. And here her scheme widened and opened before her. If in
any way she could make life at the Squirrel Inn distasteful to Mrs.
Cristie, that lady might go away. And in this case the whole problem
that engrossed her would be solved, for of course the maid would go with
the mistress.
Calthea's eyes brightened, and with a smile she half listened to
something Lanigan Beam was saying to her.
"Yes," she thought; "that would settle the whole business. The widow is
the person I ought to drive away; then they would all go, and leave him
to me, as I had him before."
And now she listened a little, and talked a little, but still kept on
thinking. It was really a very good thing that her feeling towards Mrs.
Cristie had so suddenly changed, otherwise she might never have thought
of this admirable scheme.
XX
AN INGENUOUS MAID
Mrs. Cristie was unusually prompt that evening in going to the relief of
Ida Mayberry, but before she allowed that young woman to go down to her
supper she put a question to her.
"What do you mean, Ida," she said, "by talking about dissecting babies?
Whatever you may have done in that line, I do not think it is very nice
to bring it forward when you have charge of a child."
"Of course it wasn't nice," replied Ida, "and I should never have
thought of speaking of it if it had not been for that thing from
Lethbury. She makes me so angry that I don't know what I say. You ought
to hear Lanigan Beam talk about her. He has confided to me, although I
am not sure that he should have done it."
"Of course not," said Mrs. Cristie, very promptly; "he should not have
confided anything to you."
"Well," continued Ida, "he told me, but said he would not breathe it to
any one else, that the great object of his life at present was to rid
this neighborhood of Calthea Rose. He says she has been a plague to
this community ever since he has known her. She is always ready to make
mischief, and nobody can tell when or how she is going to do it. As for
himself, he vows she has made it impossible for him to live here; and as
he wishes to live here, he wants her to go."
"And how does he propose to make her go?" asked Mrs. Cristie.
"He wants her to marry Mr. Tippengray, which she is very willing to do,
and then he is quite sure that they will go away and travel, and stay
abroad for a long time. He knows that this will be the very thing that
she would want to do."
"And I suppose," said Mrs. Cristie, "that Mr. Beam told you all this in
order that you might be induced to help on the match between Mr.
Tippengray and Miss Rose."
"That was exactly his object," said Ida; "he said that everybody ought
to help in this good work."
"And then, I suppose, he would like to marry you," remarked Mrs.
Cristie.
"He hasn't said so yet," replied Miss Mayberry, "but I think he would
like to do it."
Mrs. Cristie brought down her little fist upon the table, regardless of
her slumbering child.
"That man is utterly without a conscience," she exclaimed. "If he hadn't
kept on engaging himself over and over again to Calthea Rose, she might
have married somebody else, and gone away long ago. He has no one but
himself to blame that she is still here to worry him and other people.
And as to his wishing to sacrifice Mr. Tippengray to his ease and
comfort, I think it is the most shameful thing I ever heard of. I hope,
Ida, that you did not encourage him in this iniquitous scheme."
Ida laughed, but quietly--remembering the baby.
"Not much," she said; "in fact, I have determined, if I can, to rescue
Mr. Tippengray from that clutching old thing."
"How?" asked Mrs. Cristie, quickly.
"By marrying him myself," said the nurse-maid.
"Ida Mayberry!" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes," said the other; "I have been considering the matter a good deal,
and I think it can be done. He is much older than I am, but that isn't
of great importance when people suit in other ways. Of course I would
not wish to marry a very old man, even if he were suitable, for I should
have to look forward to a married life so short that it would not pay;
but Mr. Tippengray was not born so dreadfully far back, and he is one of
those men who keep young for a long time. I think he likes me, and I am
sure I can easily make him like me more, if I choose. There is nobody
here that I need be afraid of, excepting you, perhaps."
Mrs. Cristie looked at her in amazement.
"Me!" she exclaimed.
"Yes," said Ida; "and this is the way of it. For a time I rather liked
Lanigan Beam, for he's young and good-looking, and particularly because
he seems very much in love with me; but although he pretends to be
anxious to study, I know he is not very deep, and will probably soon
tire of that. So when my sympathy for Mr. Tippengray was fairly
aroused,--and it has been growing for some time,--it was easy enough to
drop Lanigan; but before I allowed myself to become too much interested
in Mr. Tippengray I had to consider all sides of the case. You seem to
like Mr. Tippengray very much, and of course if you really made up your
mind to prefer him to anybody else, one great object would be gained,
just the same as if I married him, and he would be saved from the hole
those two are digging for him."
[Illustration: A MATRIMONIAL CONVERSATION.]
"And in that case," said Mrs. Cristie, repressing a strong disposition
to laugh, "what would you do? Perhaps you would be content to take
anything that might be left."
"I suppose you mean Mr. Lodloe," said Ida. "Well, to speak plainly, I
have never thought that I had a right to take him into consideration,
but if the field were entirely open, I would not hesitate a moment in
preferring him to either of the others."
Now Mrs. Cristie laughed outright.
"I could never have imagined," she said, "that a young girl such as you
are could have such practical and business-like views about matrimony."
"Well," said the nurse-maid, "I don't see anything out of the way in my
views. I want to bring an intelligent judgment to bear upon everything I
do, and if the higher education is of any good at all, it ought to help
us to regulate our affections."
"I have nothing to say on the subject," said Mrs. Cristie, "except that
they did not pretend to teach us that at Vassar. I don't see how you can
bring yourself to such calculations. But one part of your scheme I
approve of highly: positively you ought to drop Lanigan Beam. As to
marrying Mr. Tippengray, that is your affair, and his affair. And you
may be sure I shall not interfere in any way."
Ida looked at her and smiled.
"I wasn't very much afraid of that," she said, "though of course I
thought I ought to steer clear of even a possible interference; but now
I can go ahead with a clear conscience."
Mrs. Cristie felt drawn towards this ingenuous maid.
"Ida," she said, taking her by the hand, "as you have been so confiding
towards me, I will say to you that since you have concluded to drop Mr.
Beam your choice is decidedly restricted."
"I am glad to hear it," said the other, warmly; "he is a good man, and I
think he has brains that you can count on. Is it all settled?"
"Oh, no, no!" said Mrs. Cristie; "and mind, Ida, don't you say a word of
this to a living soul."
"Oh, you needn't be afraid of that," said Miss Mayberry; "I never betray
confidences."
"I am afraid," said Mrs Cristie to herself, as she stood alone by her
baby's bedside, "that I went a little too far. It isn't settled yet, and
it would have been better not to say anything about it. However"--and
then her thoughts went wandering. She was going down-stairs and out of
doors as soon as she had satisfied herself that Douglas could be
prudently left to his slumbers.
XXI
TWISTED TRYSTS
Mrs. Cristie found the lower floor of the Squirrel Inn quite deserted.
She stopped before a window in a Norman tower and looked out. Twilight
was fading, but there was a young moon in the sky. By stepping a little
to one side she could see the moon, with the evening star twinkling not
far away from it. She did not go out, however, but slowly wandered into
a long room under the roof of a Swiss chalet. Here she went out on a
queer little balcony and sat down; but her view was cut off by an
out-jutting upper story of the old English type, with rows of
small-paned windows, and she soon came in from the balcony. There was a
light burning in the taproom, and as she passed its open door she
stopped for a moment and gazed reflectively at the row of dilapidated
stuffed squirrels, each of which had once stood guard upon the
guide-post to the inn. But she took no note of the squirrels, nor of
anything else in the quiet room, but as she stood, and instinctively put
her finger to her forehead, a resolution came.
"I will be sensible, like Ida," she thought. "I will go out and let
things happen as they may."
She went out into the young moonlight and, glancing across the lawn,
saw, near the edge of the bluff that commanded the western view, two
persons sitting upon a bench. Their backs were towards her, but one of
them she knew to be Calthea Rose.
"I hope that is not poor Mr. Tippengray," said Mrs. Cristie to herself.
"If she has secured him already, and taken him out there, I am afraid
that even Ida will not be able to get him away from her. Ida must still
be at her supper. I should not have detained her so long."
But Ida was not at her supper. As she turned towards the end of the lawn
Mrs. Cristie saw her nurse-maid slowly strolling over the grass, a man
on each side of her. They were plainly to be seen, and one man was Mr.
Tippengray and the other Lanigan Beam. The three were engaged in earnest
conversation. Mrs. Cristie smiled.
"I need not have feared for Ida," she thought; "she must have made a
bold stroke to leave her rival in the lurch in that way, but I suppose
in order to get one man she has to take both. It is a little hard on
Miss Calthea"; and with an amused glance towards the couple on the bluff
she moved towards the gardens. Her mind was in a half-timorous and
undetermined state, in which she would have been glad to wander about by
herself and to meet nobody, or, if it so should happen, glad to meet
somebody; and wistfully, but yet timidly, she wondered which it would
be. All at once she heard a step behind her. In spite of herself she
started and flushed, and, turning, saw Mr. Petter. The sight of this
worthy gentleman was a shock to her. She had been sure he was sitting
with Calthea Rose on the bluff. If it was not he, who was it?
