Kitabı oku: «In a Steamer Chair, and Other Stories», sayfa 6
Eighth Day
On the afternoon of the eighth day George Morris and Katherine Earle stood together on the deck of the tender, looking back at the huge steamship which they had just left.
"When we return," he said, "I think we shall choose this ship."
"Return?" she answered, looking at him.
"Why, certainly; we are going back, are we not?"
"Dear me," she replied, "I had not thought of that. You see, when I left America I did not intend to go back."
"Did you not? I thought you were only over here for the trip."
"Oh no. I told you I came on business, not on pleasure."
"And did you intend to stay over here?"
"Certainly."
"Why, that's strange; I never thought of that."
"It is strange, too," said Katherine, "that I never thought of going back."
"And—and," said the young man, "won't you go?"
She pressed his arm, and stood motionless.
"Where thou goest, I will go. Thy people shall be my people."
"That's a quotation, I suppose?" said George.
"It is," answered Katherine.
"Well, you see, as I told you, I am not very well read up on the books of the day."
"I don't know whether you would call that one of the books of the day or not," said Katherine; "it is from the Bible."
"Oh," answered the other. "I believe, Kate, you will spend the rest of your life laughing at me."
"Oh no," said the young lady, "I always thought I was fitted for missionary life. Now, look what a chance I have."
"You have taken a big contract, I admit."
They had very little trouble with their luggage. It is true that the English officials looked rather searchingly in Katherine's trunk for dynamite, but, their fears being allayed in that direction, the trunks were soon chalked and on the back of a stout porter, who transferred them to the top of a cab.
"I tell you what it is," said George, "it takes an American Custom-house official to make the average American feel ashamed of his country."
"Why, I did not think there was anything over there that could make you feel ashamed of your country. You are such a thorough-going American."
"Well, the Customs officials in New York have a knack of making a person feel that he belongs to no place on earth."
They drove to the big Liverpool hotel which is usually frequented by Americans who land in that city, and George spent the afternoon in attending to business in Liverpool, which he said he did not expect to have to look after when he left America, but which he desired very much to get some information about.
Katherine innocently asked if she could be of any assistance to him, and he replied that she might later on, but not at the present state of proceedings.
In the evening they went to a theatre together, and took a long route back to the hotel.
"It isn't a very pretty city," said Miss Earle.
"Oh, I think you are mistaken," replied her lover. "To me it is the most beautiful city in the world."
"Do you really mean that?" she said, looking at him with surprise.
"Yes, I do. It is the first city through which I have walked with the lady who is to be my wife."
"Oh, indeed," remarked the lady who was to be his wife, "and have you never walked with—"
"Now, see here," said Morris, "that subject is barred out. We left all those allusions on the steamer. I say I am walking now with the lady who is to be my wife. I think that statement of the case is perfectly correct, is it not?"
"I believe it is rather more accurate than the average statement of the average American."
"Now, Katherine," he said, "do you know what information I have been looking up since I have been in Liverpool?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," she said. "Property?"
"No, not property."
"Looking after your baggage, probably?"
"Well, I think you have got it this time. I was looking after my baggage. I was trying to find out how and when we could get married."
"Oh!"
"Yes, oh! Does that shock you? I find they have some idiotic arrangement by which a person has to live here three months before he can be married, although I was given some hope that, by paying for it, a person could get a special licence. If that is the case, I am going to have a special licence to-morrow."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, indeed. Then we can be married at the hotel."
"And don't you think, George, that I might have something to say about that?"
"Oh, certainly! I intended to talk with you about it. Of course I am talking with you now on that subject. You admitted the possibility of our getting married. I believe I had better get you to put it down in writing, or have you say it before witnesses, or something of that sort."
"Well, I shouldn't like to be married in a hotel."
"In a church, then? I suppose I can make arrangements that will include a church. A parson will marry us. That parson, if he is the right sort, will have a church. It stands to reason, therefore, that if we give him the contract he will give us the use of his church, quid pro quo, you know."
"Don't talk flippantly, please. I think it better to wait until to-morrow, George, before you do anything rash. I want to see something of the country. I want us to take a little journey together to-morrow, and then, out in the country, not in this grimy, sooty city, we will make arrangements for our marriage."
