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The Bondwoman, a novel by Marah Ellis Ryan |
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Chapter 11 |
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_ CHAPTER XI ON THE SALKAHATCHIE Scarce a leaf quivered on the branches of the magnolias, or a tress of gray-green moss on the cypress boughs. All the world of the Salkahatchie was wrapped in siesta. The white clouds drifting on palest turquoise were the only moving things except the water flowing beneath, and its soft swish against the gunnels of the floating wharf made the only sound. The plantation home of Loringwood, facing the river, and reached through the avenue of enormous live oaks, looked an enchanted palace touched with the wand of silence. From the wide stone steps to the wide galleries, with their fluted pillars, not a murmur but the winged insects droning in the tangled grasses, for the wild luxuriance of rose tree and japonica, of lawn and crape myrtle, betrayed a lack of pruning knives in the immediate season past; and to the south, where the rice fields had reached acre beyond acre towards the swamps, there were now scattered patches of feathering young pine, creeping everywhere not forbidden to it by the hand of man. Spring time and summer time, for almost a century, had been lived through under its sloping, square, dormer-windowed roof. But all the blue sky and brilliant sunshine above could not save it from a suggestion of autumn, and the shadows lengthening along the river were in perfect keeping with the entire picture--a picture of perpetual afternoon. "Row-lock," "Row-lock," sounded the dip and click of paddles, as a boat swept close to the western bank, where the shadows fell. Two Afro-Americans bent in rhythmic motion--bronze human machines, whose bared arms showed nothing of effort as they sent the boat cutting through the still water. A middle-aged woman in a voluminous lavender lawn and carrying a parasol of plaid silk-green, with faded pink bars, sat in the after part of the boat, while a slight brown-haired girl just in front amused herself by catching at branches of willows as they passed. "Evilena, honey, you certainly are like to do yourself a hurt reaching out like that, and if you should go over!" "But I shan't, Aunt Sajane. Do you reckon I'd risk appearing before Gertrude Loring in a draggled gown just when she has returned from the very heart of the civilized world? Goodness knows, we'll all look dowdy enough to her." Aunt Sajane (Mistress Sarah Jane Nesbitt) glanced down at her own immaculate lawn, a little faded but daintily laundered, and at her own trim congress-gaitered feet. "Oh, I didn't mean you," added the girl, laughing softly. "Aunt Sajane, I truly do believe that if you had nothing but gunny sacks for dresses you'd contrive to look as if you'd just come out of a bandbox." "I'd wear gunny sacks fast enough if it was to help the cause," agreed Aunt Sajane, with a kindly smile. "So would you, honey." "Honey" trailed her fingers in the waters, amber-tinted from the roots of the cypress trees. "If a letter from mama comes today we will just miss it." "Only by a day. Brother Gideon will send it." "But suppose he's away somewhere on business, or up there at Columbia on state councils or conventions, or whatever they are, as he is just now?" "Then Pluto will fetch it right over," and she glanced at one of the black men, who showed his teeth for an instant and bent his head in assent. "Don't see why Judge Clarkson was ever named Gideon," protested the girl. "It's a hard, harsh sort of name, and he's as--as--" "Soft?" queried the judge's sister, with an accompaniment of easy laughter. The youngest of the two oarsmen grinned. Pluto maintained a well-bred indifference. "No!" and the girl flung a handful of willow leaves over the lavender lawn. "He is--well--just about right, the judge is; so gentle, so considerate, so altogether magnificent in his language. I've adored him as far back as when he fought the duel with the Northern man who reflected some way on our customs; that was starting a war for his state all alone, before anyone else thought of it, I reckon. I must have been very little then, for I just recollect how he used to let me look in his pockets for candy, and I was awfully afraid of the pistols I thought he must carry there to shoot people with," and she smiled at the childish fancy. "I tell you, Aunt Sajane, if my papa had lived there's just one man I'd like him to favor, and that's our judge. But he didn't, did he?" "No, he didn't," said Aunt Sajane. "The McVeigh men were all dark, down to Kenneth, and he gets his fairness from your ma." Then she added, kindly, "the judge will be very proud of your admiration." "Hope he'll care enough about it to hurry right along after us. He does put in a powerful lot of his time in Charleston and Columbia lately," and the tone was one of childish complaint. "Why, honey, how you suppose our soldier boys would be provided for unless some of the representative men devote their time to the work? It's a consolation to me that Gideon is needed for civil service just now, for if he wasn't he wouldn't be so near home as he is; he'd be somewhere North with a regiment, and I reckon that wouldn't suit you any better." "No, it wouldn't," agreed the girl, "though I do like a man who will fight, of