[Illustration: CALTHEA HOLDS HIM WITH HER LISTENING EAR.]
"I am glad to see you, Mrs. Cristie," said the landlord of the inn, "for
I want to speak with you. My mind is disturbed, and it is on account of
your assistant, Miss Mayberry. She has been talked about in a way that I
do not at all like. I may even say that my wife has been urging me to
use my influence with you to get her dismissed. I assured Mrs. Petter,
however, that I should use that influence, if it exists, in exactly the
opposite direction. Shall we walk on together, Mrs. Cristie, while I
speak further on the subject? I have a high opinion of Miss Mayberry. I
like her because she is what I term blooded. Nothing pleases me so much
as blooded service, and, I may add, blooded associations and
possessions. So far as I am able to have it so, my horses, my cattle,
and all my live stock are blooded. I consider my house, this inn, to be
a blooded house. It can trace its various lines of architectural
ancestry to honorable origins. The company at my house, with the
exception of Lanigan Beam,--who, however, is not a full guest, but
rather a limited inmate, ascending by a ladder to his dormitory,--are,
if you will excuse me for saying so, blooded. And that one of these
guests should avail herself of blooded service is to me a great
gratification, of which I hope I shall not be deprived. To see a vulgar
domestic in Miss Mayberry's place would wound and pain me, and I may
say, Mrs. Cristie that I have been able to see no reason whatever for
such substitution."
Mrs. Cristie had listened without a word, but as she listened she had
been asking herself who that could be with Calthea Rose. If it was not
Walter Lodloe, who was it? And if it was he, why was he there? And if he
was there, why did he stay there? Of course she was neither jealous nor
worried nor troubled by such a thing, but the situation was certainly
odd. She had come out expecting something, she did not know exactly
what; it might not have been a walk among the sweet-pea blossoms, but
she was very certain it was not a conversation with Mr. Petter, while
Walter Lodloe sat over there in the moonlight with Calthea Rose.
"You need not have given yourself any anxiety," she said to her
companion, "for I have not the slightest idea of discharging Ida. She
suits me admirably, and what they say about her is all nonsense; of
course I do not mean any disrespect to Mrs. Petter."
Mr. Petter deprecatingly waved his hand.
"I understand perfectly your reference to my wife," he said "Her mind, I
think, has been acted upon by others. Allow me to say, madam, that your
words have encouraged and delighted me. I feel we are moving in the
right direction. I breathe better."
"How is it possible," thought Mrs. Cristie, during the delivery of this
speech, "that he can sit there, and sit, and sit, and sit, when he knows
at this hour I am always somewhere about the house or grounds, and never
in my room? Well, if he likes to sit there, let him sit"; and with this
she looked up with some vivacity into the face of her landlord and
asked him if even his pigeons and his chickens were blooded, and if the
pigs were also of good descent. As she spoke she slightly accelerated
her pace.
Mr. Petter was very willing to walk faster, and to talk about all that
appertained to his beloved Squirrel Inn, and so they walked and talked
until they reached the garden and disappeared from view behind the tall
shrubbery that bordered the central path.
Mrs. Petter sat on a little Dutch porch, looking out on the lawn, and
her mind was troubled. She wished to talk to Mr. Petter, and here he was
strolling about in the moonlight with that young widow. Of course there
was nothing in it, and it was perfectly proper for him to be polite to
his guests, but there were lines in politeness as well as in other
things, and they ought to be drawn before people went off walking by
themselves in the garden at an hour when most farmers were thinking
about going to bed. The good lady sat very uneasily on her little bench.
The night air felt damp to her and disagreeable; she was sure there were
spiders and other things running about the porch floor, and there were
no rounds to the bench on which she could put her feet. But she could
not bear to go in, for she had not the least idea in the world where
they had gone to. Perhaps they might walk all the way to Lethbury, for
all she knew. At this moment a man came up to the porch. It was Lanigan
Beam, and his soul was troubled. The skilful Miss Mayberry had so
managed the conversation in which she and the two gentlemen were
engaged, that its subject matter became deeper and deeper in its
character, until poor Lanigan found that it was getting very much too
deep for him. As long as he could manage to keep his head above water he
stood bravely, but when he was obliged to raise himself on the tips of
his toes, and even then found the discourse rising above his chin,
obliging him to shut his mouth and to blink his eyes, he thought it wise
to strike out for shore before he made a pitiful show of his lack of
mental stature.
And in a very bad humor Lanigan walked rapidly to the house, where he
was much surprised to see Mrs. Petter on the little Dutch porch.
"Why, madam," he exclaimed, "I thought you never sat out after
nightfall."
"As a rule, I don't," the good lady answered, "and I oughtn't to now;
but the fact is--" She hesitated, but it was not necessary to finish the
sentence. Mr. Petter and Mrs. Cristie emerged from the garden and stood
together just outside its gate. He was explaining to her the origin of
some of the peculiar features of the Squirrel Inn.
When the eyes of Mr. Beam fell upon these two, who stood plainly visible
in the moonlight, while he and Mrs. Petter were in shadow, his trouble
was dissipated by a mischievous hilarity.
"Well, well, well!" said he, "she _is_ a woman."
"Of course she is," said Mrs. Petter; "and what of that, I'd like to
know?"
"Now that I think of it," said Lanigan, with a finger on the side of his
nose, "I remember that she and her young man didn't have much to say to
each other at supper. Quarreled, perhaps. And she is comforting herself
with a little flirt with Mr. Petter."
"Lanigan Beam, you ought to be ashamed of yourself," cried the good
lady; "you know Mr. Petter never flirts."
"Well, perhaps _he_ doesn't," said Lanigan; "but if I were you, Mrs.
Petter, I would take him out a shawl or something to put over his
shoulders. He oughtn't to be standing out there in the night wind."
"I shall do nothing of the kind," she answered shortly, "and I oughtn't
to be out here in the night air either."
Lanigan gazed at Mrs. Cristie and her companion. If that charming young
widow wanted some one to walk about with her in the moonlight, she could
surely do better than that. Perhaps a diversion might be effected and
partners changed.
"Mrs. Petter," said he, "I wouldn't go in, if I were you. If you move
about you will be all right. Suppose we stroll over that way."
"I am ready to stroll," said Mrs. Petter, in a tone that showed she had
been a good deal stirred by her companion's remarks, "but I am not going
to stroll over that way. The place is big enough for people to keep to
themselves, if they choose, and I am one that chooses, and I choose to
walk in the direction of my duty, or, more properly, the duty of
somebody else, and see that the hen-houses are shut"; and, taking
Lanigan's arm, she marched him down to the barn, and then across a small
orchard to the most distant poultry-house within the limits of the
estate.
When Mr. Stephen Petter, allowing his eyes to drop from the pointed roof
of his high tower, saw his wife and Lanigan Beam walking away among the
trees in the orchard, he suddenly became aware that the night air was
chilly, and suggested to his companion that it might be well to return
to the house.
"Oh, not yet, Mr. Petter," said she; "I want you to tell me how you came
to have that little turret over the thatched roof."
She had determined that she would not go indoors while Calthea Rose and
Mr. Lodloe sat together on that bench.
Early in the evening Miss Calthea had seen Mr. Lodloe walking by himself
upon the bluff, and she so arranged a little promenade of her own that
in passing around some shrubbery she met him near the bench. Miss
Calthea was an admirable manager in dialogue, and if she had an object
in view it did not take her long to find out what her collocutor liked
to talk about. She had unusual success in discovering something which
very much interested Mr. Lodloe, and they were soon seated on a bench
discussing the manners and ways of life in Lethbury.
To a man who recently had been seized with a desire to marry and to live
in Lethbury, and who had already taken some steps in regard to the
marriage, this subject was one of the most lively interest, and Lodloe
was delighted to find what a sensible, practical, and well-informed
woman was Miss Rose. She was able to give him all sorts of points about
buying a building or renting houses in Lethbury, and she entered with
the greatest zeal into the details of living, service, the cost of
keeping a horse, a cow, and poultry, and without making any inconvenient
inquiries into the reasons for Mr. Lodloe's desire for information on
these subjects. She told him everything he wanted to know about
housekeeping in her native village, because she had made herself aware
that his mind was set on that sort of thing. In truth she did not care
whether he settled in Lethbury or some other place, or whether he ever
married and settled at all. All she wished was to talk to him in such a
way that she might keep him with her as long as possible. She wished
this because she liked to keep a fine-looking young man all to herself,
and also because she thought that the longer she did so the more
uneasiness she would cause Mrs. Cristie.