"All right, my dear. Where do you intend to go?"
"While you have been wasting your time in getting information relating to matrimony, I have been examining time-tables. Where I want to go is two or three hours' ride from here. We can take one of the morning trains, and when we get to the place I will allow you to hire a conveyance, and we will have a real country drive. Will you go with me?"
"Will I? You better believe I will. But you see, Katherine, I want to get married as soon as possible. Then we can take a little trip on the Continent before it is time for us to go back to America. You have never been on the Continent, have you?"
"Never."
"Well, I am very glad of that. I shall be your guide, philosopher, and friend, and, added to that, your husband."
"Very well, we will arrange all that on our little excursion to-morrow."
Ninth Day
Spring in England—and one of those perfect spring days in which all rural England looks like a garden. The landscape was especially beautiful to American eyes, after the more rugged views of Transatlantic scenery. The hedges were closely clipped, the fields of the deepest green, and the hills far away were blue and hazy in the distance.
"There is no getting over the fact," said Morris, "that this is the prettiest country in the whole world."
During most of the journey Katherine Earle sat back in her corner of the first-class compartment, and gazed silently out of the flying windows. She seemed too deeply impressed with the beauty of the scene to care for conversation even with the man she was to marry. At last they stopped at a pretty little rural station, with the name of the place done in flowers of vivid colour that stood out against the brown of the earth around, them and the green turf which formed the sloping bank.
"Now," said George, as they stood on the platform, "whither away? Which direction?"
"I want to see," said she, "a real, genuine, old English country home."
"A castle?"
"No, not a castle."
"Oh, I know what you want. Something like Haddon Hall, or that sort of thing. An old manor house. Well, wait a minute, and I'll talk to the station master, and find out all there is about this part of the country."
And before she could stop him, he had gone to make his inquiry of that official. Shortly after he came back with a list of places that were worth seeing, which he named.
"Holmwood House," she repeated. "Let us see that. How far is it?"
George again made inquiries, and found that it was about eight miles away. The station-master assured him that the road thither was one of the prettiest drives in the whole country.
"Now, what kind of a conveyance will you have? There are four-wheeled cabs, and there is even a hansom to be had. Will you have two horses or one, and will you have a coachman?"
"None of these," she said, "if you can get something you can drive yourself—I suppose you are a driver?"
"Oh, I have driven a buggy."
"Well, get some sort of conveyance that we can both sit in while you drive."
"But don't you think we will get lost?"
"We can inquire the way," she said, "and if we do get lost, it won't matter. I want to have a long talk with you before we reach the place."
They crossed the railway by a bridge over the line, and descended into a valley along which the road wound.
The outfit which George had secured was a neat little cart made of wood in the natural colour and varnished, and a trim little pony, which looked ridiculously small for two grown people, and yet was, as George afterwards said, "as tough as a pine knot."
The pony trotted merrily along, and needed no urging. George doubtless was a good driver, but whatever talents he had in that line were not brought into play. The pony was a treasure that had apparently no bad qualities. For a long time the two in the cart rode along the smooth highway silently, until at last Morris broke out with—
"Oh, see here! This is not according to contract. You said you wanted a long talk, and now you are complacently saying nothing."
"I do not know exactly how to begin."
"Is it so serious as all that?"
"It is not serious exactly—it is merely, as it were, a continuation of the confession."
"I thought we were through with that long ago. Are there any more horrible revelations?"
She looked at him with something like reproach in her eyes.
"If you are going to talk flippantly, I think I will postpone what I have to say until another time."
"My dear Kate, give a man a chance. He can't reform in a moment. I never had my flippancy checked before. Now then, I am serious again. What appalling—I mean—you see how difficult it is, Katherine—I mean, what serious subject shall we discuss?"
"Some other time."
"No—now. I insist on it. Otherwise I will know I am unforgiven."
"There is nothing to forgive. I merely wanted to tell you something more than you know about my own history."
"I know more now than that man in the story."
"He did not object to the knowledge, you know. He objected to receiving it from a third person. Now I am not a third person, am I?"
