Gilbert Parker

“ As the Young Doctor had said, Orlando Guise did not look like a real, simon-pure “cowpuncher.” He had the appearance of being dressed for the part, like an actor who has never mounted a cayuse, in a Wild West play. Yet on this particular day,—when the whole prairie country was alive with light, thrilling with elixir from the bottle of old Eden’s vintage, and as comfortable as a garden where upon a red wall the peach-vines cling—he seemed far more than usual the close-fitting, soil-touched son of the prairie. ”

“ He had never been in love. He did not know what it was like, except that he had seen it make men do silly things, just as drink did. He did not know whether he was in love or not. It was absurd that a man should be in love with a face at a window—a face with the beauty of a ghost rather than of a real live woman.
Orlando had little evil in his nature; his eyes did not look towards Tralee as did Burlingame’s eyes. Nothing furtive stirred in Orlando’s intensely blue eyes. ”

“ No nearer had she ever come to the man she loved, no nearer had he sought to come. Once, the evening after the night spent on the prairie, when old Joel Mazarine had tried to make her pray and ask God’s forgiveness, and he had kissed her with the lips of hungry old age, she had suddenly sat up in bed, her heart beating hard, every nerve palpitating, because in imagination she had seen herself in Orlando’s arms, with his lips pressed to hers. ”

“ A jealousy and hatred as terrible as ever possessed a man were on him. An egregious self-will, a dreadful spirit of unholy old age in him, was turned hatefully upon the youth long since gone from himself—the youth which, in its wild, innocent ardours, had brought two young people together, one of them his own captive for years.
The peace of the prairie, the shining, infant moon, the kindly darkness, were all at variance with the soul of the man, whose only possession was what money could buy ”

“ He was Filion and she was Fiona.
Since the day she had first seen Orlando, she had awakened to life’s realities. There had grown in her an alertness and a delicate sense of things, which, though natural to one born with a soul that cared little for sordid things, was not common, except in Celtic circles where the unseen thing is more real than the seen; where gold and precious stones are only valued in so far as they can purchase freedom, dreams and desire. ”

“ It is a memorable moment for a man when he hears for the first time his “little name,” as the French call it, spoken by the woman he loves. It is as the sound of a bell in the distance, a familiar note with a new meaning, revealing new things of life in the panorama of the mind. By those two words Orlando knew what was in the mind of Louise. ”

“ The virtue of being bright and clever was a doctrine which had never been taught in Askatoon; it was as natural as eating and drinking. Nothing ever really shook the place out of a wholesome control and composure. Now and then, however, the flag of distress was hoisted, and everybody in the place—from Patsy Kernaghan, the casual, at one end of the scale, and the Young Doctor, so called because he was young-looking when he first came to the place, who represented Askatoon in the meridian of its intellect, at the other—had sudden paralysis. That was the outstanding feature of Askatoon. ”

“ Joel Mazarine never knew the reason for the Chinaman’s downfall on the stairway, for, in the turmoil, Louise had slipped away in safety. His rage had vented itself; but, if he had seen Li Choo’s face an hour after, as he talked to the half-breed woman in the kitchen, he might have had some qualms for his cruel assault. Passion and hatred in the face of an Oriental are not lovely things to see. ”

“ Mazarine had not forbidden Louise to enter Orlando’s room. That was the contradictory nature of the man. His innate savagery made him brood wickedly over her natural housewifery attentions to the man who had probably saved his own life, and certainly had saved him six thousand dollars; yet it was as though he must see the worst that might happen, must even encourage a danger which he dreaded. When the Methodist minister from Askatoon came to offer prayer for Orlando, Joel joined in it with all the unction of a class-leader, while every word of the prayer trembled in an atmosphere of hatred. ”

“ His description of Black Brian, the rich, ruthless King, to whom Queen Moira gave her daughter Fiona, despite the girl’s bitter sorrow, was a masterpiece. It was modelled on Joel Mazarine. It was the behemoth transferred to Ireland, to the cromlechs and castles, to the causeways, the caves, and the stony hillsides; to the bogs and the quicksands and the Little Men; but it could not be recognized as a portrait, though everyone felt how wonderful it was that a legend of a thousand years should be so close to the life of Askatoon. ”

