Hughes Mearns

“ Sailing before the wind is like not sailing at all. Wind and ship are in perfect balance. Except for the swish of water flowing by, the sensation is of standing still. Suddenly the silence was broken by a rapid flapping of the sheet. Walter swung the tiller over and pushed the boom out with his foot and held it there steadily.
“What’s up?” Richard inquired languidly. He was enjoying the rest and the sun and openly drank in the sensation of living.
“Dead,” explained Walter, referring to the abrupt failure of the wind.
“Dead? Good!” murmured Richard, stretching himself full length. ”

“ It is easy to see life in review; why cannot we be equally wise in the midst of events?
When she propounded this mental obtuseness to Richard he was full of illustrations to show how common is that human experience. But he was glad it had happened. It gave him a medley of new sensations; and here he was, finding his greatest adventure at the end of his adventure-seeking journey! Of that she was glad too, she said. And he was glad she was glad; for he admitted that he had become attached to the Wells family like a mongrel dog.
“First you are a hound and now you are a mongrel dog!” ”

“ Here the laughter verged into happy tears.
Many sobering things had happened to Jerry recently, but none more serious than this. It was the sudden abdication of a beneficent monarch, and therefore, to the crown princess, unbelievable. But it was something more: it was a strong mother cut down by the swift approach of old age. Some of the old fear of the dominant woman lingered in Jerry’s attitude—it never quite left her—but it was mingled now with pity. Those puffy cheeks and the simper were ghastly when one thought of the past years of firm dignity. ”

“ Richard had performed his office well; she was cheered and heartened. So he deftly tucked in a stray corner of the rug and slipped quietly away. Far off he had seen Geraldine, her face in agony.
Fortunately the majority of the passengers had gone down to early dinner. The deck was free as he sped forward at full speed.
“Quick!” she called to him. “There! Walter! Oh, quick! quick!”
The stern of the boat was narrow and almost cylindrical, like the hull of a tank steamer. Only a hand-rail and a life-saving raft or two gave any protection against sliding off into the sea. ”

“ Often, however, the constant pressure of inquiry or of accusation—the world will harry you if you do not conform, as all martyrs will testify—had their cumulative effect of inducing depression. It was only by vigorous open-air exercise or the summoning of all his will that he was able to stand erect and unshaken. The waters of Lake Keuka were tonic to the will. As he plied on, his spirits rose. He saw the law of his own life clearer; he resolved to be true to nothing but himself. His shyness waned and vanished, and strength came. ”

“ He opened his mouth the better to breathe; spasms of trembling swept over him; he sat crouched up amid a swirl of sail-cloth and stared at the two happy persons before him.
An impartial judge would have decided that the relations between Mr. Richard and Mrs. Norris had not altered one thousandth of a millimetre from luncheon. Before Walter or behind Walter there had not been the slightest shadow of change in the outward attitude. The low laughter had been pulsating before; the jests had been passed and repassed; and even the friendly fillip had been exposed to view. ”

“ As Jerry and Richard neared the cottage they quieted their step and moved stealthily to the window at the side. Phœbe was stretched at length in a commodious leather chair. She was in a great blue kimono and her hands were clasped behind her neck, her bared arms extending languorously on either side. Her glorious red hair was smoothed back and it dropped in two long loose braids in front. Her big blue eyes were wide, and they focussed on some vast distance. She looked for all the world like some splendid fearless child. ”

“ The whole business of having and losing is so trivial when life itself is trivial.
In some such ways she defended Jawn, but resolved to watch him, nevertheless. If for no other reason than to get the joy of the play of his mind, she would watch him. And it was delightful to see how easily the good Wells were taken in. Their idea of a swindler was of a sneaking, Uriah Heepish, Sing-Singish cut-throat. They had not the wit to conceive of an honest blarneying lad who went straight at his task, open and above-board.
And what, in the name of pity, had happened to the mistress of the house? ”

“ Wells.
“His wit has run dry,” Phœbe explained. “He opened the sluice too wide at first.”
“Oh, yes,” assented Jawn. “Her face is like the Tombs of the Pharaohs because there’s more wisdom within than the deepest archæologist can ever translate; because the best part of her is hieroglyphic; because it’s worth travelling ten thousand miles to see her; because she is built fit for a king; because no man knows the mystery of her creation, yet all wonder at the marvel of it; because—do you want any more?”
“I just wished to bring you out, Jawn,” Phœbe [222] apologized. ”

“ These were two different types of American Irish. “Jawn” was the pure breed, one generation out of the peat-bogs, but speeded forward a thousand years by the magic of America; Phœbe was the refined gold of the Celt untarnished by a dozen strains of alien blood. But they were playboys, both of them. A fantastic attitude towards the world was to them more serious and important than all the workaday habits of smug other-peoples. They came of a race who have the saddest thoughts on the ineffectiveness of living, and present the gayest face to the whole dull business. ”

“ MICHAELMAS DAISY AND ROSE-BUGS
A great hedge, cut to resemble the old-fashioned pillar-and-ball entrance to a driveway, welcomed one into the beginning of the gardens. Beyond the hedge the path curved abruptly, and a six-foot wall with high terraces beyond filled the view. Blue masses of sentinel-like larkspur in mounting tiers gave the first greeting. Here was the evidence of an intelligent planning to capture the eye right at the beginning and make one eager to follow the curving path to see what would be beyond. Instinctively Richard stopped and uttered the prophesied word, “Beautiful!” ”

“ The steamship Victoria was moving through the placidest of twilight seas. The setting is very important to have in mind: the soft blur of blue on the horizons, the high-banked clouds fringed delicately by an unseen sun, the pure transparent grey of the zenith, and the cool, salt breeze. Some themes cannot be set in midday, nor amid the turmoil of business. A thousand miles from land with only the frailest tie to existence, poised in the centre of tranquillity, there without mockery one could speak of death, of man’s mortality. ”