She had convinced herself that it would not do for life to float too
smoothly at the Squirrel Inn. She would stir up things here and there,
but prudently, so that no matter who became disgusted and went away, it
would not be Mr. Tippengray. She was not concerned at present about this
gentleman. It was ten to one that by this time Lanigan Beam had driven
him away from the child's nurse.
Walter Lodloe was now beginning to feel that it was quite time that his
conversation with Miss Rose, which had really lasted much longer than he
supposed, should be brought to a close. His manner indicating this, Miss
Calthea immediately entered into a most attractive description of a
house picturesquely situated on the outskirts of Lethbury, which would
probably soon be vacated on account of the owner's desire to go West.
At the other end of the extensive lawn two persons walked backward and
forward near the edge of the trees perfectly satisfied and untroubled.
What the rest of the world was doing was of no concern whatever to
either of them.
"I am afraid, Mr. Tippengray," said the nurse-maid, "that when your
Greek version of the literature of to-day, especially its humorous
portion, is translated into the American language of the future it will
lose much of its point and character."
"You must remember, my dear Miss Mayberry," said the gentleman, "that we
do not know what our language will be in eight hundred or a thousand
years from now. The English of to-day may be utterly unintelligible to
the readers of that era, but that portion of our literature which I put
into imperishable and unchangeable Greek will be the same then as now.
The scholar may read it for his own pleasure and profit, or he may
translate it for the pleasure and profit of others. At all events, it
will be there, like a fly in amber, good for all time. All you have to
do is to melt your amber, and there you have your fly."
"And a well-shriveled-up fly it would be, I am afraid," said Ida.
Mr. Tippengray laughed.
"Be not too sure of that," he said. "I will translate some of my Greek
version of 'Pickwick' back into English, and let you see for yourself
how my amber preserves the fly."
"Let me do it," said Ida. "It is a long time since I read 'Pickwick,'
and therefore my translation will be a better test."
"Capital!" cried Mr. Tippengray. "I will copy a few lines for you
to-night."
From out an open Elizabethan window under a mansard roof, and
overlooking a small Moorish veranda, there came a sound of woe. The
infant Douglas had awakened from a troubled sleep, and with a wild and
piercing cry he made known to his fellow-beings his desire for society.
Instantly there was a kaleidoscopic change among the personages on the
grounds of the Squirrel Inn. Miss Mayberry darted towards the house; the
Greek scholar, without knowing what he was doing, ran after her for a
short distance, and then stopped; Mrs. Petter screamed from the edge of
the orchard to know what was the matter; and Lanigan ran to see. Mr.
Petter, the natural guardian of the place, pricked up his ears and
strode towards the inn, his soul filled with a sudden fear of fire. Mrs.
Cristie recognized the voice of her child, but saw Ida running, and so,
relieved of present anxiety, remained where her companion had left her.
Walter Lodloe, hearing Mrs. Petter's voice and the running, sprang from
his seat; and seeing that it would be impossible to detain him now, and
preferring to leave rather than to be left, Miss Calthea hurried away to
see what was the matter.
XXII
THE BLOSSOM AND THE LITTLE JAR
Perceiving Mrs. Cristie standing alone near the entrance to the garden,
Walter Lodloe walked rapidly towards her. As he approached she moved in
the direction of the house.
"Will you not stop a moment?" he said. "Do not go in yet."
"I must," she answered; "I have been out here a long while--too long."
"Out here a long time!" he exclaimed. "You surprise me. Please stop one
moment. I want to tell you of a most interesting conversation I have had
with Miss Rose. It has animated me wonderfully."
Considering what had occurred that afternoon, this remark could not fail
to impress Mrs. Cristie, and she stopped and looked at him. He did not
give her time to ask any questions, but went on:
"I have been asking her about life in Lethbury--houses, gardens,
everything that relates to a home in that delightful village. And what
she has told me opens a paradise before me. I did not dream that down
in that moon-lighted valley I should be almost rich; that I could offer
you--"
"And may I ask," she interrupted, "if you have been talking about me to
Miss Rose?"
"Not a word of it," he answered warmly. "I never mentioned your name,
nor referred to you in any way."
She could not help ejaculating a little sarcastically:
"How circumspect!"
"And now," he said, coming closer to her, "will you not give me an
answer? I love you, and I cannot wait. And oh! speak quickly, for here
comes Mrs. Petter straight towards us."
"I do not like Lethbury," said Mrs. Cristie.
Lodloe could have stamped his feet, in the fire of his impatience.
"But of me, of myself," he said. "And oh! speak quickly, she is almost
here."
"Please cease," said Mrs. Cristie; "she will hear you."
Mrs. Petter came up panting.
"I don't want to interrupt you, Mrs. Cristie," she said, "but really and
truly you ought to go to your baby. He has stopped crying in the most
startling and suspicious way. Of course I don't know what she has done
to him, and whether it's anything surgical or laudanum. And it isn't for
me to be there to smell the little creature's breath; but you ought to
go this minute, and if you find there is anything needed in the way of
mustard, or hot water, or sending for the doctor, just call to me from
the top of the stairs."
"My dear Mrs. Petter," said Mrs. Cristie, "why didn't Calthea Rose come
and tell me this herself, instead of sending you?"
"She said that she thought you would take it better from me than from
her; and after we had made up our minds about it, she said I ought not
to wait a second."
"Well," said Mrs. Cristie, "it was very good in you to come to me, but I
do not feel in the least alarmed. It was Ida's business to quiet the
child, and I have no doubt she did it without knives or poison. But now
that you are here, Mrs. Petter, I wish to ask your opinion about
something that Mr. Lodloe has been talking of to me."
The young man looked at her in astonishment.
"He has been telling me," continued Mrs. Cristie, "of a gentleman he
knows, a person of education, and accustomed to society, who had
conceived the idea of living in Lethbury. Now what do you think of
that?"
"Well," said Mrs. Petter, "if he's married, and if his wife's got the
asthma, or he's got it himself, I have heard that Lethbury is good for
that sort of complaint. Or if he's failed in business and has to live
cheap; or if he is thinking of setting up a store where a person can get
honest wash-goods; or if he has sickly children, and isn't particular
about schools, I suppose he might as well come to Lethbury as not."
"But he has none of those reasons for settling here," said Mrs. Cristie.
"Well, then," remarked Mrs. Petter, somewhat severely, "he must be weak
in his mind. And if he's that, I don't think he's needed in Lethbury."
As she finished speaking the good woman turned and beheld her husband
just coming out of the house. Being very desirous of having her talk
with him, and not very well pleased at the manner in which her mission
had been received, she abruptly betook herself to the house.
"Now, then," said Mrs. Cristie, turning to Lodloe, "what do you think of
that very explicit opinion?"
"Does it agree with yours?" he asked.
"Wonderfully," she replied. "I could not have imagined that Mrs. Petter
and I were so much of a mind."
"Mrs. Cristie," said Lodloe, "I drop Lethbury, and here I stand with
nothing but myself to offer you."
The moon had now set, the evening was growing dark, and the lady began
to feel a little chilly about the shoulders.
"Mr. Lodloe," she asked, "what did you do with that bunch of sweet peas
you picked this afternoon?"
"They are in my room," he said eagerly. "I have put them in water. They
are as fresh as when I gathered them."
"Well," she said, speaking rather slowly, "if to-morrow, or next day, or
any time when it may be convenient, you will bring them to me, I think I
will take them."
[Illustration: THE BABY AND THE SWEET-PEA BLOSSOM.]
In about half an hour Mrs. Cristie went into the house, feeling that she
had stayed out entirely too late. In her room she found Ida reading by a
shaded lamp, and the baby sleeping soundly. The nurse-maid looked up
with a smile, and then turned her face again to her book. Mrs. Cristie
stepped quietly to the mantelpiece, on which she had set the little jar
from Florence, but to her surprise there was nothing in it. The
sweet-pea blossom was gone. After looking here and there upon the floor,
she went over to Ida, and in a low voice asked her if she had seen
anything of a little flower that had been in that jar.
"Oh, yes," said the girl, putting down her book; "I gave it to baby to
amuse him, and the instant he took it he stopped crying, and very soon
went to sleep. There it is; I declare, he is holding it yet."
Mrs. Cristie went softly to the bedside of the child and, bending over
him, gently drew the sweet-pea blossom from his chubby little fist.
XXIII
HAMMERSTEIN
Miss Calthea Rose was up and about very early the next morning. She had
work to do in which there must be no delay or loss of opportunity. It
was plain enough that her scheme for driving away Ida Mayberry had
failed, and, having carefully noted the extraordinary length of time
which Mrs. Cristie and Mr. Lodloe spent together under the stars the
previous evening, she was convinced that it would not be easy to make
that lady dissatisfied with the Squirrel Inn. She therefore determined
to turn aside from her plans of exile, to let the child's nurse stay
where she pleased, to give no further thought to Lanigan Beam, and to
devote all her energies to capturing Mr. Tippengray. She believed that
she had been upon the point of doing this before the arrival of
intruders on the scene, and she did not doubt that she could reach that
point again.