"Indeed, you are not. You are first person singular—at present—the first person to me at least. There, I am afraid I have dropped into flippancy again."
"That is not flippancy. That is very nice." The interval shall be unreported.
At last Katherine said quietly, "My mother came from this part of England."
"Ah! That is why you wanted to come here."
"That is why I wanted to come here. She was her father's only daughter, and, strange to say, he was very fond of her, and proud of her."
"Why strange?"
"Strange from his action for years after. She married against his will. He never forgave her. My father did not seem to have the knack of getting along in the world, and he moved to America in the hope of bettering his condition. He did not better it. My father died ten years ago, a prematurely broken down man, and my mother and I struggled along as best we could until she died two years ago. My grandfather returned her letter unopened when mother wrote to him ten years ago, although the letter had a black border around it. When I think of her I find it hard to forgive him, so I suppose some of his nature has been transmitted to me."
"Find it hard? Katherine, if you were not an angel you would find it impossible."
"Well, there is nothing more to tell, or at least, not much. I thought you should know this. I intended to tell you that last day on shipboard, but it seemed to me that here was where it should be told—among the hills and valleys that she saw when she was my age."
"Katherine, my dear, do not think about it any more than you can help. It will only uselessly depress you. Here is a man coming. Let us find out now whether we have lost our way or not."
They had.
Even after that they managed to get up some wrong lanes and byways, and took several wrong turnings; but by means of inquiry from every one they met, they succeeded at last in reaching the place they were in search of.
There was an old and grey porter's lodge, and an old and grey gateway, with two tall, moss-grown stone pillars, and an iron gate between them. On the top of the pillars were crumbled stone shields, seemingly held in place by a lion on each pillar.
"Is this Holmwood House?" asked Morris of the old and grey man who came out of the porter's lodge.
"Yes, sir, it be," replied the man.
"Are visitors permitted to see the house and the grounds?"
"No, they be'ant," was the answer. "Visitors were allowed on Saturdays in the old Squire's time, but since he died they tell me the estate is in the courts, and we have orders from the London lawyers to let nobody in."
"I can make it worth your while," said George, feeling in his vest pocket; "this lady would like to see the house."
The old man shook his head, even although George showed him a gold piece between his finger and thumb. Morris was astonished at this, for he had the mistaken belief which all Americans have, that a tip in Europe, if it is only large enough, will accomplish anything.
"I think perhaps I can get permission," said Katherine, "if you will let me talk a while to the old man."
"All right. Go ahead," said George. "I believe you could wheedle anybody into doing what he shouldn't do."
"Now, after saying that, I shall not allow you to listen. I shall step down and talk with him a moment and you can drive on for a little distance, and come back."
"Oh, that's all right," said George, "I know how it is. You don't want to give away the secret of your power. Be careful, now, in stepping down. This is not an American buggy," but before he had finished the warning, Katherine had jumped lightly on the gravel, and stood waiting for him to drive on. When he came back he found the iron gates open.
"I shall not get in again," she said. "You may leave the pony with this man, George, he will take care of it. We can walk up the avenue to the house."
After a short walk under the spreading old oaks they came in sight of the house, which was of red brick and of the Elizabethan style of architecture.
"I am rather disappointed with that," said George, "I always thought old English homesteads were of stone."
"Well, this one at least is of brick, and I imagine you will find a great many of them are of the same material."
They met with further opposition from the housekeeper who came to the door which the servant had opened after the bell was rung.
She would allow nobody in the house, she said. As for Giles, if he allowed people on the grounds that was his own look-out, but she had been forbidden by the lawyers to allow anybody in the house, and she had let nobody in, and she wasn't going to let anybody in.
"Shall I offer her a tip?" asked George, in a whisper.
"No, don't do that."
"You can't wheedle her like you did the old man, you know. A woman may do a great deal with a man, but when she meets another woman she meets her match. You women know each other, you know."
Meanwhile the housekeeper, who had been about to shut the door, seemed to pause and regard the young lady with a good deal of curiosity. Her attention had before that time been taken up with the gentleman.