course. Any girl does." "Oh, Honey!" "Yes they do, too. But just now I don't want him either fighting or in legislature. I want him right along with us at Loringwood. If he isn't there to talk to Mr. Loring it won't be possible to have a word alone with Gertrude all the time we stay. How he does depend on her, and what an awful time she must have had all alone with him in Paris while he was at that hospital, or whatever it was." "Not many girls so faithful as Gertrude Loring," agreed Aunt Sajane. "Not that he has ever shown much affection for her, either, considering she is his own brother's child. But she certainly has shown a Christian sense of duty towards him. Well, you see, they are the only ones left of the family. It's natural, I suppose." "I would think it natural to run away and leave him, like Aleck and Scip did." Aunt Sajane cast a warning glance towards the two oarsmen. "Well, I would," insisted the girl. "I wonder no more of them ran away when they thought he was coming home. How he must have raved! I shouldn't wonder if it prostrated him again. You know old Doctor Allison said it was just a fit of temper caused--" "Yes, yes, honey; but you know we are to sleep under his roof tonight." "I'll sleep under Gertrude's half of it," laughed the girl. "It's no use reminding me of my bad manners, Aunt Sajane. But as long as I can remember anyone, I've had two men in my mind. One always grunted at me and told me to take my doll somewhere else or be quiet. That was Kenneth's guardian, Matthew Loring. The other man always had sugar kisses in his pocket for me and gave me my first dog and my only pony. That was Judge Clarkson. You see if my judge had not been so lovely the other would not have seemed so forbidding. It was the contrast did it. I wonder--I wonder if he ever had a sweetheart?" "Gideon Clarkson? Lots of them," said his sister, promptly. "I meant Mr. Loring." "Nonsense, honey, nonsense." "And nonsense means no," decided the girl. "I thought it would be curious if he had," then an interval of silence, broken only by the dip of the oars. "Gertrude's note said a Paris doctor is with them, a friend of Kenneth and mama. Well, I only hope he isn't a crusty old sweetheartless man. But of course he is if Mr. Loring chose him. I'm wild to know how they got through the blockade. Oh, dear, how I wish it was Ken!" "I don't suppose you wish it any more than the boy himself," said Aunt Sajane, with a sigh. "There's a good many boys scattered from home, these days, who would be glad to be home again." "But not unless they gain what they went for," declared the girl in patriotic protest. The older woman sighed, and said nothing. Her enthusiasms of a year ago had been shrouded by the crape of a mourning land; the glory of conquest would be compensation, perhaps, and would be gained, no doubt. But the price to be paid chilled her and left her without words when Evilena revelled in the glories of the future. "Loringwood line," said Pluto, motioning towards a great ditch leading straight back from the river. Evilena shrugged her shoulders with a little pretense of chill, and laughed. "That is only a reminder of what I used to feel when Gertrude's uncle came to our house. I wonder if this long dress will prevent him from grunting at me or ordering me out of the room if I talk too much." "Remember, Evilena, he has been an invalid for four years, and is excusable for almost any eccentricity." "How did you all excuse his eccentricities before he got sick, Aunt Sajane?" Receiving no reply, the girl comforted herself with the appreciative smile of the oarsmen, who were evidently of her mind as to the planter under discussion, and a mile further they ran the boat through the reeds and lily pads to the little dock at Loringwood. Mrs. Nesbitt shook out the folds of her crisp lawn, adjusted her bonnet and puffs and sighed, as they walked up the long avenue. "I can remember when the lily pads never could get a chance to grow there on account of the lot of company always coming in boats," she said, regretfully, "and I've heard that the old Lorings lived like kings here long ago; wild, reckless, magnificent men; not at all like the Lorings now; and oh, my, how the place has been neglected of late. Not a sign of life about the house. Now, in Tom Loring's time--" They had reached the foot of the steps when the great double doors swung back and a woman appeared on the threshold and inclined her head in greeting. "Well, Margeret, I am glad to see some one alive," declared Mrs. Nesbitt; "the place is so still." "Yes; just look at Pluto and Bob," said Evilena, motioning towards the boatmen. "One would think a ghost had met them at the landing, they are so subdued." The brown eyed, grey haired woman in the door glanced at the two colored men who were following slowly along a path towards the back of the house. "Yes, Miss Lena, it is quiet," she agreed. "Please step in Mistress Nesbitt. I'll have Raquel show you right up to your rooms, for Miss Loring didn't think you could get here for an hour yet, and she felt obliged to ride over to the north corner, but won't be gone long." "And Mr. Loring--how is he?" "Mr. Loring is very much worn out. He's gone asleep now. Doctor says he's not to be seen just yet." "Oh, yes; the doctor. I'll see him directly after I've rested a little. He speaks English, I hope. Are you