Miss Calthea was very restless that morning; she was much more anxious
to begin work than was anybody else on the place. She walked about the
ground, went into the garden, passed the summer-house on her way there
and back again, and even wandered down to the barnyard, where the
milking had just begun. If any one had been roaming about like herself,
she could not have failed to observe such person. But there was no one
about until a little before breakfast-time, when Mr. Petter showed
himself.
This gentleman greeted Calthea coolly. He had had a very animated
conversation with his wife on the evening before, and had been made
acquainted with the unwarrantable enmity exhibited by this village
shopkeeper toward Mrs. Cristie's blooded assistant. He was beginning to
dislike Calthea, and he remembered that the Rockmores never liked her,
and he wished very much that she would cease to spend so much of her
time at his house. After breakfast Calthea was more fortunate. She saw
the Greek scholar walking upon the lawn, with a piece of writing-paper
in his hand. In less than five minutes, by the merest accident in the
world, Mr. Tippengray was walking across the lawn with Miss Rose, and he
had put his piece of paper into his pocket.
She wanted to ask him something. She would detain him only a few
minutes. The questions she put to him had been suggested to her by
something she had read that morning--a most meager and unsatisfactory
passage. She held in her hand the volume which, although she did not
tell him so, had taken her a half-hour to select in Mr. Petter's book
room. Shortly they were seated together, and he was answering her
questions which, as she knew, related to the most interesting
experiences of his life. As he spoke his eyes glistened and her soul
warmed. He did not wish that this should be so. He wanted to bring this
interview to an end. He was nervously anxious to go back on the lawn,
that he might see Miss Mayberry when she came out of doors; that he
might show her the lines of "Pickwick" which he had put into Greek, and
which she was to turn back into English.
But he could not cut short the interview. Miss Calthea was not an
Ancient Mariner; she had never even seen the sea, and she had no
glittering eye, but she held him with a listening ear, and never was
wedding guest, or any other man, held more securely.
Minutes, quarter-hours, half-hours passed and still he talked and she
listened. She guided his speech as a watchful sailor guides his ship,
and whichever way she turned it the wind always filled his sails. For
the first ten minutes he had been ill at ease, but after that he had
begun to feel that he had never so much enjoyed talking. In time he
forgot everything but what he had to say, and it was rapture to be able
to say it, and to feel that never before had he said it so well.
His back was towards the inn, but through some trees Miss Calthea could
see that Mr. Petter's spring wagon, drawn by the two grays, Stolzenfels
and Falkenberg, was at the door, and soon she perceived that Mr. Lodloe
was in the driver's place, and that Mrs. Cristie, with Ida Mayberry
holding the baby, was on the back seat. The place next Lodloe was
vacant, and they seemed to be waiting for some one. Then Lanigan Beam
came up. There was a good deal of conversation, in which he seemed to
be giving information, and presently he sprang up beside the driver and
they were off. The party were going for a long drive, Miss Calthea
thought, because Mrs. Petter had come out and had put a covered basket
into the back of the wagon.
Mr. Tippengray was so absorbed in the interest of what he was saying
that he did not hear the roll of the departing wheels, and Miss Calthea
allowed him to talk on for nearly a quarter of an hour until she thought
she had exhausted the branch of the subject on which he was engaged, and
was sure the spring wagon was out of sight and hearing. Then she
declared that she had not believed that any part of the world could be
as interesting as that region which Mr. Tippengray had been describing
to her, and that she was sorry she could not sit there all the morning
and listen to him, but duty was duty, and it was necessary for her to
return to Lethbury.
This announcement did not seem in the least to decrease the good spirits
of the Greek scholar, but his chin and his spirits fell when, on
reaching the house, he heard from Mrs. Petter that his fellow-guests had
gone off for a long drive.
"They expected to take you, Mr. Tippengray," said his hostess, "but
Lanigan Beam said he had seen you and Miss Rose walking across the
fields to Lethbury, and so they asked him to go. I hope they'll be back
to dinner, but there's no knowing, and so I put in a basket of
sandwiches and things to keep them from starving before they get home."
Miss Calthea was quite surprised.
"We were sitting over yonder the whole time," she said, "very much
occupied with talking, it is true, but near enough to hear if we had
been called. I fancy that Lanigan had reasons of his own for saying we
had gone to Lethbury."
Poor Mr. Tippengray was downcast. How much time must elapse before he
would have an opportunity to deliver the piece of paper he had in his
pocket! How long would he be obliged to lounge around by himself waiting
for Ida Mayberry to return!
"Well," said Calthea, "I must go home, and as I ought to have been there
long ago, I am going to ask Mr. Petter to lend me a horse and buggy.
It's the greatest pity, Mr. Tippengray, that you have lost your drive
with your friends, but as you can't have that, suppose you take one with
me. I don't mind acknowledging to you that I am a little afraid of Mr.
Petter's horses, but with you driving I should feel quite safe."
If Mr. Tippengray could have immediately thought of any good reason why
he should have staid at home that morning he would probably have given
it, but none came into his mind. After all, he might as well be driving
to Lethbury as staying there doing nothing, and there could be no doubt
that Miss Calthea was very agreeable that morning. Consequently he
accepted the invitation.
Calthea Rose went herself to the barn to speak to Mr. Petter about the
horse, and especially requested that he would lend her old Zahringen,
whom she knew to be the most steady of beasts, but Zahringen had gone to
be shod, and there was no horse at her service except Hammerstein, and
no vehicle but a village cart. Hammerstein was a better horse than
Zahringen, and would take Calthea home more rapidly, which entirely
suited Mr. Petter.
It may be here remarked that the barn and stables were not of Mr.
Petter's building, but in order that they might not be entirely exempt
from the influence of his architectural fancies, he had given his horses
the names of certain castles on the Rhine.
Calthea was not altogether satisfied with the substitution of the big
black horse for the fat brown one, but she could make no reasonable
objection, and the vehicle was soon at the door.
Mr. Tippengray was very fond of driving, and his spirits had risen
again. But he was a good deal surprised when Miss Calthea declined to
take the seat beside him, preferring to occupy the rear seat with her
back to the horse. By turning a little to one side, she said she could
talk just as well, and it was more comfortable in such a small vehicle
as a village cart to have a whole seat to one's self.
As soon as they were in the road that ran through the woods she proved
that she could twist herself around so as to talk to her companion, and
look him in the face, quite as easily as if she had been sitting beside
him. They chatted together, and looked each other in the face, and the
Greek scholar enjoyed driving very much until they had gone a mile or
more on the main road, and had come upon an overturned wagon lying by
the roadside. At this Hammerstein and the conversation suddenly stopped.
The big black horse was very much opposed to overturned vehicles. He
knew that in some way they were connected with disaster, and he would
not willingly go near one. He stood head up, ears forward, and slightly
snorting. Mr. Tippengray was annoyed by this nonsense.
[Illustration: MISS CALTHEA STEPS OUT.]
"Go on!" he cried, "Get up!" Then the driver took the whip from the
socket and gave the horse a good crack.
"Get up!" he cried.
Hammerstein obeyed, but got up in a manner which Mr. Tippengray did not
intend. He arose upon his hind legs, and pawed the air, appearing to the
two persons behind him like a tall, black, unsteady steeple.
When a horse harnessed to a village cart sees fit to rear, the hind part
of the vehicle is brought very near to the ground, so that a person
sitting on the back seat can step out without trouble. Miss Calthea
perceived this and stepped out. On general principles she had known that
it was safer to alight from the hind seat of a village cart than from
the front seat.
"Don't pull at him that way," she cried from the opposite side of the
road, "he will go over backwards on top of you. Let him alone and
perhaps he will stop rearing."
Hammerstein now stood on all his feet again, and Miss Calthea earnestly
advised Mr. Tippengray to turn him around and drive back.
"I am not far from home now," she said, "and can easily walk there. I
really think I do not care to get in again. But I am sure he will go
home to his stable without giving you any trouble."
But Mr. Tippengray's spirit was up, and he would not be conquered by a
horse, especially in the presence of a lady.
"I shall make him pass it," he cried, and he brought down his whip on
Hammerstein's back with such force that the startled animal gave a great
bound forward, and then, finding himself so near the dreaded wreck, he
gave a wilder bound, and passed it. Then, being equipped with blinders,
which did not allow him to see behind him, he did not know but the
frightful wagon, its wheels uppermost, was wildly pursuing him, and,
fearing that this might be so, he galloped onward with all his speed.