“ Out on the prairie under the light of the stars a man had fought the first great battle of his life, and had emerged victorious. There are no drawn battles in the struggles of the soul. As Orlando fought, he was tortured by the thought that none would believe the truth to-morrow when it was told; and that there would be penalty though there was no crime.
As for Louise, she could have returned, almost blindly defiant, to her world, hand in hand with Orlando ”

“ Why’s he called Giggles?” asked the Master of Tralee.
“Well, you’ll know when you see him. He’s not cut according to everybody’s measure. If you’re dealing with him, don’t think him a fool because he chirrups, and don’t size him up according to his looks. He’s a dude. Some call him The Duke, but mostly he’s known as Giggles.”
“Fools weary me,” grumbled the other.
“Well, as I said, you mustn’t begin dealing with him on the basis of his looks. Looks don’t often tell the truth. For instance, you’re known as a Christian and a Methodist!” ”

“ Out on the Askatoon trail, the Young Doctor ruminated over what he had seen and heard at Tralee. “That old geezer will get an awful jolt one day,” he said to himself. “If that girl should wake! Her eyes—if somebody comes along and draws the curtains! She hasn’t the least idea of where she is or what it all means. All she knows is that she’s a prisoner in some strange, savage country and doesn’t know its language or anybody at all—as though she’d lost her memory. Any fellow, young, handsome and with enough dash and colour to make him romantic could do it.... ”

“ More than once Orlando had seen a little gray broncho, with legs like the wrists of a lady, with a tail like a comet, frisking among the rocks and the brushwood, or standing alert, moveless and alone upon some promontory, and he had made up his mind that if, and when, there came a day of broncho-busting, he would become a hunter of the little gray mare. ”

“ Mazarine said at last. “I never studied Greek. If a woman has a disease, there it is, and you can deal with it or not; but if she hasn’t no disease, then it’s chicanyery—chicanyery. Doctors talk a lot of gibberish these here days. What I want to know is, has my wife got a disease? I haven’t seen any signs. Is it Bright’s, or cancer, or the lungs, or the liver, or the kidneys, or the heart, or what’s its name?”
The Young Doctor had an impulse to flay the heathen, but for the girl-wife’s sake he forbore. ”

“ He was one of those men who never force an issue; he never put forward the hands of the clock. He felt that sooner or later Louise Mazarine—he did not yet know her Christian name—would command his help, as so many had done in that prairie country, and not necessarily for relief of physical pain or the curing of disease. He had helped as many men and women mentally and morally as physically; the spirit of healing was behind everything he did. His world recognized it, and that was why he was never known by his name in all the district—he was only admiringly called “The Young Doctor.” ”

“ The man who has not chased the wild pony in the hills with the lasso on his arm, riding, as they say in the West, “Hell for leather,” down the steep hillside, over the rock and the rough land, balancing on his broncho with the dexterity of a bird or a baboon, has failed to find one of life’s supreme pleasures.
In the foothills, many miles away from Slow Down Ranch and Tralee, there lived a herd of wild ponies, and it had been the ambition of a dozen ranchmen and broncho-busters thereabouts to capture one or many. ”

“ On his part, Orlando Guise showed his dislike of the repellent figure by a brusque giggle, and further expressed what was in his mind by the one word “Turk!”
His repugnance, however, was balanced by something possessing the old man still more disagreeable. Like a malignant liquid, there crept up through Joel Mazarine’s body to the roots of his hair the ancient virus of Cain. It was jealous, ravenous, grim: old age hating the rich, robust, panting youth of the man be fore him. ”

“ The Young Doctor’s gray-blue eyes endeavoured to hold the blinking beads under the shaggy eyebrows long enough to get control of a mind which had the cunning and cruelty of an animal. He succeeded.
The old man would a thousand times rather his wife lived than died. In the first place, to lose her was to sacrifice that which he had paid for dearly—a mortgage of ten thousand dollars torn up. Louise Mazarine represented that to him first-ten thousand dollars. Secondly, she was worth it in every way. He had what hosts of others would be glad to have—men younger and better looking than himself. ”