"Well, I shall walk to the end of the terrace, and give you a chance to try your wiles. But I am ready to bet ten dollars that you don't succeed."
"I'll take you," answered the young lady.
"Yes, you said you would that night on the steamer."
"Oh, that's a very good way of getting out of a hopeless bet."
"I am ready to make the bet all right enough, but I know you haven't a ten-dollar bill about you."
"Well, that is very true, for I have changed all my money to English currency; but I am willing to bet its equivalent."
Morris walked to the end of the terrace. When he got back he found that the door of the house was as wide open as the gates of the park had been.
"There is something uncanny about all this," he said. "I am just beginning to see that you have a most dangerous power of fascination. I could understand it with old Giles, but I must admit that I thought the stern housekeeper would—"
"My dear George," interrupted Katherine, "almost anything can be accomplished with people, if you only go about it the right way."
"Now, what is there to be seen in this house?"
"All that there is to be seen about any old English house. I thought, perhaps, you might be interested in it."
"Oh, I am. But I mean, isn't there any notable things? For instance, I was in Haddon Hall once, and they showed me the back stairway where a fair lady had eloped with her lover. Have they anything of that kind to show here?"
Miss Earle was silent for a few moments. "Yes," she said, "I am afraid they have."
"Afraid? Why, that is perfectly delightful. Did the young lady of the house elope with her lover?"
"Oh, don't talk in that way, George," she said. "Please don't."
"Well, I won't, if you say so. I admit those little episodes generally turn out badly. Still you must acknowledge that they add a great interest to an old house of the Elizabethan age like this?"
Miss Earle was silent. They had, by this time, gone up the polished stairway, which was dimly lighted by a large window of stained glass.
"Here we are in the portrait hall," said Miss Earle. "There is a picture here that I have never seen, although I have heard of it, and I want to see it. Where is it?" she asked, turning to the housekeeper, who had been following them up the stairs.
"This way, my lady," answered the housekeeper, as she brought them before a painting completely concealed by a dark covering of cloth.
"Why is it covered in that way? To keep the dust from it?"
The housekeeper hesitated for a moment; then she said—
"The old Squire, my lady, put that on when she left, and it has never been taken off since."
"Then take it off at once," demanded Katherine Earle, in a tone that astonished Morris.
The housekeeper, who was too dignified to take down the covering herself, went to find the servant, but Miss Earle, with a gesture of impatience, grasped the cloth and tore it from its place, revealing the full-length portrait of a young lady.
Morris looked at the portrait in astonishment, and then at the girl by his side.
"Why, Katherine," he cried, "it is your picture!"
The young lady was standing with her hands tightly clenched and her lips quivering with nervous excitement. There were tears in her eyes, and she did not answer her lover for a moment; then she said—
"No, it is not my picture. This is a portrait of my mother."
Mrs. Tremain
"And Woman, wit a flaming torch
Sings heedless, in a powder—
Her careless smiles they warp and scorch
Man's heart, as fire the pine
Cuts keener than the thrust of lance
Her glance"
The trouble about this story is that it really has no ending. Taking an ocean voyage is something like picking up an interesting novel, and reading a chapter in the middle of it. The passenger on a big steamer gets glimpses of other people's lives, but he doesn't know what the beginning was, nor what the ending will be.
The last time I saw Mrs. Tremain she was looking over her shoulder and smiling at Glendenning as she walked up the gangway plank at Liverpool, hanging affectionately on the arm of her husband. I said to myself at the time, "You silly little handsome idiot, Lord only knows what trouble you will cause before flirting has lost its charm for you." Personally I would like to have shoved Glendenning off the gangway plank into the dark Mersey; but that would have been against the laws of the country on which we were then landing.
Mrs. Tremain was a woman whom other women did not like, and whom men did. Glendenning was a man that the average man detested, but he was a great favourite with the ladies.