The Greek scholar pulled at the reins and shouted in such a way that
Hammerstein was convinced that he was being urged to use all efforts to
get away from the oncoming monster. He did not turn into the Lethbury
road when he came to it, but kept straight on. At such a moment the
straighter the road the better. Going down a long hill, Mr. Tippengray,
still pulling and shouting, and now hatless, perceived, some distance
ahead of him, a boy standing by the roadside. It was easy enough for the
practised eye of a country boy to take in the state of affairs, and his
instincts prompted him to skip across the road and open a gate which led
into a field recently plowed.
Mr. Tippengray caught at the boy's idea and, exercising all his
strength, he turned Hammerstein into the open gateway. When he had made
a dozen plunges into the deep furrows and through the soft yielding
loam, the horse concluded that he had had enough of that sort of
exercise, and stopped. Mr. Tippengray, whose senses had been nearly
bounced out of him, sprang from the cart, and, slipping on the uneven
surface of the ground, tumbled into a deep furrow, from which, however,
he instantly arose without injury, except to his clothes. Hurrying to
the head of the horse he found the boy already there, holding the now
quiet animal. The Greek scholar looked at him admiringly.
"My young friend," said he, "that was a noble thought, worthy of a
philosopher."
The boy grinned.
"They generally stop when they get into a plowed field," he said. "What
skeered him?"
Mr. Tippengray briefly related the facts of the case, and the horse was
led into the road. It was soon ascertained that no material harm had
been done to harness or vehicle.
"Young man," said Mr. Tippengray, "what will you take for your hat!"
The boy removed his head-covering and looked at it. It was of coarse
straw, very wide, very much out of shape, without a band, and with a
hole in the crown surrounded by a tuft of broken straw.
"Well," said he, "it ain't worth much now, but it'll take a quarter to
buy a new one."
"Here is a quarter for your hat," said the Greek scholar, "and another
for your perspicacity. I suppose I shall find my hat on the road, but I
cannot wait for that. The sun is too hot."
[Illustration: "WHAT SKEERED HIM?"]
The Greek scholar now started homeward, leading Hammerstein. He liked
walking, and had no intention whatever of again getting into that cart.
If, when they reached the overturned wagon, the animal should again
upheave himself, or in any way misbehave, Mr. Tippengray intended to let
go of him, and allow him to pursue his homeward way in such manner and
at such speed as might best please him.
[Illustration: MR. TIPPENGRAY STOPPED AND LISTENED.]
The two walked a long distance without reaching the object of
Hammerstein's fright, and Mr. Tippengray began to think that the road
was a good deal narrower and more shaded than he had supposed it to be.
The fact was, that a road diverged from the right, near the top of the
hill, which he had not noticed when passing it in mad career, and
naturally turning to the right, without thinking very much about it, he
had taken this road instead of the one by which he had come. Our
scholar, however, did not yet comprehend that he was on the wrong road,
and kept on.
Soon his way led through the woods, with great outstretching trees, with
wide-open spaces, interspersed here and there with masses of
undergrowth. Mr. Tippengray greatly enjoyed the shaded road, the smell
of the pines, and the flowers scattered along the edges of the wood. But
in a few minutes he would doubtless have discovered that he had gone
astray, and, notwithstanding the pleasantness of his surroundings, he
would have turned back, had he not suddenly heard voices not far away.
He stopped and listened.
The voices came from behind a clump of evergreens close by the roadside,
and to his utter amazement Mr. Tippengray heard the voice of Lanigan
Beam saying to some one that true love must speak out, and could not be
silenced; that for days he had been looking for an opportunity, and now
that it had come she must hear him, and know that his heart was hers
only, and could never belong to anybody else. Then the voice of Ida
Mayberry, very clear and distinct, replied that he must not talk to her
in that way, that her line of life and his were entirely different. And
she was doubtless going to say more, when her companion interrupted, and
vowed with all possible earnestness that whatever line of life she chose
should be his line; that he would gladly give up every plan and purpose,
follow her in whatever direction she chose to lead, and do whatever she
wished he should do.
Mr. Tippengray was very uneasy. The subject-matter of the conversation
he was overhearing disturbed him in a manner which he did not
understand, and he felt, moreover, that it was not proper for him to
listen to another word. He did not know what to do; if he moved forward
they would hear the wheels, and know that he had been near, and if he
attempted to back out of the vicinity there was no knowing what hubbub
he and Hammerstein might create. While standing undecided, he heard
Lanigan speak thus:
"And as for Greek, and that sort of thing, you shall have all you want.
I'll hire old Tippengray by the year; he shall be the family pedagogue,
and we'll tap him for any kind of learning we may happen to want."
Instantly all thought of retreat fled from the mind of the scholar; his
eyes glittered, and he was on the point of doing something, when there
came from a little distance the voice of Mrs. Cristie, loudly calling
for Ida. There was shuffling of feet, and in a few moments Mr.
Tippengray perceived the nurse-maid rapidly walking away between the
trees while Lanigan leisurely followed.
With head erect and nostrils dilated, as if he had been excited by the
perception of something upside down, Mr. Tippengray again laid hold of
the bridle of Hammerstein, and went on. In a few minutes he emerged upon
an open space, through which flowed a little brook, and where sat Mrs.
Cristie, Lodloe, Ida Mayberry with the baby in her lap, and Lanigan
Beam. All of these persons, excepting the infant, were eating
sandwiches.
At the sight of the little man and the tall horse, the former spattered
with mud, smeared with the earth of the plowed field, and crowned with a
misshapen hat with the expansive hole in the top, the sandwich-eaters
stopped eating, gazed open-eyed, and then burst out laughing. Mr.
Tippengray did not laugh; his eyes still glittered.
It was half an hour before the tale was told, order restored, and Mr.
Tippengray had washed his face and hands in the brook and taken
refreshment. Then he found himself alone with Mrs. Cristie.
"Truly you have had a hard time," said she, kindly.
"Madam," answered the Greek scholar, "you are entirely correct. This has
been an unfortunate day for me. I have been cunningly entrapped, and
heartlessly deserted; I have been nearly frightened out of my wits; have
had my soul nearly burned out of my body, and have been foully
besmirched with dirt and mud. But, worse than all, I have heard myself
made the subject of contempt and contumely."
"How is that?" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie. "I do not understand."
"I will quickly make it plain to you," said the indignant scholar, and
he related the conversation he had overheard.
"What a shameful way to speak of you, Mr. Tippengray!" cried Mrs.
Cristie. "I did not suppose that Mr. Beam would dare to say such things
to one whom he knew to be your friend. I have no doubt that if I had not
called Ida at that moment, you would have heard her resent that
disrespectful speech."
"I hope so; with all my heart, I hope so," replied the Greek scholar.
He said this with so much feeling that his companion looked at him a few
moments without speaking.
"Mr. Tippengray," she said presently, "it is time for us to go home. How
would you like to take Ida Mayberry back in your cart?"
The brightness in the eyes of the Greek scholar changed from the glitter
of indignation to gleams of joy.
"Madam," said he, "I should like it of all things. It would remove from
the anticipated pleasures of this day the enormous Alpha privative which
has so far overshadowed them."
The young widow did not exactly comprehend this answer, but it was
enough to know that he was glad to accept the opportunity she offered
him. No sooner had he spoken than Mr. Tippengray remembered the hazards
to which he was exposing himself by again taking the reins of
Hammerstein, but not for an instant did he think of drawing back. His
desire to take Ida Mayberry away from that fellow, and have her by
himself, overpowered fear and all other feelings.
Mrs. Cristie's arrangement for the return pleased everybody except
Lanigan Beam. The nurse-maid was perfectly willing to go in the village
cart, and was not at all afraid of horses, and Walter Lodloe had no
objection to sit on the back seat of the wagon with his lady-love, and
help take care of the baby. Lanigan made few remarks about the
situation; he saw that he had made a mistake, and was being punished for
it, and without remonstrance he took the front seat and the reins of the
grays.
XXIV
TRANSLATIONS
Lanigan Beam had no more fear of Mr. Tippengray as a rival than he would
have had of Mr. Petter, but the apportionment of companions for the
return trip nettled him a good deal, and, as a consequence of this, the
pair of grays traveled homeward at a smarter pace, and Hammerstein and
the village cart were soon left far behind.
The road was not the one by which Mr. Tippengray had arrived on the
scene, but led through the woods to the main road, which it joined at a
point not far from the sign of the Squirrel Inn. Hammerstein traveled
very quietly and steadily of his own accord, slackening his gait at the
rough places, thus giving Mr. Tippengray every opportunity for an
uninterrupted converse with his fellow scholar; and he lost no time in
submitting to her his Greek version of the lines from "Pickwick."
"I am very glad you have it with you," said Ida, "for I put my Greek
dictionary in my pocket this morning, when I first came down, hoping to
have a chance to do some translating, and what better chance could I
have than this?"
[Illustration: THE TRANSLATION.]