“ I have closed my life to the things that tie me. ‘I celebrate myself’ with good old Walt and decline to attach myself to anything. Detachment—that’s the only means of happiness. One must be an observer, never a participant. That’s the artist’s point of view. With wife and children would come a sort of pleasant, altruistic slavery. Thank the Lord ‘Jawn’ Galloway is a gentleman—I never need fear that some day he will fall in love with me.”
At this point the break in the journey had begun. For some unaccountable reason this speech had inflamed Geraldine with anger. ”

“ I’ll be getting jealous of Geraldine next; begin to fool myself into thinking I’m young again.”
“Young? Pooh!” He tossed his head. “Why all this silly eagerness to be young? Age is the thing, the goal. ‘Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be, The last of life for which the first was made.’ You remember your Ben Ezra, don’t you? Well, that’s the best of sense. Youth? It’s a time of folly and bad thinking. You don’t catch a successful business man sighing for the days when he had a tuppenny shop with more debts than customers. ”

“ When Walter crossed the finish line a winner of the first of the three races for the cup, the Moodiks and the Cohlosa had not yet reached the North Buoy on the final leg.
It was as the Sago-ye-wat-ha passed Alley’s Inn a winner and sped on down the Lake towards Bluff Point and “home” that Richard caught sight of “Count” stretched out on the lawn and saw beside him a figure in grey standing silhouetted against the trees; then he knew that Jerry had been present to see at least the glorious finish. ”

“ The unfortunate stoker or passenger, or whoever it was, was not Walter. So spoke the external Mrs. Wells, backed by a pride that never admits defeat. After all her interest in the two selves, the self of consciousness and the subliminal self of our deepest instincts and beliefs, Mrs. Wells did not know that all her assumption of serenity was a bit of acting. She really did not know. When the cry from within told her that no one but Richard could be the “big chap,” the “blue-eyed chap,” the “chap with the hearty laugh, who is always tramping the deck” ”

“ He quoted what he could remember of Richard’s letter to prove that it was Jerry and not Walter that had induced him to come to “Red Jacket.” There was enough chaffing in his tone to cover up the bluntness of his statements, but there was no doubt as to his meaning.
There are many ways to meet this sort of gallantry. Some women affect indifference and grow stupidly reserved—they are the ones hit hardest!—and some simper and pretend that they do not understand; but a wiser group admit everything and bring the game right out in the open, where it quickly perishes for lack of pursuit. ”

“ The week slipped by more smoothly than either Richard or Jerry had expected. Richard was busy with his new interest, the financial rehabilitation of “Red Jacket,” and Jerry threw herself into the arrangement of a lawn dinner-party which should signalize, as she thought, her farewell to Jerusalem township. With characteristic singleness of mind she could launch all the preparations without a thought as to what she should do after the curtain had been rung down. In many respects she was true to the traditions of her family: they had always lived in the immediate present. ”

“ Jawn was a perfect example of the newer school which, we fear, has gone to the other extreme: it lacks terribly in dignity; in fact, it suspects all dignity of a subtle attempt to counterfeit intelligence—which is often the case!—it is careless of mere external show, but it toils like an Edison. It works hard when it works, and it plays with the abandon of a nest of puppies; it smokes, it drinks, it sings the wildest songs at purely male meetings ”

“ You are as good as a priest,” she smiled at him. “It is only in my gardens that I feel my old self. I am not strong any more—no! you need not try to encourage me; I know. But up here among my flowers I fool myself—I act as if I were in control of things; I boss the black boys about and boss even the flowers and the rose-bugs. I’m happy up here; I have nothing to worry me.”
She stopped, evidently at the preamble of her confession. Walter was on Richard’s mind, and on that score he was preparing himself to infuse self-confidence into her; but her mind was leagues from Walter. ”

“ He had completed a half-circle before he came upon a hillside of yellow blooms, gaillardia, black-eyed Susans, and dahlia. They fairly shouted at him, especially the yellow daisies, but he did not see them at all. “Hel-lo!” he sang in his flutest tones; and “Hel-lo!” came back almost at his feet. He found himself standing on a six-foot wall at the top of a set of narrow stone steps; below him Mrs. Wells was engaging the attention of several negroes with wheelbarrows, spades and a whole galaxy of garden tools. ”

“ Geraldine excused him.
“Responsible none the less,” Richard insisted quietly. “You surely don’t believe that the events of this world depend on whether folks know or are sorry or even wish otherwise? I gave that boy the money that sent him back to the devil. Knowing or not knowing has nothing to do with the fact. I feel responsible and I’ll make what amends I can.”
“You can do nothing with Walter. Everybody has given him up. And it is such a pity. He’s really a nice gentle boy who has been poisoned, that’s all.... But he is frightful when the devil gets working in him. ”

“ His face remained stern as he looked expectantly towards Richard.
“You are Mrs. Wells’ lawyer, I believe,” Richard began.
The penetrating gaze of the lawyer was somewhat disconcerting; but at Richard’s question the immovable features relaxed into the most genial of smiles and the eyes broke into abrupt laughter.
“Not that I know it,” Mr. Lear chuckled. “I am simply her good friend. As such I give advice free. She always comes to me when she wants help in a bit of wrongdoing.” ”

“ Well, it was better so; half the delight in life is the unanticipated joys.
Green shrubs blocked the view through the arch, but one turn—the garden was a maze of turns—and behold, a diminutive bridge and a slender spring-fed rivulet, and beyond, in clumps and patches raised at various elevations by hidden walls, blooms of delicate pink: Canterbury bells, hollyhock, phlox, gladiolus, lupine, foxglove. ”