I shall never forget the sensation Mrs. Tremain caused when she first entered the saloon of our steamer. I wish I were able to describe accurately just how she was dressed; for her dress, of course, had a great deal to do with her appearance, notwithstanding the fact that she was one of the loveliest women I ever saw in my life. But it would require a woman to describe her dress with accuracy, and I am afraid any woman who was on board the steamer that trip would decline to help me. Women were in the habit of sniffing when Mrs. Tremain's name was mentioned. Much can be expressed by a woman's sniff. All that I can say about Mrs. Tremain's dress is that it was of some dark material, brightly shot with threads of gold, and that she had looped in some way over her shoulders and around her waist a very startlingly coloured silken scarf, while over her hair was thrown a black lace arrangement that reached down nearly to her feet, giving her a half-Spanish appearance. A military-looking gentleman, at least twice her age, was walking beside her. He was as grave and sober as she appeared light and frivolous, and she walked by his side with a peculiar elastic step, that seemed hardly to touch the carpet, laughing and talking to him just as if fifty pair of eyes were not riveted upon her as the pair entered. Everybody thought her a Spanish woman; but, as it turned out afterward, she was of Spanish-Mexican-American origin, and whatever beauty there is in those three nationalities seemed to be blended in some subtle, perfectly indescribable way in the face and figure of Mrs. Tremain.
The grave military-looking gentleman at her side was Captain Tremain, her husband, although in reality he was old enough to be her father. He was a captain in the United States army, and had been stationed at some fort near the Mexican border where he met the young girl whom he made his wife. She had seen absolutely nothing of the world, and they were now on their wedding trip to Europe, the first holiday he had taken for many a year.
In an incredibly short space of time Mrs. Tremain was the acknowledged belle of the ship. She could not have been more than nineteen or twenty years of age, yet she was as perfectly at her ease, and as thoroughly a lady as if she had been accustomed to palaces and castles for years. It was astonishing to see how naturally she took to it. She had lived all her life in a rough village in the wilds of the South-West, yet she had the bearing of a duchess or a queen.
The second day out she walked the deck with the captain, which, as everybody knows, is a very great honour. She always had a crowd of men around her, and apparently did not care the snap of her pretty fingers whether a woman on board spoke to her or not. Her husband was one of those slow-going, sterling men whom you meet now and again, with no nonsense about him, and with a perfect trust in his young wife. He was delighted to see her enjoying her voyage so well, and proud of the universal court that was paid to her. It was quite evident to everybody on board but himself that Mrs. Tremain was a born coquette, and the way she could use those dark, languishing, Spanish-Mexican eyes of hers was a lesson to flirts all the world over. It didn't, apparently, so much matter as long as her smiles were distributed pretty evenly over the whole masculine portion of the ship. But by-and-by things began to simmer down until the smiles were concentrated on the most utterly objectionable man on board—Glendenning. She walked the deck with him, she sat in cozy corners of the saloon with him, when there were not many people there, and at night they placed their chairs in a little corner of the deck where the electric light did not shine. One by one the other admirers dropped off, and left her almost entirely to Glendenning.
Of all those of us who were deserted by Mrs. Tremain none took it so hard as young Howard of Brooklyn. I liked Howard, for he was so palpably and irretrievably young, through no fault of his own, and so thoroughly ashamed of it. He wished to be considered a man of the world, and he had grave opinions on great questions, and his opinions were ever so much more settled and firm than those of us older people.
Young Howard confided a good deal in me, and even went so far one time as to ask if I thought he appeared very young, and if I would believe he was really as old as he stated.
I told him frankly I had taken him to be a very much older man than that, and the only thing about him I didn't like was a certain cynicism and knowledge of the world which didn't look well in a man who ought to be thinking about the serious things of life. After this young Howard confided in me even more than before. He said that he didn't care for Mrs. Tremain in that sort of way at all. She was simply an innocent child, with no knowledge of the world whatever, such as he and I possessed. Her husband—and in this I quite agreed with him—had two bad qualities: in the first place he was too easy going at the present, and in the second place he was one of those quiet men who would do something terrible if once he were aroused.
One day, as young Howard and I walked the deck together, he burst out with this extraordinary sentiment—
"All women," he said, "are canting hypocrites."
"When a man says that," I answered, "he means some particular woman. What woman have you in your eye, Howard?"
"No, I mean all women. All the women on board this boat, for instance."