coming up, honey?" "Not yet. I'll keep a lookout for Gertrude." Margeret had touched a bell and in response a little black girl had appeared, who smiled and ducked her head respectfully. "Howdy, Miss Sajane? Howdy, Miss Lena?" she exclaimed, her black eyes dancing. "I dunno how come it come, I nevah heerd you all, for I done got--" "Raquel, you show Mistress Nesbitt to the west room," said the quiet tones of Margeret, and Raquel's animation subsided into wordless grins as she gathered up the sunshade, reticule and other belongings, and preceded Mistress Nesbitt up the stairs. "If there's anything I can do for you just send Raquel for me." "Thank you, Margeret. I'll remember." Margeret crossed the hall to the parlor door and opened it. "If you'd rather rest in here, Miss Lena--" "No, no; I'll go look for Gertrude. Don't mind me. I remember all the rooms well enough to make myself at home till she comes." Margeret inclined her head slightly and moved along the hall to the door of the dining room, which she entered. Evilena looked after her with a dubious smile in the blue-gray eyes. "I wonder if I could move as quietly as that even with my feet bare," and she tried walking softly on the polished oak floor, but the heels of her shoes would persist in giving out little clicking sounds as Margeret's had not. "It's no use. No living person with shoes on could walk silently as that woman. She's just a ghost who--a-gh-gh!" Her attempt at silent locomotion had brought her to the door of the library, directly opposite the dining room. As she turned to retrace her steps that door suddenly opened and a hand grasped her shoulder. "Oh, ho! This time I've caught you, have I? you--oh, murder!" Her half uttered scream had been checked by the sound of a voice which memory told her was not that of her bugbear, the invalid master of the house. It was, instead, a strange gentleman, who was young, and even attractive; whose head was a mass of reddish curls, and whose austere gaze changed quickly to an embarrassed stare as her hat slipped back and he saw her face. The girl was the first to recover herself. "Yes, you certainly did catch me this time," she gasped. "My dear young lady, I'm a blundering idiot. I beg your pardon most humbly. I thought it was that Raquel, and I--" "Oh, Raquel?" and she backed to the opposite wall, regarding him with doubt and question in her eyes. "Exactly. Allow me to explain. Raquel, in company with some other imps of all shades, have developed an abnormal interest in the unpacking of various boxes today, and especially a galvanic battery in here, which--" "Battery? In there?" and Evilena raised on her tip-toes to survey the room over his shoulder. "I know some boys of Battery B, but I never saw them without uniforms." "Uniform, is it? Well, now, you see, I've only been a matter of hours in the country, and small chance to look up a tailor. Are--are they a necessity to the preservation of life here?" He spoke with a doubtful pretense of timidity, and looked at her quizzically. She smiled, but made a little grimace, a curve of the lips and nod of the head conveying decision. "You will learn it is the only dress for a man that makes life worth living, for him, around here," she replied. "Every man who is not superannuated or attached to the state government in some way has to wear a uniform unless he wants his loyalty questioned." The un-uniformed man smiled at her delightful patriotic frankness. "Faith, now, I've no objection to the questions if you are appointed questioner. But let me get you a chair. Even when on picket duty and challenging each new comer, you are allowed a more restful attitude than your present one, I hope. You startled me into forgetting--" "I startled you? Well!" "Oh, yes. I was the one to do the bouncing out and nabbing you, wasn't I? Well, now, I can't believe you were the more frightened of the two, for all that. Have this chair, please; it is the most comfortable. You see, I fancied Raquel had changed under my touch from dusky brown to angelic white. The hat hid your face, you know, until you turned around, and then--" "Well?" At the first tone of compliment she had forgotten all the strangeness of their meeting, and remembered only the coquetry so naturally her own. With or without the uniform of her country, he was at least a man, and there had been a dearth of men about their plantation, "The Terrace," of late. "Well," he repeated after her, "when you tipped the hat back I thought in a wink of all the fairy stories of transformation I used to hear told by the old folks in Ireland." "Do you really mean that you believe fairy stories?" Her tone was severe and her expression chiding. "On my faith I believed them all that minute." Her eyes dropped to the toe of her slipper. It was all very delightful, this tete-a-tete with the complimentary unknown, and to be thought a fairy! She wished she had gone up with Aunt Sajane and brushed her hair. Still-- "I was sure it was Mr. Loring who had hold of me until I looked around," she confessed, "and that frightened me just as much as the wickedest fairy or goblin could ever do." "Indeed, now, would it?" She glanced around to see if her indiscreet speech had been overheard and then nodded assent. "Oh, you needn't smile," she protested; and his face at once became comically grave. "You didn't have him for a bug-a-boo when