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The Conquest of Canaan, a novel by Booth Tarkington |
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Chapter 12. To Remain On The Field Of Battle Is Not Always A Victory |
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_ CHAPTER XII. TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY Mamie, waiting just inside the door as Ariel and Eugene entered, gave the visitor a pale greeting, and, a moment later, hearing the wheels of the brougham crunch the gravel of the carriage-drive, hurried away, down the broad hall, and disappeared. Ariel dropped her parasol upon a marble-topped table near the door, and, removing her gloves, drifted into a room at the left, where a grand piano found shelter beneath crimson plush. After a moment of contemplation, she pushed back the coverlet, and, seating herself upon the plush-covered piano-stool (to match), let her fingers run up and down the key-board once and fall listlessly in her lap, as she gazed with deep interest at three life-sized colored photographs (in carved gilt frames) upon the wall she was facing: Judge Pike, Mamie, and Mrs. Pike with her rubies. "Please don't stop playing, Miss Tabor," said a voice behind her. She had not observed that Eugene had followed her into the room. "Very well, if you like," she answered, looking up to smile absently at him. And she began to play a rakish little air which, composed by some rattle-brain at a cafe table, had lately skipped out of the Moulin Rouge to disport itself over Paris. She played it slowly, in the minor, with elfish pathos; while he leaned upon the piano, his eyes fixed upon her fingers, which bore few rings, none, he observed with an unreasonable pleasure, upon the third finger of the left hand. "It's one of those simpler Grieg things, isn't it?" he said, sighing gently. "I care for Grieg." "Would you mind its being Chaminade?" she returned, dropping her eyes to cloak the sin. "Ah no; I recognize it now," replied Eugene. "He appeals to me even more than Grieg." At this she glanced quickly up at him, but more quickly down again, and hastened the time emphatically, swinging the little air into the major. "Do you play the 'Pilgrim's Chorus'?" She shook her head. "Vous name pas Wagner?" inquired Eugene, leaning toward her. "Oh yes," she answered, bending her head far over, so that her face was concealed from him, except the chin, which, he saw with a thrill of inexplicable emotion, was trembling slightly. There were some small white flowers upon her hat, and these shook too. She stopped playing abruptly, rose from the stool and crossed the room to a large mahogany chair, upholstered in red velvet and of hybrid construction, possessing both rockers and legs. She had moved in a way which prevented him from seeing her face, but he was certain of her agitation, and strangely glad, while curious, tremulous half-thoughts, edged with prophecy, bubbled to the surface of his consciousness. When she turned to him, he was surprised to see that she looked astonishingly happy, almost as if she had been struggling with joy, instead of pain. "This chair," she said, sinking into it, "makes me feel at home." Naturally he could not understand. "Because," she explained, "I once thought I was going to live in it. It has been reupholstered, but I should know it if I met in anywhere in the world!" "How very odd!" exclaimed Eugene, staring. "I settled here in pioneer days," she went on, tapping the arms lightly with her finger-tips. "It was the last dance I went to in Canaan." "I fear the town was very provincial at that time," he returned, having completely forgotten the occasion she mentioned, therefore wishing to shift the subject. "I fear you may still find it so. There is not much here that one is in sympathy with, intellectually--few people really of the world." "Few people, I suppose you mean," she said, softly, with a look that went deep enough into his eyes, "few people who really understand one?" Eugene had seated himself on the sill of an open window close by. "There has been," he answered, with the ghost of a sigh, "no one." She turned her head slightly away from him, apparently occupied with a loose thread in her sleeve. There were no loose threads; it was an old habit of hers which she retained. "I suppose," she murmured, in a voice as low as his had been, "that a man of your sort might find Canaan rather lonely and sad." "It HAS been!" Whereupon she made him a laughing little bow. "You are sure you complain of Canaan?" "Yes!" he exclaimed. "You don't know what it is to live here--" "I think I do. I lived here seventeen years." "Oh yes," he began to object, "as a child, but--" "Have you any recollection," she interrupted, "of the day before your brother ran away? Of coming home for vacation--I think it was your first year in college--and intervening between your brother and me in a snow-fight?" For a moment he was genuinely perplexed; then his face cleared. "Certainly," he said: "I found him bullying you and gave him a good punishing for it." "Is that all you remember?" "Yes," he replied, honestly. "Wasn't that all?" "Quite!" she smiled, her eyes half closed. "Except that I went home immediately afterward." "Naturally," said Eugene. "My step-brother wasn't very much chevalier sans peur et sans reproche! Ah, I should like to polish up my French a little. Would you mind my asking you to read a bit with me, some little thing of Daudet's if you care for him, in the original? An hour, now and then, perhaps--" Mamie appeared in the doorway and Eugene rose swiftly. "I have been trying to persuade Miss Tabor," he explained, with something too much of laughter, "to play again. You heard that little thing of Chaminade's--" Mamie did not appear to hear him; she entered breathlessly, and there was no color in her cheeks. "Ariel," she exclaimed, "I don't want you to think I'm a tale-bearer--" "Oh, my dear!" Ariel said, with a gesture of deprecation. "No," Miss Pike went on, all in one breath, "but I'm afraid you will think it, because papa knows and he wants to see you." "What is it that he knows?" "That you were walking with Joseph Louden!" (This was as if she had said, "That you poisoned your mother.") "I DIDN'T tell him, but when we saw you with him I was troubled, and asked Eugene what I'd better do, because Eugene always knows what is best." (Mr. Bantry's expression, despite this tribute, was not happy.) "And he advised me to tell mamma about it and leave it in her hands. But she always tells papa everything--" "Certainly; that is understood," said Ariel, slowly, turning to smile at Eugene. "And she told him this right away," Mamie finished. "Why shouldn't she, if it is of the slightest interest to him?" The