Drawing out her dictionary and a little blank-book she immediately began
her labors. Mr. Tippengray did not altogether like this. He felt an
intense and somewhat novel desire to converse with the young woman on no
matter what subject, and he would have preferred that she should
postpone the translation. But he would not interrupt the engrossing
occupation into which she now plunged with ardor. Rapidly turning
backward and forward the leaves of the little dictionary, and tapping
her front teeth with her pencil as she puzzled over the correlation of
Greek and English words and expressions, she silently pursued her work.
Although he did not talk to her, it was very pleasant for Mr. Tippengray
to sit and look upon this fair young scholar. At her request he made
the tall steed walk, in order that her pencil might not be too much
joggled, slyly thinking, the while, that thus the interview would be
prolonged. The air was warm and balmy. Everything was still about them.
They met no one, and every minute Mr. Tippengray became more and more
convinced that, next to talking to her, there could be no greater joy in
life than basking in the immediate atmosphere of this girl.
At last she shut up her dictionary.
"Now, then!" she exclaimed, "I have translated it, and I assure you that
it is a fair and square version, for I do not in the least remember the
original paragraph."
"I have the original here," said Mr. Tippengray, pulling the second
volume of "Pickwick" from his pocket, "and we will compare it with your
translation, if you will be so good as to read it. You do not know with
what anxious enthusiasm I await the result."
"And I, too," said Ida, earnestly. "I do not think there could be a
better test of the power of the Greek language to embalm and preserve
for future generations the spirit of Dickens. Now I will read, and you
can compare my work with the original as I go on."
The translation ran thus:
"For the reason that he who drives a vehicle of the
post-road holds high office above the masses," to him
answered the Sire Weller with eyes affiliated; "for the
reason that he who drives a vehicle of the post-road acteth
at will, undoubted, humanity otherwise prohibited. For the
reason that he who drives a vehicle of the post-road is able
to look with affection on a woman of eighty far distant,
though it is not publicly believed that in the midst of any
it is his desire to wed. Among males which one discourseth
similarly, Sammy?"
"I wrote Sammy," she explained, "because I remembered that is the way
the name is used in English."
Mr. Tippengray raised his eyebrows very high, and his chin slowly began
to approach the sailor knot of his cravat.
"Oh, dear," he said, "I am afraid that this would not express to future
ages the spirit and style of Dickens. The original passage runs thus,"
and he read:
"'Cos a coachman's a privileged individual," replied Mr.
Weller, looking fixedly at his son. "'Cos a coachman may do
without suspicion wot other men may not; 'cos a coachman may
be on the very amicablest terms with eighty mile o' females
and yet nobody thinks that he ever means to marry any vun
among 'em. And wot other man can say the same, Sammy?"
"They are not much alike, are they?" said Miss Mayberry. "I think if
Dickens could read my translation he would not in the least recognize
it. The fact is, Mr. Tippengray, I do not believe that your method of
Greek pickling will answer to preserve our fiction for the future. It
may do for histories and scientific work, but when you come to dialect
and vernacular, if you once get it into Greek you can never get it back
again as it used to be."
"That will be a great pity," said Mr. Tippengray, "for fiction makes up
such a large part of our literature. And it does seem that good English
might be properly translated into good Greek."
"Oh, it isn't the translation," said Ida; "that is all easy enough: it's
the resurrection back into the original condition. Look at the prophet
Enoch. He was translated, but if it were possible now to bring him back
again, he would not be the same Enoch, you know."
"One might infer from that simile," said the Greek scholar, smiling,
"that when a bit of English gets into Greek it goes to heaven, and would
better stay there. Perhaps you are right in what you say about fiction.
Anyway it is very pleasant to talk with one who can appreciate this
subject, and reason sensibly about it."
Mr. Tippengray shut up his book and put it back into his pocket, while
his companion tore her translation from her note-book and scattered it
in little bits along the road.
"I would not like it," she said, "if any one but you were to read that
and know I did it."
Mr. Tippengray's eyes and Mr. Tippengray's heart turned towards her.
Those words, "any one but you," touched him deeply. He had a feeling as
if he were being translated into something better than his original
self, and that this young woman was doing it. He wished to express this
in some way, and to say a good many other things which came crowding
upon his mind, but he expressed nothing and said none of these things.
An exclamation from Ida caused him to look in front of him, and there
was the spring wagon with the horses standing still.
Mrs. Cristie turned round and called to them:
"Mr. Beam says that there are some by-roads just ahead of us, and as he
was afraid you might turn into one and get lost, he thought it better to
wait for you."
"Nonsense!" cried Miss Mayberry; "there was no danger that we would turn
into any by-ways. The road is plain enough."
"I'm not so sure of that," said Mr. Tippengray to himself. "I think that
just now I was on the point of turning into a by-way."
The wagon now moved slowly on, and the village cart followed. Mr.
Tippengray would gladly have dropped a good deal behind, but he found
this not practicable, because whenever he made Hammerstein walk
Stolzenfels and Falkenberg also walked. It was plain enough that Lanigan
Beam did not wish any longer to cut himself off from the society of the
lady to whom he had made a proposal of marriage, and whenever he could
find a pretext, which was not difficult for Lanigan, he called back to
her to direct her attention to something, or to ask her opinion about
something. Miss Mayberry did not respond with any readiness, but the
persistence of the young man succeeded in making the conversation a
general one, and the Greek scholar made no attempt to explain to the
nurse-maid that he was in course of translation.
Dinner was very late at the Squirrel Inn that day, and Mrs. Petter gave
her guests a scolding. But this did not in the least disturb the mind of
Mr. Tippengray, who was well used to being scolded for coming late to
his meals. But something else disturbed him, and for nearly an hour
after dinner he wandered about the lawn and around the house. He wanted
very much to see Miss Mayberry again, and to tell her the things he did
not have a chance to tell her on the road, and he also very much wished
to prevent that rascally Lanigan Beam from getting ahead of him, and
continuing his broken-off interview with the lady.
XXV
MR. TIPPENGRAY MOUNTS HIGH
It seemed as if every one must be taking an afternoon nap, for the Greek
scholar had the grounds to himself. When he began to be tired of
walking, he seated himself where he had a good view of the house, and
presently saw Ida Mayberry at her window, with the young Douglas in her
arms. Almost at the same moment he saw Lanigan Beam approaching from the
direction of the barns.
"If he turns his steps towards that window," thought the scholar, "I
shall see to it that I am there before him."
But the young man did not walk towards the front of the house, but went
in the direction of his room, where the ladder stood leaning against the
open window. Mounting this, he disappeared within.
The eyes of Mr. Tippengray flashed, and his face was lighted by a bright
thought. In an instant he was on his feet and running lightly towards
Lanigan's room. Cautiously and silently he approached the ladder;
deftly, and without making the least noise, he moved the upper end of
it from the side of the building, and then, putting it on his shoulder,
gently walked away with it.
Around to the front of the house Mr. Tippengray carried the ladder, and
boldly placed it nearly upright, under Miss Mayberry's window. In
astonishment that young lady looked out, and asked him what in the world
he was doing.
"I want to speak to you," said Mr. Tippengray, "on a subject of great
importance, and I cannot afford to lose this opportunity. May I come
up?"
"Certainly," said Ida.
In a moment the Greek scholar was standing on one of the upper rounds of
the ladder, with his head and shoulders well above the window-sill.
Little Douglas was delighted to see him, and, taking hold of his
outstretched forefinger, gave it a good wag.
"It was a capital notion," said Mr. Tippengray, "for me to take this
ladder. In the first place, it enables me to get up to you, and
secondly, it prevents Lanigan Beam from getting down from his room."
Miss Mayberry laughed, and the baby crowed in sympathy.
"Why shouldn't he get down, Mr. Tippengray?" said she.
"If he did," was the answer, "he would be sure to interfere with me. He
would come here, and I don't want him. I have something to say to you,
Miss Mayberry, and I must be brief in saying it, for bystanders, no
matter who they might be, would prevent my speaking plainly. I have
become convinced, Miss Mayberry, that my life will be imperfect, and
indeed worthless, if I cannot pass it in prosecuting my studies in your
company, and with your assistance. You may think this strong language,
but it is true."
[Illustration: THE PROPOSAL.]
"That would be very pleasant," said the nurse-maid, "but I do not see
how you are going to manage it. My stay here will soon come to an end,
for if Mrs. Cristie does not return to the city in a week or two, I must
leave her. I am a teacher, you know, and before the end of the summer
vacation, I must go and make my arrangements for the next term, and then
you can easily see for yourself that when I am engaged in a school I
cannot do very much studying with you."