"Except one, of course," I said.
"Yes," he answered, "except one. Look at the generality of women," he cried bitterly; "especially those who are what they call philanthropic and good. They will fuss and mourn over some drunken wretch who cannot be reclaimed, and would be no use if he could, and they will spend their time and sympathy over some creature bedraggled in the slums, whose only hope can be death, and that as soon as possible, yet not one of them will lift a finger to save a fellow creature from going over the brink of ruin. They will turn their noses in the air when a word from them would do some good, and then they will spend their time fussing and weeping over somebody that nothing on earth can help."
"Now, Howard," I said, "that's your cynicism which I've so often deplored. Come down to plain language, and tell me what you mean?"
"Look at the women on board this steamer," he cried indignantly. "There's pretty little Mrs. Tremain, who seems to have become fascinated by that scoundrel Glendenning. Any person can see what kind of a man he is—any one but an innocent child, such as Mrs. Tremain is. Now, no man can help. What she needs is some good kindly woman to take her by the hand and give her a word of warning. Is there a woman on board of this steamer who will do it? Not one. They see as plainly as any one else how things are drifting; but it takes a man who has murdered his wife to get sympathy and flowers from the modern so-called lady."
"Didn't you ever hear of the man, Howard, who made a large sum of money, I forget at the moment exactly how much, by minding his own business?"
"Oh yes, it's all very well to talk like that; but I would like to pitch Glendenning overboard."
"I admit that it would be a desirable thing to do, but if anybody is to do it, it is Captain Tremain and not you. Are you a married man, Howard?"
"No," answered Howard, evidently very much flattered by the question.
"Well, you see, a person never can tell on board ship; but, if you happen to be, it seems to me that you wouldn't care for any outsider to interfere in a matter such as we are discussing. At any rate Mrs. Tremain is a married woman, and I can't see what interest you should have in her. Take my advice and leave her alone, and if you want to start a reforming crusade among women, try to convert the rest of the ladies of the ship to be more charitable and speak the proper word in time."
"You may sneer as much as you like," answered young Howard, "but I will tell you what I am going to do. Two is company, and three is none; I'm going to make the third, as far as Mrs. Tremain and Glendenning are concerned."
"Supposing she objects to that?"
"Very likely she will; I don't care. The voyage lasts only a few days longer, and I am going to make the third party at any tête-à-tête."
"Dangerous business, Howard; first thing, you know, Glendenning will be wanting to throw you overboard."
"I would like to see him try it," said the young fellow, clenching his fist.
And young Howard was as good as his word. It was very interesting to an onlooker to see the way the different parties took it. Mrs. Tremain seemed to be partly amused with the boy, and think it all rather good fun. Glendenning scowled somewhat, and tried to be silent; but, finding that made no particular difference, began to make allusions to the extreme youth of young Howard, and seemed to try to provoke him, which laudable intention, to young Howard's great credit, did not succeed.
One evening I came down the forward narrow staircase, that leads to the long corridor running from the saloon, and met, under the electric light at the foot, Mrs. Tremain, young Howard, and Glendenning. They were evidently about to ascend the stairway; but, seeing me come down, they paused, and I stopped for a moment to have a chat with them, and see how things were going on.
Glendenning said, addressing me, "Don't you think it's time for children to be in bed?"
"If you mean me," I answered, "I am just on my way there."
Mrs. Tremain and young Howard laughed, and Glendenning after that ignored both Howard and myself.
He said to Mrs. Tremain, "I never noticed you wearing that ring before. It is a very strange ornament."
"Yes," answered Mrs. Tremain, turning it round and round. "This is a Mexican charmed ring. There is a secret about it, see if you can find it out." And with that she pulled off the ring, and handed it to Glendenning.
"You ought to give it to him as a keepsake," said young Howard, aggressively. "The ring, I notice, is a couple of snakes twisted together."
"Little boys," said Mrs. Tremain, laughing, "shouldn't make remarks like that. They lead to trouble."
Young Howard flushed angrily as Mrs. Tremain said this. He did not seem to mind it when Glendenning accused him of his youth, but he didn't like it coming from her.