“ Now, let me tell you this: you’ve slandered as good a girl, you’ve libelled as straight a wife, as the best man in the world ever had. You’ve made a public scandal of your private home. You’ve treated the pure thing as if it were the foul thing; and yet, you want to keep the pure thing that you treat like a foul thing, under your rawhide whip, because it’s young and beautiful and good. ”

“ Even as he whistled Meyerbeer, riding towards Tralee, his eyes had a look of one who was trying to see into things; and his lips, when the whistling ceased, had a cheerful pucker which seemed to show that he had seen what he wanted.
“Wonder if I’ll get a glimpse of the so-called Mrs. Mazarine,” he said aloud. “Bad enough to marry a back-timer, but to marry Mazarine—they don’t say she’s blind, either! Money—what won’t we do for money, Mary? But if she’s as young as they say, she could have waited a bit for the oof-bird to fly her way. Lots of men have money as well as looks. ”

“ If she had had sense, she would have insisted on removing Orlando to Slow Down Ranch at the earliest possible moment, even at some risk to his physical well-being. She ought to have seen that Joel Mazarine was possessed of a jealousy as unreasoning as that of an animal; she ought to have discouraged Louise’s kindnesses. If the kindnesses had been only the ordinary acts of a mistress of a house to a guest who had saved her husband’s life—dishes made by her own hand, strengthening drinks, flowers picked and arranged by herself—there could have been no cause for nervousness. ”

“ There are desert birds that silently surround a rattlesnake, as he sleeps, with little bundles of cactus-heads and their million needles, so that, when the reptile wakes, it cannot escape through the palisade of bristling weapons by which it is surrounded; and in ghoulish anger it strikes its fangs into its own body until it dies. Just such a helpless rage held Joel Mazarine, and his religion did not suggest seeking comfort at that Throne of Grace to which he had so publicly prayed on occasions. ”

“ Primitive passions are corporate of many feelings but of little sight.
As Orlando Guise slid from his horse, Joel Mazarine steadied himself and said: “Come about the cattle? Ready to buy and pay cash down?”
Orlando Guise giggled.
“What are you sniggering at?” snorted the old man.
“I thought it was understood that if I liked the bunch I was to pay cash,” Orlando replied. “I’ve got a good report of the beasts, but I want to look them over. My head cattleman told you what I’d do. That’s why I smiled. Funny, too: you don’t look like a man who’d talk more than was wanted.” ”

“ She had fared hard in life at the hands of men and women, because the only ones with whom, in her seclusion, she had had to do, had sacrificed her, all save one-the man beside her. Animal life had something in it akin to her own voiceless being. Her spirit had never been vocal until Orlando came. ”

“ Resentful and incredulous, the old man was about to speak, but the Young Doctor made an arresting gesture, and added:
“She has very little strength to go on with. She ought to be plump; her pulses ought to beat hard; her cheeks ought to be rosy; she should walk with a spring and be strong and steady as a soldier on the march; but she is none of these things, can do none of these things. You’ve got a thousand things to do, and you do them because you want to do them. There is something making new life in you all the time, but Mrs. Mazarine makes no new life as she goes on. ”

“ Every dog knows it is good to feed on the knuckle of a goat if he hasn’t got a beefbone, and every real man knows—though to know anything at all he must have been married—that any marriage is better than no marriage at all; because whether it’s happy or unhappy, it makes you concerned for some one besides yourself, if you have any soul or sense at all.
The Young Doctor was under the delusion that he loved his lonely table and the making of a simple salad for a simple man, but then he came from Ireland and had imagination ”

“ Once during this visit, while making Orlando safe and comfortable, with the help of Li Choo, the Chinaman, and Rada, the half-breed, he had seen Louise for a moment. The old man had gone to the stables, and as he came out of the room where Orlando was, Louise’s door opened softly on him. Dimly, in the half-darkness of her room, in which no light was burning, he saw her. She beckoned to him. Shutting the door of Orlando’s bedroom behind him, he came quickly to her side and said:
“Go to bed at once, young woman. This will not do.” ”