"Oh, my dear young lady," cried Mr. Tippengray, "you do not catch my
idea. I am not thinking of schools or positions, and I do not wish you
to think of them. I wish you to know that you have translated me from a
quiet scholar into an ardent lover, and that it would be of no use at
all to try to get me back into my original condition. If I cannot be the
man I want to be, I cannot be the man I was. I ask you for your hands,
your heart, and your intellect. I invite you to join me in pursuing the
higher education until the end of our lives. Take me for your scholar
and be mine. I pray you give me--"
"Upon--my word!" was the ejaculation, loud and distinct, which came up
from the foot of the ladder, and stopped Mr. Tippengray's avowal. Miss
Mayberry instantly thrust her head out of the window, and Mr. Tippengray
looked down. It was Calthea Rose who had spoken, and she stood under the
window in company with Mr. and Mrs. Petter. A short distance away, and
rapidly approaching, were Mrs. Cristie and Walter Lodloe.
"Here is gratitude!" cried Calthea, in stinging tones. "I came all the
way back from Lethbury to see if anything had happened to you and that
horse, and this is what I find. The top of a ladder and a child's nurse!
Such a disgrace never fell on this county."
"Never, indeed," cried Mrs. Petter. "I wouldn't have believed it if
angels had got down on their knees and sworn it to me. Come down from
that ladder, Mr. Tippengray! Come down from it before I make my husband
break it to bits beneath you. Come down, I say!"
"Mr. Tippengray," said Mr. Petter, in solemn voice, "in the name of the
laws of domesticity and the hearthstone, and in the honorable name of
the Squirrel Inn, I command you to come down."
There was but one thing for Mr. Tippengray to do, and that was to come
down, and so down he came.
"Disgraceful!" cried Miss Rose; "you ought to be ashamed to look anybody
in the face."
"Never would I have believed it," exclaimed Mrs. Petter. "Never, never,
if I had not seen it with my own eyes, and in broad daylight too!"
What Mr. Tippengray would have said or done is not known, for at that
instant Ida Mayberry leaned far out of the window and claimed the
attention of the company.
"Look here!" she cried, "we have had enough of this. Mr. Tippengray has
nothing to be ashamed of, and he had a perfect right to climb up this
ladder. I want you all to understand that we are engaged to be married."
This announcement fell like a sudden downpour upon the people beneath
the window, and they stood silenced; but in an instant the Greek scholar
bounded up the ladder, and, seizing Miss Mayberry by the hand, kissed it
rapturously.
"I may have been a little abrupt," she said, in a low voice, "but I
wasn't going to stand here and let our affair be broken off like that."
At Mr. Tippengray's spontaneous exhibition of tender affection, Mr.
Petter involuntarily and reverently took off his hat, while Mrs. Cristie
and Lodloe clapped their hands. The lover, with radiant face, now
descended the ladder and received congratulations from everybody except
Miss Calthea, who, with her nose pointed about forty-five degrees above
the horizon, walked rapidly to the post where she had tied her horse.
[Illustration: MR. PETTER TAKES OFF HIS HAT.]
Miss Mayberry now appeared, with the baby in her arms, and an expression
of great satisfaction upon her face. Mrs. Cristie relieved her of the
first, but the latter increased as the little company heartily shook
hands with her.
[Illustration: LANIGAN BEAM WANTS HIS LADDER.]
"I had supposed it would be different with you, Mr. Tippengray," said
Mrs. Petter, "but people ought to know their own minds, and I have no
doubt that Calthea would have often made it very hot for you, especially
if you did not turn over an entirely new leaf in regard to coming to
your meals. But there must be no more laddering; whether it is right or
not, it does not look so. When Ida isn't tending to the child, and it's
too wet to be out of doors, you can have the little parlor to
yourselves. I'll have it dusted and aired."
"Excuse me," said Lodloe, coming forward, "but if you have no further
use for that ladder, Mr. Tippengray, I will take it to Lanigan Beam, who
is leaning out of his window, and shouting like mad. I presume he wants
to come down, and as I have locked the door of my room he cannot descend
in that way."
"Poor Lanigan!" ejaculated Mrs. Petter, "he doesn't know what he's
coming down to. But no matter what he undertakes he is always a day
after the fair."
Mr. Petter drew the Greek scholar aside.
"My dear sir," he said expressively, "I have a special reason for
congratulating you on your decision to unite your blood and culture with
those of another. Had you been entrapped by the wiles of our Lethbury
neighbor, a person for whom I have but slight regard, and who is looked
upon with decided disapprobation by those as competent to judge as the
Rockmores of Germantown, I am afraid, my dear sir, I should have been
compelled to sever those pleasant relations which for so many months
have held us together, and which I hope may continue for years."
"My good Petter," said Mr. Tippengray, "I have a pleasant house in town,
which I hope to occupy with my wife this winter, and I should like it
very much if you and Mrs. Petter would make us a visit there, and, if
you wish, I'll have some of the Germantown Rockmores there to meet you."
The landlord of the Squirrel Inn stepped back in amazement.
"Do you mean to say," he exclaimed, "that you know the Rockmores?"
"The way of it is this," replied the Greek scholar; "you see, my mother
was a Purley, and on the maternal side she belonged to the
Kempton-Tucker family, and you know that the head of that family married
for his second wife a Mrs. Callaway, who was own sister to John Brent
Norris, whose daughter married a Rockmore. So you see we are connected."
"And you never told me!" solemnly exclaimed Mr. Petter.
"No," said his companion; "there are pleasures of revelation, which are
enhanced by a delay in realization, and besides I did not wish to place
myself in a position which might, perchance, subordinate some of your
other guests."
"I must admit that I am sorry," said Mr. Petter; "but your action in the
matter proves your blood."
And now, Mrs. Cristie having finished her very earnest conversation with
Ida, the newly betrothed pair walked together towards the bluff from
which there was such a beautiful view of the valley below.
XXVI
ANOTHER SQUIRREL IN THE TAP-ROOM
"If I had known," said Lanigan Beam, as late that night he sat smoking
with Walter Lodloe in the top room of the tower, "that that old rascal
was capable of stealing my ladder in order to make love to my girl, I
should have had a higher respect for him. Well, I'm done for, and now I
shall lose no time in saying good-by to the Squirrel Inn and Lethbury."
"Why so?" asked his companion in surprise. "Was the hope of winning Miss
Mayberry the only thing that kept you here?"
"Oh, no," said Lanigan; "it was the hope that Calthea might get old
Tippengray. You will remember I told you that, but as she cannot now go
off with him, there is nobody for her to go off with, and so I must be
the one to travel."
Lodloe laughed. "Under the circumstances then," he said, "you think you
couldn't stay in this neighborhood?"
"Not with Calthea unattached," replied Lanigan. "Oh, no! Quite
impossible."
When Miss Rose had been convinced that all her plans had come to naught,
earnestly and with much severity and singleness of purpose she
considered the situation. It did not take her long to arrive at the
conclusion that the proper thing for her to do was to marry Lanigan
Beam, and to do it without loss of time. Having come to this decision,
she immediately began to make arrangements to carry it into effect.
It was utterly vain and useless for Lanigan to attempt to get away from
her. She came upon him with a sweet assurance which he supposed had
vanished with her earlier years; she led him with ribbons which he
thought had faded and fallen into shreds long, long ago; she clapped
over his head a bag which he supposed had been worn out on old
Tippengray; and she secured him with fetters which he imagined had long
since been dropped, forgotten, and crumbled into dust. He did not go
away, and it was not long before it was generally understood in the
neighborhood that, at last, he and Calthea Rose were to be married.
Shortly after this fact had been made public, Lanigan and Walter Lodloe,
who had not seen each other for some days, were walking together on the
Lethbury road.
"Yes," said the former, "it is a little odd, but then odd things are all
the time happening. I don't know whether Calthea has taken me in by
virtue of my first engagement to her, or on some of the others. Or it
may be that it is merely a repeal of our last breaking off. Anyway, I
found she had never dreamed of anything but marrying me, and though I
thought I had a loose foot, I found I hadn't, and there's an end of it.
Besides, I will say for Calthea that her feelings are different from
what I supposed they were. She has mellowed up a good deal in the last
year or two, and I shall try to make things as easy for her as I can.
"But one thing is certain; I shall stick to my resolution not to tell
her that I have made money, and have reformed my old, loose ways of
living and doing business. All that I am going to keep as a sort of
saving fund that I can draw on when I feel like it, and let it alone
when I don't feel like it. We are going to travel,--she is wild on that
point,--and she expects to pay the piper. She can't do it, but I shall
let her think she's doing it. She takes me for a rattling scapegrace,
and I needn't put on the sober and respectable unless I choose to; and
when I do choose it will be a big card in my hand. By George! sir, I
know Calthea so well that I can twist her around my finger, and I am not
sure, if I had got the other one, that I could have done that. It's much
more likely that I should have been the twisted one."
"What is Miss Rose going to do about her business?" asked Lodloe.