you were little, as I did. That doctor of his gave orders that no one was to see him just now, and I am glad Gertrude will be back before we are admitted. With Gertrude to back me up I could be brave as--as--" "A sheep," suggested the stranger. "I was going to say a lion, but lions are big, and I'm not very." "No, you are not," he agreed. "Sad, isn't it?" Then they both laughed. She was elated, bubbling over with delight, at meeting some one in Loringwood who actually laughed. "Gertrude's note last night never told us she had company, and I had gloomy forebodings of Uncle Matthew and Uncle Matthew's doctor, to whom I would not dare speak a word, and the relief of finding real people here is a treat, so please don't mind if I'm silly." "I shan't--when you are," he agreed, magnanimously. "But pray enlighten me as to why you will be unable to exchange words with the medical stranger? He's no worse a fellow than myself." "Of course not," she said, with so much fervor that her listener's smile was clearly a compromise with laughter. "But a doctor from Paris! Our old Doctor Allison is pompous and domineering enough, and he never was out of the state, but this one from Europe, he is sure to oppress me with his wonderful knowledge. Indeed, I don't know who he will find to talk to here, now, except Judge Clarkson. The judge will be scholarly enough for him." "And does he, also, oppress you with his professional knowledge?" Evilena's laugh rang out clear as a bird's note. "The Judge? Never! Why I just love him. He is the dearest, best--" "I see. He's an angel entirely, and no mere mortal from Paris is to be mentioned in the same breath." "Well, he is everything charming," she insisted. "You would be sure to like him." "I wish I could be as sure you might change your mind and like the new-comer from Paris." "Do you? Oh, well, then, I'll certainly try. What is he like, nice?" "I really can't remember ever having heard any one say so," confessed the stranger, smiling at her. "Well," and Evilena regarded him with wide, astonished eyes, "no one else likes him, yet you hoped I would. Why, I don't see how--" The soft quick beat of horse hoofs on the white shelled road interrupted her, or gave opportunity for interrupting herself. "I hope it's Gertrude. Oh, it is! You dear old darling." She flounced down the steps, followed by the man, who was becoming a puzzle. He gave his hand to Miss Loring, who accepted that assistance from the horse block, and then he stepped aside that the embrace feminine might have no obstacle in its path. "My dear little girl," and the mistress of Loringwood kissed her guest with decided fondness. "How good of you to come at once--and Mrs. Nesbitt, too? I'm sorry you had to wait even a little while for a welcome, but I just had to ride over to the quarters, and then to the far fields. Thank you, doctor, for playing host." "Doctor?" gasped Evilena, gripping Miss Loring's arm. There was a moment of hesitation on the part of all three, when she said, reproachfully, looking at the smiling stranger, "Then it was you all the time?" "Was there no one here to introduce you?" asked Miss Loring, looking from one to the other. "This is Dr. Delavan, dear, and this, doctor, is Kenneth's sister." "Thanks. I recognized her at once, and I trust you will forgive me for not introducing myself sooner, mademoiselle, but--well, we had so many other more interesting things to speak of." Evilena glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and with her arm about Gertrude walked in silence up the steps. She wanted time to think over what awful things she had said to him, not an easy thing to do, for Evilena said too many things to remember them all. Margeret was in the hall. Evilena wondered by what occult messages she learned when any one ascended those front steps. She took Miss Loring's riding hat and gloves. "Mistress Nesbitt is just resting," she said, in those soft even tones. "She left word to call her soon as you got back--she'd come down." "I'll go up and see her," decided Miss Loring. "Will you excuse us, doctor? And Margeret, have Chloe get us a bit of lunch. We are all a little tired, and it is a long time till supper." "I have some all ready, Miss Gertrude. Was only waiting till you got back." "Oh, very well. In five minutes we will be down." Then, with her arm about Evilena, Miss Loring ascended the wide stairway, where several portraits of vanished Lorings hung, none of them resembling her own face particularly. She was what the Countess Biron had likened her to when the photograph was shown--a white lily, slender, blonde, with the peculiar and attractive combination of hazel eyes and hair of childish flaxen color. Her features were well formed and a trifle small for her height. She had the manner of a woman perfectly sure of herself, her position and her own importance. Her voice was very sweet. Sometimes there were high, clear tones in it. Delaven had admired those bell-like intonations until now, when he heard her exchange words with Margeret. All at once the mellow, contralto tones of the serving woman made the voice of the lovely mistress sound metallic--precious metal, to be sure, nothing less than silver. But in contrast was the melody, entirely human, soft, harmonious, alluring as a poet's dream of the tropics. _ |
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