daughter of the house exhibited signs of consternation. "He wants to see you," she repeated, falteringly. "He's in the library." Having thus discharged her errand, she hastened to the front-door, which had been left open, and out to the steps, evidently with the intention of removing herself as soon and as far as possible from the vicinity of the library. Eugene, visibly perturbed, followed her to the doorway of the room, and paused. "Do you know the way?" he inquired, with a note of solemnity. "Where?" Ariel had not risen. "To the library." "Of course," she said, beaming upon him. "I was about to ask you if you wouldn't speak to the Judge for me. This is such a comfortable old friend, this chair." "Speak to him for you?" repeated the non-plussed Eugene. She nodded cheerfully. "If I may trouble you. Tell him, certainly, I shall be glad to see him." He threw a piteous glance after Mamie, who was now, as he saw, through the open door, out upon the lawn and beyond easy hailing distance. When he turned again to look at Ariel he discovered that she had shifted the position of her chair slightly, and was gazing out of the window with every appearance of cheerful meditation. She assumed so unmistakably that he had of course gone on her mission that, dismayed and his soul quaking, he could find neither an alternative nor words to explain to this dazzling lady that not he nor any other could bear such a message to Martin Pike. Eugene went. There was nothing else to do; and he wished with every step that the distance to the portals of the library might have been greater. In whatever guise he delivered the summons, it was perfectly efficacious. A door slammed, a heavy and rapid tread was heard in the hall, and Ariel, without otherwise moving, turned her head and offered a brilliant smile of greeting. "It was good of you," she said, as the doorway filled with red, imperial wrath, "to wish to have a little chat with me. I'm anxious, of course, to go over my affairs with you, and last night, after my journey, I was too tired. But now we might begin; not in detail, of course, just yet. That will do for later, when I've learned more about business." The great one had stopped on the threshold. "Madam," he began, coldly, "when I say my library, I mean my--" "Oh yes," she interrupted, with amiable weariness. "I know. You mean you keep all the papers and books of the estate in there, but I think we'd better put them off for a few days--" "I'm not talking about the estate!" he exclaimed. "What I want to talk to you about is being seen with Joseph Louden!" "Yes," she nodded, brightly. "That's along the line we must take up first." "Yes, it is!" He hurled his bull-bass at her. "You knew everything about him and his standing in this community! I know you did, because Mrs. Pike told me you asked all about him from Mamie after you came last night, and, see here, don't you--" "Oh, but I knew before that," she laughed. "I had a correspondent in Canaan, one who has always taken a great interest in Mr. Louden. I asked Miss Pike only to get her own point of view." "I want to tell you, madam," he shouted, coming toward her, "that no member of my household--" "That's another point we must take up to-day. I'm glad you remind me of it," she said, thoughtfully, yet with so magically compelling an intonation that he stopped his shouting in the middle of a word; stopped with an apoplectic splutter. "We must arrange to put the old house in order at once." "We'll arrange nothing of the sort," he responded, after a moment of angry silence. "You're going to stay right here." "Ah, I know your hospitality," she bowed, graciously. "But of course I must not tax it too far. And about Mr. Louden? As I said, I want to speak to you about him." "Yes," he intervened, harshly. "So do I, and I'm going to do it quick! You'll find--" Again she mysteriously baffled him. "He's a dear old friend of mine, you know, and I have made up my mind that we both need his help, you and I." "What!" "Yes," she continued, calmly, "in a business way I mean. I know you have great interests in a hundred directions, all more important than mine; it isn't fair that you should bear the whole burden of my affairs, and I think it will be best to retain Mr. Louden as my man of business. He could take all the cares of the estate off your shoulders." Martin Pike spoke no word, but he looked at her strangely; and she watched him with sudden keenness, leaning forward in her chair, her gaze alert but quiet, fixed on the dilating pupils of his eyes. He seemed to become dizzy, and the choleric scarlet which had overspread his broad face and big neck faded splotchily. Still keeping her eyes upon him, she went on: "I haven't asked him yet, and so I don't know whether or not he'll consent, but I think it possible that he may come to see me this afternoon, and if he does we can propose it to him together and go over things a little." Judge Pike recovered his voice. "He'll get a warm welcome," he promised, huskily, "if he sets foot on my premises!" "You mean you prefer I shouldn't receive him here?" She nodded pleasantly. "Then certainly I shall not. Such things are much better for offices; you are quite right." "You'll not see him at all!" "Ah, Judge Pike," she lifted her hand with gentle deprecation, "don't you understand that we can't quite arrange that? You see, Mr. Louden is even an older friend of mine than you are, and so I must trust his advice about such things more than yours. Of course, if he too should think it better for me not to see him--" The Judge advanced toward her. "I'm tired of this," he began, in a loud voice. "I'm--" She moved as if to rise, but he had come very close, leaning above her, one arm out-stretched and at the end of it a heavy forefinger which he was shaking at her, so that it was difficult to get out of her chair without pushing him away--a feat apparently impossible. Ariel Tabor, in rising, placed her hand upon his out-stretched arm, quite as if he had offered it to assist her; he fell back a step in complete astonishment; she rose quickly, and released his arm. "Thank you," she said, beamingly. "It's quite all my fault that you're tired. I've been thoughtless to keep you so long, and you have been standing, too!" She swept lightly and quickly to the door, where she paused, gathering her skirts. "I shall not detain you another instant! And if Mr. Louden comes, this afternoon, I'll remember. I'll not let him come in, of course. It will be perhaps pleasanter to talk over my proposition as we walk!" There was a very faint, spicy odor like wild roses and cinnamon left in the room where Martin Pike stood alone, staring whitely at the open doorway. _ |
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