"Oh, that's to be wound up with a jerk," answered his companion. "I've
settled all that. She wanted to hire somebody to take charge of the
store while we're gone, and to sell out the things on her old plan; but
that's all tomfoolery. I have engaged a shopkeeper at Romney to come out
and buy the whole stock at retail price, and I gave him the money to do
it with. That's good business, you know, because it's the same as money
coming back to me, and as for the old oddments, and remnants, and
endments of faded braids and rotten calicoes, it's a clear profit to be
rid of them. If the Romney man sends them to be ground up at the
paper-mill, he may pay himself for the cartage and his time. So the shop
will be shut day after to-morrow, and you can see for yourself that my
style of business is going to be of the stern, practical sort; and,
after all, I don't see any better outlook for a fellow than to live a
married life in which very little is expected of him, while he knows
that he has on tap a good bank-account and a first-class moral
character."
The autumn was a very pleasant one, and as there was no reason for doing
anything else, the guests at the Squirrel Inn remained until late in the
season. Therefore it was that Miss Calthea was enabled to marry and
start off on her wedding tour before the engaged couples at the inn had
returned to the city, or had even fixed the dates for their weddings.
Calthea was not a woman who would allow herself to be left behind in
matters of this nature. From her general loftiness and serenity of
manner, and the perfect ease and satisfaction with which she talked of
her plans and prospects with her friends and acquaintances, no one could
have imagined that she had ever departed from her original intention of
becoming Mrs. Lanigan Beam.
In the midst of her happiness she could not help feeling a little sorry
for Ida Mayberry, and this she did not hesitate to say to some persons
with whom she was intimate, including Mrs. Petter. To be sure, she had
been informed as to the year of Mr. Tippengray's birth, which, if
correct, would make him forty-six; but it was her private opinion that
sixty would be a good deal nearer the mark. However, if the young
child's nurse should become an early widow, and be thrown upon her own
resources, she, for one, would not withhold a helping hand. But she
earnestly insisted that not a word she said on this subject should ever
be breathed into another ear.
When Ida Mayberry heard what Calthea had said about her and Mr.
Tippengray's age, she was very angry, and declared she would not go to
the old thing's wedding, which was to take place the next day in the
Lethbury church. But, after thinking over the matter, she changed her
mind, and concluded that at times like this we should all be pleasant
and good-natured towards one another; so she sat down and wrote a letter
to Miss Calthea, which she sent to the expectant bride that very
afternoon. The missive ran thus:
MY DEAR MISS ROSE:
I have seen so little of Mr. Beam in the last few days that
I have had no opportunity to express to him some thanks
which are due him from Mr. Tippengray and myself. I am
therefore obliged to ask you, my dear Miss Rose, to give to
him a message from me, which, as it is one of gratitude, you
will be pleased to deliver.
Not long ago, when Mr. Beam took occasion to tell me that he
loved me and asked me to marry him,--I remember now that it
was on the very day that Mr. Petter's horse behaved so badly
and, unfortunately for you, tipped you out of the tail end
of the little cart, and made it necessary for you to give up
both it and Mr. Tippengray to me,--he (Mr. Beam) was so good
as to say that if I would agree to be his wife and still
wished the instructive companionship of Mr. Tippengray, he
would take that gentleman into his family as a tutor. Now
this, as you will readily acknowledge, my dear Miss Rose,
was very good in Mr. Beam, and in return I wish you to say
to him, both from Mr. Tippengray and from me, that if there
should ever be any position in our gift which he is capable
of filling, all he has to do is to ask for it.
Most sincerely yours,
Ida Mayberry.
And the next day in church no face expressed a more delighted interest
in the nuptial ceremonies than that of the pretty Miss Mayberry.
* * * * *
It was late in November, and the weather was getting decidedly cool.
There was a fire in the tap-room of the Squirrel Inn, and also one in
the little parlor, and by this, after supper, sat Mr. and Mrs. Petter.
The guests were all gone; Mr. and Mrs. Tippengray, who had had a quiet
wedding in New York, were on their way to Cambridge, England, where the
bride would spend a portion of the honeymoon in the higher studies there
open to women, while Mrs. Cristie and Mr. Lodloe were passing happy days
in the metropolis preparing for their marriage early in the new year.
The Beams were in Florida, where, so Lanigan wrote, they had an idea of
buying an orange grove, and where, so Calthea wrote, she would not live
if they gave her a whole county.
The familiar faces all being absent, and very few people dropping in
from Lethbury or the surrounding neighborhood, the Squirrel Inn was
lonely, and the hostess thereof did not hesitate to say so. As for the
host, he had his books, his plans, and his hopes. He also had his
regrets, which were useful in helping him to pass his time.
"What in the world," asked Mrs. Petter, regarding an object in her
husband's hands, "made you take down that miserable, dilapidated little
squirrel from the sign-post? You might as well have let him stay there
all winter, and put up a new one in the spring."
"This has been a most memorable year," replied her husband, "and I wish
to place this squirrel in his proper position on the calendar shelf of
the tap-room before the storms and winds of winter have blown the fur
from his body and every hair from his upturned tail. I have killed and
prepared a fresh squirrel, and I will place him on the sign-post in a
few days."
"If you would let that one stay until he was a skin skeleton, he would
have given people a better idea of the way this year has turned out than
he does now," said Mrs. Petter.
"How so?" he asked, looking at her in surprise.
"Don't we sit here stripped of every friendly voice?" she said. "Of
course, it's always more lonesome in the winter, but it's never been so
bad as this, for we haven't even Calthea to fall back on. Things didn't
turn out as I expected them to, and I suppose they never will, but it
always was my opinion, and is yet, that nothing can go straight in such
a crooked house. This very afternoon, as I was coming from the
poultry-yard, and saw Lanigan's ladder still standing up against the
window of his room, I couldn't help thinking that if a burglar got into
that room, he might suppose he was in the house; but he'd soon find
himself greatly mistaken, and even if he went over the roof to Mr.
Lodloe's room, all he could do would be to come down the tower stairs,
and then he would find himself outside, just where he started from."
"That would suit me very well," remarked Mr. Petter.
"If this house had been built in a plain, straightforward way," his wife
continued, "with a hall through the middle of it, and the rooms alike on
both sides, then things might have happened in a straightforward way,
and not all mixed up, as they were here this summer. Nobody could tell
who was going to marry who, and why they should do it, if they ever
did."
Mr. Petter arose and, still holding the stuffed squirrel in his hand,
stood with his back to the fire.
"It strikes me, Susan," said he, looking reflectively in front of him,
"that our lives are very seldom built with a hall through the middle and
the rooms alike on both sides. I don't think we'd like it if they were.
They would be stupid and humdrum. The right sort of a life should have
its ups and downs, its ins and outs, its different levels, its outside
stairs and its inside stairs, its balconies, windows and roofs of
different periods and different styles. This is education. These things
are the advantages that our lives get from the lives of others.
"Now, for myself, I like the place I live in to resemble my life and
that of the people about me. And I am sure that nothing could be better
suited to all that than the Squirrel Inn.
"All sorts of things come into our lives, and when a thing like Lanigan
Beam comes into it, what could be better than to lodge it in a place
where it can go no farther? and if something of a high order, something
backed up by Matthew Vassar, but which is a little foreign, and not
altogether of our kind, how well to be able to put that in a noble and
elevated position, where it can have every advantage and can go and
come, without being naturalized or made a part of us. Think, too, how
high excellence can be worthily lodged, with the comforts of the North
and the beauties of the South, as in the case of Mrs. Cristie's rooms;
and how blooded service is not forced into a garret, but is quartered in
a manner which shows that the blood is recognized and the service
ignored."
"If I had known what she was when she came," remarked Mrs. Petter, "I
should have put her on the top floor."
"Think, too," continued the landlord, "of noble sentiments, high
aspirations, and deep learning, lodged of their own free will--for it
appears that there was no necessity for it--so near as to answer every
need of social domesticity, and yet in a manner so free and apart as to
allow undisturbed and undisturbing reveries beneath the stars, and such
other irregular manifestations of genius as are common to the gifted."
"Such as coming late to meals," interpolated the lady.
"Think, too," Mr. Petter went on to say, speaking in a more earnest
voice--"think, too, of a life or a house in which there is no place for
a Calthea Rose; in which she cannot exist, and which, I am happy to say,
she has always opposed and condemned."
Mrs. Petter slightly yawned.
"All that sounds very well," she said, "and there may be truth in it;
but, after all, here we are alone by ourselves, and, so far as I can
see, no chance of being less lonely next season, for your rules keep
out all common folks, and we can't count on the people who were here
this year coming again."
Mr. Petter smiled. "There is no reason to suppose," he said, "that next
season we shall not be favored with the company of the Rockmores of
Germantown."
And with that he walked away to place in its proper position on the
shelf in the tap-room the squirrel of the past season.
[Illustration]
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Squirrel Inn" ***
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